Apocalyptic Love

Moving swiftly and silently through the jungle proved difficult as three blundering humans followed the trail I provided. It had barely been five minutes before I decided to slow down and take my time. The frustratingly echoing noise that the men created had me grinding my teeth, though I was grateful that moving slowly quieted their pace. It was better this way. Safer. Even if it would take twice as long to get there. It honestly baffled me how they had survived this long.

Damp hair clung to my cheeks as I slithered through the sticky humidity. Jimmy’s laboured breaths launched my steps into a steady beat; a habit I’d gathered in my years of stalking the jungle. I’d learned quickly when I’d found my home. To be as silent as you possibly could, you had to move with the jungle.

I glanced back at the three boys, holding in my laugh at their bright red faces, and the sweat pouring down their faces like running faucets. We’d been travelling non-stop for a little over a day now, and I had warned them of the treacherous journey, cancelling out their expectations of a quick return back to the safe zone. They hadn’t taken me seriously, which I now assumed they wouldn’t do ever again.

“So you’re a fan of the Joker and Harley Quinn comics?” Jimmy heaved, speaking in as low a voice as he could manage.

I grinned, nodding enthusiastically as my pace matched the man’s. The comics hadn’t crossed my mind for years until I’d realised that Jared was my childhood friend. Even now that I knew who he was, it was hard to keep from calling him Joker.

We were eight when Doc pulled us into a comic book shop. A pack of chittering hyenas had been uncomfortably close at locating the tasty smell of our sweat in the air. Their proximity had goose bumps crawling up my skin, I practically felt their hot stinky breath on the back of my neck. We didn’t leave the comic store until hours after their laughs were gone, and by then Jared had found the book with my name on it. We were hooked ever since.

“So what is it like out there now?” I asked tentatively.

Despite my contentedness of living in the jungle, I couldn’t help but feel curious as to what was going on in the rest of the world. Flashes of abandoned and crumbling structures were all I really recalled. That and the objects that Doc had called cars, overgrown with vines and weeds. I couldn’t remember how the world had looked before the apocalypse. I was too young to have engraved it into my memory.

“Well in the nine years since you went ape,” Jimmy chuckled. “The civilised world doesn’t look much better.” He paused, trying to piece together his words. “It’s – lonelier, I guess. I don’t know what you remember of it, but we hadn’t seen another human since finding Ellis a couple of years ago. We can’t be sure what’s happening.”

I frowned slightly, my head tilting to the side as I scrambled over the thick trunk of a fallen tree. “What do you mean?” I asked.

Brushing a hand through his short cropped hair, Jimmy breathed a sigh, reluctant to voice out his thoughts. Clearly it was a soft spot, and one he didn’t particularly want to discuss, for reasons unknown to me.

“We don’t know what’s happening to our people,” he explained. “Whether the beasts are picking us off, or whether we’ve just gotten better at hiding.” His tone had changed, becoming hard and restless. “As far as we can tell, we’re the last ones left.”

My katana bounced against my back as I leapt over a collection of low shrubs. My mind was whirring, thinking over his words and finding them familiar to how I had once thought. I could imagine his doubt over the survival of our species.

“You don’t know that,” I tried to reassure him. “I thought I was the only human left until a billion of you started popping out of the trees.” He laughed lightly at this, shaking his head at my exaggeration. “I’m sure we aren’t the only ones left, and besides, there has to be more. Or else we’ll have to rely on you and Emily to repopulate the world.”

Jimmy unintentionally scoffed loudly, clamping his large hand over his mouth with wide eyes as the sound resounded through the trees. Immediately, the four of us stopped, frozen in place as the leaves above us rustled gently. My heart pounded heavily in my chest, my ears twitching, listening for any sound that I didn’t want to hear. My grip on my katana slackened, leaving it sheathed on my back when no other sound returned Jimmy’s scoff.

“That’s a whole lotta babies,” Jimmy breathed, making a face as he probably thought about the amount of children he’d need to make. “I’ve already got one on the way.”

We were moving cautiously now, making sure we didn’t make any loud noises for a little while. My nerves were still on edge, flinching at Jimmy’s words. I was reluctant to continue talking for fear of something hearing his breath in the air.

“Then, of course,” Jimmy continued with an amused wink. “We do have little Harley and the Joker to help with the baby making.”

I balked; my body tensing as I felt the warmth of a blush heat my cheeks as all three men watched me. I could see Jimmy’s wide grin, proud of his little awkward joke, which only made me want to beat the crap out of him. I would do it. I could take him.

“Not gonna happen,” I mumbled, glancing at Jared and Ellis.

Both of their expressions were unreadable, leaving me feeling even more unsettled, wondering what the hell was going through their minds. I tried not to shiver as Ellis’s eyes grazed over my body, taking in every inch hungrily. How long had it been since there had been an available girl? Shifting uncomfortably, I slid my katana out, clenching the material of its hilt tightly as I continued the trek through the trees.

“Don’t be so hasty,” Jared whispered in my ear as he wrapped an arm over my shoulders. “Don’t worry, I’ll woo you first, beautiful. I am a gentleman, after all.”

I’d barely rolled my eyes, shrugging out from under Jared’s arm when a deafening crack bellowed into the silent jungle and I found myself cursing the distraction of these damn humans. I’d never been so careless. I’d always been on the top, one step ahead of the predators.

But as I fell through the darkness, I knew I’d gotten myself in deep.