Tucker looked around. "Let's see if that truck works." He said and tried opening the door. "Locked."
"Let me try." Danny stood up and phased his hand through the window and pulled up the lock.
"I guess having ghost powers has its benefits." Tucker said and sat in the driver's seat. "Wow… this one's full on gas." He said happily.
"Try hotwiring it." Sam said and stood by Tucker.
While Sam and Tucker worked with the truck, Jazz sat Danny down and bandaged his back and his head. "I didn't know ghosts could overshadow the zombies." She commented.
"Yeah, scared the hell out of me. But it'll probably come in handy. I know what to do if we ever come across another Tank." He grunted when Jazz lightly brushed against the scratches from the Hunter.
"I hope we find another car. We can easily cover two-hundred miles in at least a couple hours." She said, "And you should probably take a break from walking."
"Sounds good." He said blankly.
She watched him for a while, "You look like crap." She stated.
"I feel like it. Thanks for noticing." He said bitterly. He looked up after hearing Tucker swear and Sam start laughing. Tucker had his head against the steering wheel of the car and Sam had the hood of the car up.
"I'll see what the problem is." Jazz stood up and approached the two, "What's wrong?" she asked.
"Full tank of gas." Tucker started.
"Someone stole the battery of this truck." Sam finished and chuckled.
Jazz stood there for a moment, "Who does that?"
"Car batteries actually store decent enough power to turn on a TV if someone knows how to hook it up right." Tucker said. "I've seen it."
"I imagine it doesn't do anyone any good." Sam said, "With practically everyone dead, I really don't think there's anything good on TV."
"Simple solution: DVD players." Tucker said.
"Well, anyway, think we can get one of out one of these other cars? We need to keep going, but Danny's not in the condition to walk." Jazz urged. "Unless you two don't know how to even disconnect and reconnect a car battery."
"I'll do it." Sam rose her hand.
"Okay. Let's hurry." Jazz said.
The three searched the nearby area and found the exact make and model of the vehicle they were trying to work on. Within minutes, the battery was hooked into the truck and it was up and running. They carefully ushered Danny in the back seat and retrieved his weapons. Before long, they were speeding down the road at a seemingly safe seventy miles an hour. Sam and Danny in the back seat and Tucker in the front seat with Jazz.
"They're awfully quiet back there." Jazz commented.
Tucker turned around and found Danny's head was resting on Sam's shoulder and Sam's leaning back, both sleeping soundly. "They're asleep."
"That's sweet." Jazz said.
Tucker turned his attention back to his PDA. "Well, I can imagine Danny's exhausted. The poor guy can't exactly catch a break." He said.
"Well, he just did." Jazz said.
"What do you mean?" Tucker scrolled down and studied the infected they'd encountered.
"We managed to find a truck with a full tank of gas, another of the same model with the battery we need, and one of us knew how to change a battery and we had the tools to change out the battery. I'd say we got pretty lucky."
Tucker paused, "True."
"And we learned that it's possible for Danny to overshadow a zombie." She said.
"That'll come in handy." Tucker agreed. "Say we come across another Tank? We just found our weapon." He said.
"Exactly." Jazz glanced over to see what Tucker was doing, "What're you looking at?" she asked.
"Going over all the freaky zombies we came across." He said, "So far, we've seen nine, but we know what eight of them do."
"What're the ones that we know?" Jazz asked.
"Well, we got the Tank, the Witch, Shifter, Charger, Boomer, Smoker, Hunter and Jockey. And we still have yet to see what the thing Paulina turned into does."
"And I doubt that's all of them." Jazz said.
"Yeah. My biggest fear is that there's something out there bigger and more dangerous than a Tank." He said, "I don't know what we'd do then." He said.
"Not let Danny take care of it by himself again, that's for sure." She said.
"Why bring that up?" he asked.
"Dash was running at us while you were unconscious. Danny told us to run and led Dash the other way."
"Right." Tucker nodded.
There was a moment of a calm, quiet silence. "Hey, Tucker?"
"Yeah?" he looked up at her. Briefly realizing that if they hadn't found superglue and tape, he would've been having difficulty seeing her.
"Were you seeing anyone before the apocalypse?" she asked. "Just out of curiosity."
He watched her for a moment, "No." he looked down, "Girls apparently don't like techno-geeks." He said, then he shrugged, "But, you know, sometimes stuff like that's a little overrated." He cleared his throat, "What about you?" he asked.
She glanced at him, "No. Guys don't like know-it-alls."
"I think it's attractive." Tucker caught himself admitting. Then he tried catching himself, "I mean- the girls at school are airheads. They spend more time and effort into making their hair look good and putting on their makeup than they do studying up on common sense. Their lips end up looking bigger than their brains sometimes." He said. "The smart girls aren't like that."
Jazz listened carefully. "I feel the same way about some of the guys at school. Like Dash. The guys spend most of the time doing bench presses and taking steroids that doing homework and taking tests are completely alien to them."
"I agree." Tucker chuckled. Then he went back to thinking.
She began thinking the same way. "But the smart girls like to make themselves look pretty, too."
"I know. Don't get me wrong, smart girls- I think- are prettier than the 'pretty' girls. Pretty much because the 'pretty' girls put on so much makeup they end up looking like clowns. I'm surprised all that makeup doesn't repel the guys or make their faces droop." He looked back up at her, "The smart girls spend more time with their books than they do with their lipstick but they remember to make a quick visit. So their makeup is moderate and they don't look ridiculous. But then again… most of the smart girls should wear a little more makeup."
"Hey!" Jazz snapped.
Now you've done it, Foley.
"Except for you." He threw in, "You're fine with or without makeup." He said, "I wouldn't change a thing about you."
She blushed. "You think I'm pretty?" she asked.
"Uh- yeah." He blushed and quickly looked away.
She smiled and observed the area, "Everything's destroyed out here." She noted.
"Just like Amity Park." Tucker said.
Well of course. Did you expect the rest of the world to look good if Amity Park looked like shit? No offense.
Jazz glanced back at the PDA. "You know, I have a lot of patience and that thing is starting to piss me off."
Oh! Shocker! The sister of the ghost boy is just as annoyed with me as he is. The PDA teased, What's your girlfriend gonna do, Tucker? Turn me off?
"No, but I can." He said in irritation and shut down the PDA. He looked up at Jazz, who was staring at him, "It's just for right now." He said, "I'm sure you can tell where the Evac center is." He guessed.
She looked back to the road and remained silent. It wasn't the fact that he shut off the PDA for a change that caught her attention, she'll admit, it's out of character of him, but it was the fact that he didn't argue or deny the idea that they were dating. She glanced back over at him and found that he was starting to drift off. She smiled slightly, "I'll wake you guys up when we get there." She said.
"Okay." He mumbled.
The remaining hour and a half of the trip stayed in silence. Jazz had plenty of time to think. She remembered how much of a seemingly normal day it was when the outbreak went out of control. She was in class. A few students were absent, but with high school, it just seemed that a few kids decided to ditch again. Lunch was normal, the classes were fine. Even the drive home with Danny was alright. Nothing seemed wrong. Then Danny came downstairs and reported that their mother was crying. She studied the machine her father was trying to develop and waited patiently for him to return and to tell her why her mother was crying and what the invention was supposed to do. But then she heard her mother scream and her father scream even louder. Thus starting their apocalypse and orphaning the siblings. Things went downhill quick from that point. Sam got hurt, then Danny got hurt, then Tucker, then Danny again. At the very moment, all three of them slept soundly in the truck as she drove down the road. She looked at the dashboard and realized that she wasn't paying attention to how much gas they had. The truck began sputtering and it slowed to a stop. She sat there for a moment staring at the gauge. "Guys?" she called, eyes staying on the empty meter. "Guys, we're out of gas." She said and looked up.
Sam took a deep breath and looked around, "Out of gas?" she asked.
"Yeah. And we're still not there." Jazz answered.
Sam nudged Danny to wake him up while Jazz woke Tucker. After explaining that they had to walk, they armed themselves and continued walking.
"Tucker, how far are we from the Evac center?" Danny asked sleepily.
Tucker pulled out the PDA and looked at it for a moment, tapping the screen several times before remembering that he shut it off before he fell asleep. He turned it back on, "How much further?" he asked.
About fifty miles. She said, You covered a lot of ground with that truck. Good thinking, kids. She complimented.
"That better not be sarcasm." Danny said.
"No, she's serious." Tucker nodded and pocketed the PDA. "We don't have too much longer." He said, "We got out of Amity Park on foot and crossed the Michigan-Wisconsin border on foot. We can definitely get out of here." He smiled. "I got a good feeling about this."
There was about five minutes of silence before a rock sailed over Jazz's head. She flinched, "Who threw that?"
"Threw what?" Tucker asked, staring down at the PDA.
"That rock." Jazz stood and stared at it for a while.
"What rock?" Danny asked, lost in his own thoughts.
"That one." She pointed, "It just flew right over my head, it barely missed me."
"Well, we didn't throw anything." Sam said. she didn't see show threw the rock, but she knew it wasn't her or the guys.
There was a cackle before an empty soda can was thrown and bounced off Danny's head. "What the hell?" he rubbed his head and looked in the direction it was thrown from. Being on the far left side of their formation, it wasn't possibly the others- standing on his right side. "Who's there?" he commanded and aimed the rifle.
There came more cackling before several rocks and sticks began flying in their direction from behind a bush.
"Whoa! Hey! Ow! Stop that!" Tucker flinched and covered his head.
Danny shot into the bush and heard a yelp. He approached the bush and saw an infected similar to a Jockey. However, his arms and legs were much longer and its eyes weren't visible. The infected picked up more rocks and threw them at Danny, who ducked and dodged to avoid getting hit. He finally picked up a rock and threw it back at the infected.
The infected looked around for a while and found nothing in front of him to throw. So his upper body twisted around to the point where his torso was facing backwards, but his legs forward. Danny backed away and covered his head from several more rocks that flew at him.
"What is that thing?" Sam asked.
He didn't realize she was right behind him. "I don't know. It looks like a Jockey." He said. A small rock flew and bounced off his head. "That's it." He growled and shot it again, except higher and in the head, instead of just the leg. "We'll call that one a Twister."
"What'd he do?" Tucker asked.
"He threw rocks at us like a tornado. Was that really just one zombie?" Jazz asked.
"It was. That thing picked up a rock, threw it, and threw whatever was in his other hand. Then he twisted his body around like it was no problem." Danny explained, "Like his spine was detached or something."
"Well, I'm writing it down." Tucker said, then looked up, "You have been registering these guys, right?"
Danny had completely forgotten that Tucker had given him a PDA to keep track of things. He pulled out the PDA, then the second half. His blood ran cold and he couldn't bear himself to even try to make eye contact with Tucker.
"How did that happen?" Tucker asked in shock.
"Maybe when Dash threw a car at him." Jazz guessed.
"Or when Dash threw him at a car." Sam said.
"There's so many possibilities." Danny said, "I'm sorry, Tucker."
Tucker pat his shoulder, "It's okay." He said, "I had a feeling you weren't gonna use it. As long as I have this one, we'll be fine. Is that tracker still intact?" he asked.
Danny reached in his other pocket and pulled out the small round device that was given to him in the beginning. "Intact." He smiled.
"Good." Tucker nodded, "Keep it that way. If you go missing we wanna be able to find you."
"I know." Danny said.
They continued walking in silence. They then began to hear gurgling.
"Tell me that's your stomach." Danny looked over at Tucker.
"Why? 'cause I'm always hungry?"
"No." Sam shook her head.
"'cause I'm black?"
"No!" Danny snapped, "Because your stomach is the only one I know that makes that sound."
"Well it's not me." Tucker pouted.
"That's all I needed to know." He began looking around. "What have we come across that make that sound?" he asked.
"Didn't that fat one make that sound?" Jazz asked.
"That sounds about-" Sam started before all four of them were covered in the yellow-green slime that burnt their senses. "Ugh!" she started shaking herself free of the glop.
Danny went intangible and let the vomit drop off of his body. Then he looked up and saw the other trying to get themselves clean.
"Wait- doesn't this shit attract zombies?" Tucker asked.
Danny looked around quickly and saw the infected start swarming. "Group hug!" he called.
"We're covered in crap and you want us to hug?" Sam asked repulsively.
"Just do it!" he snapped and wrapped his arms around Sam and Tucker's shoulders, having them wrap their arms around Jazz. He turned them intangible and made the bile drip off of them. They watched around carefully and watched the zombies run in circles around each other and attack each other. He carefully lead them to the side of the road and let them go, fully visible. All four of them pulled out their weapons and began picking off all of the infected that crossed in front of them. Tucker glanced over and shifted his aim to shoot the special infected that had thrown up on them, the Boomer. After everything had cleared up, they continued walking.
"That was disgusting." Jazz shuddered.
"Tell me about it." Sam tried scraping out whatever was remaining in her ear.
"If I get infected, I don't wanna turn into that." Tucker declared.
"You won't." Danny said. "I promise." He looked at everyone, "I promise, none of you will turn into any of them." he said. "I wanna protect you guys."
**Okay! So another new special called a Twister. A whole good lot of fun, they are. They have the ability to throw anything and everything within reach and that's about five to six feet from where it stands. Its arms are about as long as its body and its legs are almost the same length. They have the ability to turn their bodies all the way around at least a time and a half. So with their legs in one place, they can rotate their torsos all the around to face you once, then turn all the way around to face away from you. Aggravating, yes. Disgusting, yes. Ridiculously kinda cool, oh hells yes. :3**