The Wicked

On the Road

Upon heading back to the house, just around the corner, everyone was oblivious to what had just taken place. No one knew that Dave had just been killed, and better yet, no one knew that Dave had just been killed by my hand. Atris grabbed the batteries they’d given us and I went to the shed to grab another set of police riot armor for Atris. We left before anyone even noticed we were there.
        We stopped off to grab my sword and left back for the cabin. Peter was still there with Squeaks, and both of them glared at me when they saw us. Atris only smiled innocently.
I had to follow Atris, for I was unconscious coming to the house, and I didn’t know the way out of the town. She took us around several turns until finally we found the street in which the incident occurred several days before. The dead bodies of the infected were still scattered in the street, a memory of the almost fatal battle that had taken place. My hatchet was still on the ground and I bent over to pick it up out of the snow. I was surprised that it wasn’t looted. I guess they had forgotten about it when everything went down that day.
We approached the edge of the street cautiously. The sign on the corner with the population painted on it was still as we had seen it the day we entered the town. I shaved off the ‘8’ from the sign with my hatchet, then with two swift swings of my sword, I carved a ‘7’, replacing the current population. Atris and I stood there in silence, quietly giving our respects to Dave, even though I thought Atris was pleased that the world was rid of him.
After a long trek into the woods, we finally found our cabin. Jack barked in excitement, and both Atris and I were started. We had completely forgot about him and didn’t even notice he had been following us this whole time.
Inside, Atris immediately went into her room and shut the door, I assumed to change cloths and pack for the journey. I went into the kitchen and grabbed my old duffle bag. My ammunition was still in it, but we had left the revolver with the people in Auburn. It was probably best to keep the ammo, just in case, anyway. Of the six water bottles I had in there, three of them were empty. I took them outside and packed them full of snow. When it melted and I made sure they were full, I tightly put the lids back on and put them in the duffle bad. We were completely out of food by now, so I threw away the empty cans.
I went back into my room. I grabbed a few changes of cloths and put them in the bag, along with the Advil from my bathroom, just in case I have another episode. I didn’t think that it did anything, but anything was better than nothing I thought.
Finally, I met Atris and Jack outside. She was standing with him by the motorcycle. “One problem. How are we going to travel with Jack?”
Thinking for a minute, I went around to the back of my cabin and returned with a wagon and a chain. “This will have to do until we find another means for transportation.”
She nodded in agreement, then helped me fasten the chained wagon to my bike. “We’ll ride it, probably to the City. There are several abandoned cars there, all still with their keys in them. We can get a car there. We’ll just keep changing vehicles each time we run out of gas until we reach Georgia. What city was your son in?”
“Last time I talked to my parents, they were in Atlanta with him.”
“Then we’ll start there. In the meantime, we can stop by the CDC. I doubt anyone is still there, but it’s probably our best hope.”
She nodded again. I got onto the bike after making sure Jack was going to stay in the wagon. I put my duffle bag and Atris’s bag into the wag so that he had something to lay against. Atris got on behind me and wrapped her hands around my waist. After starting the motor, we started off back out of the woods.
On the icy road, we had to travel slowly to avoid sliding off. The sun was against the tree line now, causing a red glare to bounce off of the snow and ice. The wind felt like a bunch of needles against the skin of my face. Atris was holding tightly to my waist with her head resting against me. I checked back periodically to see if Jack was still there. Not far down the road, we came across the gas station that I had first seen leaving the City.
I stopped the bike and Jack jumped out. “Did we run out of gas?”
“No, but I know some people here. Plus, we might find a working car here.”
“Oh okay.”
We walked up to the gas station of the small town. “Hello?” I yelled out. “It’s me! I talked to you guys a few days ago.” There was no answer. “Wait here.” I said to Atris, motioning with my hand. I walked up to the gas station and looked through what used to be a giant glass window. There were four bodies in there. Three of them laid around the fourth one. I recognized the fourth one. It was the man that I had seen here about a week ago. I cursed to myself. “I told them to go the woods, but no.”
“What are you talking about?”
“These people, I they gave me gas when I was leaving the city. They had a large group of about twenty, and I told them they would be smart to go to the woods. Now they’re all dead.”
“Oh.” Her face turned into a solemn remark of respect.
I pointed over to a car in the street. “There. Let’s just get out of here. I don’t ever want to come back. Hopefully there is a hope for us in Georgia.”
Before going to the car I walked into the store. “What are you doing?” Atris called back at me.
“We need food.” She came over and helped me grab as much food and water as we could. Apparently these people had been hording all their supplies in here. Lucky for us.
After filling our bags with the supplies, we walked up to the car I had previously pointed out. Luckily, the keys were still in it. I turned it on and the gauge was full. Perfect. Jack jumped into the back seat, Atris in the passenger, and I went back for the bags and hopped into the driver’s seat. Once we were ready, we left.
I decided that it was best that we avoid the city. We didn’t necessarily need supplies at the moment and we had a car that would get us at least as far Maryland. We could stop off at D.C. and see if anyone was alive there. For now though, we were surviving on the road. Day by day. Minute by Minute.