“I know. We need more food, especially proteins if we’re going to travel. And we have to account for the car breaking down, and-“
“No, we’ll be fine with that,” I cut in. “I just really don’t want to eat green beans.”
“Oh stop. You’ll eat them if you have to,” she said.
“I’ll go cannibal first.”
“Don’t joke.”
“Too late,” I smiled back. “But we will need to make a run to somewhere. We do have to account for the car breaking or something.”
“What if we take two cars?” Chelsea asked. “I mean if we’re going to run the risk of breaking down then why not take two? If we find a gas station that works, I’m sure that it will have enough gas for two cars. Besides, it’ll give us better gas mileage if one holds the heavier stuff and the other car carries the extra person and the lighter food.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I replied.
“I know,” Chelsea said with a smug look on her face. “My ideas are never bad.”
“What about that time in chemistry where you decided to mix two beakers of-“
“Okay fine!” She interrupted. “Most of my ideas are not bad. That bit with the sulfur doesn’t need to come up again.”
“That class room smelled like ass for the rest of the week.”
“Shut up? Good,” I received a playful smack on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go see what Zach has found out.”
We made our way up the basement stairs and into my grandmother’s apartment side of the house. “Wadda ya got feh’ me?” I asked, sounding like a detective from a nineteen fifties movie.
He shook his head, “Not much, yet. All that I know is that if we drove straight there without any stops, we could probably get there in about twenty hours, so that’s less than a day. And I doubt we would have to adjust for traffic unless there’s a blocked highway or three, but I figure the chances for that are slim.”
“Very good,” I said. “What about any powered zones? Somewhere to fuel up?”
He shook his head, “Nothing so far, and it is very aggravating at that. It isn’t as if I can just put the words ‘powered zone’ into a search engine.”
“Why don’t you take a break? Maybe you and Chelsea can go find some supplies from the mart or deli in town,” I said, looking to Chelsea. “Would you be okay without me?” I tried to phrase it to insult her honor.
It worked, “Oh please, I am more than enough for those contaminated to handle.” She reached out and pulled Zach out of his seat, “Besides, it will give Zach some good real world experience.”
Zach looked confused, “Why don’t you just come with us? Power in numbers, right?” he asked.
“I thought about it, but if you guys get into a pinch, someone should stay here to help you out,” I replied. And I had thought of that. I wanted to try and keep someone in the house at all times. “Actually, one of the most important things that we will need is communication. There should be an electronics store right off of the highway. See if you guys can stop there and pick up some radio communicators. You know, walkie talkies.”
Zach nodded in agreement, “What about batteries?”
“We have those,” Chelsea said. Zach’s face indicated that he was looking for an explanation, “Long story, don’t worry about it.”
“Alright, go. Take the car in the back,” I said, pulling out the keys. “Maybe we will get lucky and the contaminated won’t notice.”
“Or they will and will follow us all of the way back,” Zach said.
“No reason to damage any other cars or use other gas,” I countered.
Before he gave a response, Chelsea pulled him out the door. She kissed me on the cheek, “Be careful,” I said. She winked at me and went out the door.
I watched as the car hummed with a start and was pulling out onto the roadway. Zach was driving with two hands on the wheel at the nine o’clock and three o’clock proper-ish hand positioning. The engine roared as they took off down the street, Zach honking all of the way. He either really liked the sound of the horn or was trying to draw some of the contaminated out of town with him. The horn kept going for a minute or two then stopped. I imagined that was when they hit the highway and would not want any more of the contaminated following them there.
I went upstairs to my room and pulled out my laptop. My browser opened to my homepage and the forum popped up. Before I had a chance to click off of it, I received a message:
ZmB1EbtR: Daryl man!
Darylsaurus: how did you know that I changed my name?
ZmB1EbtR: Dude, there’s only so many of us here. It was either you or Buffalant.
ZmB1EbtR: Then I noticed the ‘Daryl’ part of the name.
ZmB1EbtR: Work on your stealth.
Darylsaurus: Ha fair enough.
ZmB1EbtR: Speaking of Buffalant, I haven’t seen him on here in a while.
Darylsaurus: He’s with us. Said that Buffalo got overrun and tracked us through our IP address
ZmB1EbtR: Damn. Smart wizard he is.
Darylsaurus: yeah tell me about it. He knows where everyone is.
Darylsaurus: Speaking of everyone, have you seen Contamin8r around?
ZmB1EbtR: He just signed off literally five minutes ago.
ZmB1EbtR: Why?
Darylsaurus: He lives in Indianapolis, right?
ZmB1EbtR: Yeah.
ZmB1EbtR: RE: why?
I was hesitant to tell him about us planning on going to Kansas. Not because he would not believe us, but because I was afraid that he would try to meet us there and be killed on the way. There were three of us here, and only one of him out where he was staying near Denver Colorado. I finally
