Snapshots

Halloween Special 2: Hunger

Warnings: Gore, character death(s), zombies, general creepiness, purposely out of character Phineas, disturbing implications, and an original character (because that requires its own warning in my book).

"You're sure this is the right way?" Jasper's knuckles were white as he gripped the blood-spattered baseball bat.

"Yeah." The kid, Phineas, if he remembered right, strolled along. "Don't worry. I've done this hundreds of times."

"Right." He swallowed. What he'd do for a drink of water now. Rather, what he was doing for water. The kid didn't seem dangerous, but the casual attitude about what was going on around them didn't sit right.

Phineas slipped through a broken chain-link fence. "Come on."

Keeping view of the way they'd come, Jasper huffed. "Easy for you to say, kid." Using his bat, he pushed the gap in the fence wider before ducking through.

Phineas had already run ahead, and Jasper sighed. It was amazing the kid had survived two years the apocalypse if this was how he acted.

Racing after him, Jasper stopped dead when their destination came into view. Or that was he was guessing it was. The old factory building didn't look secure like Phineas had promised. Despite it being surrounded by fencing and other make-shift blockades, the building itself was decayed with broken windows.

One of the doors stood open.

There was nowhere to go but forward or back the way he'd come. Going back meant another day of struggling to find clean water and edible food. He was so tired of every day being a fight.

Jasper approached the door. "Phineas?"

Not hearing a reply, he stepped inside. Only a few feet inside the place, he faltered. The inside didn't match the outside.

If someone told him he'd stepped through a portal to another dimension or back into time, he'd buy it. He barely noticed the door closing itself behind him.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd been somewhere this clean. Not overly neat though, since every wall had boxes and crates and random items messy piled against it.

His fingers loosened on the bat. "The fuck is this place?"

"Mine, and I'd like it if you didn't curse." Phineas poked his head out a door. "The food's in here."

Jasper nodded, his eyes still roaming the storage.

<hr>

The food was better than promised. His mouth water just seeing the fresh fruits and vegetables. When asked where he got them, Phineas started on a long speech about artificial environments and genetic engineering to help the plants grow in less than ideal conditions. Jasper could follow that part alright.

The occasional inter-spaced rambles about the moon and cows and mutant plants, however, completely lost him.

"I'm sorry I couldn't cook something better with it," Phineas said after Jasper had inhaled about half the food on the plate. "Ferb has always been the cook."

"Ferb?"

"My brother." There was a flash of something in the kid's eyes. "You'll meet him."

Jasper nodded. Phineas had mentioned that two of his friends were back at his place. "Where is he? And your other friend?"

"Resting."

"They rest while you go out there alone?" They were either cowards or didn't care about the boy.