Apocalypse - 6. Chapter 6: Welcome to Hell

“Panah!” Ashi yelled, as I let out a scream and fell backwards. When Ashi ran to my side I started laughing.

“Got you,” I said giggling. In response Ashi sighed, punched my playfully on the shoulder and hugged me.

“If you do that again..” He warned, probably figuring my imagination would come up with a better punishment than he would be able to.

“Okay, okay, I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. These things don't burn at all” With that, I held up my arm to him, exposing about seven of those glowing creatures circling my arm. All I felt was a slight warmth from them and a tickling from their many legs.

“What the hell?” Ashi stared in wonder, and then reached out to touch one, “Son-of-a-bitch!” It all came out as one word as he returned his hand to his chest and jumped backwards. When he pulled it out to examine it, a new burn was formed on his finger.

“Ashi.. what's happened to me?” I just stared at those dangerous little bugs running playfully on my exposed flesh.

“I-I don't know.. Do you think you.. changed?” he asked, motioning to my neck.

“No.. Well I don't know. I mean, all the movies I've seen make changing to a vampire out to be a horrible ordeal, but I don't know if we should trust the movies.. I am so confused Ashi..”

“It's going to be okay, I promise.” Saying this, he pulled me into a hug. He then held my shoulders, pushed me back about a foot, and studied my face with those deep blue eyes. After a few seconds, he shrugged and then stared at the bugs still circling my arm.

“Oh, sorry,” I said as I began to scrape them off, careful to drop them far from Ashi.

“What are they?” He didn't take his eyes off of them as they blindly circled the dirt where they landing; little red flashes against the dark brown.

“Why they're Ignari,” I said, “You know, from the Latin word 'Ignatus,' which means 'to ignite'.”

“Really?” His eyes widened in amazement.

I laughed, “I have no fucking idea, but that's what I’m gonna call them.” Ashi just giggled back at me and seemed to agree.

“So, can you clear those.. Ignari out of our bags? Considering they won't melt your flesh off..”

I sighed, “It would be worthless. It seems like you were right about the fire thing, I mean it's not even an illusion from the pain you felt. They actually did burn holes through the fabric and water-bottles.” With that I picked up an.. Ignarus.. and dropped it on top of one of the bags so we could watch it slowly smolder through. There were no flames, the fabric just began to smoke lightly and then the Ignarus fell through into the now glowing center to join it's friends.

“Well.. that sucks, I guess we really do have to go to town.” We both flinched when we paused to hear the screams ahead of us.

“There's a convenience store at the border of town, right? Jerry's I think it's called?”

Those vibrant eyes lit up at me, “Oh yeah! I know that place. You think we can slip in unnoticed and.. borrow some supplies?”

“Fuck borrowing,” I laughed, “I want to live even if it means damaging my moral compass in the process. I figure we can duck in, try to find new backpacks and fill them with water, medicine, food, and.. well weapons, and then go find a place to spend the night.”

“We should think of a way to keep those damn Ignari out of our shit,” he said, still eyes the ones on the dirt with disgust.

“Yeah, um.. we'll keep having to think of that.. Any ideas?”

Ashi sighed, “No.. but we have a few more minutes to walk so maybe we can think of something.”

“Good point, let's head on before something jumps out of the woods at us. I'll carry Terku this time, I want you to rest.” Ashi tried to argue, but I could tell it was an argument he was praying to lose, so he helped me secure Terku on my back and we continued down the desolate road to Hell.

Our walk wasn't that bad really, it was just.. well, just a simple stroll though the woods with my boyfriend, full of screams and abnormal blue lightning, with a half-dead friend on my back. So.. pretty much it was a first date to remember. We didn't encounter any problems on our walk, and I think we were both too sore to carry on a conversation, so we just linked arms and held each other tightly as we moved closer and closer to the source of the screams.

And then we saw it. I remembered going around town with Ashi and Terku after classes. We would walk casually on the brick-laden sidewalks, surrounded by colonial style two-story shops. There was a strip of about ten building, all made of brick and attached to each other, almost like a strip-mall, but more.. classy, considering the years of history and those painstakingly stacked bricks. Across from the strip of shops were more modern wooden buildings, some serving as houses, others as small businesses. The area was also dotted by several small churches and at the center was the 'something' Baptist Church 'something' 'something'.. As you can tell the three of us were deeply religious.

Regardless of my complete lack of interest with divinity though, I couldn't help but marvel at that church's massive structure. It was about three stories high, made of large golden-yellow stones, hand cut into entirely equal rectangles, and laid in an impeccable fashion that made the entire building appear seamless. The enormous oaken doors were also regularly polished, and swung so easily on their hinges that it felt as though you were simply waving your hands through air when you opened them. And the stained-glass windows were truly breathtaking. The most vibrant colors where arrayed into scenes of various religious figures (or so I assumed), and they stretched for at least two of those three stories. In short, it seemed as though every nail, every brick, and every speck of dust held equal value in that building, and every one was needed to keep the enormous structure from collapsing.

And that theory seemed to hold true when the three of us revisited the town amongst the destruction. Those once pleasant shops now held shattered windows, the streets where littered in trash and.. well what looked like body-parts, and the church's yellow bricks were speckled in blood and three cars, seeming to have crashed into the side of the church, lay violently burning, but seeming to have only dented the stones.

A thick haze of smoke covered a majority of the town, so even though I could hear screams and see shadows running, I couldn't make out what was human, and what was.. other. I just held tight to Ashi and gazed into his eyes, the blue seeming to cut through the smoke like fog-lights. Neither of us moved, both too stunned by the destruction that surrounded us, but we were quickly prompted to run when a high pitched scream was let out behind us and quickly ended in a sickly gurgle.

I grabbed onto Ashi's hand and, using only my memory, ran through the haze to where I guessed Jerry's was, and I almost wept with joy when I crashed into the varnished wooden door. I swung it open, pushed Ashi inside, and then jumped in behind him, closing and locking the door behind us.

The store itself seemed to be in good shape. The interior was dark, either the power was out, or no one was left in here, and the rows of shelves seemed to stand peacefully, just waiting to be browsed. There was a very thin dusting of smoke throughout the room, but overall our vision was left unimpaired; our eyes having already adjusted to the our new darkened world.

“Panah? Lets gather some supplies quickly, before.. anything happens,” Ashi said shakily as he glanced at the door.

“Okay, let's both grab a backpack from the rack over there, and gather what we think is necessary.” And so we set off. I grabbed a black pack, as did Ashi (figuring it would be best to blend into the dark) and we browsed the isles, filling the packs with three bottles of water each, a few random pills, ointments, some bandages, lighters, a couple suture kits, and other apocalypse-friendly items. When I reached for a notebook and a few pens, Ashi lifted his eyebrows quizzically and smiled at me.

“You gonna write me some love poems?” He said leaning in close to me.

“Psh yeah right, I'm going to make a record of the things we've seen so maybe we can learn something,” I said, sticking out my tongue at him, which thankfully made him laugh. We both embraced, enjoying the warmth our bodies gave off and inhaling each others' scents. Blood. Dirt. Sweat. Fear. But oddly, I liked it. It was Ashi, and no mater what he smelled like, it still kindled a fire in my chest.

“I love you Panah, you know that?” he said, leaning against my chest and kissing my on my good cheek.

“I love you too Ashi, I wish we could stay like this forever,” I said kissing him back, but of course I was wrong. Of course fate just loved fucking with us, because I doubt even thirty seconds after I spoke that Terku began to stir and moan on my back.