Eleni's light breaths and snores made Neri almost nod off as well, but she refrained. She had to think of a strategy, not just "if we can walk we will."
She sat up, and stared into the woods that had come into light once her eyes had adjusted to the dark. Her arm was propped on her knee, and her hand was holding up her head.
What if we could find another vehicle? she wondered. Maybe from parking lot, or someone's house way out here. Is that logical? Neri nodded to herself. Yup, it's settled. We're going to get a new car.
Neri glanced down at the sleeping girl next to her, and smiled. Eleni's brown ombre hair still fell in loose waves around her, and looked perfect though they had gone through Hell and back. Her Linkin Park t-shirt could've been worse for wear, and her converse sneakers were already dirty. Her jean shorts were almost totalled, but they'd both have to live with it, considering that Neri's were in a nearly identical condition.
An idea hit Neri like a bag of bricks, and she slapped her forehead. We'll gain more ground if we go now, when it's safe! Jeez, I'm stupid.
Her hand went to gently shake Eleni's shoulder so that they could begin their walk, but a small groan stopped her movements. Neri remained frozen, listening for confirmation. Another snort was louder, closer, the second time around. She grabbed for the .357 Magnum in the belt she wore, and spun around. A few feet away was the Restless, growling helplessly as it wandered just five feet away from them.
She bit her cheek to stop her gasp, but didn't shoot. This was the first time Neri had seen one up close.
The eyes of the Restless were nearly white and clouded over, and one of its legs were broken. It was a man, and his dress shirt was torn to shreds, revealing his gouged out ribcage. He continued walking, right towards the women.
Just as Neri was about to pop the trigger, the Restless man walked past her. A few inches to her left, so close that she could smell the fermented flesh of his chest. She nearly gagged, but looked over her shoulder and turned to face it again.
These things really are blind, she thought, and clenched her jaw as she pulled the trigger. A bang accompanied the sound of the body hitting the ground, and Eleni bolted awake with a shriek.
Neri actually chuckled at the terrified Eleni, who was breathing heavily after the gunshot woke her.
"Screw you!" Eleni said accusingly, pointing a shaking finger at her friend.
Neri laughed harder, thrusting her handgun back into the leather holster before standing up. She offered her hand to Eleni, but she just pouted and turned away stubbornly.
She placed her hands on her hips. "Alright, I'm sorry."
Eleni looked like she was trying not to laugh, but stayed still.
"Fine, I'm really, truly sorry... And I'll get you a new car."
"Huh?"
That got her attention, and Eleni spun on her bottom to face Neri. She grinned, and pulled Eleni to her feet without her consent.
"We're not going to walk the whole way to Ottawa, that's just stupid. We're going to find a car as soon as possible, and drive there. When you think about it, a car could be in a close proximity to us if we just know where to look," Neri said. "Besides, it's safer to go at night. During the day we'll hole up somewhere if we get tired."
"Okay." Eleni yawned and picked up her gym bag, then adjusted her AK-47 on her back before nodding at Neri.
They both began at a sluggish pace, and walked until the sun began to come up. Eleni held the compass, and gave a few glances to it every few minutes to make sure that they were going straight. There were very few Restless that walked around, because no big cities were anywhere to be seen. The countryside was more peaceful, but it would be in a city or a populated area that finding a car would be a possibility. Unfortunately, they had to risk it if they wanted to get to the Canadian border.
Another unlucky factor was that they had no clue how long it would be before they came to any form of civilization, so they had ration the small amount of food they had. At around noon that day, they each drank half of a water bottle, dwindling the amount down to four bottles. They shared one of the ten packs of saltine crackers, and then divided the plastic bag full of apple chips amongst themselves. It was just a short twenty-minute break before they got to their feet and began walking again, occasionally playing games such as "I Spy," and even stopped a few times on the road to play the knife game with their Swiss army knives. Neri got a gash on her thumb and Eleni almost cut her pinky off before they decided to stop and focus on walking again. When they bored of those games that were meant to keep their spirits up, they began singing tunes of songs that used to play on the radio. They sung On Top of the World by the Imagine Dragons, and Burn It Down by Linkin Park on Eleni's request. Even Alone Together by Fall Out Boy was thrown in there somewhere.
The girls continued that way, walking the heat of the sun. The blistering weather made their feet drag and their breaths heavy, but they toughed it out. They definitely weren't it Florida anymore, but the heat was just as intense. Eleni put her hair up with a hairband that was around her wrist, but Neri's short chocolate locks plastered themselves to her neck.
The sun set, but neither was tired once again. In the dark it was cooler, and was more comfortable to walk in. It wasn't a biting cold, but enough to make you shiver if you stopped moving. Eleni and Neri walked through the dark, taking an hour-long break around 11 p.m. to take their sweaty feet out of their sneakers. They laid against the cold cement for awhile longer yet, but still unwilling to sleep. Picking themselves up and brushing themselves off, they began walking again.
From the day of the gas station incident, they walked together for two days straight. Whenever they stood they felt exhausted, but as soon as they sat down all they wanted to do was move again.
They passed the dingy Welcome to Virginia sign, and got an idea of where they were. Another water bottle was drained by both of them, and they knew they had to find a vehicle fast.
"Neri, what if we don't find a car?" Eleni asked.
Neri wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. "We will."
That was that. Conversations were short, and neither had the energy to remain joyful anymore. It wasn't until one particular spot on the road that Eleni attempted to lighten the mood once more.
"Neri, what's that over there?" she questioned.
She massaged the bridge of her nose. "I'm really not in the mood to play 'I Spy' anymore."
"No, look!" Eleni pointed to the horizon line in the distance. "Is that actually... Oh my God, I think it is."
Neri did look this time around, shielding her eyes with her hand as she squinted. When her vision cleared, her jaw dropped. "Tell me that this is reality."
Eleni punched Neri in the shoulder, before responding, "It's reality."
"Let's go, now!" she commanded, grabbing her bag on her shoulder with one hand and Eleni's wrist with the other. "The sooner we get to that car dealership, the sooner we get to Canada!"
They practically ran for an hour straight, huffing and puffing, almost tripping over their own feet as they neared the abandoned Honda, Ford, and Nissan dealership. The emotions that they'd lost flooded back, and after the glass building slowly grew closer, they looked at the endless parking lot filled with almost-new cars. The building itself wasn't completely wrecked, but some of the glass panes were shattered, others had fallen to the ground. The inside of the building had white marble floors, almost entirely clean exempting the bodies of deceased employees and a few blood splatters.
As they pushed the revolving glass door and stepped inside, they already felt relieved. Just as they were about to look around for survivors, a corpse began to rise.
Eleni looked down at her feet, and saw the bony hand clamp on her ankle. She sighed and grabbed her handgun, fatally shooting it in the head.
The only reason they had come inside was to check for survivors, and find the main desk. At the empty white marble desk was a thick catalogue listing all the trucks and cars they had in stock, in every imaginable colour. Eleni and Neri walked around the sides of it, each sitting on half of the leather rolling chair.
"We should decide on something fuel-efficient," Eleni said. "We only have what we brought in the jerrycans."
"Right." Neri's hand began flipping through the thin, crisp pages, searching for anything that would conserve fuel.
"Wait, what about that?" Eleni pointed to a few pages back, and they turned back.
Neri's forehead creased. "A Honda Civic?"
"Yeah! It's really efficient."
"That's like, one step up from a Prius."
Eleni smiled. "Hey, do you think they'd have--"
"We're not getting a Prius!" Neri finalized, and looked back at the Civic. She sighed. "Fine, but we're getting it in crimson pearl."
"Settled!"
They quickly left the building, and began wandering through the endless cement field for the crimson pearl, Honda Civic Sedan that they reluctantly agreed upon. They passed the Prius that Neri didn't want, and couldn't have anyways because it was electric. When they crossed all the Nissans, they came to the next section marked with Ford F-150 diesel trucks. The women continued walking, and finally came to the Hondas. It was just another few minutes before the crimson Sedan came into sight, and they sprinted right over.
When they stopped in front of the vehicle, they froze.
"So...how do we start it?" Neri asked.
"Like this!" Eleni wasted no time bashing the butt of her rifle into the rear window. The alarm went off, and Neri jumped back, covering her ears.
"Are you crazy?!" she yelled over the blaring alarm.
Eleni waved her off. "Just keep watch for Restless!"
Neri rolled her eyes and began to look around, making sure that no one was being drawn by the beeping. Even if the Restless were only drawn by night, it still made her question whether or not something would eventually come along.
Eleni squirmed through the window, avoiding the shards of broken glass. With a oomph, she fell into the rear leather seats.
"Hey, what're you doing?!" Neri shouted.
"Hot-wiring the car!" she answered after she crawled up to the console, and ducked under the steering wheel. Soon after, the alarm ceased and Neri uncovered her ears.
"What do you mean, 'hot-wiring the car'?! Where did you learn that?"
Eleni shrugged. "My dad always watched a bunch of trucking shows and all that, with the refurnishing of old cars and how to start new ones... They did a special on hot-wiring."
Her brown hair went under again, and started messing with wires. It still astounded Neri how Eleni knew so much about cars, but she just shrugged it off and stayed on watch for Restless. It was another ten minutes of trial and error, with Eleni only coming up every few minutes for a breath of fresh air. Neri shot two Restless that came from the opposite end of the lot, keeping them at bay.
For a final time, Eleni's head went under, and a revving sound was heard before the motor started going, emitting a guttural groan. Eleni sat up with a heave, wiping her damp forehead.
"Holy hell, you actually got it!" Neri exclaimed, and dropped her bag to the ground. She grabbed for the jerrycans that sloshed as she lifted them up, and poured their contents into the tank.
When they were empty, she pawed through the other bag for the cans that Eleni had filled. When they were poured in and Eleni unlocked all the doors and windows, Neri threw the gym bags in the back and shut the hatch, running around the side to fling open the passenger door. After they put on their seat belts and Eleni reversed out of the parking spot, they hightailed it out of the dealership and headed north, to the Canadian border.