The truck started slowing down. I sat up in the back of the truck. "Is it already time to switch drivers?" I asked. 10K, Warren, and Doc shrugged.
We'd been taking turns driving every hour for the past three hours. The further away we went from my safe zone, the less safe I felt.
The truck pulled to a stop on the side of the road. Vasquez and Addy stepped out of the truck.
"Warren, there's a split in the road." Addy said. We all stood up in the back of the truck to look.
Sure enough, we had reached a crossroads in the road. One way continued on the highway, and the other road went off towards a city.
"Is that San Francisco?" Warren asked. She pulled out some binoculars and looked.
I looked over at the city. "Oh no." I muttered.
"We should go there. Get some more supplies." Addy said.
"No we shouldn't." I said. "San Francisco's filled with zombies. And people." I stated.
"How do you know that?" Warren asked.
I took the binoculars from her. "I spent some time there about a year ago. It's one of the most dangerous places in California." I said, looking into the binoculars. I could see buildings and zombies. Not a lot of alive people though.
"Trin's right. If there's a lot of zombies there, we might not have enough ammo to get out safely." Vasquez said.
"Guys, you might want to look ahead on the road." 10K said. He was looking up ahead through his scope.
Warren took the binoculars back from me and looked through them. "Is that a tank?" Warren asked.
This caught my attention. I looked up ahead. "Oh no." I said again.
No one listened to me.
"That's a tank." Vasquez confirmed.
"Do you think they could help us?" Doc asked.
"We need to leave and go to San Francisco." I said.
Everyone looked at me.
"I thought you said it would be bad to go to San Francisco." Addy said.
"I changed my mind." I said simply.
"Why?" Vasquez asked.
I pointed at the tank, which was getting closer and easier to see every minute. "The people in that tank are worse than any zombie ever." I said.
"What makes you say that?" Warren asked. She looked through the binoculars again.
"Have you guys not heard of Scavengers?" I asked.
They all shook their heads no.
"Scavengers are people who thrive off of the apocalypse. Most of them used to be military soldiers." I said. "About two years ago, they formed a group. This group goes to towns, cities, any place that looks safe, and ruins it. They take food, water, ammo, equipment, guns, anything they want, and then kill everyone that's there. Then they leave, and move on to another place, up and down the West Coast." I said. I didn't even bother to keep the fear out of my voice.
"How do you know this?" Doc asked.
"I knew a guy in this area. He told me about them. Helped me hide from them." I said. I stared at the tank getting closer. "The people in that tank are ruthless, killing machines, and have no mercy."
Everyone was quiet for a few seconds.
"I guess we're going to San Francisco then." Addy said. She and Vasquez hopped back into the truck, while Doc, 10K, Warren and I sat back down.
Vasquez started up the truck, and hit the gas pedal. We started heading towards San Francisco.
As we got closer, Vasquez pulled the truck over to the side of the road again.
"Now what?" Warren asked.
Vasquez, Addy and Murphy hopped out. "We should continue one foot. The zombies will hear the truck if we drive it through the city." Vasquez said.
"Okay then." Warren said. "Let's grab as much as we can carry, then keep going on foot." Warren hopped out of the back of the truck.
I put my backpack on and hopped out of the truck as well.
"Well, this is just great. Didn't we get the truck so we wouldn't have to walk anymore?" Murphy asked.
I rolled my eyes. "Would you prefer to attract as many zombies as possible?" I asked him.
He glared at me.
"That's what I thought." I said.
"Okay. Is everybody ready to go?" Warren asked.
We all nodded.
"Okay then. Let's go." Warren said.
We started walking into the city.
"Wait. We shouldn't use guns." I said, stopping everyone.
"Well, why not?" Doc asked.
"Gun fire attracts zombies. If we make too much noise, there'll be more zombies." I said.
"Okay then. Get your knives and other silent stuff out people." Warren said.
We all tucked our guns away, except for 10K, who slung his rifle back over his shoulder.
We walked into San Francisco.
Honestly, I was expecting to die as soon as I stepped onto the streets. That didn't happen. As a matter of fact, as we walked further into the city, there were no zombies anywhere.
"I thought you said there were lots of zombies here." Vasquez said after we'd been walking without a sign of a single zombie for a while.
"I said there were a lot of zombies here a year ago." I corrected him. "But there's not a lot of zombies now."
"Well that much is obvious." Murphy said.
I was about to turn and smack him, when we heard gunfire up ahead.
We all looked at each other, then pulled our guns out.
A group of people ran around the corner.
"Warren..." Addy started to say.
The group of people ran right past us, and kept running.
We turned and looked at the corner just as zombies started piling out from around the corner.
"Run!" Warren shouted. We all turned and ran.
We watched as the people in front of us ran into a building.
"There!" Warren shouted, pointing to the building they had just run into.
I almost thought they were going to close the door on us, but the last person to go in held the door open.
"Come on!" He shouted.
We all ran inside. The man shut the door behind us and boarded it up.
I was out of breath. So was everyone else.
"Thanks." Warren said.
The man looked nervously at us. "You guys aren't Scavengers, are you?" He asked.
"No." I quickly said.
"We're just regular survivors." Warren said.
The man nodded. "Okay then." He said. He turned towards a door. "We're good to go guys!" He shouted.
Four more people came out holding knives.
"Are you sure we can trust these people, Roger?" A woman asked. She stared at me.
The man that had helped us nodded. "I'm pretty sure these are good people. I mean, they all have guns they could've used by now." He said. "We can put our weapons away."
The group put their knives away.
"I'm Roger." The man said. "And you guys are?" He asked us.
"I'm Warren. This is Addy, Doc, 10K, Vasquez, Trin, and David." Warren said. She had been pointing at Murphy when she'd said David.
"This is Emilia, Bob, Lucy, and Steven." Roger said, introducing us. Lucy was the woman who had been staring at me, and was still staring at me now.
"Welcome to pretty much the only safe place in San Francisco." Roger said. "Follow me."