The next car drive was silent, mostly because none of us knew what to say.
The window wiper on Seth's beaten down jeep sweeped the rain off of the windshield, doing their job. I sat in the back with Abbie, contemplating what would happen if we died while looking through newspaper clippings.
I was in deep thought, zoning out, in a trance. What would happen? We were the only humans beings alive, to our knowledge. Would the living die out completely? Or was my brother really out there?
The jeep purred, the rain pattered down, and no one said a word. Callum was leafing through files, as was I, Abbie was sleeping, pale as a ghost. And Seth kept a firm stare on the road, gripping the wheel with white knuckles.
I sighed and kept looking through the files. We hadn't found anything except old infant pictures and stories about him. They were vague, worn, and hard to read. Long story short, he left a while ago to find his real dad, and didn't come back. Thats it. For some reason, the police department didn't seem to care much for that case, and I couldn't understand why.
"Ureka!" Callum shouted. The sudden break of silence caused Seth to swerve and swear.
"What did you find?" I asked desperately, tousling my fringe away from my face.
He grinned, tossing the papers back to me. "Another sighting."
I looked down at the article eagerly, scanning the page.
Liam Roberts, blah blah... Ran away blah blah...
Then, I saw it.
Possible sighting, aged 20.
"Oh my god..." I murmured, taking a closer look.
Closed case, 2001. Liam Roberts, aged 11. CLOSED.
Update: Possible sighting, California, Liam Roberts, aged 20.
Witness Report, Mrs Maynard, Personal friend of Roberts family, 2014.
"I swear, it was him. He had the same dark, dark eyes, same hair, same attitude. Sure, he was older and taller, but it was Liam. He recognised me too, you know. Looked right at me, and his cheeks flushed red. He knew I recognised him. He ducked his head down, then jumped over a wall. He ran away again."
I knew Mrs Maynard, she was a very close friend. Before I was born, my Dad lived in Scotland, when he was around 9. My grandfather was a really wealthy businessman, and his family moved to California. They kept their Scottish name, Roberts, and my Mom had no problem with taking it too. So I was half American, half Scottish.
Anyways, Mrs Maynard was basically my Dad's auntie. She moved with them, because she needed them as much as they needed her. I didn't know her at all, but I knew she was close to my Dad. Really close.
I had heard stories about her from my dad, how she used to babysit him while my grandparents went on business trips... How she was as much his mother as his real mother was... She seemed to be a very nice woman.
I scratched my nose slightly, my excitement dying down.
"Thanks Callum," I said, handing him the article again. "But who knows where he could be now? This doesn't mean he's still in California."
He sighed and took the newspaper back, defeated. "I guess... But its our only proper lead. Its a good place to start."
"He's right." Seth prodded from the driver's seat.
I sighed and glared at the back of Seth's head, knowing they were right.
"Yeah... Okay. Head for California Seth."
"Already am."
"Okay..." I murmured under my breath, slouching back in my seat. Just as I got comfortable, Callum turned around again.
"Cospyn... You wouldn't mind switching seats, would you? Its just... Abbie's been having these nightmares lately... She likes me to be there when she wakes up from them, you know?"
He pleaded to be with big eyes, and much to my distaste, we stopped in the middle of an empty motorway, switching seats.
Besides being stuck beside Seth, shotgun was pretty decent. More leg room, better view... It was alright.
We kept driving along motorways and highways, empty and dark. It had become normal to see empty roads by now, we were all used to it. But It still unnerved me easily.
Soon enough, Callum's prediction fell true, and Abbie woke up screaming and crying.
Seth stopped the truck to try and help, but Callum seemed to have done it before. We twisted around in our seats to see him collect in her flailing limbs into her body, and stopped her shaking so much. She eventually stopped withering and and screaming, and cuddled up into Callum's body, all in under 5 minutes.
"Were good to go." Callum said sternly, nodding his head.
Seth nodded back, and turned the key in the ignition once more.
The car fell silent again, only me and Seth still awake. Callum had wrapped a protective arm around Abbie and fallen asleep too.
The only sounds were the purr of the old engine and the patter of rain, making for a gloomy atmosphere.
We didn't speak for a full hour.
All of a sudden, Seth broke the silence.
"Im sorry, okay?"
I jumped at the sudden noise, turning to face him.
"What for?"
"For Daisy. And Renton. Alright? Im sorry."
He continued to drive as he spoke, his grip tightening on the wheel.
I almost snapped back, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
"Im sorry too."
He glanced at me with a furrowed brow, making his greasy bandana expose his dark hair.
"What the hell are you sorry for?"
"Yelling."
"Oh..." He murmured.
I sighed again and tousled my hair, throwing my fringe back. The car became silent again, the rain heavier.
I refrained from yawning, the Samuri sword at my feet keeping me alert. I tried my best to look awake and ready, but Seth had obviously heard the vague, tired sighs I tried to release quietly.
"Get some sleep, Roberts."
"Im fine, honestly." I said, looking out the window.
He stared at me. "No you aren't. Get some rest idiot."
I sighed and looked at him.
"Fine." I agreed. "But if anything happens, wake me up."
He smirked and did a mock salute. "Aye aye."
The last thing I remember was rolling my eyes at him as I slipped into a needed sleep.
Tattered and bruised, the four teammates sprinted across the deserted city, seeking any type of refuge from the strange, carnivorous beasts. They looked like human beings, but they were dead, deranged psychopaths, threatening to take down anything in their way. One of the teammates, a girl with short blonde hair, tripped up, but steadied herself instantly before she could fall. Sadly, she began to lag behind the others.
Screaming and rasping, the ravenous creatures pounced on the girl behind, and attacked. She screamed and kicked, trying desperately to break free. Her attempts were her final effort, before the horde took her under.
A boy with a shaven head in the group stopped running and turned back to stare, horror taking over his features. He screamed her name and ran backwards, facing the monsters himself. The other two kept running, never looking back.
The landscape behind them fell away, the sky becoming a dark crimson red, as the last two survivors of the apocalypse fell victim to the epidemic they had been striving to survive for so long, pounced on by the evil that had spread around them...
I woke with a start, drenched in cold sweat and panting. The familliar sound of the trucks engine calmed me, as I regulated my breathing slightly. Everyone was awake too, startled at my sudden wake.
It was dark, and Callum and Abbie remained silent in the back as Seth snuck glances at me, while also keeping an eye on the road.
"You okay?" He asked tentatively, his dark eyes filled with panick.
I breathed heavily and flicked the hair out of ny eyes. "Yeah... Yeah," I said, running my hand down my cheek, feeling the furnace hot heat my face was breaking out in from embarresment. "Just a bad dream, that's all..."
He nodded and returned his eyes to the road, letting it go. I slumped back in my seat, looking around me for some clue as to where we were.
The landscape was somewhat rural, abundant in mountains and dry bush. Sand-like-dirt drifted across the road as we passed it, illuminnated by the car's lights. The darkness seemed to swallow everything we passed, as we were driving 60mph down a deserted road.
"Where are we exactly?" I asked Seth. He sighed and shrugged slightly.
"Exactly? I have no idea, really. But I think we're near Sierra Nevada."
"What?!" I exclaimed. "What are we doing out here?!"
"Might have gotten us a little lost, is all."
"Seth..." I whined through gritted teeth. "Why didn't you wake us up?"
" 'Cause I thought I was going the right way, didn't I?"
"You obviously weren't!"
"Well I didn't fucking know that!" He shouted, laughing.
"Yeah, no shit." I grumbled, slouching back into my preious position.
He continued to drive, and the night continued to grow darker, as we finally came into slight civilisation. It was a tiny town situated in a valley, covered in a layer of dust and looked as though it was uninhabited by any Reapers.
We passed a large, neon motel sign, which had obviously been failing to entice any business, even before the apocalypse. The motel sign wasn't displaying it's steriotypical bright colours, probably due to no power. Instead the large, bulky letters stood dull and dark as anything around us. Dead.
We continued to drive, but soon circled back to the motel, having discovered nothing but raided convenience stores, destroyed garages, and several usless barber shops. Instead, we thought it would be best to hole up in the motel for the night.
Seth swung into the parking lot, and turned the truck off. He had stopped the car diagonally across three parking spaces, making no real effort to park it. I guessed there wasn't much point in making an effort anyways.
I grabbed Senshi and got out of the truck wearily, glancing around us. I was the first out, but everyone soon followed. Seth slapped the hood of the old truck fondly, smiling a little and adjusting his bandana. Callum emerged from the back, Abbie on his tail. I hadn't really seen either of them since Abbie's screaming fit, but she semed to be doing okay now. She looked shaky if anyhing but that was probably just because of the cold. It was freezing.
I threw Senshi's strap over my left shoulder, so the hilt of the weapon was dangling at my hip, for easy acsess. Everyone looked pretty run down after the argument, and after Daisy and Renton's deaths. Abbie in particular. I thought it would be a good idea to use the motel as a shelter forthat night, to give Seth a break from driving. Seth and Callum were the only two able to drive, and Abbie couldn't sleep without Callum due to her nightmares. Everyone needed rest, so it wasn't fair to allocate Seth as driver all the time. We all needed sleep.
"Okay," I said,rubbing my hands together for heat. "Who's the scout party for tonight?"
No-one looked particulary enthusiastic.
Callum scratched his temple. "We should all probably stick together now. We knew California, it was okay to split up. But this place is so unfamilliar... who knows where Reapers could hide."
"He has a point." Seth agreed, arms crossed.
Abbie nodded and said quietly. "Yeah. Let's just stick together for now."
"Right." I sighed, grabbing Senshi's handle. "Fall in."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everything was okay to start with. Windows had been smashed in the front of the building, and everything had obviously been looted from reception. We checked the dingy kitchens for any food, but there was nothing.
We thought the best idea would be to go upstairs and campout in a room for the night. We never separated, but Abbie said she wanted space that night. Callum obviously insisted on going with her, being the overprotective boyfriend that he was. It was understandable but that left Seth and I alone again. Great.
Abbie and Callum flanked Seth and I as our group trekked up the first flight of stairs. We almost went further up the building, but discovered the stairs had been piled high with wardrobes and beds, all of which were balancing on top of each other unsteadily. I walked toards it wearily, Senshi unsheathed.
Suddenly, a decaying hand, missing three fingers, shot up out of the debris.
The movement was follwed by the torso and head of a dead, young man.
He had obviously been infeced for a while. You could tell by the fact that his skin was torn and stretched, sprouting horrible boils from within. They oozed with numerous liquids and I preffered not to investigate further.
His face resembled a pug, muddled and flattened, a grotesque nose squashed until it took up most of his face. His eyes were like all others, glazed and unseeing, merely the once functioning organ that humans had depended most on. Now, they were almost blind, useless.
He had horrible tufts of greasy hair, and a bashed skull, giving the right side of his head an odd concave deformity and a terrifying apperance.
Abbie gasped and the others simply groaned in disgust, averting their eyes. I sighed with pity at the rasping creature and ended it's misery. Striking it in the back on it's neck with Senshi made it collapse, it's mottled hand falling limp.
After that scenario we looked around us.
We stood in a narrow corridor, home to two rooms as it seemed. We grasped the keys from reception which had remained untouched, and unlocked the first room.
The motel room was like heaven on earth, though it was still a motel room.
Therer was a double bed, a dresser, and a full length mirror in the corner. There was a bathroom, but that was obviously useless, due to no power. That was about it, but it was clean. Kind of. Cleaner than what they had experienced in Seth's truck anyways.
The bed was made, the rugs only had a few stains, and there was a nice-ish smell lingering around. We soon rooted the source to an automatic air freshener, which was runing out. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the nicest smelling room in the world, but it was better thann rotting corpses and decaying meat. Suppose you couldn't expect much from motels at the best of times.
Abbie almost cried at the sight and flopped down on the bed. She fell back on the matress and laughed. "A bed. We have a bed..."
Seth and I left them to relax, and hoped against hope that our room would be as clean.
We got into our room just as quick, and my delight soon turned to dismay. Our room was exactly the same as theirs. Meaning this room had a double bed too.
His face lit up as he noticed my grin fading. He chuckled and smirked, "Oh, lucky me."
I spun to face him. "If you think I'm... that we..."
"Calm down, jeez," He moaned. "I'm just kidding. One of us can take watch while the other sleeps, then we'll swap."
"Right," I sighed, releived. "Sounds good. I'll take first watch."
After a satisfying can of peaches and a few gulps of water, Seth was out cold. He flopped onto the bed, yawned loudly and fell into a well needed sleep, dead to the world.
I sat in the dark, finishing the can of peaches, and staring outside. I had drawn the curtains so no-one could see my pale face in the window, but I kept catching sight of myself in the mirror.
I looked like a Reaper, smelled like a Reaper, and even felt like one. My hair was really short, my face skinny and sullen. My fringe flopped all over the place, my exression hard and definete. I had changed a lot.
Just as my eyes finally began to droop, I heard voices outside.
Two, in conversation.
The window muffled the voices so I couldn't hear what they were talking about. But, I dared to peek out of the curtains.
They were men, older, and carrying guns. I couldn't see what they looked like, because they were looking out at the prking lot, their backs to the window. They were engrossed in conversation, pointing and gesturing to Seth's truck, in plain sight. Shit.
They knew we were here.