Every time I had one of these dreams I woke up panicking because it had felt so real. But every time I woke up everyone was sound asleep. First Pierce, Natalie, and Cindy then when I woke up after the changing of the watch. Jessica and Joey replaced Cindy and Natalie.
In the morning after I’m guessing what must’ve been maybe three hours of good solid sleep, I got up and took Milo for a walk.
We ate some breakfast bars and headed on west. We would be at the Air Force base by the end of the day, given we didn’t have any car trouble on the way there.
I drove the long road to the base. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been for the abandoned vehicles. It could be like navigating through a maze. Ian had done all the driving on our runs. I loved driving before the apocalypse but this felt like driving in a badly arranged video game.
Pierce offered to drive at one point because I was so obviously tensed up on the wheel but I declined to let him. It wouldn’t have been a big deal to let him in reality but I was feeling very weary of him and his group after my dreams.
It didn’t help that there were groups of zombies walking along the road. And though hitting them wouldn’t come with the same stigma of guilt that would have come from running them over when they were living it still was never a good idea if it could be avoided.
Zombies could do major damage to a vehicle. Ian and I had experienced it first hand with the Jeep Wrangler we had. I also hoped to get another Jeep because they were so perfect and fun for our runs. Though it was a gas guzzler like no other, it was still an awesome vehicle. I never could find one that ran again after that. I could of course have fixed it with the right tools and enough time but there wasn’t always time. I also worried about my safety when working on cars outside the gates. I preferred to work on cars in the confines of the safe haven with parts I had stripped off other cars.
Parts were always super easy to come across but one always had to be careful. It seemed a lot of people had turned in their cars. They were usually pinned in by their seat belts. They would sit in the driver or passenger side seat just chomping their teeth and trying to grab you.
It made me wonder though, why didn’t zombies die from hunger? There went the questions again. There were so many unanswered questions and they just kept piling on top of each other.
As we turned down Litchfield Rd, it became even more difficult to navigate. The deserted cars were almost as bad as those on the ten. I hadn’t seen a regular road like that. Litchfield wasn’t busier than Baseline or any of the other roads Ian and I had traveled down so I didn’t understand why it was so jam packed.
I was barely inching the van along at this point. Maybe going 5 MPH but I doubt I was even going that fast.
“We should just walk the rest of the way,” Jessica suggested.
I wasn’t sure if she meant all of us or just her group should get out and walk. I didn’t get a chance to ask her to clarify because after she said it a swarm of zombies began making their way through the cars. They were headed right for us.
Chapter 9
I stopped the van.
“What are you doing?” Hissed Jessica.
“If we keep moving, they’ll know we’re in here faster and trample the van. Which they’ll probably do anyway but we can make an effort to try and move most of them past us.”
Jessica made a face at me but didn’t reply. She knew I was right.
Pierce helped me put the sun shade in the windshield and Natalie put all the blinds down. We made sure all the doors were already locked. Luckily the bed in the back had been folded back into a proper backseat for easier riding for the others. I went in the back and put a harness around Milo and buckled him in one of the seatbelts.
Nobody said a word but they all had a strange expression on their face.
“I suggest everyone else get buckled up as well.” I stated.
Everybody but Jessica buckled their seatbelt.
“What exactly do you think is going to happen?” She asked.
“You’ve been out there. You’ve seen the same shit I’ve seen so I’m sure you have an inkling.” I said sitting back down and putting my own seatbelt on.
We heard the surge of the crowd as it grew closer to us. The growling became intense. I wondered if that was how they communicated with each other. Did they understand each other and work together as a pack of hunters would? It was a strange phenomenon.
We sat in silence as they began to pass by. They were walking up against the van as they passed but they didn’t seem to take notice to the six of us inside. Seven if counting Milo who was so good at being quiet. It was like he knew the rules of the game without needing to be told.
I was a bit surprised that they seemed to be taking no notice to us as I thought surely they would smell us, our fresh non decaying blood and flesh in the van, yet they walked on.
I thought we were in the clear completely and felt the knots in my stomach start to untie themselves. I could almost sigh with relief but
