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mask as he walked past. I shrugged. There was no need to posture. This kid was protecting his mother. I got that.
    Once they were inside, I walked across the basement and filled the generator with gas. Before I went away, I added stabilizer to my gas supply. I still wondered if it would hold up. The generator chugged to life and I checked the vent line to make sure we wouldn’t kill ourselves with fumes, though I guess there were worse things that could happen. Everything looked in order. I switched the generator off. For now, we still had power from the grid so there was no point wasting the gas.
    I walked into the bunker and closed the door. The lights set into the ceiling were on and Danni and Jared sat on two out of the three chairs inside. I twisted the handle to seal off the door and made sure the ventilation system was clear.
    It felt good to take my NBC mask off. Sweat beaded on my face and could feel the indentation on the sides of my face where the mask created a seal. I grabbed a can of fruit cocktail from the shelf. There were other things to eat, but I remembered how much Kara loved the stuff. That was the only reason I had it in here.
    “Fruit cocktail okay?” I set the can down on a nearby table and found the opener. Even though I was out of prison, the food looked about the same.
    “Yeah, fruit cocktail is cool,” Jared said. “Thanks, Lucas.”
    I spooned out three servings of the stuff and passed two to Danni and Jared. They nodded and began eating.
    “We can sleep here tonight,” I said between bites, “but tomorrow I’m leaving. I need to see my family.”
    “Your family?” Danni asked. “You have family out there?”
    “Yeah,” I said. “My wife, Lisa and my daughter, Kara.”
    “They don’t live here with you?” Jared asked. His mouth was stuffed with fruit.
    “No,” I answered. “They left me before I went away.”
    “That happens,” Danni said. “My parents split up when I was twelve. Sorry.”
    My phone sat on the table. Danni noticed as she looked around the room.
    “Is that your cell phone?” Danni asked and walked towards the table it sat on. I snatched it off the table before she could reach the phone.
    “Don’t touch that,” I said. Seeing the look on Danni’s face, I added, “Uh, please? These things probably won’t work much longer, if at all.” I opened it and looked at the text message on the screen. Kara’s simple words wound steel straps around my heart and twisted. I would tell her that I loved her soon.
    “That looked like a text message,” Jared said. He took his phone out of his pocket. “But I guess you’re right. I don’t have any bars on my phone, either.”
    I wanted to change the subject. “Once we know what’s going on out there, we can figure out what our next move is.”
    “How are we going to do that?” Jared asked. “All the radio and television stations were nothing but static.”
    “Regular radios maybe,” I agreed. I pointed towards a boxy HAM radio in the corner of the bunker. I had pieced this one together myself, swapping out parts and antenna to make it broadcast further.
    “Does it work?” Danni asked.
    “Let’s find out.” I walked over to the radio. Static crackled through the receiver. I checked a few channels. It was more of the same.
    “Wait, go back.” Jared rushed towards the radio. “There was something there. Go back. Go back.”
    Underneath the electronic fuzz, I could hear that Jared was right. There was a voice, maybe even more than one.
    “Can you talk to them?” Danni asked.
    “Not right now. I think the ash and storm are screwing with the signal,” I said. “I’ve got an idea on how we can boost the signal tomorrow. Probably not a good idea try and fly a kite tonight.”
    “A kite?” Jared asked.
    I would really need to work on the whole explaining things and people skills thing if I didn’t want to sound crazy all the time. Or at least for whatever time was left.

 
    -12-
     
    Boxes of old