Hope

Silence

In the morbidity of the night the road was barely visible. Thick fog white as clouds shrouded the road painted with rotting and rusted cars, trucks and decaying bodies of the long deceased.  

The white line in the centre of the road was withering to the transparency of the road, covered in fallen branches and soulless bodies, fed on by the starving rodents who run from car to car, taking refuge on the cold nights in the decaying death chambers that housed the bodies of those who died by their own weapons on the night they realised all hope was lost. 

The headlights shone the road ahead, giving us a short draw distance of sight, but not enough. We couldn't see more than ten metres as Bryan was trying hard to preserve battery life in the jeep, and the thick fog did not aid our problems. However despite his efforts, every now and then we heard a tick come from the engine, one that worried us. Callum had fallen back to sleep in his mother's arms. Aaron kept his hands joined between his legs while Ash looked over James' shoulder, out the front windscreen to the road ahead. The vehicle was silent, no words spoken. 

The jeep began to tick more rapidly with each turn of the four wheels, until the ticking was constant, waking Callum and preventing Holly from falling into a sleep she had nearly entered when the engine suddenly gave in, smoke rising through the bonnet on the front hood of the car. James hit the wheel 'Shit' he said. He opened the glove box in front of Bryan and threw a flashlight onto my lap 'Come with me' he said, opening the door and letting the cold night-time air into the jeep until, a bitter draft that shook our bodies. 

When I stepped out of the car, I was immediately captivated by the bitter cold that shook my lips and clattered my teeth. 

The road was falling to pieces, dozens of small stones scattered along the roadway from the many cracks throughout the long path that leads on to the nearest town. 

Bryan flipped the hood and stabilised it in position. The four of us looked at the old and toasted engine, about as useful as a gun without a chamber. 

'There's no fixing this without the right tools' said James with a slight depression 'It's gone' 

Bryan looked at it with a cringe before kicking the front bumper of the car 'FUCK!' he shouted, gripping the back of his head with both hands as he circled around the road, still lit by the vehicles floodlights which flickered every now and then keeping an occasional glimpse at the road ahead where there were no town lights in sight. 

'What do we do?' asked Aaron, hands on his hips as I stepped away from the car to think, but I do not know this road well enough to come up with a plan. 

'What choice do we have?' asked Bryan, leaning against the open bonnet. He turned his face to me 'We go on foot' 

'On foot' I repeated 'With those things out there?' 

'We keep square formation' said Bryan, gesturing his words with actions of his hands 'one of us on each corner, and the vulnerable ones on the inside. James and I have flashlights equipped to our weapons' 

'We have flashlights' I said, referring to our bag of weapons 'We have a suppressor for that rifle of yours too, but not the shotgun' 

'Shotgun is a worst case scenario' James said. 

Bryan released the hood and slowly lowered it down 'Town's about three miles from here, forty five minute walk, we can make it in over a half hour if we hurry' 

'We take our time' said Aaron in a hushed tone 'We don't want to attract any unwanted attention, if there are any screamers out there, we're screwed' 

'He's right' James agreed, leaning both arms against the jeep, spitting on the ground as he exhaled visible air in the cold, dark night. 'The dark for them, it's like porn for us. They see or hear us, we'll have more than we can control'