The End of the World Series (Book 1): Survive The Collapse

by McDonald, Clyde

  Aby sighed. “Well, things haven’t been easy...but we’ll all adapt. People like Jake...they’ve been waiting for something crazy like this to happen for a long time. It’s like he was born for this kind of chaos. The rest of us...well, it takes us longer to adjust.”

  “You seem to be handling it pretty well.”

  Aby chuckled. “Yeah, well. I’ve known Jake for a long time, haven’t I?”

  The women giggled, but they were soon silenced by the sound of footfall in the darkness. Megan gasped quietly and both of them reached for their stolen cop guns. Aby felt a little better with it in her hand, but it was impossible to see who was approaching them until they were only a few metres away.

  “Who is it?” Aby asked, a tremor in her voice. But then she recognised the shuffle of feet. She heard a familiar sigh. And suddnely, she knew exactly who was there. She leapt forward to hug Jake close and he chuckled quietly, holding her tight.

  “Hey...it’s okay. I’m here now.”

  Aby buried her face in his neck, breathing in his familiar smell. “It’s good to see you. I’m so sorry about before…”

  “I shouldn’t have left you,” Jake said, kissing her cheek. “But I’ve got some good news. I found a car...a minivan.”

  “Good job!” Megan said cheerfully. “Where is it?”

  Jake pulled away from Aby with a sigh. “Well, that’s the slight problem. I knew the minivan wouldn’t be able to hack driving along the field...it’s too old. So we’re going to have to carry the supplies over there.”

  Megan chewed her thumb anxiously. “But...won’t that take a long time? There’s no way we can carry it all in one trip…”

  “I know. And the weight of it all is going to slow us down. And the longer we wait, the closer we get to morning...the more likely we are to run into trouble. Someone might try and steal what we’ve got...there are risks. But if we manage this, we’re going to be on our way to being okay. I checked the gas...we can drive a long way before the minivan gives up.”

  “We can get far away from here…” Aby said dreamily, as though they were discussing going on a vacation in the sun. “We’ll be away from the cops...away from everything that happened here...it’s perfect.”

  It wasn’t perfect at all. She felt so tired she thought she might collapse. She certainly wasn’t prepared for three or four trips back and forth to the minivan. She suspected the walk would take two hours as a round trip, longer with the heavy supplies. They weren’t prepared for this eventuality at all.

  But she was willing to try and make it work. She could see the doubt in Megan’s eyes, but she gave her an encouraging smile.

  “One last push,” she said gently. “Once we hit the road, we’ll be safe. I say we get moving right now. There’s no use in wasting precious time. The sooner we’re out of here, the better.”

  “You’re right,” Jake said. “Let’s take the heaviest items first...and the most essential in case we need to drive away at short notice. Keep your weapons handy. Make sure you have water and food in your pockets, too. Let’s do this.”

  Aby sprung into action, allowing her adrenaline to drive her. She picked up a heavy bag of supplies and led the way across the field. Within minutes, she was sweating from the exertion. She stopped several times to sip water. She couldn’t remember when she’d last eaten properly so she felt like she was running on empty, but she kept going.

  The first time they made it to the minivan, she felt a joy like no other. Even as the sky was lightning a little and she knew their time was running low, she knew she’d made it over the first hurdle. And then from there, it felt a little easier. Each trip they made, she felt tireder, but she also knew she was close to the end.

  She felt anxious the whole time, of course. There was always the possibility that they were going to run into problems. They were exposed out there. Aby kept wondering what would happen if the police decided to come back and they were caught out in the open. But it seemed like they’d given up the chase. After all, the world was in chaos. If they slipped away quietly, the police would soon realize they had bigger issues on their hands.

  The sun was rising in the sky as they made their final trip to the minivan, abandoning the pickup in the ditch where it had gotten stuck. Aby’s arms ached and her legs felt like they couldn’t take another step. Her feet were covered in blisters and her hands were raw from the effort of carrying things. But they were almost there. The relief that came with that though was so overwhelming that in her exhausted state, it almost made Aby cry.

  The minivan was loaded. There was no sign of a single other person out there with them. Jake turned to Aby and Megan with a tired smile.

  “Right. Let’s hit the road.”

  “Let me drive,” Megan insisted. “I can’t see us having any high speed chases any time soon...and you two haven’t slept in forever. It’s the least I can do.”

  Aby hadn’t even planned to protest against the idea one bit, but she nodded sleepily and clambered in beside Jake. Megan took the wheel a little shakily at first, but soon they were trundling along the road, leaving all of their problems behind them.

  As the fear began to melt away from Aby’s heart, she leant her head on Jake’s shoulder, closing her eyes.

  “We made it,” she whispered. Jake kissed the top of her head.

  “We did.”

  “What a crazy world we live in,” Megan said. “It feels good, driving with nowhere to go...but a little scary too.”

  “I guess there’s no way of knowing what we’ll come across next,” Aby murmured tiredly. “Things could get worse the further away we go…”

  “Don’t think like that,” Jake said. “It’ll only drive you crazy. We have to try and focus on the positives.”

  Aby had once considered herself quite a positive person. An optimist, at least. But now, after only a few days, the logical side to her was telling her that she used to be a fool. Her new found pessimism was the one thing keeping her alive. She had to learn to expect the worst. That was what kept her alert, after all. If they took their eye off the ball, they'd descend into chaos in no time.

  But for that moment, the minivan was their sanctuary. With Megan driving, she was absolved of responsibility. She snuggled closer to Jake. That was a positive to focus on. He was right there beside her. He had made it through hell and back multiple times in one night. She’d questioned his character more than once, but now, she knew he was nothing, but a survivor. Nothing else mattered as long as they were alive.

  The drive was strangely lonely. With not another soul in sight, it felt like they’d been transported to a world where only they existed. Morning came and Aby snoozed for several minutes at a time. Each time she opened her eyes, her heart jolted with fear, wondering if anything might’ve gone awry while her eyes were closed, but every time, Megan was just peacefully driving along, smiling to herself as though they were just on a roadtrip to somewhere nice.

  By the time afternoon came, Aby and Jake had patched together enough sleep to feel functional, and they were miles away from anywhere they recognized. They’d passed a few sleepy looking towns where they saw people milling around, but no one tried to bother them. In fact, the ease of the whole trip seemed too good to be true.

  They found a long stretch of road in the afternoon to park up and get something to eat. They knew they wouldn’t see anyone there, but Jake kept one hand on his gun while they ate together. Aby’s stomach hurt as she swallowed. She’d barely eaten for days, and the food was a welcome, but painful arrival.

  “We’re the lucky ones, aren’t we?” she said after a long time of silence. “I mean...we’ve had a few curveballs.”

  “A few?” Jake asked with a laugh. He almost seemed like his old self. His laughter was foreign to her ears after days filled with so much pain, but it was a good sound nonetheless.

  “Okay, more than a few. But we dealt with it. We survived things that we never expected to make it through. Don’t you think we’re lucky to be a
live after the things life has thrown at us?”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Megan said, delicately nibbling at her sandwich. “A few days ago, I thought I’d die at my husband’s hand. Then, I thought I’d die when I got sick. And then I thought those men at the cabin would shoot me dead, or the cops….but here we are. We certainly are lucky.”

  “And we have everything we need to try and make a new life,” Aby continued. “We have more weapons than most...we have some food to start us out...half a tank of gas in a car that still runs. If anyone is going to survive, it’s us.”

  “Damn right,” Jake said, kissing her cheek. “We’re going to be okay. I just know it.”

  Aby wondered if they were getting too cocky. Maybe they were just flying high from the lack of sleep and the memories of the crazy twenty-four hours that had just passed. But Aby wanted more than anything to believe that they were right. That the world was still fit for them to live in. That they could conquer anything if they stayed together.

  Aby offered to drive for a while when they got back in the van and she felt hope rise in her chest as she took on the open road. She didn’t know where they’d go. She didn’t know if she’d choose left or right at a fork in the road. She didn’t know if one decision like that could change thier lives forever. But there was one thing she knew for sure.

  She was ready for the new world.

  About the Author

  Clyde McDonald doesn’t give out a lot of information about himself. He’s only recently taken up writing.

  You can reach him at: clydemcdonaldauthor@gmail.com