Part III: Death Toll

"Hell came to Earth. These four are gonna send it back."

Chapter 24: The Turnpike

The armoured truck trundled along the broken Highway 80, where it had been travelling westward for most of the day, aside from very occasional and very brief rest-stops. Thumping could be heard every now and then from beneath the heavy vehicle – most likely infected people that tried to attack the truck.

Zoey sat in the back cabin, looking out the grill-covered window to see night falling over a landscape of dirt hills and dark trees, many of them without leaves. A dense fog hung over the area. She sighed and looked over at Louis, who was fast asleep in his seat. Bill was in the process of cleaning his newly-acquired pump-action shotgun.

Just over two weeks ago, Zoey never would have imagined in a million years that she would be hanging out with a guy like Bill, let alone depending on him for her survival. But the elder man clearly cared for everyone in the group, and was a capable leader. She knew that she trusted him with her life more than anyone else now.

Louis was great, if not a bit naive. Zoey appreciated his positive attitude, and it helped her out of the dumps when she was feeling down. But she had seen a lot of horror movies. They never had good endings. What sort of ending was in store for them?

And Francis...

BUMP. BUMP. BUMP.

"Francis!" Bill snapped. "Maybe try keeping us on the road, instead of deliberately swerving to hit infected people!"

There was a short silence, and then –

CRASH! A terrible screeching of metal against metal resonated throughout the cabin. The entire truck shuddered violently, and Zoey was thrown out of her seat. Louis awoke with a yelp, and Bill's shotgun lurched out of his hands, bouncing around on the floor. The terrible noise and shaking were gone as quickly as they came, and the truck continued on its way.

Bill angrily got to his feet. "That's it. I'm gonna tear him a new one," he growled.

Zoey stopped him. "Allow me." She made her way through the back cabin of the truck and passed through the opening at the end, into the driver's cabin. "Francis, what the hell?" she demanded angrily.

The biker kept his eyes out the window on the road ahead. "There are a lot of abandoned cars littering the highway. I misjudged and hit one."

The young woman sighed, and dropped into the passenger seat beside him. "You are following the right highway?"

"Yeah," he grumbled. "But what's the big deal, anyway? It's not like we have anywhere to go."

"We do have a place to go! Riverside!"

"What's so important about some backwater suburbia town?"

Zoey placed a palm to her forehead and closed her eyes, massaging her temples with her fingers and thumb. "If you remember, both safe-rooms we've been in have had suggested evacuation sites written on the walls. The army is holding out in Riverside, and it's the closest one. So unless you have a better plan, we need to head there."

"I do have a better plan," Francis replied. "We find a supermarket, grab some beer, pull up a few deckchairs and some shotguns, and have a little fun."

"Francis..." she sighed.

"Hey, I know, we could even find ourselves a portable radio, get some tunes going." He turned to face her, grinning. "Hey, it goes along with your plan to visit small-town America. What's more small-town then sitting on the lawn with a shotgun, shooting innocent passerbies?"

Zoey was about to tell him how stupid he was, but she found herself smiling. Whatever she was about to say was forgotten when she saw flashing lights ahead in the distance. As the armoured truck drew nearer to the lights, it had to swerve between increasing amounts of mangled cars strewn across the highway. Eventually, Francis was forced to stop the truck completely. Louis and Bill appeared in the driver's cabin.

"What's going on?" he demanded. "Why are we stopping?"

Zoey pointed through the window at a graveyard of wrecked cars on the highway ahead. "Pile-up. There must have been some huge accident."

"Road's blocked," Francis grunted. "There's no way the truck will be able to plough through all this shit in front of us."

Bill contemplated the situation for a moment, and then turned and headed back into the rear cabin. "Alright, everyone. Gather your gear. We're making our way into town on foot from here."

"Whoa," Francis objected. "We're out in the middle of nowhere. We should try and find another way into town."

"There is no other way into town," Bill pointed out. "All the roads in are going to be like this."

He stepped out of the truck into the cool night, aiming his shotgun out in front of him, while Louis and Zoey followed, both of them brandishing their Uzis. Francis grabbed his beloved shotgun from under the driver's seat and reluctantly left the truck. Bill cast his eyes warily to the dark tree-line on either side of the highway, keeping watch in case anything moved out there, while Louis surveyed the destruction in front of him, his hope starting to wane.

"Come on," the older man said, motioning them forward.

They made their way through the graveyard of abandoned cars. Zoey curiously shone her flashlight through the shattered windshield of one to see a decaying corpse in the driver's seat. She gagged reflexively, and made sure not to look inside any more cars.

"It's pretty quiet out here," Louis commented.

Bill grunted in agreement. "That's fine by me. I'd rather not be ambushed by anything out here where there's virtually no cover."

Zoey looked around at the horrific crash, and sighed. "All these people. All these families. I wonder how many are left in the town."

"My family was over in New York when the infection broke out," Louis said worriedly. "I hope they're okay..." He looked over at Bill. "What about your family? Do you know if they got out in time?"

The war veteran said nothing.

Louis awkwardly looked over at Zoey. "How about you? Do you know where your family is at?"

She looked away uncomfortably. Francis noticed this.

"Hey, Louis," he chimed in from behind them. "What do you say we save the conversation for when we're not open to attack from all sides?"

Zoey breathed a sigh of relief, and looked back at the big biker with gratitude in her eyes. He simply nodded in acknowledgement. She turned back to the front and gripped her Uzi tighter, as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

The four survivors continued their trek over the broken highway, maintaining a vigilant watch for the Infected.

Francis looked over his shoulder nervously, when he heard the sound of scampering feet in the trees nearby. He motioned for everyone to stop, and then slowly advanced toward the spot where the noise had come from. Louis went with him, while the others covered them from the road. They kept their guns trained on the bushes, their fingers tensed on the triggers. The bushes rustled slightly.

Suddenly, a large deer bounded out of the bushes, nearly trampling Francis in its desperate bid to escape. The biker yelled as he fell to the dirt while Louis watched the deer prance away, laughing.

Francis picked himself up and brushed himself off, grumbling. "Watch out!" he called back to Bill and Zoey. "Deer around here."

"You got a problem with deer?" Louis asked, puzzled, as they made their way back to the others.

"I hate deer."

After another half an hour of walking, the group came to a dried-up river gorge that cut across the highway. A bridge used to span the gap, but had been destroyed by means unknown.

"And of course the bridge is out..." Zoey grumbled.

"Fantastic," Francis uttered his annoyance.

Bill walked up to the edge of the demolished bridge and peered down into the foggy gorge. "It's not too deep," he called. "If we go down into the gorge, we should be able to find a way up on the other side."

Louis nodded in agreement, while Zoey and Francis kept their reservations to themselves. They made their down into the gorge, where it soon flattened out at the bottom. As they crossed the muddy bottom, Zoey looked up toward the other side. On the far side of the river gorge, she could barely make out a mountain ridge through the fog. They presently crossed the dried-up river and found themselves standing below the concrete bridge abutment on the other side.

"Another way up, huh?" Francis said condescendingly.

"Save it," Bill snapped.

"Hey, guys, there's a ladder over here!" Louis' voice drifted from nearby.

Bill shot a smug look at Francis, who narrowed his eyes and walked over to the ladder without another word. The veteran went up the steel ladder first, and then covered the rest of the group when they followed.

At the top, they were immediately confronted by the intimidating mountain ridge Zoey had seen earlier. Now that they were at its base, and could actually see it properly, they could discern the craggy outcrops and pointy peaks, high above. With the fog hanging in the air, the whole thing looked quite creepy. A road tunnel bore into the mountain, leading away into darkness.

"Aw, hell. I think we gotta go through this tunnel," Bill remarked sullenly.

Zoey shivered, recalling their experience back in the subway. "More dark tunnels? Oh, great."

"At least there aren't two Hunters after us this time," Louis pointed out.

"Yeah," Bill remarked, staring ahead into the gaping maw of the road tunnel. "That's what I'm worried about. We have no idea what is in there."

Francis shone his flashlight into the tunnel and started walking. "Well, if you three wanna stand around and whine, that's your business. Anyone who wants to stop bitching can feel free to join me."

The others stared after him for a moment; surprised, impressed, and somewhat annoyed by his bravery and/or recklessness. After a few more moments of hesitation, they followed him into the darkness.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I'm back from holiday, and decided to say Merry Christmas to you all with a new chapter.

Also, I have revised some of the previous chapters of this story again. I will give a special mention to Chapter 15: The Horde. The reason for this is that I have added a couple of extra paragraphs which I hope will provide more insight into Zoey's character. If you want to check it out, but don't want to read the entire chapter again, then read the part where Joe is dying, and immediately after.