Ashes to Ashes (Book 1 of 2) A ZOMBIE FICTION

Chapter 4: The Move

Take two over sized vehicles, put them on a highway out of a city with fires ablaze, and drive them towards the mountains. That would be the scene if we were in a movie. But we weren't. This is real, this is our lives.

"Remember everyone. We can't travel forever, so if we do stop to fill up we do it in a safe location and make sure we've got all present or accounted for." Drake said, the radio static getting stronger as I pushed further ahead of him; alone in my semi. 

It turned out that the bull-bars preformed well with the size of the truck and the small cars that stood in our way. Every once and a while I had to jerk the wheel of the truck to get a car away from the front end of my truck.

"Alex, try to miss one of the cars..." He joked.

"Yeah, I'll try. Just like you can try to get that thing above fifty."

"You're just mad that we're heavier."

"No, I'm just mad that I've got to go so slow for you." I joked back.

The mood had lightened between us, but got heated over something serious; most of the time.

"Hey, just don't forget we're back here." Crystal jumped in.

"Well then stay in my mirrors." This received silence and I soon found why; the others had fallen back and stopped, "Shit!" I said, pushing the brakes to their limits on the steep incline, throwing the truck into neutral.

 Why did they stop? Did they blow something again?  I thought as I sat, then saw Drake get out and climb above the vehicle and towards the bucket. I watched with confusion as he lifted himself towards the cliff face that lined almost the entire stretch of highway. He essentially touched the cliff with the bucket, and then climbed out and disappeared for a minute. He came back into view holding a Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle and a large bag.

"What the hell?" He seemed to celebrate as he got back into the truck, then started it and barreled towards me. 

I put the truck into first as he hit eighty going down the hill, I knew there wouldn't be any out running him, so I pushed through the concrete median and into what would have been oncoming traffic. I watched them blow by, on the brakes the entire way and only being slowed down by the impact of two to four thousand pound cars. I pushed through the rows of cars and tried to catch up, reaching the bottom of the hill and pulling through the median again to get ahead of them, knowing they wouldn't be able to push up the hill through the cars.

"What the fuck? What, you couldn't stop?" I shouted over the radio, glad that they hadn't rear-ended me.

"What, you forget the brakes are shot?" Drake replied.

"Oh, well fuck. You could've taken the side of the road, you know."

"Yeah, but we didn't. So it all worked out."

"If you had rear-ended me, we would probably all die; you know that, right?"

"Yeah. But we didn't, so quit complaining."

I released the switch on the radio and muttered to myself, "Dick."

We traveled for two more hours, covering a distance of about eighty or ninety miles, before we called the road trip for the night.

I jumped down from the door of the semi, then approached the big yellow truck. At the same time, Drake was grabbing the .50 cal and climbing out. 

"Drew said that you'd probably be best with this, you want it, you can have it." He said, clearly hoping that I said no.

I thought, then looked down to the shotgun around my chest. I was taller than Drake, who stood at only five feet seven inches, and had much thicker bones. I probably would have been the best one to handle the large, bone-breaking rifle; but I refused his offer and let him keep the rifle which wasn't much shorter than he was. 

"Nah, you can keep it."

"Sweet! Thanks man." He said, smiling now. I stepped away from him and walked around to the passenger side door of the semi and pulled my pack through the window, then turned to face the structure that we had stopped at. 

A small highway-side motel, 'Days Inn', with blue siding and an Italian style red-tiled roof. Looked hideous to me, but I didn't write up the plans, so what ever. It was a straight lined building, behind the parking lot, with about two dozen rooms on two floors.

"Pick a buddy! Josh, with me." Drake told us, beginning the normal sweep and clear routine.

I whistled, getting Drew's attention, then waved him over as I neared the stairs to the upper floor. 

I could hear the two of them below us, kicking in doors and breaking the frames, but we'd go silent and I would pick the locks. Taking longer, yes, but it only took me a matter of seconds to pick each of the security locks. Each time I did Drew went into the room first, using a flashlight to see into it. 

The motel was dead, no life at all and the power still worked. We found that out as we cleared the last room and joked around with the light switch, turning it on.

"Clear!" I heard from below us.

"Clear!" I shouted in response.

Since the Alliance hospital I had continued to grow and now stood at the same height that the tallest female was at, making me the tallest male. We had actually needed to get new clothes for me and Drew, who had also grown, but not as much.

"Everyone pick a room." I said, letting everyone else go first.

Not wanting a broken door, they all filed into the upstairs rooms and closed the doors. The last two standing in the parking lot were Drake and I.

"I'm sleeping in my truck." I told Drake as I walked back towards the large semi.

"Alright, don't forget to lock your doors and roll your windows up, I'll sleep with Crystal tonight."

"Have fun."

The night drew on as I sat, the driver's seat cranked back so that I could lay down. My radio played, that one remaining station still playing.

'The infected can't climb, sprint, or use weapons. But they are still deadly. Now the number one cause of deaths in the world,' The radio host joked, 'and have taken full control of all cities and most of the country. They can't even open doors. But despite basic functions not working, the infected seem to be like dogs and can either smell you, or hear you a lot better. Loud noises, especially things like guns or fire alarms, attract them from miles away depending on the gun. So if you have guns, either get some melee weapons; bats, swords, knives, etcetera... or avoid the infected and only use guns in emergencies. As I rummaged through the studio, I found a bunch of disks and USB drives full of music. I can now play you music.' I shut the radio off and started searching through the truck.

Above me was a 'truckers bunk' type space; with a three pronged plug. In the glove box I found a large flashlight and a Gerber Multi-tool. In my door I found a machete and a large wad of receipts. The passenger side door held a big box of bungy cords. In the back seat was a big brown bag of towing straps and two new truck batteries for this semi. I lifted my seat and then climbed up to the bunk. 

As I laid my head down on the thin mattress, my knees bent because I couldn't fit, I felt something hard under it. As I pulled the object out from under me I discovered that the bottom of the two plugs was filled and this was why. It was a Panasonic Tough book that was plugged in and didn't have a lock screen.

I opened it and found that the internet service provided by the hotel still worked. After opening Google and a few searches later I discovered that the CDC had been able to post a few details before everything happened. 

Influenzitus- Once an individual is infected with this disease they have an unknown amount of time before death. Once dead this person will be brought back from the dead and have one desire, flesh. It will attack living persons and infect them, spreading the virus through saliva. 

Mutated by extreme amounts of radiation, Influenzitus is directly related to the Influenza strain, but has undergone extreme genetic changes. 

Origin: Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine.

And that was the end of the page.