Leaving Perdition

He stared out the window waiting. Truth told, I guess we were all waiting, for a miracle.

My name is Shelby Denton, 15 years old and raising my 11 year old little brother, Gavin. We lost our parents when it all went down 5 years ago. We don't talk about it. The aftermath is this place, Perdition. That is what we named this town, this hell. By "we" I mean, myself, Gavin, and 30 children. 

Warrick, our president was an adult, a lazy, pompous ruler, who showed no mercy for children. We were treated horribly, forced to work in the corn fields. The day was the 5th anniversary of this place. I stood in the kitchen of our little, run down cabin cooking for the feast. Most of what I was cooking was corn or had corn in it. It's all we had. Gavin took a deep breath and turned to me with a half hearted smile.

"Feel the excitement in the air Shelby. Our brothers and sisters, they deserve a feast. Your cooking smells so good to." He sighed and turned back to the window watching the wind swirl golden brown leaves in the air. Fall should be beautiful. It would have been if we weren’t here.

 "I know Gavin; so do you. Too bad it’s only once a year." I shivered as the wind blew through the cracks in the wall, the cool fall air kissed my face. I closed my eyes and pretend we were somewhere else. Sometimes, I just wanted to take Gavin and run, never looking back. Then I thought of the kids.

We cooked with fire, read by candle light and survived off the land. No meat though, most of the animals were wiped out the same way our parents and the rest of the world perished. 

 I had a plan; I was going to go for help.  I would have to sneak out of Perdition. We couldn’t be the only ones left.

“Gavin, we have to go, it’s the only way to help them. We will come back. I promise.” I didn’t know if that was the truth, we might die trying.

“Are you sure there are others Shelby? What if we never find anyone?” He looked doubtful. I didn’t know, but I had to try.

“We leave once everyone is asleep.” I filled Gavin in on my plan as we waited.

 

The next morning I kept watch as Gavin slept under a shade tree. We travelled under the cover of night. They never sent anyone to look for us though. They just presumed us dead. No kids could survive out there alone. We only stopped for sleep. We had to move fast and get as far as we could before we ran out of supplies.

 

Three days and we were forced to stop. Gavin had a cut on his hand that looked really bad. I might have passed out at any moment, from exhaustion. It didn’t  matter by then anyway. We were out of food and water completely.

“So, this is it isn’t it Shelby? We’re going to die. We failed.” His words came out as a whisper. He was weak.

“We are just resting Gavin, we are almost there. Don’t give up.” My throat hurt but I had to reassure him. I was already convinced of our doom. “Tomorrow we will find help. You did great Gavin.”

“Shelby I see a light. What is it?”

“I don’t know, but it is beautiful.” Maybe it was heaven. “What is that sound?”  

“Shelby, it’s a plane! We are saved!” That time he was a little louder.

“Gavin, that’s crazy it couldn’t be. No one has even seen one since….you know.” “But it does kind of sound like one, doesn’t it?” I must have been delirious.

A plane landed next to us. It was beautiful, like a huge angle swooping down to save us. Could that be? There were no more fossil fuels. I managed to sit up and I could see a big red maple leaf on the side of the plane.

“ Is that Canada?” I gasped in shock.

“Hello, are you okay? We have food and medical supplies are you in need of them.” That voice was an adult male. With a French accent,  the most glorious thing I’d ever heard.

“Yes please, my brother, his hand is infected. Help him please!” I pleaded.

“ Yes ma’am .” He smiled.

“A plane? What are you using for fuel? Are you really from Canada?” I had a million questions. While we flew north, I quizzed him on everything. 

 Canada wasn’t hit as hard as the rest of us. They did lose power for a while, but they fixed it. It just took time. They found the plane, it was so old, no one bothered to use it 5 years ago, so it survived just like us.  They used corn, for fuel. Did you hear that?  They used corn. That’s crazy.

Now they go on rescue missions to find survivors. When they found us they had already rescued 15 other people.

I told my heroes about Perdition and how they mistreat children. We made a fast U turn and...

”Hold on kids, a miracle is on the way!”  I felt tears roll down my face as I gave in to exhaustion. Tomorrow would be a brand new life.