Free Fireside by Brian Parker Page B

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    “Good, the lighting will help us see if there are any holes or if the damn things are climbing the walls somehow.”
    “I know, Dad,” Mason replied. “You’ve taught me everything about wall maintenance.” He leaned in to kiss his mother as well and then headed back towards the front of the house.
    At thirty, Mason still acted like a teenager when he was around his father. Aeric snorted as he thought, Too bad the apocalypse couldn’t have taken away the snarky attitudes of young people. Mason had his own children for Christ’s sake; he should have been beyond the stage of not listening to his old man. Aeric had seen a lot of shit in his life and he needed to pass that information along to his family.
    Thinking of his grandkids made him smile. “How are Alex and Aiden doing this morning?” he asked as he put on a light jacket and strapped his old respirator to his belt. The masks were no longer used every day, but most people still kept them at hand in case a sand storm blew in. A storm could stir up the radioactive dust particles and nobody wanted to breathe in any more of that if they could help it.
    “They’re doing well. I think Aiden’s grown half a foot since you saw him the other day. Seriously, Dad, that kid is growing like a weed.”
    The older man slapped his hand on his son’s back, “Good! That means he’s getting enough nutrition. I hope we can all say that.”
    Mason turned and looked at Aeric, “How is Uncle Tyler doing? I haven’t heard anything in about a week.”
    “I was over there last night. He doesn’t have long, the damn cancer has consumed him. Nicole said that he hasn’t eaten anything in a few days.”
    “How’s she holding up?”
    “She’s devastated. That damn woman loves him—hell, maybe more than I do.” Aeric had never truly understood Tyler and Nicole’s relationship. Neither of them married and they’d lived together since Kendrick was born and Veronica moved into Aeric’s home. Tyler still professed to be gay, and as far as he knew, they’d never been more than friends who’d developed a strong bond. Whatever it was, it worked for them and they’d always seemed truly happy in one another’s company.
    Aeric didn’t know what Nicole was going to do now, though. She was fifty years old and had a lot of good years left if she stayed healthy, maybe she’d be able to find someone and possibly even start a family—which was something that the community sorely needed now that they were able to grow crops again. He just hoped that she didn’t lose herself to despair like so many others had before her.
    “I hope she’s able to cope with it,” Mason remarked. “Lord knows we don’t need any more suicides.”
    “Yeah…” Aeric trailed off, surprised at Mason’s insight. “Alright, Son, you ready to get out to the perimeter?”
    “Sure. Let’s get to it,” he sighed as they walked out the front door to their waiting bicycles.
    They rode slowly as the aging machines squeaked and rattled down the pitted asphalt roads. The city’s infrastructure was completely failing at this point. They spent most of their available manpower guarding the walls, reinforcing the walls according to Ted Winston’s designs or tending to the vegetables and livestock, leaving little time for maintenance. The roads had massive potholes that were filled with gravel from the early years of freezing and thawing. Aeric was thankful that they were in what used to be Texas instead of somewhere farther north where the ash cloud-induced climate change had surely hit hard.
    Besides the roads, the buildings were falling apart as well. The dust storms and acid rain early on had wreaked havoc on the non-brick houses that didn’t have siding, making those uninhabitable. The homes that remained were in need of repair beyond the paint that was available from the old hardware store. The ones that needed major structural repair were abandoned and marked for demolition, either to be