Far Enough Away (Young Toughs: Atompunk) - Young Toughs: Atompunk
Dusk Peterson
Publisher: Love in Dark Settings Press
Summary
"He came down the mountain one early summer afternoon, toward the end of what had not yet been dubbed the Hydrogen War. He was just in time to catch the climax of the war." He knew he wasn't normal. Now he must save others who have been left behind. For two years, since his parents left for the west coast of the continent, Phillip Schafer has lived in a mountain home, as far as he can get from society. But when the loss of his beloved companion forces him out of his refuge, he finds that the world is on the cusp of change. And he may be one of the few people left who is able to outrace that change. Accompanied by two unusual allies, Phillip must escape from his nation before disaster strikes. But with no jet-car, he must somehow reach the skyport before the last rocket blasts off. . . . It is a time of jet-cars, Astroware parties, and microfiche newspapers. It is our future as it was envisioned in the 1950s and 1960s. This retrofuturistic short story of disability and friendship can be read on its own or as part of the "Atompunk" volume of Young Toughs, an alternate history series about the struggles of youths in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Young Toughs is part of Turn-of-the-Century Toughs, a cycle of alternate history series (Young Toughs, Waterman, Life Prison, Commando, Michael's House, The Eternal Dungeon, and Dark Light) about adults and youths on the margins of society, and the people who love them. Set in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the novels and stories take place in an alternative version of America that was settled by inhabitants of the Old World in ancient times. As a result, the New World retains certain classical and medieval customs.