Wildfire - A Fanfiction

Chapter Six

He didn't come back.

Kami explained that she saw Jon heading a little further down the street, but lost sight of him pretty easily. They kept waiting, staring expectantly at the bolted door for Jon to knock and make another gruff comment, but it never came. On day forty, they agreed there must have been an accident or he abandoned them. Either way, he was not coming back.

"He cracked," Georgia murmured. "Should we leave? We can't stay here forever and I'm feeling trapped too. But I don't want to go like Jon."

Kami threw up her hands. "How? We're cornered, that's why we're still here in the first place."

Alex started walking to another door at the back of the house. "Guys, come look at this." They followed him.

Georgia ignored the strong stench of rubber as Alex herded them into a dark and cold room. He flicked on the light and she couldn't help but gasp.

In the middle of the garage was a huge black truck with a sturdy truck cap, heavy bars on the windows, and two large ramps on the front, similar to a snowplow, just right for pushing stubborn zombies out of the way.

"What?" Georgia sputtered.

Alex placed a hand on the chassis. "Our ride out of here. This is what Jon has been working on these past few weeks. I helped out a few times. We can load it up and leave in the morning so we have more daylight."

They spent the rest of the day putting as many supplies inside as possible. Food, water, and camping materials were all packed up, mostly in the truck bed and some in the backseat.

That night they camped out in Jon's living room for the last time.

"Where are we even going?" asked Kami, who was settled on the loveseat.

Alex rolled over on a cot Jon brought down soon after they arrived. "Out of town for sure. But maybe we should find other people. Go to a stronghold."

"But do we even know where any strongholds are?" Georgia pointed out.

Alex stared at the ceiling. "If we keep moving we have to run into somebody at some point, right?"

They all fell silent.

That morning they ate the last of the graham crackers and juice boxes from the very back of the pantry and eagerly jumped into the truck.

They fastened their seatbelts and Alex hit a button on a tiny remote tucked behind the sunshade. The garage door began to open, warm sunlight stretching across the truck.

Alex regarded the closed gate at the end of the short driveway. On the other side were a few red-eyed monsters that were wandering closer, attracted by the sound of the grinding garage door.

Kami leaned forward. "I don't know about you but there's no way I'm going back now."

As if that comment was all it took to get him moving, Alex turned on the truck and set the gear to drive, ripping out of the garage and down the driveway. The truck toppled the wire gate, squashing some zombies while the plow on the bumper swept away the rest.

Georgia and Kami shrieked as Alex turned sharply down the street. He pressed the button on the garage door remote as they easily passed his old car, now only a broken-down monument on the side of the road.

They drove all day and didn't see another living soul, but they did see plenty of zombies. At first, they thought it was a good idea to follow the main roads because they were looking for other survivors, but all they found were more broken down cars, some empty, some occupied by corpses, all surrounded by snarling zombies. They growled and swiped at the truck as they drove past, but they drove fast enough that the zombies didn't do any real harm besides shaking them up and maybe leaving some nasty red smears on the glossy black paint job.

Around noon they tried to go down some back roads, hoping for better luck avoiding the undead as they distanced themselves from town, and they stopped coming across anything altogether. A few more hours later, they decided to pull over and make an early camp.

Kami was in charge of setting up the tent, Alex helped unload supplies for the night, and Georgia started the fire after watching Alex struggle with it for nearly ten minutes. She finished first, so she helped Kami make sure there were plenty of warm blankets inside to keep out the cold.

They sat around the fire, nibbling on MREs while knives, bats, and other odd makeshift weapons sat at their feet. Georgia was nervous about a zombie coming across them in the night, but already being outside under the stars and far from civilization was setting her more at ease than she ever was at Jon's house or in the truck.

Kami gingerly held her pouch of chicken pesto. "Do you really think anybody is out there?"

Alex gazed thoughtfully into the little fire, letting it illuminate his face, "When nothing is sure, everything is possible."

Kami stared at him. "Where'd you get that from?"

He smiled. "Heard it somewhere. Why? You really think I'm smart enough to come up with that myself?" He chuckled as Kami playfully shoved his arm, but her smile quickly slipped from her face.

"What if we never find anyone? It's like the whole world is dead." She wrapped herself tighter in her blanket.

They were all quiet for a while after that.

"We don't know that," Georgia said, trying to sound upbeat. "I can take the first watch," she said, settling in her seat. "I can get you in a few hours."

Alex frowned. "Are you sure?"

She shrugged. "Sure. You've been driving all day. Just pass me a blanket and I'll be fine."

They didn't take much convincing. Kami and Alex went to go sleep off the exhausting day, leaving her outside. It was silent except for the occasional popping of the dying fire.

Georgia kept the bat beside her, staring into the dark.

Time blended together. She wasn't sure how much later it was when she heard a branch snap deep in the trees.

Her head whipped towards the sound. "Probably just an animal," she sighed, trying to settle back beside the fire.

There was another snap, from the same direction. And another.

Georgia's heart raced. She shakily got to her feet. "If that's a zombie, I can't let it get too close," she picked up a bat and cautiously walked toward the noise.

The trees began to enclose her, forcing out any light from the fire behind her. She looked around, listening for any other strange sounds, periodically turning behind her to watch her back. Nothing.

A loud bang bounced off the trees from the direction of the camp. Georgia turned heel and ran back.

Alex and Kami were stumbling out of the tent, faces twisted with concern. "What was that?" Alex stared at Georgia emerging from the trees. Besides the three of them, the camp appeared empty.

Georgia shook her head. "I don't know. I thought I heard something in the trees over there so I went to check it out," she jabbed a thumb in the direction she came.

Alex walked towards the truck. "It sounded like it came from over here. Maybe it was the hood falling."

"But we didn't have the hood up," Kami pointed out. "Unless you think someone was poking around?"

Alex shrugged helplessly. "If someone was, I wouldn't be able to tell until morning. There's not enough light. Why don't any of us have a flashlight?"

Kami looked to Georgia. "I'll take the next watch. You sleep."

Georgia nodded miserably and went inside the tent. She passed out as soon as she put her head down.