The Apocalypse

Chapter 15

That night I sat outside alone. Josh and I had let Abby take the only sleeping bag we had. I had sat there for hours before I had made any more human contact. My brother had noticed that I had been sitting outside, and walked over to me. "Having trouble sleeping?" Josh asked. "I haven't even tried to. How about you?" He came over and sat down next to me. "I haven't tried to either. I've been sitting with Grace's body ever since we got here." He replied.

"Hows Abby sleeping?" Josh asked. I turned around and looked at where Abby was laying down. I always had butterflies in my stomach every time I saw her smile. I turned back around and answered, "I think she's doing alright. She hasn't woken up at all, so that's good." Josh and I were silent for a little. Josh broke the silence and asked, "What do you think happened here? Do you think whoever did this was waiting for us to leave before they attacked?" "I can tell you whoever did this either knew we had to leave, or was trying to get back at us for something." I replied.

Josh looked down to my missing leg. I did the same. "Is it difficult? Walking around and just having to move around with just one leg?" He asked. I started to stand up. I picked up my walking stick and started to head back to where Abby was sleeping. I finally replied, "I still need to get used to it. But yeah. It sucks not being able to walk with both legs. Sometimes I even catch myself trying to take steps with this leg," I moved my stump up to show Josh. "then I just fall. Sometimes, I am lucky enough to catch myself." I turned back around and started hobbling to Abby.

When I got there she opened her eyes and asked, "Would you like to use the sleeping bag?" I looked down to her and smiled, "No. You go back to sleep, my love." She looked up at me, smiled, then went back to sleep. I sat down next to her and I just watched the fire. I don't know what it was about fires, but they always calmed me down. I guess it was just the crackling it made, or the fact it was keeping us warm on this very cold, windy night. 

I ended up falling asleep, and when I woke up the fire was out. I stretched out my arms and leg, then got up. Abby was no longer sleeping, instead she was sitting where I had been last night. To her side was Josh. I had gotten up and started to make my way over to them. "It's about time you woke up." Josh said as I was sitting down. I gave a little chuckle. Abby kissed me on the cheek and then grabbed my hand. "I see you aren't covering up your hand anymore." Abby said. I looked down to the side of my hand and looked at my scar.

"Yeah, it wasn't as ugly as I had thought." I replied. "You're more ugly than I thought." Josh said. We all let out a long laugh. As soon as we had stopped we heard footsteps coming towards us. I had gotten up and started to get my knife out. The footsteps got closer and closer. However, they didn't sound like human footsteps. I started to make my way towards where the sounds were coming from. As soon as I turned the corner, a dog hopped onto me. 

The dog started licking my face. I was surprised it hadn't bitten me. "Ginger!? Ginger! Ginger, where are you!?" I looked at the dog and saw that it had a collar. On it, read the name "Ginger". We heard more footsteps, and this time they actually were a humans footsteps. I got up and took my revolver out. I watched as a man in a suit had emerged from behind my burnt down hut. I aimed my gun at his head. "Woah woah! I'm clean! I'm clean!" The man said while raising his hands straight in the air.

"Is this your dog?" Josh asked. "Yes, yes she is." I looked down at Ginger, who was still looking up at me, then I looked back at the man. The man walked a little closer towards us, with his hands still in the air. "What's your name?" I asked. The man took a couple more steps and then answered, "My name is Larry. Larry Garfel, and I am a magician. You can search me all you want, I promise you won't find anything. Well, anything worth to any of you people." The man said.

I took my finger off of the trigger and started to lower my weapon. Larry looked over to his left and called out to somebody. A young boy had emerged from where Larry once was. "This is my son, Trevor." Larry added. The young boy looked as if he were no older than 12 years of age. I looked back at Larry and asked, "How exactly did you get in here?" He responded, "There is a hole in the gate behind all the burnt wood and ash back there." He pointed in the direction he had just came from. 

I took a couple of steps forward, and tripped. Larry had hurried over to me and helped me up. "Are you alright? It seems like you haven't had enough water to drink. Here," He handed me his jug of water," You need it more than I do. Come on, drink some." I took the jug from Larry and I drank the water. It was very hot. I looked over to Trevor, who looked as if he had just seen a ghost. "Dad, can I talk to you for a second? Please." He asked. Larry gave a look to me and walked over to his son.

They kept looking at me over and over again. I slowly started to stand back up, with the help of Josh. I took another sip from the water jug and looked back at Larry and Trevor. Larry started to walk towards me, with one hand on his sons shoulder and the other digging for something in his suit pocket. I put my finger back on the trigger of my revolver and started to get it pointed at Larry, just in case. Larry took his hand out of his pocket, and brought out what looked like a piece of newspaper.

"Is this you?" He asked, handing me the newspaper clipping. I grabbed it and looked down at it and was shocked to see that it was a newspaper clipping of me and my baseball team back home. "Where did you find this?" I asked. Then we heard more footsteps, and I turned to see that Abby was making her way over to us. "Were you holding onto this?" I asked Abby. She took the newspaper clipping from me and smiled. "Yes. It was a good photo of you." She answered. "And, you do look hot in a baseball uniform." She said behind a blushing smile.

I turned back to Larry and Trevor. "Yeah, that's me. Where did you find this?" I asked. Larry signaled for me to walk over to him, so I did. When I got to him he pointed in the direction he came from. "About 10 miles in that direction. Why? Are you planning on going over there?" He asked. Before I answered, a thought had come into my mind. None of us had ever walked that far in that direction. And Abby had walked in the complete opposite direction, which means there was no possible way Larry and Trevor could have come into possession of that picture. 

Every time I looked at Trevor, he would seem to be looking behind me at the entrance, as if he was expecting something to happen. I looked at Larry, and he was also looking behind me. I looked behind me, then back at them. "What are you guys looking at?" I asked. Larry crouched down a little and whispered, "Someone is coming for you, Manny. We are the distraction." I immediately went for my pistol, but was cut off by Trevor. He slowly shook his head no, still staring at the entrance. 

We stood there, quiet. Until we heard footsteps, and what had sounded like a car coming through the entrance of the gate. "They're here." Larry said, looking very scared.