Aftermath Book 1

Aftermath Part 4

CHAPTER 12

Jessica reacts quickly, pointing towards a fire escape hanging from the side of an apartment complex. She can hear the psychotic screams of the maniacs behind them. “We’re gonna get some dinner, We’re gonna get some dinner!” They all chant. When the two get closer to the fire escape, they flash a quick glance and noticed they are all catching up.

“Faster!” Dean screams at Jessica.

Jessica begins to clank upwards on the rusted metal staircase. The staircase was obviously falling apart by the time Jessica put her hand on the handrail to get better traction. She looked down at her and when she reached the second landing as she begins to near the roof. She noticed that it was clearly rusted and the red residue on her palms proved it. She looks through the metal staircase and sees Dean. The gang was swinging at his ankles as he was running up the staircase. Dean reached the landing directly across from Jessica, He made eye contact with her.

“Fuck it.” He began to kick the crazies in the face.

 “No!” She screams with such a terror filled voice that it cracks at the peak.

Dean begins to weaken the crowd with his kicks. One of the people grab ahold of his ankle and screams at the rest of his psychotic friends, “I got the dinner!” Dean scoffs at this and kicks the lunatic square in his jaw.

“Hurry! Just come on!” Jessica screams. Dean looks up towards Jessica and nods his head. Dean begins to sprint up the stairs faster than ever before, He catches up to Jessica within seconds. They were nearing the top, The adrenaline in both of their blood has begun to release dopamine into their brains. “I got an idea for these fuckers honey.” Dean says with a mischievous look on his face.

As they got to the top of the apartment complex, Dean dives for a pipe laying directly next to the support beam for the staircase. He begins to swing ferociously at the beam. “Just fucking break!” Dean screams. Jessica looks around for anything she can do to help and she notices there was a pile of sandbags. She runs over to the sandbags and begins to throw them down at the people hording up the stairs practically trampling each other just to get to the roof first. “That’s it Jess! keep doing that!” Dean shouts at Jessica. The beam Dean was swinging at begins to dent and crack so he lays down on his back and begins to kick the bottom of the pipe, hoping to break the final half. The crowd starts to near the top as the staircase begins to creak louder. The stomping begins to shake their eardrums. The screaming starts to make them cringe, as the staircase finally gives way as one of the crazies dive onto the roof platform. Jessica runs over towards Dean to helps him up before the psycho could jump on top of him. She reaches for the pipe Dean was swinging and smacks the back of the crazies head.

Dean smiles and reaches for Jessica's head to help himself up. He stands up and they both look over the side and watch as the old rotted staircase falls to the ground with all of the people still aboard it. BOOM! They hear it hit the ground.

That was almost as loud as the bomb. Dean remembers the mesmerizing sound of the hydrogen bombs going off.

“Do you remember the day the bombs went off?” Dean asks Jessica as they both catch their breath.

Jessica looks at Dean and smiles. “Of course I do, how could I forget it.”

“Figured you would want to block it out, I mean look what it did to this place we used to call home.” Dean  sighs, and breathes slower.

“What? What did it do, Dean?”

“It destroyed everything.”

“It destroyed everything except my will to survive.” Jessica reassures herself and Dean.