The Burden Of Tomorrow

Chapter 11. Jersey Shore

We were making steady progress towards New Jersey and we showed no sign of slowing down or stopping.
"Hey babe, Does Nick know how to drive stick?" Heather asked me.
"Yes, I was also just thinking that, now we don't have to stop as well." I responded.
Heather looked happier knowing that I can now rest when I need to.
"Can I put on some music?" Heather asked.
"Of course you can baby." I replied
Heather connected her phone to the bluetooth head unit and put on Umbrella by Rihanna. She sat there in the passenger seat singing along with the song. Something about Heather singing along with her favorite song reminded me of a time not so long ago, when life was simple and zombies didn't exist. The stress just left my body and I felt at peace just listening to my wife sing. I continued driving down the highway, with everyone else following.
I waited for the song to end before I picked the mic up, "You guys wanna stop somewhere and eat?"
Tiffany's voice came through the radio, "Yes, I'm starving."
"We have no issue with that, we'll have to get a CB radio for Nick though." Tyler's father said.
"Yeah, we'll stop at a truck stop and see if we can find one." I replied.
We continued down the highway, passing exit after exit, searching for a truck stop until we finally found one. We pulled into the parking lot and sure enough there was a semi truck there, forgotten and left to rot.
We all got out of our trucks and walked over to the truck. I tried to open the door but it was locked. I climbed up the steps on the side and looked down at everyone "Cover your eyes." I said as I punched the window as hard as I could. It shattered and glass went everywhere as I reached inside and unlocked the truck. I climbed inside and pulled all the wires out and the CB radio and handed it down to Nick. "Now you can talk to us on the road and stay up to date with what's going on." I laughed
"Thanks brother." Nick replied.
"Can we eat now?" Tiffany asked.
I laughed, "Yeah, lets go set up the stove and make some food."
We walked back to the trucks and I opened the cover on the bed of my truck and pulled out the tote of food and the camping stove.
"Wow you really are prepared!" Nick said.
"Oh yeah, big time doomsday prepper right here." Heather giggled while pointing to me.
"Cool... Ya know, this is the first time i've seen this famous rampage of your's othen then on facebook, and I gotta admit, she's clean." Nick said as he walked around the truck.
"Yeah, I rebuilt quite a bit of her. You wanna drive it after this?" I asked him as I dug through the food tote looking for something to make.
"Oh fuck yeah man, that would be awesome. I'm loving this thing already!" Nick replied.
I pulled out a few cans of raviolis. "We can do this." I said putting the cans on the tailgate of the truck.
Everyone seemed alright with it so I opened the cans and poured them into a pot and set it on our little stove.
"Hey, I'm gonna go check inside and see if theres anything we can use." Tyler said.
"You know we dont go in buildings or wander off alone unless we make sure it's clear. Nick can you go with him?" I said
"Yeah." Nick walked towards the building with Tyler.
Everyone was gathered around the camp stove talking and laughing and having a good time, making the best of a bad situation as I finished cooking and started passing around paper plates full of ravioli. Tyler and Nick finally came back and they both had they're arms full of bags of chips and bottles of water.
"Surprisingly the vending machines havent been broken into until now." Nick said.
"Hey nick, can I drive the El Camino?" Heather asked
Nick fumbled through the pocket of his ripped up jeans covered in blood and mud until he pulled the keys out, "Yeah, I have no issue with it."
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys and handed them to Nick, "Here's the keys for my truck. You'll love driving it."
We finished eating and packed everything up. I went to work on wiring the radio into Nick's truck while everyone sat by my truck, catching up and going over plans. Heather walked over to where I was working.
"How are you holding up baby?" She asked.
"I'm fine. Why? I replied
"I just know you're under alot of preasure leading the group and trying to keep us all safe, but we'll be in Nick's truck. I can drive honey. You need a break every once in a while." She continued on. "You don't have to worry babe, we have nick with us. He showed up with rocket launchers, Nick can keep us safe while you rest."
"I know, Nick is a badass dude and he won't let anything happen. I will let you drive. I'm just about beat, I'm tired." I said.
I finished wiring in the radio and informed everyone we were ready to go.
Nick got in my truck while Heather and I climbed into the El Camino. I got in the passenger seat so I could finally take a break from driving. We were just about to pull out of the parking lot when Nick's voice came across the radio. "Hey Dylan, what's the switch on your dashboard for?"
I picked up the mic laughing, "flip it and find out."
I looked over and saw him flip the switch and the flap in the exhaust changed the flow of the exhaust and made it loud. I could see him laughing and enjoying himself.
"I'm ready now whenever you guys are." Nick said.
"We're ready." Tyler responded
"So are we." Tyler's parents now coming through the radio.
"Alright, lets rock and roll." I said.
Heather pulled out of the parking lot, driving us back onto the highway, everyone else soon followed.
Heather picked up the mic, "We still have about 8 hours of driving to go and not a lot of time."
We continued on, flying down the highway going 70 the whole way. I eventually fell asleep as Heather drove us down the highway.
I woke up and asked Heather, "How long was I out?"
"We've been driving for about 7 hours or so." She replied.
We passed a sign that read "Sussex New Jersey, 90 miles."
"We're getting close." I said to Heather.
Heather agreed and we continued driving, everyone following us.
We finally entered New jersey and we were getting close to the destination.
I picked up the mic, "Do we want to do the last hour of driving and then get some food or do we want to stop now and eat?"
It was silent for a minute, I assumed everyone was debating if we should stop or keep going. The silence was finally broken by Tyler's voice
"We're fine with stopping."
Tyler's mom coming across the radio now, "We can stop."
Finally Nick spoke, "I'm fine with anything brother."
We drove down the highway a little farther until we found a exit that says it leads to a bunch of restaraunts, and we went off the exit.
We pulled into a town and stopped at a place called Sebastian's Schnitzelhaus. The parking lot almost looked alive again with our 4 trucks parked there.
"We deserve a little break, It would be nice if we go inside and just sit down and have a meal like the world is normal." Heather suggested.
"I like that idea." Nick said.
We made our way inside and found a table with no plates on it and sat down. I reached over to the table across from us and grabbed the menus and passed them out.
"They made pizza at one point in time." Tyler said, looking at the menu.
"The zombies didn't come that long ago, and restaraunts have backup generators to keep the fridges and freezers on so all the ingredients are most likely still good." Nick said as he stood up.
"Where ya going?" Heather asked him.
"I'm going to the kitchen to see if they have the indredients to make a pizza." Nick replied.
Nick walked to the kitchen and we heard him digging through everything. I heard him fighting with the stove and finally heard it click on. About 20 minutes passed and Nick came back out carrying a pan with a pizza on it.
"Holy shit, we actually get to enjoy life again for a meal." I said, taking a slice of pizza.
Everyone else took a slice as well and we just sat there eating, talking and laughing as if the world wasn't fucked. We eventually finished our meal and made our way back to the trucks.
"That was fun, we needed that." Tiffany said.
"It was, unfortunately all the food in restaraunts is going to go bad and we won't be able to do this again." Heather said, sounding somewhat sad.
Everyone seemed a little sad knowing that was the last normal meal we'd probably ever have.
"Hey look at the bright side, at least we got to do it and have a good time." I said to them, I pulled out my phone and showed them the picture I took of us inside having fun. "we'll always have this picture and the memories."
Everyone agreed and we got back in our trucks and continued our journey to Sussex.
"Babe, I just realized we haven't seen any zombies in a while. That's a little bit odd." Heather said.
I though back and realized she was right. "SHIT." I shouted.
I rushed to pick up the mic, "We have no time to stay over night when we pick up Heather's parents. There's been no zombies for a while which leads me to believe there's going to a ambush of them soon."
"FUCK." Tyler said.
"Bring it on brother. I'm ready for a war." Nick replied.
We all went silent and continued driving.
We drove for another hour and we finally arrived at our destination and we pulled into the driveway behind the 1982 Volkswagon Rabbit Pickup.