This Would Be Paradise (Book 2)-A Zombie Novel

Chapter 17

I wiped away the tears of happiness that were crawling down my face towards the note. Ethan was alive and had just thrown us a lifeline. I carefully placed the note in my back pocket of my shorts and unfolded the map. They had outlined the route to Hargrove starting from the gun shop. Even I could follow these directions.

I quickly popped out the Beretta's magazine to make sure it was loaded; this one also held fifteen bullets. With my hands full I practically ran outside, excited to share the news. Once I reached the gravel pit I saw that Roy was defending the car from a few roaming infected with his wrench. He bashed in the head of one that lunged at him, but wasn't paying attention to the other one coming up right behind him. I dropped all the things in my hand and whipped out my Beretta. I lined up the shot and took it, dropping the body just before it could get its hands on Roy.

Roy whirled around taking in the dead infected and then looked at me wide-eyed. I spotted another one coming out of the tall grass and took it out with a shot. When it fell back, the weight bent down the tall grass and I could now see the good ten or so more infected coming towards us like a pack of lions in the jungle.

I gathered my things on the ground and ran to the car.

"We have to move. Now," I said as I ran around to the driver's door.

I threw my stuff on Roy's lap and started the car, peeling out of the parking lot. Once we were back on the street, I turned to him.

"Looks like you were the one who needed the whistle after all."

Roy made a grunting sound as he looked at everything I had dumped on him. "What's this?"

He held up the map. I looked in the rear-view mirror at Chloe.

"Ethan left us a present and a map."

"What?!" Chloe squealed as she almost launched herself up front.

I reached into my pocket and gave her the note Ethan had left. She tore it from my grasp and slunk into the back seat to read it. Her eyes lit up as she read the words.

"He's alive!" she screamed, bouncing as much as she could in the back seat.

I pointed to the map Roy was unfurling, "That's the way to Hargrove."

He looked incredulous, "Wow, talk about a lucky break."

"About time we got one," I muttered.

"We're heading the wrong way on this road," Roy pointed out.

Of course we were. I did a U-turn at the next four-way stop and headed back, almost taking out the no U-turn sign in the process. Irony. We passed the gun shop again only to spot the infected struggling with getting out of the tall grass.

"Looks like we keep on here for a bit," Roy said as he studied the map.

"Aren't we heading into the city more?" I asked. I had only glanced at the map.

"Mm-hm, but we gotta take this road before we start heading north-east."

"Dad, I'm hungry," Amanda spoke up from the back.

Chloe rummaged through the bags in the back seat and produced a box of granola bars, passing one to everybody. We devoured the whole box by the time we were done. Then moved onto the lunch Mac had packed us. It was some of his famous canned food and spices concoction. I kind of already missed him, but the sooner we found Hargrove, the sooner we could go back and get all of them.

After a while Roy asked, "How's your head?"

"Good." The headache hadn't returned.

"If these directions are accurate, we should be there by this evening."