Dust by Jacqueline Druga-marchetti

Maybe if it were someone else, this wouldn’t have been alarming. But Sam was one of those people who just didn’t cough.
    “Sam?” I called out.
    Sam coughed again just before he poked his head in the curtain. “Yeah?”
    “You OK?”
    Sam gave me a smirk as if I were ridiculous. “Yes.”
    “Were you sleeping?” I asked. “You’ve been quiet.”
    “No, I was next door, seeing what Mark had in his basement.”
    “Sam.” I sighed out. “Stop going outside so much.”
    “Jo, please,” he scoffed. “I’m fine.”
    “Are you really?”
    “Read your book. I have some tools to put away.”
    The curtain closed.
    Sam the looter. It made me chuckle, but Sam worried me. He went in and out of the shelter so much, I truly wondered if Sam thought he was infallible. The fear of radiation poisoning just wasn’t with him. Not at all.
    Ready to slam back into the powerhouse story of Roger, the Dinosaur, it dawned on me. It was time.
    “Sam?” I summoned him again. “Can you put the radio on? Craig is gonna make his hourly report.”
    Davy muttered, “Oh my, God.”
    “What?” I glanced at Davy. “What?”
    Davy shook his head.
    “Sam? I’m holding Matty. Can you open the curtain so I can hear.”
    Again, Davy said it, only louder. “Oh my God.”
    “What?” I was confused, then spewed forth a ‘thank you’ when the curtain opened.
    “Why do we have to listen to Craig every hour?” Davy asked. “He’s boring.”
    “He’s broadcasting the levels.”
    “Sam goes out and take a level now that he figured out the Geiger counter.”
    “Well ... ” I grew a little snobbish. “Doesn’t hurt to double check. Right Matty?”
    Matty nodded.
    “Right, Simon?” I asked.
    Before Simon answered me, he listened to whatever Davy whispered in his ear. “Craig’s boring,” Simon said.
    “Boring or not,” I defended. “He’s still calling out there, maybe someone will respond.”
    “Why do we care?” Davy questioned.
    “We’ll know other people are alive.”
    “But if we don’t know them, why does it matter?”
    “Davy,” I huffed slightly. “You never know, maybe we’ll have to meet up with them.”
    “But wouldn’t it be impossible if they were like in, I don’t know, China”
    My frustration took over. “If they were in China we probably wouldn’t understand them. Build your fuckin’ Morse code thingy.”
    Davy looked at me and mouthed the word, ‘thingy’ with question.
    A waved a hand at him in a ‘shoo’ manner.
    Like clockwork, Craig’s voice came over the radio. Introduced by a hiss of static. “Cycle one. Hourly report. May twelfth. Anyone there? Over.”
    Davy fluttered his lips. “Boring.”
    “Shh.” I instructed.
    After Craig’s thirty-second wait, he called again. “Cycle two. Hourly report. May Twelfth. Anyone there? Over.”
    For the first time, there was a response. A crackling broke up the clear transmission, followed by a few dots of un-interpretable words. Then the male voice, deep, and sounding no less than totally aggravated, blasted through. “Yeah ... I’m here.”
    Before we could say it in our enthusiasm, Craig did.
    “Burke!” Craig squealed.
    We all raced to the radio as if we wouldn’t have been able to hear it any other way. Holding Matty, I huddled closer with my family. Our faces glued to the speaker, waiting to hear with anticipation what Burke had to say.
    Boy were we surprised.
    “Yeah, it’s me.” Burke’s voice broke up a little here and there. “Is Jo with you?” Despite the fact that Burke had made a connection with a familiar voice, he still sounded disgusted. “If she’s listening, tell her I’m fuckin’ pissed at her. Goddamn piece of on-line auction bargain radio shit she had me buy. For days—“
    Static.
    “Burke?” Craig called out.
    A crackle, static, then Burke came back. “Son of—bitch. Goddamn. Fuckin radio.” The static began to overwhelm Burke’s transmission. “I finally get—work—son of a—hold