They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 6

The next thing he remembered was looking up at the sun in the sky, it was half covered by the clouds and burnt his eyes as he watched it jump about. Then a face appeared, dark goggles covered its eyes, a bandana covered their mouth and nose and a thick mess of blonde hair flopped forwards over the goggles. Jason felt the air rush his lungs, dust-free and crisp, and then suddenly his common sense was coming back. He shook his shoulders and reached up, pushing at the person dragging him, who shook him off and continued, then he tried again, pushing harder this time at the person's arms. It didn't do anything and Jason's hand slid down his leg to the gun, only the gun wasn't there and the holster was open. He breathed in and out slowly and tried to blink the grit from his eyes as he reached deep into his pocket and pulled out the pocket knife. Flicking it open he held it to the person's neck. They paused and held up their hands, dropping him hard onto the concrete and stepping back. They muttered something indiscriminate then reached up and pulled down the bandana.

"Chill dude." They mumbled as Jason blinked at them, "Who are you?" Jason asked and his voice came out scratchy and deep. "I'm Tate." He replied, dropping his hands, taking off his goggles and crouching down over the top of him to examine him. "Stay back!" Jason yelled, thrusting the knife up at him and Tate retreated again, returning his hands to their upright surrender, "Where's Cassie?" Tate frowned then nodded as it seemed to come to him, he smiled and nodded, "Oh, yeah, I got her first." Jason swallowed the dirt in his throat and pushed himself to a sitting position, he kept his eyes on Tate the whole time as he got to his feet, swaying a little. "You're a monster!" He yelled, waving the knife round in front of himself, "What have you done to her?" He marched forwards, stumbling towards him with the knife ready.
"Whoa! Hey!" Tate cried back as he backed up onto the pavement, "I haven't done anything to her! You're a psycho, man!" Jason backed him against a wall, holding the knife against his throat as Tate breathed heavily. "Where the fuck is she?" He spat, pinning him there with his forearm. "She's in the car," Tate muttered, pointing towards his car. Jason held him there for a second longer then wheeled round and stormed towards the car, "Relax dude, I was just trying to help a fellow survivor." Tate grumbled as he rubbed his neck, as if ensuring it was still there.

Jason threw open the car door and breathed a sigh of relief to find that Cassie was, indeed, inside the car. He patted her arm gently, waiting for a response but nothing happened, her eyes were tightly glued shut. He turned back to glare at Tate, who was making his way over slowly but stopped at the menacing look Jason gave him. "Cass, come on, wake up." He mumbled as he patted her cheek. She stirred, bolting upright and clutching at his arm as she coughed, a mouthful of grey dirt and snot came up and Jason helped her up to a sitting position where she spat it out onto the road. She coughed a few more times then took several deep breaths while she looked sorrowfully at Jason. "I...I thought we were dead..." she breath as he rubbed her back, she kept her eyes focused past him as she collected herself, "Whose that?" Jason turned to see what she was looking at and found that Tate had come a few steps closer and was waving comedically with a goofy grin on his face. Jason rolled his eyes then addressed Cassie again, "That's Tate, somehow he's the one that saved us." He shook his head in disbelief.

"Tate, is it?" Cassie asked as Jason dusted himself off beside the car.
"Oh, me, yes mam." He took a step closer and she held up a hand to warn him to stay where he was.
"Where did you come from?" Jason chimed, as he patted down his sleeve.
"Uhhh, just north of here." He replied, smiling between the two of them.
"Where?" Jason grumbled.
"No clue, I just found the car there." He shrugged and Cassie reached out a hand to grab his arm, Tate appeared shocked and attempted to step back but she kept a grasp on him. "Thank you." He looked back at her, his face slack like he'd never heard the words before, then his face popped back into a goofy smile and he looked between the two of them. "No problem."
"Where are you heading Tate?" Jason asked, giving him a look like daggers.
"Uhh, anywhere I guess. You got any suggestions?"
"We're heading to the resting place." Cassie chimed, releasing his arm.
"Great, me too then." Jason looked at him in disdain, contemplating a number of possibilities for Tate's strange demeanour. He shared a look with Cassie then stared back at Tate. "You want to travel with us?" Jason asked sarcastically, referring to the events of the previous moments, where he'd attacked him with a knife. "Well, not you, you attacked me with a knife," Tate muttered, looking between the two of them as Cassie glared at Jason, "But her, yes, she seems nice." He smiled sweetly at her then looked back at him, "and if a feral dog happens to come with the sweet one then fine." Jason scowled at him angrily, then shook his head in disbelief.
"We get to keep the car after though." Jason stated, a condition of their company.
"Fine by me." Tate chirped then headed for the driver seat, he reached forwards, pulling it open by the handle but Jason reached out and slammed the door shut. He smiled triumphantly in Tate's face, "Oh, and I'm driving from now on." Tate shrugged silently and traipsed round to the passenger side, climbing in and slamming the door behind him. Jason rolled his eyes and climbed into the drivers seat.