Status: Updates are sporadic and may occur at whim, but I do try to add chapters regularly.
Silent Nights
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
“Shouldn’t we get back to the highway?” Anna looks at me over Sara’s head, but I just shrug. We’ve been driving down endless back roads for hours in a general southern direction. At first Sara had us driving in circles to keep anyone from tracking us. Every few minutes she’d tell Matt to take another turn. It wasn’t until we’d gone thirty minutes on the same road that we even realized she’d fallen asleep.
“Do we even know where we were going?” Anna asks. I shrug again and look down at the map Sara still has crumpled in her lap. Sara has one hand loosely holding the edge and her right hand is lying on top of it.
“She said Jasper,” Matt offers. He swerves around a dismembered leg. Sara leans further onto Anna’s shoulder and I try not to fall on top of the girls. For all the reaction Sara shows, he could have just run right over it. She sleeps like the dead.
“Never heard of it,” Anna mumbles as she carefully sits up straighter. I lean forward and look at Sara’s face. This is the most relaxed I’ve ever seen her, so there’s no doubt she’s still asleep. I take hold of the edge of the map and slowly try to pull it away from her. Her hand reflexively tightens on it and I immediately drop the paper. Anna snorts.
“You’re acting like she’s going to bite your hand off,” she laughs.
“Yeah? You take it then.” She rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t make a move for the map either.
“We all saw what she’s capable of,” I say quietly. “I’m not going to be the one to wake her up on the wrong side of the… truck.” I lean back in the seat and stare out the window. No one says anything for several minutes. There’s nothing but forests and fields on this stretch of road.
“I’m not saying killing people is right,” Anna says eventually. “But maybe those people…” She trails off and the silence returns. I’m pretty sure I know what she’s thinking, but doubt she’ll actually say it. Anna was pretty vocal about her opposition of the death penalty, and any other kind of “human torture”. She even had this one article that got published in the local paper about it. Her parents used to brag up and down about that article, and I used to get stuck hearing about it every time I saw them.
“It’s a different world now,” Matt asserts. He swerves around another corpse in the road, reinforcing his words.
“Yeah, one where people really might bite your hand off.” I look pointedly at Anna. She rolls her eyes again, but she’s smiling at least.
“Okay, bad choice of words,” she admits.
“Very.” I look back out the window as we pass a burned-out farmhouse. There’s a couple dozen walking corpses shambling around the charred remains, but at the speed we’re going there’s no chance of them catching up.
“Seriously, though,” Anna begins after another couple of miles of monotonous dirt road, “It’ll be dark in a few hours.” I look at the clock on the dashboard. It says half past nine. Apparently setting the clock wasn’t a big priority for Sara. I notice she has a watch on her right wrist. With a sigh I reach for the map again.
“Do we even know where we were going?” Anna asks. I shrug again and look down at the map Sara still has crumpled in her lap. Sara has one hand loosely holding the edge and her right hand is lying on top of it.
“She said Jasper,” Matt offers. He swerves around a dismembered leg. Sara leans further onto Anna’s shoulder and I try not to fall on top of the girls. For all the reaction Sara shows, he could have just run right over it. She sleeps like the dead.
“Never heard of it,” Anna mumbles as she carefully sits up straighter. I lean forward and look at Sara’s face. This is the most relaxed I’ve ever seen her, so there’s no doubt she’s still asleep. I take hold of the edge of the map and slowly try to pull it away from her. Her hand reflexively tightens on it and I immediately drop the paper. Anna snorts.
“You’re acting like she’s going to bite your hand off,” she laughs.
“Yeah? You take it then.” She rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t make a move for the map either.
“We all saw what she’s capable of,” I say quietly. “I’m not going to be the one to wake her up on the wrong side of the… truck.” I lean back in the seat and stare out the window. No one says anything for several minutes. There’s nothing but forests and fields on this stretch of road.
“I’m not saying killing people is right,” Anna says eventually. “But maybe those people…” She trails off and the silence returns. I’m pretty sure I know what she’s thinking, but doubt she’ll actually say it. Anna was pretty vocal about her opposition of the death penalty, and any other kind of “human torture”. She even had this one article that got published in the local paper about it. Her parents used to brag up and down about that article, and I used to get stuck hearing about it every time I saw them.
“It’s a different world now,” Matt asserts. He swerves around another corpse in the road, reinforcing his words.
“Yeah, one where people really might bite your hand off.” I look pointedly at Anna. She rolls her eyes again, but she’s smiling at least.
“Okay, bad choice of words,” she admits.
“Very.” I look back out the window as we pass a burned-out farmhouse. There’s a couple dozen walking corpses shambling around the charred remains, but at the speed we’re going there’s no chance of them catching up.
“Seriously, though,” Anna begins after another couple of miles of monotonous dirt road, “It’ll be dark in a few hours.” I look at the clock on the dashboard. It says half past nine. Apparently setting the clock wasn’t a big priority for Sara. I notice she has a watch on her right wrist. With a sigh I reach for the map again.