The Burden Of Tomorrow

Chapter 4. Lost

Night was beginning to fall as we continued driving down I-20 East. We had been driving for about 4 hours now.
"Hey night is coming. Based on my research zombies tend to strike a lot more at night. We'll have better odds of surviving if we park somewhere and set up camp so they dont hear the trucks." I said into the CB mic
"Copy that." Taffiny's voice came through the radio.
We drove to the next exit and got off the highway and went onto a trail leading into the woods where we parked. I hopped out of the truck and went to the bed to get out our bags and the tent along with our portable camping stove. "Hey babe, could you get me the map? We need to plan a route for tomorrow, trying avoid anywhere we think would be loaded with the zombies." I asked Heather.
She went and grabbed the map out of the glove box and brought it to me.
"Thank you honey, I love you." I said
"I love you too." She replied
I started carrying all our stuff over to the flattest patch of land and began setting up a camp fire and lit it. I then pulled out the map and laid it on the ground near the fire using the light of fire to see the map. "Hey can you all come here. We need to plan a route for tomorrow to hopefully avoid all the places that would be very dangerous." I announced.
Everyone gathered around and began looking at the map, and then Tyler pointed out something strange.
"Thats the highway, and thats the exit we got off." He said pointing at the map. This little town we're in, its not on the map. we mad multiple turns getting to where we are."
I examined the map closely and Tyler was right, it is not on the map. Where we are is just a big blank section on the map.
"We're lost?" Heather asked in a panic filled voice.
"Oh god we're going to die, aren't we?" Tiffany questioned
I looked at Tyler and he looked at me as if we both didn't know what to tell them. I finally looked up at them, "Calm down, we are going to be fine. we'll figure something out. We always do."
The look of panic on their faces faded away.
"Lets just set up the camping stove, we'll make some dinner. I'll think of something while we eat." I tried my best to reasure them. "Don't worry, we'll be fine." I said as I walked over to the truck to get food out of the totes in the bed. I pulled out a package of bacon and a dozen eggs, and made my way back to the stove. "Look we have bacon, nobody can be scared or sad while eating bacon. It's physically impossible." I began cooking and just the sizzle of the bacon in the pan seemed to calm everyone down. A few minutes went by and everyone was much happier when I said "The bacon is done!"
"Baby come eat with us." Heather said to me.
"Honey I'm cooking the eggs. Don't worry I'll join you when its done." I reasured her.
I finished cooking and went to go sit down with the group and Heather layed down with her head in my lap. "Baby im scared, what if we dont make it out of here?" She said in a shakey voice.
"I promise you, I will figure something out. I always do baby. Why don't you just close your eyes and relax, take a breath. We will be alright, I promise."
"Ok." she said as she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
"What the fuck are we going to do?" Tyler asked
"So I was looking at the map more, so this is the exit we got off of right here" I pointed at the map. "We took a right hand turn then after that were lost. So we know that theres a road here." I drew the right hand turn on the map
"Right, so how do we get, not lost" Tiffany added
"You see right here on the map?" I pointed to just above the blank spot
"Yeah, but it's not labled, how is that going to help us?" Tyler questioned.
"We can climb up one of these trees, get a good vantage point and see what is around. We know what is above us so if we can identify that, we can find out where we are and what is around us and draw it on the map." I stated
"That idea definitely has the potential to work." Tiffany added.
Tyler nodded in agreement before chipping in, "How exactly do we plan on getting up in the trees? Look around the closest branch to the ground on any of these tress is still at least like a good 12 feet off the ground. We dont have a ladder either."
"That's a good point and a ladder is a great idea." I said enthuiastically.
"We dont have a ladder though my guy, I think you misheard me." Tyler said.
"Oh I heard you loud and clear. We have saws, we have rope, we'll make a ladder." I replied
"That makes sense now." Tyler laughed
"Well, I think it's time I be hitting the sac. I'll see you guys in the A.M" I said as I stood up and carried Heather to our tent.
She looked up at me smiling. "I wasn't able to fall asleep, but I feel better knowing you made a plan to get us out of here."
"Of course I did baby, I always figure something out just like I always say." I said as I set her down in the tent and layed down next to her.
"I love you, good night honey." She said.
"Good night baby." I leaned over and kissed her.
Tyler and Tiffany stayed out by the fire, going over the plan. I heard Tyler outside comforting her and explaing the plan, "Tomorrow were going to find out how we get out of here, heres the notebook with the survival plan if you want to read it, but I could tell you exactly whats after we get out of here. The plan says we make our way to a firework shop and stock up on fire works. You'll understand the point in that when we get to that point. After all that, we get to the prison. we'll be safe there. Me, and Dylan scoped it out years ago. and we will be 100 percent safe there."
"Ok, I trust you guys." She said. "I think I'm ready for bed. You coming in the tent with me?"
"Yeah, I'll be in, in a second." Tyler replied
I heard them getting in the tent and we all went to sleep.
I woke up the next morning to Tyler and Tiffany talking in the tent next to us
"Where are you going? Come cuddle for a little bit longer" Tiffany said
"Jesus Christ woman, I'm fuckin going to take a shit." Tyler replied, obviously trying not to laugh
I burst out laughing and accidentally woke up Heather.
"What happened?" Heather asked in a groggy voice
"Just what Tyler said." I said between laughs "Jesus christ woman, im fuckin going to take a shit."
Now heather was laughing as well. "We needed a good laugh like this."
We got up and got dressed and all gathered outside the tents by the fire pit we made the night before.
"I'll make breakfast." Heather said while walking to the tote with the food in it.
"I'll be back. I'm going to grab some logs to make this ladder so we can figure out how the hell to get out here."I announced to everyone
"Please be safe." Heather said.
"No promises." I replied and then went into the woods. I soon came back to the campsite with my arms full of logs and saw that breakfast was almost ready. A few minutes passed and breakfast was ready.
"What did you make babe?" I asked.
"I made sausage egg and cheese muffins." She replied
"Oh you guys are going to love this, Heather makes the most amazing muffins you'll ever taste." I said eagerly while taking a bite.
"These are amazing Heather! Where did you learn to cook like this?" Tiffany questioned
"My dad was a chef, and he taught me all the recipies I know." Heather said
We all sat and enjoyed breakfast together, and when we finished me and Tyler got to work on building the ladder.
"Well shit out of a fuckin' monkeys ass, I forgot to grab the tools and rope out of the truck." I said to Tyler as I started walking towards the truck.
I opened the tonneau cover and grabbed the saw and the rope. I made my way back to Tyler and we got to work, cutting up logs and tying them together until we had a finished ladder.
"I'll climb up first and then you follow?" I asked him
"Sure." Tyler agreed
I climbed up the ladder and made my way into the tree, I climbed higher and higher. I looked down and saw Tyler climbing up behind me. We were finally aproaching the top of the tree and when we did make it there I looked around. "Did you bring the map up?" I questioned
"Yes I did." Tyler answered.
We studdied the map and looked for the town off in the distance that's supposed to be there according to the map.
"Where the fuck is the town? It's just trees for miles upon miles." Tyler stated.
We continued searching until we saw something off in the distance. I looked closer and it was the town! Or what was leftof the town, now it was just a pile of rubble and smoke.
"There!" I pointed to the smoke.
"I think they found something!" Heather said down on the ground to Tiffany. "I see Dylan pointing to something."
"Ok, let's see here, there's the town that's on the map. It looks like there's a road coming out of the town coming towards where we are." I said to myself as I was drawing on the map. "Then if we follow that, it leads into a dirt road which looks like it leads to that intersection over there" I pointed towards it.
"Then it looks like from there that theres a paved road coming up into this little back woods town we're in and if we follow that road it seems to come out into the main road in this town" Tyler pointed out. "Then from that main road it seems to take a left right into this trail."
"Oh fuck yeah brother, we did it!" I shouted with excitement. "lets climb down and get the fuck out of here."
We slowly made our way down the tree and showed the girls the map.
"We gotta pack everything up and then we can finally be on our way." Tyler stated.
We packed everything up and threw it all in the trucks.
"Sweet, lets get the fuck out of here." I said.
Just as we were getting into the trucks, trouble arose.
"Here we go again." I said, "Everyone get your guns, here they come."