Quarantine

As the kids in the back screamed, I put the car in reverse and swerved backwards blindly with the creature fixed on the hood of the car. He clung on, pounding the windows with undead fists leaving blood, dead skin, and dents. A cool sweat settled itself on my forehead while I did my best to get the thing off the hood.
As he clung on, I tried to shake him off, and reached into the car through the open that I had been too stupid not to close. He got a grip on my overly long hair. I would have screamed except for the shock that kept me from doing anything but drive. He pulled himself closer and ripped the hairs out of my head. His tongue and gnarly teeth were next to my ear. His breath smelled of rancid meat, human meat. I slammed on the brakes, throwing him from the car, along with half my hair.
While he struggled to get himself up again, I sat hyperventilating and feeling the fresh blood drip down the side of my head. I locked the doors to the cars and fumbled with the steering wheel trying to drive off. As the putrid figure was almost on the car again, I slammed on the gas and stormed out of there intending to never stop.
When the wicked toll booth finally disappeared from sight, Talia let out a sigh of relief. I looked at here knowing I must be pale as a ghost just like she was. She nervously looked at me with wavering dark blue eyes. Even like this she was so beautiful. I looked at the road to make sure I wasn’t drifting before looking back at the deathly silent kids that sat fearfully in the back.
They must have been scared out of their minds. If I were them, I would have crapped my pants. I was surprised none of them weren’t doing anything more than fearful shaking. I guess it must have been the danger, if there’s ever any real danger, you know to keep quiet. It’s just a survival technique, the silent ones last the longest cause they don’t get caught.
We drove for an hour, having no idea what we were going to do. Finally the car ran out of gas, so we stopped at an unattended CitGo station. I circled the place a couple of times before pulling in and getting gas. While I waited for the tank to fill up, I got Talia and the kids from the car and brought them into the adjoining store.
The bell atop the door rang out but there was no one there. After waiting a minute of silence, I told the kids to grab whatever they wanted. They immediately ran over to the candy with they’re hands outstretched greedily, although we all knew the world was dim, candy could always be a bright spot in the eyes of a young child.
While the kids grabbed candy, I hopped behind the counter looking for anything that could help. Just before I ducked down to search, I caught a glimpse of Talia gathering things; she would always be my bright spot, her and Ariel. I stopped myself from becoming distracted and looked underneath the cash register, immediately hitting the jackpot. It must have been a redneck gas station looking at the size of the rifle I had just found.
I grasped it tightly, knowing it could save our lives later, and grabbed the small box of ammo beside where the rifle just was. I grabbed some cash and a carton of cigarettes to relax myself later. I know it was bad, but the way things were, lung cancer was the least of my worries.
We quickly grabbed all we thought we needed. I certainly had enough junk food to last a while. I grabbed a deck of cards on the way out, knowing we may have some long nights ahead of us. I sighed as I herded the kids into the car. It felt weird being in charge, it certainly wasn’t something I was used to. Before I hopped into the car, Talia and I glanced at each other, one of those knowing glances in which you know everything the person is thinking. And we were both thinking about how fucked over we were, but now wasn’t the time for that, now we needed a plan.