The few of them around the table actually ate the food presented. The others simply sat in each other's midst to humor the boy. They didn't know what to do with themselves otherwise. "So... What do you all do for a living?" Grace asked the people at the table, trying to initiate a conversation that wasn't there.
"I'm a cop." Sebastien answered, having a bit of difficulty making his jaw work the right way. "Or I was a cop. Didn't enjoy it, but I got to put some of my high school rivals in the slammer... That made it worth it... I was on that bus like all of these guys were when this all went down. Our driver... He got a heart attack the moment he saw the first body. We tried to carry him to a hospital, but lurkers broke in and got a bite out of him. We had to throw him out." He pulled his handgun off his belt and held it in the air. "We're damn lucky I was carrying my gun in my bag."
"Wow..." She replied to his story. That explained how the group came together, and how they survived. If they had a bus, they could probably get through any blockade of those things if they wanted to. Too bad it was down in the city with Jared. She turned to the woman sitting next to him. "And you? What do you and your husband do, Kate?"
She spoke very quietly, but grew louder word by word until she became comfortable speaking in front of the group. "I was a housewife... But Jared was a Professor of Architecture."
"Really?" Asked Grace, trying to keep the conversation going. Winston and Laura began to speak quietly to each other, having become bored of the conversation.
"Yeah... The two of us have been together for over thirty years... I hope he's all right."
"I'm sure he'll be fine." Laura told her, smiling. "He's following the plan. He won't get hurt if he follows the plan."
"What is the plan?" Noah asked, through a mouthful of pretzels. He seemed to be eating the most out of any of the people at the table. "You guys have been here for hours and we still don't know what exactly you meant to do by honking the horn like a damn idiot."
She seemed offended for a moment, but then began to explain the plan she had crafted. "The plan was to get to Savannah. We were told there was a safe house there. We found that minivan, but it didn't have a good horn, and it wasn't that tough. We sent Jared down to the city to secure a place in the safe house and gather supplies, preferably a safer place than this cabin. The biters are drawn to sound. We figured that out the first day. He honks the horn so the dead pass by us, and we find a place to stay for the night."
"That's a good idea." Noah said. "But not good enough. If your guy's honking his horn, the dead will find him eventually. It's only a matter of time."
Kate looked worried by this, but Laura patted her on the shoulder and reassured her of the plan. "We found a grenade."
"Where the hell did you find a grenade?" Noah laughed.
"There was a military base that was overrun with lurkers." She continued. "Most of the weapons had been taken, but we found one last grenade on a body. But that's not important. Once Jared finds a good place to stop and find supplies, he waits til the horde shows up, and chucks the grenade as far as he can in the other direction. He locks the doors up tight, lets the dead follow the grenade blast, and finds a way into this safe house. Tomorrow, we'll send a group out to find him, come back here, and bring us over there."
"You got it all figured out, don't you?" Noah laughed, seeming impressed. He couldn't see any flaws in the plan and neither could Grace. It was a very smart idea. She was surprised it could have come from a sophomore in high school.
"Yeah..." She chuckled back. "Well, what's you guys' story? We've told you all about us. We hardly know anything about you."
"I got in a car accident with my friend." Grace told her, trying as hard as she could not to think too hard about it. "She turned, and Noah here saved my life. Our man in there that Quentin is working on... His name is Leo. He was the guy that hit us."
Chapter 12: The Miracle
Start from the beginning
