We woke up just as the sun came over the horizon; I motioned for Susan to come over to the car so we could talk. Alli looked at both of us while we walked away, and I held up a finger to her to tell her to hold on.
“We can’t leave her here, and I don’t know if Jasmine will like having another person to take care of” I said to Susan.
She nodded briefly and said, “Yeah, but if she comes with us, she’ll be an extra pair of eyes to keep a look out for the control group. You know they aren’t done with any of us yet. From the way it looks the government and the control group are getting rid of anyone that has the virus. Why do you think they have those eye scanner thingies?”
I stood silent for a minute, and looked at Alli. I sighed, and motioned for her to come over to us. She lazily walked over to us and kicked her feet at the dirt.
“Listen, I just want to say that you guys shouldn’t feel obligated to have me come with you, and before you say anything, just remember. I lived out here by myself for weeks. If I move on and find another abandoned area I’m sure I could find food to sustain me for a while. I’ll be like a nomad, following the food supply.” Alli said.
I looked at Alli then at Susan and I burst out laughing. “You can’t be serious! We don’t mind you coming along for now. But when we get back you’re going to have to meet the rest of our group.” I said.
Her pupils dilated with surprise. “What do you mean group? You mean you have more people with you!” she said energetically.
She was almost giddy with excitement when I told her about Jasmine and Annabelle. She got in the back seat without waiting for us to get in the car, and bounced up and down in the seat like a little kid waiting for the trip to Disney Land.
I rolled my eyes, and let out a huff saying “I have a feeling she’s not going to stop talking the whole way back to our place.”
Susan grimaced and walked slowly to the passenger side saying, “She didn’t shut up last night either…what else is there to talk about?” and got in the car.
I thought I heard the farmer’s truck down the road, so I jumped in the driver’s seat and started the car. As I was backing out, I saw the truck rounding the corner at full speed. I had a feeling it wasn’t the farmer anymore, so I gunned it backing out of the driveway. Slamming it into drive I peeled off into the road and took the car as fast as I could down the road. The truck was slower than we were, but I had a feeling the person driving was more experienced in chases than I was.
I took the first turn I could find, only slowing down enough to make sure we were going to make it, and sped onward. I knew the truck would need to slow down more than we would, so taking turns and curves was going to be our only chance of making it back alive.
I looked in the rear view and saw the truck catching up to us. I could almost see the guy driving and noticed he had a guest with him in the passenger side. The man in the passenger side was moving towards the window of the truck, and he pulled himself, sitting on the door frame. He stuck his hand back in the truck palm up and shook it. The man driving handed him something, and he pulled it out and took aim.
“SHIT! Everyone get down they have a gun” I yelled as the first shot peppered the back of the car. I swerved automatically, and had to remind myself if I swerved too much we were going into a ditch. I started weaving back and forth to try and throw him off like I saw in the movies. The issue was, that apparently the movies were full of shit.
Another shot was fired, and I could see something flying off the back of the car. The truck bounced hard against the road, and the man sitting on the door had to get back in the cab so he wouldn’t bounce out. I raised my head up and looked around for the nearest turn, but it was a straight shot as far as I could see. The only thing around us were fields, and I had a sinking suspicion that if we were going to make it through this, we had to out maneuver them.
“Girls…I hate to do this, but we have to take a bumpy road.” I said, and Susan looked up and around us.
“There’s no turn!” she said, as I pulled right into the field beside us. We were driving through a soybean field, and the car didn’t handle it well. Alli was bouncing all over the back seat, and I yelled back at her to get her seat belt on and get as low as she could. She seemed to hear me, and got her seat belt on after several failed attempts to put the buckles together.
I thought I seen a path ahead, so I aimed towards it, going as fast as the car seemed to handle without killing us in the process. I tried to look in the rear view but I was bouncing around way too much to see much of anything. I looked in front of me and saw nothing that would immediately harm us, so I turned my head around to look behind us, and I saw the truck bouncing around more than we were. If I was able to make a sharp turn on the right bounce, they would most likely break something on the truck, or not be able to follow us for a minute. Could give us just enough time to get out back on the road and get a good lead on them.
I found my spot, there was a big ditch about two hundred yards in front of us. I slowed down just enough for them to catch up to us before the ditch. They were still coming at us full speed, and I gunned the accelerator while turning right, making us fish tail. We missed the ditch and I straightened out the tires and kept going. They weren’t so lucky. They hit the ditch fender first and got stuck. I didn’t have time to look behind me, but I heard another shot and a cloud of dirt lifted from beside us.
I saw the road, and quickly turned on to it. We gunned it in the direction we thought was where we came from, but without knowing which way was which we could have been going the wrong way. Susan pointed to a sign that showed access to the interstate. I turned onto the interstate and drove for miles, constantly looking in the rear-view mirror to ensure no one was following us.
When I believed there was no one following us anymore, we took the first exit to find out where we were. When we pulled over Alli pulled out her cell phone. I grabbed the phone from her hand and threw it out the window. She started yelling at me, while I drove to the interstate again and went the opposite way.
It was my turn to start yelling, “Are you fucking stupid?! You know they can track cell phones by both GPS for exact location and Triangulation through the cell towers. Why didn’t you get rid of that a long time ago?!”
She started crying, and between sobs saying she was sorry, that she didn’t think about that. I was still cussing when I realized something that could be more detrimental than GPS location. The car was shot up, without valid plates, and it was probably reportedly stolen. We needed a new car before we went back to Annabelle and Jasmine.
I told Susan and Alli what was going through my head and Susan shook her head.
“Are we always going to be on the run? I just want to be able to relax for a week without having to worry about people wanting us dead” she said.
Alli leaned forward, “I know what you mean, at first they didn’t really care who had the virus and who didn’t. I went to the hospital, and they did a full set of tests and found out I had it, told me what I needed to do and sent me on my way home. Why can’t they do that again?”
I pulled over and slammed on the brakes. Throwing the car in Park I turned around to face Alli.
“What do you mean you went to the hospital and they did a full set of tests? Are you saying they KNOW you have the virus?” I asked.
“Well yeah, the hospitals probably turned everyone in that had the virus. I’m assuming that’s why they came after me. Isn’t that why you guys are on the run?” she asked back.
“No…we’re on the run because…listen it’s a long story. But if what you’re saying is true, and we can lay low for a while, the government will have their hands full dealing with everyone else from the hospitals. That means we’ll not be their first priority. I’m guessing they will start DNA tests soon to go to doctors, hospitals, or any public event. Jail houses will have it standard, if you get arrested you get tested and killed on site if you’re infected” I said.
“You’re probably right about that Jacob, but what about the control group? It’s almost as if they have a personal vendetta against us. I don’t think they will stop coming after us that easily.” Susan said.
I nodded and looked out the window, and pulled back onto the interstate. I thought about it for a while, and before I could surrender Alli spoke up.
“Do you mean that gang that is against zombies?” she asked.
“Yeah, how’d you hear about them?” Susan asked turning around to look at her.
“Because my dad is the leader…when he found out about me he disowned me, and told me that if he ever saw me again, he’d kill me himself. He called me a monster…” she said, and tears were flowing down her face again.
I found our exit and merged onto the off-ramp. Turning right towards the small town where we were staying at. We were in the car with the leader of the control group’s daughter. Fate had a funny way of coming around. I couldn’t wait any longer before I said, “Is your dad Mike or Trav?”
She said, “Mike…wait how’d you know, and how do you know my Uncle?”
I kept quiet, knowing that she deserved an answer but I couldn’t explain it all while driving. I told her it would have to wait until we got back to the others.
It was nearly 3am before we got back to the house. Jasmine and Annabelle were asleep in one of the bedrooms. I made a cot for myself, and told Susan and Alli to take the other two bedrooms. Alli crossed her arms and stood there tapping her foot. It was time to speak to her about everything that happened up until we met.
I started out by saying, “Well, let’s start from the beginning…I like to call it the zombie event”