A dinging noise saved Yue from having to justify why they shouldn’t try to save little girls lives. Which was good because she didn’t have any justification. Secretly she knew that she’d have slowed down the truck as well. Blowing past a couple of adults with weapons was one thing. Driving past a little girl being attacked by monsters. A desperate little terrified girl. Trying to justify doing that would turn you into a monster yourself. No matter what their dad tried to tell them. There were things you had to risk dying for to be able to look at yourself in the mirror afterwards. Knowing their dad and having heard his cop stories a million times she knew he’d have been the first one out the door to help save the girl.
“We need gas already?” Yue questioned trying to see over the steering wheel and Drew.
“Yeah, we do. I guess constantly slowing down and then flooring it is using up more gas than just keeping it on cruise control would.” Drew said obviously happy to have such a mundane problem to deal with. He immediately started scanning the side of the road for a semi safe place to pull over. They were in the middle of nowhere at the moment, so this was as good a place as any. Even though the dashboard display had flashed that they had fifty miles to go until empty.
“For our next car we need to check the window sticker for AM.” LeBron said leaning forward and joining in the conversation. Yue hadn’t even known that he’d d been listening. She went ahead and took the bait.
“AM? I think you mean Sirius.” She replied looking over at him and waiting for it.
“Apocalypse mileage. I mean you can’t really go off highway and town mileage when you’re going to be – “ LeBron stopped talking when Yue chuckled and punched him in the arm. He grinned and leaned back in the seat while Drew shook his head with a grimace. He was not amused.
Drew pulled over leaving the Expedition running. He punched the button to raise the back door and was rewarded with the high-pitched whine of metal on metal. The back door stopped after only moving up a few inches. Bart was setting up in the back awakened by the fact that they’d stopped.
“It’s stuck on the signs.” He said. He reached into the back and dragged a jug of gas out handing it up to Yue who opened her door and handed it to Drew. Drew grabbed the big red container and hurried around to the side of the SUV where he busied himself filling up the tank. He stopped pouring it in when the container went dry. It’d been a good amount of gas, so he decided not to use another jug yet. Instead he circled the truck to manually close the back door. He wanted to check and see if they’d caused any damage trying to open it.
The outside of the big white police vehicle had taken a serious beating. There were dings all over it from the crawlerz trying to get in. There was one long scratch Drew knew was from when he’d driven too close to a wrecked car and caught a corner of it on the side of the Expedition. Sparks had flown everywhere. He’d been scared they were going to spin out when he hit it. Spinning out in this big beast could easily end up with them upside down.
He pushed hard on the back door until he was rewarded by the click of the door closing. He made a mental note to remind everyone not to use the back door anymore. Just because it’d closed this time didn’t mean it would next time. Once she’d verified Drew was done topping off the tank Yue declared it bathroom break time. She went first then came back to help Bart go. LeBron and Drew stood on either end of the Expedition looking up and down the road as well as glancing into the woods to make sure no surgers were coming at them.
Drew helped Yue get Bart back in the car then him and LeBron took their turns recycling the crystal light flavored water they’d been drinking. They were rapidly running out of the boxes of packets they’d brought with them. There’d been a big cardboard box full of boxes of the packets in the Traverse they’d originally taken from their garage. They’d talked about rationing the flavor packets but that would’ve meant having to drink the hot water they had with them plain. There’d come a point when they had to drink unflavored water but until then they agreed it was way better to just use the packets. It was amazing how much little stuff like that they’d taken for granted in their old lives.
Yue stood guard with her AR-15 on the driver’s side of the truck while the boys took care of nature’s call. She scanned back and forth for the infected but what ended up catching her eye was a jacked up pickup truck that came cruising up the road. It was the first vehicle she’d seen since the overturned bus tragedy had played out in front of them. She’d expected it to be the angry bearded man RV when she first saw the glint of the sunshine striking the window of an oncoming vehicle. The big truck pulled up at a safe distance beside them. She could see the dents on the side of it where it’d been mauled by the infected as well. A man leaned out the busted passenger window and waved to Yue.
“You
