A Dead Man's Tale

Chapter 8 (Jessica)

After a week of driving the escapees from Ridge Mont High School were finally able to shake the fear of Lee's Red Sashes catching up to them. They left Missouri behind them and were entering Kansas, an expanse of flatland that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"I'm sure this place looked rather nice once upon a time," said Craig. It was his turn at the wheel. "I saw on TV that there were a number of nice diners to get some chow." Television and decent food was nothing but an old dream now.

Dennis was asleep in the back seat leaving the scavenger and the radio operator in silence broken by very little conversation.

Craig let the car coast over the state border. "We made it to Kansas."

"We never did figure out what our final destination is," Jessica pointed out.

"Our first goal was to escape the school, which we did," answered Craig. "Our long term goal is going to be our next decision but for now we keep driving and surviving."

Jessica gave a disheartened hum, "It's the same thing as always."

Craig was driving across Kansas' pitted roads leading into the interior. Nothing but the humming of the tires on the roads was heard, large pot holes made them jump in their seats.

"So tell me, what's going on in that book you've been reading." Craig was referring to the journal. "You've been reading it for the past week."

Jessica told Craig about discovering Howard's corpses hanging from the barn. She began to summarize all the events that she read about from the opening days of the outbreak, his escape from the house, meeting Cortez and discovering the survivors in the quarry. She left out the request to find his family and deliver the journal. Craig showed a general interest in the events of the journal. That opened the door to a conversation about Seattle.

The curiosity got the better of her. "Have you heard about a group in Seattle?"

Craig thought a moment. Thinking back to the early days of the outbreaks when everyone was scrambling for refugee centers, army camps and any other building rumored to be safe.

"Sort of, when all the outbreaks started in dozens of cities simultaneously there were hundreds of places saying that there were survivors in this place or that place. It was hard to organize everything." Craig turned off the highway at the sight of a large pile up. They would have to find another road leading back onto the highway that was clear.

"Not only was it difficult organizing who was where and how many but eventually the shelters were overrun either from within or from without. It went from loads of radio traffic to small bursts in a matter of days. After that it became only rumors of shelters. Seattle was one of them. One week it was there then the next it was overrun."

Hearing about the inconsistent reports did not surprise Jessica. She knew from the beginning that the odds of Seattle still surviving were slim. It was the pipedream of all pipedreams to think that this one specific colony was still standing.

"Do you think it still exists?" she asked pointedly.

Craig shrugged at the thought. "I'm not sure. Before the outbreaks I was a pretty devout person, belief in the unexplainable, went to the synagogue every Sabbath and everything. Obviously the walking dead put a damper on my religious beliefs but I still like to think there's a chance that we can reach a 'promised land'. That's why I cooked up this crazy scheme of ours." He gave a pleasant smirk.