Re-ans

Re-ans Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Sacrifice

Tavish was driving the truck with Jess in the middle, and Luke up against the passenger side door. It was starting to get stuffy, they had the windows down and he was enjoying the air.

"Luke, it's about time to stop for dinner." Jess called placing her hand on his leg. He held up a finger.

"One sec." He said, he flipped to the last page. "Done, okay yea try to find a nice open area with good sightlines, I wanna load one of the other rifles and give it a test fire." Tavish was looking between him and the road, and Jess was just openly staring at him, "What?" He asked before tossing the book into the floorboard.

"Luke there's no way in hell you're done with that manual, it's been like seven hours." Tavish said incredulously and he shook his head.

"I read through lunch, plus you know I read fast Tav." He was starting to feel like a freak again, he didn't like it. He'd always been a fast reader, but he noticed that his speed had increased over the past few months, he couldn't help but wonder why that was. He downcast his eyes. After a minute Jess grabbed his hand and he looked up to see her smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. He could tell she was worried. "What is it?" He asked, placing a hand on her cheek.

"Are you sure about shooting one of the rifles, what about your ribs?" He nodded.

"I'm sure, I don't know why, but they haven't even twinged today, I guess they're finally healed." Though he doubted he'd felt the last of the pain from the injury, but he would take advantage of this respite. Jess nodded and pulled the walkie up to her lips.

"Lissa it's about time for dinner, we're going to try to find a decent sized open area with a good line of... Break!" She suddenly yelled out. Tavish reacted to what she'd said immediately. Luke put his right hand on the ceiling of the truck, stretching his feet out to wedge them right under the dashboard. He put his left arm out to pin Jess to the seat so she wouldn't go flying forward.

Once they were stopped he spared one moment to make sure the car had done the same, and wasn't about to crash into them. Jess looked like she was having a panic attack. He grabbed the walkie from where it had fallen on the floorboard. HIs eyes were focused on the sight before them. At least fifty or more re-ans where staggering along the road and the grass on either side. There'd be no going around them, and now they were all heading right for the truck.

"U-turn." He called into the walkie. Tavish backed the truck up slowly until the car had turned, then spun them around at a speed that made his stomach enter his throat. Once they were facing the other way he floored it, pulling in front of the car and back into the lead. They drove like that for about five minutes at nearly ninety miles an hour.

"Pull over." He said both to Tavish and into the walkie. Tavish eased the truck over onto the side of the road, Luke stepped out and pulled Jess into the doorway. "Try to calm your breathing down baby, we're okay." He said standing back. She was pouring buckets of sweat by this point. "Look at me." He said grabbing her face, she looked him in the eyes. He took her hand and put it on his chest. "Feel this, slow deep breaths."

After about five minutes her breathing started to slow down. "That's good, Gavin." He called his cousin over and handed him the manual. "Try to cool her off, but don't give her any water till she calms down more." When Gavin nodded he walked around the back of the truck. Meredith, Dennis, Levi, and Alissa were standing behind the truck trying to catch their breaths. "Set up a watch, we don't want anything sneaking up on us okay?" He asked and they nodded. He went over to the driver's side. Tavish was leaning out the door breathing heavily. "You're okay brother, breath." Tavish looked up and nodded. After a minute he spoke.