“Thanks,” he said as he got out. “That was an excellent distraction.”
I nodded, “No time for compliments. If these things are intelligent, then we have to cover this car so they don’t see it. Here,” I said, handing him an end of the wrinkled blue tarp. “Over the car, then use the stones to hold it in place.
We pulled the tarp over quickly and without a hiccup. Once the stones were placed, we quickly ran back inside, sitting at the kitchen table. “Glad that’s over,” Zach said.
It took every restraint in my body not to yell at him for his actions. We were nearly given away because he had to go out and do things on his own again without thinking. I swear, if he did not get us killed, I was going to kill him myself for the stress he put us in.
“You can say that again,” Chelsea said as she sat on my lap. She must have known that I was annoyed. “How was your little joy ride?” she asked Zach.
“Well, about that,” he began.
“About what?” I asked. It did not sound pleasant.
Zach sighed, “I don’t think this area is a safe place anymore.”
“It was never a safe place, but we made it safe with our lifestyle,” Chelsea said.
Zach shook his head, “No, not like that. If it remained how you guys were used to, then you would probably be fine, but it’s not. While I was driving, there were so many of them. Like, they just swarmed here, and the numbers have just been growing. I don’t think they’re starving because there’s no food, but because there are so many of them, the competition is too great.”
“What are you saying, Zach?” I asked.
He was looking at his feet, as if he was afraid of what he was about to tell the two of us, “The town, it’s overrun. I don’t think that we can stay here anymore. It’s time to go to Kansas.”
Chapter 19
“What?” Chelsea said. “We can’t just leave. We need to prepare or something.”
Zach shook his head again, “I know, and I wish that we could have, but I don’t think that’s an option anymore. They’ll find us eventually. Hiding out here won’t do us any good if we can never leave. Going on runs for food and other things will be too difficult. We’re overrun. That’s all that there is to it.”
I think this was the closest thing that I have ever come to being in a state of shock. I knew that we had to leave, we all knew it. As soon as Zach showed up on our doorstep, we knew that Kansas was in our future and was the one direction that we were going to have to go in, but that is why we were preparing. The amount of work that would have to be put into preparing over a weeks’ time was more than enough, and doing it so quickly could be potentially dangerous.
“How long do you think we have, Zach?” I asked. Chelsea put her hand on my lower arm and squeezed lightly. I knew that she did not want to leave, but what choice did we have? If we stayed, we were doomed to die through the means of the overpopulated contaminated. It was just something that could not be fought against.
Zach was still staring at the ground, “I don’t know. Maybe three days, tops. I’m no good guesser on the matter, but that’s what I think about it right now. The numbers, you didn’t see them. They are too great,” he said it in a way that made it seem like an accomplishment, as if the contaminated had risen up from the ashes to reclaim what was once theirs.
“Alright,” I said, drawing a deep sigh from Chelsea. I knew that it upset her, the whole Kansas thing, but it is what we needed to do. “We’ll need information. Use the internet to get maps, directions, places that we could possibly stop at to refuel and get food, all of that stuff. That’s your job, Zach.”
He nodded and walked off. I heard the folding door to the other side of the house slide shut.
“Shit,” I said. “Shit, shit, shit. This whole situation is a pile of shit.”
Chelsea kissed me on the forehead, “We’ll be fine, I promise.”
I shook my head, “I knew that we had to leave, I was prepared, mentally anyways. I was really hoping just for a week, maybe two, to get ready for it. We’re going to have too much risk if we get enough food for a trip. I have no idea how we’ll get gas and what happens if we run out. Where will we stay? How do we even-“
I felt Chelsea’s lips on my own. It was a deep, calming kiss. “Shh, we’ll figure it out.” She kissed me once more. “There are three of us, Daryl. We can do this.”
“I love you,” I said, then kissed her. “Let’s take inventory on the stuff so that we can find out what we need.”
We made our way into the basement where we stored all of the food in cans. Chelsea had brought a pad and pencil to mark down what we had in store. I doubted that we would be able to take anything perishable; therefore, the cans would be the only thing on the inventory list.
“We have sixteen cans of green beans, three cans of corn, two spam cans, and a can of carrots. That’s all of our stores,” She counted off.
“Why do we have so many green beans?” I asked.
“Because you hate green beans, so I never make them,” she said. “We both like corn and I guess we just didn’t have a lot of spam or carrots to begin with.”
“This
