Daniel Powell - Survival

“Why did you do that?”

“I’m a symbol of the old ways. I understand that. The tides have been turning for decades, but what you did tonight sped things up. There’s no life for me on the other side of what happened here, Bryan. No place for me in the new world.”

“And your crimes, General? What of the things you did in your life?”

He sucked in a draught of air and let it go in a sigh. “Who knows? I did what was asked of me. Did I believe in it? Sometimes. Early on, mostly.”

“Would you change it? If you could, would you go back and change it?”

Creen eyed him. “It doesn’t matter, son. Fact is, I can’t change it. We live with our actions. It’s what we…” he grimaced, “what we do.”

Norton nodded. He stood and turned his back on the old man and left without sparing him another glance.

When he returned to his friends in the hallway, one was dead. The other barely breathed.

Bryan choked back a sob, threw Verlander’s weapon away and sprinted for the stairwell and the promise of help above ground.

It was one of those summer afternoons in Oregon. The sky was a rich blue, the trees filled with singing birds. The sun warmed the face of the Earth and their families gathered at a picnic table in Forest Park.

An impressive banquet stretched before them—cold cuts and potato salad and fried chicken and fruit and iced tea and chocolate chip cookies. Bryan sat near his mother and father. Across the table, Eli was strapped to Maggie’s chest in a sling.

Fausto played with Carmen on a blanket while Angie, his wife, fixed them plates of food.

“A toast,” Bryan’s father said. He wore a look of sincere pride as he regarded his son. “To Fausto Ruiz and Bryan Norton—a pair of first-rate fathers!”

There was laughter as they touched cups. Bryan’s smile lingered as he scanned the park. Families basked in the sunshine, throwing footballs and eating picnics of their own.

The world had changed in the last nine months. The new government was busy re-building cities toppled by struggle. The Authority had managed a weak defense before falling in less than sixty days to a determined populace.

America was changing. The world was changing.

“Oh, hey now, Buster!” Maggie said, blotting her shirt with a napkin. “We have a code red over here, Daddy!” She wore a bemused grimace on her face. There was a wet circle on her t-shirt.

Eli laughed, his toothless mouth wide in a mischievous grin.

Bryan chuckled. He took his son in his arms, kissing his temple before putting him down on the blanket to change his diaper. It was a small thing, but it made his heart swell with happiness.

Here it was. Here it all was, and the warmth of the day was inside him and all about him, creating a connection to his family that was stronger than the tides of the sea.

Daniel Powell teaches a variety of writing courses at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He grew up in Oregon and now lives with his wife, Jeanne, and his daughter, Lyla, near Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway. His stories have appeared in Redstone Science Fiction , Leading Edge Magazine , Brain Harvest , Something Wicked Magazine , Well Told Tales , Dead But Dreaming 2 and Weber: The Contemporary West .

Visit Daniel’s web journal, The Byproduct, for updates on his work and discussions on speculative storytelling.

These Strange Worlds , his first collection of dark short stories, is now available in trade paperback and most digital formats. The Silver Coast and Other Strange Stories will be released in 2012.

PUBLISHED BY DISTILLATIONS PRESS

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

KINDLE EDITION

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

COVER DESIGN BY CANOPY STUDIOS

Copyright © 2011 by Daniel Powell

ASIN: B0053SOZAU

All Rights Reserved