Chapter 8: On the Road

It was mid-morning on the deserted road in a small rustic area of Albany, New York. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of walkers that had been hiding in the woods surrounding the area. The silence was then broken by an RV riding down the road.

Inside the RV were the group of six. Hogarth and Danny were sitting at a table playing a game of war, Arnold was looking out the window, capturing all the scenery before him, and Dexter and Tut were fast asleep on the couch and floor snoring loudly. Davey on the other hand was driving the RV as fast as he could. He had woken up this morning with a hangover and it cleary was showing.

"I win" Danny said as he put down his king of hearts card, sounding very bored.

"I win" Hogarth said in reply as he put down king of spades.

"War," they said in unison.

Hogarth drew a higher suit and collected all of Danny's card. Danny laid his head on the table and sighed quietly.

"Man, what I wouldn't give to just play my Ibanez RG again," Danny said in an exhausted tone as he rubbed his head.

"You played guitar," he asked.

"Sure did, my friends at school were always calling me Eddie Van Halen's long lost son Danny, cause I did Eruption at the talent show," he said smirking, "what about you, you play any instruments."

"Yeah," he said shrugging, "I played guitar mostly, but I also did bass, synthesizers, and occasinal percussion. I tried to take up the piano and I managed to get the basics and theory down, even learning some good songs, but it was very boring. I mean do you really need theory to play music."

"Not really," Danny said, "if you're asked to audition you'd have to use it, but I only use it for that, everything else I just use tabs and my ears."

"Yeah me too. I will tell you though, all this pop music doesn't cut it for me. I mean new wave is fine and some bands today are okay but I like genres of rock, metal, and alternative."

"You're telling me, I came from a school where everybody wouldn't shut up about pop and were constantly singing it everyday," Arnold said, "I mostly do keyboards but I play acoustic too and I would always bring my guitar to school, sit down in the back and play rock, like '2112' or 'Wish You Were Here' ".

"Ah Rush and Pink Floyd good times, good times," Hogarth said grinning, remembering two of his favorite rock bands of all time, "quick question, best song by Pink Floyd out of all of them," he asked and after a long pause they all shouted it out.

All: "Comfortably Numb"

"Aw I knew we were all gonna say that," Danny said.

"Yeah geeky minds think alike I suppose."

"By the way, AWWEEESSSOMMME," Arnold said wavy his arms in a girly fashion and speaking in a high pitched effeminate voice.

"HEY, would you idiots quiet down, I'm trying to drive here," Davey yelled from the driver's seat.

"It's your own fault for getting wasted last night," Tut said as he got up from the floor.

"Shut up dead boy," Davey snarled at him. Tut flipped him off when he wasn't looking and turned back to them.

"So, if we're going to make it through this and find the people we're looking for, we'll have to make up a plan."

"Well you can probably tell that we know how to use guns and knives of course," Arnold said, "I'm just self taught on all of them, when I looted stores looking for supplies I took them with me and just picked it up and learned how to use it."

"Good, that'll be very helpful, I already knew how to use it from hunting animals. In my hometown we always gather up for food in the autumn to prepare for incoming winter, that's how I know to use a gun," Hogarth said, "what about you Danny, how did you train, air guns, BB guns."

"Nope," Danny said sitting up from his chair and loading up his revolver, "I used every single weapon in the military class."

"You've done this before," Tut exclaimed.

"My dad was a former member of the NRA. He thought it best to teach his kids how to protect themselves in case of certain danger, but he always thought nothing would happen, especially since he became a ghost expert and stuck to using technology that could somehow trap and capture ghosts, but that's beside the point. He taught he to use all of the basic pistols and rifles, and let me on some secrets on how to use them. So I'm ready for all the action against the walkers."

Dexter had woken up and heard the whole thing and was standing in the corner of the small RV room with a wide eyed open mouth smile on his face.

"Oh my god, the 14 year old ghost boy in the group is a NRA trained soldier."

"I'm really glad that we're all on the same side," Arnold said patting Danny on the back.

"AW SHIT," Davey yelled from the front seat.

The five boys went up to the front where Davey was driving and found that they had came to a highway. Outside were over fifty walkers walking around on the road.

"Jesus Christ," Dexter exasperated, "there's dozens of them."

"What do we do," Tut asked.

"We stay still," Davey said taking his hands off the wheel and putting his hands behind his head.

"WHAT," Danny shrieked, "Are you shitting me you idiot, we're surrounded they'll tear the fucking RV apart."

"We have no other choice," Davey responded.

"They're only a threat to us if we're in they're path. We can run em' down right on the road and they won't hurt us," Arnold said trying to convince Davey to keep moving.

"No, listen to me right here you little bastards, we're staying right here until they pass over and there's nothing you can do to stop me from..." Before he could finish he was knocked over the head with a glass bottle and fell to the floor of the RV out cold.

The person who hit him over the head was none other than Hogarth. He picked up Davey's empty whiskey bottle from the night before and hit him with it.

"Get him out of the seat," Hogarth firmly ordered to Tut and Dexter. They nodded in response and dragged Davey to the back seat of the RV.

Hogarth then got in the front seat and started the RV. The walkers were getting closer to the RV and would tear it apart until they got to them.

"Do you know how to drive," Arnold asked.

"No but how hard can it be," Hogarth said as he set up the keys and jammed forward on the gas pedal. Everybody in the back seat flew back against the back of the van.

The RV then took off like a speeding bullet driving into the path of the walkers. It plowed right through them like a bowling ball to pins knocking them all over the place. One even hit the front of the windshield and tried to climb onto the roof and get in.

"AAHHHH" Hogarth screamed in response to the walker on the windshield and jerked the wheel to the right and the walker went flying right off. The van kept taking off and eventually it was driving on a highway clear of walkers over 75 miles per hour and it was an exciting experience.

"YOO-HOOO" the boys yelled from the excitement of driving really fast on the road.

"This is the most fun I've had since," Dexter said with a smile but stopped straching his head, "God I can't even remember now, how long have we been here for?"

"Probably not for much longer."

At the sudden voice Dexter turned around and saw Davey standing up right in front of him.

"Aw crap," he groaned before being shoved to the side by Davey who came up to the front seat and grabbed Hogarth by the collar of his shirt, picking him up off the ground.

"What did I say to you, you little brat," Davey snarled looking into Hogarth's eyes with a threatening gaze.

"Oh I'm sorry I couldn't hear you over an asshole talking, oh wait that's just you," Hogarth said with a smug grin on his face. In response Davey punched Hogarth in the face, giving him a bloody nose, and threw him to the floor.

"When you're in my car, you listen to me I should've offed you on the road yesterday."

Hogarth got up and wiped his face. "Listen Davey, the walkers would've killed us if we stayed still. I saved your ass so don't give me any shit," he said firmly.

"Fuck off," Davey said getting in the front seat of the car and driving again.

Hogarth went to the back seat and sat down with his friends reloading his gun. Dexter and Tut both looked at him with fear.

"Hogarth, I don't think you should've done that," Dexter assured him, "he would've killed you."

"I don't care," he said, "he doesn't control us and I'm not gonna let him drag us down, if he tries anything we're going to stop him no matter what."

Hogarth went back to loading his gun and stayed quiet for the rest of the day. He wasn't gonna let Davey hurt anybody and he wasn't going to interfere with his mission of finding his mother.