They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 3

They slowed to an easier pace a way along the road and walked together, with one on either side of the white line. Jason examined his jacket, a small tear had appeared in the arm where it had caught on the glass and he ran his hand over it gently. "Looks like I'm gonna need to break out my sewing skills." He joked and Cassie turned to smile at him, running her own fingers over the rip.
"Its only a small tear, I can fix it right up when you take it off." They meandered slowly off of the road and into a thick forest of trees.
"Thanks." They fell back into silence, Jason looking up and examining the bushy canopy above them and Cassie taking in the thick tree trunks and twisted roots. "Do we have a map? Or know where we're going?" Cassie asked, suddenly aware that they had just bolted from the store in a random direction and kept going. "I don't have a map but I know roughly where we are going and besides I'm hoping to find one in an abandoned car." Jason explained as he crossed over to the edge of the road and began to kick at the dirt. He frowned then bent down to pick up the item he'd found then tossed it to Cassie. "A present for you." He mumbled as she caught the small plastic container.

She twisted it over in her hands, examining the date of manufacturing and chipped plastic lines that ran down its sides. "What is it?" She asked, watching Jason as he continued to kick through the dirt in search of more. "It's a round of bullets, only you don't usually find them on the floor like that, someone must've dropped them and by the looks of it, they only just dropped it." She tilted her head to the side to read an inscription on the side of the case, but the dirt had filled in the letters and made it hard to read. "Should we be worried?" She asked as Jason bent down to pick up a piece of scrap metal then threw it off to the side after determining it useless. "Me, absolutely. You, not so much." He turned back to her and smiled, a smug grin that reminded Cassie of his younger self. "Why should you be worried and not me?" She quizzed, catching up with him after falling behind. "Because you're going to be shooting the gun and I'm going to be the one it hits if you go wrong."

Cassie stood with her feet wide apart and Jason's pistol clutched tightly between her hands, "Like this?" She asked and Jason sidled up beside her to adjust her hands a little bit. "Perfect." He chimed and smiled at her ability to quickly pick things up, "Now we've just got to work on your aim." He gently put his arms around her shoulders, standing with his own feet apart and looking over her shoulder towards his makeshift target. Carefully he cupped her hands with his and guided her to the right direction. "You see that can over there, aim round about there." But Cassie was hardly hearing what he was saying because her whole body had been caught off guard by his sudden proximity. She was suddenly very aware of the rate her breaths moving in and out of her body and butterflies danced in her stomach, she wanted nothing more than to turn back and kiss him, but she didn't, instead she readjusted her stance and concentrated on the gun.

"Alright, whenever you're ready." Jason announced, moving away from her to stand back. Cassie felt the overwhelming emptiness of the space now that they were apart and took a minute to just breath, steadying the gun then closing her eyes and pulling the trigger. The gun gave out a loud bang and recoiled back into her wrist, she cried out in pain and dropped the pistol, the bullet hitting a tree far away from the tin target. Jason rushed over, completely ignoring his gun and instead grabbing her wrist. His silky brown eyes examined the damage then moved up to look into her eyes. "Are you alright?" He asked, concern spreading across his face. She nodded, unable to get her words out from the shock of the pistol firing. He seemed to sigh in relief then went for the gun, ducking down and picking it up. He held it out towards her, watching her expectantly as she reached over and took it off of him. "Again?" He asked and she nodded, finally getting her breath back.
"Yeah, again."

They practised until Cassie was nearly through a whole round of bullets then set off again, wandering up the concrete road. Jason had reclaimed the gun, tucking it away on his belt and had fished out a tin of canned corn. He used the pocket knife to open it then offered it to Cassie. "Are you hungry?" He asked and she nodded in response, drawing the fork from her bag again and taking the can from him.
"Do we need to share it?" She asked as she scooped up a few corn kernels.
"No, I don't think so. I have a few different options in my bag and we should be able to collect more in the next town we get to." He pulled another tin out of his bag, this one being a mix of vegetables ranging from green beans to broccoli. He put the knife away into the hilt of the pocket knife and pulled a spoon from the other end. "Oh, its one of the multi-use ones!" Cassie exclaimed through a mouthful of corn and Jason raised his eyebrows, surprised at her sudden excitement, "My dad had one, it had a screwdriver and a bottle opener too. He would use it to open his beers." She laughed to herself but her demeanour became sorrowful and her eyes started to water as if she was on the verge of tears. "What...what happened?" Jason asked, scooping some vegetables from his tin, "Where are you're folks?" Cassie swallowed hard, dropping the fork into her tin with a clang. "They, um, they had it and, uh, they tried to protect me." Jason could tell she was holding in her tears and he nodded in understanding, swallowing his mouthful of food and opening his mouth to speak, "I'm sorry, my dad had it too, grandpa was lucky he didn't get to see what happened. He passed just before. Natural causes." Cassie took another mouthful of her food, chewing pensively then looking over at Jason. "Aren't you scared?" She asked, tilting her can and raking up the corn at the bottom.
"Of what?"
"It happening to you. If they evolved up, there's no saying that we won't do the same."
"Cass?"
"What?"
"It hasn't happened yet. There's no telling what's to come but I'm not afraid, I have faith that we're gonna be fine." He smiled as he crammed another heaped spoonful into his mouth.
"Yeah." She murmured, dropping her fork into the empty can and reaching up to hold her shoulders.

"A car!" Jason cried, pointing up ahead as Cassie looked off into the woods, she whipped her head into the direction he was pointing and saw the outline of a shape. "How do you know?" She asked, squinting through the darkness. It had suddenly become night time very fast and the cold was slowly creeping in, she could feel her whole body beginning to tremble. "I recognise the shape." Before he'd finished talking he broke into a run, jogging towards the car with a newfound excitement. Cassie looked back into the forest as Jason pulled ahead and, worried by the noises that had started up, decided to break out into a run to catch up. When she caught him Jason had already reached the car and was looking in through the window excitedly. "Cass, look." He cried, pointing into the passenger seat where a map had been left behind in a panic. He grabbed the handle of the passenger side and pulled but it didn't budge, the door had seized up due to being out in the forest for a prolonged period of time.

Jason moved round to the back of the car, peering in through the back windows and Cassie watched as his face lit up with hope. "They left behind a blanket." He whispered, almost as if he didn't believe what he was seeing. A smile burst onto his face and he tried again to get in to the car, this time pulling at the back door handle. Nothing happened, it squealed but didn't open. He threw his head back in despair, clutching at his hair with both hands and staring at the sky. Cassie took her time working round to the drivers door, she tried the handle and it produced the same result as Jason's doors. She tried the back handle and it was frozen shut. "We've got to get in this car, Cass. If we don't, those noises you've been hearing aren't gonna be noises anymore." Fear suddenly engulfed her body and she cursed whatever twisted fate had led them to be able to see inside of this safe haven, but not get in. "Maybe we can try the boot." She asked and Jason nodded, crossing to the back and pressing in the cars logo, the boot shot open, revealing a collection of jump wires, rope and plastic bottles. Jason let out a laugh and Cassie realised that his whole body had begun to shake with the cold.

"Come on." He mumbled, gesturing for her to join him at the back. He reached in and pulled a handle that opened the panel in the middle of the back seats. They finally had a way in, Jason went first, climbing into the boot and attempting to push his whole body through the space. His shoulders caught on the edges of the panel and soon enough he reversed back out of the space. "I can't fit." He explained and she felt a lump form in her throat, tears were threatening to spill over and stinging at her eyes. "You have to try." He said as he moved more of the rope out of the way, "Come on." She nodded and slipped her bag over her head, handing it cautiously to Jason to hold then climbing into the boot. She pushed her head through first then wriggled the rest of her body into the car, she smiled triumphantly as she examined the interior, the map lay sideways on the passenger side seat, there was blood smeared across the top of the steering wheel and the blanket was in the footwell behind the passenger seat. "Right, now you see that lever on top of the back seats?" Jason asked, pointing towards it and Cassie located it quickly, hooking her fingers over it, "Yep, got it." She moved back and pulled, two of the sets collapsed and Jason appeared, dragging Cassie's bag with him. She moved over to the remaining seat that was upright as Jason squashed past, putting his feet in the footwell on the blanket then leaning back so he could push the seats back up to an upright position. He flopped back down onto them and stretched his arm through the hatch Cassie had gotten in through, he managed to reach the lever to the boot and pull it shut then put the hatch back up so that they had more room on the seats. Cassie sat on one end and Jason sat on the other, they shared the blanket between them, throwing it over their legs then resolved to wait for the sun to come up the next morning.