The Booms: Volume 2: SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

The Booms Volume 2 J.B Copyright Copyright © 2022 by J.B Artwork by Revujo All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for brief quotations, without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or locations is entirely coincidental. Contents 1. CHAPTER 1 2. CHAPTER 2 3. CHAPTER 3 4. CHAPTER 4 5. CHAPTER 5 6. CHAPTER 6 7. CHAPTER 7 8. CHAPTER 8 9. CHAPTER 9 10. CHAPTER 10 11. CHAPTER 11 12. CHAPTER 12 13. CHAPTER 13 14. CHAPTER 14 15. CHAPTER 15 16. CHAPTER 16 17. CHAPTER 17 18. CHAPTER 18 19. CHAPTER 19 20. CHAPTER 20 21. CHAPTER 21 22. CHAPTER 22 23. CHAPTER 23 24. CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 1 Nub flipped the checker in his palm, then pocketed it, rubbing his stump over sweaty black curls, watching the patchwork sail in the distance. Through bendy kelp blades, a bubble of dust hung, sticky, around two ships before eventually smoothing out to blend into the solid Booms rock. The whole picture made it seem the ships were sinking. Swallowed up by the oily mud, soon to be gone forever. And it was just about true, anyways. Patch had tipped. Welp. There wouldn’t ever be a better time to leave than now. Never. They were loading the smaller shelter up with people, mostly hurt. Carrying tents and other useful things, getting ready to take ‘em all to some nearby pantry. Too much was going on for anyone to spend much time caring about where Nub had gone. Not that they would, anyway. It was the Booms. People came and went and then came again, before, well, you know. But still, he tried not to think too much about the gang. They wouldn’t never act like they’d miss him, but he knew they would. A bit. Small, funny, Nub, with his nub arm, crushed many years ago on a dare to see who’d put a finger under Patch’s big magnets. He put his whole hand in because no one would ever outdo him. It made a lot of sense at the time, though it wasn’t his best moment, truth be told. But there was always something good to take from bad, always. After all that, they all knew not to test him. He wasn’t scared of nothing. Proved it every day with that nub. Yeah, they’d miss him a little. If only that they wouldn’t have nothing to make fun of, or no one to look up to. And with his nub an all, they’d need him for the next rumble that was coming. Nub did feel kinda bad about abandoning ‘em before all that. Just last week, the Scabs slipped some cave doo under Packet's pillow. Said he woke up with the stuff in his hair, and it was true enough, though Nub wasn’t about to feel it, to be sure. And since they weren’t near a river, there was no way he could bathe it out, neither. Packet was convinced he’d never get the smell outta his nose now. So revenge was coming, and Twig organized like he always did. As far as Nub knew, they’d been planning to spray at least four tents. Five if they could figure out when Peanut's mom ever left hers. Put a little howler piss in it; you’d have glow gnats for weeks. It woulda been a good laugh. If Cricket hadn’t died, they’d already have gotten that laugh. Not that he was blaming her for dying an all that. It happened sometimes. Nub needed to remember none of that mattered too much now. Patch was all sortsa messed up. Tents now on the wall like pointy pictures. Rumbles were gunna become things to remember, instead of needing to be planned. Didn’t have to be a genius to figure that one. Yeah, it all seemed like child's play compared with before. Now, maybe the gang would split up. That would prolly happen. No way they’d all go to the same home. No way. New shelters never liked taking big cliques of Floaters, and kids were especially dangerous to have around, particularly those like Nub, who didn’t have parents people wanted either. But new things were cool too. They would miss him a little, but not too much. Not for too long. Not with everything going on. They’d find new friends, someone else to admire; those guys made friends easy, and never ran outta jokes. His parents, though? Nah, they wouldn’t miss him, not even a little. Dad prolly wouldn’t even know he was gone for a few months at least, and only if someone told him. And that person wouldn’t be Mom, neither. Mom had been wanting him gone from the moment he was born. Never really liked him; decided that a bit too late as he was already here. Well, now she’d finally get her wish. He was going, and if he had the choice, there was no chance he was coming back anytime soon. Nub definitely knew he was gonna find something none of ‘em would believe. Maybe when he was way older, he’d happen upon ‘em in passing and gloat a bit. It was somethin’ to look forward to, so he supposed he would. Nub put his good right hand in his pocket and kept walking, kicking at some loose rocks, trynna avoid getting slapped by the heavy waving kelp blades. His fingers toyed with an object kept safe in his pocket. He snuck a look around himself, though there’d be no chance anyone was near, and pulled it back out. It was a round, plastic checkers piece, whiteish in color, about the size of