Till Death Do Us Part

“Do you think if we’d met before the world went to shit, we’d be together?”

Claude raised his axe up over his shoulders and swung down on the corpse’s hand.

“I can’t say for sure. If it weren’t for all of this, we’d have never met. So in a way, I’m glad.”

He picked up the dismembered hand by index finger to let the blood dribble out of the wrist. Claude examined the rings on the hand, studying the size, shape, and style. He deemed the ring too big before tossing the hand back to its corpse and moving on to another nearby body.

He’d propose to her today. Claude already knew that much. But he wanted to give her something special, something meaningful. A beautiful thing in a destroyed world. Claude slid a hand into his jacket pocket to make sure the rings hadn’t fallen out. Yesterday he’d found the wedding rings they would wear, and all that was left to find was the engagement ring. He had to find it today; something in the air told him that he had to hurry.

Claude made quick work of the other corpses that were around. He cut their hands off with ease and examined the rings. If it seemed suitable, he tugged the ring off the hand and dropped it into his backpack, and if they were unsatisfactory, he moved on and kept going. The scent of blood began to linger on Claude’s clothes, and he began to worry he wouldn’t find something. He had backups, sure, but he hadn’t found the right one.

As he moved through the trashed and mostly-deserted downtown Reno area, Claude swung his axe back and forth. It had been six long months since the first bombs dropped, and they had been devastating. He was lucky to have made it out alive at all, saved by a young woman his age who had managed to pull him out from a collapsed building.  And here he was, alive and about to propose to the love of his life, that same woman who saved him. His lips, chapped from dehydration, turned up into a small smile. 

Claude spotted a few bodies slumped against the side of an abandoned pawn shop and instantly whacked against their hands. Instantly he noticed the long, colored nails of the hand he had dismembered: a good sign. The hand bore a gold ring with round white diamond, several smaller stones surrounding it. It reminded him of a freshly bloomed flower, or perhaps the rising sun. It was perfect.

Grinning, Claude yanked the ring off of the hand and polished it with the hem of his shirt. He made it back towards his base, reciting his proposal speech in his head.

Meanwhile, back at the base, Mira was pacing back and forth across their room, gnawing at her fingernails. Claude was nowhere to be found when she woke up that morning, and it was already early evening She glanced nervously at the plate of roasted mushrooms and pine nuts that she’d prepared for him, long gone cold. Suddenly, Mira spotted a familiar tall silhouette. She ran out to him, arms outstretched. “Claude!” she cried, holding him tight, not noticing his blood-caked fingers. Mira pulled away and looked up.  “Where were you?” she asked. 

Claude planted a soft kiss on Mira’s head. “I went out looking for something. It took a little longer than I expected.”

Mira stood, unsure of what she heard. “Is...is that all you’re going to say?” 

“What are you talking about?” Claude tilted his head.

“We missed the train, bub. That was our chance to get out of here!” At Claude’s blank expression, Mira’s face fell. “You...you didn’t forget, did you?”

Claude shrugged.

“The last train out of Reno left the station this morning. We’re never going to make it out alive.” Mira turned around, not bearing to look at him any longer. “What were you doing that was more important than our survival?”

At that, Claude gulped. He averted his eyes from Mira, digging through his backpack for the ring. He didn’t imagine it would happen like this. No, it was supposed to be at the beach, as the two of them held hands and walked along the sandy shore with the waves lapping at their feet. It was supposed to be on a cliff overlooking the sea, or a fancy restaurant, or anything. Anywhere but here and now. 

“I was looking for this,” he announced, his voice a little louder than normal. Mira raised an eyebrow, watching him as he knelt to the ground and held out a ring.

It took Mira a moment to realize what was going on. “W...What?”

“Mira,” Claude began, finally looking up at her, “despite the odds, we’ve survived this long. We’ve stuck together through so many hardships, so much suffering. Being with you is the reason I keep going every day. Will you…” he took a deep breath, unsure whether the words were willing to leave his mouth, “will you make me the happiest man in this godforsaken world? Will you marry me?”

She didn’t answer for a moment. She just looked back and forth from the ring, to Claude, to the ring again. Claude held his breath as Mira reached out a hand, running a finger over the ring. “Bub…” she whispered under her breath. 

“Is...is that a yes?”

“Well...yes, I suppose…” Mira said softly, thinking. “But, Claude, don’t you see? We’re dead. What’s the point of being married now?”

His heart dropped down to his stomach. He didn’t dare respond.

“We’d only be married for, what? A day? Maybe two? A few hours, even? Why does that even matter?”

Claude blinked. “I just thought...you know...it would be nice if we were…”

“What’s it to you now, Claude?” Mira couldn’t help but say. 

With that, she broke away from him and ran back inside. Claude just took a seat right outside their base, confused, hurt, and scared. In a perfect world it wouldn’t have happened like this. There would be no fight for survival. There would be no worries. There would be no bombs. But they didn’t live in a perfect world. He turned on the radio, the one he had found a while back as they were passing through Vegas and flipped through the stations as he stared off into the horizon, feeling empty without Mira next to him. Perhaps this was all a big mistake. Maybe he had doomed them both, just for a last-ditch effort to make their life meaningful.

-----

The next day, Claude found Mira outside, examining a long white garment that she’d hung on a clothesline. “Hey,” he said quietly. “What’s that?”

“I went out looking for a dress,” Mira said, brushing something off of the skirt of the dress. “I figured I’d need one.”

“Where the hell did you find it?”

Mira looked at him, a glint in her eye. “Oh, just someone passing by. I gave them the train tickets in exchange for the dress. I ran off before they realized they were useless.”

Claude nodded. “A...About last night…”

“Yeah?” Mira said, putting down the dress.

“I’m...I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have left you behind just some silly little ring. It’s my fault we’re stuck here.  I’m sorry.”

She put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s...well, I understand, I guess.” 

Claude couldn’t shake the guilt from his system. This whole time, Mira had put their safety before anything else, and he completely blew it. “Maybe another train is gonna depart from the station,” he suggested, trying to be hopeful, “or maybe we can hitch a ride, maybe we can--”

Mira interrupted Claude with a kiss. “They’re likely too far gone now,” she said after pulling away. “It’s no use.”

“What now, then?”

She motioned to the campfire, and as Claude walked on over, Mira sat down across from him. “So, since you proposed to me and all…”

“Mhm?”

“When did you want the wedding to be?”

“...to be honest, I didn’t think I’d get this far,” Claude admitted, taking a bite of the food Mira had made. “I was going to plan the wedding after the proposal. But...but we’re by ourselves now...we don’t have anyone to preside over the wedding…”

“Dear,” Mira said, reaching out a hand to hold Claude’s, “we don’t need anyone else to acknowledge that we’re married. Only us.” She looked up at his eyes, determined. “Do you have something nice to wear?”

“Uh...I have those black jeans...and the button up from Goodwill...” 

“Good.” Mira gave Claude’s hands a squeeze. “Let’s do the ceremony tonight. At sunset! We can think of our vows throughout the day.”

Claude chuckled. “Sure,” he said, kissing Mira’s hand. “Whatever you’d like.”

Later that evening, Claude stood up straight, nervously adjusting the leather jacket that he’d plucked off of a corpse a month ago. What if he screwed this up somehow?  After everything had happened, Mira was all he had, all he was able to hang onto. Claude blew out a breath, fiddling with the wedding rings in the pocket of his jeans. 

Suddenly, a tap on the shoulder snapped Claude out of his daze. He turned around and instantly their jaw dropped.

Mira was staring back at him, all dolled up in her dress. She had managed to get a few stains out of the off-white fabric, and she’d smoothed out all the wrinkles. The dress was a little bit too big, though; the skirt trailed on the floor and the hem quickly was crusted with dirt. Her hair fell across her back in a braid, adorned with dandelions. She held a small, scrawny bouquet of dandelions, daisies, and daffodils, the only flowers she could find in such a harsh environment. 

“Hi, gorgeous,” Mira whispered with a smile, giving him a gentle hug.

Claude squeezed tighter. “You look amazing.” They looked up and down at each other, eyes glimmering with love and a sense of disbelief. 

“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this,” Mira said, glancing down at her ring. 

“Neither can I.” Claude turned on the radio and flipped through the stations until he landed on one playing a slow song. A jazzy tune crackled through the radio and held out a hand. “Shall we?” 

Mira giggled as she took Claude’s hands. “Aren’t we supposed to do our vows before getting our party on?” she laughed a bit.

Claude shrugged. “Well, this isn’t exactly a normal wedding, is it?” 

“No, I suppose not.” Mira nuzzled her face into Claude’s button up shirt. “I can’t imagine it any other way.”

“Ah, that makes one of us, then,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

They began to dance, not in any particular fancy way. Just holding each other, stepping and swaying in time to the music. “I always imagined...I always wanted us to be normal. I wanted us to live a normal life--” Claude spun Mira around, making her dress kick up dirt around them, “--not one where we have to fight to survive.”

“I’ve told you before, bub, it’s not worth it to think about stuff like that. We can’t change what we have. We just have to deal with it.”

Claude sighed. “I-I know. I just can’t help but think of it sometimes.” He held Mira’s face gently, looking into her eyes. “I can’t help but think we deserve better than what we have.”

“I know.” Mira rubbed her lover’s back as they held each other. “At least we have each other.”

“Of course.” He let go of her for just a moment to slide the golden bands out of his pocket. “May I?” he asked. 

Mira nodded, holding out her left hand. She let her husband slide the ring onto her finger, and in turn Mira fitted Claude’s ring onto his hand. 

Suddenly the crackled jazz was cut short by a series of loud beeps. The couple stopped their dance as an urgent message blared over the radio.

“A nuclear bomb will be dropping in the Reno area very soon. Take cover and protect your head and eyes. This is not a drill.”

Mira looked up at Claude, fear in her eyes. “It’s coming. It’s really coming.” She looked around, left, right, all around. “It’s too late, we’re never going to make it out of here before it reaches us!”

Claude looked down, then steeled his gaze. He grabbed Mira’s hands tightly and said, “The vows. Let’s say our vows.”

“But, Claude…!” 

He closed his eyes and touched foreheads with his bride. “Mira, you are the love of my life. I am so honored to be with you here, no matter what happens. If nothing else, I’m grateful to have loved you and continue to do so.” 

She winced, tears welling up in her eyes.

The jazz resumed playing, but it felt different. It sounded almost...uneasy. Like even it knew something was about to happen.

“And I promise to love you, to cherish you, to hold you closely in my heart, for as long as I live.”

“S-So will I…” Mira sniffled.

“Your turn, hon. Go quick. We don’t have much time.”

“O-Ok…” Mira wiped her eyes and looked up at her groom. “I’m so lucky to call you mine. You’ve given me a reason to keep living when all hope is lost. We both have been doing our best to survive. That’s what we wanted. I wish…” she choked out a sob, “I wish we had more time. Even now, I’m scared…” she paused to let hot tears stream down her cheeks. “I’m so scared. But I’m with you. I am and always will be with you, and that’s all that matters.”

The air went still. The swanky jazz fizzled to a stop. A low rumble from the horizon made both Mira and Claude squeeze their eyes shut.

“And I promise to love you, till death do us part.”