My Honest Beauty

The sound of rain on the roof kept me awake. A continuous plop of poisonous drips seeping into the room; clogging the exit.

It was my fault I was in this situation. I was stuck inside of a cramped workshop with nothing but myself to keep me company. Curiosity was my trail, passenger and guide when I followed the tracks of a savory plump bobcat into the forest. The head of the feline was right in the pathway of my arrow when the first drop of acid rain landed on my arm. The pain made me release my arrow, and the cat had pounced away at the sudden sound.

I bolted through the forest and saw an outline of the large building and pushed myself through the singing rain until I was safe under the covering. There were light marks on my sweater where the rain had touched, and I knew those places would be hard and brittle in the morning. The workshop was dark and rusty but spacious. The concrete slabs on the ground were slick with rain that had seeped through holes in the ceiling so I opted out of taking off my boots.

There was a large ledge with a wooden ladder next to it on one side, and on the other there was an open door which I assumed led to the back. There was an open door that showed a small office space and I grabbed my pack and headed over. There was a metal table on the wall and I decided it was as good a place as any and settled into the least dirtiest corner and prepared myself for a long night.

I didn't go to sleep right away, the sun was just going down but the rain was still pouring. The yellow peeling walls did their best to take my attention off of the sound. The bright color reminded me of the sun, something I haven't seen since my seventh birthday. It was a happy day filled with pool play and rowdy kids. Not two weeks after, the third wave of bombs landed in Washington. The mushroom of smoke covered everything, never dissipating into the air. It now forever travels the once fresh air searching for weak lungs to fill.

My mother used to tell me that the sun went into hiding because it was scared that we would destroy it's grace just as we did to our earth and moon. It won't return until he sees that the smog is gone. Of course, now that I'm older, I know that the sun didn't leave out of fear. It left because he wanted to see us drown in our sins.

I created myself a bundle of dirty sheets and comforters I found in an office. The dingy blankets shielded my body from the rain seeping through the hole of the ceiling. It was sufficient enough but I could still feel the chemical filled air slide down my throat invited but not wanted. It was in my body, eating me from the inside out as I slipped into a deep sleep.

.....

It's been three weeks since I first found this storage shed. I had called it my own. Men come and go, only stopping for the river before moving on. They are all heading somewhere, following the dirt road eastward, but I don't intend to follow. When the last of the men trickle through, I will pack my things and head the opposite way. I can't risk getting caught.

A lot of men seek shelter in the storage room but I have found a secret place where I stay until they leave. They mostly laugh, talk and cough. Not particularly in that order. Today was different though. The group of men who came through today, came through the woods instead of the road. There were ten of them. All had seen my shed. They pointed and talked but turned around and headed to my stream glistening underneath a coat of heavy fog.

I knew the acid rain was coming as soon as I opened my eyes. An itch, deep in my nose. I knew that feeling; it was a sixth sense I had discovered. If only I had trusted it before, I wouldn't be stuck here. Taking deep stingy breaths I felt around for a notch, before finding it and switching it open. I breathed twice before I knew it was safe and pulled my body from the dingy floor under the wooden planks.

The night before the peculiar men had come and jollied around after the acid rain started. It was a funny sight as they all rushed to the safety of the storage bed, screaming obscenities. Lucky for them it was just a light drizzle, they wouldn't have made it if the sky came down harder. I could only enjoy so much before I slipped under the floors. I stayed in the bunker under the floor that was filled to the brim with food and essentials. There was a skeleton when I first came down here but I had long since removed it.

Outside the bunker the men seemed to have left a mess. Bottles and pee stains decorated the ground and a rancid smell slithered through the air from the back corner of the room. Disgusting.

I could hear the men shouting and singing. They must have left to return to the stream. I climbed the ladder being held to the wall by unraveling vines. Once on top I grasped onto the railing and hulled myself unto the platform. It swayed but I trusted it. To the front of me was a large window, largely obstructed by overgrown shrub. However I could still see the men just mere meters away. Still ten men under the waking sky, surrounding a fire, leaning into its heat.

A shadow of darkness slowly swept across the area. Slow enough for me to notice, and for the men to ignore.

Whispering wind carried the stench of chemical burning. I knew the acid rain was coming but the group of men hadn't seemed to notice the shift in the atmosphere. They were all parked near the stream, too far to see her clearly in her dirty window but if they looked hard enough they could find her chocolate brown eyes staring at them with fear.

Acid rain was coming. Water from the sky that melt skin off bone, and left no remains for the last starving vultures of the sky. They wanted to feed but the air was greedy.

A hard haughty laughter came from the camp. Half-naked men frolicking in the misty river as if they hadn't seen water in weeks. It was a sight to see, a sight I have seen many times before. Water must be scarce from where they came from. I had no choice but to share.

By now the air was violating my nose, burning the inside of my nostrils making it harder to breathe through my nose. Breathing through my mouth would only damage my lungs faster. I would have to endure.

I eyed the men now calmly wafting waist deep in the cool bank. How could they not sense it? How could they not know?

Heavy clouds began to fall towards earth. They had not noticed. My pulse quickened as the first drop of death pelted the metal roofing of the abandoned storehouse. I watched as it fled down the arch and slap the ground with a sickening sizzle. With a few crackles the leaf disappeared.

Breathe

"RUN!"

The word flew out of my mouth and traveled throughout out the forest, once a virgin to a women's voice. My voice was scratchy and dry. I sounded like a dying witch from the lack of use of my vocal cords.

But no man could mistake the voice of a women.

Several things happened at once. All eyes had the attention of the women in the window, each man holding a different gaze that did nothing but terrify me. A sickening crackle of lightning shook the earth igniting a biting flame next to the camp.

Pounding of feet were heard as retched screams erupted. Each acid droplet found its place on it's hell. Leaving handprints everywhere.

By now I was screaming, waving my hands guiding the melting men to sanctuary. My covering creaked under the weight of my movement causing a waterfall of liquid lava to splash right next to me. The splash drenching my leg. I let out a curdling scream.

The first man made it under the covering of the old storage room, catching a few droplets of acid on his face. By now all the pain had blended into one throbbing pulse of agony so he barely noticed. Only five out of the large camp made it to the storage room. Others were too far back, or the acid had already ate their muscles as they ran for their life. Immobilizing them, and forcing them to ride out their death to the mercy of the sky.

It had none, as they melted away

My honest beauty

Don't leave me

My dying herb

Keeping me forever

Lasting me forever

Crystal clear crime in your eyes

Oh how could you deceive me?

My honest beauty