The Fallout

Oli’s P.O.V

Summer, the time of year that I had been looking forward too since last fall; the time of year when my band mates and I were going to be playing Warped Tour. Not only was Warped one of the biggest musical festivals in the world, it was a huge break for any bands trying to make their way into the music scene. Any nerves I had carried soon faded as I pulled into the first venue, my band mates looked just as excited as I, my band consisted off my best friends, Matt Nicholls, our drummer. Matt Kean, our bassist, and Lee Malia and Jona Weinhofen our guitarists. All amazing and equally talented lads that I had know for quite some time, the 4 of them packed a punch when it came to instruments, I on the other hand, couldn't play a note if I tried, which made me our Vocalist. We had banned together, in a literal sense, a few years ago; soon after my 21st birthday we received news that we were too play Warped Tour, and to say we were ecstatic was an understatement.

“Let’s go check in and all that,” I muttered, parking our small tour van in the back before shutting it off, we filed out of the vehicle before making our way to the back building in hopes of finding the lounge area, as soon as we entered the building, and we were halfway down the dimly lit hall, I stopped as a noise radiated in the small area.

“Ay!” A familiar voice bellowed, I quickly turned on my heel and spotted the person I had hoped would be here.

“Tommehhhh.” I purred, bounding forward and snatching my little brother into a vice grip of a hug, he patted my back, laughing awkwardly.

“ ‘lright, ‘lright!” he groaned, before pushing me off of him with a snicker.

“ ‘orry, just excited to see me baby brother!” I chimed, wrapping an arm around his shoulders before leading him to where the rest of my band had entered. As we pushed our way through the door that read VIP LOUNGE, I was slightly taken a back by what I saw. The large room was packed, people were quietly grouped together staring at a small Television, its antenna’s sticking up at odd angles to pick up on the signal.

“What’s going on?” I whispered to Matt, the drummer shrugged and shushed me as a news reporters face popped back on the screen.

“Breaking News Out of Seattle, Washington this morning, an underground Nuclear Reactor was shaken by a small earthquake, the jarring was enough to send the reactor into a meltdown. The entire city is being evacuated as a poisonous smog continues to leak from crack in the ground…” she paused, leaning across the table as if she was talking to some one on the other side of the camera, I bit my tongue. The room was horribly silent, shocked and scared expressions were decorating all the surrounding faces in the room. Tom grabbed my hand nervously, Seattle was only 10 minutes from this venue, I think it would go without being said that this show would have to be canceled.

“Breaking News, again, 5 more…” she paused as someone in the background began to chant off numbers, 7,9, up to 14. “We are being told that 14 other reactors have just now entered the meltdown phase. Everyone in Washington State needs to be evacuated immediately.” A shrill scream emitted from the small television, as the reporter jumped up from her seat, The camera man panned over to capture what was some of the most horrifying scenes I had ever witnessed.

3 members of the news crew were on the ground near an open door, their faces covered in what could only be described as lesions and blisters, blood pooling around them as they rived around on the floor. I gasped, watching as the victims of the supposed poison gasped, before spluttering out blood, before going still.

The television station cut off, going to a static screen, I raised my head trying to read everyone’s faces, the room was now twice as crowded. All the Warped Crew and Bands must have been in there, as there wasn’t a single space left.

“What…” an older man began but was cut off by the sound of sirens ringing from out side, we all exchanged horrified glances.

“We have to go, now!” a tall black haired man spoke up, pulling what I guess was his band mates up, before ushering them out of the crowded room.

“We need to leave.” Matt pulled my arm, making me stand up, I noticed that people were beginning to file out of the room in a hurried fashion, I cast a nervous glance at the drummer.

“I know, let’s just get out of here first.” He whispered, grabbing the rest of the band and Tom, before pushing us out of the crowded room. We trudged down the hallways as fast as the mass of people would allow, until we finally made it outside, it was a horrific sight. Dark plumes of what looked to be a purple smoke rolled down a surrounding hill, swallowing the treeline in a shroud of mist, to make things worse, the earth began to lightly trimmer.

“Shit, our vans across the lot!” Jona cursed, eying the vehicle which indeed, was far beyond what I thought was possible to reach.

“What are we going to do?” I muttered, eyes widening as the smoke only seemed to come down the hillside faster and more aggressively, I watched a flock of birds trying to break their way from the trees, only to be swallowed up by the smoke, hundreds of them...dull thuds echoed through out the valley we were stationed in.

“Shit!” Kean exclaimed, as the parking lot went from somewhat organized to utter chaos, I grabbed onto Tom, holding him impossibly close to my side as the rest of the band huddled around us, trying to keep us all together.

Tom was shaking like a leaf, to be honest, I was too. I couldn’t believe what was happening, why did the US even have nuclear reactors buried in their soil? Surely, the public would have been livid…unless…they didn’t know. I snapped my head up as a large camper came to a loud stop in front of us, for some reason, it had steel diamond plates wrapped around it, I wasn’t quite sure if that was some sort of defense mechanism from crashes or to just look “cool”, but I didn't give it much thought. The door swung open to reveal the same tall dark haired man I had seen flee the scene earlier, he motioned for us to come forward, yelling a “Get in!”. I shared a confused glance with my band mates and brother, before deciding trusting a stranger was better then facing a certain death, I pushed Tom forward, ushering for him to get inside first. The tall man reached a hand down to help him, before hoisting all of us up one by one.

“Tino lets go!” he exclaimed as he locked the door in place and grabbed a bar on the ceiling, the camper lurched forward as the driver floored it, and I felt my stomach churn. 3 other men were sitting with blank stares on their faces, complete shock emitting from them. One had very long dark hair, his skin was several shades darker then my own, the other had bright red hair, and was sitting with his knees curled into his chest. The third had short brown hair, and a lip ring that the dim light from the back window illuminated, he stared at the ceiling for no apparent reason. I looked over at my band mates who were all cluttered together, disbelief and fear clearly evident, Tom was crying softly while Matt did his best to comfort him.

“Thank you…I don’t know what we would have done with out you.” I pushed the words out, catching the eyes of the man who helped us in the camper, he smiled sadly.

“Don’t mention it, you all looked a bit lost when all that started to go down…plus I heard your accents when you were whispering, didn’t figure you were from here so I knew you wouldn’t last a second if you didn’t have some help.” He replied smugly, reaching into a huge black lock box and pulling out a large black gun, I felt my eyes go wide.

“Don’t worry, its not like I'm going to use it on you all, just need to have quick access to something we can defend ourselves with.” He stated, the person driving moved the small curtain that blocked his seat, coming into view.

“Austin isn’t it a bit early to be going all out? Hold on by the way.” The larger man grunted, pushing down harder on the gas peddle, as the tall man grabbed onto the railing on the ceiling for support. A bump In the road sent everyone else a good foot in the air,

“What are you all talking about?” I asked in concern, to be honest; I had no idea what was going on. Just an hour ago I was getting ready to have the time of my life, now I was just…confused, and scared.

“Austin, the freakishly tall one,” said man from earlier waved his hand, a goofy smile on his lips, “And I, are what some people like to call preppers. Ya know, like zombie apocalypse and shit? We take that stuff seriously, granted, we had no clue this was going to happen. We weren’t even aware that the United States had reactors, and the timing couldn’t be any shittier, this was our first summer on warped too.” He growled a bit, before hitting another bump; my head hit the back of the van with a dull thud, now that kind of hurt.

“So what your saying is that this…” I trailed my voice off, shaking my head slightly, “is the end of the world…in your eyes?” I inquired, raising my eyebrow at the man, Austin, who simply shrugged.

“Not saying anything, all I know is were ready for what comes our way.” He stated in a matter of fact tone, Matt grunted from beside me.

“That’s all fine and dandy, but if your ‘preppers’ and have all these supplies, why take in a group of 6 lads that you don’t even know? That will just dwindle your supplies quicker, and wont it be riskier on your part?” he asked in all seriousness, Austin pursed his lips, pondering what he had just asked.

“I honestly don’t know…Maybe I had a gut feeling that you all would play an important role? Maybe... Or maybe I just did it out of kindness? Let me get back to you on that one.” Austin grumbled, before walking down the few steps to the drivers cabin and shutting the curtain, I sighed.

“This doesn’t make any sense…” a small voice piped up, I glanced backward to see the ginger guy from earlier, he stretched his legs out and shook his head. “Guess it was a good thing Austin and Tino were always so paranoid, huh?” he asked, what I presumed were his band mates, nodded slightly.

“Guess so, I’m Phil by the way.” The darker skinned man reached his hand out to shake ours like it was the most normal thing in the world, in fact, this situation was anything BUT normal.

“I’m Oli…”I replied, shaking his hand and allowing everyone else to as well, the small ginger chuckled.

“I’m Alan,” he chimed, waving his hand a bit, “Sorry for being all zombie like when you walked in…I'm just…shocked to say the least.” I shrugged it off.

“No big deal, I think we all were…still are…” Lee said quietly, earning a few nods in agreement.

“Shay aren’t you going to say anything?” the long haired one, Phil, asked in a hushed tone, the other man didn’t move a muscle.

“That’s Shayley…” Alan answered for him, a worried tone in his voice, he patted his friend on the shoulder, who shied away from his touch, before standing up as well as he could at the speeds we were going, he flicked on a lantern, allowing me to get a good view of the inside.

We were currently sitting on the floor, black leather sofas lined the walls, a kitchenette was in the back along with a small bathroom area, bunks lined the rest of the camper, and in the very back, was a room which I couldn’t see into through the closed door. Shayley, remained quiet, sliding onto the sofa, and grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around himself.

“Make yourselves cozy guys, looks like were in this for the long haul.” The deep voice from earlier, Tino was it? Roared through out the vehicle, as a hand pulled the curtain out of the way. I glanced over to the window of the front of the camper, and felt my jaw go slack at what I saw. Fire, everywhere, people running frantically, or trying desperately to pull their cars through the roads, though we coasted in and out of traffic with ease; there was one thing that almost brought vile to my throat, bodies, they littered the grounds, some completely eaten away at by what I presumed to be the chemicals, other were also on the ground but crawling and trying to escape the fate they were succumbing too. I shot a glance back at my friends, who looked just as disturbed as I, so this…this really was the end of the world. How fucking lovely.

Notes

Title Cred: The Swarm by You Me At Six. Love them.

Anyways, I just couldn't stay away...Alligator Blood rapped up and as soon as it did...i missed it D:
So, here's a whole new tale. Got inspiration for this based off the song "The Fallout" by Crown the Empire, yes I know that is completely different kind of 'fallout' but when i imagine the worst scenario possible for an apocalyptic turn of events, this is what i imagine. So any who, enough of my ramblings, heres the first part, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it (:

PLEASE COMMENT/SUB/VOTE OR DO ALL THREE IF YOUR FEELING GENEROUS.

XOXO
Siren