Epoch of Desolation

Rain also found out the young boy’s name; it was Sean Gallagher. The bulk of his story, though, he was yet to hear. And that was why he was gathering a bunch of snacks and drinks in order to set up an atmosphere that would trigger a relaxed conversation between them all—excluding J who couldn’t talk, of course.

Adding a bag of peanut chips with the gathered edibles in the polythene nylon bag he’d found, Rain turned to J who seemed to have something he would refer to as a pout on her face.

She was always either dazed or incredulous, but now she was pouting too? What next? Smiling? Laughing? The thought of the last one caused him to shiver discreetly. A Jaguar laughing couldn’t be a pretty sight, could it?

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Rain told his Companion. “It’s either chips or nothing. Or do you prefer biscuits?” J was silent, her pouting intensifying. “What? It’s easier to eat expired snacks than anything else. Do you want to eat rotten meat? I’m sure we can find some in the butchery or the frozen foods section, if that pleases you of course. But don’t come complaining to me later when you begin shitting blood, or some weird things. Even without my memories I can still deduce right from wrong.”

He said all those in a hurry, so he took a moment to catch his breath.

“Let me tell you, we were lucky to find that rat in the hospital,” ‘he was lucky’, he meant. “As you can see, there’s none here. However, you can be my guest and roam about until you find one. I’ll leave one more bag of chips for you here to eat when you return from your expedition, just in case. As for me, I’m off to enlighten myself on what exactly is going on in this world. I finally have humans to talk to. And, man, do I have a lot I want to talk about.”

With all that said, Rain heaved out an exhale as though a load was taken off his chest. Then he went on each knee of his in intervals as he put on the black combat boots of leather he’d found.

He had been caught in both minds between his current choice and a pair of sneakers. But, as usual, he weighed the pros and cons of both, and realized that, at the end of the day, no one would care about fashion with the state the world was in.

Any selection he made had to regard efficiency to be greater than presentability. The combat boots won in that regard. They provided durability, an attribute he seemed to love the most, and were designed to endure rough terrain, harsh weathers, and, most of all, stability.

His choice was affirmed as soon as he was done putting the boots on. They cushioned his feet ever so perfectly.

The darkness associated with the storm now raging outside had already infiltrated the entirety of the M&S store, but compared to what Rain had experienced while he was in the hospital, this was nothing. He could see perfectly fine.

After opening one extra bag of chips to add to the other J was yet to touch, as he had said, Rain picked up the polythene bag of snacks he had gathered. He then took one last glance at J. She was now lying on her chest while facing the opposite direction of where he stood.

She’s acting like a spoiled child. He sighed, and with that left the snack and chips aisle to head back to the utilities section where Alice and Sean had taken as their own spot.

###

“A candle?” Rain said as he walked up to Alice who appeared to have gone ‘shopping’, and was arranging the items she had found, the most notable of them was a bundle of rope. He wondered what she needed such for.

Well, I guess it’s better to be over prepared than underprepared…

He threw a chocolate bar at the Sean kid before crossing his legs as he sat down in their midst, completing an arc around the candlelight illuminating the spot.

“Do you have scented ones too?” he asked, half-jokingly and half-curiously. After all, scented candles helped with sleep, that much he could recall, so it would be nice if she did have some. And besides, even though making small talks wasn’t something he felt he knew how to do, he had to try regardless. He couldn’t just go straight to the point with the main things he wanted to inquire about now, could he?

“Thank you,” Sean was the one who spoke though, and with a beam to boot as he opened the chocolate bar he had been given.

“No need to thank me. I didn’t buy it.” Rain put down the polythene bag of snacks beside Sean. “There’s more in there if you want. Enjoy yourself.”

Alice was watching them both through the side of her eyes, seemingly still cautious of Rain. But she couldn’t deny a boy from eating so she did not talk. At least that was what Rain interpreted. He took a chocolate bar too and began to eat, hoping that his actions would relax the woman’s mind.

And it seemed it did. She went on with putting the equipment she had gathered into the backpack she’d found.

Honestly, he didn’t see the point of her caution towards him; J, he could understand, but why was she acting like he’d poisoned the snacks or something of the like.

Was that even possible? Where would he find the poison? What could he possibly gain from attempting to kill anyone?

It was somewhat laughable. But, at the end of the day, he didn’t really care too much for it to bother him and disrupt his plans or thoughts.

“You should leave some space for food,” Rain said to Alice as he swallowed the chocolate bar he was eating, a stale, bland, and bitter aftertaste left on the surface of his tongue and at the back of his throat in return. It made his face squeeze.

Thing tastes worse than expired apple juice and chips combined. That’s it! No more chocolate. He retorted. Sean, on the other hand, was already opening another chocolate bar. The boy’s taste bud had obviously been ruined by the end of the world.

“I will,” Alice replied. And then the dominance of silence descended upon them.

Rain broke it immediately though, by asking, “How long has it been since you were released from the pod?”

“A year and six months,” Alice answered in a heartbeat without even as much as sparing her questioner a glance.

Rain was slightly flustered both because of the duration of Alice’s stay on this ruined earth, and how he’d received a quick response.

He had thought that the woman would not want to engage him on such topics that had an air of privacy about them. Maybe he had just been thinking too much on what was and wasn’t acceptable in a conversation between strangers. The world was no longer the same, so he shouldn’t hold back.

“That’s a while,” he said, and at that moment noticed Alice pausing her packing for a second before carrying on once again.

“It has,” she replied in a somewhat despondent tone.

Rain’s plan to not hold back with his questions crumbled down in an instant. It looked like he would touch deep wounds if kept on threading his current path of inquisition. And so, as a result, he decided to shift his focus out of consideration and respect for another’s privacy.

“Have you been here, in this city, ever since?” he asked as he took a can of apple juice and opened it. His throat was feeling somewhat parched.

“No.” Alice sighed, closed her bag and pushed it aside. Then she turned to face Rain with a plain look on her face.

It was obvious that she was yet to have concluded her packing as there were still a few things on the floor, so the thought that her putting a stop to what she was doing was as a result of him being a nuisance caused Rain’s heart to palpitate.

“Wh-What is it?” he mumbled anxiously.

“Rain Leclair, is it?” Alice questioned in a manner that made it seem as though she was not seeking an answer but expected one.

Rain complied. “Yes. Rain Leclair, it is.”

“You said you just woke up, right?”

“Right.”

“I see. Then what do you understand about what’s going on?”

He was not really sure what that question was implying, regardless, he knew he had to answer. And the first words that came to his mind were, “I’ve likened it to a game, to keep my sanity.”

Alice frowned instantly. “This isn’t a game,” she said strongly, inciting Rain to inhale heavily. “Likening it to one is understandable, but keep that up for more than a day or two days and you will keep your sanity but bite the dust. Now, do you want to bite the dust, young man?”

Of course he didn’t. What sort of question was that?

“No,” Rain answered with a soft shake of his head, his can of half drunk apple juice placed on the floor.

“I’m not a very trusting person, but…” Alice took a moment’s pause. “But just in the off chance that you are who you say you are, I'm not willing to have any other person’s death on my conscience, so I’ll engage you.” She took a deep breath in and out. “The world we all knew ended five years ago, we are in a completely different world now. And in this world there are beasts everywhere.”

I know that…

“No, you don’t,” Alice said suddenly as though she had read Rain’s mind, causing him to flinch in befuddlement. “I didn’t read your thoughts, if that’s what you’re thinking; maybe someone somewhere has such a power, but I, personally, do not. I am just good at deciphering what a person’s thinking depending on the topic and situation.” Rain was visibly relieved. “Anyways, what I’m saying is, the beasts you should be the most scared of aren’t mutated birds or animals.” She raised a finger, pointed it at Rain, then at herself, and finally at the chocolate-munching Sean. “The beasts you should be the most scared of are humans.”