Life as we know it..

"PUSH"

I laid back on the grassy knoll while I listened to the yelling and commotion coming from inside the small, midwife trailer behind me. Mum had been in labor for thirty-two hours and we were at the tail end of the 'miracle of life'. Whoever coined that term should be disowned, the last day and a half had been enough to persuade me into a life of celibacy. Not that repopulation was something I had any interest in anyway, especially after the disaster.

It's been 12 years since the supernova of 2046, and bringing a child into what's left of our world would be cruel and unusual. All nine planets had been blown out of orbit and over three quarters of the human race had been wiped out, somehow though, our planet remained inhabitable. Our sun had exploded and left the galaxy a mess, but from the storm came a rainbow.

Religious nuts called it the God star; scientists assigned it a series of numbers; but the common man just called it the new sun. Earth itself isn't much different, we still have seasons and vegetation and big pharma, but things have never really been the same. People stopped worrying about credit scores and red carpets, the reality of existence itself had set in and suddenly everyone cared about the rainforest and our water supplies. Whether it was genuine compassion for our environment or purely fear that encouraged this change, we'll probably never know. With the good always comes the bad though, a newfound respect was gained for the earth, while any and all respect for our fellow man diminished. We quickly evolved into a vicious dog eat dog world, villages brawl, wars are waged daily, we spend our lives looking over our shoulders constantly.

Thankfully Mum and I came across a small family of travelers headed north, about three months ago, they told us of a city where the walls were high and everyone inside lived by the Golden rule: if my neighbor can't thrive, neither can I. The first month or so was tense, they didn't see many travelers and they certainly didn't bring many in. The only reason we were allowed, was because my poor mum was 6 months pregnant and the size of a zeppelin. Slowly, we were welcomed and eventually considered a part of the community. Mum taught at the village's elementary school and I worked part time on the equine ranch and part time in a nearby lab. We still have modern technology obviously, our access to new tech and tools is just slim.

The village itself is self-sustaining, we don't work for money, nor do we have a government. Everyone plays their roles and we trade amongst ourselves. We work for the greater good and for each other rather than for ourselves. We farm our own vegetables, we raise our own animals, and we run our own companies from libraries to cell phone towers. Essentially, it's our own little country just packed into a 20 square mile radius. Like any country though, we have outside associates, trade deals were done under the protection of armored vehicles and heavy firepower. There was very little we had to import; gasoline, advance grade medicines like chemo and vaccines, only the things we couldn't make ourselves and absolutely couldn't live without.

I unlocked my phone for what was probably the hundredth time, the bright green numbers read 7:15; eleven more minutes. I sighed and closed my eyes, letting my cracked iPhone fall on my chest. The grass felt cool and soft under my skin, even after seven o'clock the Washington air was a dry, hundred degrees in early August. I'd never been a big fan of heat, but knowing that in mere months it would be negative degrees and the very hill I lay on would be under 6 feet of white powder was enough to make me appreciate the warmth of the moment.

Bzzz bzzz bzzz

The alarm on my phone pulled me from my snowy daydreams and back to the real world, it's time to get to work. Standing up I pulled the lanyard from my back pocket and made my way to the blue silverado I called Becky. She was old and not real pretty, the paint was flaky and scratched, and the bed was riddled with dents but never once had she failed me. She started every time and got me anywhere I needed to go. The door squeaked as it swung open and I reached into the disarray of cameras and telescopic equipment strewn across the back seat. Careful not to scratch any lenses, I set my Celestron telescope on the tailgate, it cost more than my truck and house combined and took me six years to save up for. I wasn't exactly raised on champagne and silver platters so spending over a grand on something as frugal as a telescope was probably an irresponsible financial decision, now wasn't the time to contemplate my spending habits though. The anticipation of what I was about to witness was the only thing on my mind right now.

This was the second biggest metagalactic happening in human history, for the first time ever, we were going to experience a full solar eclipse while simultaneously all 12 planets were about to fall into a perfect orbital alignment around our sun. Earth being the odd man out due to the vast distance we sat from the fiery ball of magnetic gas. If I was lucky I could have a chance to photograph a one of a kind, perfect halo of planetary awesomeness.

I watched the daylight fade into darkness, this was it. Once the sun disappeared I had six minutes to capture the moment, I peaked at the monitor screen as three colorful orbs came into view, thirty seconds later six more spheres joined them. Three more to go and there would be a full set. I only had a few seconds to capture the perfect ring and I had to be quick. My eyes remained glued to the screen while my index finger hovered above the keyboard.

5, 4, 3, 2… I quickly hit the spacebar to start recording while counting down under my breath. My heart skipped a beat or five as I watched the final planet fall into the celestial halo, it was astounding, as if my whole life was leading up to this moment.

Suddenly the screen went black, along with every other light in the neighborhood. All at once, my brain was filled with what felt like a thousand angry hornets and the world exploded in a blinding flash of green light, then it was dark.

After some unknown amount of time, my eyes fluttered open trying to adjust to the bright, blue sky above me, it took me a few seconds to realize I was laying in the gravel next to the tailgate I had previously been sitting on. Slowly I sat up, rolling every joint and limb to see if anything was broken. I quickly became aware of a warm, sticky substance dripping from my forehead. Judging by the migraine that was quickly setting in and the large gouge above my right eye, I must have hit my head pretty hard on the way down. Using the corner of the bumper I pulled myself into a standing position and tried to gather my bearings, what the hell just happened.

"Oh no!"

Suddenly everything came back to me and I rushed to re-situate myself and check for any damage to my equipment. Nothing seemed broken or out of place, except my laptop seemed devoid of life when I attempted to turn it back on. Weird, maybe I was so caught up in the moment I had forgot to check my remaining battery life. I need to find out if I got the shots, but first I need to manage the gaping wound on my face. Gently, I placed my equipment back in the cab of the truck and smacked the lock down on the interior door before I turned to make my way back to the trailer.

"Good thing there happens to be a doctor nearby," I chuckled to myself

I hadn't heard any noises from inside for a while, I should probably go in and check on Mum and the new baby anyway. Just as my hand reached the knob, I heard faint cry from the other side, that's a good sign I'm sure. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see when I opened that door.

The walls were streaked and splattered in blood, shelves were knocked over, medical equipment was strewn throughout, almost every cupboard door in the medical mobile unit was thrown open if not torn off entirely. I could hear the faintest crying though there wasn't a soul in sight, panic filled every spec of my being. Something inside me told me I had to find out where the crying was coming from but I couldn't move, I was frozen where I stood for what felt like an eternity. Then as if something else entirely was controlling my body, I started tearing apart the remainder of the room. Inside every file box, under every shelf, behind every cupboard that hadn't already been ravaged, I searched high and low in a panicked frenzy. I stopped only to catch my breath. Suddenly I heard a sharp thump from the corner, there stood a dark blue trunk.

How had I not noticed it before? It stood out dramatically in the otherwise cold, steel surgical room, had it been there the whole time? Cautiously I made my way across the trailer, stopping to sort through a pile of steel implements, I tightly grasped a sharp scalpel as I continued to the corner. It was the sort of trunk you would have seen on the Wells Fargo stagecoach in the 19th century, a relic for our time. I placed my hand on the scratched and battered lid suddenly remembering a similar trunk my father had kept at the foot of his bed for the majority of my childhood. Shaking away the memory I readied my pathetic choice of weapon and began lifting the lid, unsure of what to expect. Inside, on a pile of rags and towels lay 8 pounds of terrified, baby boy. I quickly dropped the scalpel and bent down to scoop up the tiny, sniffling body. Bringing him close to my chest, I wrapped a clean towel from a nearby shelf around him and comforted him while I started formulating a plan.

The adrenaline kept me moving, I didn't stop to consider what had caused this or where my mum was, my only focus was getting Baby and myself to safety. My lifetime has been full of disasters and unexplainable events, from the war of 2025 to SU-NO '46, nothing scares me anymore and absolutely nothing surprises me. I collected as many supplies as I could carry, from saline bags to cans of baby formula. I shoved whatever I could come across into a large duffel bag I had found in one of the piles of medical rubble. I gently placed the infant in the carseat with a rubber pacifier to hush his small cries. Mum and I had spent hours picking out this baby seat, we had sat reading through reviews and giggling at poor marketing schemes like infant cupholders and backseat television screens. Ever since dad died 7 months ago we tried to find joy in the little things like this, some days are a lot harder than others. This certainly hadn't been what we were expecting when we planned on packing the new bundle up for his first car ride.

I threw the duffel over my shoulder along with the blue, racecar themed diaper bag. Pulling the car seat handle snug in the crook of my elbow I made my way back to the door and back down the steps to the ever reliable Becky, after strapping the infant seat into the back I climbed into the driver's seat and stared at myself in the rearview. I sat there for what felt like an eternity but was likely only a few seconds.

"Alright little man, I guess it's just us now."