Zombie Fieldtrip

31

"Holy shit, what is that?" Jonah shouts as the cars become noisier. The rest of the group quickly come back over to the middle of the road, where it's clear that the handful of rundown, graffitied cars are here to cause grief one way or another.

"We need to go now," Jack said, placing a hand behind the two people either side of him - Harry and Greta - to begin ushering them back to the truck.

Soon enough the cars are less than a hundred metres away and I can already hear them yahooing and screaming. I hate to admit it, but it does scare me a little. I try to hide my feelings in an attempt to keep the more unstable group members calm.

It doesn't work.

"Holy shiiiiit! What are we going to do?!" Lacey screeches in a high pitch voice I've never heard before. Ryder attempts to calm her down but he's clearly distressed as well.

"Leave, maybe?" Tina seethes through gritted teeth. Her fists are clenched tight as she hurriedly stomps over to the side of the road, arming herself as she swings on the side of the truck. Ryder calmly wraps his arms around the stressed and angry Lacey and slowly leads her to the truck, whispering sweet nothings in her ear as they walk.

West is circling around me, cooing for the kitten as the noise has spooked it to run off and hide. My feet are planted firmly on the hot road surface, preventing me from moving. They've literally begun melting, fusing to the sizzling tarmac. As the cars approach and the wind picks up, I managed to free myself as Chris and Jonah begin to yell at me, the same look of desperation and worry on their face. Everyone is at the truck now, except I notice the absense of Cleo and West. I look around and see them both back over in the bushes again, struggling with the kitten. I run over to find west cupping the small animal in his hand, it's tail slapping against his wrist.

"C'mon, we gotta go," I said to them, the dust getting in my eyes as the hot wind swirls. They both nod and we begin to jog across the road, dodging the little graffitied sedans whizzing past.

One of the cars breaks free of the pack and starts to do donuts around the three of us. I freeze instinctively and my heart begins to pound. The barely clothed driver is shouting profanities and yeehaws, and I'm unsure whether he's just showing off or waiting for the right moment to run us over. The apocalypse makes people do crazy shit, so it could easily be either.

Or maybe I'm just bad at reading people now.

The kitten is clawing at West now, freaking out and hissing at everything. Cleo and I moved closer together, and now we are clinging to each other for dear life as the wind and the car combined bring up more dust and debris.

In what must be a split second decision, the car stops skidding around us and just spins out, breaks momentarily and speeds away. Cleo and I sigh in relief, still holding each other tight.

But it's not quite over yet.

As I go to run over to the group a car speeds right in front of me, so close to running over my feet. I jump back so quickly I push over someone in the process. I don't know if it's West or Cleo, but they throw me back up almost straight away as another car passes them faster.

And then a decked out Ute comes between whoever I'm back to back with and I hear a scream and a shout and I spin out of control.

The Ute stalls at the end of the road and I find myself sitting on the ground in the dust even through I could've sworn I was standing moments ago. I cough and rub my burning eyes as the driver jumps from the car. Why would he stop?

I turn to my left and find the reason why.

I gasp, but without hesitation I pull West's head into my lap. He's breathing erratically and it's not hard to see why. A large shard of metal is lodged in his stomach with smaller shrapnel stuck in everywhere. He gasps and I look into his speckled green eyes as they stare back at mine in fear.