Chapter Text
I was 17 when ‘It’ happened.
It was a normal day in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A pretty nice day, actually, if I remember correctly. The sun was shining, which wasn’t all that common so close to the coast so I was outside, taking a break from filling out an application for Emily Carr University to read ‘Life of Pi’ and trying to soak in as much sun as I could in our backyard.
Both my parents had gone into the city to work. I was supposed to go with them to meet up with my best friend Sarah, but we’d gotten into a fight the night before over some stupid boy and…
No one was expecting the bomb. There had been rumours about North Korea earlier in the year, but who really expects a Nuclear attack?
All of a sudden there was a blinding flash of light, and I remember thinking the sun was going supernova, that it was the end of the world. But then I scrambled to my feet and looked up at the mushroom cloud billowing up from the city. And my heart stopped.
My family, my friends, almost everyone I had ever known, was gone in an instant. I almost wished the sun had exploded.
Sound rushed towards me, and the shockwave of heat singed the skin of my forearms as I threw them up in front of me before all of a sudden… it was gone. The sound, the heat, everything just… stopped.
I lowered my arms slowly, opened my eyes even slower. And then my knees buckled and I fell to the ground.
I could see the wall of heat. Where it had stopped inches from me, the tree I had been sitting under less than a minute ago smoldering except...it was frozen.
“You are safe, Rebecca Tyler. Do not fear.”
I whipped my head around to look for the source of the voice and the most radiant woman I had ever seen was standing there. Her hair was long and flowing, the shade of radiant blonde every girl aspired to have, and she had lines around the corners of her eyes and mouth, as if she spent much of her life smiling. She was glowing and I heard myself whisper, “Am I dead?”
The woman smiled sadly at me, which made the lines around her eyes wrinkle just that little bit more, and knelt in the dirt next to me.
“Not as of yet,” she answered, her voice just as soft.
“But I will be?” I could feel tears come rushing to my eyes, an ache growing in my chest. Everyone was dead. There would be no more cooking with my dad. No more rearranging the furniture in the livingroom every month with my mom. No more family camping trips, or family dinners. Because they were probably dead. And I was going to join them soon.
Or so I thought.
“That depends on what you choose.” The woman took one of my hands in each of hers and squeezed them reassuringly. “I can take you away from here. To another world where you might have a chance at another life. Or, you can choose to stay here, on the world you were born, on the world your friends and your family died.”
The tears spilled over at her confirmation.
“And if I stay, I’ll die?” She pointed behind me at the wall of heat in answer. I shuffled further away from it and closer to her. “Where will I go?”
“Somewhere very different from here.”
“And I’ll be safe?” I asked.
She paused, and I knew the answer. More tears blurred my vision, and I felt warm arms surround me.
“I’m sorry, my child. But I cannot know that before the decision is made. There have been others I have saved who did not survive. However, I can promise you I will send you to a place where you will have the utmost chance of survival.”
“Why are you doing this? Why save me?”
She smiled again, her eyes lighting up. I felt the ache in my heart loosen slightly in response.
“There is a woman named Gwen Murray. The events that took place here are happening all along the eastern coast, and she is trapped further south. She has agreed to aid my cause, so that this destruction does not repeat itself. However, she cannot bear this burden alone.” She squeezed my hands quickly and kept my gaze locked with hers. “Gwen needs your help. Will you help her, Rebecca?”
With tears still dripping down my cheeks, I said a quick and quiet, “Yes.”
I didn’t hear the name Gwen Murray again for 5 years.