Handyman

"Handyman" by Frank Banta is a science fiction story set in a post-apocalyptic world where James Ypsilanti lives within a desolate, prison-like environment, struggling to survive in a world where war has turned everything upside down. The story looks at how people survive and the strangeness of life when normal ways of living are gone. As James faces his bizarre situation, he breaks apart his own door for heat because nothing works right, and the only other being he finds is a robot carpenter, showing just how alone he is. He thinks back to what things used to be while stuck in a routine of wrecking and feeling hopeless. This story mixes dark jokes with sad thoughts about being alone and what it means to keep going when things are so bad.