The End Boxset: Postapocalyptic Visions of an Unstoppable Collapse Page 6

  As the path turned less into a path, becoming more of just uncharted wilderness, their noisy footsteps echoed with leaves and sticks cracking from the ground. Brian had to avoid hanging vines and branches. It became irritating. He wished they had just stuck to the road.

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked.

  Tobias stopped dead in his tracks and spun around to face Brian. “Yes,” he said, “I know what I’m doing. Quit your whining and pick up the pace!”

  Brian didn’t respond, but something triggered inside of him, for the second time that day. He charged towards Tobias and pushed him.

  “Shut up!” Brian shouted.

  Tobias stumbled backwards then fell onto the ground. He jumped up, shocked and angered, and then pushed Brian back. “Eat shit!” He shouted back. Brian charged again at Tobias, this time pushing him even harder. Tobias, on guard this time, tried to maintain his balance, but still went backwards, right into a large spider web. He thrashed around in a panic trying to get the sticky web off him. Brian saw his opportunity and then tackled Tobias to the ground.

  “Stop, you asshole!” Tobias shouted. “You pushed me into a spider web!” He let out a girlish scream. “There’s a spider on me.” He said, pleading with Brian to stop.

  Brian moved off Tobias. He sat up on his knees and started to laugh as Tobias rolled on the ground moving his arms in a flailing motion to get the spider web off.

  “It’s not funny!” Tobias’s frantically ran his hands through his head trying to brush off the phantom spider.

  “You scream like a girl,” Brian said, laughing.

  Tobias sat up and glared at Brian, not amused. “I’m serious. That was the funniest scream I’ve ever heard.”

  Tobias couldn’t help but to laugh a little himself too. “What? I don’t like spiders.”

  For a moment the boys just sat there in the woods, trying to catch their breath and laughing at each other. “That senior tried to throw you into a trash can. Now that’s funny,” Tobias shot back. Brian conceded that it was pretty funny and their laughter continued. “At least I didn’t scream like a girl,” he said back. This time, their jubilance was uncontrollable.

  In the distance an unsavory-looking bearded man observed the boys. He carried nothing, but a pistol in his hand. He moved in closer to inspect the commotion.

  Brian helped Tobias up and dusted his back to remove the rest of the spider web. Their laughter came to an end and they knew they would have to keep moving. Suddenly, behind them, there were footsteps. Brian spun around, unexpected panic hitting him. Tobias turned as well. In front of them stood the man—a crazy gleam in his eyes—who looked like a drifter. The immediately noticed the pistol in his hand. He stared at the boys for a moment before speaking.

  “What are you doing here?” He asked.

  Neither boy responded. He raised his pistol slightly.

  “I asked you a question. You boys speak English?”

  They collectively froze at the sight of the gun aimed towards them.

  “Cat got your tongue?” The man continued.

  He lowered his pistol and wiped his dirty forehead.

  “Have it your way then. You know it’s not safe out here. It’s not safe anywhere. The world is coming to an end. Nothing left. You heard that explosion, right?”

  Not surprisingly, the boys didn’t answer. Their eyes didn’t leave the pistol, as the man waved it around while speaking.

  “That was a terrorist attack. It’s only the beginning. Won’t be much left of this world after today, I imagine.”

  Tobias decided to interject, “We’re just trying to get home. That’s all.”

  “Home?” the man laughed. “There’s no home left for any of you. Might as well join me and get it over with.” The boys looked at each other than back to the man.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to confuse you bright young gentlemen. The problem is that you interrupted me. I wanted to do this earlier, but I just couldn’t. My wife, on the other hand, God rest her soul, she was ready. We made an agreement, a pact.” The man wiped away some tears that were forming.

  “She was able to do it, because she had guts. Me, I was a coward. I just couldn’t do it. She told me to do her first. So I did. Then I was supposed to go after. Then we’d be together, but I just couldn’t do it. I failed.” The man attempted to muffle his sobs with his hand. “I can’t do it!” he shouted.

  The boys noticed his slight distraction and started to move away. The man jolted his head up and aimed his pistol aimed directly on them.

  “Don’t even think about it!” he shouted. He noticed the boys were nervous and shaking, so he tried to lower his tone.

  “I don’t mean to give you boys a scare, but you can do something for me.” He went immediately for Tobias and pushed the pistol into his young hands. “I want you to shoot me once, right in the head. I can’t understand it, it’s like my body won’t let me. But you, you can do it for me!”

  The man pushed the pistol into Tobias’s hands. He noticed resistance as he yanked Tobias further.

  “Come on, now. You can do it.” The man held Tobias’s hand to his own forehead and beckoned him further. “Just squeeze the trigger. That’s all I ask.”

  The man’s voice grew more desperate. He shook Tobias hand violently, trying to get him to pull the trigger. “Do it! Send me to my wife! Send me to the next world! Deborah I’m coming!”

  Tobias started to cry. His attempts at pulling away from the man were futile. Brian stood frozen, but then made an attempt to pull Tobias away. The man noticed as the flames in his eyes grew. He pushed Tobias away and then pointed the pistol at Brian. Tobias rolled onto the leaves and dirt.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” He demanded from Brian.

  “Nothing,” Brian answered in fear.

  “Didn’t your mom ever teach you about charging a man with a gun? If you got the guts to do something like that maybe you’re the one who can do me in.” The man tossed the pistol to Brian.

  “Pick it up.” He said.

  Brian looked down at the gun, but wouldn’t touch it.

  The man thought to himself for a moment. “Okay, we can do it your way.” He rushed over to Tobias and got him into a headlock. It was like the scene at the high school replaying itself right before Brian’s eyes. Was the man a reincarnation of the jock?

  “You have five seconds to put a bullet in my brain before I snap your friend’s neck like a twig.”

  Tobias struggled and kicked, trying to release himself from the man’s arm grip.

  “One…,” the man counted.

  Brian lunged at the gun, picked it up, and pointed it at the man.

  “That’s better, two…,” the man continued.

  “Let him go,” Brian said.

  “Three…,”

  “Let him go!”

  “Four…,”

  Brian aimed the pistol squarely at the man, wavering. He had never shot a gun before. He only hoped the bullet would guide itself where it needed to go. The man closed his eyes in relief while holding onto Tobias. A loud metallic blast followed. Then silence.

  The man opened his eyes, wondering if he was dead. Instead he saw Brian standing with the pistol pointed upward. In his shock and confusion, the man’s grip loosened on Tobias. Tobias immediately pulled himself away and ran next to Brian. It took a moment, but the man soon realized he was still alive. “No…” he said. “You were supposed to pull the trigger. I wanted to see my Deborah!”

  Brian threw the gun as far away from him that he could. “Do it yourself!” he shouted.

  The man watched the gun fly into the brush like a dog watching its favorite ball.

  “Let’s go,” Brian said to Tobias. Tobias eagerly nodded and the boys ran away, leaving the man to his sad and sorry state. “You should have kept the gun,” Tobias said. Brian didn’t respond.

  “Get back here!” the man yelled from his squatted position.

  The boys quickened their
pace, ignoring him.

  The man attempted to run after the boys, but instead turned to search for his gun. He ran into the brush, tossing branches and leaves to the side. His cries and moans became distant as the boys ran farther ahead.

  Tobias looked to Brian. “Thanks for not shooting me.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Brian answered staring ahead.

  The boys slowed down from a run to a fast walk.

  “We’re still going to make it home. Everything will be normal again.”

  “I know,” Brian said. Tobias took the lead and the boys slowed down to a walking pace.

  Tobias knew they didn’t have much longer to go. Or at least he thought. He was certain they would be home eventually. There wasn’t much said between the two for some time. Their movements were measured by the sound of dead leaves from below. They weren’t the only people in town trying to get somewhere. If Brian had known that his mother was only a few miles away, peddling down the street past bewildered drivers who no longer had functioning cars, they might have changed direction. But the day was still young and their trouble was far from over. At that moment, they had each other, even as everything started to collapse around them.

  The End: Book Two

  Chapter 1: Who Turned Out the Lights?

  Wednesday four o'clock in the afternoon. It was almost rush hour in this Pittsburgh suburb. Today was an exception due to the unprecedented amount of inoperable vehicles filling the road. There was simply no explanation behind the freak occurrence. All cars just stopped working. One moment people were behind driving wheel, and then in the next moment, they weren't moving. On a moderately busy street outside a high school, there were around forty cars stalled along the road for miles. Some people, after becoming even more frustrated to discover their cell phones didn't work, fled the scene on foot. Other people conversed among themselves, or with other drivers, offering thoughts on the unexplained shutdown of their cars and phones.

  From these conversations stemmed several wild theories involving some type of massive electrical glitch in the system or some foreign attack on our satellites. Maybe it was a radioactive element; some vapor that had been released in the air to destroy electrical systems. Considering all cars today ran on the very vulnerable electrical system prone to attack, this could have very well explained such a massive malfunctioning.

  Alice believed that her Pittsburgh neighborhood had been hit with an EMP, or Electromagnetic pulse. But what that really meant for everyone, she wasn't sure. She had never considered the full ranging effects of an EMP before, or how such an attack could be implemented. Detonation could have been achieved through a nuclear blast, a dirty bomb, or a geomagnetic storm. For starters, Alice wasn't an expert, but she had done some reading on EMPs in the past. As she peddled her son's bicycle down the street a good ten miles from his school, she wished she had done more reading on the matter. Alice weaved between vehicles that were no longer functional and huddled groups of confused drivers along the road. Most people were too distracted to even take notice of her. However, she didn't like the look of one tired and frustrated man who was leaning on the hood of his car. Their eyes met in a quick glance where Alice looked away first. His expression seemed to ask, How come you have a bike and I don't?

  Concerns of EMP attack threats had gained steam over the years. This rather familiar doomsday scenario was a certainty in her mind. It could have been behind the explosion she heard earlier that day. Hell, it could have been the explosion she heard. If this was true, then they country was indeed under attack. Her husband, Randall, at home, waited for her to return. Once their power went out, and Alice realized their car wouldn't start, she grabbed her son Brian's bicycle against Randall's wishes and rode off into town to get her children and bring them home. She had quite a few miles to go to reach both schools, and wasn't even sure of the logistics of going into separate schools, getting both children, and taking them back to the house, primarily on foot. This wasn't going to deter her mission, however. It was something she had to do.

  Brian and Tobias continued on foot throughout the woods. Their encounter with a crazy suicidal man who they unexpectedly came across had tired them. There wasn't much to do but walk, and now that they were deep into the woods, they had little option but to keep moving.

  “Man, I'm thirsty,” Brian said.

  Tobias, walking a few steps ahead, turned towards Brian. “Yeah, me too. We're almost there.”

  “This sucks, we should have brought some water,” Brian said

  “We didn't have much time to go to the store if you remember,” Tobias said looking ahead.

  “Whatever.”

  “You're making this worse than it needs to be.”

  “How much longer?”

  “We should be coming to a clearing soon.”

  “Miles? Feet? Yards?”

  Tobias pointed ahead. “Just right ahead some.”

  Brian began to suspect that Tobias might not be too sure himself. He could never get a straight answer out of him. It was getting darker by the minute. They were woefully unprepared to be in the woods after dark. They had no light source, they had no food, and Brian was starting to think that they were lost.

  “It's getting dark, Tobias,” Brian said.

  “What's that?” Tobias asked pointing ahead, “Look, over there. What is that?”

  Brian squinted and tried to make out the foreign object ahead. Whatever it was, it was blue and concealed by trees. Tobias quickened his pace. Brian followed. As they grew closer, the figure revealed itself as a car. “Wow,” Tobias said, “This car must have been here forever.”

  It was a junk car. Or the remains of a junk car. Mainly just the fame. There were no windows, tires, doors, or seats. The faded blue was nearly rusted to the core. There was no denying that the car had been there for ages, but the main question was: how? How did the car get in the woods?

  Even with night time approaching and a questionable amount of distance remaining, the boys couldn't help but to take some time and examine the car. Tobias leaned in through the driver’s side and touched the vintage steering wheel. “Too bad this doesn't work, we could really use this now,” he said.

  “You see any roads around here, genius?” Brian said as he circled the car observing the cracks, rust, and weeds sticking out from holes in the floorboards. It was interesting to look at, but Brian wanted to keep moving. His headache had worsened. “Okay, let's go,” he said, “I don't want to be sleeping tonight.”

  “I should get a picture of this,” Tobias said. He reached into his pocket and pulled his cell phone out. “Shit, I forgot, my phone is dead.” He cradled the phone in his palm in disbelief, as if it was looking at a person who had deserted him. He put the phone back in his pocket, shrugged and started walking. Brian was glad they were moving again. He glanced back for one last look at the car. It was still there. It would probably always be there.

  It was dusk, and Tobias's house was nowhere in sight. To make things worse, the path was getting thicker and rougher. The branches and vines more thick, the clearing narrowing. Weeds started to reach their knees. Brian's face hurt. He felt the swollen bumps from his earlier school fight. His soreness and dehydration had made him impatient and irritable. It seemed like they had been walking forever and he was done with it. Over it. He wanted to be home, no more bull shit. This was stupid plan, he thought. Why did we come in the woods? Tobias is an idiot. Look, he doesn't even know where he's going. Brian's last nerve was nearing as they hunched over to avoid the branches and vines surrounding them.

  “Tobias,” he said. Tobias turned around. “What?”

  “Do you have any idea what you're doing?” Brian asked dryly. He could feel another argument coming on. His irritation would ensure that. Tobias glared at Brian, unresponsive. They were surely about to have an argument now.

  Suddenly, another explosion shook the ground. This one seemed closer. It sounded like something accidental, or maybe it was intentional. How do you tell? Even
though it seemed close, the aftershock would indicate that it was much farther away than presumed. But the boys didn't know any better. It instantly jolted their consciousness, and made them alert, not to mention afraid. For a moment, they didn't feel tired at all. A siren sounded in the distance, and then faded.

  “What the hell was that?” Tobias asked, after moments of silence.

  “I don't know, man,” Brian said.

  Tobias's eyes lit up. “Look, there's a path over there!” he said pointing. Brian turned and saw a path to their right. It felt like a blessing.

  The boys raced through the branches, sticks, leaves, and vines until they made it to the other side. They felt home free. “This is the path, all right. Just the one I was looking for. We take it straight through and we'll be home in no time,” Tobias stated confidentially. Brian was too exhausted to argue any other plan. He wanted nothing more than to get home, drink thirty gallons of water, and put some ice on his face. He also noticed that his sneakers weren't really cut out for all this nature hiking. True, he had them for about a year now, but the soles were really starting to wear since the beginning of their little journey.

  “Follow me!” Tobias said. And he was off, down the path. Brian didn’t want to run, but he made an attempt to walk as fast as he could. His headache was growing, and running certainly wasn’t going to help. He looked a few feet ahead. The back of Tobias's head was in central focus. A thought flashed momentarily of being carried by Tobias the entire way home. It was a funny thought and almost a real possibility. After all, they were out here because of Tobias's own doing. If he hadn't tossed his trash near the jock, the jock would have never started with them. Then, rather than stumbling through the woods, they'd probably be home right now playing video games. Of course, all those cars on the road might have prevented that. Brian wasn't sure.