Erica went back inside and wrote the note to her friends that used to live in that house. It only took her a few seconds, and then she rejoined Theo out in the backyard.
"What did the note say?" Theo asked her.
Erica shook her head. "I'm not telling. It's between me and them."
"That's fine. I get it."
Theo and Erica joined Silvie and Macey in the Blazer. "Everyone, get one last look around because we are never coming back," Theo told the girls. "For better or worse, we're outta here."
Macey looked all around her, glancing at her home one final time. "Bye Felicia," She muttered under her breath. Everyone else in the truck laughed.
Theo started the engine and waited for a few moments, he just wanted to make sure he wasn't drawing any dead things out towards the group. After a few seconds went by, and no rotters came steaming towards the Blazer, Theo slowly drove away from the house.
The plan called for the group to avoid Michigan Avenue as much as possible. Due to the wreckage and the corpses, the four of them didn't want to get bogged down on the large road. But Theo knew that they wouldn't be able to take the side streets forever. Theo turned out of the alleyways and turned down the street in front of the home, speeding down the road and heading towards his former house.
"You gonna miss that place, Theo?" Erica jokingly asked him.
"Hell no," Theo scoffed. He did see the shattered front window that he and Mike fell through out of the corner of his eye as the house flew past.
The sound of the truck driving down the road did attract the nearby undead. Whenever the corpses would give chase, Theo would just speed up ever so slightly, staying just out of the dead things' reach. The rotters would only charge after the truck for a few seconds before stopping. Silvia and Macey would watch the undead from the back seat stop running after a while.
"Whoa, they just stop," Silvia said.
"Yeah. It's kinda like they realize that they can't get to us or something," Macey added.
Theo checked it out in the rearview, "Looks like it."
Sitting in the passenger seat, Erica would look at the houses as Theo drove past them. Some of the homes looked to be boarded up, others had their front windows shattered, and the doors were broken down. Occasionally, Erica could see inside the homes, and usually, a corpse or two would be wandering around inside the house. Every so often they'd run out after the truck.
For his part, Theo was driving very carefully, even avoiding any dead thing that tried to jump out in front of the Blazer. He knew that they needed this vehicle in one piece in order to get to the river, and running into rotter after rotter could do some damage to the truck. Theo made a left hand turn down another side street but brought the truck to a halt once he saw what was in front of them.
Three blocks from where the vehicle sat was a large park. And inside the swath of land were thousands of rotters. Some of the undead were standing around, others just wandered about.
"Theo, get us the hell out of here," Erica whispered. Almost out of fear that the corpses would hear her.
"I don't think they can see us," Theo replied.
"Yeah, right now they can't. But all it takes is one of them. You know that."
"I know, I know. But look at all of them. That's twice the size of the horde that we saw back at the dollar store."
If all four of them were perfectly quiet, they could hear the moans and snarls of the undead inside the park even over the running engine of the Blazer.
"What the hell are they doing?" Erica wondered. "Why are they all congregating there?"
"Who gives a rat's ass. Let's just get away from them," Silvia said.
"Unfortunately that means us having to get on the avenue for a spell," Theo told them.
"Sure beats all of those rotters seeing us."
Theo put the Blazer into reverse and backed away from the massive swarm of dead things. He drove down the road that would lead them to Michigan Avenue.
The four of them weren't that far away from the old neighborhood, but if the avenue was relatively clear of dead things and debris, they wouldn't have that much difficulty getting closer to Beakman's park.
The stretch of the avenue that Theo pulled onto was in decent enough shape. Just a burned husk of some type of rescue vehicle sat near the middle of the street, and across the road was a female corpse that was trapped in a fenced-in parking lot. She became wound up once she spotted the Blazer driving past, but she was unable to climb the chain link fence due to her having no arms.
Theo saw her, "Man, look at that beaut will ya?"
"Wonder how she wound up there," Erica replied. "Not that it matters."
The group came upon their first highway overpass. It was going to be the first time any of them got to see the condition of the expressway since it all began.
"Holy shit," Silvia muttered quietly once she saw the state of the highway.
The six-lane stretch of road was clogged with hundreds upon hundreds of abandoned vehicles. As far as the group could see, the expressway was filled with rows of empty cars and trucks. And wandering in between the abandoned vehicles were the dead things. Too many to count.
"Think there's anyone alive down there?" Macey asked.
"Not a chance," Theo replied.
Erica looked at Theo. "Please tell me that we don't have to go down there."
"Nope."
"Good."
Theo drove over the expressway and they continued on towards the river. After having to detour around the wreckage of a firetruck and an ambulance that blocked off almost the entire street, Theo parked the truck up on some railroad tracks to take a break and have some lunch.
"Well this is taking a lot longer than I had expected," Theo told Erica.
"Is this your way of telling me that you're lost?" Erica asked him.
"Nope. I know exactly where we are."
"Then what's the problem?"
"I'm not gonna lie Erica, there's a lot more debris and shit that I have to drive around. It's just a pain in the ass."
"Well genius, this is your idea."
"Hey, you didn't have to come along you know. You could have stayed back in the neighborhood."
"You know what else I could do?"
"What?"
"Shoot you in the mouth so I don't have to hear your smartass retorts."
"Is it wrong that you're turning me on with that kind of talk?"
Erica rolled her eyes, "Very."
Silvia and Macey were sitting in the back of the Blazer finishing their meals, and looking down the railroad tracks. There was a single rotter way off in the distance, shambling away from them. Silvia could barely make the dead thing out.
"How much longer do you think? Before we're at the river?" Macey asked Silvia.
"Tough to say. Surprisingly, Theo hasn't gotten us eaten yet. But with all the destroyed cars and dead things in the streets, I can't be sure."
"I'd hate to have to spend the night out here."
"Thanks to Erica's experiment a few days ago, at least we know we can use the darkness to hide from the rotters if need be."
Theo joined the two of them at the back of the Blazer, "Hey, don't give Erica too much credit."
"I'm giving you some credit too, Theo," Silvie replied.
"Really? For what?"
"We've been out here for a full four hours and you haven't gotten the four of us killed."
Theo threw his hands up, "Yay," He said in a mocking tone.
From the front of the Blazer, Erica began to cackle loudly. "That's a good one, Silvie."
"I'd fire back on Erica, but she just threatened to shoot me," Theo replied.
"Wow, again?" Macey asked.
"Yup. Okay, lunch is over, we better get a move on."
Back in the Blazer, Theo drove away from the tracks. The area the group was in currently was more of a business district than a residential area. Lots of shops and restaurants, even a small market here and there. On the horizon, a medium-sized apa
rtment building towered over the rooftops of the stores and buildings. The upper half of the apartment was charred with soot.
Theo pointed out the burned building to the girls, "How would you like to be stuck in there?"
"Stuck inside of a burning apartment building with countless rotters all around? Man, sounds like a real hoot," Erica joked.
"Actually in the state it's in now is better than some of the places I've lived in," Silvia said. "I'd rather live there than have to deal with Jack again."
As soon as the Blazer was clear of the row of shops, the parking lot of the apartment complex came into their view. Hundreds of the dead things were shambling about. The Blazer was close enough to the building for it to be spotted by the corpses. The group could hear the dead things shrieking as they began to stream out of the parking lot, heading right towards the truck.
Theo stopped and put the truck in reverse. "Just hang on everyone."
"What are we doing?" Eric asked.
"There's no way we'll be able to speed past that parking lot. That number of rotters will flip this thing over easily."
Theo turned the truck around and sped away from the apartment complex. "Before anyone says anything, yes, I know we just came this way."
The ladies didn't have any witty retorts for Theo. They just kept their eyes on the group of corpses that were still heading towards the truck. "They are not giving up," Macey said.
"They must be really hungry," Theo replied. He knew he had to get out of the corpse's view.
Theo spotted a side street, he made a quick right-hand turn and sped down it, losing the group of dead things. Silvia and Macey watched as the corpses ran right past the road.
"They didn't see us!" Macey exclaimed. "That was close."
Erica patted Theo on the right shoulder. "Good driving."
"Didn't think I'd get us out of that, did ya?"
"Do you want an answer to that?"
"Nope."
The four of them were now driving through a very nice, affluent residential area. There were still corpses around, but for the most part, the area looked to be untouched by the rotters.
Theo took notice, "I guess the apocalypse forgot about this place."
"Um, not so fast, look," Erica replied, pointing to a group of five or six rotters hunched over on a street corner, tearing into a body. A dark red pool of blood had formed underneath the pack of corpses as they feasted on the midsection. Blood was dripping from the corner out onto the street pooling up against the curb.
Seeing no other alternative, Theo sped up, blowing right past the scene and continuing on down the road. Silvia looked behind them, the corpses hadn't moved, they were just eating the body. The undead paid no attention to the truck.
Theo made a left turn down another side street due to some debris in the road, "Okay guys, before I go any further I just wanna say stay calm."
"Oh I don't like the sounds of that," Replied Erica.
"Now I'm lost. And as the only man in this group, I will say that it's pretty big of me to admit it. I very rarely ever come out this way, and none of this looks familiar."
"It's alright, Theo. Maybe we should check out one of these houses, and try to get inside. It'll be dark soon anyhow," Erica replied.
"That's a good idea," Silvia said to Erica.
Macey looked at the houses on both sides of the street, "Yeah, I don't recognize any of this either."
"Let's all keep an eye out for a suitable house to get to," Erica told everyone.
"Yeah, I-" Theo tried to say before there was a loud popping sound followed by some hissing, indicating that the Blazer had just suffered a flat tire. "Oh, you cannot be fucking serious!" Theo shouted.
"Of course," Erica said.
"It's okay, there's a spare tire," Macey reassured them.
Theo brought the truck to a stop on the right-hand side of the street, up against the curb. Everyone got out of the truck and looked around for the undead. The sound of the tire popping had the potential to lure any nearby rotters.
The street they were on was quiet enough. There was a small group of dead things four or five blocks away, too far for the corpses to spot the group. Theo sized up the house he was standing by, walking up and looking in the windows.
"What's it look like in there?" Erica asked him.
Theo shook his head, "Can't really tell. Too damn dark." There were some scattered belongings on the ground inside the house, but that could have been caused by anything.
Silvia pulled something out of the left front tire. A small metallic disc with jagged bits of metal jutting out from the center. "Guys, check this out. This is what Theo ran over."
"Yeah look, they're all over the street," Macey noticed.
The entire stretch of road was littered with the small objects. Various chunks of metal strewn about all over the place.
"What's the deal with that stuff?" Erica asked. "The dead things didn't do this."
"A trap for the rotters maybe? You know, slow them down?" Macey wondered.
"Or for humans," Theo said. He ran to the back of the Blazer and opened the back hatch. "Okay everyone, grab whatever it is you can, we have to get the fuck out of here. I don't like this at all. We'll find some shelter soon enough."
"I hear that," Erica said.
The four of them began to frantically sling the shopping bags filled with their supplies around their shoulders, grabbing as much as they could and then they ran away from the truck. Theo couldn't shake this feeling that they were being watched. They ran down the sidewalk, preparing to turn down another road when a gunshot rang out. Theo felt the bullet rap past his head.
"Hit the deck!" Theo yelled.
The four of them all got down on the sidewalk.
"Did you see where that came from?" Erica asked.
"Not at all."
"Sounded like it came from our right," Silvia said.
"What do we do?" A panicking Macey asked.
"I don't know," Theo replied. He threw his hands out to his side, "Don't shoot! We're not the dead things!"
The four of them waited on the ground for a couple of seconds. They all knew that the gunfire would attract the attention of any nearby corpses. Theo was the first one to try and stand up. Keeping his arms outstretched, he slowly rose to his feet. Theo lowered his arms and stood there, hoping another gunshot wouldn't take his head clean off.
After a couple of seconds, The group heard the sound of heavy booted footsteps heading in their direction. Silvia was right about the gunshot coming from their right, three masked men came jogging towards them. They wore black ski masks and camouflage jumpsuits.
The tallest one, with some type of assault rifle slung across his back, greeted them."Damn, that was a close shave there," He said to the group. "Sorry, we thought you were some of the dead people," The guy said to the group in a deep yet scratchy tone.
The rest of the group got to their feet and looked at the three masked individuals. The shortest of the masked men was carrying a scoped hunting rifle. And the third man had a pistol in his hands. They were sizing up Theo's group and looking at their supplies.
"Quite the haul you guys have there," The tall guy said to Theo.
"Yeah. We were trying to get to the Rouge River. Our truck got a flat," Theo answered.
"I'm assuming that was your handiwork?" Erica asked the guys.
The shortest one began to giggle. Tall guy elbowed him in the side to get him to stop. "Cut it out," He looked back at Erica, "Yep, that was us."
"Look, guys, we're not looking for any problems or anything like that," Theo said. "We're just passing through, trying to survive like you three. We're just trying to get to a house to lay low for the night. We'll fix our flat tire in the morning." Theo could see that the guys were smirking behind their masks.
"What do you guys want?" Silvia asked. "You have that metal stuff laid out in the middle of the road for some reason. What is it?"
"Your things," Tall guy answered.
"Yeah, we want your stuff," The short one added.
"Oh no," Erica replied.
"Oh yeah," Shorty said.
Theo stood in between the two groups. "Hang on a minute, everyone. Look, we don't mind trading here. It's okay."
"We're not trading shit. We're taking your stuff," Tall guy answered.
The third masked man cocked the hammer back on his pistol and held the gun out in front of him.
Erica wasn't impressed. "Okay we get it, you have guns. Big deal."
"Uh, Erica? That's not the best negotiating tactic," Theo said. "Everybody keep cool. It's okay."
"It'll be okay after you give us your stuff," Tall guy said once more. Theo assumed that he was the "leader" if you could call him that. He was keeping the other two masked men in line after all.
Silvie took a deep breath. "Look, guys, we'll gladly trade stuff with you. You have any ammo you'd like to part with? Erica and I are running a little low on our guns. Food for some bullets sounds good."
The three masked men seemed to all chuckle at once. Then tall guy shook his head at Silvie. "We're not trading, we're taking your stuff. End of story."
"Bullshit you are," Erica fired right back. "We had to go through hell to get all of this."
"Too bad, we're taking it!" Shorty shouted at Erica.
"No you're fucking not!" Erica shouted back. "Sawed off little shithead."
Theo dropped his shopping bags at the feet of the masked men, hoping to avoid anymore escalation. "Fuck it, here."
"What the hell's wrong with you?" Erica asked.
"Erica, we can always get more stuff."
Macey followed suit, dropping her bags on the ground. "We give you this stuff and you let us go?" She meekly asked the three masked men.
"Yep," Tall guy said. "Your weapons too."
"Oh come on. Taking our food is one thing, but our weapons?" Theo asked. "How can we defend ourselves out here?"
"Be glad we're letting you live....asshole," Shorty said to Theo.
"Yeah, I knew you were a prick. I could just tell," Theo shot back.
"Careful there. Give us your stuff, all of it and we'll let you go on your way. Like you just said to your friend over there, 'you can always get more.' Drop your weapons," Tall guy ordered.
Theo noticed that shorty was eyeballing Silvia's machete. Theo looked down at the crowbar he had secured through one of the belt loops in his jeans and slowly pulled it out. The tall guy reached a hand out for Theo's weapon. Theo looked at Erica and the others. He figured they'd run into a group like this sooner or later. There was something inside him however not ready to give up his crowbar.
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