Friday Snippet: The Atomic Weight of Aluminum

After joining up with Sven to sweat for the next 70 days, this Friday Snippet almost slipped my mind. Without further ado, here is the Friday Snippet. We rejoin Dell in the back alley lot with Mrs. Tailor and Caleb after a nuclear blast has laid waste to Columbia, Missouri.

Copyrighted, do not reproduce, material liable to change. You know. Etc.

Dell helped the older woman down to the ground and dropped to the dirt beside her. Before she could stand, Mrs. Tailor had her by the shoulders, fingernails biting through her jersey.

“Where are my children?” Her eyes were wild and bloodshot. Tears tracked white streaks down her ash-smeared face. Dell disentangled herself. Panic was infectious.

“I’m not sure,” Dell said. She gripped the mother’s wrists, forcing her to focus. “I’ll stay and look for them. But you can’t keep Caleb here too long. You need to get out of the city! Find a FEMA station or the National Guard. They’ll take care of you.”

“My children!”

“Look! If he stays here, he will die. You have to help him. You have to get him out.”

“You take him,” she said. She shoved her son toward Dell. “I have to stay and look for my children!”

She staggered toward the sagging apartment. Caleb buried his wet face against Dell’s stomach, his sobs muffled. She stood helpless, her hands at her sides. She choked for just a moment, and scrambled back from the fear creeping up in her chest. As she gripped the boy’s arm, her expression hardened. The apartment shuddered. She dragged Caleb after her, his fist pounding against her ribs. He screamed.

Daniel lay in the grass, his blood like paint splattered on the green stalks. His eyes mirrored a mercury sky. The fires crept closer and dying embers flared like cold stars.

Dell took the baseball bat from Daniel’s hand. The aluminum was still warm from his grip as she slung it through her belt loop. Her pants leg was heavy with her own blood. Fire lanced up her leg.

A few sharp cracks, like bones breaking, tore the air and Dell heard the east wall of the apartment cave. She slung Caleb in front of her, shielding him against her. The apartment collapsed in a roar of rolling dust and debris. Dell felt the boy’s heartbeat through his back.

She closed her eyes, breathed. She stood and the pain in her foot hissed. The boy clutched her hand, his fingers clamped on her wrist. Corleone mewed and the pillowcases swung heavy from her shoulder. In a haze of shock, Dell stumbled through the ruined streets toward wailing sirens. The boy on her arm followed, choking back his sobs with ragged hiccups.

Next week will probably be the last section with Dell for a while. We'll have a scene of Iris and Dell in college, and then we'll jump to Iris in the present, a few days after Doomsday. Let me know what you think! Also, if you're doing Friday Snippets, leave a link and I'll check it out!



So say we all.
Bri