The Journey

Jasper sat on a log rubbing his sore feet. “How much farther do we have?” he asked, looking at John.“Not far, past the mountain and then we should be good,” John replied in his gruff voice. “Man, I swear this guy is going to kill me,” Jasper thought.

The sun was almost setting when they decided to set up camp for the night. John, who seemed to think going off in a dangerous forest alone is a safe idea, went hunting. Ever since The Incident, life had become a whole lot more interesting. The attack wiped out all electricity, which meant no cell phones, no laptops, no nothing. Jasper lit a fire with the flint John had given him the second day after they met.

Once the fire was roaring, Jasper tried to set up the tents. After what seemed like hours of fighting ropes and tarps, he was exhausted. John got back to camp a little after sunset with what was left of three squirrels. You would think eating squirrel would get easier after doing it for a few months, but you would be wrong. Jasper decided he was full before John could concoct some sort of fungus dessert.

John was a solitary man, but after these few months, Jasper got him to open up a little about his life before The Incident. Turns out, he spent a few years in the army, Iraq mainly, but it seemed to hurt him when he discussed his time serving. Jasper on the other hand…was an antisocial nerd. Before The Incident, Jasper was an outsider in school, and he didn’t have any close friends, which he guessed was because he was so meek-looking.

How they came to knowing each other was a complete fluke. After Jasper was separated from his family, he wandered his town looking for scraps and any clues that would lead him to them. He was searching through a gas station when he met the barrel of John’s gun. John was going to leave him there, but the way John carried himself made Jasper want to follow.

So, for the past two months, they had been heading for a safe haven they heard of when they passed through some small towns. They hadn’t heard much about it other than some survivors were grouped up in the mountains with enough supplies to last a while, even with a large group of people. Jasper sat and digested the squirrel, and John took up his post as lookout for the night. It wasn’t hard falling asleep with the forest buzzing with distant sounds of what Jasper hoped were animals.

The morning came quick. It wasn’t long after Jasper woke up that they were on the move again. They spoke little on the journey, mainly passing observations of the environment, keeping their ears opens. Long shadows were already being casted by the sun when they caught a glimpse of the settlement.

The sun was setting when they saw the torches being lit, making them rush towards it. As they reached the settlement, an odd feeling came over them, an isolation type of feeling. They walked to the closest building and walked inside. It looked as if someone had been in a hurry to get out of there, almost as if they were being chased. Chairs and tables were flipped over, leaving papers and cans scattered across the floor. They split up and checked the other six buildings, all yielding the same result.

When they regrouped, they came to the shocking realization…the town was deserted. “Wait,” Jasper said, “If there’s no one here…who lit these torches?”