Shell Shock

The void. The immatrial coldness. Not just cold, like a harsh winter that cuts into you but a lack of any warmth and comfort. Emptiness. Nothingness. He longed for something, anything, any shape, any feeling, any sensation at all. Then from the bitter darkness it came, slowly, not yet recognised but somehow familiar. Still not a true feeling, but he had a strong anticipation of warmth and that gave him hope. Maybe it gave him some kind of warmth of his own. Whatever it was, it was closing in and with each inch that it approached, the anticipation grew to the point where he couldn't bear it anymore. He knew that shape, that feeling. Suddenly he opened his eyes...

The fuzziness vanished from his mind like a gooey liquid flowing out of his head. He became aware of his fingers, his whole body. The numbness replaced by corporeal flesh, pressed into smooth linen. His hand immediately probed the other side of the bed. All he found was a small hint of warmth, small but it was there. She did it again. He wonders how long she has been gone. A few minutes? Half an hour? Probably less, but not by much. With that thought, his olfactory senses kick in and he takes a deep breath. The smell of fresh coffee and toasted bread fills his nose. He thinks he smells strawberries too but he is not sure. He knows there are strawberries though. She always gets up early in the morning, like clockwork, makes coffee, makes toast and opens a jar of jam. Always strawberries, her favorite. Also always early, just a little bit earlier than him.

"Coffee?" asked Svetlana, as Alex was approaching her from behind. The steaming cup of coffee across the table made her question more of a formality. She sat there, absentmindedly reading from a news projector. A little contraption that deployed out of the kitchen table, looking like an upside down pyramid. It wasn't one of those fancy, true volumetric projectors you could use to watch TV on, but it was sufficient for news feeds. Various luminescent lenses projected the feeds on multiple planes, each plane devoted to a specific subject. Imagine speed reading on steroids.

"You know I do, hun," said Alex putting an emphasis on the hun. Svetlana cleared her throat. She didn't like those pet names, not hun, not baby or anything similar. The only thing besides Svetlana that she tolerated was "Lana", but only from Alex.
Striding over to the other side of the kitchen table he noticed the small red light blinking on the coffee machine.

"Looks like the filter cell is depleted again," he said staring back at his coffee. "It wasn't blinking when you made that, was it?"
"Oh you of little faith, why are you so afraid?" she replied. "Of course not, don't be a baby. If you don't think it is safe to drink, put another Rad-Supressor into it." Now sounding a little bit offended.
"Nah, I am good," he replied, taking a sip of the coffee. "To much of that stuff makes everything taste funny anyway." Lana gave a short chuckle.
"Wow, have you seen this?" he said while reading the little display on the coffee machine. "550 ppm, that's some stiff crap. At this rate we're burning through our filter cells in no time."

"That's nothing, in the spring of 95' I once saw it hit 890," she replied, looking up from her news projection. "You know, the year after that record winter? When all the ice and snow melted, it washed all kinds of shit down from the mountains. Dad didn't let us shower for 3 Weeks in case we had to refilter those water rations to drinking rations. I smelled like a hobo." She gave a slight smile. "Good times Dad, good times."

"We always had lots of fine water in New Boston," he replied. "Sometimes the Uranium pollution was as low as 100ppm. You could almost drink it right from the tab, but we never did."

"Can you imagine that?" she asked, looking up from the news projector, staring out the window. "People used to be able to drink without testing it. Right out of the tab, even rainwater I think."

"Are you sure?" he replied, a little bit quizzical. "That shit will make you sterile like a Hy-Crop plant."

"Yeah, well now," she remarked, rolling her eyes.

Suddenly the news projector flashed and gave the sound of a bell ringing. Of course there are no bells anywhere near the projector, everything is electronical. But nothing has been so popular recently like retro lifestyle and Lana loves it. Beginning at the strawberry jam with genuine strawberries to the retro sounding phone application inside the news projector.
Even the news projector is retro. Nobody actually reads news anymore. Well, they do but not from an actual physical medium.