You never really expect the world to end. My luck, of course, it ended while I was on a camping trip in Georgia, with several of my friends. The trip started out awesome but when it came time to go home from our trip that luck ended. We got stuck in some ridiculously unimaginable traffic trying to get through some small town between Atlanta and Fort Benning. We were stuck in that traffic for hours. There were so many people, and most everyone was out of their cars walking further up the highway trying to find out why nobody could move. My boyfriend Zack, finally after 3 hours, got out of our car and walked up to Sarah and Kyle's truck. Kyle's brother, Morgan and his girlfriend, Anna chose to carpool with Kyle and Sarah for our trip. Jacob and his girlfriend Erin took their SUV and were behind Zack and I's car. I know we're all pretty tired and irritated by how long it's taking to get off this highway. Our exit we need is only 10 mile up the highway.
I saw Jacob get out and walk up to Zack at Kyle's truck, I'm assuming to find out what our group was going to do. About 5 minutes later Zack walked back to the car. "Morgan and Kyle's going to follow some of the people up the road to see what they can find out about this jam and why this is taking so long to clear" Zack said as he got back in the car. "This traffic jam is ridiculous, if something doesn't change soon, we're going to have to spend the night in our vehicles" I huffed. "Want to pitch a tent on the highway?" Zack joked smiling at me. "No, definitely not," I said making a face at Zack, while I was trying to get the radio to pick up a channel with my cars crappy radio signal. We ended up waiting nearly an hour before Kyle and Morgan got back in sight of the group. Once we saw them, we all got out of our vehicles so we could hear what the boys were able to find out.
"This traffic jam is 15 miles up ahead still. There was a really bad accident way far up and I think someone may have died" Morgan said irritated as he leaned against the truck. "I heard some people talking about some virus that's rapidly going around. Supposedly the CDC was broadcasting about it earlier today. Most of the people stuck in this traffic were trying to get out of Atlanta pretty quickly because of it. Some of these people up ahead were saying those affected by this virus get really bad fevers that usually result in their death. Some were even saying those who die from it don't stay dead." Kyle says looking super freaked out.
"Hold up! There's a weird virus going around enough to warrant CDC broadcasting and a massive amount of people trying to get out of the big city" I said freaked out. "What are we supposed to do? We're stuck in traffic, out of our home state, and hours from being able to even get help if we need it!" Erin yelled gripping Jacob's arm to steady herself. She looks really woozy all of a sudden, I can't blame her really for that since I know she's pregnant. "Erin take it easy love, I know your worried, but stressing isn't going to help the baby's or your health right now" Jacob said rubbing his hand along her back. "I know we're all worried about this now but for now let's try our best to wait this traffic out so we can get back on the road home. Until then let's make some sandwiches to eat really quick from the cooler." Sarah said holding her hands up peacefully to try and calm everyone down.
After we all got done eating, our group decided just in case, to collect most of our camping gear and important items and put them where we could easily reach them if we had to grab them in a hurry or abandon the cars for any reason. I know I have a bad feeling building up in the pit of my stomach about all this. "Zack, babe, I don't like this... I just feel like something really bad is going to happen soon" I said pulling him to the side, so I didn't worry Erin any more than she already is. So far, we been stuck on this highway now well over 6 hours and its starting to get dark. I'm not sure what we're going to do but we're going to have to figure it out soon. "I'm going to grab a soda out the cooler, would anyone like one?" I asked the group. "Thanks, but no thanks. I feel like I probably wouldn't be able to keep one down right now." Erin said waving me off. "No, it's alright I can get my own" Kyles huffs, as he hops down from his tailgate so he could do it himself. All of a sudden, we heard a scream from a little ahead of us on the highway. Then more screaming and people running in a panic past us started happening. "Oh my God! What's happening?" Sarah yelled jumping up. "I don't know!" Morgan yelled as he helped Anna up. We heard a woman scream a few cars from us and Kyle and Morgan took off to help her. The rest of us couldn't help but look on in horror as a sick looking man with blood all over him tackles this woman and takes a bite out of her shoulder. "Hey! Get the fuck off her!" Morgan yells rushing to yank this man off her with Kyle's help. They managed to pull him off her, only for him to turn around and bite Morgan's forearm. "Aah! Get this psycho off me, man!" Morgan yells while trying to pull this dude away from his arm. Kyle grabs the guy in a choke hold while Jacob runs over to help them. "Zack, Sarah grab the bags and stay with Erin! I'm gonna check on that woman!" I yelled grabbing a med kit from my bag really quick.
I ran over to this woman and she's profusely bleeding out. I open the med kit and grab some gauze to hold to her shoulder to try and stop the bleeding. I'm applying as much pressure as I can to try and stop her bleeding but she's bleeding right through the gauze. As I'm keeping pressure with one hand and trying to grab some more gauze, I noticed the woman passing away. "Damn it!" I yell angrily. I hurry to wipe as much blood off my hands and pack my med kit back up before getting up to rush back to Zack, Sarah, and Erin by the cars. As I get there Kyle, Jacob, and Morgan come running over. "We need to get away from here!" Jacob screams pushing us away from the highway and towards the woods.
We ran through the woods till we couldn't run any more or hear anymore screams from the highway. After we stopped Sarah grabbed a few lanterns and started to clean her boyfriend's bite wound. "Was that some kind of sick in the head cannibal or something? Like that dude took a huge chunk out my arm!" Morgan said looking at Kyle. "I don't know but he got a pretty good bite out of me too," Kyle huffed wincing when Sarah cleaned his shoulder with some alcohol. "This is so weird and scary! Why would that guy just attack people in the middle of the highway like that?" Erin asked Jacob. "I don't know, Erin. This is scary!" Anna said looking at Erin while she was bandaging Morgan's arm.
"We probably should rest and figure out what's going on" Jacob said to the group. "Yeah, we should get some rest then go back for the cars in a little bit" my boyfriend, Zack said helping me unpack some of our bags to make an impromptu camp. "I don't know if it's safe out here or not. I don't think we're that far from the highway?" I said nervously looking around. "Willow's got a point though, these woods aren't that far from the road. What if those freaks come after us?" Sarah said sitting down next to Kyle. "I'm not sure what we should do but I think Morgan's starting to run a fever. He's like really warm to the touch" Anna said feeling Morgan's head. "What about Kyle?" Jacob asked worriedly. "He's getting warm quick. So he probably has fever coming on" Sarah said worriedly. "Are you guys okay?" I asked looking at Jacob and Erin. "I'm out of breath but otherwise good" Erin said looking worriedly at Jacob. "I'm alright. My side hurts pretty good from that guy grabbing me when I was helping Morgan and Kyle" Jacob said feeling on his side gingerly. "So what happened? How did you guys get away from that psycho?" Zack asked as he crouched down. "Man, I don't know we tried restraining the guy but he just kept trying to bite us or grab at us. It was to the point it felt like he was going to tear our skin open anytime he grabbed us. I don't see how his grip was that strong" Kyle said looking down at his hands. "It took Kyle and I throwing him against the car beside us so we could all get away" Jacob said grabbing Erin's hand tightly. "How long should we rest here for? Should we pitch the tents and start a fire since we are maybe only a few minutes from the sun going all the way down?" I asked. "Yeah, probably" Morgan says as he sits down against a tree with his girlfriend and leans his head against her. "Alright. I'll gather some firewood and branches then. Want to set up one of the big tents Willow?" Zack asks. "Yeah sure I can do that." Feeling nervous again. I still feel like something really bad is going to happen but I'm not sure what could be any worse than being stuck like we are in the middle of nowhere with some mysterious sickness going around. Maybe it's just my nerves I can't help but think.