For three hours, we drove through hordes of screaming people, the hungry undead, and the worst enemy of all: traffic.
I still had my face buried in Carl's shirt, not even crying anymore. At that point, I was just numb. My dad was dead. We were stuck with Shane (woooooo). And there were fucking dead things roaming the streets. So yeah, numb was a fairly okay way to describe how I was feeling.
My mom and Shane were freaking out pretty bad over what was going on, while Carl and I were laying down in the backseat, trying to stay out of sight of the things. Since I was still having a panic attack over what was going on, Carl was hugging me and singing Blink-182 songs quietly to try and calm me down. It wasn't working too well, but I loved him so much for trying.
"What the hell?" Shane muttered, bringing the car to a complete stop on the highway we were on, trying to get to Atlanta. "We're getting out, guys, come on," Mom said, opening her door. Carl got out first and helped me out next.
We walked forwards a little ways before registering that there was no way we were going anywhere. There were hundreds and hundreds of cars stretching down the highway. "Crap," I muttered, leaning against Carl to steady myself.
We ended up stopping next to a little family: a mom, a dad, and their daughter. Mom and Shane ended up talking to the mom while the dad just kinda hung back and glared at everyone. Carl and the girl started talking while I just kinda hid behind Carl, since I was already shy and then terrified of the current situation.
Shane said something that caught the girl's attention. "I like your dad," She said. My head immediately snapped up. "He's not our dad," Carl and I said simultaneously. "Our dad's dead," Carl said darkly, staring at the ground.
We were all quiet for a few seconds until the girl spoke again. "I'm Sophia," She said with a small smile. "I'm Carl, and this is my sister Gabi. I call her Radiohead," Carl said, looking down at me. I giggled and waved to Sophia. She laughed and waved back.
Suddenly, I heard bombs going off, buildings crashing, and people screaming. Carl, Sophia, and I looked at each other in alarm. "Atlanta's been overrun! We gotta go!" Shane yelled, running back towards us with our parents. "Dammit, will I ever get away from him?" I muttered. "Can we stay with you?" Sophia's mom asked, looking as scared as I felt. "Of course; let's go," Lori said, reaching for Carl's hand as he immediately grabbed mine.
As we got into the car, I looked back towards Atlanta. Oh, sorry, I mean what used to be Atlanta. I sighed as Carl and I laid down in the backseat again. "Our lives are over," I said, just loud enough for Carl to hear. Judging by his silence, he was in one hundred percent agreement with me.