The miles ticked down quickly. There was way too much water leaking through the duct tape and broken windows on the Expedition. They stopped to rig up a covering to try to make it better. The front window treatment they came up with definitely wasn’t going to stop a crawler. Not unless they were allergic to cheap grocery bags and duct tape. Their ride was starting to look like a mobile dumpster. LeBron commented it looked like the truck Oscar the grouch would drive if he were in the apocalypse. A joke that for some reason reignited the argument between the two of them.
“Shut up!” Their dad roared out from the third row. Turning around to look at him LeBron and Yue saw that he’d actually sat all the way up in the third row. He must be super pissed. Or, he was just sitting up to monitor the situation as they drove through Gainesville since Ocala had been such a cluster. Completely understandable for the pucker factor to go up exponentially as they approached anything resembling a city. Yue found herself really hoping LeBron’s theories on lower populations in college towns turned out to be accurate. Of course, it’d only take a few surgers or one armed nutjob willing to kill for gas to ruin their day.
The city of Gainesville snuck up on you. The interstate rolled past the outskirts of it which was another reason they were hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as the last city they’d driven through. It was also a great reason to be taking the interstates. The smaller highways that cut north through Florida all ran directly through the middle of large cities on the way to the Georgia border. Centers of population weren’t a place they wanted to be.
Covering half the road underneath the sign telling them which exit to take for the university was a fire scorched firetruck. LeBron felt like that was the perfect symbol for how well the world had reacted to the appearance of this disease. Drew drove them slowly around it checking for any sign of an ambush. In the rows of seats behind him everyone was on guard. Sitting up with weapons ready struggling to see what was going on through the blocked-up windows and the rain that was coming down even harder now.
Drew was the first to figure out the white thing on the other side of the firetruck was the jacked-up truck the creep had been driving. It looked like the creep had creeped out the wrong people. A small group of men were unloading supplies from the back of the big truck. The truck was leaning forward on one flat tire with all the windows shot out. The bodies of the creep and some other guy were lying on the ground. A man about Drews age noticed them watching and jogged over in their direction. The other men around him formed up and followed him.
The group quickly surrounded the Expedition. It looked to be a group of college kids wearing the contents of a looted camping store. They were all carrying hunting rifles. None of them looked shy about using the rifles. Drew rolled down his window wishing that he could roll down the passenger side instead.
“Hi!” He called out to the one who appeared to be leading the others. In the back of the Expedition everyone got ready to fight. Even though they’d just be picked off like fish in a barrel considering the position they were in. The only chance they’d have is if they all ducked and Drew floored it.
“Hi.” The leader said in a thick European accent. LeBron smiled and mentally gave himself a high five. He’d totally been right on the international students getting stuck here. The ambushers continued to maneuver into position to take them out if needed. All it’d take would be one mistake and they’d be dead. Yue got ready to go out shooting knowing that their lives depended on Drew not saying anything stupid.
“I see you guys wasted the creep that was driving the big truck.” Drew said. The leader nodded.
“Did you know him?” The leader asked.
“Nope. Guy tried to pick up my sister. It was super awkward. You going to let us through here or what? You guys rob everybody who comes through here or just the jerks?” Drew motioned towards the motionless bodies lying in the rain.
“Those men. They try and kidnap my girlfriend. Then they say they give us supplies for her. They try and trade a box of beans and some gas for the love of my life. They didn’t know how many of us there were. Normally we have everyone hidden for ambush. They went for their weapons and they did not win.” Drew and the others got the gist of the heavily accented story tossed at them across ten feet of heavy rain.
“So, are we good to go then?” Drew asked in as friendly a tone as he could muster. He was leaning neighborly on one arm while his other was being used to get his pistol in position in case he needed it quickly.
“No. Get out of the police car so we can search it for things we may need.” The
