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.
Gender:
Points: 6235
Reviews: 2631