When I Die

Ch.19

Perry

About five and a half hours into the drive, I was beginning to lose my mind. 

Keith and I had barely talked and any, actually all, of the questions I asked were ignored or side stepped. In the last few months, Keith has broken my trust more times then I can count yet I let him back into my life in just under 24 hours. I was an idiot.

I was grateful for his help when crap hit the fan back home, I'm not even sure if I would have survived it. But, with how shady he was being, how could I trust him?

I know Keith used to be some sort of over-prepper, well, at least that's what it seemed like. When I first met him, there were guns and duffel bags full of supplies in his truck, no one just has that stuff laying around.

Could he have helped them? Could Keith have been apart of it? I hated myself for thinking it. 

I shook my head, No. No way. Keith may not always be the best person, but this wasn't him. 

"Only a few more miles." I jumped as Keith finally broke the silence.

"Until?" I asked as I shifted uncomfortably. My ass was beginning to fall asleep.

Once again, my question was ignored as Keith kept his gaze trained on the open road in front of us. There was nothing but abandoned cars for miles. Occasionally, you could see a forgotten sneaker or a biter standing on the side of the road. I missed when the world was normal.

We drove for what felt like 5 more hours before Keith finally stopped in a lifeless neighborhood. Pools of dried blood were everywhere, along with clothes and broken toys. Opened doors and broken windows could be seen at every house.

"Why are we here?" I twisted in my seat to look around at our surroundings. This was beyond creepy.

Keith turned off the car and turned to me, "The Hallow corps, the ones who attacked us, have already been through here. A few weeks ago, they attacked these families."

"How do you know about them? How did you know about the junkyard?" I stared into his deep brown eyes, i could tell her was trying to think of an out.

Finally, with a sigh, he told me. He told me every last detail about the last few months and why he knew so much. I felt like I needed to throw up by the end of it. 

Keith wasn't some sort of prepper, he was a military brat. His father showed him everything there was to possibly know about surviving from strategizing to taking apart and rebuilding firearms. Keith was a swiss army knife when it came to these things, no pun intended. 

The sergeant actually knew Keith's father and served with him. I suppose that's why he took such a liking towards him. 

The bond between Keith's father and the sergeant is what gave Keith the "in" and its how he got all of the information on the junkyard and this neighborhood. He was never planning on leaving me behind. I was always apart of his plan. I couldn't hide my grin or the red that was slowly overtaking my whole face.

"But, why didn't you tell me?" I asked, my voice low like a scared child.

"Per, Don't think for a second I didn't want to. I did," Keith sighed and took my hands in his, "With everything that happened between us the last few weeks, I wasn't sure if you would even want to come with me." 

I nodded, that was fair. A few days ago, I didn't even want to hear his name let alone see him. 

"There was also no point in telling you since it was an 'In case of emergency' plan anyway." Keith shrugged and I, once again, could only nod. No matter how hard I tried to come up with something, I had no idea what to say to him.

It was sweet that he cared about me enough to 'save' me, but I was still hurt from the last few months. This doesn't change that. 

Before we had the chance to finish the conversation, a loud scream interrupted us. Biters were beginning to flood into the empty street. 

"What the fuck?" Keith didn't hesitate to put the car into reverse and get us the hell out.

"I don't understand, Where did they come from? There's too many." I looked around frantically. Keith was too focused on trying to navigate the ever-growing swarm of the dead. They had us surrounded. 

Keith turned off the car and pushed me down into the seat while he did the same.

"What are you doing?" I whisper-yelled once i was smooshed between the dashboard and front seat.

"We are not going to make it through that. I'd start praying that they don't notice us in here." Keith nodded, outside of the car was more Biters then I had ever seen before. 

Decaying fingers brushed against the windows, leaving bloody fingerprints. The moans from the biters made my ears ring, I had never seen so many in one place before. There had to be hundreds. 

"They don't normally group up like this, right?" I whispered to Keith, this was the first time I had ever seen him nervous. His knuckles were turning bright white as he gripped the seat in front of him. 

"Not usually, something had to of drawn them here." Keith and I sat in silence as the biters kept swarming past the car, it felt almost endless. One after the other, they just kept coming.

  I could feel the panic setting in, how were we going to get out of this?