Chapter 8: CQ CQ

"This is Bud Grouse calling from Royal Woods Michigan, CQ CQ." Said Mr. Grouse into his radio, "Please respond with name and location."

Silence.

He said the same thing again and is also met with silence. He then tried it once more as desperation began to set in but this time he finally gets a response.

"Grouse? This is Jim Logan calling from South Bend Indiana."

"What are the conditions down there?" Asked Mr. Grouse.

"Not good, the fallout cloud from Great Lakes City decimated most of the population." Said Jim over the radio.

"Same here, only ours was mostly from Detroit. I've also heard rumors of raiders popping up from a redneck town near mine." Replied Mr. Grouse.

"Same. Some of the street gangs from Great Lakes City that survived the fallout just sacked the next town over." Said Jim.

"Speaking of Great Lakes City, there's some people I'm looking for. What's going on with Route 94?" Asked Mr. Grouse.

"It's a sea of disabled cars thanks to the EMP." Said Jim, "I don't think you're going to find them."

"Do you at least know of any people scavenging in the area?" Asked Mr. Grouse.

"There was a team that went towards the city a week ago to assess the damage, they haven't returned yet." Replied Jim.

"I'll write down this frequency just in case. In the meantime I'll see if I can find people closer to Great Lakes City." Said Mr. Grouse.

"That'll be easier said than done. But come back when you can and I'll let you know if the team returned." Said Jim.

Mr. Grouse then wrote down the frequency and then sought out another one in order to find someone else to talk to. After sifting through the static for a few minutes he found someone else.

"…Hello? Where am I contacting?" Asked the voice.

"You've reached Bud Grouse of Royal Woods Michigan." Answered Mr. Grouse.

"Hello Mr. Grouse, this is Christian Chandler of Ruckersville Virginia." Said Christian.

Mr. Grouse inspects the map he has hanging overhead to find where Ruckersville is.

"Looks like you're the easternmost person I've contacted so far." Said Mr. Grouse.

"Yeah I heard that everything east of Richmond and north of Culpeper is virtually abandoned." Said Christian.

"Well I'm looking more towards Great Lakes City so I'm going to keep looking." Said Mr. Grouse.

"Well I'm glad I found a fellow merge survivor." Said Christian.

"Wait what?" Asked Mr. Grouse.

"Yeah, the war was the opening stage of the Dimensional Merge." Said Christian, "It was done to kill all of my trolls and turn good people into Sonichus to populate my dimension."

"Oh great another kook…" Said Mr. Grouse under his breath.

"What was that?" Asked Christian.

"Goodbye." Said Mr. Grouse as he instantly changed the frequency.

This time however he didn't have much luck, he had nothing but static for half an hour. On top of that he was battling bouts of nausea and would occasionally vomit a little into a wastebasket he had on standby. He then got up and inspected himself in his bathroom mirror, the hair on his head had been gone since around his sixtieth birthday, and that was twenty years ago. Rather his attention was on his mustache, and his once bushy facial hair had thinned significantly.

"I'm getting close I can feel it…" He said to himself. "You just gotta hold out a little longer…"

He then made his way to his Detroit Lions shrine of a den, much like the Loud's living room it had remained virtually untouched for weeks. First thing he did was go over to a picture on one of his shelves, it was of him and his late wife at a Lions game in the 70's. Mrs. Grouse had died of cancer in the early 2000s leaving Bud alone in the house ever since.

"Don't worry babe, I'll be with you shortly. I just gotta keep my promise." He said to the picture.

He then looked around at the den as a whole and instantly remembered that season he and Lynn watched the games together. He still remembered her little ritual that went along with her Lions cheer, if he were younger he definitely would have given the headstand part a try. He really enjoyed that season, and once they settled the differences with their opposing baseball team choices they enjoyed that season too. He wished that he could have spent more time with Lynn before she died, he never admitted it but he was starting to see her as the granddaughter he never had before the war.

He wandered over to the window that had a view of the Loud's back yard, he stared out and saw the two crosses that marked the fallen sisters' graves. Regret filled his mind as he remembered how he just didn't have the emotional strength to attend their makeshift funeral. He knew he wouldn't have been able to keep his composure and he was just too self conscious to look weak in front of the kids. Even though he knew they would have understood his emotional response, he was brought up in an era where that just wasn't socially acceptable.

"I'm so sorry…" He said out the window, "I should have been there…"

He stared out for a few more minutes before going back to his radio.

"I think I got one more in me before I turn in."

He played around with frequencies for a while and like earlier was met with a sea of static. This time the white noise was abruptly stopped by the thickest upper-midwestern accent he had ever heard.

"Hello? Did I reach anyone?" Said the voice.

"This is Bud Grouse of Royal Woods Michigan. Who is this?" Said Mr. Grouse.

"This is Ryan Zaborowski of Sheboygan Wisconsin, I'm the coach at the local High School." Said Ryan.

"How are things holding up there Mr. uh…?" Asked Mr. Grouse

"Just call me Coach Z, that's what my students call me." Said Ryan, "Anyway most everyone fled north after we got confirmed fallout reports."

"If only Royal Woods was so lucky…" Said Mr. Grouse.

"I heard from people around Detroit." Said Ryan, "I heard about the funeral pyres and all."

"Yeah, it's very tough…" Said Mr. Grouse, "Does Sheboygan have any scouting teams going to Great Lakes City?"

"Not that I know of." Said Ryan.

"Of course…" Said Mr. Grouse with a sigh, "I just need to find some closure, things have been pretty tough for me."

"Well I might have something to take your mind off it." Said Ryan.

"I'm not sure anything will really work…" Said Mr. Grouse.

"I mean we should give it a try." Said Ryan.

"Fine…I guess you need this too." Said Mr. Grouse.

Mr. Grouse then started to hear the worst beatboxing he ever heard. Followed by the worst rapping he ever heard.

"One two three my name is Coach Z! Hitting you with rhymes vernacular-ly!" Rapped Ryan.

"Oh boy…" Grumbled Mr. Grouse.

"The main mack daddy of Sheboygan town! SB High's got the Swiss Cheese Crown!" Ryan continued to Rap.

"Please stop…" Said Mr. Grouse.

"Coach Z! Coach Z! One Two Four Three! I said-" Rapped Ryan before Mr. Grouse shut off the radio.

"Well that's two gutterballs…" Said Mr. Grouse.

He then stood up and went back to the window. It was starting to get dark but he could still see what was out there. This time however he noticed a third cross and from what he could tell he also saw Luan barely able to stand as she was being lead back inside by two of her other siblings, though they were only silhouettes.

"Oh no… Not another one…" He said in a panic.

He immediately went out his front door as soon as coast was clear and made his way to the graves in the back yard. He saw the ones for Lynn and Lily and then saw that the third one had "Benny Stein" written on it and a Star of David drawn next to his name. Even though Mr. Grouse only occasionally saw Benny these last couple of weeks and had never even spoken to him it still troubled him that another child had been killed by the after effects of the bomb. He wanted to let his emotions loose but his archaic upbringing still won out in the end and all he could do was utter a single word out of anger.

"Damn…"