Brad is cruising along the road, trying to avoid the many obstacles. There's a sound coming from the bed of the truck and Connor turns to see a teenage boy around his age helping a girl into the bed. "Steve!" Connor shouts.
Steve turns at Connor's panicked voice and notices the two in the back. "What the hell are they doin'?"
"Looks like they're tryin' to hitch a ride." Brad says.
Chuck opens the window between the cab and the bed. "Josh! Karen!"
Josh sees Chuck and breathes a sigh of relief. "Chuck. Sorry for this but we needed to get the hell out of here!"
Chuck says over his shoulder. "Don't worry, they're with me. They're my neighbors." Chuck notices the shotgun in Josh's hands. "What's with the gun?"
"Hey, self defense, man! They're eatin' people! Cannibals! One of them took a bite out of Karen!"
Before Chuck could say anything to Josh, the truck is rammed on the passenger side, causing Brad to try and keep the vehicle from swerving as everyone else yelled. The driver's side door hits an electric pole, caving in on itself. Brad tries to drive forward, however, the SUV that rammed into them is pinning the truck in place.
"Holy shit!" Steve exclaims as he watches the passenger of the SUV tear a chunk out of the driver's neck.
Josh takes one look at their surroundings before he shouts. "They're coming! We need to get out of here, now!"
Brad realizes his door won't budge, so he turns to Steve and the action from the other SUV draws his attention. Brad grabs onto Steve's shoulder and Steve is broken out of his trance. Once Steve looks at him, Brad says. "My door won't open. We have to climb into the back to get out of here."
Steve nods dumbly before he shakes himself out of his temporary stupor. Time to take charge! He turns to look at Connor and Chuck. "Help Natalie and Kyle out of here! Brad and I will be right behind you!"
A man appears at Connor's window and begins to slap his hand against it. Before Connor knows it, the top half of the man's head disappears in a spray of gore. Josh opens Connor's door. "Hurry up, y'all! We need to get out of here before any more of them show up!"
Connor's eyes are wide as he says. "You just killed that man!"
"He was gonna kill you, first, so you should be thanking me. Come on, man! Get your ass in gear!"
Connor is about to say something to Steve until he sees Chuck helping Kyle into the backseat. Natalie moves to follow him. Connor quickly gathers his backpack from the floor and leaves the cab, with Kyle following after him.
Josh asks. "Do you have a weapon?"
Connor nods as he unzips one of the front pockets and pulls out the leg brace with his hunting knife. He quickly puts the brace on and removes the knife. I don't know if I can kill any of these people coming after us, but I must be able to keep them away, right?
Once everyone has left the vehicle, Brad slams the door and curses. "How are we gonna get to the cabin on foot? We still have over fifty miles to go!"
Natalie asks. "Where is this cabin of yours?"
Steve begins grabbing bags from the bed of the truck and with Brad's help, begins passing them out. "Athens. We were gonna have a family get together to celebrate our little sister graduating from the University of Georgia. We were gonna make a weekend of it."
Brad says. "Come on. We need to get the hell out of here!"
The group begins walking away from the crash site and heads toward a random road, hoping it'll lead them out of the town. To keep the group at a quick pace, Natalie is holding Kyle while the grown men surround her from the front and sides. Connor, Josh and Karen have the rear. Josh is eyeing everything carefully to keep surprise attacks at bay. Connor keeps a firm grip on the knife at his side as he also keeps a lookout.
A man with his neck torn out advances toward the group. Josh takes aim and fires at the man's chest. A hole is blown through the top part of his chest and more of the man's neck disappears. The man stumbles back before he continues toward the group.
Brad's eyes narrow. "What the hell? That shoulda killed him!"
Josh takes aim once more before firing again. This time, the man's head is blown off and his body collapses to the ground, keeping still for good. "It seems only head shots will stop them completely. I noticed that earlier, too."
Steve says. "Good to know."
Natalie quickly looks between everyone to gauge their reactions. "Everyone seems to be calm in this situation."
Steve gives a short laugh. "Trust me. My expression is probably calmer than what I'm feeling and thinking right now." It's true. My palms are sweating and my heart is pounding!
Brad says. "When you've been raised in a household like ours, very little causes a reaction. Steve and I have seen some messed up shit in our short lifetimes."
Steve continues what he thinks might be Brad's thoughts. "Our dad isn't exactly a saint. Brad and I have also had our share of shit we've done that would make most people squeamish." With Natalie's questioning look, he continues. "It's probably best for you not to know. We're not exactly proud of what we've done and we both spent time in the clink for it. Luckily, Savannah turned out great."
Brad says. "That's because she left with Mom. She didn't have to deal with Dad's, or grandpa's bullshit."
"Yeah. So if we do or say anything offensive, we likely don't mean it. It's how our household was growing up. We had to do shit to keep our asses from being beaten."
Natalie raised a brow. "I'll keep that in mind."
A few of the messed up people stumble towards the group from the front.
"Shit!" Josh curses once they're spotted. "We need to find another way to deal with this! I don't want to run out of bullets!"
Brad takes his bag off his shoulders and places it on the round. He kneels and retrieves the hatchet from the loop at the bottom of the bag. "I'll deal with one of them. It won't be the first time I've killed in self defense."
His words causes a shiver to run through Connor. He remembers that day, despite it being over seven years ago.
Steve grabs his own hunting knife and advances toward another of the messed up people. Chuck finds a large stick laying on the side of the road. He picks it up and gulps as he walks over to the last person, a woman covered in a bloody dress.
When the man gets close enough to Brad, Brad kicks the man in the stomach. "Stay back, man! I don't wanna kill you but I will if you keep coming after me!" The man continues his advance and Brad kicks his stomach again. "This is your last warning!" The man ignores Brad, so he pushes the man to the ground and pins him with his knees. He raises the hatchet and brings it down onto the man's head.
Before the impact, Connor looks away with dread filling his chest. He doesn't want to lose anymore respect for his cousins than he already has, but the fact that they're killing again almost brings him to tears as he remembers the first time he witnessed it.
Steve had knocked his man down by sweeping the man's legs out from under him. He proceeds to raise the hunting knife up and drives it down into the man's eye, stilling him forever.
Meanwhile, Chuck is on the shoulder of the road vomiting up his lunch. The woman's head is unrecognizable after the multiple hits Chuck had to do, before he drove the pointy end of the stick into her eye.
A few minutes pass before everyone is gathered again. Brad and Steve are both shouldering their bags. Steve says. "Let's keep going."
Brad notices how distant Connor seems, so he hangs back to keep in step with him. He places an arm around Connor's shoulders. "Sorry you had to see that side of us, again. We tried to warn them, but they wouldn't listen to us. We had to do something."
"Like those men from before?" Connor asks.
"Listen, those men from before were gonna kill us. We had no choice in the matter! But, this? This feels different somehow. Something bad is going on here today, and I don't know what it is. Steve and I will do whatever it takes to keep this group safe. You got that?"
Connor nods.
"Good. We'll do our damndest to keep you safe, little cousin." With that, Brad moves ahead and rejoins Steve's side. Despite Brad's assurances, Connor has a really bad feeling.
