Suzy’s Strange Saga

You wake up to total silence for once. No sounds of annoying commercials and no sounds of psychotic family members pointing a gun in your face. Even Julie is still asleep. She’s right next to you on the bed as you sort of figured she would be when you woke up.

You instinctively reach for your cell phone to check the time, but you don’t currently have it on you. Fortunately there is a large clock on the wall in the room that you’re guessing is accurate.

“Holy shit, why the hell am I up this early?” you say to yourself, but then you remember you fell asleep pretty early yesterday. Really you’re sort of surprised you didn’t wake up in the middle of the night.

You get up and you’re still hurting, but you’re compelled to go wash yourself since your clothes are caked with dried blood at this point and you’ve been wearing them for a couple days.

Just as you’re about to go test the shower, Julie stirs from her sleep.

“Suzy, what’re doing? You shouldn’t be up and around.”
“I’m stinking like a dog here, I need to wash up.”
“You smell fine, I like the way you stink.” Julie says.

You start laughing.

“Well I’m sure you do, but I really feel like I should… (Sigh) shit.”
“What?” Julie asks.
“Don’t have a change of clothes. We got just about everything in this thing except clothing.”
“So? You don’t need clothing, just go all natural, it’s just us after all. I’ll even join you.”
“Heh, while I’m sure that kiss from yesterday has got you all revved up, we still need to talk about us in more detail before we start taking it to that level. In the meantime I guess I’m going to have go upstairs to get some clean clothes.”
“Wait, are you serious?! Those things could be up there!” Julie exclaims.
“Well that’s why I’m going to be taking some weapons with me.”
“But you’re wounded! You really shouldn’t be going out there!”
“While it’s true I ache, I can at least see out both eyes clearly again. Surprisingly I’m feeling slightly energetic. I’ll be careful.”
“Oh Suzy, (Sigh) I can’t let you go by yourself! I’ll come with you!”

You and Julie grab a couple of the lighter assault rifles and some ammo and head up the ladder. Really the most nerve-racking part is going to be the initial opening of the hatch since anything could be lurking around ready to attack as soon as you pop your head up.

You open up the hatch and scramble to the basement floor, looking around in all directions.

“Suzy? Is it safe?” Julie whispers from the ladder.
“Well if it wasn’t I’m sure they would’ve attacked by now. I don’t even hear any noise from upstairs.”
“Good, Now your room is right there, just get your clothes and let’s go!”
“Okay, okay, come on up, I need someone to watch out.”

You head into your room and Julie climbs up and keeps a nervous eye out. You start going through and grabbing clothing.

“Hey Julie, what about you?” you ask.
“What about me what?” Julie says.
“All your clothes are still in your bags upstairs, what are you going to wear?”
“I don’t know! I’ll wear your clothes or go naked! I’m not heading up there!”
“Like I said, I don’t even hear any noise and I had quite a few favorite belongings in one of the bags. Fuck it, I’m going up there, I wouldn’t mind seeing Kelly’s body anyway.” You say and pass Julie to head upstairs.

Once again Julie follows reluctantly.

You go up the stairs cautiously, once again expecting something to pop out at you. When you finally get up stairs, you expect the same thing, but after checking a bit, nothing is out of place from when you left it yesterday. No broken windows, no kicked in doors, and your bags are still in the same place where you dropped them when you got here.

Then you lay your eyes on Kelly’s body which hasn’t been disturbed in anyway. You didn’t see it when Julie did it since your back was turned, but part of Kelly’s head is splattered on the wall and the rest of it is all over the floor.

“Heh, you blew her fucking head off.” You say.
“Yeah, it’s really gross. Let’s get our bags and head back, I’m still worried that something might try to break in and I also don’t want to dwell on what almost happened to you in this room. It’s upsetting.”
“Alright, I just think I needed the closure of seeing her corpse. I know that probably sounds fucked up of me, but then again this whole week has been.” You say grabbing one of your bags.

Before you or Julie can say anything else a bright flash shines through one of the uncovered windows along with the sound of a large explosion in the distance. You can’t help but take a quick glance out the window.

And there you see it in the far distance, the dissipating remnants of a mushroom cloud rising up in the sky.

“…they finally went and did it.” You say.
“Oh shit! We need to get down into the shelter NOW!” Julie exclaims.
“Let’s get our asses moving then.”

You and Julie grab your remaining bags and head back into the basement. You don’t stop the haste until you’re safely inside the shelter, though Julie’s still a really stressed.

“Oh shit! Oh shit! We were out there when that bomb went off! What if we’ve experienced a lethal dose of radiation!? I don’t want my hair and teeth to start falling out and coughing up blood! Oh fuck!” Julie starts to say while pacing back and forth.
“Julie will you relax? First of all if it had been that close the impact should’ve at least shattered the windows of the house. From the direction I saw the cloud, I’d say it probably hit Security City and you know how far away that is. It probably wasn’t even a large one.”
“So we’re safe?”
“Well we’re safe from what you’re worrying about yes. But I mean if nukes are going off, that means the end of civilization, as we know it at best. The world is going to become a lot more dangerous.”
“But we’re in this shelter! We’ve got supplies for years!”
“Yeah, if we’re smart about conservation we probably can stretch out our supplies for I dare say a decade, but the thing is we’re going to HAVE to explore the surface eventually, if only to gather more food and water. And if we’re going to do that, we’re going to need to prepare ourselves. I foresee a lot of use of that small exercise room in the future unfortunately.”

Julie sits down as if this hard reality is finally hitting her.

“Suzy…I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to survive this new world. I mean if what you’re saying is true, and this week was just an indication of how bad its going to really be, then how useful am I going to be? I mean other than killing your psycho sister; I’ve been completely useless in this crisis. Even with your sister, you came up with the plan to distract her; my dumb ass thought you were being serious at first when you told me to leave. You’ve come up with all the plans and taken all the action. It’s actually very impressive of how you’ve managed to cope with all this…I’m just not as strong as you.”

You sit down next to Julie and hold her hands.

“Julie, I didn’t say this was going to be easy, but WE can do this. You have to have more faith in yourself Julie. And whether I come up with the plans or not doesn’t mean you’ve been useless. I mean you still needed the courage to pull the trigger to kill Kelly right?” you say.
“I wasn’t brave, I didn’t want her to kill you.” Julie says.
“Well I’m sure there’s going to be tons of people wanting to do that to me in the future. So you’ve already proven you’ve got motivation to kill when necessary. And just think you also helped in tricking the National Guard without killing anyone.”
“Oh sure, just shaking my tits and ass at them. That’s about all I AM actually good at.”
“Hey whatever works for your survival, but look we’re together now. I need you just as much as you need me. We’re not just friends anymore we have a stronger bond now, one that I want to last for a very very long time. I want to survive to enjoy your company and love for as long as I can. Would you really give up on that so easily?”

Julie smiles.

“No I suppose I can’t. You’re right Suzy. You’re always right.” Julie says and hugs you. She then kisses you on the lips.

“I love you Suzy.” She says.
“I love you too Julie.” You answer.

A brief pause of you both looking into each other’s eyes and savoring the moment.

While the next few moments are going to be filled with possibly the most fun you’ve had this week, you are still thinking about how difficult things are going to be in the near future. Already now, you’re thinking that the first order of business is going to be to get Julie to dry out from her drug abuse. (You can’t afford for her to go through your supply of medical supplies after all) She’s going to probably hate you while she’s detoxing, but it’s going to be for her own good.

And that’s just going to be one hurdle you’ll have to jump, but you’re not that “good girl” that hid out in the basement from the rest of the world anymore. You’re ready to face it head on when necessary regardless of the dangers it may hold.