Young Writers Society

This is a spin off of the storybook Apocalypse 101. Please see the original for more details: Apocalypse 101 [Now Accepting]

Lance Marsh

There weren't many people who could scare Lance, hell, there weren't many people. It was one of the perks of the apocalypse, few though they were. As far as scary went though... yep. The Bull was definitely in the scary category. Lance had never seen the animal she was named after, except in a nature book, but if it moved at all like her and if its nostrils flared the way hers did when she was angry, then he prayed they were all extinct.

"You wait till I get you, you little rats!" Brenn shook her fist at them as Lance and Aaron scampered away and he pulled the younger boy into a pile of leaves, laughing and tumbling about. They were safe now though. You could tell when the bull really meant it.

"Hey," Aaron complained as Lance tried to wrestle him into submission and was rewarded with a punch on the nose. The two boys rough-housed for a bit longer but gave it up when Mrs Marsh called everybody to order. Lance slouched over with the rest of him, though he was secretly quite proud of his mum.

Lance was especially proud when she neglected to give Brenn or Keanen anywhere to go. Lance ribbed Aaron. "Did you notice?" he hissed. "She missed out Keanen, I bet it's because she knows he'll cut loose the first chance he gets." Or so Lance hoped anyway. "He really should just bunker off."

It wasn't long before the two sides of the camp were saying farwells and Lance was made to promise (again) that he would bring back something nice for his sister. "I know, Mum, I know!"

Then they were going. "It will take us about half an hour to walk to the shops," Jonathan was explaining. That was all? It had always seemed like such a long way to Lance when he was little and even now, looking across the distance, the town felt so vast to him; as vast as the world!

Living in a bunker really had a way of shaping your perspective.

"Come on girls," Lance strode up to Jasmine and Rheylayn, who were part of their group. "You've no need to fear, Aaron and I are going to look out for you!"

Then there was a sound like a high pitched squeal and Lance nearly jumped out of his shell. "What was-"

"It's only a cat," Uncle Byron said, his lips twitching into a smile as the scrawny, hairless creature darted over the landscape to hide underneath the shell of a car. There had been a large lump disfiguring its head so that Lance wondered how it was even still alive. It hadn't looked like any cat he remembered.

Behind him, Aaron was grinning ear to ear and the girls were giggling. Some hero he was. Lance blew air out through his teeth and mooched along, but the world was too fascinating to stay cowled for long.

"Hey, uncle Byron. Is our old house still standing?" Everything looked so different now; Lance couldn't tell where it might have been.

Jasmine

Rheyalyn whispered, "What exactly are we looking for? Or doing, for that matter."

"Finding supplies." I kept my reply terse, not wanted to encourage her, and walked over to the trees, waiting until my father said we could leave. These branches...not alive, but we could still do so much with them. Firewood when it started getting colder, more permanent shelters...I smiled, and snapped off a small branch from the closest tree. Hollow it out and add a few holes, and Aaron can have another instrument.

"Come on girls," Lance strode up to Rheylayn and I, and my smile abruptly turned to a frown. "You've no need to fear, Aaron and I are going to look out for you!" Mother would tell me to relax, that he's only joking. Their 'jokes' aren't funny.

There was a high pitched squeal and Lance jumped in place. "What was-" I fought to keep from laughing.

"It's only a cat,"Byron explained. I reached out slightly as the ugly, starved creature darted away. It reminded me of my cat from home when I was fourteen, River. And how I had to give her up to leave for the bunker. She'd be dead now, of course; she was very old when we left, and sick too. I want to go help the other cat, but know that it will be feral and even if I can get it to come with me, my father will say we need to save all our supplies for taking care of ourselves, not animals. I know he's probably right, too; the least we have to worry about is rodents. That doesn't make it any harder to not grab some meat and call for the poor creature.

Aaron and Rheyalyn were laughing at Lance. I was used to not fitting in, so I stayed absolutely silent.

"Finding supplies," Heather answered.

I nodded, not feeling very satisfied with the answer. But an answer was an answer, and I doubted Heather would give me more.

Lance strode up behind us, and we turned around as he said, "You've no need to fear, Aaron and I are going to look out for you!"

Then a high squeal. "What was-"

"It's only a cat," Byron said.

Aaron and I burst out laughing. Heather stayed silent, but I was grinning like an idiot. Again. "Lance, I think it's the other way around."

Lance Marsh

After he'd blown it with the girls, there was nothing for it, but to stride up front, looking macho. Lance had even looked around for a stick, but there weren't any trees here. There was nothing. Nothing except that burned out car they'd passed, where he'd thought he heard uncle Byron say something about it having been driven there.

Lance was still thinking on that. If someone drove it, if someone moved it after the bombs, then there had to be people around, didn't there?

They were drawing near the buildings now and Lance felt increasingly excited and confident. It was crazy really, to think that the bunker had been so deep into that crater, where the bomb must have hit, and they hadn't felt the impact at all. Or if they had, it was a long forgotten memory for Lance.

"Hey, look, look!" Lance picked up his pace and then he was running and Aaron was there too and they were racing for the first of the buildings: a house which had been cut clear through the middle. All of the stuff inside looked damaged, but no, not all of it! Because far enough back, through a door to the right, there was a kitchen and-

"Stay back, boys!" Uncle Byron came striding over, even as Lance turned to chuck his breakfast on the ground. He didn't actually chuck up in the end, but he sure felt like it. There were- bodies. Slumped at the table, shriveled and mummified like old potatoes, but they were bodies. And they were there, like, like they were about to start a meal, like

"But how- how did-" Lance was torn between horror and curiosity.

"We've come for the supplies, lad." The hand on his shoulder was solid and reassuring and Lance nodded as he straightened up. He didn't think the girls came close enough to see...

Moving through the town was less fun after that, but the supermarket at last came into view and was only a few minutes away. Lance put one foot in front of the other and- something moved. Something very much bigger than a cat lurched and came toward them, a strange mass of bulbous flesh and bruised skin that almost resembled- "Mr. Armitage?" Was that really his former teacher?

Brenn "The Bull" Bullingham

The creature reeled towards the group, eyes glazed and roving. Bullingham noticed that its nails were long and yellowed, and very sharp.
"Get out of its way!" she bellowed, shoving people out of the road. "Didn't your mother tell you it's rude to stare?" she hissed at Aaron, whose mouth was still slightly open in shock and horror.
The group split like the Red Sea and the creature, which the Marsh boy seemed to recognize as "Mr Armitage", lumbered past.
"Now, move!"
They hurried down the road, Bullingham puffing like a steam ship.
"Steady on, now!"
But nobody slowed down. The group scampered down the street, some keeping their eyes rigidly fixed on the faded supermarket sign ahead, others glancing from side to side with nervous meticulousness.
"...but he is my teacher, he gave geography—"
"He was your teacher, Lance. Keep up, will you?" Byron snapped, dragging Lance Marsh behind him despite his violent limp. Lance staggered, jabbering and still not taking his eyes off the road behind him.
"But, but—"
"Whatever that was, I'm afraid to say that it was most certainly not your Mr Armitage."
Bullingham grunted. "Sonny, that one was slow and weak. Our main question should be if there are more about... and what they are like."
The group stirred at this and stared with rekindled caution at the seemingly deserted buildings around them. They stopped at the entrance to the supermarket, none presuming enough to lead the way. The glass doors were ajar, but the surfaces so dirty, dusty or overgrown that it was impossible to see the interior. Plants sprouted up from between the cracks in the pavement. Some sported knobby stems and misshapen leaves.
"Ladies first," Aaron muttered, then looked away, blushing.
With exasperated sighs, all the women stepped forward simultaneously, stopped, then Hallie Ellington shouldered her way through and with a single backward glance, slipped through the door. The others quickly followed, none keen to be left behind, until the only forms of life apparent outside were the miserable plants, swaying in the breeze.

The wind was picking up. Small dust devils traveled over the road. Had anyone been outside in the square at that moment, they might have heard a muffled crash from inside the shopping centre. They might also have heard a scream.

Jasmine

We arrived at the supermarket, still shaken from our encounter with the mutated creature. I knelt and fingered the twisted weeds sprouting up on the pavement. Dandelions, I think. Rubbery. This kind of plant shouldn't be rubbery. Probably irradiated and therefore absolutely useless to us, although I remembered from when I was a child reading various survival manuals that mentioned it was edible. Maybe to the creatures out here, but we humans were weak.

"Ladies first," Aaron said nervously. I smiled at him. Only my brother. We went forth, but I paused at the door, suddenly afraid. What if...I don't know. Outside used to mean home to me as a child, but it didn't feel like home anymore. I was suddenly afraid of the unfamiliarity and wrongness of this place. The others had paused too. Hallie finally stepped forward and entered, and we followed.

It was dark inside, and Jonathan turned on a flashlight. He passed out a few to various members of the group, mostly the older adults but Hallie and I also got them as the oldest people who were kids before this mess. "Split up, but I want all of you younger than Hallie and Jas to stick with one of them. Safety in numbers. Yell as loudly as you can if you get attack or lost, and we'll try and help you. We'll meet back at this spot in..." he looked around the building. "I remember this place being fairly big. Let's say ten minutes. Hallie, Jas, I want you two to stay near here and the other adults and I will look farther in."

I nodded although inwardly wondering at his rules. He did realize that most of us were adults now, right? I headed down the aisle, followed by Aaron, Lance, and Rhealyn, hoping to find something that could aid our survival.

|Byron Marsh|


Byron was half-surprised at the shrivelled bodies lying at the counter in the supermarket. Flicking his flashlight around he frowned, these shouldn't be here. If a cat had survived the war then there would, as horrible as it was to say, be no bodies. Should, not would.

Slowly he glanced at one of the mummy-like bodies, long black hair falling about a shapeless leathery grey face. That would have been Sally.

Byron sighed, it was hard to think that they were all dead. . . .

He remembered walking into this very supermarket all those years ago. He remembered talking to Sally. He remembered how nice the people here had been. He'd felt comfortable . . . almost happy for that short time.

Quickly he jerked his mind away from the memories, you won't do yourself any good thinking about it. “Come on ya'll,” he said grimly, shining his flashlight up the aisles, littered with more bodies, “Let's see what we can find.”

Followed by Bull and Heather, he slipped into the nearest aisle, shining his light up and down the shelves of food, looking for something, anything they could use. Canned food or anything that had lasted in the refrigerated area would probably be fairly good to eat still. Most of the tools and other things would be useable. Probably.

As long as they weren't made in China then they should have lasted, Byron muttered to himself, pushing a body out of the way.

CRASH! Spinning around, Byron saw Heather looking shame-faced under Bull's glare, a box of cereal smashed open at her feet.

He frowned at her, “don't touch anything! We're just looking right now! Ten minutes and we meet back with the others, then we can go pick up whatever we've found.”

She nodded, and sighing to himself, they continued on.


A half a dozen minutes later he stepped back out of the aisles, nodding to the others who were already there; the position of a shelf of canned food stored in his mind.

“What'd you find?” he asked. Anything alive?

Jas stepped forward hesitantly, “the hardware section is got tons of stuff we could use. Way more than we'd ever need.”

Aaron nodded, “yeah, there're a bunch of half-way decent clothes over there too,” he nodded toward the far side of the dark supermarket. “What did you find?”

“Food,” Heather piped up.

Lance's eyes lit up, “food?”

Byron frowned at him, at least you've got your mind on something important. “Aye, there's a bunch of canned food. A few months worth. I'm thinking that that's all I'm going to trust for now.”

Hallie stepped forward, a grin etched across her face, “and I found THIS!” She held out her hand triumphantly to Byron, displaying a handful of hundred pound notes.

Byron's first emotion at the sight of the money was, you STOLE that! But then he pushed himself back a step, and reaching out sadly, took Hallie's soft, gentle hands in his. “Look, lass.” he said gently, “Everyone we ever knew is dead. Society doesn't exist anymore -and so does the need for money. There's nobody here to sell you anything. They don't need it,” he nodded to the corpses, “so we'll take what we need. We'll share it. But we won't use money.” Slowly he took the money from her and let it drift down to the tiles.

Nodding to the others, he continued, “it's up to us to rebuild this world. It's up to us to make sure what happened before doesn't happen again; it's our responsibility.” Slowly he locked eyes with each of them, making sure they got his point, and then took a deep breath. “Okay, Jas, were there any kind of tarps over in the hardware section?”

Jas nodded, “yeah, but-”

“Aaron, Lance, Jas: Go get us a few big tarps. Now!”

They nodded and scampered away.

A few moments later they returned, hauling half a dozen good big tarps. Perfect.

Stacking them in front of him, they stood and faced him. “Right! So go get whatever you think we need as of RIGHT NOW, and roll it up in these tarps. Haul it all outside and keep guard till we're all there.” He turned to Bull, “you're with me. We're eating good tonight!”

Picking up a tarp he flipped it over and glanced at the sticker on the package. Made in China.

Bull snorted over his shoulder, her own tarp rolled up under her arm, “we're so dead!”

Lance Marsh

Aaron, Jasmine and Lance took one of the large tarps between them and started moving down the aisles, collecting goods.

They piled clothes in, mostly medium and large sizes, but Lance had enough awareness about him to grab some smaller items for his sisters.

"What else do you think we'll need?" Jas wondered quietly.

"Dunno," Lance said. "I want a colouring book."

"What?"

"Colouring book... and some crayons..." Lance glanced around them, searching for the so-far-elusive children's aisle. "I've got a little sister y'know."

"I don't think anyone's going to forget that," Aaron said with a small smile.

"Yeah, especially not you. You're marrying her one day." Lance grinned to himself, too far ahead to see Aaron's expression, but he was sure it was worth it.

"Wait, what happened to getting to choose which of your sisters is dumped on me?" Aaron demanded. Lance dropped his part of the tarp just in time to be knocked against a shelf by Aaron. He pushed him off playfully and ducked a lightly aimed punch.

"Hey, if you think Zo will take you, then-" Lance's words cut off in a sudden gasp as a tin of paint crashed to the floor next to him and then there were two hands reaching through the gap in the shelves, reaching through to grab him. Lance leapt back and stared at the things eyes - at her eyes - did... did she look hungry?

More paint was hurled from the shelf and then the creature turned to make her way around.

"Let's go!" Lance decided, grabbing Jas by the arm to prompt her to move.

"What about the tarp?" Aaron asked. Lance stared at it for a moment - they only really had clothes in it, it wasn't that heavy. Not yet anyway...

"I- I don't know, I-" Lance stuttered as the woman reached the end of the aisle. "I- Uncle Byron! Uncle Byron, there's a thing!"

Rheylayn heard a few words shouted out, and it was definitely Lance's voice. "Uncle Byron, there's a thing!"

She started saying, "You sure it isn't a cat," but stopped as she reached Lance's aisle and widened her eyes. "What the hell is that?"

It looked female, but it didn't look like a regular human. It's eyes were what made her uncomfortable -- the intent, hungry stare. She shivered involuntarily and took a step back.

Jasmine

The feral woman advanced and my friends and brother stood gaping at it. I grabbed Lance and Rheyalyn's shoulders and shook them a little. "Leave the tarp and run!" They snapped out of their shock and dashed away. I grabbed Aaron's hand and pulled him along.

I halted when we had a fair distance between us and the creature and started pulling clothing off the shelves and tossing on the floor. Lance asked, "What are you doing?"

"Slowing it down. Either it'll slow down so it doesn't slip on the clothes, or it'll slow down when it does slip on the clothes. This is the hardware section, too, right? Is there anything we can use as a weapon?"

"There's pipes and stuff," Rheyalyn called.

"Well then. Looks like Byron isn't listening, so get ready to defend yourselves. Aaron, don't you dare get killed." I grab a pipe from a nearby shelf.

"Yeah, you still have to marry my sister, remember?" Lance joked. We readied ourselves to bash the creature over the head. This is going to be disgusting, I thought.

Rheyalyn

We aren't going to die. There's simply a weird creature after us, and besides, we have the power of numbers in our favor. Right? I shivered again. Why was I shivering? It wasn't even cold!

"How far away is the exit?" I asked in a small voice. I can't die! I'm only seventeen!!

The Thing came out of the clothing aisle and stared straight at us with those piercing eyes. I bit my lip, but felt my grip on my length of metal pipe tighten with determination.

Brenn "The Bull Bullingham

"Uncle Byron, there's a thing!" somebody shrieked a few isles down from Bullingham. She stopped in the middle of collecting tins of golden syrup. There had been an edge of panic to the voice that she hadn't liked.
"What the hell is that?" somebody else asked. Bullingham pricked her ears. Yes — there it was — that slow, determined shuffle of a thing.

Placing the syrup tin back on the shelf, she puffed down the isle toward the source of the noise. There was a row of meat cleavers on a shelf around the corner. Bullingham selected the longest, heaviest one and ripped off the packaging. It was a very shiny cleaver, and she was faintly impressed that it had not rusted after ten years on a shelf.

"There's pipes and stuff," somebody called from an isle away. The idiots were going to try to face it. Bullingham increased her pace to a huffy trot, swinging around the corner with the meat cleaver raised. The monster was right in front of her, toddling away from her down the isle like an enormous, malformed baby. Mere feet away, hefting heavy copper pipes and plumbing equipment, Aaron, Lance, Rheyalyn and Jas were preparing to attack it.

Bullingham slowed her pace, took aim and swung her meaty arm in an arc, slicing through the spinal chord of the creature. There was a spatter of black blood, a blubbery thud as it hit the floor, then stunned silence. Again, Bullingham was impressed by the quality of the meat cleaver — good balance, too.

"Well?" she snapped. "Put away that ridiculous equipment before somebody loses an eye. Think you'll be fixing toilets, hey? Well, let me tell you something. You'll be needing a spade quicker than a u-bend for your waste around here."
The teens shoved the pipes onto the shelves, staring in shock at the bloated, discolored body on the floor. Bullingham waved her cleaver, dotting the dusty tiles with more blood.
"Now get moving! Food! Distilled water! Soap! Tools! I want it all here in ten minutes! And you—" she grabbed Aaron by the shirt, "—get me some more of these cleavers. Bloody useful tool to have. And I want Swiss Army knives! Cable ties! Saws! Hammers!"
The teens scuttled away, grabbing objects off the shelves as they went.
"AND KEEP TOGETHER!" Bullingham bellowed. "Now where is that bloody Byron?"

Lance Marsh

Holding the pipe fiercely in his hands, Lance stood with his friends and prepared to kill the creature and they were definitely going to kill it because there were so many of them and only one of her, except... except she looked so hungry. Lance hadn't ever seen anyone look so hungry before, not even during the last few years when they'd started to ration their remaining supplies.

He didn't understand. They didn't have any food so if she wanted food, why didn't she go get some, because there was food in the supermarket, but they didn't have it. What could she want with them - did she only want to say hi? It would be nice if she just wanted to say hi because hey, here they were all together, and maybe, maybe she just wanted friends...

slice

There was a spray of black blood and an unfamiliar, squishy thud as the woman dropped to the floor. Lance didn't know if he was glad to see the Bull or not, but there was a crazy sense of relief washing over him.

Hell man, her blood was black! Black man, no way she wanted to just be friends.

Lance was all too happy to put his pipe down and for once didn't question the Bull giving them orders. He nodded dumbly and scattered off, running toward Jas and Rheyalyn when they were told to stick together. He thought about telling them that he'd take care of them, but was starting to realise how stupid that sounded. Lance wanted to take care of them - he wanted to be big and strong like the men, or even the Bull, but he didn't feel like he was strong.

"Come on, let's go back for the tarp and get some other stuff." Lance didn't even know what he was pulling off of the shelves any more - he just wanted to leave already.