There is nothing but Before and After, now. "Before", was when the world still stood, people overpopulated the planet, bustling through the life some -most- believe there is a tomorrow.
There was not.
It all came crashing down one thing after another one day and then the "After" began.
Before. Lolly had been on her way home from work. She was probably you're most stereotypical barista a person could ever meet. She had her dark hair swept up in a ponytail, her Starbucks cap resting atop her head, her ponytail sticking through the back, and an ever-present look of disinterest on her face. She was the one that got even the simplest of names wrong but She did that on purpose and only when a person came in with an annoyingly specific order, like with exact measurements, or made a comment about her name being Lola. She would give them a look that read. "No, I do not like being called Lola Bunny." There was something about the look of distant that brought a smile on her face when she wrote something completely wrong.
She wasn't actually a barista, or at least not JUST a barista. She was an engineer, with a college degree in Mechanical Engineering, but that took so much money, she had to work, a lot to pay for the schooling, barely got any sleep, and needed to pay bills for her and her Grandmother. Yani as she called her. As sweet Haitian lady who had a remedy for everything. She called herself a voodoo priestess, but Lolly was dubious about that, and many of the things she did. She always believed in some judgment day and stockpiled for such an event. She even believed that Hell would run out of room and all of that evil, damned and sinful spirits would walk the earth. Lolly didn't think too much on that. It didn't matter to her, though, the woman raised her when her parents couldn't-or wouldn't. They thought it best that she stay in one city, one country, the one they defended. Fair enough, she supposed, but she had little love for them. Not for lack of trying but she just couldn't bring herself to care that much for people she really didn't know.
She sat in traffic in her clunker of a vehicle. She wouldn't call it a truck, a vehicle suffice because it got her from point A to point B, it wasn't pretty, and it had an attitude most days, so calling it anything else would have been kind.
She kept it running, but with old parts, she managed to scrape together from Yani's friends and neighbors. They, much like the parts they provided, were all old. For the longest time, Lolly had been the only child on the block. Occasionally, kids would show up, visiting grandparents, and a few times she'd made friends but they never stayed long. Not many would blame her for being a loner, and with her odd love of anything metal (not the music) her school days hanging in the metal shop and computer classes made sure she was not the friendly sort.
She didn't know why she had been thinking all of this at that moment, perhaps her subconscious knew something was coming and was feeling somewhat nostalgic, knowing the end was near and the After was coming.
She pulled the hat off of her head and tossed into the passenger seat and sighed. She reeked of burned coffee beans, whipped cream, and hipsters, and she couldn't wait to hit the showers and grab her computer.
That little piece of equipment was the only thing that gave her provincial life excitement. She would browse hacker forums at night, chatting up with hackers from around the world, her mind understood the code in a way an artist might understand colors. It just clicked. She wished when she had been coming up, this sort of things was cool, but she was a 90's kid, that wasn't what people did then.
Suddenly, something pulse and the radio that hadn't worked in years fizzled and popped, the engine in the truck died. Lolly, feeling frantic, fought with the pedals, pumping her foot like she was river dancing. She looked outside of the truck window, finding this wasn't just her bad luck, it was everyones. She didn't dare step out of the car, but she did narrow her eyes passed the traffic and to the sky. A dark cloud began to form. She was miles from any real city, but even from here, the Boston skyline was visible...or it was. Darkness covered the sky like night had decided to come early and Lolly felt fear like she couldn't believe. What the hell was going on. She looked at her phone. Dead. She should figure as much, but that just meant that pulse that she felt, was an EMP, or she guessed it was and the smoke....
"No..." She breathed. "There was no way." She couldn't believe that she thought, but if that was what she thought it was, then she was doomed regardless. A Bomb....of a nuclear nature.
No...It couldn't be, a Nuclear bomb would make the epicenter a parking lot and the nearest area inhabitable immediately....Unless it was small.
Yes, it had to be a small one, even still, the wind would carry the radiation. She had to get underground or...or.
She stopped trying to think, if she did, this would get more and more impossible. Could Yani be right? Was this then end of days?
The moment Yani crossed her mind, Lolly hoped out of the car and darted home. She could walk from here. Snow fell...no...Ash fell, as night crept closer and closer. A nuclear winter would be on its way.... ad they would likely be dead before then it that was true. Lolly ran the thirty miles home, where she'd lived her entire 24 years and prayed to whatever God, Loa, or what have you was listening that her grandmother was still alright.
Lolly woke up with a start, not wanting to relive that day in her dreams. She sat up from her cot and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. she'd have to get moving again if she wanted to, ya know, live. Staying in one place for too long was dangerous, a good way to get dead. She tried that but turns out death was not for her, at least not on her own terms anyway. She got to her feet and gathered her things, all which could fit in a hiker's bag and got moving. To where, she didn't know, from where, well, that was pretty simple. As far away from the Dead as possible.