They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 18

Cassie woke first the next morning, stretching her legs out as far as they would go and hitting her foot on her satchel. She sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and noticed that her bag didn't look quite right, leaning forwards she tugged it towards herself. She knew when she saw the buckle that someone had been inside, her automatic reaction was to open it up and root round for her possessions but everything seemed to be in order. The next question that came to mind was why someone would just go through her bag like that and then she filled with panic. Her personal trinkets were in that bag, if the person that went snooping found something they were curious about they could bring it up in front of the others and she'd be looked on differently. She tried to stop panicking, getting to her feet and hooking the bag over her shoulder. Silently she left the room and found a window with a substantial ledge where she could sit and enjoy an early morning snack. The sun was just coming up over the horizon and a few stray birds fluttered up out of the trees beyond. She plonked herself down then opened up her bag, digging out the tin of garden peas from the bottom. She readied her fork by placing it on the window sill beside her then pulled the ring pull that was on the side. The tin opened easily and she wondered why most tins didn't have that feature. Cassie scooped up a mouthful with he spoon then began to chew, they were tough and crumbly but they still maintained their fresh garden flavour as she snacked on them. While she ate she thought about a variety of things, although the most prominent thing on her mind was the dull ache that was now in her shoulder. She'd woken up with it and usually after a few minutes it would disperse but this time it was holding strong. Cautiously, she fished out the expired meds from her bag, finding out the correct dosage for a person of her height and weight by reading through the usage instructions. They weren't as big as some of the pills she'd had to take in her previous life, they had been for different illnesses and ailments but now she was stuck with paracetamol and expired ibuprofen to ease her pain. She sat back into the window frame and watched the sunrise as she waited for the others to rise.

Thalia woke up next to find that Cassie was gone, she climbed down from the top of the bunk and slipped outside of the room. She wandered through the building until she caught sight of a figure in the window then went over to greet her. "Morning." She muttered as Cassie turned to look at her shocked by her sudden approach. "Oh, sorry, morning." She fumbled for her bag and slid it closer to her so that Thalia had a space to take a seat. "You're up early compared to the others, did you not sleep well?" Thalia asked, taking a seat backwards then drawing her hands onto her lap. "Oh, no, I'm just up, I've got a little discomfort in my shoulder but it's nothing to worry about." Thalia's eyes grew wider as Cassie attempted to stretch out her arm. "Shall i take a look for you?" She asked, trying to offer her some help but being unsure of how she could. "No thank you Thalia, I'll be alright, really." Cassie chided, smiling warmly at her and she shifted a little, wringing her hands together nervously as she approached the next subject. "So...are you going to be leaving today?" She asked and Cassie shrugged.
"I don't know, we have food and shelter but the foods limited and we don't have all the time in the world to get to the rest place."
"Whats the rest place?"
"Oh, its like a sanctuary for humans, its kind of a safe ground for us, no joyous or anything." Cassie registered the blank look on Thalia's face when she mentioned joyous, "Did Tate not explain to you what joyous are?" Thalia shook her head then reclined further back until her head was against the window and resigned to listen. "So joyous are like these people who have evolved to be basically zombies."
"Like crazy people?" Thalia clarified as she thought back to the guy in the crowd.
"Yeah, kind of. Only it only happens to some people, see we all have the genetic components to turn into one at any given point but by this time if you haven't turned you're probably fine. We don't really know how evolution starts but we do know that when someone has evolved they get this enzyme in their saliva that can start evolution in another person when bitten by one." Cassie seemed to have drifted into her own world of explanation and Thalia had never really been very good at science, she'd understood bits and pieces but when Cassie launched into a full scale scientific lecture about it she tuned out and wondered to herself how she had recovered from being 'sick' as Tate had put it.