This Beautiful World - Book #1 (BxB)

Chapter 6

While driving, part of me expected to see some other cars passing, but there were none. I thought we might see people trying to escape town. It made me wonder how much time has passed since the outbreak began. Our campus was on the outskirts of town so we would be hit by it much later. For all I knew, days could have passed while we were only experiencing this today.  

"Once we find our families, then what? Is there any place that we can try to escape to?" I couldn't think of anywhere. It wasn't like my family had some sort of getaway home that we could run to. The best bet would be to try to find somewhere with fewer people. Fewer people meant fewer zombies that we would have to deal with. But then the problem would be having enough supplies for all of us. 

"Before we even think about where to go, we need to figure out how to get everyone out of town. My car can only fit two more people. We'll go get your mom and sister since they're closer. After that, we'll talk about it. My family and Riley's will have to take their own cars," Alex said. 

For now, this was the best that we could do. I wanted to figure out a plan so that we weren't running around blindly. Maybe my friend's families would have a better idea of where we could go after this. Of course, it all depended on if they were still safe. There was a chance that they had all left already to get out of town, which made me worry about my family even more. They didn't have a car to use to easily leave. 

Riley seemed to notice my distress. She took my hand and squeezed it gently. "Don't worry, Aiden. Your mom and Caitlyn are okay."

I wanted to believe that. My mom and sister were the most important people to me. If something were to happen to either of them, then I didn't know how I would be able to handle it. I had to hang on to this hope that they were safe. I would see them soon.

Finally, we were pulling into town. Alex had to slow down the pace that he was going to get here. The town was a mess.

No people or zombies were roaming around, but you could clearly see that they'd been through here. Cars had crashed into each other as people tried to escape and there were multiple dead bodies. Riley had a hard time looking out the window as we drove past all of the dead. It was difficult to see all of the blood and gore that was surrounding us, but I couldn't tear my eyes away. I searched for the faces of my mom and sister among the fallen. So far, I didn't see them.

It was a slow journey down the street and eventually, Alex was turning down the next. The scene was the same here. Accidents piled up and dead bodies littered the streets. Alex couldn't avoid every body with his car. Despite the many dead, none of them came back to life. There were still no zombies.

I was always under the impression that when someone was bitten or scratched, then they would be turned into one of those things as well. Either way, it was a death sentence, but it still felt odd seeing all of these dead people but no zombies. It wasn't like I was a zombie expert. Seeing it in person was different than all of the media I saw about these things.

As I was lost in my own thoughts, I was startled when someone, a human, jumped out in front of the car. Alex came to an abrupt halt before he hit the man, which made Riley let out a small yelp. The man looked disheveled and frightened, but otherwise okay. There was no blood on him and I couldn't see any visible wounds. However, I did notice that he was carrying a crowbar that had blood on it. It looked fresh. 

The man came around to Alex's window and started banging his fists against it.  "Get out of the fucking car!" he yelled at us. 

"Alex, drive away," I said. The man was acting completely insane. I was scared that he would try to harm us. 

But Alex didn't have the chance to drive away. Before he had any time to react, the man took the crowbar in both hands and swung it at the window. Upon the second impact, the window smashed. Everything happened too quickly as the man unlocked the door, open it, and then dragged my friend outside. 

"Dude, what the fuck is your issue?" Alex held up both of his hands in front of him as if that would protect him from whatever this man thought about doing. 

It did not stop the man from throwing a punch at Alex's face. When he hit him and Alex fell over, Riley gasped and got out of the backseat. I followed. The man looked like he was about to swing the crowbar down on Alex, but Riley quickly fell to her knees in front of him. She was going to defend Alex with her own body. The man hesitated. 

I grabbed the man's arm before he decided to go through with hurting either of my friends again. "Please, stop!"

He pulled himself out of my grasp, then pushed me up against the car. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and said, "I need this car. Don't try to fucking stop me."

"Then take it! Just don't hurt us! Please!" Riley yelled at him. She was caressing Alex's cheek where he was punched. It was bright red, but my friend would be okay. 

He looked at Riley, then shoved me towards my friends. None of us tried to stop him as he got into the car and slammed the door shut. Our only means of transportation was being stolen from us already, which meant that any plan we might have formed quickly went down the drain. 

The man clenched the steering wheel but didn't drive away immediately. When he looked at us, I swore that I saw guilt in his eyes. Then he said, "I'm sorry, but I need this car to reach my family. I can give you a word of advice, though. If you want to survive, then be quiet. They react to noise."

With that, the man drove away. 

He might have given us advice on how to survive, but now I was wondering how long this had been going on for him to learn this piece of information. There was no way that he learned this within a single day. He would have had to learn the zombie's behavior. He was gone now, though, so I wouldn't ever find out the truth from him. I held out a hand to Alex and helped him to his feet. Unfortunately, it looked like we would have to continue on foot. 

And it looked like we would have to start running now. I heard multiple growling noises coming from behind us and when I turned, I saw quite a few zombies coming our way. Our encounter with that man must have led them here. We didn't have any time to recover from the experience we just went through. 

We had to run for our lives once more. That man really screwed us over by stealing the car from us and he didn't care whether we died or not. He only cared about getting himself out of here and finding his family. Honestly, I didn't know if the three of us were much better. We also abandoned people to save ourselves and reach our families. I couldn't be mad at him.

Alex was the fastest out of the three of us, so Riley and I followed his direction. Even though we were running as fast as we could, it wouldn't be enough. Those creatures would eventually catch us. We could keep up the pace, but we would eventually become tired. I still wasn't quite recovered from when I ran from the zombies earlier. 

As we kept pushing ourselves down the street, there was a loud bang that sounded like a gunshot. Then there was a man's voice calling out to us, "Over here!"

Ahead of us, a dark-skinned man with a gun was ushering us toward a building. I recognized it as one of the apartment buildings within the town. We didn't have much choice if we wanted to escape the infected. We ran towards him and once inside of the building, he slammed the door shut. Another man was beside him and both of them quickly boarded up the door. Then bangs on the door came from the infected, but they couldn't get inside. 

The three of us tried to catch our breath. We were out of the woods for now. I glanced around us and saw that there was a large group of people also taking shelter within this building. They stayed in the lobby, watching us with fearful looks. We were strangers who led zombies to their hideout, but it seemed like the creatures couldn't get inside. It was safe here for now.

Shortly after entering this building, I was taken by surprise when I heard a familiar voice call out to me. "Aiden, is that really you?"

When I looked at the person speaking to me, relief instantly washed over me. My mom and sister Caitlyn rushed over. They were safe. 

I embraced both of them and for the first time since this started today, I began to cry.