The Apocalypse

Truth of Then

"This is quite the truck you've got here," the man laughed as he took out his machete. "It would be such a shame if I were to..." He ran the blade down the side of the car, making a sound like nails on a chalkboard. He laughed as he saw the hairs on everyone's neck go on end. "Maybe you need to learn a bit."
     "What do y-you want," Megan asked with a shaky voice.
     "I want your truck," he spat through gritted teeth. "This is probably one of the only ones that are still operational."
     "Alright, just let us get out," Megan whispered. The man smirked and pulled his gun up.
     "I know you're not gonna try to escape," he yelled. "I won't hesitate to fill you with lead." Everyone was dead silent, they were in too much fear to even talk, let alone use their weapons. They all felt like crying inside from what the world had become.
     "As you get out," the man began. "You can thank that kid in the back with the massive forehead for finding you. That door could be heard from across town and I just happened to be the first to get here, though I'm sure there'll be more." As he spoke, his hand slipped for just a second. The gun was now not pointed at Megan, so she did what she didn't want to ever do. Her foot slammed the gas pedal harder than she had ever done before. The tires groaned in protest and a bit of smoke oozed from the engine as it began roaring to life. The man had no time to register this, he was too slow.
     "Wait! It's still in park!" Megan yelled. Her hand flew to the shift, but it was too late. The man opened fire, shattering the windshield. Glass sprayed everywhere and cut Megan's cheek. She ignored the pain and shifted gears to reverse. The car flung back and out of the alleyway at what felt like faster than sound. She just had moments in which she expertly turned the car and shifted into drive before flooring it even harder than before. The car groaned even harder than before as it sped down the street. That man came out and pointed his gun at the car. Megan only barely saw through the rear view mirror before she shouted as loud as she could.
     "Everyone, get down!" Gunfire roared towards them. Glass shattering was heard again as the rear window shattered, spraying gas on Collin and Alex. They yelped in surprise and pain as the glass cut their hands and exposed legs.
     "I'll kill you and torture you until you look at Death and beg for him to take you!" The man screeched. "You'll wish you were aborted while you were still a fetus! You'll-" he www cut off by a blast from the roof. Megan looked in the mirrors to see the man falling over and lying in a growing pool of blood. He was dead.
     "Run, run, as fast as you can! You can't catch me, I'm the ginger bread man!" Another figure sang as he pranced down and tore flesh off the first man's arm. Noticing the speeding car for what seemed like the first time, he looked up with a smile coated in blood dripping and flesh dangling from his teeth.
     "I hate this!" Megan cried as they sped away.
     "You can't catch me!" The crazy man yelled as he tore another chunk of flesh off. "I'm the ginger bread man!"

     After a good 20 minutes of speeding away, Megan looked back. Everyone was still sitting there with empty looks on their faces. They all looked like they had just stared Death in the eye and slapped him. She decided it was best to not talk for now, but before she knew it, she pulled into the house.
     "We're back," she whispered, hoping she'd be much more energetic, but after that?  They got out in silence and walked in. Megan waited for everyone to get out before she inspected the damage. It wasn't that bad, there was just a hole in the two windows, and I wasn't sure Ben big.
     "Maybe I'll duct tape it later," she told herself.
     Inside was as depressing as can be. Everyone was lying on something with that same empty look in their eyes. Ethan was asking questions, but getting none, so he was getting very upset.
     "Here," she yelled in an almost insulting voice. She threw Ethan the nunchucks and he mumbled a thank you before he left them. Megan sat down on the couch and pondered what happened.
You can't catch me! The voice rang in her head. I'm the gingerbread man! It made literally no sense why he chose that to be what he would chant, but that was just the words of a person broken by the end. The world has been cruel and left everyone broken and doomed to end up like those men, the one dead or insane. She didn't notice, but she began to cry. The tears left traces behind on her face as they rolled down her cheeks. There had to be something they could do, somewhere they could go, and then she remembered.
     "Centennial," she said aloud. "I think there's something there we might want to get."
     "After that, I need a break." Henry mumbled before turning over on the couch.

     "And that's the story of our weapons," Holden concluded.
     "You did a decent job, Holden," Cade told him. "There's a few missing details but that's fine."
     "You know, we never went to Centennial, so maybe we could go sometime soon," Megan requested.
     "Then let's make an expedition to go in around three days," Lane planned. "We still need to gather remaining supplies and stuff."
     "Then in three days, we go out again, but this time, with practice with weapons and knowledge of what we might see," Alex spoke. He grinned and left for bed, soon followed by everyone but Ethan.
     What did they see that was do so big? He thought. Death is everywhere, so what scares them to where they refused to leave until now? Ethan was never told of the gingerbread man, and he secretly hoped he never would hear of what happened that day, but his morbid curiosity always took over. He had to know.