Wither With Me

CHAPTER 30 - CONTACT

No matter how hard he tried to get some rest, Logan did nothing but toss and turn all night. The bed was uncomfortable, the room was smelly, and the painkillers he took had done nothing to alleviate the pain on his back and right arm.

He left the bed. If he wasn't going to be able to rest anyway, he might as well make good use of the time he had. He abandoned the room and started walking down the eerie, empty hallway.

The bandages somewhat limited his movements and pulled on his skin, making the wounds underneath sting and burn.

"Ow...!"

'This fucking sucks... Although it could've been worse, I suppose. At the very least, I'm still alive... Really, what the hell was that about...?'

######

"Slow down, you fucker...! Like hell I'm gonna die in a car crash!" Jacobs raised his voice from the passenger's seat.

"You'd rather let that thing kill you instead!?" replied Logan.

"We both saw it crash into a building like a cannonball a couple of minutes ago! We haven't seen it since then, I say we've lost it."

"Yeah, sure! Like hell I'm gonna believe it's given up on us!"

He yanked the steering wheel, causing the van to turn abruptly, almost to the point of overturning. It managed to remain stable, just in time to resume speeding down another street. Several complaining voices came from the back of the van, but he ignored them. Keeping the vehicle in motion while avoiding obstacles was already stressful enough.

He took another sudden turn. Whatever it took to make that monster lose them for good.

He wasn't paying attention to the speedometer, and he didn't need to. He knew they were going at dangerous speeds. On the back of his mind, he let out a chuckle. Driving at excessive speeds in the middle of the city was one of those things he never expected to end up doing.

'Who cares about speed? Not me, as long as it keeps me alive! Who's gonna stop me!? The cops!?'

He maneuvered around the cars in his way, with surprising skill given the wild speed of the vehicle. Then, as if mocking his inner thoughts, a cop emerged from behind a crashed sedan, stumbling right in the middle of the road. In the brief period of time before the inevitable collision, it was able to drag his eyes towards Logan, empty and lifeless.

"Fuck...!! You're kidding—!!!"

While attempting to avoid the shambler, Logan lost control of the vehicle. The back wheels started skidding on the asphalt, unable to get a grip. The van spun around, ran over the shambler, crashed against other vehicles, and slid on the road after flipping on its side.

They should have worn their seatbelts.

...

Numbness all over his body. Ringing in his ears. Blurry vision. Lack of balance. He found himself at the bottom of the van, with the sky visible through the open passenger's door above him. Jacobs had left already.

With great effort, Logan was barely able to pull himself up and out of the vehicle. Before getting down onto solid ground, he looked at the surroundings.

A couple of meters away, Julien crawled towards Lilian on all fours, with an obvious limp on his left leg. The girl wasn't moving; she was curled up in the fetal position, completely still on the ground. The other two men who came with them were strewn across the sidewalk. One of them grunted in pain, the other one was silent.

*Bang!!* *Bang!!*

Jacobs, standing right beside the van, had opened fire. The guy complaining on the sidewalk was swiftly silenced as soon as the bullet bore a hole on his head. A second later, a shambler dropped itself on top of his body, attempting to feast on the now deceased prey. More shamblers approached the scene from several directions, attracted by the noise.