They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 28

After almost a full day of walking, as the sun was settling down just behind the trees the ground began to rumble and Jason put his hands out to steady himself. At first he thought it to be another earthquake but then he realised that it wasn't as violent and that it didn't seem to be damaging anything. That was when Thalia turned round and her mouth dropped open, forming a giant 'o' shape that pulled her face down and made her look gaunt. She stared in almost awe as the others turned to see what she was seeing. A stampede of trucks rode towards them in the distance, humongous things with fat rubber tyres and green camouflage paint jobs. As they got closer Jason could just make out the men dressed in camouflage, hanging out of the windows, they had guns trained directly on them and hollered something as they got closer. Fear rose inside of him and instead of freezing he lunged forwards and grunted with pain. "Run!" He screamed, coming up behind Thalia and Cassie. "Run for your goddamn lives!" He cried as he passed them and started pushing them forwards with his outstretched hands, they seemed to register the threat and bolted forwards, chasing after Tate as he dashed ahead. They tried their best to outrun them, sprinting round the cracked bits of the road and leaping the broken bits of the pavement as the trucks gained on them. Jason could hear them yelling now, waving their guns around and turned back to get a glimpse of a stern woman with her brown hair slicked back in a ponytail driving directly at them. He pushed himself to run faster, dropping the camping gear and getting a speed increase. A ginormous wall came into view, a black shutter trapping them on the road with no where to go. He caught up with Thalia and Cassie then yelled to Tate, who seemed to be slowing more now, "Drop the gear and go!" He cried, pointing ahead then dodging the tent and sleeping bags that Tate abandoned. The first truck caught up with them, a heavily muscled guy leaning over the edge to point a gun in Jason's face. Their eyes locked for a second, communicating everything they needed to know and the truck drove past. The shutter on the gate started to raise and Jason felt as if luck was turning to their side until the parade of trucks stormed past, wheels grinding against the difficult terrain as they found their way inside the giant wall. They seemed to disappear into darkness inside and Jason pushed himself even harder than he ever had, hearing his leg crunch with each step. He breezed past Cassie and Thalia, becoming level with Tate as the last of the trucks passed. They'd almost made it to the shutter when it started to come down. "Shit!" He cried, pumping his arms and breathing rapidly. It got to half way and he threw himself inside, Tate hitting the floor and skidding backwards into the building. They turned to find Thalia just narrowly scrape her way inside as the shutter got to three quarters closed. Cassie's face was contorted in effort as she ran, desperately trying to make it. Jason ducked down and held out his hand as Cassie burst into a full on sprint in the last moment. She ducked, sliding sideways under the shutter just before it hit the ground and knocking Jason down as she did. She lay on the floor panting, her hair stuck to her forehead in the beads of sweat that had accumulated there, her chest rising rapidly as she tried to get her breath back. Jason got back to his feet quickly, rummaging in the darkness for his flashlight and eventually pulling it out and illuminating the room. It turned out to be a long corridor, leading deeper into the structure in a long dank tunnel. He turned back and illuminated Cassie, offering her a hand up which she took gratefully. Thalia was already on her feet, stood with Tate and staring round the room at the shadows Jason's torch was creating on the walls. "Is everyone ok?" Jason asked, shining the torch on everyone individually as they nodded. "Alright, let's go then." He mumbled and his voice echoed through the tunnel as they took careful steps into the darkness.

The tunnel was longer than it seemed because it spanned a good long distance, Jason figured that it was at least a mile long and he began to see a little more with each step as his eyes adjusted to the surrounding darkness. Cassie, however, wasn't paying attention to the tunnel, she was too busy trying to keep herself in check, she constantly felt the need to be sick although she held it back as they walked and she'd started to tremble, hugging herself tightly to try to stop it. Her mind flickered violently between the past and the present and her cheek muscles felt tight and strained as they tried to pull her face into a perpetual smile. Her veins hummed as they pumped the neon yellow liquid around her veins and it felt warm and toasty inside of her body when she knew the tunnel was cold and dank. She stuck close to Jason, terror wreaking havoc inside of her until they reached the end of the tunnel and came out in a room of cars. The lights were on in here and the group could see rows and rows of military jeeps and gear. One of the jeeps was equipped with a full sized machine gun that still had the last round loaded up inside of it. The floor was a polished wood of some sort and Jason pushed forwards into the centre of the room, scanning his surroundings and finding a balcony that oversaw the whole of the hall. It reminded him of gym class as a child when they'd go into the huge halls and climb the hoops or ropes on the wall, only this wasn't gym class, more like the military's secret hideout. Tate went in the opposite direction to Jason, wandering down the centre of the hall and finding a wall full of weapons that had dog tags attached to them to name their owners. As Jason crossed between the jeeps, he found himself marvelling at them. In his mind they were simply magnificent, he'd been an army kid as a child, enjoying his action man and toy soldiers but seeing the jeeps up close and personal felt like a violation. He reached out and touched the bonnet of the closest one as Cassie came up behind him and drew his hand away quickly as it fizzled beneath his skin. A red patch appeared on his palm where it had burnt him and he turned back to look at Cassie with a half smile on his face, "It's still hot. That means they're still here." His eyes spotted a metal staircase in the corner and he turned back to signal to Tate, where he was going. Tate nodded back and so did Thalia, who had followed him, then he pointed up to their own metal staircase. At the top of each staircase there was a door, so Tate decided to cross through one and Jason took the other. They took the stairs at the same pace and turned back to look at each other as they put their hands on the door handle then pushed it down and entered inside, followed by either Thalia or Cassie.