Atlanta

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around the plane. I found myself facing the back of my seat, and an arm was lying outstretched in the space between the two seats. Panic flooding through my veins, I rolled over, trying to push myself up.

"Dani!" I cried in a hoarse voice, and began to crawl inbetween the two seats. "Dani! Please don't tell me you're dead!"

"Okay, I won't." I stopped frozen, until I realise what she had said, and collapsed onto the floor. Feeling absoloute relief wash through me, I wanted to stay lying there, exhaustion taking over. A couple more minutes, hours. I could even go a day. Dani seemed to be the same, as it took at least ten minutes before she spoke again. "Hey Elle?"

"Yeah?"

"We made it." I opened my eyes again, and let a wide smile spread across my face, ear to ear. "Well, not Alaska. But at least we're on ground." This realisation pushed me to my feet, and I staggered over to the front window to see nothing but trees. We had definitely gone off the runway, as the whole plane had shook as though it was being rattled by a baby as it landed. That was all I remembered though. A groan to my right reminded me about Dani, and I leaned down to help her to her feet.

"I'd like to say we're safe now, but you never know what's outside that door." Dani nodded, running her fingers through her messy red hair. We met eyes for the first time, and collided in a warm hug.

"At least we have each other." I smiled into her shoulder, and ruffled her hair.

"Let's see what we can find outside."

~*~

The walk from the plane to the airport was intimidating, especially with hundreds of luggage weighing us down; we had decided to sort through what we had, and settle on what we needed most, but we still had more than plenty. When we first spotted the little white van just sitting a few yards away, I offered to run ahead and drive it over while Danielle rested a little.

"Think there will be someone in it?" I was about to shrug, when I considered the possibility of there being something in it.

"We'll have to find out." I lunged into one of the larger trolley bags we had taken from the warehouse, and grabbed the pole we found. Dani gave me a startled look, and I returned a softer one. "I'll be fine. I mean hey, it's me!"

"Shout if you need help!" She called out as I began a jog over toward the van. I slowed to a walk as I approached it, and swung the door open swiftly, gripping the pole expectantly. The driver and passenger's seats were empty, so I stepped up into the van. Inspecting the seats and the small area behind me, I pulled the door closed and sat behind the wheel.

"Oh please, if there's a god out there..." I whispered to myself, as I searched for the keys. I felt around a little, finding them in the glove compartment, and starting the van. I didn't hesitate to hit the gas right away, and drove back over to where Danielle was waiting.

"Oh this makes life so much easier." She sighed contentedly as I jumped out of the driver's seat.

"Not if you have to drive this thing. I can't drive on the right hand side of the road! It's just too weird!" I complained, opening the back doors of the van.

"I don't think you have to worry about that. Think there'll be many cars on the road?" I stopped to consider her point, and then shrugged.

"You're right. Still annoys me though." We shared a bright laugh as we began loading things into the back of the van, until there was a snarl from inside. Danielle screamed and stepped back a little, as I dashed to the front seat to retreive my pole. I returned to see Dani slowly backing away from the sickening creature, growling and lunging at her. I gripped the pole tightly, and with one hard swing, whacked the thing on the back of the head. It collapsed at my feet, seeming finished. Danielle rose to her feet quickly, brushing off her trousers and pretending nothing had happened.

"You would have done the same," she muttered as she closed the back doors. I stuck my tongue out at her, and we both jumped into the seats, starting the engine and skidding off out of the airport.

~*~

We didn't know where we were going or what we were doing, but we knew that first things first, we needed somewhere to sleep. We drove through estate after estate, even knocked a few doors, but we had to admit it - everyone was dead. Everything was deserted, empty, cold, and seemed to posess the same miserable atmosphere since all this shit happened. Eventually we made it our aim to get to Atlanta, but at the rate we were going, we guessed it would just be the same, if not more miserable and depressing.

"We should just set up camp." Dani mused, slumping into her chair with tiredness. "We've been driving around for hours. Can't we just find somewhere to camp out for the night?" I gazed at her sympathetically.

"There's a quarry around here somewhere, that's pretty out of the way, how about there?" She merely nodded before turning onto her side, probably to nap again. I pulled out my phone to try google maps again, but there was still no internet. I decided to give even hoping it would work a rest, and try and figure something out using the real one we had. It wasn't long before I had the map of Atlanta sprwaled out in front of me, and I drove us that little bit more, to the place that could be our safety. Maybe even more than that.