Just One More Day

     The slow and steady crunching of boot against snow suddenly fills the quiet school-yard-- A gentle breeze slowly began to wind itself between the rusty and torn playground, picking up stray leaves left over from last fall, and tossing them about like rag-dolls. What the snow didn't cover, seemed barren and desolate; Large piles of rubble and debris lay scattered about, long forgotten by time. What used to be the old school house now lay in remains, the occasional desk and chair littering the far fringes of the building.
     Deep inside, snow covered lumps littered the floor, one could only imagine what they were...

Veronica, a nineteen year old girl with a personality seemed almost as stoic as the land around them, gave a small and steady nod to the man next to her. “I'm not sure why I come back here,” She mumbles, her voice trailing off into nothing, eventually stuffing her gloved hands further into her gray woolen jacket. “there's nothing but old memories and dying dreams.” Felix, a black hared man with pronounced features and the comings of wiry stubby about his chin, glanced sideways at her, his silver eyes meeting hers for only the briefest moment.

     “That's how most of the world is now... Isn't it?” He responds, his own voice sounding like a low, rumbling thunder. She didn't have much to say to that, however true it may be, she didn't want to believe it. She's lived in denial the past few years, and she hopes it will stay that way.

They moved across the school yard, and into what looked like an old gymnasium, the roof caved in and faded blue bleachers laying strewn about the snow dusted floor. Four sturdy walls stood around this once active place, now only one wall stands among the fallen debris, it's edges seeming to crumble just by looking at them.

     The ruins scared her more than the war that caused them. To her, schools symbolized a safe, and sheltered oasis from the surrounding world... Seeing it in ruins like this made her heart drop into the pit her stomach, and a bad taste fill coat her tongue. Slowly, she climbed over the rough stone bricks and broken glass, edging her way between collections of small, snow covered lumps, careful not to bump them with her boot. She eventually came to a halt in-front of the last remaining wall, its cloudy face seeming to almost long for her touch. Her eyes slowly drifted across the wall, silhouette snowmen curled up in small balls against the wall.

     They were people, she knew they were. Unfortunate souls caught in the atomic winter that followed the earth-moving bombs. The few lucky souls that weren't burned to a crisp soon after the hell-fire rained from the sky, were killed in the blisteringly cold winter that followed. Adults, teeneagers, and kids, just like her, all caught in the war that they had no part in. Martyrs caught in the crossfire, not knowing the cause they died for... Then again, what's to die for anymore? The war that was to eliminate the threats to the U.S turned from a few missiles launched back and forth, to global thermonuclear war; Earth, or what was left of it, was destroyed in a matter of minutes... Everyone victims of the government's greed and ferocity.

     Before she knew what was happening, she felt her eyes beginning to brim with tears. She reached up with a gloved hand and quickly brushed away the dampness, turning to Felix, her emerald eyes almost glowing in the moonlight. “Let's go” she whispers, her tiny voice echoing across the empty yard, “I don't want to be here anymore...” With a simple nod, he places his hand carefully on her shoulder, guiding her over the rocks and rubble, careful once more not to bump the corpses that lay in peace at their feet.

     They made several more exaggerated loops around the school before stopping in-front of the main entrance. Her eyes slowly passed over the front doors, coming to rest upon a metal sign, the majority of the letters burned off. What was left read; 'Jackpot, Home of the Jaguars. Visitors, please pick up...' The rest of the sign ending in a charred mess of twisted and melted metal. This time it was Felix who spoke up, “No more visitors anymore...” His voice sounding once more like a mid-summer storm. Veronica gives a slow and soft nod, turning and moving down the street, her heavy boots kicking up plumes of snow behind her.

     'There isn't anything you have to worry about anymore...' Veronica tells herself, her own voice echoing inside of her head. 'No taxes... No jobs... No school.. Nothing.' She attempted to smile weakly, though it came off as only a meager twitch of her lips. She missed her family. She missed school, filing for taxes, and waking up every morning at six O'clock to work at a dead-end job that she hated more than paying her monthly electricity bill. She missed it all, the old world, the ways things used to be. She would pay all the money in the world just to be normal, to have everything go back to the way things used to be, for one more day...