Charlie Dalton [Dalton - The Commune

The desert was silent and calm, the way Jimmy had always known it. The only noise came from the gentle rattling of the goats bells around their necks and their soft meh ing of content. Jimmy could already feel himself beginning to drift off to the land of Nod. His head would fall in the middle of his dinner plate. His mother would not be pleased.

Jimmy, eight years old and small for his age, turned in his deckchair to look at Billy the Kidthe billy goat thatd been born just a few months agobut was already the boys favorite pet. The family didnt keep a dog, no matter how much Jimmy argued for its case. He could run and catch rabbits, could keep an eye out for Rages. But his parents were adamant. No dogs.

Jimmy glanced at his parents. They were discussing something. How to grow or find more food, probably. It was the subject that dominated most of their conversations these days. Jimmy tucked some of the lettuce in his pocketa weak, pathetic excuse for a lettuce leaf that had no place on a dinner plate, full of holes from the caterpillar infestation theyd suffered during the last cycle. It was all they had, and they were thankful for it. Jimmy finished up the last of his beans, spooning them into his mouth as fast as he could.

Done, he said.

Wash your plate up in the sink, his mother said.

She sat with Jimmys only sibling in her lap, a pink cretin of six months. When hed come, hed taken every last morsel of time that had previously been his. And to think, hed originally been excited at the prospect of a new little baby brother or sister. Another disappointment.

Never mind. Jimmy had many other siblings. Billy the Kid was only the most recent addition. Jimmy was close to animals. Perhaps too close. His first animal friend, Percy, was a pig with a black spot on his left ear. Hed have been close to ten years old by now if the boys parents hadnt been so hungry. Theyd held off for as long as they could, stripping the bark off the trees and consuming every edible flower and plant within a five-mile radius, but eventually, they had no food for themselves, never mind the pig. They couldnt even give the pig their poo any longer. No food, no poo.

Theyd slaughtered the starving little piglet. There had been precious little meat on his bones, but his mother was nothing if not creative, and made the little body last two weeks before they became crazy with hunger again. Finally, the drought ended and the rain fell. Jimmy had danced in the heavy shower along with his parents. He hadnt known why rain was good, only that it was what his parents wanted. The plants grew back faster after that. Now he knew why.

Jimmy washed his plate in the water that had sat there all week. He didnt think it was much good cleaning it in dirty water, but he washed it anyway and slid it into the dish rack his father had made out of twigs from the elder bush at the back of their home.

Before the Fall, Jimmys father had been something called a lawyer. No matter how many times his father explained the concept to him, Jimmy couldnt understand what a lawyer actually did. There wasnt much work for lawyers these days. Or for the past twenty years. The Fall had changed everything.

There was a time when Jimmys father couldnt do DIY, but over the years his skills had improved and he knew which end of the hammer to use. That was his fathers expression. Which end of the hammer to use. Jimmy didnt understand that, as it was obvious to him which end should be used.

Jimmy moved around their home, constructed predominantly out of refuse discarded by people of some forgotten civilization. He approached the small enclosure around the back. It was sturdy and well-made, built to withstand the dust storms that often plagued them during the summer months. Another testimony to his fathers skill with hammer and nail.

Billy the Kid stood, knock-kneed, head bowed to peer up from under the gates rungs the way he used to when he was smaller. Jimmy wondered if he knew how much cuter he looked this way, making it even more likely hed get a treat. Or did he do it by accident? It made no difference to Jimmy. Billy was getting his treat, no matter what.

Jimmy reached into his pocket and took the flimsy flap of yellow lettuce out. The goat sniffed it. Not with relish. He reached out with his tongue. The leaf stuck to his taste buds. He sucked it in his mouth and made loud slapping noises as he chewed.

Sorry, Billy, Jimmy said. Its the best I could do today. Ill try harder next time.

Billy munched quite happily. Goats even ate paper, so the lettuce leaf, no matter how limp and faded it was, had to be better than that. Billys eyes were a gray-blue hue and stared in both directions, keeping a lookout. His mother said his eyes looked sinister but Jimmy thought they made Billy look confused, in need of protection. Jimmy was only too willing to provide it.

He patted the goat on his bony head and looked up at the sky. The stars shone brightly the way they always did when the temperature began to fall, blinking like cold distant gods. Gorgeous against the desert white and velvet blue of the cool night sky. The craggy mountains were a mile or so distant, unflinching against the heavy press of the stars. Some nights, they were so vivid he could make out the swell of the Milky Way.

One of the stars flickered. Probably a satellite, Jimmy thought. Occasionally they passed overhead, useless now, empty metal shells from before the Fall. An everlasting remnant of their once illustrious past. Jimmy liked seeing them. A reminder of the way things could be. One day. Perhaps he might even live to see it. But he doubted it. There needed to be signs of progress, of things getting better, his father said. And they had seen blessed little of that for the past decade.

A flash of light surrounded the satellite, glowing brighter around the undercarriage. That was strange. There was usually a blinking green light on the satellite, not an explosion of yellow-orange like this.

It moved faster than a satellite, growing larger as Jimmy watched it. It was coming toward their little camp, fast. Jimmy ran and shouted, but by the time he rounded the shack, they were bathed with intense bright light. Jimmys cries were lost to the objects roar as it sailed overhead. The world bleached white, a powerful blast of air knocking Jimmy to the ground.