Life After the Undead (Completed)

PART 8: Road Trip .1

Brandon's P.O.V.

The morning after was glowy and perfect like it used to be when Lena and I were first married. I basked in the feeling, fully intending to take a little longer getting up then I had originally planned before I heard the squealing of tires on pavement and fear rose into my throat accompanied by a burning bile. I shot out of bed and rushed to the window. Obviously, I wasn't stupid enough to stand right at the window giving any potential sniper a perfect shot, but I did peak out the edge in time to see a Drifter car, not a hunting jeep or motorcycle, rush off in the distance.

Lena sat up groggily and stared at me, she smiled softly in a way that should have heated my blood to a degree that would have me pouncing on her but I was too paranoid at this point to act. I figured Orion had sent people to follow us but I had thought I had lost them. I was also 75% certain I had hidden our car well enough so that whoever was trailing us couldn't find it. But that also meant I was about 25% wrong. I needed to go check.

"Something's wrong," I hissed as I started to clamour into my clothes. "Stay here, keep the door locked, and wait for me to come back."

Lena was alert now. She started dressing and arming herself the second I headed for the door. I didn't bother waking up Connor, I knew Lena would do it. I slung my jacket on as I moved through the door, I fiddled with the rifle I had hanging off my side like a satchel. I made my way down the flights of stairs, eyeing the zombies I had killed last night, avoiding thick sticky puddles of blood and on the lookout for new threats. I couldn't see any more zombies which meant my barrier was still up and I didn't spot any Drifters so at least they hadn't found us.

Once I was on street level, I was looking for movement but in the early morning light there was none. That didn't stop me from hesitantly edging out the doorway, one couldn't be too careful and I wouldn't put it past R to plan an ambush for me and my family.

He had always been a sore loser like that.

But as I made my way to the car which was a good four blocks away from us, I started to relax.

Maybe they were just looking for us and hadn't found us, maybe they had a different reason for being in the area, a whole different set of dirty business that had nothing to do with me after all. I started to get confident, cocky, I completely forgot that R of all people knew my playbook, that he knew all our playbooks like we had once known his before he the insanity left him the only one we couldn't predict.

When I got to the car all that cocky confidence vanished.

I only had to see it to know that they had definitely found it. It was covered in spray painted Drifter tags. The driver's side window smashed out and the hood of the car popped up. The engine was completely removed from the car and lay in pieces in front of the car, along with what was left of the Radio. So, I had no car and no way to call Evelyn and tell her where I was and to come get me.

I could feel my chest constrict with the anger and worry. I could barely breathe, I had almost been free, almost to safety. All I had to do was meet up with Evelyn but I knew if we were late, she wouldn't wait longer then she had to. I had twenty-four hours tops, less than 10 hours if she was really impatient and she always was. I somehow had to get my family to walk all the way to the University of Ottawa and I had no idea how to get there or how far away we really were.

I had never really been one for revenge but if I survived this, I was going to kill R with my own bare hands.