She tilted her head a bit, “Not as bad as yesterday, but still not good.”
“Thanks,” I said, sitting up. “Is everything in the car?” I asked.
She nodded, “Even our bags and extra blankets and sleeping bags. Zach and I loaded them before you woke up. I wanted to give you as much rest as possible.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“Only thing is, we kind of have to go,” She looked down with a sorry expression on her face. “Zach wanted to be out of here a half an hour ago, but I insisted that we wait just a bit longer for you.”
I nodded and stood up, “I’ll be out in a minute. Got to grab the cat.”
“Okay, don’t be too long, it’s cold outside and we don’t want to waste gas,” Chelsea said before heading down stairs.
I found the cat’s carrying crate in the corner of the room. She was already sleeping inside of it, curled up in a black ball of fur. “Hey you,” I said to her. “Time to go!” I closed the cage and made my way downstairs.
It was bright outside, and I was hit by a giant gust of cold air once I hit the outdoors. I found Chelsea in a car and hopped inside. Zach was in the vehicle next to us, window down.
“Ready princess?” he said. Not feeling up to responding, I simply nodded.
“Take a nap, there’s no reason for you to be up,” Chelsea said, her hand resting on my own. “Just rest easy. We have a long way to drive, and I can handle everything.”
I nodded to her. Little did she know that I had never been able to fall asleep while in a car. It was just something that I was unable to do. So I stayed awake, my body ready but unwilling to pass out. The tall green road signs began to fly by, and that is when I knew for certain that our journey was just beginning.
Chapter 23
For some reason, Zach insisted on taking a strange route over to i-70. He wanted to go from our location over to route three then take some winding, I don’t know, way over. Zach constantly insisted upon there being more than enough gas in our tanks to go said way, and I was too sick to argue with him.
Therefore we were on our way, already passing the three way fork leading from route twenty-three to forty-six and eighty. We took the winding path straight to enter route forty-six. The ramp swirled in a downward crescent, merging with the main part of the motorway.
As Chelsea drove, we passed everything along the abandoned highway. Numerous stores that lined the highway were inactive and dark. The once bright and bustling highway, rated worst highway at one point in time was completely empty, abandoned and desolate.
“We’re coming up on the waffle house,” Chelsea said in the quiet car.
I looked over as we passed the large yellow waffle sign, “That’s where we went on our first date. Do you remember when I ordered you the cinnamon swirl pancakes?”
“With that creamy sugar sauce that goes on top of cinnamon buns?! YES!” she threw her hands in the air for a second before reclaiming control over the steering wheel. She let out a light sigh, “Those were so good. Definitely a solid choice at first date.”
“Well, you know that I always make the best decisions.”
“Excuse you,” Chelsea said, staring me down.
Suddenly the radio piped up, “Guys, less road head more paying attention to where you are driving!” Daryl’s voice called. “You are swerving all over the place!”
Chelsea’s eyes moved back to the road, and we both laughed. The light mood died quickly though, as signs for route three started showing up the farther down the highway we drove, but the signs were not normal signs.
“Zach, are you seeing this?” I asked through the radio.
There was a moment of silence before he spoke up, “Yeah. This is creepy shit.”
The signs for route three were there, plastered on the overhangs above the highway, but they were not the normal green signs with a white three atop them. Cardboard was plastered over any other signs that could lead away from route three. In very dark and large letters, the cardboard read: MEADOWLANDS MILITARY SAFE ZONE.
“Zach, this leads us right to the meadowlands football stadium, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, it should lead right into New Meadowlands Stadium. Do you think that is where the military took your parents?”
I looked at Chelsea who kept on driving, face straight ahead, “Maybe. But if they were so close, why not just come to get the rest of us? The meadowlands are only about a half an hour from my house. That isn’t a long drive at all.”
“Maybe something bad happened,” Chelsea added. “Maybe they were rushed by the contaminated, or there might have been an outbreak.”
“But I don’t think that would lead them away from it. Why not just clear the area of the contamination or quarantine it?”
“Maybe they moved to a different safe zone,” Zach said. “I think that we should check it out.”
“What?” I practically yelled into the radio. “That’s too risky. What if the safe zone was attacked by the contaminated? If the military can’t control them then how could we?”
“Look, all that I’m saying is that it could have a lot of valuable information, including any other safe zones and maybe some information on the Contaminated Resistance Unit,” Zach said.
I looked over to Chelsea, “What do you think?”
She looked in thought, her eyebrows scrunched inward, “We can scout it in the cars. The contaminated can’t get to us in these. Once we clear the area we can search it,” She said as we entered the ramp onto route
