Punching Practice

329 days until extinction.

It had been just over a week since Harper arrived and Jackson could not believe the difference she had made.

Most of the days that first month before she’d arrived he’d had to focus almost all his energy on simply surviving; dealing with the hazards and issues he hadn’t even thought about until they happened. But with Harper handling much of that he could finally focus completely on music, though that was coming less easily than he would have liked.

Not only was she a far better cook than he was, and capable of actually cooking well over an open flame. But she was also incredibly well-versed when it came to all the things needed to survive on ones own; most of which were things he had been completely ignorant of. She had repaired the generator and panels so that they now had limited electricity, and had even set up a rather crude but functional water trap and filtration system that would keep them from dipping too much into what was stored in the pantry.

When he had first asked about it her answer was surprising.

“We don’t really know what happens at the end of a year.”

“What do you mean?” Recalling the message from a month ago Jackson recited, “this world will cease to exist. That’s pretty clear.”

“But we don’t know how it’s going to happen.” Harper said after hammering the final nail into one of several thick pieces of wood used to seal shut the hidden entrance she’d come in from. “Maybe they’re going to blast the planet to smithereens, start fresh. Maybe they’re going to strip the oxygen from the atmosphere, asphyxiate us but leave the resources in tact.”

“You are terrifying.”

“My point is we don’t know how things are going to shake out. Assumptions kill, so right now we prepare to last as long as we need to.”

It was a good point but it brought another question to Jackson’s mind.

“So…do you think anything is going to happen?”

Harper stopped working for a moment to truly think about the question. This was something Jackson was still used to, someone actually hearing and thinking about the things he was saying. Most of the times his parents gave the barest acknowledgement that they’d heard what he was saying unless it had something to do with how it might benefit him or their family.

“I think something is going to happen. Whatever that thing was it withstood pretty much everything lethal thrown at it.” Standing up she dusted off her hands. “But if you’re asking me if someone is just gonna press a button or flip a switch and wipe us all out? Then no I do not.”

The idea of surviving beyond a year truly had not even entered Jackson’s mind until now. He had assumed it would be some kind of big spectacle, like whenever aliens showed up in most Hollywood movies. And he hadn’t even expected to last that far.

During the evenings is when Harper would teach him a few of the lessons of survival he had not picked up before making a leap into the deep end. The first was how to properly cook over an open flame, though the electricity was back she explained it was good to be prepared for if something caused it to fail again. After that she had taught him how to handle a few of the more basic repairs; cleaning the solar panels, maintaining the generator and checking the septic tank to make sure it hadn’t gotten clogged. More recently she had started to teach him how to fight should things come to that.

“Do you know how to throw a punch?” She asked him abruptly while they cleaned up from the delicious venison stew Harper had cooked for them.

“I mean, yeah? You just kinda…” Jackson demonstrated by thrusting his arm outward in a haphazard punch before looking back.

“You’re standing wrong.” Harper’s critiques were honest, but never in the brutal sense he was accustomed to, as they always came with a suggestion of how to improve. “You’ve got to balance your weight between both feet so you can pivot. All the power in a punch comes from your legs and hips.”

“I thought it came from my fist.” Snark was like a second language to Jackson and since meeting Harper he had made it his mission to make her even chuckle slightly, he had yet to accomplish it but he was adamant that he one day would.

“That’s just what you hit with, but momentum is what makes it hurt.” She demonstrated by showing the way her legs were positioned and how she twisted her body with each punch; she had clearly picked up that Jackson was more of a visual learner.

After an evening of practice Jackson laid on the floor, his body sticky with sweat and his lungs on fire. Already he could feel the strain in his muscles and knew that tomorrow would be a fun challenge. Yet there was a small smile of satisfaction on his face. His father had always wanted him to learn to fight, but Jackson knew that was only so he could try and bring him into the business, learning from Harper felt like a small victory.

“We’ll practice a few more nights, then we should probably head into the city.”

“What?” Jackson’s voice cracked slightly in surprise as he sat up, whipping his head around so fast he felt a twinge of his neck muscle.

Harper looked up at him in confusion, as if she could not understand his surprise. “You told me that you would need to replace your reeds soon. The longer we wait the less likely we are to find any.”

“Well…I mean I guess but…do you think it’ll be safe?” Standing up he moved into the kitchen where she was and could now see that she had been putting together what looked to be very dense granola bars.

“There’s nowhere that’s really safe anymore, Jackson.” Her one visible eye met his and though she looked at him sternly he could see there was kindness in them as well. “But I’ll do my best to keep you so. Hence the punching practice.”

It was silent for the next few minutes, Jackson watched as Harper slowly wrapped the bars in the thin cloth that had once been a high quality sheet. Somehow the idea of venturing into the city was more terrifying to him than the looming alien apocalypse. Though it was where he had spent most of his life it had never truly felt like a home to him, something he attributed to the long shadow cast by his family name.

Jackson did his best to try and put the thoughts out of his mind. His family had likely gone elsewhere after all this time, or perhaps they were already…He shook the thought from his head focusing instead on the wrapping of the travel bars as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.

Everything was fine.

Everything was just fine.