We're Still Alive(Book1)BEING REWRITTEN

Fifty-Two

   Gavin hadn't realized before just how far he'd driven to escape the zombies. He didn't recognize the area around him, and he had no idea if they were anywhere near the mall. Finally Allison, tired as she seemed, took the wheel. Unfortunately, none of them knew the area, and they were soon lost.
   "I'm sorry." Gavin mumbled, watching the tipped school bus pass by them for the third time.
   "What?" Allison looked over at him, surprised. "Why?"
   "I drove us out here. I should've paid attention to where I was going."
   "You didn't have time to." She reassured him. "You did your best and you got us out alive."
   "Not all of us." She sighed at the response but didn't say anything else. They drove for almost an hour when the truck slowed to a stop.
   "Damnit." She looked at him. "We're out of gas."
   "Of course we are." He growled. "Do you think there's another station around here?"
   "One that still has any gas in it? Doubtful."
   "Could we siphon gas from the other cars?" He asked, looking at the ones around them.
   "With what?" She asked. "And if those guys have more people around here, the cars might already be empty."
   "I guess so..." He trailed off. "Do you hear that?"
   "The shooting?" Allison whispered. "Yeah, I just thought my ears were hallucinating."
   "That might be them." He pulled a duffel bag half-filled with their supplies out of the truck with him.
   "Where are you going?" She yelled.
   "They don't sound far, come on!" He called back. She mumbled under her breath but jumped out of the truck and ran to join him.
   "Slow down, you're gonna tire yourself out!" She gasped.
   "We have to find them! We have to tell them what happened!" Gavin didn't turn around when he said it, just kept running straight. Going at a full sprint, it wasn't long until he was walking again, with Allison beside him. "They've stopped." He noted when he caught his breath again. "What do you think they were shooting?"
   "We don't even know if it's them." Allison said.
   "But someone was shooting at something, and that was a lot of shooting!" He was almost yelling now. "What if it's other survivors?"
   "You're excited to meet new people after what happened yesterday?" He hesitated as she said it, but pushed himself to keep walking.
   "They were crazy." He said. "There's gotta be other people out there. People we can trust." He readied himself to argue back to whatever she had to say against him, but she didn't say anything. He couldn't even hear her behind him anymore. He stopped and turned around. She was looking across the street, into a dark building with shattered windows.  "What is it?"
   "Sshhh." She held up a finger. "I saw movement. I think they're following us."
   "They couldn't have found a more creepy place to hide, could they?" He whispered.
   "No." She said quietly. "They're not in there. DON'T turn around, but they're on the roof of the store behind us." Out of instinct, he started to turn, to get a look at their stalkers, but stopped himself.
   "What do we do?" He flinched when a light breeze blew, brushing his loose shirt against his back. He was expecting the claws and teeth to sink into his skin at any given second.
   "On three." She said so quietly that she was almost mouthing the words. She tapped the side of her gun with her finger as she said it, and flicked her eyes to the side like she was about to turn around. He nodded, and she mouthed the numbers. One, two, three... Both spun on their heels and shot up, aiming for anything that moved on that roof. The creature screeched and jumped down from the two-story building. It had a soft enough landing, though. Gavin, however, did not have anything on the ground to protect him when the zombie slammed him into the concrete. It crouched over him so they were face-to-face, but was shot by Allison before it had a chance to do anything else.
   "Are you okay?" She asked, checking his neck and arms. "Did it bite you? Or scratch you?" He shook his head as he continued to cough and struggle to get the air that had been knocked out of him back into his lungs. She held her hand out and he let her help him up. "We need to get inside somewhere."
   "But..."
   "No." She cut him off and looked around. "There, just down the street. It looks alright; should do for now." She practically dragged him while he tried to catch his breath. They were stopped before they
could make it when two vehicles turned the corner, and Gavin smiled at Tom in the driver's seat of the jeep and Lynn behind him in the truck.