75 Days of a Zombie Apocalypse (Complete )

Chapter 5 - Worry

After my father and mother reunited, it was like I was finally put together again. The stress that I had over him, the worry that I might never see him again, fell quickly off my shoulders. At first, I'm not gonna lie, I didn't think it was him, I kind of already given up hope of seeing him again.  But when he started talking to me in the dark last night, I knew it was his voice, even though I thought I forgot it, even after two days of being without him. It was nice to finally see my mother smile again and feel her get comfortable with everything. I fell asleep last night in a peaceful gaze. My parents had one car while Dave and I took the other car. I understood that my parents wanted some time alone, I get that, I mean I would too if my husband came back from being gone. 

I didn't realize that I had woken up until I saw the land out the window pass us swiftly, making me also realize that Dave was driving. I sat up from laying down in the back seat, Dave's eyes quickly in the rear view mirror, looking at me and then my parents in the car behind us.

"Good morning, " Dave said

"Moring," I said looking at the road in front of us. 

"How did you sleep?" He asked

"Good," I asked, "Actually haven't slept that good in a while."

"I wouldn't blame you, if all those dreams you've had, I'm glad you got some real sleep," he said, making me smile. 

"What's the plan today, you know?" I asked, climbing into the passenger's seat. 

"Just traveling before we have to look for gas," he said, "Which there hasn't been a gas station is over a few hours." 

"Really? We're that far out?" I asked, pulling one of my knee's to my chest.

He nodded, "Yea and the land keeps getting drier and hotter, we made it to the desert part." 

"Damn," I said as he nodded again. 

The car ride the rest of the way was silent, but the good kind of silence. Before Dave straightened himself up, the silence between all three of us was fucking awkward as hell and no one liked it. We would just get uncomfortable and stare out the window, hoping that when one of us talked, it wouldn't start a fight or it wouldn't cause worry. But now, the silence feels like how it used to be when I hung around Dave: the friendly kind. The one people would die for in a relationship, the silence that made you feel safe, not on edge. And that's what I found in it: Comfort. 

**********

It was already night time as we stopped for sleep. My mom sat on the hood of the car as my dad leaned up against it, talking to Dave how was sitting on the trunk. It was a normal conversation and my dad asking questions about the things my mother had told him previously that day. I was happy everyone was getting along and that no one wanted to actually murder each other. I went into the back seat of Dave's car and grabbed four cans of food and forks, getting out and walking to the rest of the group, giving everyone at least one of each before I sat down next to Dave. Dave's car and ate. While they were talking, I was silent. It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say, I just let the conversation roll between them. Hearing each other laugh at each other and hearing them talk about things that they thought about was what I missed hearing. I did try to pay attention to them and I caught bits and pieces of their sentences, but I was mostly off in my own world. 

"This car is running low on gas," my dad said, patting the hood

"How much does it have?" Dave asked, making me look up at my father.

"Less than a courter," My dad answered, "It'll probably be best if we move it to your car and we can travel that way." 

Dave nodded, "But we don't have a hose." 

My dad looked down and put his hand to his chin giving us his thinking face. 

"Maybe we could just leave it and continue, I mean, losing a little gas isn't going to kill us." My mother stated.

"True," my dad said through his thinking thoughts. 

"It's pretty late, we should all get some rest." my mother said, placing a hand on my dad's shoulder and rubbed circles in his back.

"Just when we find a gas station, we should get some jugs to put in extra gas." I finally said.

Everyone nodded as we all got up, my parents walking to me.

"Night, sweetie," my mother said and she had given me a hug, "Night Dave." 

"Good night Mrs. Anderson," he said as she walked to the car and opened the back seat and as my dad gave me hug.

"Night baby girl." my father said to me.

"Night dad," I said as he let go, giving me a kiss on the forehead. 

He followed my mother's footsteps and walked to the car, getting him behind my mother and closed the door. I was going to get up but Dave stopped me.

"Wanna hang out here with me?" he asked, "I'm not tried yet." 

I got myself more comfortable, "Sure." 

Dave pulled out his pack of cigarettes and his lighter, putting one to his lips and lighting it. I watch him as he breathed it in and let out the smoke, removing the cigarette from his lips with his two fingers. I just sat there and continued eating my food. 

"You're going to go into withdrawal if you no longer can get your hands on more packs," I said as he gave out a small smile. 

"Trust me, I'm already in withdrawal from technology," he said as I smiled. 

He took in more smoke and looked up at the sky. "You talk in your sleep." 

"Really?" I asked and froze, "What did I say?" 

"You were laughing at first, then you mumbled something that I couldn't catch," he said, "But you ended up doing it the first night we slept in the car." 

"Great, another habit," I said, rubbing my face.

"A habit is always replaced with another habit," he said and looked at me, "The worry is, what habit did you lose?" 

**********

The next morning we all piled in one car and drove off, continuing our journey. We were in the middle of the desert and didn't know how long we could be in there, and slowly the gas meter went down, not as bad as the other car though. I felt nice having everyone in one car and not having to worry about if the people in the car in front of us or behind us is okay every second you think about that. I took note of Dave's speech last night about habits and I actually wondered what habit I had replaced, but I couldn't focus on it long, for my dad was either telling a joke or a story that my mother and I had heard over a million times but listened to it for Dave's reaction. And after having a day without the feeling of worry that something bad was going happen, it came back. It twisted my stomach and made it feel like a knot was in my throat. I tried not to think about it, but it consumed my mind as we all took turned driving and hung out with each other. I looked at everyone like it was the last time I was gonna see them, but I feel like one of us four would be gone tomorrow morning.