Impetus Read Free Page B

feelings for everyone to see. Mick’s simple hope was that she would stay that way forever. Though he doubted that very much. Like her brother, she, too, would soon become captive to the chemical changes that puberty brought. Because even in such a depressing world they still found ways to be angst-ridden teenagers, forgetful of all but their own issues. Mick certainly did not blame them for it. In fact, he was glad to know some form of normality still existed.
    “ Thanks, you two,” Mick said, smiling.
    They were his everything, two colorful flowers blooming against the odds in a place that had become so adverse to growth. There were times when he almost wished the twins had not been born. Not for any other reason than to spare them the hardship of life in the new world. But the selfish side of him could not even entertain the idea of an existence without their bright lives in it. His life would have ended many years ago had they not been there to drive him past the doubt.
    Forced to raise them by himself since Impact, Mick was proud of who they had become. He frequently thought of the stories his father would share with him whenever he complained as a child; the stories of how his father walked to school ten miles each way, sometimes in a blizzard, sometimes barefoot, sometimes both. Or how “in his day” kids did what they were told without question. But his father’s day, as well as Mick’s own, had been easier times to go through childhood. Mick could not imagine growing up in the world that his children would inherit, if they inherited anything at all.
    Life was tough enough for him to deal with, and he was a grown man with knowledge of things well beyond his children’s years. It was difficult for him to intuit what went through his kids’ minds at times, what they thought and felt knowing that hope had left them to salvage their own futures so many years back. His children had been robbed of their chance to enjoy growing up. To hang with friends, go to parties, do well in school so they could do well in life. Their lives were spent wondering if they had enough clean water to drink or diesel fuel to last through the ever-growing winter season. It didn’t seem fair. None of it did. But despite it all, Mick was determined to give them the best future that this horrid world could provide. He would find hope, wherever it had disappeared to, and wrangle it back by its neck if it was the last thing he did.
    Laurel shifted from out of the darkness like a shadow. The speck of a woman squeezed Mick tight ly. “Happy birthday, old man,” she said as a smile spread across her face. “It’s about time you got back. We’ve been waiting.”
    Mick looked down to his left at Laurel. “This is your doing, I take it?” She was an old soul with knowledge and understanding beyond what any thirty-five-year-old should know. She had also been a registered nurse before Colossus, which made her a god among men.
    L aurel grimaced slightly, more of a knowing grimace. “Actually, Mick, it was your children’s idea. I told them you wouldn’t want a celebration. But you know how they are.” She nodded toward the kids, who smiled back.
    He knew quite well how his children were. And he was sure this was not their doing. He loved the twins, and they loved him. But he was sure Laurel was simply trying to make the teens look good and him feel better, both of which he appreciated immensely.
    When times got tough , which they so often did, and everything seemed beyond repair, Mick simply closed his eyes and thought of Nate and Kathryn. They reminded him that life was what you made of it. There would always be peaks and valleys. Though the peaks seemed rare nowadays and the valleys stretched for miles and miles.
    Mick looked around the room and thanked those there with a warm smile. He had seen Greg on the way in, but that left two of their group unaccounted for.
    “ Sandeep and Chester are in the back taking inventory,” Sarah said