Outnumbered (Vol. 1)

Act 6: Pretending

Day 5 – 01:27; Boulder, CO United States:

Without a second to spare after Ty opens the door to welcome us in, I burst through hugging him tight and drenching his graphic T-shirt in tears. Some of my friends rush over to my aid, Kelly being the first. They ask me what is wrong, but I am unable to speak; only cry and scream with no end. David walks in behind me and proceeds to explain the recent tragedy to Ty, Kipp, Lou, Kelly, and Maria.

"Some zombies overran the hotel we were staying at and killed a couple we had met while we were there. The zombies were like snakes; half of their bodies were gone, and they hid in the ventilation of the building. The worst part is they ate the couple both whole. It was horrifying."

"Crawlers!" Ty comes up with a name for these particular zombies.

"Nah, Ben already calls them Creepers," Dwayne ruins his moment of creativity.

"Aw, man. Crawlers sounds cooler, though."

"Guys. Be serious," Kelly exclaims.

Ty and Dwayne revert their attention to me, as I am now being comforted by Kelly instead, and the boys hang their heads in shame.

"So we're not the only survivors then. Guess I shouldn't be surprised. It is a pretty big country," Kipp brings back the original discussion.

"Yeah but that's only two other survivors we've seen. And we've already traveled between California and Colorado. Two states and we've only seen two people," Lou says, regarding Kipp's comment.

"Yeah, those are not good odds, at all," David agrees.

"So what do we do now?" Maria wonders aloud.

"As soon as Ben is calmed down, we'll start heading for Texas, and look for his sister and the girls."

"Don't think you have to worry about that, he's barely conscious over there," Ty remarks.

He is right. I am so exhausted that I am starting to slowly pass out.

"Is everyone else ready then? Or do we want to sleep first?"

"We can take turns driving, while the rest sleep. We needa find Melody before Ben loses it any more than he already has. I'm starting to miss her fine ass anyway."

Ty always talks about my sister, with no respect, like I am not even there. Plus I am too tired to be bothered by it, anyway.

"All right, let's get Ben and go."

Completely fading out of consciousness, I see the room around me move, and my body shakes as if someone is moving me, and then everything goes black.

#

I wake up after what feels like hours have passed. I must have slept like a baby because I am completely refreshed. My vision clears of haze, and I see we have already embarked on our road trip to Dallas, Texas. I notice Kelly sitting to my right side in the back seat of the Chevvy I had picked out back at the zoo, avoiding eye contact with me. I look forward and Kipp is driving and glaring at me through the rearview mirror.

Has she been comforting me the whole ride?

I check the time on my phone, and it is early morning, meaning I slept over nine hours. A violent shaking catches my attention. Kipp is pulling off of the road, and so is the Geep Grand Cherokee SUV following behind us. Dwayne wakes up with a loud snort, looking around to see what is up. David steps out of the driver side of the Geep and walks up to the driver door to talk to Kipp.

"What's wrong?"

"Finally out of gas."

"Yeah, we were getting pretty close too."