Tonight, The World Dies

Rachel Young was a smart woman. She knew what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. The problem was, she didn’t have anyone to say it to, whatever “it” was.

Since she was a child, she’d been picked on and bullied and laughed at, with few people standing up for her. Among those few was her brother, Eric. He was six years older than she, and by the time she was a sophomore in high school, most people had learned to leave her alone.

Now, at the age of 24, everyone was leaving her alone. Mostly because everyone was gone. Since the nuclear war had started nearly three years ago, everyone had gone into hiding. Not Rachel. She had stayed in her little mountain cottage, studying the wolves and mountain goats and birds and even the fish that swam by in the stream. Her only real contact was the daily phone call to her brother and the radio in from the science department at the bottom of the mountain.

It was around February of 1978 when the phone calls from Eric stopped. Rachel began to panic, radioing the scientists to see if they had heard anything. What if he’d been hit by one of those nuclear bombs? She kept a constant vigil by the phone, hoping she was being over-dramatic about the whole thing.

In June, she finally heard the phone ring.

“Rach?”

It was a low, deep voice that belonged to Eric, but it was scary and distant.

“Eric, it’s me,” sighed Rachel. “Oh, thank God, you’re alive.”

“Rachel, listen to me,” said Eric. “You get to a safe place underground, and you stay there.”

“What?” said Rachel, suddenly struck by this.

“This whole country is in danger, and I want you to be safe,” replied Eric. “There’s things out there worse than some Commies with guns. You get down to the city, find a bomb shelter, and you stay there until someone comes and gets you.”

“Eric, you’re scaring me-”

“Do as I say, Rachel. I love you.”

The line went dead before she could say anything else. Her heart began to race and she looked around her cottage. The sun was setting, and it would be difficult to get down the mountain in the darkness. She decided not to chance it, but to pack instead.

Her mind wandered as she floated from room to room, gathering her belongings. Things worse than Commies with guns? Surely not. Surely he was trying to scare her into doing what he said.

She was startled by a wolf’s sudden cry. The mountain silence had never seemed as terrifying as it did right now. This was the first time in her life she wished she had a gun to protect her from whatever it was that was scaring her.

Rachel approached the radio and took the receiver.

“Buzz,” she said.

No reply.

“Buzz,” she said again. “Buzz, can you hear me?”

There was a long pause of silence before a reply came through.

“Rachel,” said a woman’s voice. It was raspy and quiet, but Rachel recognized it as Dr. Sand. “Rachel, something’s happened.”

“Sandy, I’m coming down in the morning-”

“Stay away, Rachel,” said Sand. “Don’t come into town.”

“Sandy, what’s going on?”

“Stay away. They’re everywhere.”

“Sandy?”

Silence.

“Dr. Sand!”

Rachel changed the frequency and tried again. Again, there was no reply. She took the radio and shoved it in her bag with the rest of her belongings. It would take her a few hours to get down the mountain if she took the path she was most familiar with. Should she chance it, she would be to the science department by dawn.

The wolf cried again, and she made her mind up not to chance it. There were rocks she could forget about and trip on, sending her falling to God-knows-where.

Instead, she took out a book and began reading, not wanting to fall asleep with such scary thoughts in her mind.

Stay away.

They’re everywhere...

---

At the first sign of dawn, Rachel put her bag on her shoulders and started descending the mountain. The air was thick, but it wasn’t humidity she breathed in. There was the faint stench of decomposition and ash. The closer she got to the city, the thicker it was, and the harder it was to breathe.

The city was horrifying.

There were bodies everywhere, and the air was so dense, it made breathing almost impossible. She stumbled past the body of a young man and almost threw up. The science department was only fifty feet from here, but the atmosphere made it seem like fifty miles. She set her sites on the familiar white building and began running. The less time she spent in this smog, the better.

Her hand made contact with the handle of the door, and she gave it a tug. The door didn’t budge. She pulled again and again, ignoring the increasing thought in her mind that the door might actually be locked. She pounded her open palm on the door.

“Dr. Sand!” she screamed. “Buzz!”

She repeated the process over and over, finally giving up after there was no answer and no hope of the door opening, despite her persistence. She collapsed at the bottom of the door, sobbing and shaking with fear.

Rachel turned and faced the rest of the city. A breeze swept up a piece of paper and tossed it at her feet. She picked it up, reading the bold print at the top of the page.

NUCLEAR BOMB DESTROYS BRECKENRIDGE. GOVERNOR ASKS DENVER TO SEEK SHELTER.

A soft scratching started on the other side of the door, and Rachel turned around.

“Buzz?” she said.

A low groaning sound, followed again by the scratching, met her ears with unease. She stood up and stared a second before tugging on the door again.

“Don’t.”

The single word startled her. She heard a gun being loaded, and she dropped her hand.

“What do you want?” asked Rachel, raising her hands above her head.

“I want you,” said the voice, “to not open that door.”

“But there are people inside,” replied Rachel. “My people-”

“They aren’t people anymore,” the voice said. “Now turn around slowly.”

“Please don’t shoot me,” said Rachel, turning slightly. “I don’t know what’s going on.”

“You’re lucky then. I wish I didn’t know.”

Rachel met the eyes of a man around the age of her brother. He put his gun away and held his hand out to her. She shook it slowly, and he glanced around.

“We can’t stay here,” he said. “They’re fresh. They’ll be extra hungry when they get up.”

“Who?” asked Rachel.

The man nodded to one of the nearby corpses and said, “Them. Come on. Let’s go. Our shelter isn’t too far from here. The others will be happy to have some company.”

Another groan came from the science building, and Rachel shuddered. She fell into step with the unknown man, following him back to wherever he was taking her. Normally, she wouldn’t go with just anyone. Under these circumstances, however, she had no other choice. If she went by herself, surely she’d be dead in three days time. With this man, she would either live for a little while longer or suffer a much shorter death.

They made it to the outskirts of Denver, walking maybe twenty minutes, before the man approached a small cabin. He knocked, and a woman peeked out of the window quickly. She opened the door a smidgeon, to allow the man and Rachel to slip inside, and she shut it as quickly as possible.

“Who is this?” the woman asked.

“I found her outside the science depart-”

“Where’s the gas?” the woman continued, ignoring the man.

“I didn’t get it,” said the man. “I found her before-”

“Can’t leave you up to anything, can we-”

The man grabbed the woman’s face and pushed her back against the door. He looked dead into her eyes and snarled, “I can’t leave her out there alone. We need as many people as we can get before we can travel. You want me to leave her out there to die like you left Rick? Hell no, Jane. I’m leaving no one behind. That isn’t a fate I’d wish on anyone.”

He let go, spit at her feet, and walked away. The woman glared after him but didn’t say anything to Rachel, who stood awkwardly nearby. The woman glanced at her before turning sharply and heading into the next room.

Rachel took a shaky breath. Whoever these people are, she thought, I must need to count myself lucky that they found me instead of...whatever it is they’re talking about.