Chelsea pecked me on the cheek, “See you in a bit!” She said before walking out the door. A moment later, the car engine hummed to a start and was revving off down the street.
“Testing, 1, 2, 3,” a voice called. I looked around the kitchen to see the black walkie talkie sitting on the kitchen counter next to a stack of pancakes. “Testing, 1, 2 - oh come on Daryl!” Chelsea’s voice called through the talkie.
I picked it up and held down the center talking button, “Testing back.”
“Loud and clear, general,” I heard Zach say through his talkie.
“I made you special pancakes,” Chelsea said. “Have fun while we’re gone!”
I looked to the stack of pancakes. They were in a shape that looked like a cancerous heart, “Your heart pancakes look delicious,” I said.
“Thank you! It took me forever to make them. Zach found the batter in your grandma’s cabinet and everyone who ‘s not a commie likes pancakes,” She replied. “Okay we’re going to be out of range soon, so don’t do anything stupid. I’ll hear from you soon.”
“Okay, love you!” I said, but got no response. “Must be out of range,” I said to myself.
I placed my laptop on the kitchen table next to the pancakes and was just about to open it when Coal jumped onto my lap, “Why hello there, cat.”
She meowed once and rubbed her face against my arm before settling onto my lap comfortably.
I logged onto the forum quickly and a message instantly popped up onto my screen.
Contamin8r: I’m in. Call me James while on the road.
Contamin8r: I’ve attached my information on the message so you can find me.
Contamin8r: Hurry, I need the help.
Chapter 22
“Chelsea!” I yelled over the radio. There was no response. “Chelsea! Zach! Someone answer!” As hard as I tried, nothing that I seemed to do made anyone answer. They were simply out of range. When I strained myself by yelling into the walkie talkie, my cold would kick up and I would break into a fit of coughing, forcing me to stop almost immediately.
The chat where James had told me what was happening was still on my laptop screen. He told me that Indianapolis was a major place for some of the members of the Contaminated Resistance Unit, or what I used to refer to as Contaminated ‘R’ Us lived and called their home base. He said that they recently made a huge push into any powered zone that was available for them to contaminate. Indianapolis was practically overrun by contaminated already, and it would be dangerous for us to safely enter.
I quickly improvised the plan and told him. We were to drive tomorrow, for about ten hours and meet James near the outskirts of Indianapolis in a town called Knightstown. He said that it was not a powered zone, but was a decent place to meet up at least. We could easily camp out on the highway that night, as it isn’t as if the contaminated were using the highway for anything. It was also a higher ground which let us be concealed by the height of the motorway. That was the plan in a nutshell.
I initially wanted to meet up in Indianapolis in order to refuel, but we could do that on the fly so that we did not need to stay in the city for very long.
James had also mentioned that the Contaminated Resistance Unit was putting up a decent fight against the military. It was not that they were able to fight on equal ground with the soldiers, which would be suicide, though that is almost what the CRU was doing anyway. Instead, these people would go in masses to break into cleared zones that were under military protection. They would sneak through military weak sections such as woods or lakes and would contaminate any of the population that they could get their hands on. The red mouths, as they were also called, would attack indiscriminately. Their primary target was children, just to show how messed up they are. Once the parent discovered that their child had been contaminated, they would hide their child out of love.
The military’s official position on contaminated individuals was that they were quarantined to a research and development section, or a concentration camp. There they would perform tests and observe the actions of the contaminated people. This way the military would not be viewed as monsters who are killing children, but instead are heroes for trying to save them.
Needless to say, I was taken aback by the whole scenario. Before I could ask him more, James said that he had to go, that there was noise around his apartment and he had to hide. I became worried; he was our guide through the second half of the journey.
“Daryl?” The radio piped up. “Daryl, you there?” Zach was saying through the walkie.
“Yeah, I’m right here,” I replied.
“We’re on our way back now,” He said. “Here.”
“Daryl, its Chelsea.”
“Hey babes.”
“Hi! Well we’re coming back in one piece and with full tanks of gas,” She said, her voice slightly muffled by the car engine. “We also managed to grab some gas cans and fill those too. No resistance whatsoever.”
“That’s great news!” I practically yelled into the radio, followed by a cough. “When are you guys going to be back?” I asked.
Just then I heard a car engine and the grinding of tires on asphalt. “Uh, just got home. See you in a bit!” Chelsea said before cutting the radio off.
I made my way down stairs and into the living room to be met by Chelsea and
