A Story To Tell: Season 1| A Zombie Apocalypse Story (Completed)

Day 70.2

Hank

I eyeball all the familiar and unfamiliar faces. I keep a keen eye on Jackie to make sure she knows where we are supposed to go. The truck swerves around, avoiding any of them stinkers.

"How are we on gas?" I question quick'ly.

"Not good, Hank. Not good," Jackie shouts from the front. "We've got maybe a quarter tank? Maybe less? Where do we plan on heading?"

"Back tuh Virginia. But we gotta stick to side roads. No highways. The clo'ser we get to Amber's hometown, the better. Maybe she's gettin' to me, but hell, I'm startin' to think that her fam'ly is alive." I tell 'er where to turn till we pull over on the side of an abandon'd road. "I'll stick to drivin' for now. I swing my gun over my shoulder and hop over the side of the truck and jump intuh the front. I check to reassure that what Jackie said was true. "Damn it," I mutter under my breath. I looked at the bed of the trunk and see one of them stinkers sneak up.

"Jackie! On your tail!" I call out, flying out of the car. I hurry ov'r, seeing her wrestle with the stinker, groans and struggle noises escapin' her mouth. I knock the gun behind its knees, watching as it falls to the ground. Jackie thrusts her knife intuh the head, makin' it go limp.

"That was way too fricking close," Jackie says breathlessly, holding her chest. "Way too close." I put out a sturdy hand for her to grab onto and hoist her up. I smile at the sight of Jackie and Amber hugging over the edge of the side of the truck bed. I really hope them girls stay friends.

"I'm moving up front by Meredith," Axel adds in a deep voice, jumping out the back and movin' to the passenger side. "Bring the young kid up front, too. He should be buckled and safe with Mere." I look back and see the shiverin' strangers look at Ax with distrusting stares. He carefully places a hand on the lady's shoulder. "I want this kid to be as safe as you do, but buckled in the front is the safest for him." The woman nodded yes, her look disagreein' with her body language. Axi boy lifts up the kid and holds him tuh his hip like the mother hen he is.

"I suppose we should stop with the waltzin' around and head somewhere, huh?" I face Axel for a second, sendin' a wink his way. I fin'lly close the door and honk the horn twice before drivin' forward. I look at the old road and think back to when little Willie was actually little. I sure as hell don't know how he got his looks. They're sure as hell not from me. Didn't see it comin' when he was little.

I peer out intuh the gold'n cornfields. I hold ontuh the hand of little ol' Willie, my wife alongside us, holdn' his other hand. The late autumn breeze blows back the reddish-blonde hair of my wife. I look out intuh the horiz'n, smilin' at my papa's endless farm fields. His short curly hair bounces along with his bouncin'. He just told me here this mornin' about how happy he was to be goin' to grandpapa's farm again.

My happy thoughts get interrupted when I think of how old I am already, resultin' in a frown. Most of the parents I've met are all in their late twenties. And then here I am, a forty-four-year-old man with a six-year-old child. My wife is on'ly thirty-six. I look down at little ol' Willie, to meet his eyes with mine. I quick'ly fixated a smile on my face.

"You wanna be lifted, Willie?" my loving wife says so sweet'ly. He looks away from me and nods excitedly at her. We both grip ontuh his hands tightly before she counts down. "One. Two. Three. And up you go," she says through a smile. Willie giggles a fit before we go again. As she counts down again, she gives me a curious but scolding eyebrow. It had been nearly twenty years since I was in Vietnam, but the visions of it still haunt me. The cries of children searching for their mommas, the agonizing screams of the people bein' shot and killed. It was a whole different world.