Age of zombies

[36] The crossing

The next morning, after a rough night on watch, I finally got a chance to sleep as we hit the road again. The hum of the truck's engine and the gentle rocking of the vehicle as it rolled over the cracked highway lulled me into a restless doze. Yabe was sitting beside me, her head resting against the window, her eyes heavy with exhaustion. We hadn't slept well for days, and the toll was showing.

Daisy was behind the wheel, as usual, her eyes locked on the road ahead. Ethan was in the back, trying to keep himself entertained by sketching something on the back of an old map he'd found. Liza, sitting next to him, had her headphones in, completely absorbed in whatever anime soundtrack she was listening to, her earlier bratty attitude subdued, at least for now.

We were heading north, avoiding the bigger towns and cities. Crowded places were death traps, packed with both the undead and the desperate survivors who had turned savage to survive. We'd already learned the hard way that trust was a luxury we couldn't afford.

As we neared the Idaho border, the landscape started to change. The endless stretch of highway was flanked by thick forests and mountains in the distance, the kind of remote terrain that felt both comforting and ominous at the same time. The further away from civilization we got, the more it felt like we were escaping the worst of it, but the isolation also brought its own dangers.

I was just starting to drift off again when a loud groan echoed from somewhere up ahead. My eyes snapped open, and I immediately tensed. Daisy slowed the truck as a lone figure appeared in the distance, staggering along the side of the road.

"Another one," Daisy muttered, glancing at the zombie, which was lurching aimlessly toward us. "Fking stragglers."

She didn't even bother pulling the truck to a full stop. Instead, she reached down, rolled down her window, and pulled her revolver from its holster. The zombie, its decayed face half-covered in dried blood, groaned as it stumbled toward the truck, but it was moving too slowly to be a real threat.

Without missing a beat, Daisy took aim, her arm steady as she lined up the shot.

BANG!

The gunshot echoed through the quiet morning air, and the zombie's head snapped back, a sickening spray of blood and bone following the bullet's exit. The body crumpled to the ground, twitching for a moment before going still.

Daisy rolled the window back up, holstered her gun, and kept driving without a word.

"Dang," Ethan muttered from the back seat, shaking his head. "You're getting too good at that, Daisy."

She snorted, eyes still locked on the road ahead. "It's not hard when they're that slow. It's the hordes you have to worry about."

Yabe, who had barely stirred during the whole thing, sighed softly, her voice tired. "It feels like they're everywhere now, even in the middle of nowhere."

"They are," Daisy replied bluntly. "We'll see more the closer we get to the border. Just stay sharp."

I leaned back in my seat, trying to shake the unease that had settled over me. The zombies we'd been encountering lately were mostly alone or in small groups—stragglers, like Daisy said—but I knew that didn't mean we were safe. All it took was one mistake, one moment of letting our guard down, and we'd be overwhelmed.

"Idaho should be less crowded," I said, mostly trying to convince myself. "If we avoid the major highways and stick to the backroads, we should be able to stay clear of most of them."

"That's the plan," Daisy replied. "We keep our distance from the cities and the bigger towns. No reason to go anywhere near the reservations either."

Yabe turned to me, her eyes still heavy with fatigue but filled with quiet determination. "Senpai... do you think we'll make it to Banff?"