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  We move through the back door. I'm leading the way carrying a frying pan thinking to myself. 'I'm a walking zombie sitcom cliche' In my fear I have no shame currently to be embarrassed. I creep towards the railing and down the flight of stairs. So far no trouble. On the ground floor before leaving the stairway I reach into my pocket hitting the unlock button on my car keys. The lights flash and we stay where we are waiting for any zombies. After a minute none show up and we make our way the rest of the way across the parking lot to the car. a black Mazda hatchback only a couple of years old. I open the hatch stowing our bags away, keeping only the frying pan with me. Closing the hatch as softly as possible. Adam heads to the passenger side front while Sarah hops in behind the driver. I jump into the driver seat. A large sigh of relief escapes the three of us as we close the last of the doors and having so far alerted no zombies.

  I reach up to hit the start button but my hand freezes only an inch from it. Where will I take us? Starting the car will definitely draw the zombies and it's dark out. Maybe we're safer staying here in the car where no zombies have seen us yet. Thinking of this I turn to Adam and Sarah and ask, "Now what?" I whisper

  "let's go! What do you mean what!" Sarah replies

  "Wait, go where? we have nowhere to go and the car is definitely going to attract zombies" Adam Says.

  "What do we do ? Keep quiet and wait out the night here?" I ask exhaustedly.

  "I'd love a better idea?" Adam says.

  "We can't stay here" Sarah exclaims "All those zombies are right there!" she continues, pointing at the building.

  "Adam has a point. At least right now they don't know were in here. If we keep quiet and under the windows, I don't see how they'd find us, especially if they stay inside" I say

  Sarah looks back at the building where we can still hear the zombies. She looks back at Adam and me with resignation and agrees this is probably the best idea. We all crouch down. Sarah laying across the back seat. Adam and I move the front seats as far back as they can go so we can get seated in the footwells. Sometime in the middle of the night, the zombies stopped making so much noise. Allowing James and Adam the ability to doze off. Curled up in the foot-wells with their heads resting on their arms over the seats. Sarah regardless of the ability to stretch out in the backseat doesn't manage to get a wink of sleep. She watches enviously over the two of them thankful in the least to not be alone in all of this.

  #

  Chapter 6

  Sarah nudges Adam and I awake as the sunrise begins lighting the dawn of the new day.

  "Argh," Adam and I groan in unison as we wake up feeling the angles of our sleeping catch up with our necks and backs. Noticing the pre-dawn light I stretch my head up to look out the windows and around us. With the sun coming up I have a pretty good view of our immediate surroundings. Parked next to us on the driver side is a large white van that's used by the building's maintenance man. On the left side of the car are two empty spots then the wooden fence. The fence surrounds the building's private parking lot. On the other side of the van in the corner of the lot sits the dumpster. Across from this is the narrow driveway that leads to the road. Not a zombie in view.

  "Shh," I say looking at Adam and Sarah both as I reach for the door and start to slowly open it, "I need to piss"

  With the door unlatched I push it open a few inches. Scanning the lot before opening another couple of inches. Continuing in this pattern until the door is open wide enough for me to squeeze out. I don't go far, in fact, I kneel down undoing my belt and zipper right there in the doorway and let it stream. I do however have enough decency to move forward enough to not give the other two a show. Adam decides to follow my lead On the other side of the car. Without the van on that side, he's a bit more exposed to the world and I'm pretty sure he knows it. With the way his head is on a swivel, Sarah is the last of us to relieve herself using the car to brace herself .

  "Alright, well it's morning and we have light now. Any ideas on where to go?" I ask. "Maybe try and get out of the city? That's always what is suggested in the movies, to get away from population-dense areas. Except what would we do for food? I don't know shit about hunting or whatever and without a cell signal, I can't google it either"

  I look back and forth between Sarah and Adam, neither having anything to say.

  "The radio!" Adam suggests after an excruciatingly long silence.

  "What about it?" I ask while raising my hands in a questioning manner.

  "There might be emergency broadcasts with information or even locations of safe places to go!" He exclaims under his breath.

  I turn back to the steering wheel and dashboard. I make sure my food is as far from the brake pedal as can be before hitting the start button. Brake pedal pressed when hitting start would start the engine. Without the brake pressed it only turns on accessory power. The console lights and infotainment system spring to life. The radio is silent as it searches for the Bluetooth connection to my phone. I always listen to audio-books from my phone when in the car. The car is trying to pick up where I left off with the new magical assassin series I only recently started. I hit cancel and switch the system over to the radio. The first station is static. I hit the scan button and wait while it scans through the stations. It stops on five different stations but they're all static and I restart the scan each time.

  Sarah smacks me lightly across the back of my head. "AM you idiot!"

  "Ok. Ok, you don't need to get violent" I utter as I quickly start scrolling through the options looking for the AM option. Once in AM I hit the scan button again. I watch the numbers climb higher and higher as the radio finds no signals. I begin losing hope when it stops and a man's voice pipes out of the car speakers.

  "Will repeat" comes from the radio.

  I assume it's a repeating message and we need to wait for it to restart. Sure enough, the radio starts piping out the same voice only a handful of seconds later.

  "This is an emergency broadcast, we are experiencing a highly contagious epidemic. We urge everyone to stay indoors and wait for assistance. The national guard has been called into service and is containing the spread. It is only a matter of time before we have everything under control. Again we urge everyone to stay indoors. This is not a test. Thank you. This message will repeat"

  We listen three more times in silence. As if further listens will provide more information. Of course, it's a recording and nothing new is gleaned. I turn the dial lowering the volume and I turn towards Adam and Sarah.

  "Shit! Stay indoors. That's not very helpful if your place is filled with fucking zombies!" I say letting anger at this situation raise my voice more than I intended.

  "What about my house? I live alone and it's only fifteen minutes from here." Adam suggests

  I think about it for a moment finally shrugging.

  "Yeah I guess that's a plan, I don't have any better ideas," I mutter as I put my seat-belt on.

  I put my left hand on the steering wheel with my right-hand hovering near the start button. I look around the lot and at the building one last time thinking this is probably the last time I'll see the place. Adam and Sarah meet my eyes as I try not to let the bittersweet emotions show on my face. Sarah looks exhausted and terrified, her hair a greasy mess. Her green eyes shining in the early morning light gorgeous nonetheless . Looking to Adam next he nods that he is ready to go, I nod back. Taking a final breath to steel myself. My hand covers the last few inches to the button pressing quickly and firmly.

  The engine growls to life so much louder than I remember it ever being before. What was once a quiet four-cylinder motor that I never paid attention to. The car now sounds as if you can hear it for miles as my imagination goes wild. I shift the car into reverse and pull out of the parking spot quickly, stopping once out to shift to drive. So far no zombies are attacking us or even within view. I creep towards and through the driveway heading for the street. We make it to the driveway still no sign of zombies anywhere around us. Maybe they're all inside and th
e walls are muffling the car enough to not alert them. I think to myself before a zombie comes rushing through the bushes on the left slamming into the driver's side door.

  "Fuck" I utter

  I hit the gas and peel out into the road making a sharp left turn. With the narrow street and cars parked along the side. I'm only able to get up to 35 miles per hour as we zip down the street away from the building. Not fast enough to lose the zombie but we are creating distance between us. We drive up the road as more zombies come rushing after us. Coming out from behind bushes fences and some jumping up from the center of the road.

  "Shit shit shit" I growl as I clip a zombie that was in front of us. It gets flung to the left of the vehicle and out of our way. "We just need to make it to the highway where I can put some speed on," I say. We make it to the end of the road making a sharp right turn onto Main street. The main street is a double lane two-way road. With the road clear of cars. I step on the gas pedal breathing a sigh of relief as I watch the zombies disappear in the rearview mirror. The car speeds up to 60 MPH in no time. Zombies continue rushing out at us along the way. But we're moving too fast now and lose sight of them almost as soon as we see them.

  We continue this way for the five minutes it takes to reach the on-ramp to the highway. We take the highway heading south towards Adam's. Of course, we have to slow down for the on-ramp. No zombies nearby though and this proves to be a non-issue. The freeway itself proves to be more crowded with stopped cars than the residential areas. But not enough that I need to slow the car down. we're able to continue comfortably cruising at sixty MPH. three exits later.

  "Get off here, on 81A," Adam says pointing at the exit sign.

  I slow down signaling my intent to switch lanes before pulling into the exit lane.

  "Zombies are real and this guy still signals when switching lanes," Sarah says aloud.

  The three of us laugh together sharing the first moment of levity in days. I slow down as we drive through the exit ramp. Coming to a complete stop at the intersection wanting to get a look at the area before continuing.

  "Take a right here, only another three streets to go," Adam says as he points.

  I press down on the pedal and off we go. The cars deserted along the road create enough obstacles. That we're forced to swerve between them several times. Preventing me from getting much speed but so far we're clear. It's a shopping district, guess people weren't hanging out here when zombies hit the fan.

  "Right there, that's the turn." Adam excitedly points "It'll be a left turn at the next intersection. The house will be a green one story on the right across from the church.

  We turn onto the road and slowly drift up the street. I'm trying hard to keep the engine quiet. I already feel super lucky to have made it this far without attracting any. It would be the worst thing that can happen to draw any now that we're this close to the house. I see the church and stop the vehicle about five or so car lengths away.

  "Why are you stopping," Sarah asks

  "We've been lucky so far, if we drive right up to the house we might draw zombies and bring them right with us," I respond.

  "Sooo, what now then? Do we walk the rest of the way so they can EAT us instead?" she points out to me.

  "Uhh ok fine" I respond as I start to creep the car forward again. moving at five miles an hour. I direct the car along the curb coming to a stop and shifting into park in front of the house Adam indicates.

  "Couldn't have had a garage?" I say to Adam. "We're going to need to." I stop mid-sentence as Adam's eyes go wide looking past me towards the church. I turn in time to see a zombie fling itself at me as if the door wasn't between us. It bounces off and onto the ground with a resounding thud. I flinch at the sound as if punched in the face. The zombie gets back up and flings herself at the car, again and again. Each time causing a thudding sound that echoes through the neighborhood and my head. We sit there in the idling car having no idea what to do when movement catches my eye. The banging of the zombie against the car attracts more zombies that were in the church. Zombies are streaming out of the church door toward us.

  "Go go go go!" Adam shouts at me

  I shift into drive slamming the gas pedal to the floor. The first of the zombies from the church reach the car before we can get moving. Leaving bloody handprints on the windows and windshield as we break through them. Running over two zombies on the way down the road we're able to clear the street. Watching in the rearview mirror, I estimate two dozen zombies giving chase. I move my attention back to the road in front of us trying to keep the speed up while swerving around abandoned cars. We make it back to the freeway. As soon as we get on I gun the engine even harder. Hitting 90 MPH and driving south. For twenty minutes no one speaks as we drive. Putting as much distance as we can between us and the zombies. Finally, I pull onto the shoulder of the highway in a remote section. A stretch of road that is clear of buildings in both directions. Other than a single gas station up ahead on the horizon.

  "What are you doing?" Sarah asks frantically.

  I respond. "We've been in the clear since we got back on the freeway. We are driving aimlessly now and need to figure out what to do next. Or we can keep driving till the gas runs out and we're forced to go on foot. Would that be better?"

  I don't wait for a response. I get out of the car with barely a look around walking away enjoying the cool sixty-degree fall breeze on my face. A hundred meters away from the car I finally stop. I close my eyes listening to the wind and nature around me. It all sounds so peaceful and for a moment I can almost pretend to forget the world I now live in. I hear a car door close, turning back I see Adam and Sarah standing next to it ready to jump back in at a moment's notice. I walk back popping open the hatch.

  "Let's see what we have to eat yeah?" I say as I pull out a bottle of water for myself taking a long chug. Sarah grabs her own having joined me at the open hatch. Sarah begins rummaging through the bags

  "What's this duffel bag, I don't remember us packing it before?" Sarah asks while pulling it open and pulling out a boxing glove.

  I look at her and the glove in her hand "Oh that's my Muay Thai gear" I respond. "We can toss the gear and use the duffel bag for any other stuff we pick up," I say "Oh! but save the wraps we can use those as bandages if needed and they take up almost no room. We will need to wash them first."

  "Muay Thai, like MMA?" she asks

  "Uhhh yeah. The stand up fighting of it anyway." I answer taking a breath before saying further. "Think of it as Thailand's version of kickboxing"

  "Oh cool. Didn't think you were the fighting type," she says pushing the bag still full of the gear back into the trunk space. She continues pulling out the other bags looking for food.

  "I'm not" I respond as I grab an extra water bottle. I step around the car to toss it at Adam who wandered off to the railing on the side of the road.

  "Yo," I holler in his direction to get his attention before I notice he's over there taking a piss. He looks over his shoulder clearly annoyed with me. "hold on"

  He finishes up turning back toward the car and I toss the bottle of water to him. Adam catches it and joins up with me as I walk over to see what Sarah has scrounged up for food. Sarah has several cans of fruit sitting out, half a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and protein bars.

  "Did we grab any silverware or even a can opener, I couldn't find any?" Sarah asks.

  "I didn't," I say looking at Adam who shakes his head as well.

  "Great so we can't open the canned food." She mutters.

  "Wait I have a pocket knife for the peanut butter" I exclaim, grabbing my pack and fishing it out, handing it over. we all sit around on the ground behind the car. To eat peanut butter sandwiches and protein bars. We've no idea what our next steps will be. For now, though We're happy to enjoy this quiet piece of a deserted highway. And the satisfaction of peanut butter sandwiches sitting in our stomachs. The food Washed down with bottles of water.

  #

  Chapter 7


  1:37 pm the screen of my phone reads after powering on to check for a signal. I make a mental note to charge my phone next time the car starts up.

  "No signal," I say aloud as I power down the device again tossing it over my shoulder into the back of the car. We have no plans and nowhere to go, we end up deciding to stay on the side of the road for the day. It's the only place we've felt somewhat safe in days. which is odd being we have no walls. I don't enjoy the idea of another night spent in the car but I'm sure as hell not sleeping outside. After deciding to stay on the road we move the car closer to the railing. We tie a tarp between the roof racks and the highway railing, creating a little lean too for shade. It doesn't do much for the wind. which is blowing straight through the open sides. Not a great setup for warmth. I figure we can always adjust it if the wind picks up or the temperature drops. Being the middle of October, it will drop rapidly when the sun goes down but not too much. And for now, it feels like a luxury to have a bit of shade.

  Sarah is napping in the backseat. Her sleep deprivation finally caught up with her from a night of restlessness. Adam and I sit under the tarp discussing what we do next. After twenty minutes we end up not deciding much other than trying to loot stores we find along the way. For now, I'm content enjoying a respite from a harrowing couple of days, I lay down using my pack as a pillow.

  I didn't feel particularly tired but nonetheless I must have dozed off. Next thing I know I'm waking up to find a rifle in my face. I freeze struggling to contain my initial panic. My eyes move along the rifle to the man holding it. The man is wearing green army fatigues. Which does nothing to alleviate my fear. The soldier locks eyes with me for a moment before stepping back. He keeps the gun pointed at me though.