You Found Me

I tried my best to drive out of the camp but the creatures were surrounding my car, and clawing and growling on the door. I would have to run them over if I wanted to get out of here. I backed up and I heard quite a few falls to the ground, and quite a bit of skulls crushing as well.

I started driving forwards hitting a bunch of the creatures on my way out, not turning around to look at the life I was leaving behind.

I drove down the highway for quite a bit, hardly ever taking my clenched fists off the steering wheel. I had figured we should just keep driving until the sun came up, or until we ran out of gas. My mind was focused on finding somewhere safe to stay, somewhere new to start over.
It was dark now; the clock on the radio had said 11:30 pm. I had grown accustom to not knowing the time or the day anymore. Not like it mattered, there was night and there was day and all the hours in between.

“Where are we going?” Asked Savannah who was sitting in the passenger seat.

“Some place safe, some place where we can stay for a long time without having to leave again” I said not taking my eyes off the road.

“And where the fuck may that be?” Shouted my brother from the back seat. “No place is safe anymore, and when we think it is.. We get settled in and those THINGS show up and fuck us over again. Nowhere is safe. We might as well just quit. “

“He’s right.” Said Rachael “Whatever’s left in this world, isn’t made for is. It’s made for the dead, we are the living. We don’t belong no matter where we go. They will always be after us, just when we assume everything is going great, something’s going to happen and we’ll lose each other. Living and surviving are two completely different concepts. We’ve lost ourselves in this world; it’s something we are never going to get back.”

I thought about those words as I drove down the long highway in this gloomy darkness, I thought about the creatures and what they’ve done to me and my family and everyone else in the world. Maybe Rachael was right; this world belonged to the dead now. The living was no longer welcomed here, and that point was made clear the day that this all began.

The car suddenly came to a stop in the middle of the road; we had run out of gas.

“OH SHIT!” I screamed loudly.

“What’s going on?” Leanne said waking up from a dead sleep.

“We ran out of gas.” I said freaking out. “I have no idea where a gas station is, its late, and those things are coming after the car.”

“We will have to spend the night in the car then, they can’t break the windows can they? There are only three of them right now. We have our guns, we can shoot them if it gets too much.” Savannah said pulling out her gun from her back.

“No, we don’t shoot if we don’t have to. We use our guns, the noise attracts more remember.” Caleb instructed.

“So what, now we don’t have a vehicle and we have to walk the streets?” Said Rachael who was clearly beginning to panic.

“We’ll figure something out; tomorrow we will take a walk up to that highway where all the cars were left. There’s got to be a decent car up there, and possibly gas and maybe food.” Savannah said with little hope in her voice.

“What if its been overrun again like before when we were up there? All those people had been torn to shreds from that. What if they are still there and there’s more and all the food is gone?” Leanne said.
We had ran from that highway once before, the cars practically piled up on top of each other trying to get out of there. It was chaos. Until a heard came in and everyone ran off in different directions, or didn’t make it at all. That’s when I had met my group and we had spilt to where our camp was, but now that was gone to and it was time to head elsewhere.

“Let’s try and get some sleep for now, everything will be okay in the morning. We can beat this world, I know we can.” I said lying down in my seat trying to get as comfortable as I could.

“There’s no way I am sleeping with those things out there.” Said Caleb pointing out the window. Two creatures were aimlessly walking towards the car and they didn’t seem to care that we were in it. The lights were off and no one was really moving or speaking.

“Try and get some rest dear.” Said Rachael calmingly.

I lay down on the seat and closed my eyes, and hoped for a much better tomorrow. I hoped that we could find some place to stay and that things would turn out for the best. I know that life will never be the same as it used to be, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a chance to start over. Everything always seemed to jumble in my head just as I was trying to sleep, I wish I could have done something more to save everyone at the camp. Yet, I knew they would be okay on their own and we needed to get out of there to save ourselves.

After hours of tossing and turning I had finally drifted off into a very restless slumber.

I awoke as the sun began to rise over the trees, it must have been very early. I had seemed to be the only one awake while everyone else was still passed out. I was hungry, and thirsty and the even in the morning hours it was still very warm and it was going to get even more warm. We had a lot of walking to do if we wanted to get back up to the highway before sunset.

I tapped Savannah lightly on the shoulder and she jolted from her seat.

“Hey, wake up. We need to get moving” I said persistently.

Everyone else had quickly woken up as well and gotten out of the car, I opened up the trunk so we could retrieve what was left of our belongings and take them along the journey.
A creature was walking out towards us and my brother quickly decided to run up to it and stab it as hard as he could in the head and it fell to the ground.

“Knives. Not guns. Don’t forget.” He said and started walking up the highway.

Savannah, Leanne, Rachael and I had trailed behind him and let him lead the way.

“Hey, how are you doing?” I asked Rachael sympathetically remembering that she had just lost her daughter the day before.

“I am alright I suppose. I haven’t had a moment to think about everything that’s happened among the chaos Thank you for the concern, it means a lot that you care.” She said putting a hand on my shoulder.

I smiled and nodded at her and continued on my way.

What had felt like hours and hours later of walking up this road, we decided to stop and take a break at a creak.

I splashed the cool water onto my face and washed whatever dirt was stuck to it. It had been days
since I had the luxury of taking a decent shower. I’ve mostly been forced to wash up in the lake at the other campsite. I looked into my reflection in the water and saw myself for the first time in days, maybe weeks.

Hair stuck up in the top of my head in a messy bun in all different directions, my eyes which used to be so full of life and energy were now empty and glazed over. I continued to clean myself off and even drank some of the water even though it was dirty and gross. I didn’t care at that moment; I needed to hydrate myself before I had passed out into nothingness.

“Is everybody ready to go?!” Shouted my brother, who had clearly taken over the role of the leader of the group.

“Yeah, I’ll be just a second” Said Savannah who was finishing washing herself off. “Where does this path lead? It seems like a clear path, maybe it’s a short cut to the highway. We should probably take the chance and see where it goes.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, who knows where it could lead to. It could go anywhere; we need to get to the highway. And we KNOW that’s where this road goes, so that’s the way we are taking.” My brother said strictly.

“I think we should take a vote and see which way we go, because I agree that the path could be a
shortcut to the highway. Who knows it’s worth a shot.” Said Leanne.

Rachael, Savannah and I had slowly raised our hands in agreement. Even though we knew that the road did lead up to that highway, maybe this was quicker and it looked like a straight shot to the highway anyway.

My brother looked at all of us with doubt on his face.

“Fine. Pathway it is.” He grumbled once again leading the way.