Apocalypse [Ellie Williams]

◜chapter twenty five◞

"so everything came crashing down in one day" Ellie asked as they continued their hike through the now open land, only the occasional trees that lined the gravel road. Cassie could feel the sun kissing at her skin, her usually near invisible freckles probably present on her face and arms, her pale skin reddening on her exposed shoulders but the girl couldn't come to care. The sun felt so much better outside the walls of the QZ

She wanted nothing more than to just lay in it all day but she wasnt stupid, she knew it was bad for her so the girl didn't insist on taking a break to bask in the sunlight despite wanting to.

"pretty much" Joel responded to Ellies previous question as Cassie toyed with the bandage on her arm

"how, i mean no one was infected with Cordyceps, everybody's fine eating in restaurants and flying in planes and then, all at once? how did it even start?" Ellie questioned again, Cassie only half listening to the conversation.

Too dazed with reality to relish in what happened at the beginning of the apocalypse, the past wasnt now. Cassie had a brief understanding on how things worked before and if people who didn't manage to survive the downfall of humanity saw how things where in that very day and age, they would kill over from the state of it.

"no one knows for sure but, best guess?" Joel answered Ellies constant questioning, their words quieter from where she walked behind them

"cordyceps mutated and some of it got into the food supply, probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. there were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere, all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal, pancake mix. You eat enough of it, it'll get you infected. So, the tainted food mix hits the store shelves around the same time, Thursday. People bought it, ate some Thursday or Friday. Day goes on, they start getting sick. Afternoon, evening, they got worse and then they started biting. Friday night, September 26, 2003. By Monday, everything was gone."

"makes more sense than the monkeys" Ellie commented after a long pause, Cassie was watching the floor. The mans words settling in with the girls, they didn't fully understand and they never would. They weren't alive to see it happen but they knew someone, someone they where close to that did and for that reason alone they wanted to understand.

"do you reckon, you know, there's places out there that just aren't infected at all" Cassie asked, lightly jogging to catch up with them, now walking alongside Ellie "placed that eat like natural shit. The islands that only ten people live on"

"id like to believe so" The man nodded

"yeah, me too" Cassie added quietly, nodding a little

Joel then held his arm out, stopping the girls in their tracks. Ellie questioning the mans action who told them they're cutting across the woods

"isn't the road easier than the woods?" Cassie asked, looking at the man with curiosity.

"yeah its just... there's stuff up there you shouldn't see" Joel told the pair.