Jackson's story

Chapter 7

"Offer me that deathless death
Good God let me give you my life"
Take Me To Church-Hozier

Of course, this was my car, so I wasn't going to let Bella drive the whole way, even though I didn't even know where the heck we were headed to. I guess we were driving west, because we passed the "you are now leaving Texas" sign. As we passed into the lower part of New Mexico, close to the border, we eventually passed the "Welcome to Arizona" sign. I had never been to Arizona, but I'll tell you something, IT IS HOT THERE!

It took us a whole day to get there, and by the time we stopped in yet another rural city, I noticed that neither one of us had wanted to eat. Of course, we drank up all the water that I had in my car, but we hadn't had anything to eat. I guess, we saw humans and both thought, "look humans! Living things that won't try to eat us... well that we know of."

That's another thing, I decided not to tell anyone where we came from, or what happened to us. I really don't think an anti-social teenage, and adult like ourselves would really want to go up to someone and say, "help! We come from Texas, and our city has been attacked by vampire things and everyone was eaten except us!" Yeah, we were happy to see people, but not that happy.

As mentioned before, we had not eaten, but food was on our mind. I pulled up to a diner, and parked the car. The city we were in didn't seem like it had a lot of stoplights, big stores, or big restaurants. I reached for my wallet and took my keys in hand. As Bella walked towards the diner door, I opened it for her.

"Wow, who even are you?" She said, I guess it was her own little way of saying thank you.

"You're welcome," I mumbled, and we found a small table to sit down at.

We sat there for about a minute, and awkwardly look around the almost empty diner. I think it was mainly empty because there was a clock that read 7:00 AM. The only other person there was a man in some work clothes, drinking his coffee, and reading the newspaper.

"Can I help you?" asked the short, middle-aged, waitress. She had her medium length, brunette, colored hair tied back, she had a name tag that read 'Maria', and looked at me with a set of hazel eyes.

"Uh, I'll have a hot coffee, please," I answered.

"Water for me," Bella added.

"It'll be out here shortly,"

"So, how are you doing, Jackson?" Bella asked.

"Um, considering my whole tow-"

"Dammit Jackson, I asked how YOU were not the damn town," she rolled her eyes.

"I'm just dandy, princess, how are you?" I answered sarcastically.

"I'm fine, once I get my food, I'll be even better," she replied, and started looking at the menu, deciding what she wanted to eat.

I scanned the menu as well, I could be picky at times, but when you haven't eaten in a day, then anything sounds good to eat to you. A minute passed, and I decided what I wanted. I set the menu down, and the waitress appeared again with our beverages.

"Here you are, are y'all ready to order?" She said in a monotone voice. Her attitude definitely showed she was not wanting to be here.

"Yes. I'll have some pancakes, along with some eggs and toast," said Bella and the waitress grabbed our menus.

"I'll have the same, please," I said, and the lady walked to the counter.

"Copycat," teased Bella.

"Well at least I have manners," I responded back.

"Whatever."

We sat there silently, not really wanting to create any small talk. Besides, we would have plenty of time for that, on our next car ride together, whenever that would be. After a while, both of our dishes came. This time, we both kindly thanked her, which seemed to surprise the waitress. After she walked away, we devoured our dishes. Thankfully, there was enough to fill the both of us up.

This time, both in better moods, I decided to say, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, but, where are we going to?"

I thought for a moment, "well, maybe I could get a map, and then we could drive to the nearest big city. We could probably find somewhere to stay, something like that."

"Yeah, but, where EXACTLY are we headed to, like our final destination?"

"Let's go to Los Angeles, or Hollywood, San Diego. I've always wanted to go to California."

"But, Texas i-"

"Bella, I know, bu-but, how about we just visit California, and then we can decide to go back. Let's just wait everything out. Once this all dies down, I promise, we can go back," I pleaded. Although, I don't really know if it was ever going to die down, I didn't know if we could ever go back.

"Alright."

"Really?" I asked.

"Well, I said yes, didn't I?"

"You said, alright."

She rolled her eyes, and I gave her a grin, "Let's get out of her-"

I was quickly cut off by a scream. What in the hell was going on?

"WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS?!" Yelled a voice, looking toward the windows of the diner. Oh crap. Not this again. Not another town. Why us?

"Get down Bella," I warned, and she dove under the booth.

The man made a quick escape for the door. No you foolish ass, stay here, it's safe.

"AHHH!" My thoughts were cut off by a male scream, but not from the man. They must be coming in from the kitchen too. Dammit, dammit, dammit! I didn't have a weapon on me.

"Barricade the doors!" I yelled, but the man ignored my advice and ran outside. A selfish and stupid move, but I didn't have time to worry about him. I bolted for the door, and grabbed two chairs. Thankfully, that was the only visible door that I needed to barricade, I just hoped it would hold.

I heard a small cry, and tried not to panic, then I heard a familiar scream. I ran to Bella first.

"Jackson, what's happening?" Bella said terrified.

"Bella, I need you to be strong, I need you to help me. I know it sounds like a lot right now, but I need you. Do you think you can help me?" I begged, and she nodded.

I heard pounding on the opposite side of the building where we were. The creatures may be held off for now, but I didn't know how long that glass was going to stay. I pulled Bella out from under the booth. I looked over at the counter, where no one was to be seen. I had to barricade the door leading from the kitchen to the counter. The only problem was, the door had no handle, it was a door that swung, ones that are very common in restaurants.

"Jackson! Look!" I turned to where Bella was pointing. It was the man who decided to make a run for it. He was getting attacked and chased by two creatures. He froze in fear, or shock, and they quickly bit him. It was disgusting, horrifying, but they continued eating him. They completely demolished his flesh, or most of it, until they were satisfied. Weird. They didn't seem to be just vampires, they seemed to be both zombies too. Now I knew what we were dealing with. Scary.

I heard a growl, and turned back to the kitchen door. It swung open lazily. There appeared a pale blue, undead creature, moaning and groaning as if it wanted to eat. It was not going to, that's for sure.

"Take this," I yelled as I grabbed one of the plates on the table and chucked it at the creature.

It let out a sound because of the discomfort it felt, and started to charge for me. That lead me to throw that other plate, as well as the other dishes, like the cups. I grabbed the silverware. Bella saw what I was doing, and decided to help. She quickly picked up shards and threw them at the ugly thing. It seemed to slow it down, but we weren't going to kill it this way. I needed a plan, but I had no time to think. I reached for a napkin dispenser, as the thing came closer and closer. I reached my arm back and began to throw it, and I heard a scary sound. The sound of shattering glass.