1.
"I'm bored," whined Tommy, jumping onto his father's lap while he was trying to read the paper.
Anthony stopped squinting at the newspaper and placed it down on the coffee table. He then helped his son up onto his knee. He'd placed the paper headline-up. It read in thick black ink: NUCLEAR WAR STILL A DISTANT POSSIBILITY.
"I'm bored," repeated Tommy, wiggling around like a worm. "I got nothing to do."
"What about those Atom Building-Blocks?" Anthony asked. "You seemed to be playing with them quite happily before."
"Eh," the seven-year-old grunted, looking over at the corner of their living room, where a pile of different-coloured, interlocking balls and rods lay discarded. "I've already made all the things in the book. It's no fun now."
"Hmm." Anthony thought for a moment. "What about that Nuclear Wind bike your mother and I bought for you last Christmas?"
The boy looked once at his toy. The atom-bike's single wheel was on its side, left carelessly where he had stopped playing with it.
Anthony made a mental note to pick it up and put it away later.
"It's cold," Tommy decided, turning his head away.
Anthony had an idea. "Follow me," he said, lifting the boy off his lap and placing him down on the carpet so he could stand.
"Okay, Daddy!"
They made their way through the house, Anthony leading and Tommy bouncing excitedly behind. In the kitchen, they passed Maria.
"Hi, Mommy!" Tommy shouted, tugging her dress.
"Hi, sweetie," she said absently, then went back to arguing with the fridge while she loaded dishes into the Atomic-Scrubber, an automated dishwashing machine. It was a chest you placed dirty dishes into, and when the lid was closed robotic hands would snap out of the walls and scrub them clean. Out of all the atom-powered appliances in her kitchen, it was by far her favourite. Of course, the fact that it didn't talk was a large deciding factor.
"Madame," the Quantum-Cooler 2000 insisted, "I still strongly suggest you remove the cheese you have placed in my upper-left compartment and immediately discard it."
"Why?"
"Because it is past its expiry date," the Quantum-Cooler explained.
"I don't care," she said. "It adds flavour."
"Sounds disgusting," Anthony said.
Maria stopped what she was doing and spun around on her heel so she could glare at him. She was a short, but stern-looking woman with brown hair as frizzy and wild as her temper. "Don't encourage it."
He laughed and backed out of kitchen. On they went, to the guest room. In a box, at the top of the wardrobe, he found what he was looking for: a clear sleeve, containing the highly elusive first-edition issue of the best-selling comic-book series, Mr. Atom. He showed it to his son.
Tommy didn't look at it with the level of awe Anthony was hoping for. "What's that?" the boy simply asked.
"The origin story of the radioactive superhero, Mr. Atom!"
The dramatic tone of his voice was enough to lure Tommy in. He sat next to his father on the bed. Together they read the pages, diving into the compelling story of how Mr. Atom received his powers.
As the comic told it, Mr. Atom was formally an atomic physicist named Wilson, until the horrible day when the nuclear power plant where he worked went supercritical and suffered a catastrophic meltdown—with Wilson still trapped inside! He died of radiation poisoning—but, have no fear, for the next day he came back to life... with atomic superpowers! Now he is Mr. Atom, the man with the ability to fly, shoot lasers and control matter with his mind!
"Is it true?" Tommy asked. "Does radiation give you superpowers?"
"Um." Anthony wasn't quite sure how to answer his son's question. He didn't want to say no and ruin the boy's dreams, but he didn't want to say yes, it was possible, and give him false ones, either. "I don't know," he finally answered. "There are many mysteries of science and atoms that we don't yet understand."
There was an excited bark, followed by the scratching-clicking of paws as their dog Nuke came sprinting into the room and jumped up onto the bed, playfully leaping onto Tommy and licking his arms and face.
Anthony carefully put the comic book away and watched Tommy and Nuke.
"Let's be superheroes!" Tommy suggested to Nuke. "I can be Mr. Atom and you can be Nuke, the nuclear-dog sidekick!"
Nuke barked in agreement, which made Anthony smile.
2.
Two weeks later, the first bomb was dropped. The damage it did was devastating, and the radiation released into the atmosphere was even worse. More bombs followed—all over the country. Some hit closer to the home of Anthony and his family than others, though none directly damaged it.
They were lucky in that way. The radio told them to stay indoors and close all windows and doors. Not to go outside without a breathing mask. But at least they were alive.
At first, everything looked normal, so they found it hard to follow these instructions. But then the dust began to fall. It looked like a very white and fine ash, like a strange snow. It covered the ground and floated in the air, filtering out the sun's rays.
Tommy was faring much worse than his parents. The change scared him. Like most people, they'd known a nuclear war had been possible—with international relations being what they were—so they had months of food stockpiled and also the gear in their government-issued fallout supply kits. Tommy, however, didn't understand all this. He didn't understand his parents and what they meant when they said it wasn't snowing outside. He wanted to go out and look for himself, but they wouldn't let him.
Most of all, he was upset and worried about his dog, Nuke. He was outside, sleeping in his kennel when the snow started to fall. They hadn't seen or heard from him since. At least once an hour, he asked his parents if he could go outside and look for Nuke. The answer was always no.
But Tommy kept on asking. Finally, Maria gave in.
"I'm going outside," she said.
"No, you're not." Anthony tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen.
"I'm sick of being cooped-up inside." She dug through their government-issued fallout supplies and found a full-face breathing mask. "I'm going to look for Nuke. And see how the neighbours are."
Anthony's lips formed a tight line in response.
"Can I come, too?" Tommy asked, bouncing around.
"No," they both answered.
Maria went and got changed, donning the same attire worn in real snow. Thick boots, pants, and a waterproof jacket with a hood and fleece lining. She gently kissed Anthony goodbye, before slipping the breathing mask over her head.
He watched in horror with Tommy beside, as she slowly vanished into the not-snow.
"How long will Mummy take?"
"Not long," Anthony replied. His face was pale. He barely breathed until an hour later, when she returned, stumbling up to the back door, knocking her boots against the mat like a clumsy sleepwalker. He watched her as she shook off the white powder the best she could and then came inside.
"I don't feel well," was the first thing she said after taking off the mask. Her eyes looked sunken, like she had aged a decade in an hour. "I'm going to have a shower."
"Did you find Nuke?" Tommy asked, running up to Mommy.
Pain crossed her face. "No."
His face fell.
Anthony followed her back into their bedroom. She closed the door behind them.
"Yes," she said, once they were alone.
Anthony felt his guts twist. "Yes what?"
"I found Nuke."
"Oh."
3.
Their first attempt to tell their son his dog had died of radiation poisoning failed terribly.
"Cool!" Tommy exclaimed, much to their horror. "So he's coming back with superpowers? Will he fly and do flips in the air?"
Anthony winced and tried to explain that wasn't how it worked.
Maria said nothing, still feeling sick from earlier.
"But Mr. Atom died of radiation poisoning, too," Tommy argued. "But then he came back as an atomic superhero! Like Nuke will!"
Anthony didn't know what to say, or even if there was a right thing to say, so he said nothing.
"Who is Mr. Atom?" Maria asked, her voice weak.
Anthony began to answer, but then Tommy cut him off.
"He's a superhero in one of Daddy's comic books. Radiation gave him superpowers!"
Maria looked at her husband. For what felt like a long second, their eyes met and never left.
"Nuke isn't coming back," she told Tommy.
He looked at her with confusion, clearly not understanding.
"Things don't come back to life in the real world. Nuke is dead and Mr. Atom isn't real."
The End
~~~
Olive Goodwin (OutrageousOllo) is a computer-science student at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. While she normally writes about superheroes—which you can see from her previously Featured novel, Should Have Been the Bad Guy—this is an AtomPunk story she originally submitted to Ooorah's Tevun-Krus #35: Best of '16.