Philadelphia Bound

319 days until extinction.

“So why is this trip going to take three days?” Jackson asked in a tone that had grown increasingly more nervous the closer they got to their departure day.

“I said it may take three days.”

“Right, right…and why is that again?”

With a quiet sigh Harper walked over to Jackson and put a hand on his shoulder. She had no intention of telling him not to worry, but she wanted to calm him even just ever so slightly. And thankfully it seemed to work.

“Like I was saying it may take three days. I’m not sure how long it will take us to get down from here, I figure it might take a full day but if not that’s a blessing. After that it will be a bit of a trek back to Philadelphia, and if we arrive when it’s close to sundown we probably won’t want to be venturing into the city while it’s dark.”

“Right, that makes sense…and I mean there’s every chance most of the city is abandoned right?”

Harper stared at Jackson for a moment before earnestly asking, “do you want me to lie to you?”
The young man did not respond, he’d gotten the answer he needed.

“It’s not going to be like whatever movie you’re thinking about.” Harper didn’t look up from the kitchen where she packed the food they had spent the last few days preparing. Mostly dense granola, hardtack, along with some dried meats and fruits.

“It’s not?”

“It’s far more likely we’ll see people going about life as usual, or as much as possible.”

“Wait, what?”

“People don’t like change, and for the most part crave stability. It’s why the world changes at the pace of a snail.”

“Pretty sure it's more due to systemic racism, bigotry and the general poison of capitalism.” Jackson made the comment offhandedly and was surprised when Harper looked up at him with a small smile.

“Smart kid,” she turned back to complete the packing. “Anyway it’s far more likely that if we encounter any problem it’ll be from people like us. People just doing their own thing.”

“Well hopefully we won’t run into anyone like that.” Jackson gave a halfhearted smile before venturing off to finish packing everything from the pantry he’d been told to grab. Harper had instructed him to bring some of the coffee and dried food along, at first he hadn’t understood why but with her explaining they were likely to encounter other people he suspected these were things to barter with. And once they had finished packing they finally set out.

-----

It turns out Harper was fair in her estimate.

They had first tried to use the lift; which Jackson spent several minutes loudly and profanely complaining about not finding his first time going up. One of the steel cables holding the lift up had snapped, leaving the small tram car precariously hanging halfway down with an occasional creak adding to the creepy ambience.

Thankfully Harper had prepared for this and was far more skilled in climbing than Jackson. She quickly and deftly set up a sturdy point to rappel down from before starting to tie it around Jackson, whose heart was beating quickly. Once she had strapped him in the pair walked to the edge together.

“Okay. I know this looks scary, but you’re going to be perfectly safe.” Harper saw the way Jackson’s eyes shifted to the slightly swaying lift nearby. “Don’t think about that. I chose this point here because it’s got a lot of good anchor points.” She directed his eyes down and pointed out the indentations and slight crevices in the rockface that one could hold on to. “You hold to those if you get scared, but this line will hold your weight.”

“What if the rope breaks?”

She gently patted his shoulder. “You are definitely not heavy enough for that. This is type 3 paracord, it’s capable of supporting up to 500 pounds. And you look like you could barely crack one fifty.”

Jackson chuckled, his nerves having abated ever so slightly.

“Okay, I think I’m ready.”

It took him far longer than he expected to descend, slowly moving his feet down the cliff as his fingers slowly let the cord slide through his hands. His breath felt perpetually caught in his throat with each movement, and more than once he had slipped slightly only to spend the next moment swinging in fear while Harper called down in an attempt to calm him. But after what felt like ages he finally made it down, and had barely recovered in the few minutes it took Harper to descend.

She shrugged at him when he stared aghast at how quickly she did it.

“I used to do this stuff for a living. Kind of.”

“You were a mountaineer?” Jackson realized he had yet to truly ask much of Harper and figured this venture might be a good way to fix that. And it would certainly help take his mind off the worry bubbling in his gut.

“I was in the military. Did a few tours before retirement. But even before that my family was adamant about learning to be self sufficient.”

“Ah, your parents were doomsday preppers?” Jackson glanced up, “sorry if that’s offensive.”

Harper smiled. “It’s not. I mean doomsday’s here so who looks more the fool?”

Jackson laughed while Harper packed up the rest of their gear. The sun had begun its descent painting the sky in a beautiful array of blues, oranges and pinks. His heart felt lighter and for the first time in a long time Jackson felt like he could do more than simply play music.

What happened next snatched that feeling away in its entirety.

Harper’s body collided with Jackson hard, his breath barely had time to leave his lungs before he felt the dirt against his face.

And then he heard the shot.

It was not the first time he had heard gunfire and so there was no confusing it with fireworks. And a few moments later he could feel something warm and sticky dripping onto his cheek from above.

Glancing up in horror Jackson followed the rill of blood up Harper’s arm to a quarter sized hole in her bicep.