They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 5

He dug a flashlight from his bag, clicking it on as he progressed further into the store. Listening for any signs of life he lifted his torch to shine it on the signs that hung above the aisles. He skulked through the rows of empty shelves, looking for the sign he needed when something moved in front of him. He drew his torch down slowly, illuminating a joyous with half of its jaw hanging off, it stood there silently, unmoving. Jason kept his eyes on the joyous, shuffling sideways as he did until he was out of sight of the creature. Footsteps started up, heading in the opposite direction and he let out the breath he was holding as the joyous moved away. He edged backwards slowly, keeping the end of the aisle illuminated with the flashlight and holding a cautious hand out backwards. He hit the wall, feeling it's bumpy surface with his open palm. Quickly, he turned the flashlight to the sign and found the one he needed, heading further into the store in complete silence.

The footsteps of the joyous got closer, echoing from the walls. Jason reached out to the shelves, running his hand down it then shining his light onto a completely empty shelf. He bunched his fingers into a fist and punched the air in frustration then slowly started out towards the window. His foot caught on something, a wire across the floor and he froze completely still as a bell jingled somewhere on the ceiling above him. The footsteps that had been getting closer grew more frequent, the joyous grunting as it ran towards the noise. Jason unhooked his foot and ran, leaping the trip wire and sprinting through the aisles, his flashlight flew up and down, illuminating rubble and trapped supplies on the floor. He skidded to a halt, bracing himself and attempting to lift the rubble, he grunted with the effort and heard the footsteps change direction and head towards him. It lifted a little but not enough to slide the supplies out from underneath. He tried again, footsteps coming down towards the aisle, his face scrunched up and torn as to what he should do. The joyous screeched just behind him and he dropped the rubble, taking off as fast as he could and sprinting for the light coming through the window. He made it to the scatter of broken glass across the floor where he had thrown the brick in and hopped through into the outside.

As his feet touched down as the ground started to shake, throwing him sideways. He caught himself, looking over to find Cassie already on her feet but struggling to stay upright. "We need to go!" He cried over the cracking that was coming from the nearby buildings. Jason's feet tripped over one another as he tried to make his way across to Cassie, arm out towards her in an attempt to lead her to safety. He tried desperately to walk in a straight line but instead wiggled his way over to her where he had her arms out, trying to stay upright. "Cassie! We have to go!" He cried again and she looked up at him fearfully. He nodded at her encouragingly and held his hand further out for her. She grabbed it, clinging on to him as she attempted to traverse the splitting pavement.

Cracks emerged in the road and started to slide upwards. "Shit!" Jason yelled, tipping sideways as his side of the pavement started to sink. He pushed himself up, climbing the slope onto the flat pieces then started forwards as the building above them began to shift. "Run." He yelled, pulling Cassie after him as he tried to avoid the cracks at high speed. She attempted to keep up, stepping as fast as she could around sinking concrete but missed a piece and her foot sunk. Jason's hand pulled from hers and she hit the floor hard, clawing at the closest piece of road, she gritted her teeth with the effort as Jason turned back and grabbed her arms, he pulled with all his strength while she twisted her foot and luckily the ground moved just enough to free her. She clambered  to her feet, wincing in pain every time she put weight on her ankle then limped after Jason. He took her hand again and set off quickly, only for Cassie to cry out in pain. He turned back, seemingly hurt too by her cries and just as quickly as she was standing Cassie was sitting, her legs over one of Jason's arms and her back on the other. His eyes moved wildly as he kept track of the moving ground and sprinted down the Main Street. His lungs burnt, his legs stung and his feet ached but he could run for miles.

A deafening crack sounded beside them and one of the buildings began to slide, its whole top layer breaking lose and dive bombing towards them. Jason's legs pushed faster and harder than they ever had before, he was at his breaking limit as they shot out from beneath it and kept going. For a split second Jason thought he heard a car horn sounding in the distance but he put it down to exhaustion until a silver car shot out of the rubble and skidded to a stop, swerving round them and crashing into a lamp post sideways. The post fell down as Jason came to a stop and dust blew up around them from the collapse of the building behind.

Jason felt his lungs fill with dust and started to cough, his eyes stung with the grit that was going into them and he dropped to his knees. He heard Cassie coughing too and placed her on the floor as carefully as he could. She let go of his shoulder and disappeared. He felt around on the floor in front of him, panic taking over when he couldn't feel her, he bent over double as his coughing got worse and he felt as though he was suffocating. His vision blurred, grey shifting into a marbled effect and then hands grabbed his shoulders and yanked him backwards.