The Road Trip At The End Box Set

by J N Wood

  Jack stood up and walked towards the back door, within thirty seconds he’d returned. ‘Still out there,’ he said glumly.

  ‘How long has it been?’ I asked him.

  ‘About ten minutes.’

  Jack had another look at the swarm passing by about five minutes later.

  I went for a wander, shining my torch in every little nook and cranny, trying to find anything that could be of use. I came across a row of five lockers, two of which were unlocked. One was empty, the other contained a single can of deodorant, and a fur covered apple. I took the deodorant and sprayed a liberal amount under my arms.

  Ali and Jack’s torchlights suddenly appeared, moving towards me.

  ‘What was that?’ Jack asked.

  I shook the can in front of me. ‘Deodorant. Do you want some?’ I tossed it at Jack. He caught it and shoved it under his t-shirt, spraying it on himself.

  ‘Fucking hell Chris,’ he said. ‘It sounded like hissing.’

  Ali shook her head, spun around, and started walking back.

  ‘Nope,’ I said. ‘Just deodorant.’

  We followed Ali and made ourselves comfortable again.

  ‘Do you think that swarm is going to end up outside the camp?’ Ali asked.

  ‘Probably,’ I replied.

  ‘It looked like it was a big one,’ she said. ‘They might not be able to keep them out, if that many join the crowds at the fence.’

  ‘If they’re quiet they should be fine,’ I said. ‘They’ll probably run out of food before they’re overrun by the dead.’

  Chapter 25: Distant Rotors

  It had seemed like the barricade hadn’t moved for quite a while, and we must have been sat there for thirty minutes.

  Standing, I said, ‘Just gonna have a quick look out the back.’

  Jack looked at his watch, and then stood. ‘Yep, let’s have another look.’

  I pressed the bar in on the exit door and peered out through the small gap. There was only a smattering of the dead creatures, as they slowly staggered past.

  ‘There’s not many,’ I whispered, opening the door just a little bit more so I could squeeze my head through. I had a quick glance around the door.

  There weren’t many there, definitely the very back of the swarm.

  I ducked back inside and very gently closed the door. ‘Give it a few minutes, maybe five, and then we can go out.’

  Jack looked at his watch and nodded. ‘Okay, five minutes.’

  Ali appeared at Jack’s side, ready to go.

  We stood in the same place for the next five minutes, Jack staring at his watch.

  Eventually, he looked up and nodded.

  ‘All ready?’ I asked, my hand resting on the doors locking mechanism.

  ‘What about all the stuff we found?’ Ali asked.

  ‘Leave it here,’ I said. ‘I’m gonna wedge the door open with my bag. We can drive around here and pick it all up.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ Jack said impatiently.

  I slowly opened the door and looked outside. The back of the swarm was still visible in the moonlight, but they were passing the far end of the mall’s buildings. I shone my torch to the left. It looked like nothing was moving around out there.

  We quietly made our way around the edge of the building, trying to keep as close to the wall as possible. We got to the end, and Jack peered around the corner, before waving us on. We could see the car park once we took the corner, it also looked clear.

  The anticipation must have become too much for Jack, as he started to jog. Once we reached the next corner, we’d be able to see what had become of our friends and family. He got there ahead of us and stopped. He was quickly scanning the car park.

  ‘The cars aren’t there,’ he said. ‘They aren’t fucking there.’

  I walked past him, heading towards the front of the camping shop. ‘Let’s go and find them.’

  Just as I reached the spot we’d left them, I noticed flashing lights coming from inside a small building, in the middle of the car park. In huge letters above the building, it read BILL’S BURGERS.

  The flashing lights became much more rapid.

  It must be them.

  I turned to tell Jack and Ali, but they were already running towards the lights. I jogged in their direction before speeding up to keep pace with them.

  The Chevy must have been forced through the plate glass windows, and was now inside the shop. I couldn’t see the Honda anywhere.

  ‘No,’ Ali said. ‘Where is the Honda? Where are they?’

  The driver’s side window rolled down, and Roy popped his head out. ‘Hello. We fancied a burger.’

  ‘Where’s the Honda?’ Ali asked him in a panic.

  ‘Don’t know. We didn’t see where it went.’

  The door behind Roy opened and Pete fell out of the car, Theo followed him, carrying Max.

  Pete stretched his arms above his head. ‘That was uncomfortable. Max wouldn’t stay still,’ he said, ruffling the boy’s hair, before Theo put him back in the car.

  ‘Boys, please let me out,’ Sandra said, from inside the back of the Chevy.

  Ali walked over to them, hugging Theo, and then Pete, before leaning in through the open back door. Jack was on the passenger side, talking to Beth.

  ‘You all okay?’ I asked

  ‘Yeah we’re all fine,’ Pete replied. ‘It was scary for a while back there, but they didn’t seem to know we were in the car. We just got caught in the swarm.’

  Roy climbed out and stood by the driver’s door. ‘When we saw them coming, everyone climbed in here, hoping the extra weight would stop them moving us.’ He glanced around at the inside of the burger place. ‘Didn’t work.’

  ‘Where were you?’ Theo asked.

  ‘Just trapped in the back of the camping shop,’ I said. ‘We had to wait until they’d left.’

  ‘Have they all left?’ Pete asked, staring out through the broken windows.

  ‘Yeah they should have all cleared out by now,’ Ali replied as she backed out of the car. ‘We better find the Honda.’

  I looked around at all the broken glass on the floor of Bill’s Burgers, and then looked at Roy. ‘We should sweep a path for the Chevy before we set off. We don’t want a puncture.’

  ‘Okay,’ Ali said. ‘Pete and Theo, you’re with me. Let’s go and find our car.’

  They left the half destroyed Bill’s Burgers, and disappeared into the night. Roy was using a chair he’d turned upside down to scrape away some of the glass. I picked up another and joined him.

  It wasn’t long before we heard the sound of a car approaching. We’d almost finished sweeping the glass out of the way when a banged up Honda pulled up outside.

  ‘It still runs okay,’ Ali said, leaning out of the window. ‘The swarm has moved on. Let’s get our stuff and get out of here.’

  Pete and Theo got out of the car and walked over to the Chevy. The three boys climbed out of the back, swiftly followed by Sandra. She rushed them over to the Honda. Pete followed them, keeping an eye on his surroundings until they’d all entered the car.

  ‘Meet you around the back,’ Ali said, as the Honda slowly accelerated away from us.

  The rest of us climbed into the Chevy, and Roy very carefully drove us out of the burger place, trying to avoid any glass we may have missed.

  We stopped around the back of the building and recovered our salvaged items from the stockroom. After consulting the maps I’d found, we agreed on the best route to take, finding the roads that would take us to a place called Sumas.

  The map was a bit shit. It was more of a Mount Baker visitor type of map.

  The plan was to drive past Sumas, and head towards Mount Baker. Then we were going to miraculously find a stretch of the border with no wall, or fence, or guards.

  As easy as that.

  Driving along the long straight roads made me almost feel like I was on holiday again. Our headlights illuminated farm buildings and homes close to the side of the
road. It could have easily been three or four weeks ago, before all the devastation had happened.

  I rolled my window down, thinking I might be able to smell the countryside as we passed through it. A strong smell of human shit and blood soon filled the car.

  I couldn’t press my finger down any harder on the button to raise the window.

  ‘Chris! What the fuck are you doing?’ Jack shouted.

  ‘Oh my god,’ Roy called out. ‘That stinks.’

  Beth had covered her face with her hands. ‘I feel sick,’ she said.

  Theo glared at me, shaking his head.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said, once the window was fully closed.

  We were taking it slowly, just in case another swarm showed up in our path, as it was making its way to the border. By the time we were parked up just inside the city limits of Sumas, about an hour later, we hadn’t hit any resistance at all.

  For the last few miles however, we’d slowly been driving past very similar signs to the ones we’d seen as we neared Blaine. Our two vehicles were stationary, parked side by side in the middle of the road. TWO MILES TO BORDER was spray painted on a road sign on the side of the road.

  ‘Turn around and go back to that road we passed earlier?’ Ali suggested. ‘We can drive around. Don’t want a repeat of last time.’

  During the journey, we’d told Roy and Beth about the bad timing of our arrival at Blaine. So everyone was very much in agreement, we would avoid going near the other camps.

  I didn’t want to mention it, but I was very surprised Sandra hadn’t wanted to go and search for her husband and daughter in the camp. She must have had her reasons.

  We spun the cars around and drove back the way we’d come, until we turned onto a much smaller road, almost a dirt track. As we drove along, almost off-road, we made sure to always head east, never north towards the camp at Sumas.

  We eventually managed to find our way to the road that would lead us into the mountains. We were soon surrounded by woodland on both sides of the road.

  It felt like the night was drawing in closer around us, all we could see was the road ahead. Only occasionally, when we turned a bend and glimpsed a path running through the trees, would the headlights illuminate something other than tarmac, and the surrounding blackness of the trees.

  I was really hoping we weren’t gonna hit any snow.

  It was rapidly approaching daylight hours, so all of us in the Chevy agreed that we needed to stop. Roy flashed the headlights at the Honda in front. We pulled up alongside them as they were stopping. Roy rolled down his window and suggested we find somewhere to sleep for the day.

  ‘This map is terrible,’ Sandra said across the gap between the two vehicles.

  ‘Whoa Sandra,’ I said. ‘Don’t take the piss out of the map. I found them.’

  She raised her eyebrows. ‘Sorry Chris, but it’s not a road map.’

  ‘Let’s just take the next left,’ Roy suggested. ‘Maybe we can find a farm a bit closer to the border.’

  ‘Sounds good,’ Sandra said. ‘According to Chris’s terrible map…’ She paused to give me a quick glance. ‘This road is going to take us further away from the border at some point, so we should find somewhere soon.’

  ‘Okay,’ Ali said, as she put the Honda back into drive. ‘Next left turn.’

  ‘You still leading the way Ali?’ Roy asked.

  Ali shrugged, and then the Honda accelerated away from us.

  ‘Guess so,’ Jack said.

  The next left was just a few miles further along. We followed the Honda’s rear lights down the road. A couple of miles later, after passing five or six more short lanes leading to homes, we came to a sharp right turning. The Honda sat in the middle of the road in front of us, the brake lights still on.

  ‘I think this turn takes us away from the border,’ Beth said, using the internal lights in the Chevy to look at the map. ‘We’ll be better off going back and trying one of those houses we passed.’

  ‘Turn us around Roy,’ Jack said. ‘They’ll soon figure out what we’re doing and follow us.’

  We headed back down the road, the Honda trailing behind us. Thirty seconds later, and we were parked in front of a house. Behind it a few farm buildings were visible, the headlights only just reaching them.

  ‘Shall we all go in and check?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ Jack quickly said. ‘Beth, you wait in the car.’

  ‘I can take care of myself,’ Beth said. ‘You can’t protect me every second of the day.’

  ‘It makes sense to leave someone in the car,’ Roy said.

  ‘You stay here then,’ Beth said to him.

  ‘Okay,’ Roy replied. ‘I’ll stay here.’

  Two knocks on Beth’s window got everyone’s attention. Ali was stood outside, peering in and looking confused. Beth rolled her window down.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Ali asked. ‘Are we going to go and check this place out?’

  Jack opened his door. ‘Yep, come on then. Don’t forget your knife if you’re coming with us Beth.’

  Jack distributed torches out to Theo and Beth. Ali and I still carried the ones we had earlier in the night. Everyone else would stay with the cars.

  The house was a two storey building, with the front door on the far left. The rest of the ground floor was mostly taken up by four large windows. Five windows filled the front of the first floor.

  I walked up to the window closest to the door, and pointed my torch inside. The hallway inside looked like any normal, looked after home.

  ‘It looks empty,’ I whispered.

  Jack, Ali and Theo were looking in through the other windows.

  ‘All clear here,’ Jack said.

  ‘Yeah, here too,’ Ali added.

  ‘Clear,’ Theo said.

  ‘Going in then?’ I asked, walking to the front door. I tried the handle and found it locked. ‘Break a window?’

  ‘Wait,’ Ali said. ‘Try around the back. Might not be locked.’

  Jack looked back to the cars, and signalled that we were heading around the back of the house. Ali led the way, so she arrived at the back door first. With a twist of the handle, the door opened into the house.

  Smiling, Ali glanced back to us, before walking into the house, her torch and new crowbar held out in front of her. ‘We clear downstairs first,’ she instructed, moving through the kitchen. ‘Then we do upstairs.’

  After searching the entire house we discovered it was empty of life, and death. Once everyone was inside, we barricaded the back door with the huge fridge freezer, and found somewhere to sleep. The three bedrooms upstairs were quickly taken, leaving me and Roy to sleep downstairs on the two sofas.

  The agreed plan was to have four hours of sleep, and then we would walk over towards the border.

  Hopefully we’ll find some weaknesses that will allow us to very easily slip into Canada.

  As well as the sun’s early rising, the sound of distant helicopter rotors repeatedly woke me up.

  DAY TWENTY TWO

  Chapter 26: Idiot

  There was a slight crack in the curtains, so the sun shone into the living room. I looked down at myself. A two inch wide strip of light ran all the way down my body.

  I’m pretty sure that was the sound of helicopters I’d heard last night. The Canadians must have been flying around out there.

  Roy was still fast asleep on the other sofa, and nobody else seemed to be awake.

  I guessed the four hours of sleep we’d allowed ourselves hadn’t elapsed yet. Just then the alarm on Roy’s watch started sounding.

  Bollocks. I was looking forward to some more sleep.

  Jack, Ali and Pete soon appeared from upstairs, and were now sat with Roy and me in the living room. We ate some of the energy bars I’d found, and the jerky Charles had given us.

  ‘We’re going to have to be really careful in the daylight, and really quiet,’ Ali said. ‘It’s only a few miles to the border. Hopefully we won’t encounter another swarm.’ />
  ‘So we’re just going to walk over there, and take a look?’ Roy asked.

  ‘Yep,’ Jack replied. ‘And if there’s no way to cross when we get there, we’ll have to walk a few miles along the border as well.’

  ‘But at a distance though yeah?’ Pete asked.

  ‘Of course,’ Ali told him.

  ‘Did anyone else hear helicopters last night?’ I asked.

  ‘Yeah I did,’ Jack said.

  ‘Me too,’ Pete agreed.

  ‘Keep an eye out for them as well,’ Ali said. ‘I doubt they’ll fly into America though. Why would they do anything to us anyway? We’re not going to try and cross the border today.’

  Before we left, Jack and Ali quickly ran upstairs to tell everyone we would be back in a few hours.

  We left the farmhouse and walked up the short lane to the road. On the other side of the road, thick woodland spread out in front of us, filling the horizon. We entered the woods, the thick underbrush making it hard going.

  ‘It should only be a mile or so of this,’ Ali said. ‘Then it’s open fields to the border.’

  Roy slashed at branches with his machete, saying, ‘At least there won’t be any zombies in here. They’d just get stuck.’

  ‘Open fields don’t sound too good for sneaking across borders,’ I said.

  ‘Let’s just have a look,’ Ali said. ‘I think if we go east, the border originally went through the woods. Although I’m guessing the Canadians felled a lot of the trees, like they did north of Blaine.’

  As we battled through the low lying branches, Ali and I were a little behind the others.

  ‘Hey Ali,’ I said. ‘If you don’t want to talk about this, you don’t have to.’

  ‘Okay’, she replied, sounding suspicious.

  ‘How did Steve end up back on top of the bus?’

  ‘Oh right,’ she said. ‘It’s okay, I can talk about that. We’ve discussed it, my sister and my cousins and me, but nobody knows. None of us saw him run off or anything. You were there, it was a bit crazy. It was hard enough to take care of yourself. One second he was running alongside us, the next we were at the container, and he was back on the bus.’