They looped around Louisville, which had been hit years earlier by a nuclear weapon. Some buildings still stood but were burnt; others had crumbled during the destruction or just from the passing of years.
The blockades to the city’s exits had been moved aside and signs placed upon them stating ‘Viable Zone’.
Falcon recalled when Louisville was a hazard zone.
A radioactive wasteland.
That was what they called it only a few years ago. Some radiation had to remain, but he guessed not enough to be deadly.
The PML wasn’t exactly in Fort Wayne; it was actually like a mall, located about twelve miles south of the city. It was set off by itself and the signs on the road let them know they were close.
It was the fifth day of traveling. Falcon didn’t take into account the bathing stations, so they were faring well on their water.
Somewhere about twenty miles back, Lilly, with eagle eyes like Falcon, had spotted it first. She pointed with enthusiasm, shouting out, “Green! Daddy! Green!”
“Where?” Josh asked. “Where?”
“Straight ahead.” Falcon pointed.
Lilly gasped. Her tiny hand shot to her mouth. “Oh, Daddy! It’s green!”
Falcon really didn’t know about the Green portion, but it wasn’t brown, that was for sure. It was a speck of green. Maybe it was a tree that survived or something.
“Dad?” Josh asked. “You think the transients didn’t make it up this far? Cause no one said they saw green.”
“This is pretty north, and at one time, Josh, everyone up here was sick. Everyone.”
“The airs feels different,” Josh said. “Or is it me?”
“No, it feels different, kind of humid,” Falcon said.
“What’s humid?” Josh asked.
“When there’s water in the air. It’s dry down where we live now. Didn’t used to be, but is now. So the air is hot and dry, this is damp and hot.”
“Feels thick,” Josh said
“It does.”
Then Lilly, with her usual dramatics, gasped again. “Oh, water in the air! Do you think it might rain, Daddy? That would be the greatest thing in the world.”
Falcon peered to the blue sky. “No. I don’t.”
“We can wish, right?” Lilly asked.
“Right.” Falcon winked.
They made the turn off the highway to the Presidential Memorial Library Lane. They had to leave the horse tied at the end of the driveway. Barricades were placed along with signs telling people to stay out.
Falcon didn’t foresee any problems. After all, the signs had long since started to fade and they had… a green substance on them. What it was, Falcon didn’t know. But he stopped Lilly’s fingers from touching the sign.
“But it’s green, Daddy.”
“I’m thinking that’s not the type of green we want to touch,” Falcon told her.
Excitedly, Josh called out, “What about this?”
Falcon lifted his head; Josh had darted through the barricade and was a good twenty feet ahead, crouched down by the cracked pavement.
“What do you see?” Falcon, holding Lilly’s hand, asked.
Josh looked up and a wide grin spread across his face. “Grass!”
“Actually, that’s a weed, but close enough.” Falcon nodded to Lilly.
She raced to the inch high weed that poked through the concrete. “Can I touch it?”
“Yes. You can touch that.”
She gave an enthusiastic scream as she touched it. “Can I take it with us?”
“No.” Falcon said. “If things are gonna grow again, let’s let them…” His eyes strayed.
“Dad?” Josh called for him. “What’s wrong?”
“Holy cow.” Falcon whispered. “It’s the green we saw.”
Falcon spoke of the PML. He had seen it one other time and that was when he was twelve. It was newly constructed then and because he made a donation of value, he got to see it before anyone else. It was empty then, not many people and clean and shiny. His feet made an echoing noise on the floor and he had to speak in a soft voice because it sounded loud inside.
When it was first built, the outside the primarily glass building was encircled by white pillars, similar to those of the White House. It was an exciting time because, when it was built, America had the big upper hand in the war and it looked good. War wouldn’t last much longer. Of course that was wrong.
When twelve year old Falcon stepped inside he saw pictures of every American president. And while there wasn’t a room for every president, there was a book on every one. Stacks and stacks of books, shelves so high that librarians needed rolling ladders.
Falcon’s donation was placed in a case in the doorway of the first library room,
That was then.
The green speck that caught their eye in the distance was the library. The ground around the library had become over grown with ivy. Ivy had suffocated the trees and encompassed the building.
From the edge of the driveway it appeared as if the entire building was buried. But the closer they walked, they saw it hadn’t been.
“This is it,” Falcon said. His insides trembled, and yet he was a bit fearful of what the inside would bring.
He separated the ivy so they could step through. It was tricky, especially since the children kept touching it.
To him, the look on their faces and seeing the green leaves of a parasitic vine was worth the trip to retrieve his treasure.
He supposed they wouldn’t understand it, but eventually they would.
The door was locked. Not that Falcon expected it to be open. A metal gate surrounded the door, which made breaking the window and climbing through impossible.
But most of the walls were glass, and they weren’t protected by metal.
He told the children to stand back and he found an area to break though.
It took about ten hard hits with the butt of his rifle before the glass broke. It didn’t shatter though. Falcon had to keep hitting it to make a spot big enough to climb through.
A strong smell blasted through the opening. It was a musty and moldy smell and that was exactly what was inside the building.
Mold.
Ivy had made its way through some of the flooring, but mold and moss had taken over everything.
He had to tell the children to not only be careful of the glass but also of the slippery mold on the floors.
They wanted to see green. They were getting green, along with some other colors as well.
The glass building, sealed around ten years earlier, had become a giant ecosystem.
The moss and mold covered everything. The pictures of the presidents were hidden. At first Falcon thought they had been taken down and he worried his treasure was gone as well. Then he saw the edges of a few frames.
The presidents were there, but buried.
Just like their memories of them.
“What happened?” Josh asked. “This ain’t nuclear war.”
Falcon shook his head. “Nature. Remember when I got bread at the barter day and we didn’t eat it all right away? It got that green stuff on it. This is similar.”
“How did that happen?”
“Air tight. Moisture.” Flacon shrugged. “I’m guessing. I don’t know.”
He rested one hand on Josh’s shoulder and clung tight to Lilly’s hand with his other. He had to get his bearings so he walked to where the front door would have been. He noticed Lilly taking hard, long blinks. “What’s the matter sweetie? Your eyes hurt?”
“No,” Lilly said. “I’m making sure everything I see stays tight in my mind so I can remember it forever. This is so pretty Daddy. So pretty.”
He supposed in a way it was. After all, most of the colors they had seen were brown and yellow. The one and only tree in town was off limits to everyone, so they had never seen it.
“It is pretty, smells funny, but pretty.”
“I don’t care.” Lilly said. “It smells good to me.”