Undone: A Dystopian Fiction Novel by Chad Evercroft Read Free Book Online

could hear what sounded like fire crackers, and what we feared was gunfire. Sometimes, car headlights would shine through the narrow slants of the wooden planks across the windows, casting slices of light in the dark room. They seemed impossibly bright compared to the candlelight I had gotten used to as the only source of evening illumination.
    Tyrsa sighed, and then laughed a little.
    “Having these candles around like this reminds me of when I was little,” she began.
    “Oh?”
    “My dad had this thing where after a certain time, we’d turn off all the lights to save on electricity. We’d light candles and pretend we were camping. In the winter, we’d light a fire in the fireplace and roast marshmallows. I never knew it was because we were strapped for cash. My dad made it seem like just a fun thing we did every night. It was our routine.”
    She smiled at the candles, remembering. The flame reflected back in her eyes, giving them a glossy sheen.
    “What did your mom say when you told her what’s going on?” Tyrsa asked, breaking her nostalgia.
    “Oh, she sounded really worried. She tries to hide it, but I think she’s really scared. I used to get really frustrated about her whole thing with climate change, but I’m starting to think it’s a way for her to distract herself from her other fears. In a sense, flooding and droughts and storms are less scary than mobs or gangs. They’re...bigger, but easier to understand, if that makes sense. When people turn bad, it’s different.”
    Tyrsa nodded, looking at me intently. She looked like she knew I had more to say, so I continued.
    “My mom has so much fear. It seems like it paralyzes her. She wants to get prepared, get emergency supplies and stuff like we do, but she can’t get organized. She can’t break it down into manageable parts.”
    “My mom was the same way,” Tyrsa said. “With fear. That’s why she left. She couldn’t handle my dad’s prepping because it meant she had to think about all the things that could go wrong. I don’t know why some people just can’t figure out how to balance it.”
    Tyrsa’s voice was laced with anger. She paused for a moment and I thought she had finished speaking, but she kept going.
    “I actually don’t really know why she left,” she said softly.
    I suddenly felt very close to Tyrsa. I had never heard her talk about her mom, at least not beyond the bald facts. I wanted to scoot over closer to her, but I stayed where I was, listening earnestly.
    “My dad never really tried to explain it. He just said she was scared about the prepping. For a long time, I didn’t know what he was talking about, because the prepping wasn’t really on my radar as anything unusual. We just had a room with cans and stuff that we weren’t supposed to use. It wasn’t like my dad was obsessed with buying guns and building barbwire fences. When I got older, met more people, I figured out that people had different sorts of lives. Maybe my mom wanted that kind of life instead of what we had. That just made me mad.”
    “Because your sort of life wasn’t good enough?” I asked.
    “Basically. I loved my dad and brother to death. I couldn’t imagine why she would want to leave us. I still can’t really imagine it.”
    I thought I heard tears in Tyrsa’s voice, but her eyes were still just reflecting the candlelight, glossy and clear. She shifted her weight so her body was facing me, one foot still tucked under her.
    “I’ve really tried, Morgan,” she whispered. “But I can’t do it.”
    I couldn’t keep my distance any longer. I moved towards her and she let me put my arms around her. She laid her head on my shoulder and I could feel her take deep, shuddering breaths. She must have known that I loved her. I had loved her from the moment I saw her. It was as if instead of a heart, she had a piece of live coal that radiated warmth through her whole body, which made her eyes smoky, and burned life through her fingertips.