They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 9

They successfully traversed the middle of the town, easily avoiding the rocky landscape and emerging on the far side to a new sort of road, one with a gravel surface and no concrete. It led up into a mountain and seemed to circle round until it eventually disappeared over the ridge at the top. Jason studied it carefully, noting that there was snow settling at the top then looked over at Tate and Cassie's clothing, neither of them were wearing particularly thick clothes compared to his but it would have to do. "Do we have to go up?" Tate asked, dragging his feet along the floor as Jason pushed ahead and Cassie limped after him, "Yes, if we want to reach the resting place." She replied, taking longer strides than her previous ones. "Can I at least have some food?" Tate complained, slinging the shotgun onto his back using the strap it had attached to it, "I'm starving." Jason pulled a tin out of his bag silently and tossed it at Tate. He fumbled with it in an attempt to catch it then it hit the floor and started rolling. He chased after it, eventually grabbing ahold of it and turning back to the others. They were now further ahead and disappearing around the curve in the mountain. "Not cool man!" Tate yelled after them, then jogged to catch up, when he did he held out the tin of food to Jason. "You don't want it?" He asked, offering to take the food back off of him.
"Nah man, I can't open it." Jason produced his pocket knife, stabbing a hole then peeling the lid back with it. He handed the tin back to Tate then focused on the climb ahead. "Do you at least have something I can eat it with?" He whined, trailing after Jason and staring into his tin of peaches. "Nope." Jason called back and Tate stopped, his face contorting as Cassie passed by.
"I suggest you use your hands." She muttered, watching where she placed her good foot and dragging her bad one behind her. Tate scooped a peach from the tin, juice running down his hand and slurped it into his mouth, he chewed a couple times then swallowed its rough flesh. "Ew, how old are these things!" He cried, starting to walk after them again.
"If you're hungry, you'll eat anything." Jason yelled back, his foot slipping a little on some pebbles, "Watch your step here." He called back, turning to check on the others, "It gets rocky."

They walked for what Tate thought was hours, the sun went down and the air dropped chilly, a bitter wind blew past and threatened hypothermia. Cassie fetched the blanket out of her satchel and folded it around her, pulling it tighter around her shoulders as she walked, Jason zipped up his leather jacket and pulled up his hood and Tate shivered repeatedly. He fell behind no matter how fast he walked or how ever many times he caught up with them. The clouds had turned grey and lingered above, threatening to spit down on them. A few drops of water landed on Tate's nose and he looked up, watching the flashes of bright lightning lace their way through the clouds. "Uh, guys...." He mumbled but they didn't hear, they had pulled too far ahead. "Jason!" He yelled, the vibrations from his voice bouncing off of the mountain walls and echoing back. Jason turned to look at him and gave him a look that said he was done with his crap, Tate pointed up and watched as Cassie bent her head back to see. "It's going to storm soon." There was a moment of silence as Jason considered what they were going to do.
"And what do you expect me to do about it Tate?" He asked, storming back towards him so that they were face to face, "Huh?"
"There was a cave about a hundred metres back, we co-"
"We're not going back!" Jason yelled, pushing Tate backwards, he stumbled, sliding a little on the pebbles, "You've been holding us back all day!" His face was contorted in rage and his hair had folded flat on his head and stayed like it. The rain started to pour, soaking through all of their clothes and slicking down their hair. "I'm sick of you Tate!" Jason shouted as he pushed Tate again. He took the first two blows then planted his foot firmly, swinging his fist back and punching Jason square in the face. "You don't like me and because of that you're being shit to me! But you can fuck right off!" Jason stood silently still, staring down at the ground in violent rage.
"I'm gonna kill you!" He screamed, throwing himself at Tate. Cassie tried to grab ahold of either of them as they traded blows but she kept getting push away as they inched closer to the edge of the road. Tate tried to fight back, swinging blindly at Jason but mostly missing while Jason landed almost every punch he swung. He grabbed Tate's shirt collar and gripped it in his fist as he pushed him back and held him over the edge of the mountain. Tate's feet slipped around helplessly in the mud, terror plastered across his bloody face as he clutched at Jason's arm. Cassie dropped to her knees and screamed, a blood curdling screech that caused Jason to drop Tate and cover his ears. Tate hit the edge of the path and scrambled back away from the sheer drop down the side, panting and sniffing as he tried to recover. "This is not the time for fighting!" Cassie cried, trying to tug the soaked blanket closer around herself, she was shaking violently, "It's cold and if we don't find shelter soon we're all going to die anyway! don't you see the lightning!" Jason looked down at the ground, ashamed but still fuming over Tate. "We....we're going back." Cassie mumbled as she got to her feet, "there's no telling when the next cave will be or even if there will be one. We're not taking that risk." Jason felt the betrayal in his heart as she sided with Tate, watched as she offered him a hand up to his feet then as they headed back down the mountain. "Fine." He grumbled, shuffling after them.