“This is probably going to hurt.” Roosevelt said, seeing the distance down to the top of the trailer. It was several feet to the top of the trailer and there was no room at all for error or to roll out of the jump. He was going to have to keep his roll to a minimum, so he didn’t fly off the other side and smack the ground. He took a few deep breaths and climbed over the edge of the roof, letting his legs dangle down. The zeds hadn’t spotted his next move yet, so he was spared from having to see the dead mangled faces staring up at him as he dropped to the roof of the trailer. Roosevelt didn’t think or count to three this time he just knew what had to be done and did it. He landed hard, almost stiff legging the impact but managed to get a half roll in before his legs snapped in half. His legs flopped over the edge of the trailer and he dug his palms in to slow his slide only barley able to stop himself from going over.
“Thank you, baby Jesus!” He said with a huff as he stood up and moved toward the cab of the truck. The old Freightliner was a two-man truck and had a skylight above the top bunk of the cab. He slid down to the hood of the truck and used the butt of his pistol to smash in the skylight for access. The smell coming from inside was enough to gag a maggot as he poked his head inside to check it out. A huge fat zed sat sideways in the front seat, shirt off, and moobs a floppin'. Dried noodles fell from his grey beard as it spotted Roosevelt and started to reach for him.
“Not today tubby!” Roosevelt said, aiming his Kimber and firing a round into the top of the fat man’s skull. The bullet didn’t exit the body and there was little blood that left the wound which made Roosevelt even happier as he climbed down into the cab, opened the driver’s side door and pushed the dead zed out into the parking lot. The herd of zombies spotted him as he opened the door, but they were not fast enough to get all the way to him before he slammed the door closed, shoving a giant bowl of ramen off the dash. The bowl hit the floor and the noodles splattered across the floor.
“Now how the hell do you drive one of these?” He muttered to himself as he studied the shift pattern on the top of the gear shifter. He spotted a sort of a manual on the side of the dash and looked at it and then the shifter. Noticing that the shifter had a high and low gear selector he figured out that the low gears were first through fifth and sixth through tenth were the high gears.
“Alright I got this. Easy as pie.” He said, not really believing his own words. He found the keys and used his left foot to push in the clutch before twisting the key. The engine shook the entire cab as it slowly rumbled to life. Black smoke rolled out of the smokestacks and a high-pitch whine sounded every time Roosevelt would tap the throttle. A loud beep filled the cab as he sat there staring at the gauges. He watched as two of them that read psi at the bottom began to rise. When the gauges reached fifty psi the beeping stopped, giving Roosevelt time to gather his thoughts. He went over the shift pattern in his head and then reverted back to an old five speed Honda he used to have as a teen.
“Can’t be that hard. Nothing to it but to do it.” He said out loud to no one before pushing in the red and yellow air brake releases. He held his foot on the brake and the other on the clutch as he pulled the shifter back to the low left position which was first gear. He eased out on the clutch, but his foot slipped off causing the big truck to jump forward a few feet and violently shake from side to side before the engine shut off. He let out a long breath and started the big engine again.
“Come on baby, don’t let me down.” He said as he eased out on the clutch again. This time, the truck lurched forward and the engine revved loudly as he tried to shift into second, but the gears kept grinding making him cringe each time he tried to put it in gear. After the engine wound back down, he was able to shift into second and gain a bit more speed. He ran into the same problem over and over for the next ten minutes until he finally figured out that the engine had to be revved to a certain rpm before it would slip into gear. Once he realized this his only problem was remembering the high and low side of the gears. He guided the big truck toward the truck stop exit and took the turn onto the main road into town without stopping. The trailer dropped down into a ditch and destroyed a stop sign as he took the corner to sharp. Once he made it onto the road that led into town, he made up time by shifting up to tenth gear and cruised all the way back into town.
Chapter Twenty
11:11 a.m. January 4, 2049
Sweetwater, Tennessee
Townspeople ran out of houses with their guns drawn down on the semi as it rolled to a stop at the barricade. The people were nervous and ready to fire as Roosevelt flung open his door and climbed down from the big truck. He was waving his arms and yelling for help as he ran toward the group of people coming out
