My father was obsessed with nuclear war and knew all about it. He knew the effects of radiation, the half-life of the various types of detonation. The other neighbors had a pool, but we had a shelter of reinforced concrete sixty feet below the ground with provisions enough for five years.

When it came, it wasn’t like we expected. Many of the cities got hit, but not ours. It was over pretty fast. Then the rains came, weeks of rain that flooded the shelter and made them all sick. I’m all that’s left now, I guess. Why, I don’t know.