Seven

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Bug Out

You can't risk waiting. If you get trapped inside the house, you'll be zombie chow, for sure. Zipping up the backpack, you pick up your knife, and sneak to the back door.

It looks like the back yard is still clear. You should be able to slip away without the zombies seeing you, if you go now.

There are a few more hours until it will be completely dark, that should give you time to find a better place to hide. You quietly go out the back door and hurry away across your back yard. When you emerge onto the next street over, you happily note that you don't seem to have been followed.

But, out in the open like this, it's only a matter of time before you run into new zombies. You need to be careful. You try to keep partially hidden as you walk through your neighborhood. The undead do tend to make a lot of noise, dragging their feet and always moaning or growling, so if you are careful, you should be able to avoid them.

You're starting to feel really bad about leaving the house without Mom, though. How will the two of you find each other, now? But, really, you didn't have much choice. Staying in the house would have gotten you eaten in the long run. You're sure of it.

Sighing, you keep moving. You need a game plan. Where can you go to that should be safe? Some place with strong doors, small windows, and available food and water would be ideal.

There's also the zombies to think about. There numbers seem to be rapidly increasing. What will that mean for your survival long term? You can't be on guard all of the time. You will eventually have to sleep. Safety in numbers is starting to take on a whole new meaning.

Growling from ahead of you alerts you to the fact that the undead are nearby. You stay in the shadows and move cautiously. As you get closer, wet sounds that you don't want to identify, can be heard too. You peek around the corner of a house and see a horrible sight.

In the middle of the next driveway over, two zombies are bent over a body, feasting. The creatures snarl and growl at each other as they tear chunks of bloody flesh and stuff it into their mouths.

Transfixed by the sight, you can't help but stare. It looks to you like this person came home, and was ambushed when they tried to run inside. Their car, door open and engine still running, is parked in the driveway just feet from the gory feast.

That car gives you an idea. On foot, you are slow and vulnerable. But in a car, you have more options. Not to mention that being shut securely behind a locked car door sounds safer than being on foot. You want that car.

You are probably 40 feet from the open car door, the zombies are less than half that away from the car. But, they are slow, and currently busy eating their poor victim. You're sure you can make it.

Taking a few deep breaths, to work up the nerve, you Sprint from the shadows toward the car. One zombie notices you right away, and staggers to its feet. The other, with its back to you, keeps on eating, oblivious to your mad dash. The first one is getting closer, but you make it to the car and dive inside. Slamming the door, you got the lock button, just as the walking corpse hits the drivers side door. Growling wildly, it class at the glass, leaving streaks of fresh blood and gore all over.

Putting the car in reverse, you back out of the driveway and speed down the street, quickly leaving the chasing zombie behind. There are more of them. Staggering down the street, banging on the sides of houses, and sometimes, eating bodies that you try not to think about too hard. It's quickly apparent that your neighborhood is becoming overrun.

Is every place as bad as this? Maybe the best thing to do would be to get out of town, completely. A lower human population has to mean a lower zombie population. Doesn't it?

But if you do something like leave the area, you'll never find Mom. Confused, you slow down at the next intersection. Left will take you towards the city, and Mom. Right will take you to the highway, and eventually, the country.

If your neighborhood is this bad, you can't imagine how bad it will be in the city. Mom may not even be... you don't want to think about it.

Can you leave without trying? What if Mom is trapped somewhere, waiting for help. Can you drive away and never know for sure?

 Can you drive away and never know for sure?

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Look For Mom- chapter 6

Head for Highway - chapter 9


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