"Alright, let's get this thing moving," Jonah said as he started the group's new vehicle. It roared to life, nearly deafening everyone as it first started up, but it became silent quickly, though they could still hear something of a purring noise from the engine. Jonah breathed a sigh of relief.
"Jonah," Render said, noting the sigh. "What did you think the odds of this thing of starting up were?"
"About fifty five percent sure," Jonah replied.
"And the other forty five?"
"Um…I'd rather not discuss what went through my head at the time," Jonah replied, putting the vehicle into drive and pulling carefully out of the alley. He made his way through the town, the residents all looking at the vehicle with many different expressions. The guards opened the gate, watching the monstrous creation rumble on by them. "Alright, where's our first stop?"
"Actually, I was thinking maybe we could drive straight through to Hard Rain," Render replied, standing behind Jonah. Render walked back, taking a seat at one of the three tables in the vehicle, sitting across from Andrew and Owen, who were in conversation. Jackson was at the very back of the bus, sleeping, while Ryan and Thom were putting up the weapons, though Ryan kept the sniper rifle out, apparently planning to perform some maintenance on it. The girls were all sitting together, Screen and Jenna talking, while Ellie sat there and listened, speaking up every once in a while. Eric was talking with Fred, while Geoff was managing to read a book he had found in Cherrygrove.
They continued on for about three hours, Jonah and Ripper now the only ones awake, Jonah because he was the driver, while Ripper was simply keeping Jonah awake, yipping at Jonah whenever he saw the human starting to close his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know," Jonah said, rubbing his eyes. "Thanks, Ripper." He yawned, pulling over to the side of the road, standing up and stretching. He walked over to the door, making sure it was locked, before turning back around and walking over to the open bed just behind the driver's chair. "Wake me in about four hours and we'll get moving again," he mumbled to Ripper, who trotted back to Render and curled up beside the infected teenage boy.
Ryan snorted near the back of the bus, waking up, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. "Wha?" He looked around, noting the bus wasn't moving and got up, walking to the front. He saw Jonah sleeping in the bed and got into the driver's seat, starting it up. He winced when he turned the key, but was surprised at how quietly the engine started up. He took a few seconds and looked at the wheel, before nodding and putting the vehicle back into drive. He started down the road, driving for about two hours before stopping, his eyes narrowed at the grouping of tents and makeshift building about two miles ahead. "Shit," was all he had to offer in the way of words.
"Why the fuck am I awake at four in the morning?" Render growled, glaring at Ryan, who shrugged it off. The Hunter had woken everyone up, saying they all needed a talk.
"Because of that," Ryan said, pointing out the windshield to the encampment up ahead. "I decided to take the liberty of driving ahead for a bit when I came upon this. After doing a quick recon, I learned it's a survivor camp. With big guns. Really big guns." He looked at Render and his friends. "You five seem like hardcore gamers. So I assume you know what a mini gun is. Because I saw three on just one side of this encampment. I don't even want to imagine what they've got in the other areas."
"So what do we do? Drive around?" Jonah asked.
"No. We're gonna go straight through. But first," Ryan said, looking at his fellow infected. "We figure out how to hide the Sentients in our group. Now, Jenna, Screen, and myself would be pretty easy. We just need to find something with a hood for Screen, while Jenna and I find a way to hide our claws. Heavy duty work gloves, maybe, or we just keep 'em in our pockets. We can use the rain poncho we got for Ellie, which is more than big enough to hide her body and claws. Render…hm, maybe we can do the same for you that Jenna and I can do. Fred, Geoff…you guys are damn near shit outta luck. We can maybe hide you in the back, maybe. We'll just have to hope that they aren't big fans of vehicle checks."
"Wait…maybe…we can claim we captured them," Owen said.
"What?"
"CEDA surely is looking for specimens," Render spoke up. "And I can't think of a better way to get through a Survivor camp than to pretend we're their so-called saviors."
"Alright, now answer me this. Where do we get the suits?" Ryan pointed out, to which Jonah began to shift a bit. "Jonah. Is there something you'd like to share with the group?"
"Um…well, one of the vehicles I used to make this thing was a CEDA vehicle. There was a rack in there that Clark and I hadn't been able to get open, as well as a container of some kind, but we built it into the vehicle just in case. There might be some uniforms in there," Jonah said, standing up and walking to the very back of the bus. "Jackson, give me a hand." Jackson came back and grabbed one end of the seat Jonah as the teenager grabbed the other end of the seat back there. They lifted it up, surprising everyone else, who hadn't been expecting a moveable item in this vehicle. "That handle there," Jonah said, pointing at it. "The container and rack are stacked together. The rack is first, followed by the container. Two birds, one stone, if we get lucky with uniforms."
"Kid, you are something else," Ryan said as he walked up to the lock, looking at it. "Hey, anyone got a pin?" He looked over at Screen, Jenna, and Ellie. "Girls?"
"And what makes you think we have any?" Jenna asked. Ellie walked forward, pulling out a hairpin. "Oh."
"Thanks," Ryan said, grabbing it with the tips of his claws. He slid the hairpin into the lock and began to jiggle it, his ear to the lock as the tumblers began to fall into place. "That should do it," he said, pulling the pin back out and handing it to Ellie, who carefully stuck back into her hair. Jonah grabbed the handle, pulling it and sliding the door open. Behind the door was indeed a rack of CEDA uniforms, several different sizes in fact. Ryan ruffled Jonah's hair carefully. "Kid, when this is all over, I'm gonna owe you big time."
Convenient, huh? Please Review and hop on over to Apocalypse Survivor's story, The Hybrid, to see if they're successful. Well, not right now, obviously, but…ah, you get the point. Also, as you can see, I didn't forget about my story. I haven't touched any of my stories in the past two weeks for personal reasons, but everything turned out alright in the end, so I'm back. So, like I asked already, Please Review.