If I Die Before I Wake Chapter 23
Jeez. Took me long enough, didn't it? xD
Chapter word count: 3,027
Total word count: 53,447
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Some random ass forest area, Pennsylvania
I was honestly surprised that the four had made it this far without something like Mapquest. Sure. Seth said he had followed my blog (at least it had helped someone) and could have probably just looked up directions instead of following maps. But who knew what you would hit on a single, designated route? What if they just printed off directions and no map and ran into a clusterfuck of a roadblock? Things were sketchy lately and you never knew what you could run across. Overturned truck on the highway, destroyed bridge, you name it and it could fuck up a perfectly good road trip.
Even one like ours.
Because it seemed like I was a part of this road trip now. Committed and all that bullshit, but the four were starting to grow on me. Even blondie and Miles, both of whom I could see ditching out when the time came for them to be selfish. Seth seemed dedicated enough to the cause and Alex seemed to be that cause. They were working pretty well together and as Miles began to drove, they began telling me of the other encounters they had coming east.
Shocked me.
My Zombie experiences hadn’t been entirely that harrowing or gruesome, but they hadn’t figured me out until the four had showed up. I had stayed decently safe throughout most of it, and had lost my focus once.
But once is all they need. I was lucky not to have died. But that was the problem as I held back the coughs that wanted to wrack my chest and lurch up whatever blood or other sort of bile in my lungs was sitting there. They didn’t need to know what was going on and while Seth knew some of the details, I was still hesitant to tell anyone the full story. They were capable enough to go on without me, it seemed. Even with Miles the Anarchist and Giselle the Ditz.
So needless to say, I was impressed when Miles followed my instructions without opening his mouth to argue. It helped that Alex would confirm a route if I got stuck, his dark eyes scanning the map while recognition strengthened his voice and flickered over his face before his glance went up to the tinted windows of the large car. We were about twenty miles out of Erie when I caught a glance of Seth sleeping in the rearview mirror.
Lucky bastard.
Sleep probably wasn’t even close to possible for me, although I had to count my stars or whatever that the coughing hadn’t started back up. Hiding it from Alex was tough already, but even in the large interior of the Hummer, you couldn’t cover up much. Especially when you were hacking up blood. So I prayed that my luck would continue as the map and road began to lead us into more and more rural areas and wilderness. Long stretches of forgotten crops intermingled with great patches of forest for a while, at least until the crops started losing the battle and large trees began their take over, engulfing us and the road as we finally entered forest area.
Awesome.
Forests made me nervous, even though I had forged through them for a bit back in Ohio. But those were wimpy forests compared to what we were starting to drive through. The trees began to loom overhead, blocking out parts of the sun, which was generally bad considering the Zombies seemed to prefer darkness over direct sunlight. At least they had in Ohio and I couldn’t imagine them evolving to the point of being able to waltz out into the sun quite yet, even this far east of Chicago. And it seemed that the looming darkness wasn’t making just me nervous. Miles’s knuckles had grown white as his grip tightened around the wheel. “I would have taken you for a forest liking kind of guy, Miles.” I chided, only to gain a confused look from him as he spared a glance from the road for a moment. “You know… hunting maybe or something.” The words seemed to clear the confusion but that was replaced with mild irritation and an eye roll as he attempted to unlock his fingers from the wheel. Hm. Of course, he probably wasn’t used to anyone questioning him or calling him out on his fear. Especially a girl.
Hm.
He shook his head, eyes focused on the road. “It gives me the willies.” The words coming from him were comical, but not when paired with the tone of voice he was using. It seemed like he was honestly spooked about driving through here, and the speed at which we were doing so only confirmed that assumption. Someone shifted in the backseat and with a quick glance to a mirror it revealed it to be Alex, as he was the only one awake back there. Whether or not he was listening in on the front of the car’s conversation, I couldn’t tell. But I wouldn’t have been surprised considering he seemed to keep his eyes on everyone, an ever vigilant mother hawk or something like that. Mother hen and whatnot. Even if he didn’t care if anyone followed him to New York, he seemed genuinely protective of everyone. Probably a bit of guilt for pulling four other people to their possible doom.
Maybe.
“We should only be going through here for a bit longer…” I trailed off, the rest of the words caught in my throat as I looked at the road ahead. Those words? Hoping that we found shelter before the blessed sun disappeared for the night. The Hummer was tough, but so were the Zombies and everyone was already exhausted despite the amount of sleep we got the previous night. Part of me regretted getting off of the safe boat before the new morning. But it had happened and we were going to have to deal with it.
Unfortunately.
Miles nodded at my reassurances, his face placid once more as he probably began to think the same thing I was. He, Alex and I could probably face a bunch of Zombies all night, but the two that were sleeping were questionable. Not that I didn’t appreciate it when Seth contributed and he had proved his worth so far. But I worried about him. Giselle on the other hand?
She was useless.
I watched Alex get comfortable in the back seat and attempted to do the same thing in the front passenger chair, sinking down so that I could barely see over the dashboard. So far, traveling only seemed to be a problem when we stopped… otherwise there was nothing that was going to be able to catch us.
That I knew of, anyway.
And despite the freaky nature of the forest that surrounded us, there didn’t really seem to be anything to keep us all alert. Of course, a glance from Miles and I knew I couldn’t fall asleep unless I wanted to be jabbed awake, so I kept my eyes open, continually glancing further and further down the road for any obstructions. The Hummer was handling things well, barely jostling the passengers in the back seat out of their slumber as we momentarily abandoned asphalt and hit dirt road. A few branching paths gave us options, but Miles seemed content to stay on this one that would allow us direct access across the state and into New Jersey, and from there, New York.
Home. Basically.
It was still daylight out, but you couldn’t really tell just by looking at the light that was filtering through the trees and the car had grown silent. No one wanted to dwell on the idea that we had minimal escape routes and anything that was going to attack us could easily do so by charging out of the brush and cover that they had on their side. Guerilla warfare with Zombies.
The passing trees became hypnotic and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to last much longer as the navigator and was about to turn around and tag team one of the other three when I was thrown against the my seat belt restraints and nearly into the dashboard as Miles slammed on the brakes.
“What the fuck, Miles?” I hissed viciously, immediately whipping around and catching a glimpse of what he was silently pointing at. Down the road, about half a mile was something blocking out whatever sun was managing to get through the canopy above. But it wasn’t a tree, that much I could tell. Trees didn’t breath like that… a lumbering breathing that raised and lowered its massive shoulders and a chill shivered through my spine. But it wasn’t just that solitary figure sitting in the middle of the road that made the breath hitch in my chest. It was the dark silhouettes soaring from branch to branch behind the Zombie that had originally caught our attention.
The flying ones. Fully mutated and much, much bigger than the one that had picked Miles up back in Ohio.
“I have to get a picture, Miles!” I cried, immediately abandoning the map and my thoughts of taking a nap and digging furiously in my backpack for my camera. Zippers flashed open as I rummaged through each and every pocket, cursing myself for not having my equipment out in the first place. The sudden lurch of the car and my voice had woken up the rest of the group and in the reflection from the windshield, I quickly caught a glimpse of a freaked out Seth, a groggy Giselle and a very alert Alex.
Awesome.
“No fucking way. That thing is fucking huge! We’ll find another way.” Miles snarled, immediately turning off to a very convenient branch of the road that would probably lead us around what appeared to be an entire colony of them. Panic rushed into my veins as my hand finally wrapped around my camera. I had to get pictures to put up for the public. They had to know that those things were starting to group instead of just popping up randomly.
They were starting to evolve.
But Miles was quicker than I was, even while he was driving and seemed to know exactly what I was thinking as the locks to the doors of the Hummer snapped shut before I could even get my hand on the handle. A frustrated growl escaped as I felt the map being yanked from where it had fallen on the tops of my feet and watched as it landed over the gear shift of the car, partially spread onto Mile’s lap as well.
“Miles, if I get a picture it will make history!” My palm slapping the dashboard made a squeak emanate from the backseat. Giselle. But I didn’t care if I scared her. Getting pictures could mean saving someone’s life… especially if they were attempting to take the route we were. Of course, no one was insane enough to take the route into New York.
They were all leaving New York.
Including the Zombies.
Trees whipped past as the Hummer sped down the narrow road and immediately I felt all sets of eyes on me, even Miles despite his need to watch the road. We were getting further and further away from what was surely a colony of them… and all I could do was let my camera drop into my backpack with a thunk as it hit the floor of the cab. The inside of the truck grew quiet as I turned in my seat to sit completely facing forward, the only sounds being the squeak of leather interior as I moved and the scratching of outreaching branches as they dug paint off of the outside of the car.
“You would have been history if we would have stopped.” Miles muttered over the steering wheel, his eyes going back to the road as he attempted to keep in control. “We would have been history. That thing was huge and so were its buddies.” I was surprised at the control he had over his temper, and couldn’t help but immediately flush as I sank into my seat. Alex was quiet and the entire group seemed shocked that Miles hadn’t been all gung-ho about tracking and hunting a bunch of dead heads. Not to mention giving me a lecture on behaving and keeping safe.
Go fucking figure.
“And now we’re fucking lost.” I snapped back, knowing full well that changing the subject wasn’t going to save me. My response merely got a glare from Miles, who seemed content to avoid the flock that we were distancing ourselves from. Being lost was the least of our problems, especially considering we had a map, but that didn’t put me in a better mood, especially as Giselle cleared her throat and sat up a bit more in the backseat.
Awesome.
“Why do you need photos of those nasty things anyway?” Giselle spoke up, her tone snotty and condescending, as if I were merely collecting pictures of some common insect for junior high science fair project. But this was no generic bug and my icy stare at her in the rearview mirror said so.
“Because they’re evolving.” My voice matched her own tone, as if I were speaking to a slow first grader about why she couldn’t let the class rat play with the class snake. She didn’t seem to get it, unfortunately. Her face, coated in confusion, turned immediately to Alex as if he were going to translate the language I spoke into bimbo bitch for her. And I opened my mouth to ask if that was exactly what she was doing, but the half frown I caught in the rearview mirror from Alex forced me to stop and turn in my seat to face them all in the back.
“We know that already, Sophie. There is no reason to prove it more.” His voice was calm, but hesitant, as if what he said wasn’t actually the case. Which it wasn’t and I itched to scream and yell at them. They had no idea what was going on and it made my fingers curl around the head rest of my seat.
“They’re banding together. Did you happen to see that on your way to Ohio?” My voice drawled, still in that condescending tone and when it was directed to Alex, it made me want to take it all back. He wasn’t the one being an asshole about it all and it wasn’t even him that I was mad at. Taking my anger and frustration out on someone like Giselle was easy and generally she deserved it in one way or another, and if she didn’t, she would in the near future. But Alex?
He was just trying to help.
However, along with the anger that was settling in my chest, I could feel something else attempting to crawl up my throat, or down it… an itch that felt like a sore throat but I knew it was something else and forced myself to swallow it, nearly choking on my spit in the process. I couldn’t cough or hack or anything in this car… especially if I was coughing blood. Luckily, Miles was able to take my mind off of it with his asinine comments.
“Haven’t you seen any zombie movies? They do that anyway.” Miles muttered from the driver’s side of the car, his eyes still not leaving the dirt road we were bumbling along. “Zombies don’t eat other zo--”
“This isn’t a movie, Miles!” I cried, my frustration bubbling up once more at the idiot excuse he was attempting to use. It happened in the movies? So fucking what? My eyes flashed as Miles swerved around a fallen log and Giselle let out another small squeak of surprise at the sudden movement. The feeling and need to cough came back as the waves of anger flashed through my system like a fever… and in all honesty it could have been a fever, but I couldn’t focus on that. Just this argument that had built up so much emotion in all of us. You could probably cut the tension in the car with a chainsaw, and I was about to cut Miles off once more as he attempted to speak again, but the disappearance of the map from the middle console into the backseat caught everyone’s attention as the rustling paper came from the quiet corner of the car.
Seth.
“Enough.” He spoke, the tops of the frames of his glasses peaking up over the top of the crinkled map, his eyes poking over the top as well as the word dropped into the car and settled there, finishing any retorts that were about to fly across the seats at one another. Who would have thought that the kid would have the guts to stop us? He had been watching me the entire time, and while I was worried about someone observant like Alex figuring shit out… Seth already knew part of it and instantly I knew he would blow the whistle on me if I could continue. I could see it in his eyes before the cough even hit my throat and instantly I buried my face into my elbow and gave a violent hack.
Wonderful.
Luckily, before any questions about the cough could be asked, Seth had taken the floor. “We need to stick together. We’ll find a way, but first I think we need to find a place to sleep tonight. Or at least hide. And I think I have the perfect solution.” He continued, eyes going back to the map and I had to wonder who the hell this kid was that had taken over Seth’s body… because in the face of chaos and us ripping out one another’s throats, he had taken charge.
Shocking.
“Miles, stay on this road for another twenty miles or so, then hit the highway if you can. It’ll be quicker.” He ordered before shooting me a look that spoke louder than anything else he had physically said.
I owed him for distracting the group.
Big time.