A School Apocalypse

Chapter 37: Part I

Edit: August 26th, 2017.

"A great way to be pissed off is to find out that the main fucking road to the docks is blocked." I growl, hitting my hand against the steering wheel.

"Guess we'll be on foot from here," Freddie sighs. "If we go now, we'll make it at dusk." Freddie exits the car, grabbing supplies and Iko jumps out after him. I take the stuff behind my seat and take the key out of the ignition. Before I close the door, I remember that it's pointless, so I throw the key in the distance.

"I have no idea where we are," Jada says. "So how do we know which way the docks are?"

"Well there's a lake about half a day from here," Freddie says. "But a lake won't do us any good so the water is our best bet. Let me check the map and I'll see where we are."

Freddie fumbles through and grabs the map, throwing it on the hood of the car, scanning for our whereabouts. "So are you a woodsman or something? You seem to know a lot about knowing where you are."

"Yeah," Freddie answers. "I used to go hunting and I'd camp in the woods with my dad."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't, it's okay." He answers, scanning the map and tracing highways and roads with his fingers. "Here we are. Um, Oallen. So it's about twenty hours to the docks from here, but if we take a car it should only be a couple hours if things run smoothly."

"Great. Okay. Let's get moving. Lead the way, Mr. Perfect." Parker gestures. Freddie rolls his eyes and grabs a marker, drawing the routes we'll take.

"Hey, you okay?" Rayne catches up to me as we start walking to cars. I nod, reassuring her and continue grabbing needed things.

We begin walking to the highway, but I stop Freddie, hoping now's a good time to talk and ask the question that I've been so desperate to ask. "Hey, so it's been a while," I begin, but Freddie's eyes scan mine. "Can you maybe take my cast off now?"

His eyes widen in amusement. "I thought you would have forgotten about that."

"Of course," I laugh. "It's obviously not really hard to forget that there's hard plaster wrapped securely around my dry and itchy ankle."

"Yeah, right," he agrees. "Okay, so I will uh, how 'bout when we take a break, arrive, or camp, I'll take it out for you?"

"Um, okay. And uh, uh, how long is that going to be?"

He smiles at me, and rubs my shoulder. "However long it takes to get to Jervis Bay."

"It'll take twenty hours to get this cast off?" I ask in exasperation.

"Relax, baby. You have had it on for just over a month or so. You'll be able to make it."

"I thought we'd be there by sundown!" I exclaim. "Not twenty hours!"

"By foot, darling. Not by car." He grins, a laugh escaping. "If we walk, then it will be about twenty hours. But that is only if we push it and don't stop."

I sigh, and look around to see everyone waiting for Freddie and I. "Well then let's find a car."
___________________

Five hours in and not a single car we've tried works. And we tried at least ten. The batteries are fully dead, a tire is popped, or the keys are missing and none of us can remember which cables are used to hot wire.