I Surrender

Chapter 10

Jo POV:

Jo was impressed with Wes' calmness under pressure. She kept giving him directions but she also harbored worries. The way west would take them into the mountains. If they ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, hiking would be awful while fighting off the undead.

Wes kept going at a pretty fast pace which began to remind her of gas. "Ease off the speed, we don't know when we'll find another car or gas station."

They continued for hours and finally, in Grand Junction, the car began to sputter and slow. Jo became antsy. This was a big college town. Colorado Mesa was a famous school meaning that there were probably several hundred of the original walkers running around. Nothing like a good vape with the squad.

Jo quickly thought of a plan but none of her ideas really promised success. Stopping would be idiodic but they didn't have much of a choice.

"Do you see a gas station or a car dealership?" Jo asked frantically.

Wes seemed to hesitate to answer, "Sadly, the only ones I could find were swarming with biters. Any ideas?"

Jo placed her head in her hands. "What about gas stations?"

Wes slouched in his seat, "I don't know what happened here but there's hardly any places without swarms."

"It's a college town. There's lots of original people who liked vaping here." Jo sighed before taking a deep breath and saying, "I guess we might be hiking from here. Just until we find the next town."

Wes' hands tightened around the steering wheel. Jo could see the bags under his eyes and she glanced in the back seat to see what little food they had.

Wes looked her in the eyes and simply said, "That's insane."

Jo felt insulted, "There will be so many less walkers in the forest once we get away from the city. Haven't you ever gone backpacking?"

Wes looked way in embarrassment, "I'm from California, we don't exactly find joy in the desert."

Jo looked confused, "You guys have mountains just like we do. Even Salt Lake City, Utah has entirely a higher elevation than Denver, and there are so many dry places in that area."

Wes blushed. "Geography wasn't exactly my strong suit."

Jo laughed and calmly looked out the window. "Pull off soon, we will get to the next city in no time."

Wes sighed and pulled over. His hands shook but he stopped the car and took the key from the ignition. Jo took the keys from him and shoved them in the glove compartment.

"We have to make sure we can find your first manual car." Jo teased.

Wes laughed and they both got out of the car. Jo quickly peaked into the back seat and grabbed whatever food she could fit in the trunk. Wes did the same.

They hiked into the woods and shockingly were met with no trouble as they hiked into the darkness.

Jo and Wes did surprisingly well the first few days, but Wes clearly still felt guilty about Jo's accidental maiming. He always let Jo sleep through her shift. Just because she was doing most of the hard labor, starting fires, finding good shelters, and rationing their food, but he couldn't keep running on fumes of energy for much longer.

Jo was proved right after three days. The closest town was still thirty miles away and Wes was beginning to stumble way too often, he forgot a lot of what he said during the day so he would constantly ask the same things, and he caught a cold.

Jo woke up to him coughing and sneezing.

"How could I have gotten sick?!" Wes exclaimed.

Jo only gave him a weak smile, "I told you, stop acting like a hero or you'll run yourself into the ground. There's still tons of bacteria in the air all the time and when you get little sleep, your immune system tanks."

Wes sneezed and looked annoyed. Jo checked her pack and smiled, she then stood and led Wes over to their makeshift shelter i.e. a weird rock cave that they found. She covered him in her own blankets and built up the fire.

"Looks like we're staying put for a few days. Now, for once, close your eyes and sleep."

Wes looked like he wanted to fight, but he was stopped fairly quickly, Jo held him down and threatened to sit on him.