Chapter 6

The car jerks to a stop, and my entire body flies forward, stopped only by the seatbelt strapped across my chest. It yanks me painfully back, and I slam back into the seat behind me. The car is full of moans and coughing, and I'm confused about what happened.

When I open my eyes, I see blood splattered across the windshield. It's not the thick, coagulated blood from a zombie. It's fresh, runny, and bright, meaning we just hit something living. For a second, I start to panic. Have we just run over another survivor like us? Just trying to find someplace safe to stay for the night?

"What happened?" I ask, rubbing my sore chest.

Ryder groans. "Damn deer jumped in front of me. I didn't even see it until it was too late."

He unbuckles, and opens the door. My chest hurts too much to move, and I just lie back while Ryder does whatever it is he's doing.

"Holy shit," Reese says. "The front of the hood is completely destroyed. Damn thing even cracked the windshield."

I take a closer look at the windshield, and realize that he's right. The deer slammed into the car so hard that it dented the hood, damaging the engine, and cracked the windshield. As I'm watching, a thin trickle of blood begins dripping through the crack and onto the dashboard.

"Poor thing," Tobe says, speaking for the first time since lunch.

I look at her. "Are you alright?"

She nods. "Just a little sore. I'm gonna get out and stretch out my legs. You should walk around a bit; it might help."

Since there's nothing else to do, I get out of the car, making sure to be careful in case I'm more seriously hurt than I think. I make sure to stretch my body slowly, checking for any type of injury. Luckily, nothing seems to be hurt except for my chest, where the seatbelt harshly pulled me back. And since it probably saved my life, I'm not going to complain too much.

Reese gets out after me. "Are you alright, Sam? Ryder was going almost seventy miles an hour. I'm surprised there isn't more damage to the car, or any of us."

"I'll be alright. The seatbelt did a number on my chest, but it'll probably just bruise and hurt for a little bit. Are you ok?"

He nods, and then rotates his head around in slow, circular motions. "Damn, that's gonna be sore tomorrow. Come on. Let's go check out the front of the car."

I'm not entirely sure I want to see a poor deer splattered all over the road, but I have to be practical. I know that accidents involving deer can cause serious damage to cars. If our ride gets totaled, we're stranded out here until we can think of a solution.

It's not like we can call for a tow-truck.

Reese and I reach the front of the car, and the damage is much worse than I would have thought. The entire front of the car is smashed; the headlights are busted out and in pieces on the road, the engine is showing through the dented hood, and the bloody grill is lying on the road.

In the bushes to our left is the deer's head. One of his antlers is broken off and missing, and the body is nowhere in sight. Although I see a long smear of blood leading to the ditch on the other side of the road, and I can guess where it might be.

Ryder swears. "Dammit. I can't believe I didn't fucking see it before."

"Dude, it's alright. This isn't your fault. How about I go see if the car will start up again?"

Ryder mumbles something I don't catch, and kicks a rock in the road. It flies into the ditch, and he angrily shoves his hands in his pocket. I want to say something to him, but I'm not sure if he'll snap at me for it.

"We're fucked."

I glance at him. "Yeah, we are."

Reese turns the key in the ignition, and nothing happens. I look up and down the road, searching for any cars that might be usable, and come up empty-handed. There's nothing probably for miles in either direction, and night's coming in a few short hours.

"What are we gonna do?" Tobe asks, coming to stand by me. "We don't have shelter, and we're out here exposed to attack."

"We'll be fine. Reese and I will take shifts guarding through the night. In the morning, we'll make our way to the nearest town."

"Which is like four miles that way," Reese says, pointing back the way we came. "You know, we could probably make it before dark."

"No," Ryder says, rubbing his face with his hands. I can hear the scratch of bristles, and notice for the first time that Ryder looks incredibly tired. "We'll go in the morning."

"Reese and I can go," I offer. "You can get some sleep, and we'll bring back another car."

"I said no!"

We don't argue anymore, and Reese heads to the back, opens the hatch, and brings out a rifle. "What are we gonna do? Just put out blankets and hope it doesn't rain? Hope we don't get mauled? Or do we all try to squish together in the car?"

"Sam, we'll set up a watch. Ryder and I can protect the group. Then Ryder and I can head to the nearest town, find a new ride, and come back to pick you two up."

"I don't think we should separate," Tobe's voice surprises me because she hasn't spoken much since we saved her.

"I agree with Tobe. If there are other survivors out there, they might attack us for our supplies or, well, other things," I say, looking at her. She looks suddenly nervous, and begins searching the area around her. "We can't afford to split up right now."

Ryder nods. "Alright, we'll get some rest for now. Then in the morning, the four of us will walk to the nearest town." Ryder looks over at Reese. "Can you take the first watch?"

Reese nods. "Don't worry about it man. Get some rest. I'll wake ya in a bit."

The guys unload the sleeping gear from the back of the SUV, and Ryder tosses me a rolled up blue plastic tarp, and I fumble with it, trying not to let it fall. "Go stretch this out over the ground. It rained last night; the ground might still be wet."

I roll my eyes, but do as I'm told. I haven't seen Tobe in a fight yet, but I might very well be the most useless person in the group. Ryder is probably the exact opposite. If anyone is going to keep me alive out here, it won't be me. It'll be him.

And I hate him for that, but I also hate myself. Why in the six months since the infection first spread did I not teach myself to shoot a gun? If I had, I might be of more use than I am right now. Unless we happened across just one zombie that I could take out with a baseball bat, I'd probably just get in the way.

Tobe helps me stretch the tarp across the ground, and drives the stakes into the soft earth to help keep it in place. Ryder was, unfortunately, correct. The ground is still damp from last night's rain, and it makes a slight squishing sound as I kneel. The crinkle of the tarp is surprisingly loud in the middle of nowhere, and I cringe.

"What time is it?" Tobe asks.

I sigh. "I'm not sure. My best guess would be like six o'clock, maybe a little later. We've still got a ways to go before reaching Michigan, and we can't walk it. So we get to camp out here in the middle of fucking nowhere, with two cowboy rednecks watching over us."

"Just because we're from Texas does not make us cowboys," Reese says with a smile. "I've never worn those pointy leather boots and I never will. Plus, I kind of think those hats they wear are stupid, too. Whenever I see someone wearing one, I have to try hard not to laugh."

He's holding a dangerous looking rifle in his hands, and he's scanning the surrounding area. "Ryder's gonna check out the area, but I'm gonna stay here and look after you two lucky girls."

Tobe smiles hesitantly. It seems that every time one of us tries to speak to her, she just silently waits for one of us to hit her or yell. I didn't expect her to open up and trust us after one day, especially after what she's been through at the hands of the Warriors, but still. She's incredibly skittish.

Ryder takes off into the trees that line the far side of the road, and Reese takes a seat on the tarp beside us. Tobe and I unrolled the sleeping bags for them, and he looks at me. "Thanks."

I shrug. "It's the least I can do, seeing as you and Ryder are probably going to be up all night guarding us."

"You make it sound like some big sacrifice," Reese laughs. "All we're doing is staying awake. It's not that difficult. Besides, we're used to it. It's how we got this far; one of us would stay awake, and the other would sleep.

"Still, you're not gonna be able to do it forever. Eventually the two of you will start running on empty, and the rest of us will be screwed. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make it three days on my own out here."

"I think you could do it. You're very resourceful, Sam."

Tobe looks away, "I'm gonna go unpack some food," she says, standing. I get the feeling that she's trying to give us some privacy, and that makes me a little uncomfortable.

Reese takes his eyes off of me to watch her go. "She's so strange."

"You know what happened to her, Reese. It's a miracle she's still alive and in one piece. If it were me, suffering through what she did, I'd be shattered into a million pieces, no doubt about it. She has to be strong to survive something that horrible; she just needs time to adjust to being with people that aren't hurting her."

He doesn't say anything, just shrugs. Tobe comes back with the cooler from the backseat, and a few cans from the back, and she looks to me for permission. "Do you mind? They'll go bad if we wait, right?"

"It's alright," I say as nicely as I can. "The sooner we eat the vegetables, the better they'll taste. Imagine having to eat rotten tomatoes or squishy cucumbers."

"What does everyone want?" she asks. "I don't care so long as it's edible."

"I'll take a tomato and that can of Vienna sausages," Reese says, reaching for it.

Tobe flinches away, dropping the cooler. She immediately folds in on herself, looking small and strangely child-like. A small whimper escapes her closed lips, and she looks up. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Tobe. We understand what you're going through," I say, wanting to reach over and comfort her. She'll probably just pull farther away. "What would you like?"

She reaches out for one of the peppers, and snags a can of tuna. I take a bite out of tomato, and then sip at my bottle of water. We all eat in silence for a bit, just sitting around, listening to the almost nonexistent sounds. There are no owls, there is no talking or laughter, and there is no life.

Aside from the three of us, and Ryder in the woods, we're totally alone, and that just feels wrong to me. I can't explain it, and I don't want to think about it anymore. I just lie back against the tarp, clutch my blanket tighter around myself, and take deep, even breaths.

There isn't anything to do really, except stare up at the rapidly darkening sky, and think. I wish I'd thought to bring a book with me, or even a blank notebook and a pen. Then at least I could have something to kill the time. I wouldn't have to think about all the dead people, and the hopelessness of our situation.

Even if we make it to Beaver Island, how long can we stay there? With four mouths to feed, the food is going to run out eventually. When that happens, will we be forced to leave with nothing and start all over again? Will we always be running, searching for a "safe" place?

Even if we make it someplace nice, we'll always have to keep our guards up. Even if there are no zombies to hurt us, which is highly unlikely, we also have to deal with the Warriors. I've played a part in the deaths of like ten of their men. They've got to be out for revenge.

And eventually the zombie population will get so high they'll be forced to leave the city. Will they come after us?

Ryder returns about an hour and a half after he left, and settles down with some food. He gobbles it like he hasn't eaten in forever. Trekking through the woods, searching for zombies, must take a huge toll on your stamina. After he's done eating, he guzzles half a bottle of water, before relaxing enough to tell us what he found, or didn't find.

"I found two of them, wandering aimlessly by the stream nearby. After I took care of them, I kept walking, and didn't find any closer cities than that one on the map. It'll take us like an hour and a half just to make it there."

"That doesn't sound so bad," I say, trying to look on the bright side. "I thought it'd take longer than that."

"An hour and a half is like a lifetime when you're out and exposed on the open road," Ryder says, shaking his head. "Don't you understand that? Someone could just drive by and shoot us dead. Or we could get ambushed by a group of zombies, and we'd be totally defenseless!" Ryder yells, glaring at me. "Why can't you see that?"

I shrink back. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like I don't know this is dangerous."

Reese puts his arm around my shoulder. "Lay off, dude. She's just trying to look on the bright side. Let her do it."

"She can't afford to look on the bright side," he sneers. "And we can't afford for her too either. If she's too preoccupied with the bright side, she's not paying attention to the here and now. Not only is she going to get herself killed, she's gonna get us killed too, and I can't let that happen!"

"I said lay off!" Reese shouts, glaring at his brother. "We're safe for the night; just let her think positive if she wants too. To be honest, you could be a little more positive. We're not dead, Ryder. For tonight, we're alive, and we should be happy about that. We should be looking on the bright side. If we can't do that, is this life even worth living?"

Ryder doesn't say anything. He just sips at his water, and refuses to look at either of us. I'm still slightly shaken by Ryder's outburst, but Reese's arm around my shoulder makes me feel slightly better. It's warm and comforting, without being creepy, and I begin to relax.