Ceaseless by S. A. Lusher

enough to hold all the employees of the facility, although not comfortably. The door was open and Lucy stood at it, waving him closer, urging him to hurry.
    Allan crossed the distance and entered the small building. Lucy closed and secured the door behind him. He looked around the padded interior. There were straps and seats along the walls, meant for people to lock themselves into. Johnson had already done so. Lucy and Allan sat down and quickly began strapping themselves in.
    “How long-”
    The plant blew.
     
    * * * * *
     
    This time, Allan managed to retain his consciousness. The force of the blast picked up the structure and threw it clear of the area, at least several hundred meters, if not more, by Allan's estimate. It landed with a very heavy thud in the dirt. For a very long moment, nobody moved. The bunker had done it's job, for which Allan was very grateful. Finally, slowly, he reached up and undid the straps. The bunker had landed at a sharp angle, so that the back wall was now practically the floor. Standing up slowly, Allan considered their next actions.
    “Can we go now?” Johnson groaned as he freed himself.
    “We should check and make sure,” Allan replied.
    “Make sure of what? There's no way he survived that,” Lucy replied.
    “I want to be sure,” Allan said.
    Fighting against gravity, he moved up to the front entrance and unsealed the door. Opening it, he found himself peering up into the endless blue skies. He climbed up over the lip of the door frame and stood atop it, carefully balancing himself on the edge of the bunker, which jutted from the earth, half of it buried in the packed dirt.
    “Wow,” he said.
    Despite everything, there was still something pretty awe-inspiring about looking at a half-mile wide and deep crater, still smoking.
    “Could you move?” Lucy asked from behind him.
    Allan hopped off the bunker and landed softly in the dirt. They were about a quarter mile from the crater. An immense silence seemed to cover everything.
    “So, you really want to go check?” Lucy asked, jumping down next to him.
    “I guess there's nothing to check. He'd have been totally vaporized,” Allan replied.
    “You sound disappointed.”
    “I guess...I wanted a body. I wanted to know just who the fuck he was, why he did all this,” Allan replied quietly.
    “I guess so, but come on, we should get to that colony, try to figure out what to do next.”
    Johnson hopped down onto the dirt next to them. As one, the three survivors turned and began walking towards the colony.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “I could really use a shower,” Johnson said.
    It was the first thing that had been spoken since they'd set off. Allan estimated that they had perhaps ten more minutes of walking before they reached the outskirts of the colony. He wished they'd somehow been able to save the jeep, but he supposed it didn't matter. A couple miles' walk through the wastelands was nothing compared to what he'd been through over the course of the past day. He was honestly glad for the reprieve.
    “I could use some food, and a drink,” Lucy replied.
    “I need to take a piss,” Allan said after a long moment.
    Johnson burst out laughing. “Eloquently put.”
    “Are we screwed?” Lucy asked suddenly. “I mean, we blew up an entire power plant. I get the feeling that isn't going to go over lightly. I kind of like my job, you know?”
    “I'll need a new job,” Johnson murmured.
    “I'll take full responsibility for what happened. I'm not exactly anyone's favorite at the moment, so they'll probably be pretty happy to just pin any and all issues on me. I'll lose my job, and I might have to do some time, or go into debt or something. Those plants aren't very cheap. But I don't know, it doesn't really matter. We stopped him,” Allan replied.
    To that, neither of the other survivors seemed to know what to say.
    As Allan reached the outskirts of the small colony, which was essentially just a line of housing units, he