Free Under a Broken Sun by Kevin P. Sheridan Page A

From the fuckin’ nutbags that think they need to wipe out the earth for Jesus.  All I said was "From Reverend Hill and his followers."
    He shot Marilyn a look.  “You saw Reverend Hill?”  Marilyn nodded.  “Why didn’t you say so?  What was his message?”  Marilyn didn’t say anything.  Del leaped up and ran around the table.  “For God’s sake, girl, you have a message for us!”
    Madeline got up and played with her apron.  “Oh dear, oh honey, please tell your father.  We need to know.”
    Marilyn looked at me with soulful eyes.  I could see her pleading to get her out of here.
    “He said we're all gonna burn in hell,” Ashley said, suddenly standing in the doorway.  “And I agree.  So let's get going.”
    I walked over to Ashley, “You ok?  I mean you’re ok to leave?”
    “The sooner the better,” she said.  She was changed.  Something about being shot, and surviving, made her appear, I dunno, older.
    Del approached us.  “Go then.  We’ll find Reverend Hill’s message.  And if he says to destroy the nonbelievers, Heaven help your soul.  Marilyn, go to your room and wait for me there."
    “NO!” Marilyn shouted.  She rose up from the table walked to me, then faced her father.  “I'm done with you and your fucking ‘punishments’.  I won't follow you or your twisted God.  And I would never, EVER want to go to a Heaven that would accept people like you.” she said
    Her mother gasped.  “Marilyn!”
    “Satan's power is strong,” Del stated curtly.  "Think, girl.  Think carefully about whose side you choose.  There are consequences for our actions."   Madeline gripped her husband’s sleeve, crying.
    Marilyn took my hand, leaned forward to her father, and said, "Fuck.  You."
    That did it.  I was in love.
    I hoisted my bag on my shoulder smiling and steadying Ashley until I felt she could walk on her own again.  We left.  Marilyn never let go of my hand.  Hers was shaking.
    “You will burn, young lady!"  Del shouted behind us.  “The Dark Lord will seek you out and destroy you all!  He will bring you deeper into the fires of hell!”
    Deeper?  That meant I already was in hell.  Yeah, that sounded about right.
     
     
     

9.    
     
    Marilyn, Ashley and I travelled for five days straight during the night, heading west on the PA Turnpike, and in those five days, we didn’t see one man-made light.  I keep waiting for everything to pop on like when a blackout ends, but it never did.  No airplanes overhead, no helicopters flying around.  No searchlights at night, no cop cars, not even local sheriffs.  They must’ve been busy with their own hometowns.  I wondered how people were reacting in different areas – were there riots?  Looting?
    We stopped in Lancaster the first night.  On the way we saw Amish people in their buggies with horses, acting as if nothing had changed.  In their world, I guess, nothing had; just got hotter and harder to breathe.  Fuckers.
    The next day we made it to Harrisburg; we could see the rising clouds of black smoke an hour before we got to it.  The city was practically burned away.  On the outskirts we passed a high school, with a banner still waving in the breeze that said, “Congratulations Class of 2013”.  Welcome to reality.  Hope you didn’t have any college plans.
    Along the main roads every store had been busted into.  Even a Bank of America looked like it had been torn apart.  Any electronic safe was inoperable.  No alarms.  People were probably millionaires now, sitting on a pile of money that could buy nothing.  If this was as widespread as I thought, as devastating as it seemed, everyone’s self-worth suddenly became exactly and precisely what they had in their possession.  Nothing more.
    We also saw more than a few dead people, and there were probably a ton more inside the quiet homes.  Occasionally, we saw someone outside, and they all had the same lost look on their sweaty face.  They’d