Tristan and the Apocalypse 6

By Asa Montreaux, pen name Andrew James

Maisie and I were both having difficulty getting past it. A big depression came over us. There was nothing we wanted to do. We didn’t eat. We only slept when we were so tired it was painful to stay awake. We didn’t leave our rooms.

Then one day I began to feel we were still very young and we had much to do and it had something to do with this, that there was still a sense and order to things. Though Maisie didn’t feel better. And I felt there might be something I can do for people still. I didn’t care how I felt. But I cared how other people felt.

My Dad said that things were reorganizing. There had been a tremendous amount of infrastructure restored. There was going to be a new government. He said that there needed to be more regulations or else something like this could be repeated.

But global warming is already happening, I said. There is very little we can do to stop that.

Well, not really. We could markedly reduce emissions all over the planet. There’s no telling what a difference that could make.

But there is an aspect of it that is natural, that has nothing to do with us.

But at that rate there isn’t supposed to be an extinction for more than 10,000 years.

I thought about what he said. I suppose it was only an attitude that we were so hopeless as a race. Apparently the congressman was going to run. How? I said.

He’s a dual citizen. My Dad said.

Oh. I said. Is that why he’s so concerned.

He considered it for a moment. I suppose he said.

He shuffled the documents he was going through, as if he had no idea what he had been doing a moment ago. Son. He said. Would you like to be on the campaign?

Absolutely. I said. Is that a possibility?

You bet it is. He said.

What can I do?

Oh. I think your going to be important. I’ll see to it that you can do a lot.

That’s good. Thank you. Then I said, Hey Dad. Who is going to run against him.

There is one other candidate right now.

Who is it?

I’m not sure, he said.

*

The congressman prepared for the race in talks with my father. There was a plan they provisionally created. There were targets they would run with. There was an overall platform they wanted to suggest. Now people wanted change. Now people would listen to a progressive voice. The other candidate would expect that, he said. The whole spectrum will be swung to the left, but the trouble will be keeping it there.

The election would be in four months time. He said he felt it would be a position from which he would have a significant work impact. Probably much bigger than the Prime Minister had. Given the destruction in the South, he said it would be more like being the President.

That’s good. I said.

Yes, he said. It is.

He was quite pleased I felt. Though I am sure he was going to switch to saying how prepared he was to have a positive effect on the world from the position in the coming weeks. I suddenly had this feeling it would be a battle. Nothing would come easy. No one was on our side so easily.

I went to visit for the first time in a while it seemed. It had been a few days since I had seen her. She wasn’t coming downstairs. She said she’d come out but she hadn’t. I knocked on the door, a couple times, and I had to wait for her to open the door. It took a while.

Hey, she looked better, oddly. I blinked. A lot had happened since she had been begun to feel so damned depressed.

We got to talking about what had been going on with my Dad and  I told her he had been busy. Had I been spending my time with Daphne.

Yes, I said. Most days, yes.

Like every day.

Well, yes. Why?

No reason. Did something happen.

Not really. She tried to kiss me. That’s all.

Really? She said. That’s all?

Yes, really… I don’t think she’ll try to again. I paused. Maybe were all feeling emotional. It’s best just to let it alone.

I was turning around, considering my choices of word, then I had to look at her face, and see she was smiling, again, and she was kidding.

What you think matters more than anything else in the world. That’s what about what you think.

Thank you, Shakespeare. Thank you. You too. Let’s go downstairs and have dinner.

Yea. The last place I thought I was Shankspeare.

*

Maisie didn’t say anything to Daphne about it. They didn’t speak, but were comfortable enough sitting together. For a moment I left them alone and Allister and I went over some new info about the Resistance. It didn’t sound like there was anything to be worried about right now.

Do people take road trips when the world is ending, I said.

I don’t think we can go anywhere with the restrictions she said.

No, I said. The resistance aren’t being dangerous. We could go some ways. For a day or two. Any arguments with which to get away sort of thing.

We should go. I would love to get away from here, Maisie said.

We could drive up north, I said. Before it gets too cold. I’ve never been to the Hudson’s bay area.

Yea we should, Daphne said. That would be a nice place to escape viewing the decimated city.

Thanks for the reminder, Maisie said grimly.

Yea. You’re welcome, Maisie.

Okay. I said. Well then. All settled. You coming Allister?

I don’t know, he said. Yea. I guess so.

Are you feeling uneasy after what happened, Daphne said.

Yea, he said plainly. I guess so.

It will be alright, I said. We’ll talk to Dad.

He said it would be fine, but to make him feel we have an eye on him, and to stay together, and as long as we do that, we’ll always have the phone, and they won’t be so so far out of reach.

It’s good. He said. All of this stress isn’t good for you.

*

I packed some things. Allister helped me. The two of us did all the work. Daphne was very talkative on the drive. She had something she wanted to say, though it came out as a bunch of the same sorts of things, and I figured she would say something in private later on on the trip.

About halfway there I stopped. There is something in the road,  I said. It was an animal.

What is it, Daphne said.

It looks like a deer, I said. Yea, look someone has been driving this way. It has been run over.

Oh my the guts, Daphne said.

I wonder who was driving this way. Maybe someone should call Dad.

Really, you think so? she said.

Well, maybe in a little while I guess. Have to see what happens. If we see someone we don’t really have a choice but to just give him a call.

Yea that would be the right thing to do. For everyone’s sake, she said.

Should we move it, Allister said.

I wouldn’t touch it actually, I said. But take a look. Can you tell were it was hit? Is there any marks on the road.

Right in the front, he said.

Then Maisie said, look, there are tracks over here.

Cool, I said. Well, I mean. Let’s look at them.

They were long, though they stretched off the road, into the dirt. They drove away after it, I said. They didn’t hit the trees.

Is that a bad thing? Allister said.

Oh yes. They didn’t want anyone to find them.

Let’s turn around, she said.

Sure. Well, lets see what we find. It is probably nothing after all, we knew there were some cars that came this way.

As we continued on driving, I felt a deep uneasiness, though it faded, as I drove further and further, into a dull ache that I could almost ignore. I drove into the night.

It was a few hours later we arrived at the cabin. There were no lights, so we made our way through them with headlights, to the appropriate number, and I opened it with the keys. I walked through and looked out, and I could see the water, in the dim light, down the slope, a little ways away. It felt awfully chilly, and I turned the lights and heater on immediately.

Was someone using this, Daphne said.

Oh yes. The Congressman was up here actually, I said.

Oh, she said. Well then.

This will do, Maisie said.

Glad to hear it, I replied.

We went to bed, mostly because I was tired, and because we weren’t feeling so scared of the night here. And I was having a dream again. It was a few months later and the election was over, though something was wrong. Things were even worse now. We had made a fall. We were not recovering, we were not in a rebuilding of our world. The opposer, he looked familiar, and he had one. We were in the building as he won, and he had already been making moves, as if he had rigged everything somehow. I wanted to fight it, but I couldn’t fight it, there was nothing  I could do to make him stop. Would you stop sir, will you stop?

I awoke suddenly. This time I wasn’t dreaming. Maisie wasn’t in bed. I thought were could she be. I went and checked in the bathroom but she wasn’t there. I went down to the kitchen and she wasn’t there. I was worried for a second and then I thought of another place. I looked out the back window and the lights were on. I couldn’t see right to the doc, but I figured I better check there.

I wandered outside without realizing that it was so cold out there. I walked quickly down the path, down the steps until the dock. When I got to it I could see her on the edge, with her feet hanging over, hunched up.

Maisie, I said. What are you doing?

Nothing really. I just came down here. I couldn’t sleep.

I went and sat down next to her. Let me have a look at you.  I said.

She looked very sad. Her face looked worn from being so sad for a while and she was bundled up in a blanket.

What are we going to do, I said?

I don’t know. She said. I’m not sure.