They Called It The Apocalpse

Chapter 32

He finished up pulling the weeds, wiping the sweat from his forehead and smiled back up at Mabel. She sat on the front porch in the woven rocking chairs they had set up, perusing the garden as Jason worked. He collected his bucket of shrubs and carried them up onto the porch, "What do you want me to do with these?" He asked politely, heaving them a little higher up in his arms so that he didn't drop them. She steadily got to her feet, gesturing for him to follow with the bucket and entered the house. Careful not to drop any, Jason staggered after her and slid the bucket of weeds onto the counter that she pointed at. He examined their house, finding it virtually the same as his own but realising that they had a lot more pictures and memorabilia everywhere. "Would you like some cake sonny?" Mabel asked as she fished a bit of tin foil from a plate to reveal one of the best looking pieces of food that Jason had ever seen. "Yes please." He mumbled, crossing around their kitchen to get a better look at a photo. It featured Hank holding a pitchfork and Mabel stood proudly beside him, they looked happy and content and there was a large red farm house behind them. Mabel cut the cake gently, slicing through it with a sharp knife and carrying the slice over to Jason. She smiled when she saw him admiring the photo and handed him the plate. "That was when Hank first got his approval to work. He'd wanted to switch careers for a while and when they finally allowed it he was issued with that thing." She chuckled to herself like she'd made the funniest joke in the world and Jason turned to speak to her directly as he took a bite of the cake. "So Hank's a farmer?" He asked, savouring the sugary mix of frosting and sponge. "Oh yes, he's getting there, it won't be long until he earns his license to set up his own farm, right now he's learning the ropes and getting the hang of things but we're keeping everything crossed that we get that farm house soon." Jason smiled, looking back at the photo and admiring their joy. "I hope you get it too." He took another bite of cake and felt his tastebuds celebrating the amazing flavour. "Oh, where's my manners!" Mabel cried, brushing down her apron and rushing back into the kitchen, she gestured Jason over as she dug around in the fridge, "I promised to give you my pie recipe." Jason nodded and resumed his place in the kitchen, placing his plate down with not a crumb 0f cake left.

He started off by washing his hands, scrubbing the dirt from underneath his fingernails and rubbing away the scrapes of mud.  Mabel selected her ingredients as he did that, plucking chicken and leek and cream from her fridge. Then her eyes settled on the bucket of weeds and she sighed, fishing a glass jar down from the top of the shelves in the kitchen and cramming a good handful of them inside, she sprinkled about a handful of sugar on top then screwed the lid back on. "Whats that for?" Jason asked as he came back over, drying his hands on a kitchen towel. "Oh, I'm making syrup with it sweetie, you can put it in you're tea or on toast." Jason nodded as she slid the jar back onto the shelf then turned back and clapped her hands together, "Right, ready to get started?"

When Hank returned from work that evening, Jason was still at his house, flour powdered down the front of his shirt and across his nose and he was drawing the pie out of the oven wearing Mabel's pink oven gloves. "What the hells going on here?" He asked, taking off his hat and hanging it up on the hook beside the door. "I'm teaching this boy to make pie." Mabel said matter of factly, "he ain't never learnt to cook properly."
"The hell does he need to know how to make pie for?" Hank said as he passed them both and fished himself a beer from the fridge, "All this kid needs to know is how to drink beer and get himself a wife who'll cook for him." Hank chuckled at Mabel, nodding cheekily at her and she whipped a kitchen towel at him, "You cheeky-" but she was interrupted by Jason putting his pie down on the counter, "Oh, that's wonderful, its a perfect pie." She chimed as Hank found a seat on the couch.
"So son, why ain't you turned up here with anyone else?" Hank asked, turning back to watch as Jason fumbled with the gloves to try and get them off. "I, um....there were four of us. Three made it, I haven't seen Tate or Thalia since."
"What about the other one? You said there were four of you?" Hank pushed, sipping at his beer and Mabel scowled at him.
"Hank!" She scolded but Jason answered, trying to hold in his emotions as he did.
"Her name was Cassie. We were supposed to get here together. She would've loved it here....but she got sick, it progressed fast, she never stood a chance." Hank swigged sorrowfully from his beer, nodding slowly in understanding.
"You ain't got no kids?" Hank asked and Jason smiled sombrely, though it was dragging up a lot of repressed emotion.
"Yeah, I had a boy, but it took him too."
"Oh honey." Mabel cooed, string at him sympathetically and wishing she could hug him as if he were her own son.
"You had a rough life, huh? You could do with a break." Hank remarked, lifting his beer to the light and swilling around the contents in the bottom, "I got kids too, two girls and a boy just like you, grandkids, they come with kids. One day when I live out on the farm, my grandkids are gonna run round the meadows or muck out the stables. I focus on that future and i work to achieve that, but what do you want to achieve Jason? Whats you're goal now that you've reached here?"

Jason found himself thinking about his conversation with Hank as he wandered home, steaming pie in his hands and a fresh slice of cake wrapped in a tissue in the other. He also thought of Cassie and the alternate future where they'd got to the resting place and she hadn't been sick, he saw himself like Hank and Mabel, sitting out on the porch with her as their kids ran in the garden. He also thought about what his life would've been like if he'd have fought more, against the foetal screenings, against the government rulings, against the abortion of his child. He wondered if the boy would've had brown hair like him or if he would've had Cassie's blonde, he imagined the incredible mixture of grey and brown in his eyes and the freckled blush on his face. It made him feel empty, knowing all the things he could've had, but at the same time he was thankful that he'd been given the opportunity to reach safety and that he hadn't met the same fate as the rest of his family.

He found his way inside, eating a meagre portion of pie for his dinner then finishing it off with the cake slice, washing it all down with some sort of fizzing liquid he'd purchased at the store. He took the bag of clothes with him as he ascended the stairs and unpacked them into the bathroom cupboard before climbing his exhausted body into bed, rolling the sheets up protectively around himself then drifting off into a heavy dreamless sleep, knowing that he was safe and sound in paradise.