Chapter 38: The Road Goes Ever On And On

"Okie-dokie then," Sam says. "Runner Five, Runner Twenty-three, how's it lookin'?"

"I'm here, Sam, waiting by the gates while they finish packing their van," Paula says. "I think I see Runner Five coming up now."

"I'm here. I'm here," I pant, chest heaving. "Sorry, I had... well, you know."

"Yeah, I know," He sighs.

It's been a week since I gave Milo his punishment, and he's been trying to cause trouble with me ever since, as if he thinks that will make me take away his punishments. In reality, it just makes me want to take away more things that he likes to do.

I'll never understand children's logic. You'd think I would, since I myself am one, but my childhood ended when the apocalypse began.

"Yeah. Shouldn't uh, shouldn't they be done by now?"

"Yeah, they should. Uh, could you go over and see what the delay is?" He questions. "Not that I want to see them leave, but some of us do have other jobs to be getting on with."

Turning on my heel, I head for the van. But the sound of my tennis shoes against the hard dirt are drowned out by the muffled arguing coming from behind the van. Curious, I head around, and see Janine, sapphire eyes ablaze, and Jack, whose jaw is clenched in frustration and annoyance.

"Oh, come on, Janine! You know how important this is."

"A barrel of rather toxic smelling cider is hardly vital equipment." She frowns, arms crossed.

"Yes, it is!" He argues. "This is supposed to be a morale raising tour!"

"Mr. Holden-"

"Our vital Ministry mandated tour around the country to cheer up and check on all the isolated communities out there, and-and you know, we raise the morale better when we're in good spirits ourselves."

"Excuse me-"

"And it's Phil's last batch. And who knows when we'll have enough apples to make more?"

"That's quite beside the point, Mr. Holden. The additional weight will increase your fuel consumption, and while God knows morale is of vital importance now more than ever, that does not mean you have unlimited resources at your disposal," She says. "And morale is not your only concern. You have vital connections to make. You'll be gathering information from Tony-out contact in London-and relaying crucial data back to me."

It's been awhile since I heard from Tony. Hope he's doin' okay.

He probably is. He's good at keeping himself hidden. But I'm guessing he misses Chrysalis. Being back there, remembering those months he had with her... it was easy to see just how much he cared for her. And now she's gone...

"I don't know," Jack murmurs. "We got this fancy van and this top of the line equipment, and neck pillows. You really expect me to believe you can't spring for a bit of extra fuel as well?"

Janine scoffs. "A bit of extra fuel? A bit? Have you done the math, Mr. Holden? With the additional weight, you lose three more miles per gallon. That's an efficiency loss of almost ten percent for cider. As acting Ministry liaison here at Abel, I simply cannot allow-"

"Hey, what's going on back there?" Zoe asks after she popped the back door of the van open. "We're losing light."

"Is this about the cider again, Jack?" Eugene asks from the passenger seat. "I told you we don't need it. Leave it here and they can throw us a decent farewell party. Just get in the damn van."

"Fine. Oh." He jumps in surprise, finally noticing me. I give a small wave that he sheepishly returns. "Hello, Five."

"Five, my amazing fiancée!" Phil calls, and I laugh.

"Hello, Phil."

"Hey, I just realized I left the road atlas back in my room." He sends me a small smile, shifting around in the driver's seat. "I don't suppose you could fetch it for me? I'd go myself, only I need to familiarize myself with the controls."

"I'll do it, but only because I love you," I say, not even attempting to keep a straight face. He laughs, and Jack gives me a raised brow.

"You know that everyone here knows the two of you aren't together, right? You don't have to act."

"I really wish you wouldn't," Sam murmurs, and I shrug.

"We like to joke around."

"Well, go get that atlas, Five," Zoe sighs. "And you'd better hurry before Janine's head actually explodes."

I huff, but still head back towards the dorms. Phil's room isn't really his own-just like everyone else in Abel, it's a dorm that everyone shares. But he and Zoe have only been in Abel a few days, and I can tell they find it weird being in such a small township of only 150 people when they are used to being in a compound of over 12,000.

It only takes me a moment to get to the dorms, and it takes even less time to get to Phil's bed and grab the atlas that's laying there. Zoe may only have been joking about Janine, but she can get rather moody when things don't go according to plan, and I don't want to have her angry at me for being too slow. With that in mind, I rush back to the van, where the others are all waiting.

"Here you go," I say, handing the atlas to Phil through the window.

"Thank you," He replies, and I run ahead towards the gates with Paula.

"Alright, Sam. Phil's got the atlas. Looks like we're finally ready to go." Paula sighs with relief, and ruffles her hand through her hair that's beginning to grow out. She hates it being this long. She prefers the pixie cut, but she can't risk anyone cutting her hair, since if they were accidentally to cut her... "Just need the snipers in position."

"Hallelujah," He laughs. "Right. Five and Twenty-three, you'll be running point, clearing all the zombies out of the path with your noisemakers. I'll just patch in the guys in the van while we wait... Convoy, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, old buddy," Eugene replies.

"Great. Uh, how's your status?"

"Bloody crap is our status," Phil growls. "I'm not bloody used to driving a bloody huge van."

"That's a lot of blood." I grin, and it grows when I hear Phil murmur something under his breath.

"Stop grumbling. We haven't even set off yet and I'm already getting sick of it," Zoe says, and I can hear Eugene snickering.

"We're fine, Sam. Relieved the trip's still on with what's happened recently."

"Well, yeah," He says. "That's why we're trying to get out of before it all hits the fan. Well, even more that it's already hit the fan, which-which is quite a lot. Everyone's running around like headless chickens tryin' to locate that Comansys ship where Maxine's been held."

"And Caleb," I add.

"And Caleb. And everyone who isn't bein' a headless chicken about that is being even more of a headless chicken tryin' to clear up the mess Amelia left."

"How's Owen doing?" The Canadian asks.

"Recovering," Sam says. "Although I do wish someone would leave his bedside so I could go see him."

"Cut her some slack. We've all done things we're not proud of. It's a new world-clean slate. Don't lose a friend over this."

I bristle at his words. And what do you do when you sin after the apocalypse? What do you do then? When before was the good times? When you were good before... how do you measure how good of a person you are now, when you do your deeds after Day Zero?

"Yeah, I know. I know." Sam huffs in annoyance. "God, I hate it when you're all grown up and sensible and right. A-Anyway, looks like the snipers are in position. How're you guys doin'?"

"Ready when you are."

"Alrighty then. Five, Twenty-three, you ready?"

Paula nods. "Yes. We're still ready."

"Radio convoy, you ready?"

"We're good to go."

"Okay. Raise the gates!" The alarm sounds off, mixing with gunshots. I get into sprinting position. "Runners, off you go."

"Come on, Five," Paula says as she starts up her noisemaker. "Let's make a path."

I sprint off, just barely hearing Eugene as he wishes us good luck. We pass the dead zombies, but there are more on the road. There are always more-always. We've gained their attention, all six of them. Not too many, but we'll meet more in a few minutes, I'm sure.

"Head south and you should clear the path for the van," Sam says. "We haven't got all day. Run."

I roll my eyes at his words. He speaks as if we don't know that. But, I don't comment on it. I simply keep running while listening to the stupid, stupid sound of this noisemaker.

I usually am not as irritable on such small things. I mean, yeah, noisemakers are annoying, but they're supposed to be. That's the point. They're annoying and loud and they attract zombies. But these last few days... I've been angrier than I normally am.

Most of the time I'd blame it on hormones and all that other shit we girls have that makes us demon spawns, but I know that's not it. It's because I'm still angry... with Milo.

More or less that fact that he's still angry with me and is doing everything he possibly can to piss me off. Just today he took an item from my collection of useless, tiny objects I find during runs, and he refused to tell me where he put it. He's doing this as rebellion, thinking that if he irritates me enough, I'll let him hang out with Polly and Zach again. Really it makes me want to restrict him more.

He doesn't understand, not yet. He doesn't know. But he wanted to me to be a parent. He wanted a mother; That's what I am. And moms are not always nice ladies who help with homework and make their kids cookies. They punish they're children when they do wrong. That's just how it is.

The zombies are all following us, but most of them are slow-shamblers. There are a few that are faster than the rest, but they're by no means fast zombies. They're sort of like... moderately fast zombies, if that's a thing.

Oh, God. Now I'm starting to sound like Sam.

But the zoms are a good ways behind us, but nowhere near the van. The convoy should have left Abel by now. Hopefully we can get them out of here without any complications. Seeing that this is a mission that has nothing to do with Comansys, it should be fairly easy, fairly simple.

But I've been told that about a lot of missions that ended up with me or someone else nearly dying. So you never know.

"Okay, Five, Twenty-three, looking good out there. All the zoms are clear of the road. Deactivate your noisemakers and circle back 'round to head on back," Sam says, and I sigh in relief.

"Praise God," I mutter as I turn off my noisemaker, Paula doing the same. "How's it going along in the van? They're all doing alright?"

"Eh-uh, hang on. Let me uh, just patch you in." A bit of static comes through, like always, and then a grumbling voice reaches me ears.

"All I'm saying is I'm not used to driving such a big van, and it would be nice if I could concentrate without your bloody feet in my back," Phil snaps, and I hear Jack scoff.

"I moved them, but in case you haven't noticed, there's not much room back here. Why don't you just adjust the seat?"

"Oh. Oh, yeah," He says sarcastically. "'Just adjust the seat,' he says. Yeah. I'll just adjust the seat while I'm driving, while I'm trying to make sure we stay on the road, while we're escaping from the bloody massive horde of zombies a mile behind us. Yeah, I'll just adjust the seat."

"For God's sake, Phil! Look out!" Zoe yells.

"Oh, shit!"

There's the sound of a tired skidding and then a wet crash. No explosions, no loud crunch of metal or burning fire or screams of pain. None of that-but I still feel a surge of panic spike through me.

"Brilliant," Zoe says. "Just great."

"Phil," Eugene says, "whatever you do, don't..." He sighs when Phil puts his foot on the gas, and from the sounds of it, gets them stuck deeper in the mud, "gun the engine."

"Oh, no. Oh, no," Sam groans. "No. No. No. No. Runners, the zoms are turning back towards the van. You have to get over there like, right now. Go!"

•

"Come on! Come on!" Phil urges. "Push!"

"We're pushing!" Jack shouts.

"Push harder!"

I can see them. Just up ahead the van sits. I think it's stuck in a deep mud puddle. That's what it looks like, at least. Jack and Zoe are outside the van, trying to push it clear. They don't have much time though. There's a group of fifteen zombies headed straight for them.

"Alright, let's keep this simple," Sam says. "Just turn on your noisemakers and draw the zoms away. No need for anything unnecessarily fancy."

Paula and I both turn our noisemakers on, and I hold mine up in the air so it can be heard better. The zombies stop and turn towards us, their dead eyes locking down on what looks like fresh meat. The two of us slow down, staying still for a few moments as the zoms start to draw closer. Once close enough, we turn and run.

I strain my neck to look back and make sure they're following us. The van is making a lot of noise, meaning it could gain the zombies' attention once more. We can't let that happen.

"Alright, head north, across the fields. That'll get them a good ways away from the van."

"Got it," Paula says, waving her noisemaker around.

"Damn it!" Phil curses. "What is wrong with this bloody van?"

Eugene hums in thought for a moment while the dark haired man continues grumbling. "Oh... Uh, Phil?"

He keeps muttering to himself, paying him no mind.

"Phil."

No response.

"Phil!"

"What? I'm kinda busy here," He answers irritably.

"I-I think the van's in reverse."

"Oh."

"What?" Jack hisses.

"For God's sake!" Zoe growls. "You've got to be kidding me!"

"Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry... sorry again," He apologizes, while I giggle maniacally. Of course that's why they're stuck. And of course it's Phil that didn't notice the reason as to why.

"Philip Cheeseman, I'm going to rip your stupid, massive ears off, you total-"

"Push!" Jack yells, and I hear the engine rev up, along with some grunts. I can't exactly see what happened. Paula and I are too far away now, but I think I can guess.

"Amazing job, guys!" Sam exclaims. "They're-Well, they will be on their way once Zoe and Jack get out of the mud, at least. That uh, yeah. That looks messy. Anyway, you've still got that pack on your tail, so keep going. Loop 'round off of Abel, and we'll try to find some way to lose them. No slacking now. Move."

"When there are fifteen zombies chasing you, I doubt anyone would, as you said, 'slack'," I pant.

"Well, yeah, but it's still fun to say. It makes me sound all like, authoritative."

I roll my eyes and smirk. "I'd rather just call you 'sir'."

He chokes, and I smile pridefully. But then my attention goes to the noisemaker in my hand, then to Paula, who is starting to look breathless and sweaty. I'm sure I look the same way.

My chest is starting to burn, and my throat feels as if it's on fire when I swallow. I haven't been running too long, but stress and lack of sleep (and probably hormones too) have made me very, very weak and tired.

Still we keep pushing, but the zoms don't let up. Somehow they manage to stay twenty feet behind us, no more, no less. I push myself to run faster, but still they don't seem to get any farther away.

Okay, starting to panic a bit... just a bit, but a bit no less.

"Okay, those zoms aren't letting up and we can't let you turn those noisemakers off until the van's clear, which, you know, happens the second Phil figures out how to stop crunching the fears." He sighs in frustration. "Come on, Sam. Think. Think."

"No rush," Paula says breathlessly. "We're having a great time out here, aren't we, Five?"

I sneer at her.

"Come on. Come on. There has to be something. Ah! Yes! Okay, there's an old railway bed a little to your east, and there are two footbridges running over it."

"I think I see where this is going," I say with a nod.

"Runners, it's time to pull a McShell. Paula, you take the closest bridge."

The redhead swallows nervously. "I've never done this before. Isn't there a-"

"It's the only way," He insists. "You trust me, don't you?"

She nods. "Yes. I trust you. You know I wouldn't bring home a dented can of cocktail sausages in barbecue sauce to share with just anyone."

A huff of a laugh leaves Sam's mouth. "Yeah, and I wouldn't get food poisoning from it with just anyone either. Now, Five, you'll need to put on a burst of speed to get to the other footbridge in time. You have to both cross the bridges at the same time or this won't work. You can do it, Five."

I sprint off towards the farther footbridge, while Paula heads towards the closer one. Little drops of sweat starts to drip from my nose, and my legs are starting to ache. My chest burns, my lips are chapped from the chilly air. Each step is beginning to feel like agony to my sore and sleep deprived body.

Thank God for adrenaline.

The zombies are still behind me. I can hear them just over the sounds of my noisemaker-growling, groaning, snarling. This is the only way we'll be able to lose them. We have to do this right.

I'm so close. Just a couple more yards. I can see the footbridge. I'm so close now. I can hear my gasping breath, and my mind is screaming at me, begging me to slow down. But I don't.

"Paula, start crossing your bridge..." Sam pauses, waiting for me to get a step closer, just about to go over the footbridge, "now! Yes, it's working! They're falling right into the tracks. Great work, guys. It's all clear now. Switch off those noisemakers and head on home."

"About time," Paula sighs. She clicks hers off in relief. "Thought I was gonna go dead from that noise."

"Well, it was that or get eaten."

"We use that justification a lot, don't we?"

"Abel Township, do you read me?" Eugene questions over the radio.

"Loud and clear," Sam answers.

"Did the runners get away alright?"

"They're fine, 'Gene. How're you doing?"

"Good," He says. "Little muddy, but we're on the highway and we're uh, doin' well."

"And Phil's finally figured out which gear is which." Zoe adds.

"Hey! I told you, I've never driven something this big before," He says with a scowl in his voice, and I laugh.

"We're making good time," Eugene says. "Uh, tell everyone at Abel bye from us, will you?"

"Sure," Sam replies.

"And tell Janine not to keep that cider to herself," Jack adds.

"Don't you worry about that. I've been eyeing that stuff since you brought it over from New Canton."

"Well," Eugene sighs, "I guess this is goodbye, Sam."

"We'll miss you guys."

"You too. Listen to the show, aye?"

"Everyday," He says. "And 'Gene?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay safe out there."

He laughs at that. "Will do, Sam. Will do."

A/N: Hello, everyone. I'm a bit late on the updates, but things have been crazy. If I'm honest, my entire world seems to be turning upside down. My friends are having personal troubles and I don't know how to help them, my sister's having health issues that could be very serious, and I've been so stressed that I had a panic attack two days ago during a church sermon.

With that being said, don't expect updates to be every few days like they usually are. They might still be, but don't expect it because you might be let down.

Thank you and have a blessed day.