Death's Awakening

Chapter Forty-Six: Parrish

As she climbed out of her dead mother's van, Parrish's hand trembled. On the road, they had seen a few undead wandering around, but there was a sense of safety inside the car. As long as they were moving, there was no way any of the zombies could touch them.

They had brought the radio with them and Crash had managed to get them all the way to the 14th Street Bridge in the van, but now there was no choice but to go the rest of the way on foot.

The entire bridge was one massive pile-up of cars. People who had been desperate to flee the city.

Getting out of the car was terrifying. In the distance, she could see the sun hanging dangerously low in the sky. Night would fall in the next few hours, and they did not want to be outside when the rest of the undead wandered out to look for food.

"It's going to be okay," Noah said, startling her when she saw that he had made his way around the car to her side. "We'll make it in time."

Being with Noah definitely made her feel better and she was glad not to be alone on this journey. She tossed a look back at Karmen. She was worried about her. Afraid she was going to be a liability if things got rough. She seemed pretty shaken up by the scene at the evac point. Not that Parrish could blame her. It was gruesome.

And she knew Karmen had been thinking of it as her chance to get back to a normal life.

Normal just wasn't what fate had in mind for them.

"Okay, let's get this over with," she said, carefully shutting the door to the van. "According to Crash we need to be as quiet as possible from here on out. He said there are packs of them inside some of these dark buildings. He thinks that the sun makes their bodies decompose faster, so they try to stay cool during the day and only come out at night, after the sun goes down. But if they hear us, they won't care about the sun. They'll just see us as food, and come straight after us."

"I don't think I can do this," Karmen cried. "Why don't we just turn around, head for the mountains or someplace secluded? I don't get why we're voluntarily going in to the city."

"We've been through all that," Parrish told her, motioning for her to join them outside the car and to keep her voice down. "You're free to stay here or drive up to the mountains on your own, but we're going in."

"Fine, but if we die in there—"

"If we die in there, what? You'll kill us?" Parrish smiled. Karmen didn't seem amused.

"Let's just get going," Noah said. "We're burning daylight."

"Here," Parrish handed the radio to Karmen, "you talk to Crash and help guide us through the city. Noah, you stay out front, and I'll stay in the back."

Parrish took her shotgun out of her bag, so glad they'd brought all the guns despite the orders to leave them behind. She gripped the gun tightly and followed as Noah started climbing through the obstacle of smashed up cars that blocked the bridge into the city.

Short chapter today, but this marks their journey into the city, where things really heat up! Hope you are enjoying it so far!