Isaac and I look inside the store with frowns on our faces. Then Isaac looks over at Ryder, “So, how are we going to get gas? People normally need to pay first. Do you think it’ll still take my credit card?”
Ryder shrugs his shoulders, “I guess you could always try.”
Isaac gets his wallet out of the console as he attempts to swipe it in the gas pump, “Huh? It took it. Right on. I guess not everything is dead.” He says with a chuckle.
Ryder shakes his head, “Yeah, but I bet it won’t last long.”
I look around curiously, “Have you guys noticed that we haven’t seen any live people. There’s been no other cars on the road. I thought everybody was headed out of town.”
Isaac and Ryder both look at me with wondering eyes, “I guess I haven’t really noticed that.” Isaac replied.
I shake my head, “It’s just too weird, and kind of creepy. Everybody was headed out of town, but there’s been no people on this road.”
Ryder nods in agreement, “It is kind of creepy. Kind of like we’re the last people on Earth.”
“You don’t think that we really are, do you? I mean come on. there has to be people other than us out there. We couldn’t possibly be the last four people on Earth.”
Ryder shrugs his shoulders, “Have you seen anybody else?
I shake my head with sadness, “No.”
Ryder just shrugs with an I told you so look on his face.
I look at him side-eyed, “That cannot be possible. You seriously think so?”
Ryder puts his hand on my shoulder as he gazes into my eyes, “I really don’t know where everybody else went. Maybe everybody just headed in different directions. Maybe not very many people are headed north. I mean, it is going to be cold soon. Winter is coming, maybe a lot of the people headed south or west, to stay warm.”
I nod in agreement, “Maybe you’re right. It’s just starting to worry me, that’s all.”
“Don’t let it bother you. We’re alive, that’s all that matters.”
I nod in agreement as I turn around and step back towards Isaac, as he’s pumping gas.
“It’ll be okay, Harley. I’m sure we’ll start coming across other people.”
“I hope so. I don’t like the idea of being the only people who survived this.”
Isaac puts his hand on my back as he gives me a kiss on my forehead, “It’ll be fine.”
“I hope so.” I glance over at the gas station store and shake my head, “I hope that I don’t end up like that one day.”
Isaac chuckles, “I hope not either.”
I walk over to the passenger side of the car as Isaac hands Ryder the gas pump, so he can load up his motorcycle with gas.
After Ryder was done filling up the motorcycle, he gets back onto his motorcycle, puts his helmet on, then looks back at us and gives us a signal that he’s ready to go.
As we’re following Ryder on his motorcycle, about twenty minutes later, Ryder begins to slow down, then we see it, a mega car pile-up.
Chapter 22
Candi and Chase & Adam, Ana, A.J. and Amber
KNOCK…KNOCK…KNOCK! I open my eyes and look around confused. Chase’s arm is laid across my chest and I look at him as he’s sound asleep next to me while we’re both laying here naked. KNOCK…KNOCK…KNOCK! I nudge at Chase to wake up as I whisper, “Chase! Somebody is at our door!”
Chase stirs as he looks at me with confusion on his face, “What?”
“Somebody is at our door, and I’m naked.”
Chase stands up, naked, and of course, sexy. He grabs a towel and wraps it around his waist as I pull the blankets all the way over me. Chase opens the door and it’s A.J. who’s standing there, “Hey, my dad wants to know if you two are ready to go?”
Chase looks back at me as I shrug my shoulders, then he turns back to A.J., “Hey man, we just woke up. Give us like ten to fifteen minutes to completely wake up and get dressed.”
A.J. looks past Chase towards me and smiles, then he looks back at Chase, “Okay man. I’ll let my dad know.”
Chase shuts the door, then turns towards me shaking his head, “I guess it’s time to go. I was really enjoying our time here.” He jumps onto the bed next to me as he grabs me and pulls me close to him.
I wrap my arms around his neck as I gaze into his eyes, “Last night was really nice. I hope we have many more of those.”
He plants a kiss on my lips, “So do I.”
I rub my fingers through his hair as I continue gazing into his eyes, “Well, I guess we need to get ready to go.” I plant a kiss on his lips, “But, I don’t want to go anywhere, I want to stay here with you.”
He leans in as he plants his wet, warm lips on mine and slips his tongue down my throat. He gets on top of me as he starts getting us both excited. I try to push him off me, but he’s too strong for me. So, I turn my head as I breathlessly say, “Ugh! Chase! We need to get ready to go.”
Chase reluctantly gets off me, and off the bed. He looks at me with playful irritation. “You’re no fun, Candi.”
I get out of bed and put my hands up in surrender, “Sorry, but somebody had to be the adult here.”
After we’re both dressed, we grab the box of food, our knives and our backpacks as we open the door to head out. We walk next door to Adam’s room. Ana answers it as Chase announces, “We’re ready!”
Adam announces to his family, “Okay guys, let’s go!”
Adam grabs his backpack and food box as they head out to their car. Chase and I walk out towards our car. Chase looks at Adam and says, “Hey, we’ll need to stop and get some gas. We could always find a parking lot with a few cars in it, then syphon the gas.”
Adam looks at Chase dumbfounded, “Syphon? I don’t know how to syphon gas.”
Chase gives Adam a sheepish grin as he replies, “I do.”
Adam looks at Chase with shock, “You do?”
Chase nods with his sheepish grin, “Yes I do. I grew up poor, my dad taught me how to do it.” He winks at Adam.
Adam chuckles, “Well, I guess it’s coming in handy now, isn’t it?”
Chase nods, “Yep, I guess it is. But, we’ll need a syphon hose, though. If we can find a store that will have one, we’ll be golden.”
Adam nods with doubt in his eyes, “Okay then, I hope we find something before we run out of gas. Where can I find one?”
Chase thinks for a minute, “Like a department store of some sort, a camping store, auto shop. Anything like that.”
Adam nods, “Uh…okay. I’ll keep my eye out.”
Chase smiles at him, then gets into the car. I look at him curiously, “You know how to syphon gas from one car to the next?”
Chase nods, “Yep. We were poor growing up and sometimes my dad didn’t have money to pay for gas, so he would syphon gas from another car to put into ours. He hated doing it, but he said he had to do what he had to do to get to work to support his family.” Chase shrugs his shoulders, “And now, we have to do what we have to do to survive.”
I nod in agreement, “Well, even though what he did wasn’t legally right, at least it taught you how to do it, so that we can do it now.”
Chase nods as he smiles at me, “I’m really glad you see it that way. My dad was a hard worker, and he hated that he did that. But…he always made sure that the car he did it was a nice car, one that looked like it came from a well to do family. He didn’t want to take from someone who couldn’t afford to pay for new gas.” He says with a wink.
I laugh as I shake my head, “Okay, well that makes it better.”
After driving for a while, Chase looks up ahead, “Look! It’s a camping store!”
He honks and points with hopes that Adam can see him. As Adam turns off the road and into the camping store parking lot, Chase smiles, “Good, he saw me.”
Adam parks in a parking spot near the front door as we pull into the space next to him. Everybody gets out of the car as we all look at the building. Chase, A.J. and I walk over tow
ards Adam. Adam looks at us curiously, “So, you think that there will be syphon hoses in here?”
I nod, “Yep, I sure hope so.”
Adam chuckles, “Yeah, so do I. I don’t know how much further I can go on my gas.”
“Trust me, I know. I was sweating a little bit as we were driving.”
Adam nods as he looks at the building, “So…you think that this place is safe, or do you think that we’ll need to fight our way in?”
Chase stares at the building with wondering eyes, “I’m not quite sure. I guess we’ll find out.” he replies with a smirk. Chase walks back to our car as he grabs the five machetes. He walks over to Ana and hands her one. Then he walks back to Adam, A.J. and I and hands us each one. “Here you guys are, now we should be able to kick some ass in there if we need to.”
We all smile at Chase with confidence as we all turn towards the direction of the store and begin marching towards the door.
As we arrive at the door, Chase looks back at us, “Okay, now, we need a couple of syphon hoses and any kind of camping gear we can find that will help us on our journey. Flashlights, binoculars, sleeping bags, tents, canteens, whatever we can find.”
We all nod in agreement. “Oh, and everybody grab a cart because I don’t think we’ll be able to carry everything.” He adds.
Chase tries to open the door, but it’s locked. He looks back at us, “Shit!”
We look around then I ask, “So, how are we going to get inside? Can we pick the lock or are we going to have to break the window to get in?”
Chase looks at me with questioning eyes, “Good question, I’m thinking.”
Adam walks away from us and back to his car. He opens his trunk and digs around, then comes back with a crow bar. “Do you think this will break the window?”
Chase smiles at him, “Heck yeah! I sure hope so!”
Adam motions for all of us to back up, then he holds the crowbar like a baseball bat as he swings and hits the window. It cracks and begins to shatter. He gets a satisfied smile on his face as he gets in position to hit it again. He swings and hits it as it shatters to the ground. We all cheer! Then he sticks his hand inside as he unlocks the door and we all walk inside.
We hold our machetes up in preparation to strike if needed. We all grab a cart as we begin walking towards the back of the store. A.J. loudly whispers, “Hey, here’s flashlights!”
We all walk over to the flashlights and each grab a couple.
I look next to the flashlights, “Hey! Batteries!”
We all grab a bunch of packages of batteries.
We continue walking towards the back. Adam looks over, “Hey, here’s some canteens.” Adam grabs a bunch of canteens.
We continue moving on towards the back, when we notice three Zombies near the camping gear. Chase looks at Adam, “Hey, want to have some fun?”
Adam smiles, “Yep!” Chase, Adam and A.J. walk towards the three Zombies as they each pick one to slice off a head. Once they were done they walk back to their carts and we continued our way towards the camping gear.
Right before we approach the camping gear, Chase notices something, “Hey! Syphon hoses! Yes!” He grabs a bunch of them and throws them into the cart.
As Adam continued towards the camping gear, he finds something, “Hey, Chase, come here.”
We all walk towards Adam. Adam looks at Chase with a big smile, “Look…walkie talkies. We can each have one and we can communicate with each other when we’re not together.”
Chase looks at Adam with big eyes, “That’s a great idea! Good job, Adam.” They high five each other. They grab three sets of walkie talkies, a bunch more batteries that were sitting next to the walkie talkies. Then we continue to move forward towards the camping gear.
Once we are at the camping gear, we grab two tents, six sleeping bags, lanterns, fire starter logs, long lighters, starter fluid, a couple of mini grills, a couple of camping dishes, bowls, silverware, pots and pans. We found a goldmine at this store and we make sure we are going to be stocked up and ready.
Once we were done, we walk out of the store and back towards the cars. Once we get to the cars and look at our four carts, we all bust out laughing.
Ana and Amber looked at us strangely. I look at Ana and ask, “How are we going to fit all this into these two cars?”
Ana and Amber shrug as they also begin laughing also. Adam puts his arm around me as he replies, “Very carefully.”
Chase looks at me and Adam, “We may have to hotwire a van or truck along the way just, so we can be somewhat comfortable.”
Adam looks at Chase and me, dumbfounded, “I don’t know how to hotwire a vehicle.”
Chase shrugs his shoulders, “I do.”
Adam looks at Chase confused, “You do?”
Chase chuckles, “I kind of grew up in a bad neighborhood, and I kind of hung out with the bad crowd and I learned a few bad things.”
I put my hand on Chase’s back, “Well, it’s definitely coming in handy now.”
Adam nods in agreement, “Yeah, unfortunately I’ll have to agree with Candi. It’s definitely coming in handy now.”
Chase shrugs, “Well, I guess it was worth being a poor, bad kid. And here I got in trouble for it.”
We all burst out laughing.
Well, we manage to fit everything into both cars, barely. It took a little while. A.J. and Amber probably won’t be too comfortable as they sit in the back seats, but, that’s the price to pay I guess.
After we’re done packing up the cars with our new gear, we drive out of the parking lot and onward with our journey.
Chapter 23
Blake and Parker & Nina and Mandy
As we get on the road again, I look down at my gas gauge, almost empty. I look over at Nina, “We’re going to need to get gas soon, or we’ll run out.”
Nina leans over to look at the gas gauge, “Oh no. I’ll have to keep my eye out for a gas station.”
A few minutes later, Nina taps my arm and points, “Look! There’s a gas station!”
I pull into the parking lot and park at a gas pump, as we look inside the store and see that it’s been overrun by Zombies. I look over at Nina, “So, do you think that these gas pumps still take cards?”
Nina shrugs her shoulders, “I don’t see why not. I sure hope so.”
I get out of the car as I put my card into the gas pump. Huh…it just asked me if I’m paying credit or debit. I push credit. Huh…now it’s asking me my zip code. Huh…maybe it still does take credit cards, because we need gas…now. Well, now it’s giving me the okay to pump my gas…cool. I go ahead and put the nozzle in the tank and fill up. After I’m done, I get back inside the car and look at Nina with a sheepish smile on my face, “It worked. It let me fill up the gas tank.”
She looks at me with a relieved smile, “Good. Now let’s get back on the road.”
We get back onto the road. About ten minutes or so, we notice a pile-up of cars.
I stop the car as I get out to look. Nina walks up behind me with a concerned look on her face as we both stare at all the cars in front of us. I shake my head, “Um…I’m not sure how we’re going to get around this.
Nina looks at me, “How did this even happen?”
I shake my head, “I’m not sure. Maybe an accident at the beginning of this pile-up, then people got out of their cars and I guess all havoc happened.”
Nina looks back at all the cars, “How are we going to get around this?”
I walk around to the right of us to see if I’ll be able to drive around on the right side. I look at it, look at my car. Then I walk back up to the road as I walk to the left of the pile up to inspect the distance and the mess ahead. I walk back over to Nina with wondering eyes. Well, I guess I can try to go around it. The right side might be my best option. The trees on the side of the road may be a problem, I’m not sure yet. I just don’t want to get trapped somewhere in the middle of this pile-up. I’d hate to have to change cars or run into Zombies
out there.
Nina nods in agreement. “Well, we’ll have to do what we have to do to make this work.”
I look at Parker and Mandy who are watching us from inside the car. “Yeah, we have to make sure that those two are kept safe.”
Nina and I get back inside the car, I look over at Nina, “Okay, I need you to help me out with distance between myself and anything to the side of me. I also need you to be my eyes in all directions, looking for Zombies or anything else that may get in our way. I’m not sure how long this pile-up is, hopefully not too long.”
Nina nods, “No problem.”
I start the car back up as I turn to my right, go downhill a little and make a left turn to continue heading northbound. As I squeeze between the cars and the trees, I drive slowly so that I don’t make any mistakes.
Nina touches my arm lightly as she whispers, “There’s a couple of Zombies in the trees, they look like they might be coming towards us.”
I look back at them, “Eh…hopefully we’re moving faster than they are. But if not, here’s a knife, open your window and stab them in the forehead.”
She looks at the knife, then back at me, “Um…okay…”
I look at her and smile, “I have confidence in you. You got this.”
She smiles warmly, “Okay.”
I continue to drive slowly between the cars and trees. As I look at the cars I pass by to my left, I notice people, dead people who have already turned into Zombies, trapped in their cars, probably forever. I feel a wave of sadness flow through my body as I look at them. How awful to be stuck like that forever. Just sitting in your car in the middle of the road…forever.
I begin to see the end of the pile -up. I look at Nina and smile, “It’s almost over.” Just as I say that, a Zombie jumps in front of my car as I hit it and it flies up onto the windshield and scares the crap out of us! I stop, back up a little, then I drive forward fast, driving over it.
As I’m waiting for my heart to begin beating again, I drive back onto the road. I stop for a minute as I look over at Nina who still has a shocked look on her face. I put my hand on hers and squeeze, “You okay?”
Zombie Havoc (Book 1): In The Beginning Page 16