The Earth is Red with Clay: Part 5

I honestly can’t tell you how long I’ve been down here. Without the sun or moon to guide the number of days, it feels like I have been here for eternity- the most gratifying, pleasant eternity anyone could ask for. To even have a family again is a gift in itself, but the whole community has welcomed me. I’m finally starting to heal, and it feels wonderful.

                I have found I have a talent for cooking. Deborah says that I have spices running through my veins and a brain meant for creating. It’s a silly thought- I don’t actually have paprika and cinnamon in my blood- but I have found my home in the kitchen. Dandy likes to come in and play as my sous chef occasionally and she is catching on very quickly. She can name all of Deborah’s myriad of seasonings and sometimes even goes with Deborah and me to the farmers market. Atari sometimes will pitch in with dinner making, but that boy could burn water if he wasn’t careful, so he usually leaves the more challenging things to the women.

Yes, life in our little town of clay is simple and yet satisfying. If only it could stay that way forever.

…

They came at the breaking of dawn.

                I don’t know how they made it down here or what they could possibly want, but they brought with them their instruments of science and war, like conquerors bent on capture.

They had found us.

Headquarters

                I wasn't even supposed to be up that early, but I had woken up with a terrible nightmare and had decided it best to let the terror wear off while making breakfast. The kitchen had been dead quiet while I was making cinnamon bread when gradually, the dishes began to rattle and a dull rumble vibrated the room. I ran out to the hallway and peered out the window towards the lake chasm.  And there they were, marching in a mass of unadulterated force. There were hundreds- no thousands- of adults dressed identically with all sorts of horrifying devices strapped to their backs.

There are more them now.

                The noises have started to stir many of the other town members and Atari, Dandy and I are hunkered down in the kitchen. That's where Dandy's father left us when he left to investigate our arrival's purpose. All of this eerily reminds me of Dandy and I’s time during the Apocalypse- the hiding, the deathly quiet, the panic. All of those things have found a way to permeate this perfect world too. Nowhere is free of the Apocalypse's reach, even when it's over.

                “Welcome guests…” The clanking of boots and vehicles silences. The outer market echoes with the voice of Dandy’s father. “What brings you to our refuge?”

                Another voice enters. “I should really be welcoming you, old friend. The Apocalypse is over. We’ve come to take you home.” The voice is familiar. I thumb through every face in my memory, hoping to find a match to the mystery voice below us. I can almost see him- clean and put together. He was familiar to me back then too. The census man.

                I shimmy across the floor and peer out the window that overlooks the outer market. It’s him, the census man, leading the invaders, standing toe to toe with Dandy’s father. But how does a census man turn into an army general? And why is he still so familiar? Dandy’s father seems to recognize him too.

                “Statton? Is that really you? After all these years, you survived?” Dandy’s father does not move to embrace his long lost friend but rather stares in bewilderment. There is a tension that grows between them.

                “Hello, Carver. It’s seems I’m not the only one who fared well in the Apocalypse, I see.” Statton goes to take a step forward, but Dandy’s father shrinks back.

                The two continue to converse but my attention is abruptly drawn to the rapid footsteps fleeing down the stairs. “Dandy!” I whisper, but she is long gone, and Atari takes my hand, dragging me along after her. Atari and I fly through corridor and staircase till we finally find Dandy running across the market and into the arms of her father. Too late.

                “Well, what do we have here?” Statton crouches down to Dandy’s level and extends his hand. “You must be the courageous Dandy Lion. We were all worried about you after you fell into that ditch in the construction site.”

                “How do you know her?” Dandy’s father growls, positioning himself between Statton and his daughter.

                “Like I said, I was worried after she fell into that big gaping hole you’ve got over the lake. It’s on a construction site I am in charge of. What should you care, she’s not yours.” The snarl that slips out Dandy’s father makes him reconsider.

                 “What exactly are you constructing, Carver?”

                Statton sighs and stands back up. “Housing, Carver. For all the homeless people you didn’t bother to bring to your refuge. Must you be so defensive with me? I’m one of the good guys.”

                “No!” Dandy’s father bellows, causing all of us, including Statton, to jump. “No, you do not get to call yourself one of the good guys, Statton, not after what you wrought upon this earth.”

                Atari and I, who have been idly watching the confrontation from a short distance, are slowing being drawn into the tension. Each step we take brings us closer into the conflict, until Statton snaps his head in our direction, finally bringing our presence into the light.  

                His eyes and mouth widen slightly at the sight of, I think, me. His whole complexion seems to soften. “So… you lived too.”

                Dandy’s father turns between us, Statton and I fearfully glaring at each other, as his brain seems to be making connections that mine can’t. “Statton, you don’t actually believe…”

                “Believe what?!” I shout. What are they talking about?! I’m scared…

                “Georgia… it’s okay.” Statton croons, slowly stepping over to me. “He doesn’t know what he’s-“

                “He thinks you’re his daughter, Georgia.”

                “Shut up, Carver! This doesn’t have anything to do with you!” Statton hisses.

                “Think, Georgia.” Dandy’s father urges. “Can you remember anything from the start of the Apocalypse?”

                “I, uh, um…” My mind is blank with confusion. “My mother died three years into the Apocalypse. I-I didn’t have any siblings.” I’m scrambling for anything I can think of. I haven’t thought about most of this in so long. “Claytown! We lived in an actual town called Claytown, not just a neighborhood. And it was in… Ge… Geor… Georgia! Yes, a state called Georgia, like me! And my father worked for the  zoo as an animal doctor… or something.” Now everyone looks terrified.

                “Statton…” Dandy’s father cautions. Statton doesn’t look like he’s here anymore.

                “No… it’s not possible…”

                “What? W-What did I say?” Confusion only seems to build.

                “Georgia… your father and I were friends before the Apocalypse.” Dandy’s father starts. “He worked for the Missouri State Zoo, yes, but… he wasn’t exactly an animal doctor.” Still no reaction from Statton.

                “What do you mean?”

                “He was hired by the government to splice the DNA of many of the zoo animals together to make modified animals to be studied. But it didn’t go as planned…”

                “Georgia… your father created the Apocalypse.”

                Statton snaps back to reality. “Shut up! Just shut up! She doesn’t need to know that! She doesn’t need-“

                “Statton, what are your actual intentions of coming down here!? You don’t bring machine guns and tanks on a peace mission; do not think I am stupid!”

                Statton’s face burns red and his eyebrows furrow with rage. “I… am trying… to unite… the world, Carver. I dare you to stand in my way.”

                “I dare you to take this village away from me. And I dare you to show the might of your firearms in front of your long lost daughter.”

                Silence.

                “Well Carver, maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m not one of the good guys…”

                “FIRE!”