Wendy

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 She was dying, everything was dying or had already died. It wasn’t the rumored third world war or anything political, but it was the humans who caused such destruction. All the drilling and fracking had finally pierced through the earth’s crust so much that it was now one big, gigantic round wiffle ball. The use of hydrofluorocarbons and other chemicals, known and unknown, that were released in the atmosphere, though warnings had been given for years, finally depleted most of the ozone layer causing the harmful ultraviolet radiation to reach the ground. The heat became so intense it melted the ice caps and flooded most of the surface. Though not as bad as anticipated because, like the ozone layer, the water supply had been diminishing for years as well. The intense heat also destroyed the plants’ ability to photosynthesize and plant life died within months, herbivores followed shortly after.

Here she was though, trudging through another city, searching for something to eat; or something she could use as cash. The ash was thick, gray and superfine as it billowed like a cloud around her boots with each step she took. Everything around was coated with ash so it was all the same gray color, even the sky was gray. The sky was so thick with grayness the sun couldn’t even shine through and sometimes when the wind blew just right, it was hard to even breathe. Where she stood, earth looked like a bleak, dirty ashtray for as far as the eye could see.

She walked through the parking lot of a convenient store, the twelve gas pumps standing guard in front of paneless window frames were all stripped of fixtures and signage and were just empty shells of the vital fixtures they once were.  The windows had long been broken and she stepped through the broken window instead of using the door. Each shelf was empty and was covered with the same gray ash. She played with the cash registers and noticed a calendar that was dated May 2055. She walked through the entire store and only found a book of matches stuck under the edge of a candy rack. She flipped through a few old magazines and stuck two more in her backpack for a later source of entertainment. She left through the actual door and a little bell tinkled softly as she opened it.

She couldn’t see the name of the next building so she walked around to the front of it. Wendy’s, the hamburger restaurant, she remember it well. This was an older Wendy’s that didn’t have the chance to be renovated. Wendy looked tired and worn, and didn’t even have the MOM word hidden in the high collar that crept up her neck. Wendy still fashioned her red pigtails but her eyes had been gouged out like she didn’t want to see all the destruction either. She walked through the restaurant and imagined herself ordering a big, thick, juicy bacon cheeseburger. She opened the walk-in cooler and regretted it the instant the stench of rotting food hit her nose. A cabinet under the register was still closed and she pried it open with a piece of broken chair. The cabinet had an entire box of saltine crackers wrapped in cellophane. She’d hit the jackpot! She stuffed the entire box in her backpack along with several single serve jellies, ketchup and half and half creamers.

She took her findings to a table in the middle of the restaurant, pulled out her last canteen of water and settled in for her feast. She also took a magazine she’d lifted from the convenient store and settled in for a halfway decent meal. Afterwards, she laid her head on her backpack with the intentions of having a nap, but before she got to sleep, she was awaken by a violent episode of coughing. She was coughing up blood, so she knew she wouldn’t have much time left as she gathered up her stuff to find the next stash of cash.