Darylsaurus: We’re on the move, or will be soon.
ZmB1EbtR: What?
Darylsaurus: This’ll sound weird. Buffalant, or Zach, found out that Kansas City and the mid-west is free
ZmB1EbtR: Free?
Darylsaurus: Yeah. Like free of the contaminated. Or as free as a place can get.
Darylsaurus: We’re also getting overrun here. We’ll be forced out sooner than later.
ZmB1EbtR: Bummer
Darylsaurus: thanks for the sympathy.
Darylsaurus: Indianapolis is on our way to KC.
Darylsaurus: Was hoping that Contamin8r could help us out and us him.
ZmB1EbtR: Sounds like you guys have a plan. I’ll let him know if I see him on
Darylsaurus: Thanks. I appreciate it.
ZmB1EbtR: Yeah
Darylsaurus: I want to come for you after him. I really do, but it’s going to be hard.
ZmB1EbtR: That’s what she said!
Darylsaurus: Hahaha, no.
Darylsaurus: The problem is that you’re only one and we’re three.
ZmB1EbtR: I know, I’m not stupid.
Darylsaurus: If you had a car of some sorts, you probably could get there with a full tank of gas or so.
ZmB1EbtR: It’ll be too far.
Darylsaurus: Maybe. But if KC does turn out to be free, I’ll see if we can come for you.
ZmB1EbtR: Thanks man. I’ll have Contamin8r send you a message if he goes on.
Darylsaurus: Thanks.
I signed off of the forum, ending our conversation and leaving ZmB1EbtR in the cold desolate world of the quieted internet.
I looked at the map of the directions to Kansas City: I-70 west pretty much summed it up nicely. That would be the easy part, following the directions on the map to get there. That did not mean that it would be particularly easy though. We would need to find a place for gas or horses, though I did not know if horses would be a totally good idea. I guess if our cars died then it would be okay, but that’s a long time to travel with the scent of horse shit.
Deciding to take my chances, I typed ‘powered zones’ into the search bar. The results showed about as useful as expected, but after a bit of scrolling, one website showed up.
It was a dot gov ending site, which hopefully meant that it was legitimate. It showed little colored areas all across the United States, though there were not very many of them. I counted sixty-seven total powered zones across the United States, and none of which remained in any large city, save one. Kansas City was fully lit and so was the area around it. I guess Zach knew what he was actually talking about.
Looking it over again, I saw that three areas were in a powered zone and were directly on our route. The only problem was that the third powered zone was not too far outside of Kansas City. This meant a couple hundred miles of driving without knowing when the next gas stop would be. We really would not have any actual guide pretty much the entire way other than the map. No gps or anything of that sort, actually maybe we could, but I did not own one nor did I think that there would be any that were not looted.
My email notification suddenly lit up. (1) New message. I clicked on it and opened it to see a link to the forum and clicked on it.
Contamin8r: You’re finally back
Darylsaurus: Yeah, thanks for getting to me. Did ZmB1EbtR fill you in?
ZmB1EbtR: Of course I did
Darylsaurus: Why are you here?
ZmB1EbtR: Creeping. Sorry, my social life is kind of nonexistent right now
Contmain8r: Fair enough. What do you need Daryl?
Darylsaurus: Power! UNLIMITED POWER
Contmain8r: Hahaha I get it
ZmB1EbtR: I don’t
Darylsaurus: this is an a and b conversation, why don’t you c your way out of it?
ZmB1EbtR: Old dad jokes don’t work on me
Contamin8r: Anyways, there’s a powered zone about thirty miles from here.
Contmain8r: Been seeing some military vehicles going back and forth, but they’re not taking people.
Darylsaurus: That’s fine. We’re coming your way.
Contamin8r: When?
Darylsaurus: We leave in three days. We need your address assuming you want to come.
Contmain8r: Don’t know yet. How long will it take you to get here?
Darylsaurus: About eleven hours, assuming this maps program is correct and there are no delays.
ZmB1EbtR: They’re usually accurate enough.
Darylsaurus: That’s what I’m hoping for.
Contamin8r: Do you really think that Kansas City is a haven for us, for people?
Darylsaurus: I don’t know. All that I know is that we don’t have another option, and that we can do this.
Chapter 20
I heard the sound of a car engine pull up the driveway and into the backyard. The rear window of the house showed me that Zach and Chelsea were pulling the tarp over the green sedan, placing the rocks on top of it to hold it down. They quickly put two packs on their back and came inside through the backdoor.
“You guys good?” I asked when they put their packs down. Both were heavy eyed and had slumping shoulders. “You seem tired.”
Chelsea walked over and sat down next to the kitchen table, “We got in and out pretty fast. Went back to the superstore up the highway. We managed to fill the packs with cans before a contaminated showed up. Should have just killed it and left, but we tried to sneak around it.”
“Tried is the key word,” Zach added. “Unfortunately the contaminated tried harder to find us. We ran for a bit before just saying fuck it. Didn’t realize that we left the bats in the car until it was right on top of us.”
“We had to lure it down an aisle before Zach pushed on one side of the shelf, collapsing the whole thing onto it,” Chelsea finished. “It was pretty cool actually. A few more shelves fell kind of like dominos, but much, much louder.”
They proceeded
