"There's a rhythm in rush these days, where the lights don't move and the colors don't fade." When I thought about it, Georgia wasn't that much different from Tennessee. Same sky, same air. No different from home. Except that Georgia wasn't home. It hadn't been for almost eight years now. "Leaves you empty with nothing but dreams, in a world gone shallow - in a world gone lean."
We were speeding down the highway, way over the legal limit, but this didn't seem to bother my brother, Damien. He drove in absolute silence, not even bothering to look at me to make sure I was alright. "Sometimes there's things a man cannot know, gears won't turn and the leaves won't grow." I wasn't.
My boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, Roger, had been a family friend, just two years older than my brother. When Damien shipped out for his first round, I quit school and moved to Tennesee, leaving everyone and everything I had behind. Damien had been home twice since I left and I hadn't been able to reach out to him. Roger was a good man, when he was sober - however rare it was. When he drank, he'd beat me and he'd beat me bad. I was too ashamed and too scared to call my family and ask for help, and I had noone in Tennessee except Rog'. In the eight years I spent chained to the house we built together, I missed my fathers death and my mothers suicide. In the eight years I spent chained to him, my family disappeared. But not Damien.
I'd called him early in the morning, just as Roger had slipped out to go to work. He'd answered in a formal tone, as he always did. The sound of his voice made me burst out in tears and when he finally realised who had called, he was halfway out the door, demanding I stayed put. He showed up just about when the sun was about to set and he knocked Roger on his ass before pulling me into his arms. After all, I guess I was all the family he had left too.
"There's no place to run and no gasoline, engine won't turn and the train won't leave. I'll stay with you tonight, hold you close 'til the morning light." I glanced over at him and then turned to look out the window, peering at the sky up above. It was starting to turn pink, reminding me of the flowers we had in our backyard when we were kids. I was awakened from my thoughts as Damien hit the breaks, the sudden stop making me bump my already bruised head against the glass I'd previously rested against. He jumped out of the truck and rummaged around for an empty gas can in the back, before filling it and the truck up. "In the morning, watch a new day rise, we'll do whatever just to stay alive. We'll do whatever just to stay alive."
The gas station he'd pulled up to seemed eerily empty, but what worried me the most was his constant, stubborn silence. I had alot to say to him. A bunch of things to apologize for. Excuses to make. Now was not the time, however, as the mellow song playing on the radio was interrupted by an emergency broadcast. "The situation still remains out of our control, we're taking measures to limit the spread, but at this rate it might be best if people started heading for the shelters. Atlanta will be safe, we're controlling the spread. Atlanta wil-" Damien returned to the truck and cut the radio off mid-sentance, his ironlike gaze making me stare down at my hands in discomfort. "They've declared a state of emergency, Jer'" He spoke, his raspy voice sending shivers down my spine. "We're under martial law." Damien paused, his knuckles whitening from his firm grip on the steering wheel. "Do you copy?" He asked as we drove away from the station.
I nodded, not finding the words. I guess that was enough.
Damien on the other hand, wasn't finished. "We weren't supposed to get our families, but I needed to make sure." He hesitated, glaring down the road with a frown on his face. "After everythin' with Rog'." I blinked the tears out of my eyes and snorted in response. "He's the least of my worries now." I whispered and wiped the trail of tears away with the sleeve of my hoodie. I put my other hand on his leg, nails digging into the fabric of his pants.
"Dee," I started, biting my lip as he tensed up at my touch. "What's going on?"
The sun was barely peeking up over the horizon, lighing up the long road and the silouette of Atlanta ahead of us. I narrowed my eyes as we drew closer, already seeing vast amounts of cars piling up. "You gon' be 'right if I drop ya by the shelter?" Damien asked slowly, now fully coming to a stop at the end of the long queue leading into the city. "Ofcourse, Dee." I murmured and pushed a strand of brown hair back behind my ear. Cars were honking and fighting for space on the now very crowded road. "So, what's happenin'? Some kinda virus?" I asked, unbuckeling the seatbelt in order to make myself more comfortable.
"I ain't no scientist, Jer'. We're under a strict need-to-know basis." I inspected my brother closely, noticing the dark bags under his eyes and the wrinkles on his forehead, making him look much older than his thirty-five years. Carefully, I reached out to him, running my hand over his slightly overgrown buzzcut, returning the slight smile I thought I saw hiding in the corner of his mouth.
"It can't be too bad, Dee."
I couldn't have been more wrong.
It wasn't until the sun was already high on the sky that things turned really nasty. I'd rolled down the window, and by the time the shit hit the fan, I was enjoying the faint breeze rolling over my face. I looked around lazily until my eyes rested on a car two cars ahead of us. Out of nowhere, the people inside of it started screaming and flailing around. One by one, the adults in the car managed to make their way out, the only woman in the group shrieking like a banshee. After them crawled a young boy, whose face made me snap my head so far back I thought I'd break my neck.
I slapped Damien across the arm with the palm of my hand, jolting him out of his slumber. How he'd managed to sleep through the screams was beyond me, but the sudden touch had woken him straight up.
The young child carried a small bundle in his arms, shakily letting the cloth rolling off. Time seemed to stop. A toddler, no more than a couple of months old, was screaming up at the older boy, its tiny fists clenched and moving. My eyes widened in shock as the boy brought his already bloody face down towards the baby and let out a twisted snarl. I covered my mouth with both hands, pressing down hard to swallow the scream resting in my throat. He sank his teeth into the toddler, tearing through flesh, making blood spew out of the tiny body. The crying ceased almost instantly, only to be replaced by the crying of the adults observing the scene. The boy dropped the baby and proceeded to hunch over it like some kind of animal, using his hands to dig deeper into its belly, busting the ribcage and leaving guts sprawled over the dark and hot road.
Damien and I stared in disbelief as other people started screaming from inside their cars up ahead, aswell as behind us. The woman who had escaped the car, rushed forwards, trying to pry the boy away from his afternoon snack, only to have him launch at her and with a low guttural snarl, sink his teeth into her arm.
My brother snapped out of the initial shock and went for his gun, his face darkening as he stepped out of the car, took aim and squeezed the trigger - putting the boy to rest. As the gunshot rang out, heads turned towards us. But the attention didn't last for long. Futher along the road, more bloodcurdeling screams followed, people pouring out - sinking their teeth in whatever they could reach. Damien fired four more shots before he glanced back at my worried and horrified face. Making a decision, he climbed back into his seat and turned the car back on, revving the engine.
"What the fuck is going on?!" I shrieked, eyes still locked on the lifeless corpse of the toddler on the ground infront of us.
"Buckle up, sis. We're goin' for a ride." He yelled over the roar of the engine and crashed his truck into the small car infront of us, pushing it into the next, before backing up and doing the same to the vehicle behind us. Somehow, I managed to buckle my seatbelt just as he crashed into, and forced the truck over, the railing separating us from the oncoming traffic, thankfully, of which there was none.
After spending far too many hours in the truck, waiting for the line to move, we were now driving back the way we'd came, leaving the screaming and rabid people on the road far, far behind us. "Dee! What the fuck was that!" I cried again, pulling on the arm of his t-shirt. "Dee!" I called again. Finally, he snapped.
"I don't know Jerrica! I don't!" He roared back, making me shrink in my seat. "Christ." He breathed, shaking his head. "I don't have any answers okay, just stop. We were told to get ready for something big. And what did I do, Jer'? I jumped ship to go get you. I couldn't just leave you!" He growled, punching the wheel and making the horn go off.
I covered my face with my hands. "I'm sorry." I whispered from behind my hands, tears rolling down my face again. "I made you! I'm s-"
Damien cut me off, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Shut up. It's gonna be 'aright. I'll fix it." His voice broke at he last part. "I'll fix it." He repeated, taking a sudden turn to a smaller road. I looked up as he pulled over, my eyes puffy and red.
He unbuckled his seatbelt aswell as mine and pulled me into half a hug, kissing the top of my head. We stayed that way until I broke the silence. "Where do we go, Dee? Back to Tennessee?" He hummed in response, releasing me from his awkward brotherly embrace.
"Do we keep going? What about food and water? Do you think we can go to the city soon? Won't the army clear out... whatever that was?" I asked in rapid succession, Damien still sitting in silence. "Dee?" I whispered. No response. I groaned and reclined my seat, staring up at the padded ceiling. A couple of minutes passed before he started the car again, driving further along the road.
"We can't go too far away. If this shit lets up soon, we can't be stranded in the middle of nowhere. We'll find a secluded spot to camp out at and regroup in the morning." He said in a commanding tone. I couldn't help but smile and answer with a snarky: "Whatever you say, Sarge."
"Are you sure this isn't a little bit too close to.. the road?" I muttered as he pulled over a quarry, just shy of the city, near interstate 85. He looked at me like I was an idiot before raising a brow and shaking his head, pocketing the keys to the car. "Water."
The campsite we'd arrived at was void of people, as far as I could tell, and very dark. A dense forest aswell as cliffs surrounded us, making the site itself feel very snug and safe. "We'll probably get company here." Damien commented as he stepped out of the truck. "It's not a bad spot!" I called out behind him, flailing for a second until my eyes adjusted to the dark. "Dee, hold up, I can't see shit." I muttered and smiled as my flailing hands found his muscular figure. I locked arms with him and blinked at the ground.
"Right, watch my six!" I breathed out, earning a brief chuckle from Damien as we made our way to the lake, arm in arm.