Those Who Survive

City of The Dead

Spending days on the road was really getting boring. Though, Cry supposes he's happy for the boredom when the alternative is fighting the infected and scavenging for supplies to last days at most. Thankfully, it shouldn't be too much longer until they get to California, having crossed into Arizona during the night. Things were finally starting to look up, and like Minx, Cry has hope they'll find at least one of their friends alive in California.

While he's not loving the idea that they won't find anyone alive there, he knows it's still a possibility they'll have to come to terms with. The car is silent as the drive continues, Minx and Thomas staring out their respective windows and Dan's staring at the map like it's written in Portuguese. Cry glances at him and chuckles lightly, "You okay there?"

Dan blinks and looks over at him, "Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

He looks away again and Cry shrugs, "You got something on your mind?"

"You could say that.." Dan sighs, "And way too much time to think about it."

"I feel ya there." Cry muses, "Time to think is all we got it seems like."

"Well, yeah," Dan scoffs lightly, "We've spent over a week driving in silence for the most part. Road trips suck with no music or anything.."

"This whole world sucks." Minx speaks up, "But yeah, some music would be great, if we had any."

"It would just draw the infected if we did," Cry says, "The truck itself already does that enough."

The conversation dies there and they spend the next few hours in silence. The sun would be setting soon, and the gas in the truck is almost gone. Cry pulls the truck to a stop in front of a gas station, "Alright, everyone out."

He parks the truck and they all get out. Dan and Thomas head inside while Cry and Minx check the few cars left abandoned for gas since after seven months, the gas pumps don't work. They only had so many gas cans left, so stocking up when they can before using the reserves will get them the farthest. The manage to scrounge up half a cans worth from the few cars left behind and Cry uses that to refuel the truck.

Dan and Thomas return from the store and Minx turns to them, "What did you get?"

"Some old candy bars, granola bars, and flat soda all way passed the expiration date," Dan replies, "Some water, too."

"Better than nothing." Thomas shrugs, "But we took as much as we could fit in our backpacks."

"Run into any trouble?" Cry asks and Dan shakes his head, "Place was empty. Not a person in sight, dead or otherwise."

"Looked like a fight had broken out, but whoever it was is long gone." Thomas adds, "I also found these cool binoculars!"

Cry nods as he finishes fueling the truck and tosses the now empty canister into the truck's bed, "Alright, pile back in, I wanna get somewhere to actually get some sleep for the night."

Everyone gets back in the truck and they set off on the road again.

...

"Stop the truck," Dan gasps, "We need to turn around, right now."

Cry stops the truck and Minx curses under her breath at the sudden hit of the breaks.

"I see them." He says, frowning. The town ahead of them is clearly teeming with infected, even from how far off they are, it's not that hard to make out. Minx frowns, leaning forward in her seat, "What do we do? We can't have come all this way for nothing.."

"According to the map cutting through this town is the fastest road to LA." Dan sighs, "Can we really afford a detour? We're eating through the gas as is, I say we just turn back and find something else to do."

"I don't know.." Cry admits, "We still have quite a few gallons, but they won't last forever. I don't want to have made this trip for nothing, either."

"Finding your friends was never a guarantee. They could all be dead for all we know. Who knows where they even are, if they're still in LA at all." Dan counters, "We have to make a choice, we can't stay here. Those infected are already heading our way, Cry."

"Hey!" Thomas gasps, taking his seatbelt off, moving to the middle of the truck and leaning on the console between the front seats. He holds his binoculars to his eyes, "There's people on that building there!"

"It's probably just infected." Dan rolls his eyes, "What's it gonna be, Cry?"

"No, they're waving at us!" Thomas urges, holding the binoculars towards Cry, "Look!"

Cry frowns, taking the binoculars and looking through them. Thomas is right, there are a few people standing on the roof, waving their arms around. It's still too far to see who those people may be, but they look like they need help, or are trying to warn them.

"They need help," Cry says, handing the binoculars back to Thomas, "They must be trapped."

"We go plowing through infected and we'll be just as trapped!" Dan growls. The screams of runners can be heard before they break the ranks, heading towards them.

"We can't just leave them to die," Cry glares back.

"We need a plan, the infected are coming this way!" Minx looks at Cry with wide eyes.

"Well?" Dan scoffs, "What's it gonna be? You gonna try to be a hero, or are you gonna get us out of here?"

Cry grips the steering wheel tightly, having made his decision. As stupid as it may be, he still wants to believe he's a good person who won't just leave innocent people to die. He grins, revving the engine, "Everyone buckle up. It's about to get crazy."

Dan, Thomas, and Minx all make sure they're buckled up and Cry slams on the gas, the tires squealing for a moment at the sudden acceleration. The truck slams into the runners, jostling the vehicle as it rolls over them. Dan grits his teeth, "We can't run them all over, you crazy asshole! You're going to wreck the truck, then where will we be?!"

Cry laughs, speeding up more, "Just hold on and let me do my magic!"

Dan shakes his head, "You're gonna get us all killed!"

"God, fuck! Cry, you better not total us!" Minx groans, gripping her seatbelt tightly.

"I won't." Cry promises, eyes narrowing as he concentrates and navigates his way through and around infected, driving across the road in zigzags as they enter the town fully. He may have underestimated just how many infected were walking the streets, but for now, his plan was working and the truck's doing just fine.