A Collection of Short Stories

TJ Benson
Pretty Bird
rang out in the still darkness, one she had first misunderstood to be a sign of danger. Then it
had multiplied into a thousand joyous voices. Another nurse had stumbled into the foxhole,
screaming hysterically, before passing out in her arms. She had laid the body down, then
curled up in a foetal position on the ground and stared at the night sky till morning. That was
the morning they brought him in.
By the end of the first month of their cohabitation he was already halfway into preparations for
their disconnect; he had found some salt, large pieces of scrap metal and a plastic bowl with
which to perform electrolysis, that would generate electricity for them to cook with or just light
up the place. He converted the latrine into a kitchen and when he discovered moisture on
the walls of an abandoned behind the hut, he expanded the bottom of the well, using a large
piece of blunt scrap metal as a spade, and planted the seeds he had gathered on his path
of war around the world. Qat shrub from Yemen. Hazel nuts from America. She was terrified
when he spilled them out of his pocket; she could not handle the unpredictable. Spontaneity
used to be exciting, until the machines came hurtling out of the sky. He apologised for keeping
his seeds a secret from her. He could understand her fear; the war had left everyone on the
edge. She too came to understand this his way of doing things.
As the weeks to deactivation drew nearer, the more desperate whatever it was they shared
became. Then he brought up the ridiculous idea of marriage. She didn’t see the point of an
apocalyptic union. She wanted them to move into a proper compound, one that had other
people. He preferred the solitude. He talked too much, she said, for someone who cherished
solitude. She was too cold, he said, for someone who cherished the company of others. For
a moment, neither one spoke. He got the sensation of treading thin ice. Then she threw her
head back and laughed. He chuckled a little, breaking sweat all over. He walked close to her
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