“Serious?” Aaron asked.
“Serious. Honestly. I may not be able to drive us wherever we are going, but I’d rather be in a moving car and get out of here quick, than stay here and wait for more of these assholes to show up.”
“I don’t know,” Bucky began, “what happens if you crash?”
“Unbelievable. You are absolutely unbelievable. You know what?” Johnny began, holding his hands up, “I’m doing it, with or without you. I’ve followed you through everything since we left that farm, and now I ask that you do the same for me, and you have a problem? Screw it. I’m going, and I’m going now. You guys have a choice. You can either come with me or you stay here. It’s up to you.”
Johnny vanished alongside the car once more.
“Johnny!” Lacey whispered.
Bucky sighed. “Alright, get in.” He followed the group around the bumper. Lacey had called shotgun, meaning the two boys shared the back. Aaron climbed across the upholstery and slumped down meaning Bucky took the seat behind Johnny.
“I knew you’d change your mind,” the driver quipped.
Bucky leaned into him. “In a world full of zombies, don’t let me die in a car crash, okay?”
“Remember, Bucky, I saved you from the last one. Have a little faith.”
Bucky pulled the door closed behind him without a slam. Lacey settled in the passenger side after climbing across the driver’s seat.
Johnny reached down and pressed the lock button, securing all the doors.
“Do we even know if this car works?” Bucky asked. “If it was abandoned with its keys still in the ignition, maybe it’s dead?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Johnny replied. He turned the ignition. The Peugeot coughed and shuddered on the tarmac before cutting out. He engaged it once more. The vehicle quaked beneath them, attempting to strain itself to life. The repeated cough of the engine began to attract attention.
“Please say you can get this thing started.” Lacey said, clutching the rifle to her chest.
“Shit!” Johnny grimaced, hitting the steering wheel. “Come on!”
Bucky peered through the rear windscreen. The ambulance lady shambled back toward them.
Again, the car chugged and shuddered. The drooling skeleton guy appeared from the darkness.
Bucky squirmed. “Johnny…”
“Yes, alright!” he snapped.
Aaron’s window thudded. The snarling, pale face of a young man pressed against it, smearing dark ooze across the window. The ambulance lady pressed against Lacey’s door. Johnny turned over the ignition. Nothing. Drooling skeleton guy ambled around the vehicle and peered into Johnny’s window. The roof pounded as ambulance lady grew frustrated. Ahead of them in the road, a herd of more infected shambled toward them. Bucky closed his eyes. Everything they’d done, how far they’d come… Johnny turned the ignition. Bucky crossed his fingers. The engine roared to life.
“Yes!” Johnny screamed, flipping off the skeleton guy. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
He reached down and dropped the transmission into drive. The car roared but remained motionless. “Come on!” he screamed.
“Hand break, idiot,” Lacey replied before reaching down and releasing it. The car moved forward as Johnny engaged the accelerator.
Bucky leant toward the driver. “Go slow and they’ll brush past you. If you hit them at speed they’ll just slow you down.”
The car weaved between other abandoned vehicles and, just as Bucky had said, the snarling, clawing infected that reached out to them bounced away from the car whenever they made contact. They soon became engulfed by rotting, swaying bodies expelling dark liquid from their growling mouths.
“Just keep going,” Bucky said, still leaning into the front.
The car continued, bouncing the infected away like bumpers in a pinball machine whenever they pressed against the vehicle’s body.
“There’s a clearing,” Johnny said. “Just there. Up ahead. Looks like the infected here are the last of the big pack.”
Bucky nodded. “Great. Let’s get through it and see where the road takes us.”
Their car chugged along the road passing the last of the crazies and entering a clear area.
“Yeah ha!” Johnny screamed.
“Wooo!” Lacey replied, beaming ear to ear.
Bucky tapped his shoulder. “Well done, mate. Good job.”
The car continued forward, finding a few infected along the stretch, but nothing that could trouble them or their progress.
They came to a roundabout. Johnny brought the vehicle to a standstill.
“Where do we go?” he asked the passengers. “Anyone have any suggestions?”
Silence engulfed the kids for a moment before Lacey spoke up. “Home,” she replied, with a certainty in her voice.
“Home?” Aaron asked, repeating her statement.
“Yes. We were supposed to be heading there tomorrow, before all of this happened to us. Our school is being used to take refugees, like the football stadium did. The big difference is that our school is huge. I know most of the population is gone, but if there’s any chance our families survived, I think that’s where they’ll be.”
Bucky looked to Aaron. “What do you think, Aaron?”
“Suits me. As long as it’s safe, that’s all I care about. I don’t think any of us have anywhere else to go, so yes. Let’s go there,” Aaron said.
Johnny looked across his shoulder. “Bucky?”
Bucky nodded. “Yes. Lacey’s right. Aaron’s right. That’s the place to go. I’m not sure where we are or how we get there, but I think that’s our destination.”
“You want me to follow the sign for the main road?”
He sighed. “We have a big decision to make right now and one we all must agree on. If we take the main road we’ll find our way back, but we run the risk of being caught like last time. Clowns, infected, we’d be vulnerable. This car will only get us so far before we’d have to stop and make the rest of our journey on foot. If we went through the countryside there’d be less crazies to deal with but we wouldn’t know which roads to follow to get back. We’d probably get further in the car, but maybe not in the right direction. It’s a tough one.”
“School is on the outskirts of town,” Aaron began, explaining the situation. “The sign over there says, ‘Liston Vale’. The
