Hello everybody! Yeah, it's been a while since I last updated this story. Well, not really a little while since it was only about two or so weeks. The main reason for that is one that I've been stating for quite a while now; my collage classes demand my utmost attention right now. As such, I'm not able to spend as much time on my stories as I would like to right now. However, that doesn't mean that I have abandoned these stories on here by any means. I'm just taking my time and trying to complete whatever I can while sticking with what I'm supposed to be doing for school.
That and I literally have other stories that I have to write. These stories happen to be very important because they're a part of my college class, Beginning Workshop in Fiction. Those stories take utmost priority since they are the ones that will be graded at the end of the day. That could also explain why I might be confused on some of the details in this story because my mind is constantly shifting from one story to the next just to be able to satisfy the requirements that each exercise demands of me to do. Oh well, at least I am getting good practice in that class and learning a lot more about writing than I ever did during my high school years where all they really taught you was how to write professional papers like essays and whatnot. Not that they're not important or anything, I personally just don't find much practical use for such skills.
Anyway, that's enough of me and my excuses that are quite valid when you put them all under perspective. School is always important no matter how old you are, you know? College just takes the importance level to a completely different spectrum. Oh well, I guess that's just their way of preparing us for the real world where things would be just as demanding if not more so.
Well, I hope that you'll all be able to enjoy this new chapter that was two weeks in the making. Like I said earlier, I'm sorry if some things might end up sounding off and whatever. After all, I was pretty busy with my school work and might have gotten confused along the way. So don't stick it to me if that ends up being the case.
With that out of the way, I'll let you all go ahead and start reading this new chapter. Please don't forget to leave a review before you move onto the next story that you want to read. They are always very helpful in that they keep me writing my stories as well as give me a general overview of how you as the readers are liking the story. Until the next update to this or any of my other stories on here everybody!
Chapter 8: Out on the Open Road
It had been about half an hour since the teens had stocked up on food and left for Suffern in a van. Surprisingly, Greg proved to be a pretty competent driver despite only having a summer's worth of driving training as he drove through the streets of Southfields. Teddy was sitting in the front serving as the driver's second set of eyes, pointing out whatever directions they passed by telling them where to go and warning him of any potential dangers. Billy was in the second row sitting amongst their supplies and was busy typing away on his laptop. Luckily for him, there was an AC adapter for the car outlet sticking out from one of the seat pockets that happened to be a match with his laptop charger. This meant he could be on his computer without having to waste the battery life.
"I hope you're not looking up something stupid back there like porn sites in an attempt to calm your nerves," Greg stated as he stole a quick glance back at the other. They were currently in stand-still traffic on a high-rise freeway that cut through the town of Sloatsburg, so he could afford to take his eyes off the road. "If so, then you better let us in on it. Some of us in here have nerves that are more shot than yours."
"If I were watching porn, it wouldn't be something I'd invite someone to watch with me," Billy answered in deadpan fashion without taking his eyes off the screen. "I wouldn't even think about letting Teddy watch with me. And besides, that's not my thing," he added as Teddy turned to look at him with an eyebrow raised in interest at the mention of his name. "What I'm really doing here is trying to get some more info about this zombie invasion. There's always something on the internet if it's something as big as this."
"And did you figure out anything new regarding the zombies?" Teddy asked as he continued to look at his best friend in a weird fashion at the earlier comment concerning him. "Hear anything about this that we should know about?"
"Well, it seems this is a lot more widespread than either us or the news stations had initially thought," the raven haired teen explained as he kept his eyes on the screen and avoided the other's gaze. "According to some of the blogs I'm reading, the furthest that this has gone to so far is Iowa, and I'm speaking in terms of distance from here in New York! That would theoretically mean that at least the entire eastern half of the United States is in the process of being infected! I wouldn't even think it a stretch to say that parts of the west are also under zombie control."
"But that's impossible!" the driver exclaimed as he clearly could not believe what was said. "We only figured out about all this for ourselves a couple hours ago. How could most of the eastern United States already be going through this hell while we're only hearing about all this for the first time? Don't you think news like this would go spreading like wildfire? I mean, this is something that's practically threatening the survival of the United States! Hell, news about our overseas wars made bigger headlines than this!"
"But this isn't like those terrorist attacks," the blond explained with a sigh before sitting properly once more. "Think about it for a minute. Telling others something like this is like asking someone to believe right off the bat that aliens exist. News stations first need some semblance of facts before airing a story. Many probably figured this to be just some kind of elaborate early Halloween prank. And even if a station was convinced that what was happening was real, do you really think their fellow colleagues from another state would take them seriously? Anybody who hasn't experienced this first-hand would probably think it's just some kind of promotional stint, even if there's video or photographic proof. Nobody who sees themselves as realists would even consider the thought of zombies actually wandering around and killing, especially when it's a couple weeks before Halloween.
"And besides, we don't even know when those blogs were posted," he continued on as he switched his attention to Billy. "We don't know whether they're suffering through this at the same time as us or really have already been through it. Billy, do those blogs have timestamps saying when they were posted? And do any of them say anything as to where these zombies just suddenly appeared from?"
"…The earliest blog I can see that talks about this was first almost a month ago," Billy answered after spending a few seconds assumedly typing in some commands. "It was originally posted in Indiana and says that they just started coming from Illinois. Nobody from Illinois posted on this particular site, so I don't know if anybody there said anything about this. This means that either these zombies can somehow travel around quickly or people who were already infected are traveling around and transforming along the way. If that weren't the case, then the states should've been able to keep these things in one place and spread the word. This proves that all this has been going on under our noses for a while."
"Y-You're kidding me!" Greg growled out in frustration as he struck the car horn repeatedly. "If people who were bit or whatever are running around the states and then turning into zombies, then there's no way in hell we're going to be safe anywhere! The chances of Suffern being a safe haven just went up in flames. We're definitely going to need to come up with a new game plan. I'm only going to ask you guys this question once," he stated firmly as he shifted in his seat so he could have a good look at the others. "Do you two still think that Suffern is the best place for us to go?"
"I don't think we have much choice in the matter right now," Teddy simply replied as he saw Billy closing his laptop and putting it away into his backpack along with the AC adapter cable. "We're stuck in the middle of stand-still traffic with no way to get out of it. It doesn't matter whether or not we still want to go there. Try asking us again once we start moving and get close to a freeway exit."
"I still say we head to Suffern," Billy suggested as he was now staring out the window and looked at the other cars. "Even if it isn't safe there anymore, don't you think it's better to keep moving around than just staying in one place? I still remember how we managed to get surrounded and cornered to the quad back at school. If they can do that without us knowing, then shouldn't it be best if we kept moving?
"And besides, didn't you say yourself that your family most likely ran there to stay with your cousins?" he added as if to further persuade Greg that they should continue on their original path. "And my brother is probably hiding out somewhere in Suffern High School. We both have family there, and I'm sure you're not about to abandon them just because you think it isn't safe in that town anymore. Regardless whether or not it's infested with zombies, don't we owe it to ourselves to at least go and see if they're there? If anything, it would at least give us piece of mind to know whether or not they're alright."
"…God, you two sure know how to double-team a guy by spewing out a bunch of logical crap," the third teen said with a light growl before calming down and pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's probably enough to make even the most stubborn of people to agree with you. You guys ever thought about taking on a job that revolves around the management industry? You two would definitely make great co-managers what with how you can supplement each other's explanations without much of a hitch."
"Unfortunately, Billy can't really quite take on the role of leader very well," the blond teased. "The last time the two of us were teamed up for a science project, he couldn't tell me clearly what needed to be done next."
"Hey, it wasn't my fault that the teacher printed the instructions with old ink that ended up making the print completely faded!" the raven haired teen countered with a scowl that looked almost like a pout. "A lot of students were complaining then about how they were having a hard time figuring things out. And you weren't helping out much either what with you telling me to hurry up every two seconds."
"Well, I couldn't help it since the project required we heated chemicals and combine them. I needed to have poured in the next chemical before the mixture got too hot. I wasn't going to run the risk of it boiling over like the teacher said it would. Who knows what would happen if the mixture got onto us or our stuff? And no, I simply couldn't just turn off the heat and wait for you because he also warned that the mixture would be dead if it started cooling down before it was finished."
"But it wasn't as though you were designated to just babysitting duty. You so had more than a good chance to help me out at the same time! In fact, I distinctively remember you just completely ignoring my repeated calls for help. That makes our project failure for that day partly your fault, as well. So if you think that I'm bad playing the role of leader, then you're bad at playing the subordinate and assistant role."
"If I can do pretty good as co-captain of the baseball team, then I think I can do just as good as an assistant. I'd like to think that I've already had a lot of practice in that since it's the kind of thing that a co-captain already does on an average team meeting. I'm sure Greg would agree with me on this."
"Don't even think about dragging me into you guys' argument," Greg said as he let out a small chuckle. "I don't want to say something you might end up using against me. And besides, you've got to start learning how to clean up your own messes, Teddy."
"Oh, what a bunch of help you were there," Teddy growled out as he rolled his eyes at the neutral response. "All I wanted was for you to at least agree with me, and all you gave me was the cold shoulder."
"And I'm going to do a lot more than that if you don't stop going on about this," the other warned in a semi-serious tone. "I'm going to kick you out of this van and make you walk all the way to Suffern. Don't think I'm not capable of doing that. I hope I don't need to remind you about me kicking you out of our hotel room during our little league game four years ago because of your complete idiocy."
Instead of answering back, the blond decided to keep quiet. He knew better than anyone else that with the exception of being totally pissed, Greg was always dead serious whenever he sounded half so. It was one of his strange quirks that he claimed was a way to gauge whenever people ever took his vocal hints. So as an alternative, he decided to turn on the radio and listen to whatever music was on.
"And that concludes the status report in Philadelphia," a female newscaster was heard instead of the calming tunes of music. "And now, we'll continue with our special report with an update on the current status of New York."
"So much for relaxing music," he sighed out as the radio reporter had apparently taken a moment to pause. "Guess we're stuck with hearing more reports about this. At least we'll probably be able to learn more about all this."
"I'm actually more concerned about the report on Philadelphia that we just missed," the driver stated as he was starting to grow frustrated again, this time at the stymied traffic. "That's to the south of us in Pennsylvania. If zombies are there, then heading to Suffern might really be the worst idea we've had."
Before either of the three could add more to the valid concern, they heard the sound of a voice clearing before the woman started to speak again.
"According to recent reports just submitted to the station, the President has changed the state of New York's disaster rating to level two. This means that the state can no longer hold their own against these zombies without the help of the military. Despite this rather grim report, it pales in comparison to Ohio which has been all but obliterated by these creatures despite being put under Level One Disaster classification. This seems to indicate that the United States military factions aren't properly prepared to handle this situation. However, how could one ever be prepared for something like a zombie attack? It's just too far-fetched to even consider preparing against!
"But then this begs a lot of other questions that I'm sure you're all asking yourselves," the woman continued on as some strange sounds were heard coming from the background. "Where exactly did these zombies first started appearing? How have they managed to multiply to the frightening numbers being reported by many states as in the thousands? Why have they started terrorizing us all with their grotesquely evil presence? And most importantly, when is this nightmare going to end?
"While we can't answer any of these questions for sure, we can say for certain that these monsters seemed to have first appeared in the western United States. There are too many conflicting reports for us to be able to pinpoint it exactly. And also, many have sent us responses that zombies can multiply if and when they injure or kill someone. That means anyone who has been hurt in any way by theses monsters is already good as dead. They don't turn immediately, but it will happen over time.
"This is all that we've learned thus far about this situation," the reporter concluded as the sound of papers being shuffled could be heard. "We shall keep you on the most up-to-date information we run across. Once again, we ask that you keep away from the Philadelphia area if you're headed down there. It has been reported by the military that the city is now a lost cause. They have now cordoned off the city so that nobody can either go in or out. Head only to where they have designated as safe zones unless told otherwise by a military official. This is the New York Radio News signing off!"
"…Did she just say that Philadelphia is a lost cause?" Greg repeated in a dumbfounded fashion as he stared at the radio like it had suddenly turned into some kind of monster. Instead, it was now emitting white noise and was not playing any music after the conclusion of the special radio announcement. "What exactly does she mean by that? I mean, how bad does the term 'lost cause' actually mean to her and the military?"
"Do we even have to answer that?" Teddy asked in a soft tone before turning the radio off. "If the military won't even bother trying to save the city anymore, then that means that we should avoid going there for any reason. It shouldn't matter much to us since we're not heading that far south."
"But what if we do end up having to head in that direction?" Billy questioned as concern flashed across his face. "We're probably going to have to be on the move a lot, so we might end up having to go there."
"Then we can just take the long way around it," the blond simply explained. "It's not like we can go through since the radio said the military already cordoned off the entire city. The point I'm trying to get at here is that we have absolutely no reason to even think about heading into Philadelphia. If we ever have to head down in that direction, we can just walk around the city and avoid moving through."
"But then what'll happen if those zombies start moving up north towards us?" the raven haired teen asked as the concern failed to leave his voice. "If that's what they end up doing, then we got to think of something once we reach Suffern. We can't keep on heading south knowing how things in Philadelphia are."
"Billy, let me tell you the same thing that I told Greg back from before we left the school. You can't keep worrying about things that haven't happened yet. You're just going to end up stressing yourself out over something that's right now nonexistent. All we can do now is work for what we hope is the right direction to move in."
"…Still, you can't say that I'm not posing a valid concern, Teddy. What if they end up somehow overwhelming the military and escape the quarantine line they set up? They'll start wandering around Pennsylvania along with whatever other zombies are already there and might start making their way up towards us. If we do end up deciding on heading south from Suffern, we might end up running into them. They might end up pulling the same stunt that the ones back at school did to us, surround us and start calling us their dinner!"
"We'll worry about that if and when we ever come across that scenario. I highly doubt, though, that we'll ever get into that bad of a situation. It only happened at school because we were all taken by surprise. The chances of that happening again are pretty bad unless we all decided to not pay attention to anything at the same exact time. I'm sure Greg will agree with me on this."
"…Mind if I took a rain check on that, Teddy?" Greg replied in a low growl as he stared intently at the rearview mirror. He then added as he pointed behind them, "I think we've got more important things to be worrying about right now!"
Confused, the other two looked out at the car's back window to see what he meant and were surprised with the answer. What Greg was looking at was a group of zombies slowly maneuvering through the line of cars and surrounding those that held people in them! Others who had yet to be surrounded were quickly exiting their cars and started to run away from the sudden appearance of the growing horde. They were still pretty far, but it would only be a matter of time before they closed the gap.
"The zombies already caught up to us?!" Billy exclaimed as he seemed captivated by this chaotic sight. "How is that possible? The military looked like they had everything under control when we passed by them earlier!"
"It can only mean that things didn't go as they planned!" Teddy said as he bit his lip in apprehension. "Greg was right; that was only an attempt at a temporary fix. All they did was manage to buy us some time so we could escape. Things are definitely going to Hell here in New York."
"Hell or not, we've got to get out of here!" the third teen stated as he quickly hopped out of the car. "You two better hurry up and help me get the stuff out. I'll be caught dead if we just abandon our supplies!"
Without any arguments, the teens quickly hopped out of the car and began taking out whatever they could grab. Teddy and Billy automatically shouldered their backpacks being that they were easy to carry and held some very important supplies and their only known and reliable connection to the rest of the world.
"AAHHHHH!!!!! The zombies are here!" they heard several people shouting as they ran away from where they drove from. Some looked as if they were hurt if the blood seen on their clothing along with some favored limbs were not any indication of it. One was even dragging a person who seemed both injured and lethargic.
"Damn, I can't see how much time we have before they get here!" Greg growled out as he tried to see past the panicked crowd and was impeded by both them and abandoned cars. "Billy, I need you to get on top of the van and be our lookout."
"Why do you want me to be the lookout?" the raven haired teen asked as he started to gather the boxes of food towards the seat nearest the van door. "Why don't you have Teddy or yourself do the job?"
"Because you're the only one who has a gun and knows how to use it in case you need to shoot one of them," the other quickly explained as he moved Billy out of the way and took over the supply gathering. "You're the only one who can give us more time to get our stuff. Now stop complaining and start playing our lookout!"
"You heard the guy; hurry and get your butt up there!" the blond reinforced before lifting Billy by the waist to the top of the car despite some very vocal protests. "If it's just one, take it down. If a whole bunch starts coming, then don't waste your bullets on them. That'll be our cue to get out of here."
"God, you're starting to sound like Greg," the other grumbled before steadying his footing on the car roof and feeling strong hands leave his waist. As inappropriate of a time it was, he could not help feeling a bit disappointed at having lost the contact. He then shot back to the other two as he took out his gun, "Fine, I'll do what I can up here to buy us time. You just make sure you don't forget anything."
Without making any kind of snappy comeback, Greg went to work with Teddy on taking the supplies out of the car. They were having a bit of a hard time since a bunch of panicked people were constantly bumping into them. Billy did not have to suffer this since he was on the car roof, but the panic made it hard for him to have a clear view of any zombies in the already cluttered freeway.
"…Found one closing in!" Billy announced as he aimed his gun and carefully shot at a zombie that was both coming closer and about to attack a person. Remembering the officer's advice, he managed to shoot at its head and saw it fall to the ground like a freshly chopped tree. He then quickly shot at another one that was following closely behind the first one with just as expert of a precision. "Got another one, but there's more coming our way! I don't think I'll be able to handle it. How much longer is it going to take?"
"Just take out what you can and warn us when they're like three car lines away!" Greg explained as he was starting to stack the food on top of the bottles of water. "That should be enough time for us to get some distance from these freaks."
"Then consider this your only warning!" the raven haired teen shouted back as he downed another zombie that he caught in the corner of his eye sneaking around from a large transport truck to his left. "A small group has just passed the third line of cars, and I just took down one that was sneaking up from behind the transport truck. I can't tell if there are any more coming around from there, but I can see a whole bunch more coming closer. I can't take on that many at one time, make sure they don't come around from behind the truck, and buy us more time all at once. I think we have to go now!"
"B-but we barely even spent a minute on this!" Teddy stuttered as he looked past the now dwindling crowd of panicked people and saw that Billy was right. Although slow, the zombies were steadily gaining ground and approaching their position. He then said begrudgingly as he picked up his case of water and two boxes of food, "Greg, we've got to get out of here. It's too dangerous to be staying here any longer. Just leave the stuff for whoever's crazy or desperate enough to want them!"
"But we don't even have half the supplies we took yet!" the third teen whined as he switched gazes between their unclaimed supplies and the impending danger. "This is barely even a quarter of it all!"
"I'll help by taking what I can get, but we need to get out of here now!" Billy exclaimed as he jumped off the car roof and immediately took two boxes of food that were already stacked on top of one another. He then shouted as he quickly followed Teddy who had already started to run down the freeway, "Come on, Greg! Hurry up!"
"…God damn it!" Greg growled out before abandoning what was left in the van and quickly catching up with what he managed to get held tightly in his hands. "I can't believe this is how things are turning out!"
Daring to glance behind them, the raven haired teen turned his head around to see how far the other was from them. It was then he realized how close they were to being ambushed by the zombies. They were not yet even four cars away from their van before it was overrun by the monsters. It was clear that they most likely would have been dead had they chosen to stay even a few seconds longer. Greg was even luckier since he had been reluctant to leave the rest of their supplies until the last second.
Since they had taken awhile gathering what little they could of their supplies, they were the only people left that were near the zombies. Everyone else had already left their cars and was now running down the freeway. It was not as though any of them had any choice in the matter seeing as how it was a pretty long way down to the ground, high enough to leave one completely vulnerable should they survive. At least the cars were proving useful in providing obstacles for the slow monsters to waste time maneuvering around.
As they were quickly catching up with the back end of the panicked crowd, Billy could not help but let a thought run through his mind. There was no way they were ever going to fully escape from all this. Just like what happened now, it was always going to find some way to catch up and threaten them with their cold hands of death. They have already escaped their cold grasps four times in just this one day; how many more times can they continue cheating the reaper before their luck ran out? All they could do now was continue with their escape and head towards the only destination that was set before them, the New York/New Jersey border town of Suffern.
Well, I have something new that I have to tell you all. I had posted this new chapter while at school. At that time, I still had my flash drive. I'm now back at home and discovered that it's now lost in the big world called my college campus. Oh joy. There goes a lot of my hard work.
Oh well, at least I managed to get the best out of a bad situation. All of the homework in my drive was at the least a couple of weeks old and now completely useless. The resume that I had in there was completely outdated as it was first created back in tenth grade for the sake of my introduction to business class I took. All the music I had in there is gone, but that same library is right here in my laptop. All of my stories that I have been working on here is now gone, although this new chapter was lucky to survive because I still had the word file open on my laptop. That and all of the chapters were saved onto here already for you all to read. And my most recent fiction class homework was saved onto there with five pages already done, but I really lucked out there in that particular file was also already left open on my laptop. As such, I got the best of a bad situation.
Just thought I'd let you know about that being that I'm right now sad at the fact I've lost my five year old flash drive. Even though it virtually didn't do any damage to me in terms of losing gravely important files, I'm still sad. Then again, being attached to something for five years and then losing it would make anybody feel sad. As such, I'll be taking a little break in order to both recover and purchase a new flash drive. Thank god my paycheck came in yesterday and I can now afford to buy a new one.
I'll see you all again in probably a couple of weeks once I've found the time to get a new flash drive. For now, I'll leave you with the outtakes.
Outtakes:
Teddy: Billy, what are you looking on that laptop of yours?
Billy: Just browsing around.
Greg: Browsing what? You're not looking at porn or something, are you?
Billy: Um...,
Greg: If so, then you should include Teddy into it. (Answers with smug smile) God knows how much he needs it judging by his shitty performance in his Karate club yesterday.
Teddy: That was just a bad day, Greg! Besides, (turns around and grabs laptop) I doubt Billy would look at...something...like... ... (Stares at screen in shock)
Billy: (Chuckles nervously while turning tomato red)
Teddy: ...What the...?
Greg: Hey, it is porn! (Abandons attention to road and leans over to see laptop) Might be gay style, but I'm down to watch with you guys!
Teddy and Billy: Greg!!! (Teddy closes laptop quickly)
/
Radio Reporter: And that concludes our report on the situation in Philadelphia.
Teddy: Sounds like Philadelphia is having their own troubles.
Billy: And I'm willing to bet it has to do with these zombies.
Teddy: If we're lucky, she'll talk about it again later. Then we'll know what's really going on down there.
Greg: You guy's talking about Philadelphia?
Billy: Yeah. Why? (Raises eyebrow in question)
Greg: I love their old fashioned Philly cheese steaks! Maybe we could stop by there and get some later.
Billy and Teddy: ... ... ... (Rolls eyes and ignores random comment)
Greg: What? (Gives innocent look)
/
Greg: Get on top of the van, Billy! We need you to be our lookout.
Billy: Just because I have a gun doesn't mean I automatically get to be a lookout.
Teddy: Just get up there. (Picks Billy up by the waist)
Billy: (With quickly growing blush) H-Hey!!!
Teddy: Sorry, but we need you up there to shoot any zombies that gets close.
Billy: ...Oh, fine. I'll do it.
Teddy: Great! (Gives Billy's waist a couple of light squeezes before letting go)
Billy: Wh-What was that about?! (Turns an even deeper shade of red before looking at Teddy who only gives off a suggestive smile in return)
/
Teddy: Come on, Greg; we've got to go!
Greg: I'm not leaving all our stuff here!
Billy: (Shooting zombies on car roof) They're getting closer guys!
Teddy: Just forget it, Greg!
Greg: Screw you, Teddy! (Quickly hops back into car and starts driving forward and crashes into car in front)
Billy: Whoa!!!!! (Falls off side of car and in front of Teddy)
Teddy: Greg! What are you doing?!
Greg: (In disoriented tone) ...I thought I could leave with our stuff...
Billy: (Through gritted teeth while favoring elbow) While just abandoning us?
Greg: ...I was seriously going to come back for you.
Teddy: What a lie. (Shakes head in disappointment)