The Air Was Poison

It was October 31st, 2022 when the first of the bombs fell. Halloween night. I don't know if I should laugh or cry at this. I laugh because on a night filled with fake horror we were shocked with real horror. I cry because just about every child that was out on the streets died almost instantaneously just from the first flash. I was lucky that night. I was a mile under the surface of the Earth at work. Once every square foot of the Earth surface was covered with buildings, they started making homes and factories underground. A mile below it was a whole new world.

Living underground was hard. You slowly loose your mind with out the sun. But we could not go up onto the surface. 10 years later and the air was still poisonous. One sniff of the heavy yellow smog and your heart locks up and its a painful death waiting. 

At first the underground world was chaos. There was no government. No laws. People stole from each other. People murdered each other. And there was no one there to stop the madness. Slowly things changed. We built stores. We built hospitals. We built a new government, because the last one did not work so well. I mean, the president dropped bombs on his own country because he knew he was a fuck up. Instead of facing it everyday he decided to murder his people. What a good idea. 

In the underground world I got the job of a "surface sweep". My job was to venture to the surface and search for anything that would help us underground. I had a crew of 6 and I was the captain. We first rose up in the country and have been working our way into the city.

It was October 31st, 2032 now. Me and my crew got up on the surface and realized we had finally reached the first block of the city.

"Smith and Peters, you take the West block. Edwards and Walker take East. Gray and James take the South street."

I sent my men out and made my way up North. I did not know it, but I took the worst street. It was a residential street, lined with small homes on both sides. As I walked down the block, I slowly became sick.

The ground was littered with blacked candy bars and melted plastic pumpkin baskets. Near each orange hardened puddle was the horrific remains of each kid. Some were pills of bones, others were just shoes, because the hell hounds must have gotten to the bones first. In the middle of the street I fell to my knees and cried. 

What the fuck was I doing? This world is over. We destroyed it. It is only a miracle I still am alive. But for how long? We can't grow food underground and the water supply is low. Also there is a roomer of a major leak in the surface letting the poison fall into the underground towns. In the next year we all will be dead. 

My tears streaked the inside of my gas mask. I had a family once. I had a home, and a dog in the yard. They are all dead and gone. My happiness was dead and gone. So why am I not dead and gone. 

I rose to my feet, and turned around. My crew was slowly approaching me with arms filled with junk they found. I took a deep breath, and unlatched my gas mask. The men dropped what was in their arms and ran to me.

"Don't do it Paul!" 

I pulled the mask off my face and let the poison fill my lungs.

"NO!"

So it goes...