He lifted the hood of the Beetle and then crammed hissuitcase in as tight as he could. The hood would close, but the food was goingto have to be crammed in the back.
A noise startled him into action. He slammed the hood ofhis car, and hefted his bat, ready to defend himself. It was just Suzy,standing there with a bag of food in her arms. Dustin smiled and let the batfall to his side, "You scared the shit out of me."
Suzy looked almost embarrassed, "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. I'm glad you're coming. Ididn't really want to do this all alone." Dustin opened the car for her,and she dumped the bag of groceries inside. Together, they walked back to hisapartment and grabbed the last bag of groceries. They sat in the seat of thecar as the day brightened. He put the key in the ignition, turned it, and beganto feel nervous as he couldn't get the engine to turn over.
He was on his third try when Suzy screamed and pointeddown the street; two people were walking towards the car, their shambling stepsand blood-spattered clothing ominous in the light of the day. He turned the keyagain, and this time the engine caught. Dustin pulled away from the curb,fumbling with the stick shift, as it had been a while since he had last takenthe car out for a spin.
The windshield was dirty and the morning glare made ithard to see. He slowly maneuvered the car through the growing crowd ofcreatures at the end of the street. Suzy jumped as one of them struck at herwindow, shattering the window and covering Suzy in jagged bits of glass. Dustinaccelerated.
Once on the road, the going was a little easier, but itwas clear that the city was fast becoming a shell of its former self. Randombodies littered the street, and dozens of those things were wandering about.The noise of his car drew their eyes and their footsteps.
There were other cars on the road as well, seemingly justas dangerous as the creatures that filled the streets. He swerved to avoid aspeeding sports car only to sideswipe one of the dead. Suzy screamed at theimpact. Despite the fact that he was pretty sure the woman had a broken leg,she still got up, and followed after them, limping and stumbling in hisrearview mirror. He hoped she never caught up.
It was only a mile to the freeway on-ramp, but in thatmile, they saw all they needed to see to know that they were making the rightdecision. As Dustin hit the freeway on-ramp, he accelerated around a corner,only to slam on his breaks at the last second. He skidded to a stop, inchesfrom the car in front of him.
The traffic was backed up for miles. Cars were honking,people were waving their arms out windows, and in general, it seemed like agiant disaster waiting to happen. Dustin was about to throw it in reverse whentwo other cars pulled up behind him, trapping him on the on-ramp. In thedistance, he could see greasy smoke rising to the sky. There were no lights; nofire trucks weaving through the traffic to put out the fire.
Dustin got out of the car to ascertain the situation,ignoring the protest of Suzy. He couldn't see much, but no one seemed to bemoving. On a whim, Dustin looked behind them, and saw a horde of people headingtoward them on foot. They stumbled and shambled but in the few seconds he tookto watch them, they were a few feet closer, and he knew that was close enough.
He got back in the car, rolled down his window andadjusted his side mirror. He could see the heads of the crowd cresting thevisible horizon. Dustin threw the car in gear and said, "Hold on."
Suzy screamed some more, and Dustin cranked the wheel tothe right, pulling into the emergency lane. He gunned the engine, and the carjerked to life, racing up the emergency lane. He could feel the evil stares ofthe people that he was passing, but if it kept him away from the people thatwere behind him, he could tolerate a few dirty glances.
He had gone about twenty car lengths when a semi-truckveered into the emergency lane, halting his progress. He skidded to a stop. Bynow, more cars had followed his course of action, and there was nowhere to go.He was trapped between a concrete divider, a semi-truck that had no interest ingetting out of his way, and a line of cars that had all followed him up theemergency lane.
Seeing no other option, Dustin turned the car off andexited the vehicle. More screams from Suzy. He was deaf to them, just as hewould be to everything if he didn't get them moving. He ran up to thesemi-truck on the left side amid honking and cursing from the cars behind him.He waved his hand at them as if to say he was sorry, which he was.
He reached the cab of the semi-truck, a gaudy yellowthing with a smiling lady in lingerie emblazoned on the side. He hoistedhimself up on the step to see inside the window. He was greeted with the sightof two barrels of sawed-off death. Immediately, he threw one hand up, while theother grasped on the handle on the side of the truck. Seeing as how he hadn'thad his head blown off yet, he decided to push his luck.
"Can you roll down your window?" he yelled.
The driver was hesitant, but against his better judgment,he lowered his window. "What do you want?" he asked gruffly.
"I was just wondering if you could move this truckso we can get out of here. We've got some visitors back there." He pointedback in the direction they had come. The driver moved quickly despite his bulk.He threw upon the door that Dustin was clinging to, sending him tumbling to theground.
"Where?" he asked. The driver stood in hisdoorway, his hand to
