They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 23

As the sky began to darken they found themselves surrounded by a deep forest of trees. They blocked the light from the road and barely allowed moonlight to illuminate the way. The group moved at a steady pace, Jason was still limping through the pain and Thalia and Tate were still too shook up from their experiences to engage in a full conversation so Cassie chatted quietly to Jason at the back of the group. No one was particularly paying attention to the noises around them as they traversed the woodland roads and so that was how the incident was able to occur. Tate scuffed his shoe soles across the road as he walked, eyes focused ahead, intent on reaching that destination when the leaves of the shrub beside him parted and a humongous creature stepped out onto the road. It missed Tate as he walked ahead but stopped Thalia in her path. She froze, unsure whether to run or scream or whatever it was she was supposed to do. The bear looked at her as blood dripped from its jaws, its eyes glowed a bright neon yellow in the moonlight and it had a deep groove on its back that leaked yellow puss and oozed maggots. Thalia's first mistake was looking into its almost celestial eyes, she found herself locked onto them in their corrupted beauty. She never heard Jason yelling at her, or Cassie's instructions. Her second mistake was not running when the bear came towards her, it move slowly and calmly but skulked onto its back legs and rose high and mighty in the air before bellowing a deafening roar and charging. Both terrified and in awe of the creature Thalia didn't run and as the bear closed in she stayed in a sort of trance until the very last moment when the bear sunk its huge jaws into her shoulder. She screamed, ear splitting, Cassie felt her ear drums stab with pain in protest at the noise, it was like a dying animal caught in a trap. For a second the world stood still as Thalia lost the sensation in her shoulder, she felt the soft but matted fur of the bear brush against the bits of exposed skin she hadn't covered, then her body jerked convulsively as the bear shook her. She hardly heard the gun shots go off or felt the bears teeth retract from her flesh. She hit the floor on her knees, then fell forwards, vision waning then finally going for good and the last thing she saw was the dirty concrete slapping her cheek.

The bear barrelled for Jason, blood lust in its eyes and he shot it again and again, dark red holes appearing in the front of the creatures pelt but none of his attempts did much, soon he too would be lying lifelessly like Thalia, all because they let their guard down. Cassie didn't cower like he thought she would, but stood tall and intimidating, so much so that the bear slowed its process. She bared her teeth like a predator and Jason was sure that he could see blood dripping from the side of her mouth, through her teeth that were clenched so hard they sounded like they were breaking. Her eyes seemed glazed and dark as she became the apex predator and the bear rose up to its hind legs and roared once more. Only the bear never charged at them, instead it froze as a boom echoed through the woods, blank lifeless eyes, then fell forwards just like Thalia had. Tate was panting, his shotgun clutched tightly in his hands and his gaze the epitome of anger, sweat drenched his forehead despite the temperature and he looked ready to kill. He seemed to come back to himself a little, Cassie too, she shook a little beside Jason and when she looked back at she seemed back to herself again, except for the little trickle of blood down the left side of her mouth.  Tate dropped the shot gun, it clattered to the floor then rolled to where the bear lay, he fell to his knees, blankly looking at the bear and nothing else, "Its dead man." He grumbled, hooking his hand through its fur and scrunching it up, "Both are." Cassie's heart skipped a beat and then she was running, sprinting at high speed for Thalia's bloody body. She fell to the floor, grazing her knees on the concrete and rolled her friend onto her back. She looked up at the sky with hollow glass eyes and her porcelain face was splattered with blood. Large teeth marks littered her shoulder as blood continued to soak through into the pristine butterfly blue of her dress, her hair was straggled from beneath the bow, a sight that Thalia would never allow. Cassie watched as her chest lay flat, no rise and fall of breaths, no pumping of blood round her body. Thalia was gone. Cassie felt the tears spill over her face before she'd properly processed what was going on, she threw herself over Thalia's limp body and hugged her close, cradling her like a child and rocking backwards and forwards. Jason put a soft hand on her shoulder and she whirled back to look at him, anger and grief flooded her facial expressions and her eyes hissed at him to back off, "Don't touch her!" She screamed, holding her tighter and stroking her black hair, "Don't touch her..." she trailed off as the sobs hitched from her throat. She wanted to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that they weren't doctors but they would get her one, she wanted to hold her hand as she stared up at the sky and the light left her eyes, she wanted her to know that she wasn't alone and the frustration of not getting any of it boiled inside of her. Thalia's blood smeared across her arms and down her legs, coating her with dark red stains and Jason tried again, this time holding her shoulder and gently removing her arms from Thalia's body. He pulled her away, leaving the corpse on the floor in a pile of blood and taking Cassie into his arms. He held her as she cried and clutched at his jacket for comfort but the truth was that he couldn't give her the comfort that she needed, the death had been too quick, too unexpected that whatever he said or did would never be enough.

Jason's eyes found Tate, still kneeling with his hand clutched in the bears skin, only now a steady stream of tears leaked down his cheeks and he just sat there like he wasn't aware of it. Jason's eyes drifted over to Thalia, her eyes open and lifeless but as he looked closer he watched her body convulse just once, barely lifting off of the floor and then his eyes followed the motion of her body as she breathed. He pushed Cassie away from himself, limping over to Thalia and crouching beside her, he took the arm that hadn't been bitten into by the bear and measured her pulse, patiently waiting as he counted the beats. Tate turned to look at him and Cassie watched through her sobbing. "She....shes alive...." Jason said aloud, astonished at how anyone could live through such an event, "she.....it's impossible...." He breathed, leaning further over Thalia and using his pocket knife to cut between two of the teeth holes in her dress shoulder, he peeled it back carefully to reveal the injuries but the edges were pulling back towards each other, healing at an accelerated speed. He watched in shock as she grew more skin cells that covered over the gaping wounds. Her eyes flickered closed and her face started to gain colour again, rosy pink rushing her palid reflection. He watched in shock as she seemed to gradually gain composure, her chest rising and falling softly as she continued to breath. Jason turned his face towards the others, finding Tate kneeling on the road and Cassie staring straight at them almost unseeing. "Cassie, get Tate." He instructed as he carefully looped his arms under Thalia's limp body and got to his feet. He gritted his teeth at the pain in his leg but it seemed to be fading a little more now that he'd been living with it for a few hours. He turned to find Cassie still standing and staring at him, "Cassie," she shook her head a little, her eyes focusing on his face instead of not seeing him, "Tate." He nodded over to him and she nodded in understanding as she crossed over to where he crouched by the bears corpse and pulled him to his feet by tugging at his arm. They limped along the path, shaken by the events leading to this exact moment.