Voices of the Apocalypse: The Collection

by Simone Pond

  “She just gets hotter, doesn’t she?” Trevor said, nudging Critter.

  “Yeah, I suppose she does.” Critter took another sip from the flask and leaned back against the cinderblock wall. As much as he tried to blot out Mona, she was always right there in front of him. He relaxed as the heat of vodka burned through his veins.

  “Too bad she’s a cheerleader,” Trevor said.

  He didn’t respond because he knew Trevor was testing him. Critter had sworn to his buddies that he had moved on, but they knew he was shackled to Mona; she was the air he breathed. They all knew it, but they’d never acknowledge it.

  “Did you get your bags to the meeting place?” Critter asked, changing the subject.

  “Yep. Over the weekend. It was tough, carrying that bag on my board.”

  “It’s good practice,” Critter said.

  “Also, John and I spent Sunday night siphoning gas like a couple of crack whores sucking dick. We’ve got plenty of gas to get us to the San Juans.”

  “Cool. What about Dave?”

  “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?”

  “Dave ain’t goin’ no more,” Trevor said.

  “What?” Critter looked down the row at Dave. “Hey, Dave, come here,” he called over.

  Dave waddled down the row and squeezed in next to Critter, his chubby legs pressing against him. “What’s up?”

  “What’s this bullshit about you not coming?”

  “I can’t. My dad found my draft notice in the trash, and now he’s got me on lock-down. Says he’s takin’ me to Denver if he has to drag me. It’s my turn to serve our country.”

  “Not possible. You gotta come with us. One for all, man.” Critter held out his fist.

  Dave reluctantly bumped his fist on top of Critter’s but didn’t seem very committed to the cause. “I don’t know, dude. Look at me; I’m in no condition to survive in the wilderness.”

  Trevor laughed. “He’s got that right. You should’ve seen him trying to ride his bike and balance his bag. Fell down, like, twenty times.”

  “Cool your jets, man.” Critter glared at Trevor. “Dave’s had a rough year.”

  Down below, the cheerleading squad started shouting motivational words and the audience cheered back. It was too loud to continue the conversation.

  “You’re coming, dude,” Critter yelled to Dave over the ruckus.

  Dave went back to his spot on the bleachers, shoving John over a bit to make some space. At one point, Dave had been the best skater of the crew, but when his mom got sick and died earlier that year, he put on a bunch of weight and gave his skateboard to Trevor. He had given up on living, but Critter had been trying to convince him that he’d start to feel better once they got to the woods. Once they all got away from the Repatterning.

  Critter tried to be casual about looking at the gymnasium floor. He didn’t want to seem too eager. He watched Mona bouncing up and down, clapping and smiling. The light from inside of her beamed throughout the entire place. Critter felt his heart leap upwards, like when he performed a Caballerial. He caught Mona glancing up at him between cheers, and he pretended not to notice.

  After a few announcements from Vice Principal Alberts, the students filed out of the gymnasium. Most of the students didn’t bother heading back to class; instead they left campus and headed to the lake, where they’d party until someone got hurt. Critter had zero desire to hang with the idiot squad, so he went to English class and sat in his usual spot in the back of the room. Attendance was spotty and Mr. Chader decided to let the students spend the hour doing some creative writing in their digi-pads. Critter had been using his creative writing time to make copious notes for his escape plan, making sure he had thought out every detail. He was reviewing his notes when Mona showed up to class about ten minutes late, apologizing to the teacher. Mr. Chader nodded, pointed to an empty seat next to Critter, and instructed her to do some creative writing––if she wasn’t too tired from all the bouncing around. Critter smiled at that comment.

  Mona sat in the chair and the scent of gardenias filled the air around Critter. He turned up his music, trying to stay focused on his notes.

  Mona tapped his arm.

  He removed his headphones and gave her a stone-cold look of indifference, though he was feeling anything but that. “Yeah?” he asked.

  “Sorry about Tim. He can be such a jerk.” She smiled and her eyes twinkled, or maybe he just imagined that part.

  “Yeah, dicks seem to be your type.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Pretty much what it sounds like.”

  “Are you saying I like dicks?”

  Critter laughed until Mona caught on.

  She turned red and got flustered. “So, you’re saying I like assholes?”

  Critter chuckled, shaking his head. “You’re too easy.”

  “Damn you, Critts, you know what I mean.”

  Mona hadn’t called him Critts in a long time and hearing it knocked him off guard. He turned to face her directly and got serious.

  “I’m just saying you could do much better. A lot better. That’s all.” He put his headphones back on and tried to ignore Mona, but her presence had permeated the back half of the room––and his entire soul. He turned his chair and tried to read his notes, but his efforts were pointless.

  Mona tapped on his shoulder again. He acted annoyed by her interruption, though he wasn’t.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “About what?”

  “Everything.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about and whatever it is––whatever. I’m trying to write.”

  “You don’t give a shit about this assignment and you know it. And Mr. Chader doesn’t seem to care either.” She pointed to the front where their teacher was napping in his chair.

  They started giggling and couldn’t stop. Their laughter snowballed until they lost complete control. Some of the other more serious students who were actually doing the assignment glared at them. They lowered their heads onto their desks to muffle out the noise.

  When Critter regained composure, he looked up at Mona. “You don’t owe me an apology,” he said.

  “Sure I do. I’ve been a bitch to you since we were kids. I don’t know why; it’s not like I don’t like you. Maybe it’s because––”

  Critter’s heart thumped up a notch. This was the moment he’d been waiting for since kindergarten––Mona Hendricks was about to proclaim her love for him . . .

  But she never got the chance to actually say the words because a loud explosion thundered through the atmosphere, shaking the ground and barreling through the high school, taking down the building brick by brick.

  In the commotion, Critter had pulled Mona out of her chair and down to the floor under his desk. Chunks of the ceiling crashed all around them and windows shattered, blasting glass throughout the room. Mr. Chader was pinned under a beam, and most of the other students were either scrambling to get out of the room, or stuck under piles of rubble. Mona screamed in Critter’s ear while the sound of Pink Floyd’s Animals soundtrack streamed from his dangling headphones.

  “What’s going on?!” Mona grasped Critter’s jacket and clung to his arm.

  “We gotta get out of here before we get crushed,” he yelled, pulling her away from the collapsing classroom.

  They made their way outside through a hole where the wall used to be. Holding hands, they ran across the high school campus. Planes zoomed by overhead, dropping bombs onto the suburban neighborhood and the surrounding areas. Mona stopped to look back at the high school, crying and wanting to go back and get her friends, but Critter dragged her along. He needed to get to the secret location where the fellows had planned to meet––the cave. Their faces flashed in his mind and he hoped they hadn’t been crushed in the explosion.

  “Come on, Mona. We gotta keep moving. It’s too late. Nothing you can do now.”

  She ran alongside of him across
the football field and down the other side of the hill toward the main street. Cars were piled up on top of each other, and there were fires burning everywhere. Fiery orange flames rolled through the neighborhoods and down the tree-lined roads. Home were smoldering and collapsing to the ground. Black smoke billowed through the sky. The entire town of Arvada was on fire.

  Critter handed Mona a bandana to cover her face, then tied one around his own. He dropped his skateboard to the ground and told Mona to jump on his back. She got up and held on tightly, whimpering in his ear the whole time he pushed through the streets toward the meeting place. For the last few months, he’d been skating around with a hundred-pound duffle bag to build up his physical endurance. He had been prepared for this very situation.

  “Where are we going?” she cried.

  “The meeting place,” he yelled.

  “Where?”

  “Just trust me.”

  Critter skated through the smoke-ridden back streets, zipping around the flipped over cars, piles of bricks, and telephone poles. He turned onto Clover and cruised down the steep hill at top speed all the way to the bottom. They hit the grass and propelled forward, rolling on top of each other until they came to a stop. Critter’s elbow throbbed and Mona curled up in a ball, holding her face. She had a gash on her cheek. He reached over and pressed her bandana against the bleeding wound.

  “You gotta keep pressure on the cut. Okay? Come on, we gotta keep moving.” He pulled her up.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To the caves. We’ll be safe there.”

  Mona trailed behind Critter, crying non-stop, while he navigated through the woods. He veered off the main path and they went deeper into the dense forest. After twenty minutes of trudging over fallen branches and heavy brush, Critter stopped and pointed to a hillside of boulders.

  “We’re here. Come on.” He took her hand and helped her as they climbed over the rocks until they got to the edge of a cliff.

  “Now what?” Mona asked, terror skirting around in her pale blue eyes.

  “We have to scale down to the bottom. The cave opening is down there.”

  “Scale down how?”

  Critter went to a nearby rock and pulled out a mound of rope. He took one end and secured it around a large rock, making sure it could hold his weight.

  “I’ll go down first and wait at the bottom.”

  She peered over the edge and scooted back. “No way. I can’t do this.”

  “Looks worse than it is. I’ve done it a hundred times. You can use the rocks to wedge your feet. I’ve seen you climb up a stack of humans and let them flip you around in the air. You can do this.”

  She smiled. “I knew you were watching. Even though you pretend like you don’t care about cheerleading.”

  He held the rope and edged his way over the side of the cliff. He glanced up at Mona. “I don’t care about cheerleading,” he said. “I care about you.”

  Despite her fear or the pain from the cut on her cheek, she smiled and the light returned to her face. There was no denying the feelings were mutual. Finally, the moment had arrived. Critter went down as fast as he could. At the bottom of the cliff, he untied the rope from his waist and shouted up for Mona to start making her way down. She was still in her blue and yellow cheerleading uniform, with the ass of her bloomers in full view.

  “Don’t watch,” she yelled to Critter.

  “I have to make sure you don’t fall.” He laughed. “And you don’t have any trouble showcasing your ass around school.”

  “That’s different! It’s my job.”

  Critter kept the rope taught, his palms burning. Mona got to the bottom and dropped to the cold ground, where she stayed curled in a ball.

  “You coming, or staying here?” he asked.

  “I’m scared. What about my friends? And my family?” She started crying again, sniffing and slobbering into her hands.

  Critter helped her up and let her cry into his shoulder. He held her close and patted the back of her head. “We can go back and check on them after it’s over,” he assured her.

  “After what’s over?”

  “Whatever they’re doing. Burning Colorado to the ground . . .”

  He put his arm around her shoulder and led her toward the rocks. After moving away some of the smaller boulders, they reached the small opening of the cave and crawled through the crevice. Inside, the cave was black as tar. Critter took out a glow stick from his jacket and cracked it open, creating an eerie greenish glow. He walked to a narrow tunnel and motioned for Mona to follow. They crawled through the space until they reached a large opening. It was cold and damp inside, but they were able to stand up and walk around. Critter went over to a pile of bags against the wall and pulled out the one with his initials. He took out the portable lantern and lit up the space.

  “Now what?” Mona’s tears had streaked through the blood and dirt on her cheeks. She trembled from the cold.

  Critter took off his jacket and wrapped it over her shoulders to keep her warm. “I need to clean out that cut,” he said.

  He found a first-aid kit in his bag and went to work, fixing up her face.

  “I need to sit down,” she said.

  He helped her over to the row of duffle bags and they sat down.

  “Now what?” she asked.

  “We wait.”

  “For what?”

  “The others. John, Trevor, and Dave. Once they’re here, we can discuss the next steps. We have a car hidden in the woods. We’ll need to hike over to it and drive the hell out of here. I heard about an underground group of people living deep in the San Juan Mountains. We’re going to meet up with them and make our way toward the coast before winter.”

  “Before winter? What the hell, Critter? How long are you planning on living out in the wild like animals?”

  “Like animals?”

  She stood up and started walking over to the tunnel. “I can’t do this. I have to get back to my house and see if my parents are okay.”

  Critter kept quiet, stretching out on the ground. He rested his head on the back of his duffle bag, watching and waiting––like always when it came to Mona Hendricks. She got down on her knees and crawled back through the tunnel with the ass of her yellow bloomers in plain view. He closed his eyes, chuckling to himself as she disappeared into the blackness. She’d be back . . .

  ###

  “Critter, dude. Wake up,” someone said, shaking him awake.

  He opened his eyes and waited until they adjusted to the dim light. “Trevor,” he muttered, sitting up and looking around to see who else was there. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “Don’t know. I bailed the second that first one hit. That one over there was crying on the rocks near the opening.” Trevor pointed to Mona, who was sitting on the ground with her scraped up knees bent into her chest.

  “You okay?” Critter asked Trevor.

  “I almost cracked a rib coming down that hill, but I’m good. My hands and legs are in good shape. Dude, I don’t think Dave or John made it.” He sat next to Critter and lifted his T-shirt to examine the dark purple bruising along the side of his body.

  “You know the plan. We wait here for two days, and if nobody else shows, we head out.”

  Mona looked up. “We have to stay in this cave for two whole days?”

  “Quit whining. I don’t even know why you’re here.” Trevor glared at Mona, then over to Critter. “Sucker,” he said under his breath.

  “I couldn’t leave her behind,” Critter said.

  “Nope. You never could.”

  “Shut up, man. Otherwise it’s gonna be a couple of really long and uncomfortable days in here.” Critter nudged Trevor in the ribs.

  Trevor howled like a kicked dog. He took out his sleeping bag and scooted off to the back of the cave to get some sleep. Critter took out his sleeping bag and got inside. He put on his headphones and closed his eyes, wondering how much longer before his batteries died. Somewhere in the mi
ddle of Zeppelin’s “In Through the Out Door,” Mona came over and sat on the sleeping bag. He remained still, and after a few minutes, she scrunched her way down inside and nestled her head against Critter’s arm. Gardenias. He turned on his side and they faced each other.

  “Everything’s gonna be fine,” he whispered.

  “I hope so.” She closed her eyes and snuggled up against his warm body.

  Everything about the way their bodies melded into one another felt right, as though all the orbits had aligned. Took you long enough, Critter thought.

  “What’d you say?” Mona’s voice sent chills up his back.

  “It took you long enough.”

  She opened her eyes and touched his cheek. “I don’t know why. I’ve always wanted this.”

  “Have you? Or are you just saying that because I might be one of the only guys left on the planet?”

  “I’m saying it because it’s true. I pushed you away because, well, because . . . I don’t know. I guess I wanted to be popular, and being with you seemed like it’d get in the way of that.”

  “At least you’re honest. As stupid as you sound.”

  She smacked his chest and they laughed. “It seemed so important. And then I got caught up in it. You know how peer pressure goes.”

  “Actually, I don’t.”

  “Yeah, you’ve never been one to follow the crowd. I guess that’s why we’re here in this cave.” She looked at him and smiled. “Thanks for saving my life, Critts.”

  He leaned in closer and softly kissed her mouth. The taste of salt and dirt made the moment even sweeter. He’d waited a long time to kiss Mona Hendricks. After they were all kissed out, they scooted down into the sleeping bag and fell asleep, with Trevor’s snores reverberating against the walls.