Suzy’s Strange Saga

A loud noise in the distance wakes you up and you also notice you’re no longer moving.

A quick look out one of the window and you see something that is going to change your life more than anything else in the world.

A mushroom cloud.

You’re not feeling any tremors or aftershocks, a wave of fire hasn’t engulfed you, so you’re guessing that it wasn’t excessively close, maybe it was even a small one. Still, you can’t help but wonder if you’re in some sort of deadly radiation radius though. If so there isn’t much that can done about it.

“That’s it then…the world finally went and did it…” you say to yourself.

You hear some commotion going on outside, presumably several of the carnies are freaking out, arguing, and generally concerned on what to do next. It’s a reasonable reaction to a doomsday situation.

You calmly get dressed and make your appearance. It takes a moment, but you soon get everyone’s attention.

“Hey! Listen up! This might be the end of civilization as we know it, but it isn’t the end of the world! Sure life is going to be harder now, but when hasn’t it been for us carnies? Why just this damn week we suffered through a military occupation, an internal civil war, an attack by freaks, and avoided another possible attack by a bunch of rednecks. And hell, I had the extra struggle of trying to fit in here and fight off a rape attempt. No way are we going to descend into anarchy again. We’ve come too far.”

You think you’re getting better at making speeches because this time you’re seeing less frowning faces and general attentiveness.

“We already drift from place to place providing entertainment as a source of our survival well what has really changed? We can still do that. We WILL still do that. This world just got a whole lot shittier and if we can bring a little joy to some people, well they just might be grateful. And if our entertainment value isn’t appreciated, well we ARE nomads and vagabonds by nature. Surely we’ll be picking up, collecting, and scavenging useful material, items and the like to trade in our travels. I know we all have useful skills, surely with those, our ability to learn and adapt and a team effort we’ll be able to keep this carnival…no this FAMILY together a very long time.”

“Yeah! Suzy’s right! We can survive this!” someone shouts and several others agree enthusiastically.

This time you are not met with apathy, but with applause. At last you have truly been accepted. You half expect them to all shout “One of us.” Over and over, but perhaps that might be a bit too obvious.

In any case, you and some of the others get together to decide where to head next and what to do about food, and fuel. This isn’t going to be easy, but then this whole week has been a trial for you.

No longer are you the shy “good” girl who hid away in the basement, harassed by your family and living as one day blurred into the next. You are part of something bigger and not just that, but a leader.

It’s a brand new day and this is just the beginning of your brand new life.