Indianapolis came quickly, within an hour or so. “I’m going to have Zach lead,” I heard James say over the radio. “Follow him to the gas station and we can fill up there.”
We got in line behind Zach’s car as the sun rose above a mar mountain range, practically blinding us. Chelsea handled it like a champ and kept steady at the wheel. We took the exit for Indianapolis and pulled into the gas station quickly.
“Zach and James on filler duty while Chelsea and I watch for contaminated,” I gave the orders.
I walked over to James who was filling up our car. Drowsiness from staying up the night before was beginning to overwhelm me, “Everything good here?” I asked.
He nodded, “Yeah seems okay. Just wondering, but who made you the leader person?”
I had not thought of that. Nobody had declared me the leader, “I guess it is just from lack of competition. Nobody else wants to be it and I just took it without thinking. Honestly I never really thought of it. We mostly just operate as a group.”
He nodded in acceptance of my statement and I moved on in search of contaminated. “Daryl!” I heard Chelsea call. She was pointing off to the side of the station where a contaminated was coming out from behind the bathrooms. “Mine!” I called her off.
I ran towards it, the frigid draft chilling my fingers gripping my bat. “We stay silent,” I said as I rushed past them. The contaminated had just caught a whiff of our scent and was coming at me, hissing and clawing at the air. My bat connected with the classic sound of aluminum striking a contaminated body, sending the thing back. I kept advancing, striking blows to the head and neck one after another until I was sure that it was dead.
“Finished!” Zach said, pulling his gas hose out of the car. I nodded to him when I saw Chelsea point to another contaminated. She launched her body at it, knocking it back with her shoulder followed up by a blow to the head from her own bat.
“Done!” James called. Another two contaminated had popped out of nowhere. I began to advance on the closest when I heard the engines start. My bat collided with the skull right as the other launched itself at me. My tired body barely had time to sidestep it when a bat fell down on its head, crushing it into the ground.
Chelsea looked at me, bloody bat in hand, “Let’s go before more show up!” She said.
We got into the cars and sped quickly onto the highway and away from the dangerous Indianapolis.
“This is it, guys,” I said over the radio. “This is the final stretch of our journey. We’re practically there so don’t stop now!”
“Let’s do this!” I heard Zach reply before my eyes shut out of exhaustion.
Chapter 27
“Hey,” Chelsea said, resting her head against my shoulder.
I grabbed my three of diamonds playing card turned bookmark and inserted it into a page, “What’s up?” I asked as I closed the book, entrusting the three of diamonds with my progress.
“It has been a whole week since your grandmother left,” she said. “I – I don’t think that the military is coming back.” I heard Chelsea take a deep breath in her attempt to fight off tears.
I took my arm and wrapped it around her back, “They’ll be back. Don’t you remember what that marine said? ‘We will be back in three days,’” I said trying to imitate his deeper voice. Fortunately, I gave Chelsea a light chuckle. “Maybe they are just running late. It happens.”
She shook her head, meeting my eyes with her own, “Not like this. Not when it matters this much,” she said, burying her have into my chest. “They left us, Daryl!” Chelsea said with a muffled voice. I began to feel the moisture from her tears being absorbed into my shirt as her back moved up and down with her cries. “They are not coming back,” she finished.
I sat there on the couch with my girlfriend’s head wedged into my bony chest immobilized. Numbness spread through my body as she cried out. We were so young and so alone. The absence of any figures to guide us left Chelsea and I in a self-sustaining state. We were now the masters of our own domain.
On the third day, Chelsea and I watched for some sign of the military convoy from my front porch. We looked. We waited. Nobody came for us. Nobody came to rescue the two lovers who volunteered to stay behind for the betterment of another family because we felt as if we could handle it, and for those three days – we did.
This was different now. This was real. All of the time that we waited, all of the time that we kept on watching out of the front windows, all of that time was wasted. It was all over now.
“They’re more numerous now,” Her voice piped up again. “Nearly every time that I glance outside, there’s one of them – the contaminated. What is the purpose of going on? Everything that we knew is far gone by now.”
I had never heard Chelsea talk this way. She was depressed. The world had become too much for her to handle. The rise of the contaminated was not helping matters either. She was always panicked when I went outside, regardless of what I was doing. She became panicked at the sight of the contaminated and would hide from them even if they were just passing by. I was there. I could protect her. Why did I not speak?
“Daryl,” she looked up to me, her eyes red from the tears. “Daryl, what can we do? The food won’t last forever and neither of us knows how to hunt.”
What could we
