Selectively Juggling

Emma knew that by pushing ‘the’ button, all sorts of hell would ensue. There’d be no turning back. Not now, not ever. But what were their options? None, that’s what. Zero, zip, zilch … that’s what! They were literally at wits end, and this was their only option. At least they had planned and prepared, having enough supplies to see them through for a few years. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the way it had to be.

Especially if they wanted to survive. They were all survivors, a riff-rag bunch of miss fits that had somehow found each other, and in doing so created a ‘soul family’, a tribe. It was their tribe. It was her tribe, and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure they all survived.

They’d come too far, clawing their collective way through life’s quagmire, to simply give up now. They were warriors, they’d endured hell and lived to tell the sordid sorry stories. The fought valiantly to be able to access the fall out centre. It was a stark reminder of the insidious nature of war and human greed. Why didn’t anyone listen? Why didn’t they take the planet’s warning signs serious? Why, did the generations before her have to violate nature, raping an pillaging. They knew what they were doing, but their hunger for power and money too great. Oh well, I guess the Earth had it’s own revenge. Karma swallowed millions, in the ‘great glare’. Sadly, it was also innocents that suffered, people like Bill and Brian, Emma’s fathers.

Emma, had what it took to make the hard decisions. She was driven, focused and impervious to ego driven self-doubt. That strength came from wandering through the horrific aftermath of ‘the glare’, alone, forgotten, and orphaned as a distraught and defenseless 5-year old girl. Emma, wandered alone for 3 years, before discovering kids like her. Kids that had been left to rot, left to die and fend for themselves. Now at age 25, there was little memory of life before the glare, life with her parents. The ‘great glare’ left many children orphaned, untouched and unprepared.

Things had been tough before, yet this time was different. Emma was different. As tribal matriarch, her ‘soul family’ and tribe’s survival depended upon her courage. Their small world had irrevocably changed. No more sunlight, just the whirling sounds of machined pumped air. The fallout shelter was now home. In a single push of a button, the door was vaulted airtight. Gone was a past punctuated by violence, chaos and pollution. In it’s place, would be an existence trapped underground, until they could survive the ailing planet and it’s toxic air. Their dream, their passion was to help heal the planet. However, before they could achieve that, they simply needed to survive. Earth needed them to survive.