The Burden Of Tomorrow

Chapter 3. Departure

There we were driving through the city. The closer we got to the center of the city the more chaotic everything looked, we were seeing more and more overturned cars, buildings on fire and people running from the zombies. I picked up the mic on the CB radio and radioed over to Tyler, "We're going to need to find a gas station, I have 5 gallons in the bed that I'll use if needed but I'd prefer to save that for when the power grid goes offline."
"Copy. there's a gas station about a mile up the road thats usually pretty empty. I think that'll be our safest bet." His voice came across the radio.
We kept going down the road until we arrived at the gas station where we swiftly pulled up next to the pumps. "Baby can you hand me the shotgun? It's behind your seat"
Heather reached behind the passenger seat and pulled out a 12 gauge shotgun and handed it to me. "Please be careful baby, I love you." She said
"I promise you, I will be ok. I have the shotgun. I love you honey."
I stepped out of the truck, shotgun in hand and approached the gas pump. Everything seemed fine and I started filling the tank of the truck. A few seconds passed and I saw Tyler quickly get out of his truck with a rifle in his hands. He began shooting towards the side of the building.
"Here we go again." I said to myself. After opening the door of the truck I tossed the shotgun back behind the seats and grabbed a rifle. I quickly spun around and surveyed the area and saw zombies coming from both sides of the building now, Tyler and I now back to back were firing bullets into zombies dropping them 1 by 1. We were no match, they kept coming. We'd drop 1 and 2 more would show up.
"HOLY FUCK!" Tyler shouted over the loud bangs from each bullet being fired. "TIFFANY, CAN YOU GRAB THE GLOCK AND HELP US?"
"HEATHER, CAN YOU COME OUT HERE WITH YOUR PISTOL?" I yelled
Tiffany and Heather both came out with pistols and began firing with us. It was finally looking like we had a chance. Slowly but surely we were taking them down and slowly pushing them back farther away from us. Bullet after bullet we kept taking them out until, finally the last one was down.
"What do ya know, 15 minutes of firing later and the tank is full." I said through laughs. I put the pump back and started up the truck again. "I'll be right back honey." I said to Heather. "Do you want anything from inside?"
"Can you get me some Chocolate?" She replied
"Of course babe" I said as I turned around and started walking towards the store to get drinks and of course my wife's chocolate. I soon came back out from the store and passed the drinks out to everyone and we hopped back in the trucks. "Before we get back on the road, there's one thing I want to do, it'll act as a distraction to buy us some time to get out of the city as well." I said into the radio.
I reached over and opened the glove box and pulled out a grenade.
"Get ready to floor it. once I do this we onlyhave 5 seconds to get away from here" I announced over the radio.
I pulled the pin while keeping the lever pressed. I shifted the truck into 1st gear and threw the grenade out the window. "PUNCH IT!" I shouted out the window.
Both engines revved up, bouncing off the rev limiter as we both did unintentional burn outs while quickly pulling out of the gas station parking lot. I looked in the review mirror and saw the gas station burst into flames followed by a loud BOOM.
"Oh, heres the chocolate you wanted." I laughed while pulling several chocolate bars out of the pocket of my now blood covered leather jacket
"Your the best!" Heather replied, taking the candy from my hand and ripping one open.
We were now approaching the edge of our city. All the big buildings were becoming more scarce and houses with big yards were becoming more popular. We saw families out in their yards, cooking on the grill all laughing together, just happy to go out with the ones they love. Other families were outside on the roof with guns and beers. We just drove past them all continuing our journey to Pennsylvania.
"Can we listen to some music honey?" Heather asked
"Of course." I replied. I connected my phone to the bluetooth radio I recently installed in the truck. Suddenly 'Into The Night' by Santana and Chad Kroeger comes on.
"I love this song! Can I turn it up?" She questioned
"Of course you can." I said, and Heather turned the volume up as high as it goes. We had all the windows rolled down and the families out in their yards were loving the free concert coming from our truck. I looked down and didnt realize until that moment that I was really getting into the music and we were driving 85 miles a hour.
"Wow I didnt realize we were going as fast as truck will go" I laughed
"It doesnt go any faster?" Heather asked
"No, its a 40 year old truck honey, the speedometer only goes up to 85." I informed her.
"Are you flooring it right now?" Tylers voice came across the radio.
I picked up the mic, "Yeah."
"Damn bro. I still got another 40 to go on my speedometer." He replied. "Watch this." I heard his truck down shift and the RPM go up as he flew past us
"You just wait until I drop in that 454 that's sitting in my garage." I said into the mic.
"Well anyway, we gotta make a stop somewhere. Tiffany needs a bathroom break." Tyler said
"Ok. lets stop at the shop." I replied
"Copy"
I put the mic back in its holder and we made our way to the shop. We pulled into the shop parking lot and there sat a big warehouse with "DJ KUSTOMS" in huge letters on it.
"Im going to miss running the business and building custom things." I said
"I know baby. Hopefully life will go back to normal soon." Heather consoled
Everyone hopped out the trucks, all stretching our legs.
"I'm still amazed we started with nothing and worked our way up to building the shop and running a sucssesful busines." Tyler said
"Yeah, we made some amazing things here." I said as I was walking towards the door to unlock it let us inside. Inside there were many unfinished projects at each working station. antique clocks torn apart to find out why they dont work anymore, and furniture half assembled.
"Bathroom is in the back right corner." I said. Tiffany started walking towards the back. I walked over to a old 3.8 engine sitting by one of the desks, "I remember this project, I bought this engine when I was 20 and we were supposed to make a table out of it. It sucks we never got the time to do it."
"Yeah, that would've been a fun one." Tyler stated, "But while we're here I'm thinking we should take a few of the tools incase we need to fix one of the trucks."
"Good idea." I replied. I started walking towards the back to grab a few drills and sawzalls. I carried them over the door and started making a pile of tools. Tyler walked to the back of the shop with me on the second trip, we gathered hammers, screw drivers, and stuffed them in our pockets. "Ok lets get the oxy, acetaline welder, since that'll take both of us to lift into the truck." I said. we rolled it towards the door, "Honey can you get the door for us?" I asked Heather.
She ran over and opened the door and we rolled the welder outside and lifted it into the bed of Tyler's truck. I handed him the tools from my pocket "Here's these, I'll run in and get the rest." I walked back inside and grabbed the power tools and went to go get the chargers for them. I then saw a sledge hammer in the corner and grabbed that too.
"Are we ready to go now?" Heather asked
"Yes we are babe." I said as Tiffany came back. "Alright everyone lets go. We have places to be."
We all made our way outside to meet up with Tyler. "We're all ready to hit the road again." I told him and we all hopped in the trucks. I started the truck and the radio came on playing 'Enemies' by Shinedown. "Fuck yeah, this song is the shit." I shouted while turning the volume up. I threw the shifter in 1st and dumped the clutch smoking out the parking lot and filling it with a burning rubber smell. I waited for the smoke to settle and then we got back on the road making our way towards the highway. We drove for about another 15 minutes and then the highway entrance ramp came into view. "Check this shit." Tylers voice came across the radio as he flew past us and drifted onto the ramp.
Heather picked up the mic, "Very nice but I think Dylan can do better." She laughed and looked at me smiling
"Show time" I said as I pushed the pedal to the floor, we were aproaching the turn fast, and I yanked the E brake and we were sideways. I started pumping the gas as we stayed sideways for the entire length of the ramp. "Now we do IT." I said to Heather
"Are you sure about this honey? We still have'nt sucessfully done it yet." She seemed worried
"Trust me on this, it'll work this time." I pulled the E brake again and now we were backwards and spinning all the way around, backwards, facing the opposide side we were facing before, and finally facing fowards again. I shoved it back into 3rd gear and we continued driving down the highway. I looked in the mirror and could see both Tyler and Tiffany give each other a look of shock.
"How the hell did you do that? That was fucking awesome!" Tyler said across the radio
"That part is a secret" Heather and I both laughed into the mic as we continued down the highway