I drove down the street as fast as the car would go, very aware the zombies from before were still following me. Between trying to drive for what must have only been the fifth time in my life, watching out for zombies and most importantly, trying not to stall the damn thing, I didn’t realise I was lost until I was way to lost to retrace my steps.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I shouted, hitting the steering wheel.
The street I was on seemed to be deserted and it was so tempting to get out and make a run for it to one of the building surrounding me, just hole up there and wait for all this madness to pass. I didn’t though, that would have been a bad idea. I looked around me and nearly cried with happiness when I found a road atlas. I flicked through it until I had found where I was and tried to make some kind of plan. The small track I’d been aiming for didn’t seem to be recorded so that was out. I took the pen that had been lying on the dash board and began to try plot some kind of route. I decided to drive parallel to the main highway out of the city, but far away from it… Through the desert. I know it doesn’t sound like a good idea but honestly it was the best I could come up with at the time.
The tricky bit was getting from the highway to the dessert, ideally I didn’t really want to be going on the highway at all but there wasn’t much choice. Though a few miles down the highway there was a small turn off that led to what must be a tiny shack or cluster of house. I used dashes to show where I wanted to go then set off as I heard the growl of zombies way to close to me.
“fuck sake.” I muttered before stepping on the gas. As I drove out into the desert I was surprised to find wetness on my cheeks. I looked at my reflection in the windscreen. I was softly crying, tears creating clean tracks in the dirt that had somehow gotten onto my face. I let myself cry until I saw the first of the major rock formations that were now my life line. If I didn’t concentrate I could end up dying in the desert. Lost and alone.
My route was long and probably saved my life. I was out in the desert for about two weeks, surviving on the tiny clusters of civilisation that dotted the desert, they were usually deserted, or there were very few zombies. I came across no people though. Finally, just after Moapa I joined route 93, heading towards the small town of Caliente. I’d never heard of the place until I saw it in the map book. Maybe it hadn’t been touched by the virus and they still had planes going back home. See at that point I didn’t know just how bad things were. I’d only seen a few miles out of Vegas. I’d taken the majorly long way round, the journey, if I’d stuck on the highway, shouldn’t have taken longer than a couple of days if that.
As I rolled cautiously into town, my last hopes of a contained epidemic were crushed. Even from the outskirts I could see smouldering buildings and the old shells of burnt out cars. Blood covered the road along with the bones of the deceased, tiny scraps of flesh still clinging on. I swallowed the bile rising up my throat and pushed on. I needed gas and the nearest station was too far back for me to make it. I rolled down my window a quarter of the way, just to make sure if any zombies came sniffing around, I’d hear them before they ate me. I heard nothing though and before I could do anything to stop myself, I’d relaxed. Trust me, it’s not something I’ve done since.
I came to a block in the main road and had to drive into a more residential area to get around. That’s the first time I ever saw a group of zombies not in the middle of a feeding frenzy. These were sluggish and slow, like the ones from the scrap yard, only slower and clumsier. There were seven of them, some crawling around the street on all fours, some were sat against buildings but most were stood up, swaying slightly or wandering aimlessly, one step a minute.
As soon as I turned onto the street they all looked my way, eyes becoming filled with the same hunger as their siblings in Vegas. With unsure movements they began to stumble towards me. I put my foot down and ran over most of them that were on the street, two of their heads cracked either on my bonnet or on the tarmac. I remembered to roll my window up only when one of them tried to stick their hand in when it had grabbed onto my wing mirror.
I put my foot down again and left that street behind though I was sure they were following. As I drove I found myself getting deeper and deeper into the maze of houses. I then realised something. If the virus had taken a few days to get here from Vegas or wherever, these guys probably had a bit of warning. Not that it had done much good. Of course the government would have issued marshal law and advised everyone to stay in their homes. So when the zombies came a knocking, they were pretty defenceless and next thing you know, the suburbs are suddenly a box full of cannibal zombies!
After that, I never went into a town again, no matter how small and harmless looking it was. As stupid as it may sound, when I got back on the highway I threw my map book out of the window. I knew that looking at all the city names would be too tempting, it was best to drive blind, looking only at road signs.
The next few weeks were surprisingly quite for me, it was scary how fast society had broken down and how man had just crumbled. I stayed away from the towns and cities, only stopping at gas stations when I needed to stock up on gas and food.
I couldn’t keep driving my whole life, that much I knew but I didn’t fancy being holed up somewhere on my own for the rest of my life either and seeing as I hadn’t seen another non zombie person since Vegas I wasn’t letting myself get my hopes up.
Two and a half miles out of a small town I saw a track leading deeper into the forest. I looked on the map I had picked up a few days earlier at a gas station and saw that in the forest, a little way off the track a lot of miles along there was a small building, my guess was a hunting lodge of some kind. I turned up the track and kept my eyes and ears open, searching through the trees for signs of zombies. They had a nasty habit of sneaking up on you.
I heard something in the trees and stopped my car, grabbing my crowbar from the passenger seat. I stepped out cautiously, totally on guard. A blur came from the trees.
“Gotta pee gotta pee gotta pee!” It said as it ran past me, I stared in shock, it was obviously not a zombie. A man walked out of the trees after it, holding a baseball bat. I looked at him with a WTF face.
“Yeah she’s… Well she’s Sandy.” He said, when he spoke I realised he wasn’t quite a man, he was about seventeen, eighteen at most.
“Huh…” I said nervously. “I saw a building in the forest on a map and well, I figured I couldn’t drive forever so why not head for that?” I felt the need to explain to him.
“Well then, hey, I’m Luke. That crazy little girl is Sandy, she’s only six but well we think she sees what’s happened as a sort of game. Her minds way of protecting itself. Nothing fazes her or scares her. And she is a kickass zombie killer.”
“Huh…” I said again, trying to take it all in.
“We saw you drive up on out cameras and didn’t know if you were a threat or not. Sandy decided you weren’t and well… Gave-in too nature’s call.”
“We?” I asked, I hoped there were more of them. For the first time in weeks I was feeling hopeful.
“Yeah there’s a couple more of us up at the lodge, you’re welcome to come. You’ll have to leave your jeep though, there’s no track up to the lodge.”
“Thanks. I- I think I will.” He smiled at me then looked for Sandy. She ran up to him and held his hand. There was a baseball bat in her other with bloodstained barbed wire wrapped around the top half. She was so scary it was untrue.
“Come on slow pokes! I want some marshmallows!” Sandy skipped off, dragging Luke behind her. I kept a few feet between us, just because I hadn’t come across any non-zombie people yet didn’t mean I was totally oblivious to what could and probably would happen. Those of us who were left would probably turn on each other, well some of them would and then the rest of us would have to be a tiny bit paranoid in order to survive.
“So what’s your name?” Asked Alex, turning back to look at me.
“I’m Alex.”
“Oh! You’re English, your voice is petty!” I laughed.
“I am, and thanks, yours is too.” Sandy grinned at me then her and Luke stopped suddenly.
“Watch out, we put land mines down here so we don’t get sneaked up on.” Explained Luke. “Luckily zombies don’t really have any intelligence so we were able to mark them really clearly. Keep your eyes on the ground and if you see a red cross, don’t step there.” I gulped but nodded, it was way too late to turn back now.
We walked in silence and soon I was stood in front of a old hunting lodge with makeshift tent extensions coming off the sides. There was a man of about fifty five sat on the roof of the original building, binoculars hanging round his neck, a shot gun resting on his lap.
“Luke and Sandy are back!” He shouted. “And they brought a guest, the human kind.” I was slightly concerned he had to make a point of saying that. Three people came to stand in front of me, the man on the roof slid down to make four.
“Hi, I’m Alex. It’s, well it’s good to see people who don’t want to chow down on my flesh.” One of the people, a tall middle aged, tall and skinny woman choked slightly. She looked as if life was one constant mental breakdown for her.
“Good to meet you too miss.” The old guy from the roof said. “My names Brian.” He had a kind smile and when he held out his hand for me to shake I took it, smiling back at him.
A small alarm began to buzz and panic ran across everyone’s faces. So much for a lovely warm welcome.
A/N Hope you guys liked it! Vote and comment please :) Only if I deserve it of course ;) x