"Where will we go? And what about Deron?" Megan asked innocently.
Jake ran a hand through his hair and Aby began to see the effect of the pressure they were putting on him. His eyes were ringed with dark circles. His shoulders were tight with anxiety. And even though Aby didn’t want to admit it to herself, something behind his eyes had seemingly died.
"I don’t know, Megan. He made the choice to leave here...we can’t wait around for him. If he’s going to run off alone like a child at the first sign of trouble then he’s only going to get us killed. Hopefully he’ll show up before we’re ready to leave. And I don't know where we'll go. Somewhere more rural. Somewhere with less crazy neighbors..."
Megan wrapped her arms around herself. “I’ve never been in trouble with the police before...they just don’t understand. They want us all to follow the rules, but...I don’t think it’s that simple. How can we all carry on this way? Everything is changing…”
Jake nodded solemnly. “We just have to accept that this was a mistake. But we’ll learn from this. We have a car full of new supplies…”
And four dead bodies on our conscience, Aby thought, but she didn’t say that. She sensed that anything she said or did might tip Jake right over the edge into madness. He needed rest. He needed his wife to support him. He needed time to recharge. She made a mental note to insist on driving so he could sleep.
“We need to get moving,” Jake said. “We don’t know how long it’ll take them to get back here...but probably not long. Grab anything you think might be useful. Blankets, food, clothes, bottled water…”
“We gathered a lot of the supplies together before trouble arrived,” Aby said. It felt like years ago that she’d been sorting through the kitchen cupboards with Deron and Megan. “I’ll go upstairs and get what I can from there...Megan can handle the food. Jake...keep watch.”
He nodded tiredly and Aby headed upstairs, glad of a moment on her own. She let herself go into autopilot as she grabbed everything she could possibly carry, but her mind was on what had just happened. She felt like she’d stepped into a horror movie. She was watching the world change dramatically right before her eyes. Her husband was becoming a person she couldn’t recognize. Did he feel the same when he looked at her? Did he see her kill count every time he looked at her? She’d shot a man in cold blood. But she had to. So why was she judging Jake for doing the same?
She told herself to grow up. He was doing everything for her. She had promised when they married to love him through thick and thin. This was one of those times where she’d have to put on a brave face and embrace change. No one would have foreseen this, not even Jake. He was doing the best he could, and that was all she could ask of him.
When she made it downstairs, Megan was loading the last of the food into the pickup truck. Jake was scanning the perimeter anxiously. Aby pushed her supplies onto the backseat.
“Are we ready?”
Megan chewed her lip. “What about Deron?”
Jake shook his head. “We can’t...I’m sorry, Megan.”
She pursed her lips. Aby could see she was trying not to cry. But then she nodded. “Okay. I’m ready.”
Aby gave her a warm smile. Even sweet Megan was hardening her heart for the new world. As she slid onto the backseat, Megan looked to her husband and tried to reassure him too.
"I think we should be okay...we have a head start."
Jake didn’t seem convinced. He opened the car door.
"I just hope it's enough."
Twenty-Two
Jake
The road was quiet as Aby began to drive toward the town. They had no idea what lay ahead of them. Without Deron, they were in unfamiliar territory. But when Aby had almost turned off in the direction of where Jake had hiked only hours before, he harshly told her to turn around. He couldn’t face driving past the corpses he’d made. He couldn’t risk seeing the group of hikers again. Both of them were just reminders that things were far from okay.
And to make matters worse, now they’d garnered the attention of the police. If things were normal, they’d be wanted criminals by now. They’d be all over every TV screen, their names uttered over car radios, their terrible acts discussed in whispers over a dinner table. Jake never thought he’d be that kind of man, but now that he was, he’d give anything to go back to his old self.
He could hear Megan crying quietly in the backseat. He had a sudden urge to tell her to shut up. She was the only one among them who was guiltless. When he’d quietly asked for details about what happened at the house, it became clear that Aby was the one with blood on her hands. What did Megan have to cry about, then? She was unharmed, untainted by the things they’d done to survive and protect her. Jake glanced at his wife and felt closer to her than he ever had before.
A couple of times, Jake looked back over his shoulder to see the cabin disappearing into his peripheral vision. He felt a strange kind of attachment to it, though he’d barely even been there a day. It had given him shelter. It had offered him a hiding place even if his demons always found him in the end. It had been a beacon of hope when the world was going mad. Now, they had nothing, but the clothes on their back and the pickup truck’s contents. He felt exposed, even though dense forest surrounded them on every side. He didn’t have a single friend in the world aside from those in the car, and it was a chilling thought.
“There’s something in the road,” Aby said, slowing the car down right away. Jake went rigid. What could it be? A deer, perhaps? Or something much more sinister…
Aby pulled the car to a stop and all of them leaned forward cautiously, trying to get a better look at whatever it was. Jake felt sick.
“That’s no animal…”
The shape was distinctly human. He knew it might not be wise to go close to it. It might be a trap of some sort...a way of getting drivers to stop and investigate. But something made him unclip his seatbelt and get out. He had to know what was going on.
His footsteps felt long and unsteady. Aby remained behind the wheel and Megan poked her head out of the window, waiting for him to report back. But words left Jake the moment he saw what he was faced with.
Deron was almost unrecognizable. His face was so beaten and bloodied that he may as well have not had facial features. His body was so still it was hard to imagine that it had ever moved. That there had ever been a person living and breathing inside the body’s shell. Jake could barely breathe as he approached.
Flies buzzed around the body, filling the night with a sickening noise. Jake knew he’d never think of flies the same way again. Not now that he understood how closely they were married with death. Deron’s body was already starting to smell bad and Jake gagged, moving away from him as quickly as he could.
“What is it?” Aby asked from the car. Jake shook his head, unable to speak. He felt tears appear in his eyes. He didn’t have a lot of respect for Deron. He didn’t even like him, really. But he didn’t want him to be dead. He’d hoped that somewhere along the way, they’d be reunited, or at least that they’d have some confirmation he was alright. Whoever had done this to Deron was cruel and calculating. He would have suffered.
Jake couldn’t imagine how scared Deron must’ve been. He was on his own. He was in pain. He was given a fate he didn’t deserve. And now, Jake was going to have to tell the others that Deron had come to a horrific end.
“Jake?” Megan called from the car. “Please tell us what’s going on…”
Jake ignored her. He wasn’t ready to speak. He tried to switch off his emotions as he searched Deron for anything that might be of use to him. It felt cold and cruel to do so, but they needed whatever he’d left behind. He found a handful of dollar notes and pocketed them, though he wasn’t sure they’d be of any use anymore. He also found a pocket knife which almost made Jake scoff. Deron really had been useless. He’d left without any real weapons to protect himself. How had he expected to survive?
Maybe he didn’t want to, Jake thought solemnly.
> He flickered between pain and anger. Why couldn’t Deron have just stayed with them? He might’ve been a bit of a nuisance, but he and Aby had protected him so far. Why did he have to run off and get himself killed?
A sob wracked Jake’s chest and he had to pause to wipe his eyes. He heard footsteps behind him and recognized his wife’s footfall. She gasped quietly when she saw what Jake had discovered, but unlike him, she didn’t linger. She took his arm and helped him up.
“Don’t beat yourself up,” she told him. “He left. We couldn’t have stopped this from happening.”
Jake shook his head. Maybe if he’d stayed at the cabin he could’ve prevented this. Maybe he could’ve protected them all from their home base. Maybe they wouldn’t be in trouble with the law…
Maybe, maybe, maybe…
“Let’s go, Jake…”
“Shouldn’t we do something? Get him off the road, at least?”
But even as he was saying it, headlights beamed in the distance. Jake squinted and saw that three cop cars were racing toward them. His heart plummeted to his stomach and he began pulling Aby to the car.
“We have to go right now. I’ll drive.”
Jake jumped into the driver’s seat and started the engine even while Aby was still getting in the car. As he drove off, Aby jerked forward, still fumbling for her seatbelt, but Jake was in survival mode. He knew they needed to be fast if they wanted to make it until morning. He didn’t even blink as the car drove around Deron’s corpse.
“Are those cop cars?” Megan asked fearfully. Their bright headlights were blinding and they were driving fast, like they had no fear. Jake put his foot down on the gas.
“Yes.”
“How far do you think they’ll follow us ?”
“Who knows. Probably until they run out of gas.”
Jake was in no state for a high speed chase. He was exhausted. The events of the day had made him weary and scared and emotional. But the adrenaline in his veins kept him going. He gritted his teeth and sped down the road, praying that by some miracle they’d escape.
But the cop cars were fast. All of the supplies in the pickup were weighing them down. They were driving at top speed, but it felt like a crawl when it became obvious that their pursuers were getting closer and closer. Jake knew he had to think fast.
“Hold on tight,” he said. Aby stared at him in horror.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to try and lose them. We’re going to need to swerve into a side road, and it has to be a last minute move. Something they won’t be able to keep up with.
Aby took a shuddering breath, but she didn’t argue. After everything, she still trusted him. Jake reached over quickly to squeeze her hand. He knew that even in the midst of all this mess, he could rely on his wife.
The road narrowed as they made it into the town and Jake began to look for forks in the road where he could try and lose the cops. He could see a road that might be of use to him; it was narrow and a sharp turn. If they made it through, there was no way the cops would make the turn on time to follow them. Jake knew it was a risk. If he got it wrong, he’d kill everyone in the car. But they’d die anyway if he didn’t try. He knew the police were well past arresting them now. They knew what he’d done. If they caught up, they’d shoot them and be done with it.
Jake had to try. His knuckles turned completely white as he gripped the steering wheel.
“Here we go…”
He swerved into the side road, skidding a little. The back of the car clipped the wall, jolting everyone in the car like an earthquake tremor, but he managed to carry on driving forward. He felt sick, unable to process whether it had gone well until a few seconds later, and it felt like much longer. But when he saw Megan’s shocked, but unharmed face in the rearview mirror, he knew that all was well.
Except it wasn’t. As he watched the scene unfold behind him, he saw two of the cop cars get out of control, avoiding crashing narrowly as they gave up the chase. But the third car, the last one in line, had slowed enough to make the turn. Jake cursed under his breath and sped up the car.
“I thought that would work…”
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Aby said, wrapping her arms around herself. “We’ve never been in trouble with the law before…”
“This isn’t what I had in mind for this day,” Megan whispered, rubbing her arm where she’d banged it in the crash. Jake sighed.
“I’m sorry, guys. We just have to keep moving. It’s alright. Everything is going to be okay…”
He wasn’t sure why he was promising that when he had no idea what would happen to them now. Would they really be chased to the ends of the Earth?
“They’re not going to stop,” Jake muttered as he concentrated on the road. “They don’t understand. They don’t know that the world is collapsing.”
“What do we do?” Megan asked. Jake glanced over his shoulder at the lone cop car chasing them. He took a deep breath.
“Hope that we can outrun them, I guess.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
Jake took a deep breath.
“Then I guess we’ll have to hope we win in a fight.”
Twenty-Three
Aby
Aby was glad that she wasn’t the one driving. The thought of trying to make quick decisions while being chased made her shudder. She’d managed to keep a cool and level head for the past few days, but she was running out of steam. She knew that without Jake she’d be lost.
But even though he was making quick decisions and managing to keep up with the pressure, she knew he would soon buckle. She could see that his resolve was wobbling all the time. He kept switching between being fine and completely unbalanced.
She feared what might happen if he made any other quick decisions. When he’d veered off into that little side road, she thought she saw her life flash before her eyes. He was getting more and more reckless. She tried to tell herself that it was his survival instinct guiding him, but maybe it was something else.
Maybe it was just madness.
How quickly things fall apart she thought as she watched the cop car pursue them. The thought felt heavy. She wished she could be of more use, but as the road widened once again and they were surrounded by open land, she knew they’d already driven themselves into an inescapable trap.
“Jake, we have to find somewhere to turn off,” Aby told him. “It’s too open here. The cops will be able to see us for miles. The other cars might even catch up…”
“Do you see anywhere to turn off?” Jake said through gritted teeth. “I had to make a call, Aby. Don’t blame this on me.”
Aby sighed, reaching over to touch his leg as they sped further down the road. “You did good. You lost two of them already. I’m just saying-”
“I know, okay?” Jake snapped. “I can see the road as well as you can. I know we’re in trouble, alright?”
Aby sat back in her seat and sighed. Jake very rarely got short with her, and she knew it wasn’t the time to feel hurt over his behaviour, but it was just another sign of how things had changed. She chewed her thumb and scanned their surroundings, looking for escape routes. She wished she could fix all their problems, but their problems were already engaging them in a high speed chase through the countryside. They were out of options.
“You both need to be ready to fight,” Jake told them solemnly. “If we have to stop, we’re only going to have a few seconds as a head start. The moment you hesitate is the moment we all get killed. If it comes to that...you just have to shoot without a second thought.”
Aby turned the cop’s gun over in her hands. She was becoming all too familiar with the feeling of a weapon in her hands. But now, as Jake was implying that she might need to shoot a cop, she felt sick. When she’d shot the man at the cabin, she had felt like he somewhat deserved it. After all, he was chasing them down. He was breaking into their home. He was going to kill her and her friends if she didn’t shoot first.
But this time was different. It was all just a misunderstanding. The cops were just trying to do their jobs. They thought they were hunting murderers...and in terms of the old world, she guessed that they were. They all had blood on their hands. But she suspected there would be more before things ever got better.
She wanted to live. She wanted Megan and Jake to live. But she also wanted the cops to live. She wanted them to be able to go home to their families and cherish the final days of normality before everything went really bad. She didn’t want to be the reason they’d never make it back to kiss their children goodnight, or hold their partners close, or even enjoy a cold beer at the end of a day.
Aby sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. She just wanted to wake up from this nightmare. She wanted everything to be okay. But she could still feel the car engine rumbling through the vehicle. She could still feel the fear in her heart. There was no going back from the decisions they’d made.
And eventually, they’d reach the end of the road.
Maybe that was the answer...maybe they had to get off the road. Their vehicle was pretty sturdy. Aby reckoned it could handle driving on tougher terrain. As she tossed the idea over in her head, she glanced back at the cop car. It might be a move they’d expect, and one they’d be able to follow up with. But the cop car looked ancient. Aby suspected they were using older models if the EMP had put their new ones out of action. It might just be the advantage they needed.
“Jake...I’ve got an idea.”
Jake’s face was softer now when he looked at Aby. “Okay. I’m open to anything.”
“Veer into the fields. Our tyres are good. They’ll be able to handle the terrain. I’m not sure the cops will be able to follow us. And even if they can, we’ll both be slowed down. It might make the playing field more level.”
The End of the World Series (Book 1): Survive The Collapse Page 13