They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 13

By the time they properly caught up with him, he'd reached the edge of the town. He scrubbed at his eyes, picking out some grit from sleep then stopped in the middle of the road. "Hey." He mumbled, then turned back to look at the others, he hovered there for a second then turned back and took in a deep breath, "Hey!" He yelled and listened as it echoed back to him from the buildings surrounding. Jason ran over, angrily holding a finger to his lips to silence him. "Tate! I swear to god, you're gonna get us killed!" he snapped then Tate turned back to look at him, huge grey bags under his eyes. "Isn't it weird how we haven't seen hardly any joyous?" He paused to look around the town, "I mean this place is deserted and the only one we saw was in that corn maise." He turned to stare at Jason, his blue eyes piercingly focused. "Why was it in the corn maise? What was it hiding from?" Tate asked. Jason's brow furrowed and he looked back at Cassie, who waited patiently for them to stop talking so that could move on, she was just out of earshot so she couldn't hear exactly what they were discussing. Jason whirled round, examining the buildings, they looked run down and some of them were even cracked but the damage didn't seem to extend much further than that. "This place..." he started but couldn't find the exact way he wanted to phrase it, "They haven't been gone for long."

They explored the town, splitting into three separate searching parties in hopes of catching a clue as to where they might've gone. Tate searched a store, finding shelves of abandoned food and medical supplies. He rummaged around in the shelves with the end of his gun, looking for something like mice that would show the food had been stood for a while but there seemed to be no creatures around at all. He got a bad feeling about the place inside of him, leaving the shop and entering back out into the sunlight. On the other hand Jason had spread out and found a house that had been left unlocked, inside he found a small hallway with a kitchen at the end and a dining room where a meal still stood half eaten on the table. He filled his water bottle from the tap while he was in there, sipping it slowly then his face contorted and he looked down into the water. It was clear and seemed otherwise ok to drink except for the horrific taste, Jason thought it tasted like something had crawled into the water tank and died. He tipped it away, securing the lid on the now empty again water bottle and went upstairs to explore. All the doors were open and he skulked in and out as quickly as he could, stopping only once to stare at a room that was different to the rest. It had pink things and fairies everywhere and a tiny bed for a child. He found himself, pushing the door further open and going inside, toys were strewn across the floor still but the bed was freshly made. He took a seat in the middle and a cloud of dust shot up into the air. "What happened to you?" He asked sombrely, catching a glimpse of what must've been her favourite dolly lying contorted on the floor. Cassie, in the meantime, had found her way into the town hall, papers littered the floor and the desks and chairs were overturned, a shadow of the society that once inhabited it. She ran her hand along the top of a desk, dust clinging thickly to her fingers as she drew them away. Her vision started to blur again and something sharp in her stomach caused her to double over, she grabbed the edge of the desk to stabilise herself, closing her eyes to try and stop the world from swaying but she realised as she did that it was her that was moving, side to side uncontrollably. Her shoulder throbbed, filling her ears with a deep thrumming as she tried to stumble further into the building. A sudden bought of nausea came over her and she rushed forwards, clutching at the waste paper basket in the corner and throwing her guts up. She sat, slumping back against the wall and shaking as she breathed out, her eyes were closed and sweat beaded on her forehead. "I have to get this under control." She whispered, opening her eyes and discovering that her vision was better and she wasn't swaying as much. She looked down into the waste paper basket as she was about to put it back in the floor beside her and drew a hand to her mouth in shock. She trembled then quickly swiped at her lips with her shirt sleeve, it came away bloody and she sighed sorrowfully. Her head went back to lean against the wall again and she closed her eyes to keep the tears from coming before taking a deep breath, collecting herself then getting back to her feet. She staggered down the remaining corridor and pushed at the double doors at the end, emerging into a large room with chairs set up in neat rows. There was a stage in front of the chairs and a podium like that a government official might use but it looked like no one had been here for days. Cassie frowned, circling the chairs once then twice before exiting the hall after one last look back. She limped back down the hall, looking through the papers across the floor on her way out when one caught her eye. She plucked it up then went to find the others.