[ WP ] You stumble across a computer in a postapocalyptic world .

`` Hey, Dad!!!! CHECK THIS OUT!!!!'' My pre-teen son yelled and shouted like an idiot from an other room, quickly and quietly I made my wall down the hall of the burnt out, decrepit high school worried that he'd draw the attention of someone or something nasty. 
 
 I found him sitting on a pile rubble going through a schoolbag, he had an old IPod in one hand and a weathered, battered looking laptop in the other. His crystal blue eyes shone with excitement, after the fall most electronics were without power and those that did work wore out fairly quickly. 
 
 I brought a finger to my lips and immediately he realized his mistake, I need n't say or do much else... He knew what could happen if we were found by the wrong people. I did n't hold much hope for the laptop, it'd probably been exposed to moisture and sunlight repeated, I could n't make out the brand name on the outer shell. The plastic had weathered severely and begun to flake. 
 
 Expectantly, my son pulled at my pack. He knew I had some juice in the battery I carried to charge my flashlight and to power a fire-starter I'd cobbled together with random bits and pieces liberated from toasters. 
 
 Sitting down beside him, I reluctantly indulged him by hooking up my battery-pack to a small inverter I kept in my backpack. I did n't really believe it would turn but when I hit the power button, it flickered to life. My son beamed, he'd only ever seen a working computer once before, an old commodore 64 that I pulled out of a long-term storage locker. It was a shame we could n't lug it and the TV it relied on with us but we had to pack light to stay mobile, because staying mobile means staying alive. 
 
 My son could n't have expected what happened next but then he was born long after the fall, he had n't seen what I'd seen... The terror, the horror, the pain! 
 
 I immediately draw my revolver and emptied my last six rounds straight into that old laptop as soon as I saw it come onto the screen after POST, each round splintering, smashing and tearing it to shreds. I had n't even bothered to unplug it and the last round hit the battery, causing it burst into flames as my son burst into tears. The plastic smoked, bubble and spat as it burned but I knew in my heart that I did the right thing. 
 
 My son stared at me speechless, his blue eyes pleading wordlessly in despair through a haze of tears; `` Why?'' 
 
 I answered him with one word and even though he had been born long after the fall of computers, he immediately understood why I did what I had did and quickly composed himself, wiping his tears away. 
 
 `` Dell.'' 
 

