Apocalyptic ✔

Six

Look For Mom

You can't go without trying to find Mom. There's no way you can leave her behind. Making the turn, you start driving toward the city. You will find her, and the two of you will get out of here together.

The first thing you notice, is that the population of zombies increases immediately. The farther you drive, the more of them you see. You also aren't seeing any evidence of alive people, anymore. However, the amount of mutilated bodies scattered here and there is rising.

As the city comes into view, smoke starts to choke the air around you. Thick, black plumes of the toxic fumes billow into the sky. You slow down and stare in horror at the scene ahead of you. The city is burning.

Driving slowly now, you keep an alert eye out for trouble. You feel fairly secure inside this car. The zombies can't bite you in here. As long as you don't get trapped somewhere, you are relatively safe.

The cars along the road become more dense, and eventually, jam the road, making it difficult to keep going. When the road becomes impassable, you carefully edge onto the grass. You have to keep going.

Another quarter of a mile in and a red suv catches your eye. It's Mom's.

The drivers door hangs open, like she must have bolted in a hurry. Her vehicle is stuck, wedged into the center of a massive pileup. Hitting the brakes, you look around for any sign of her.

There are zombies stumbling in and out of the traffic jam. Drawn by your car, they are mostly coming your way.

Mom isn't here.

But, her suv made it this far, so she isn't in the city any more. You must have passed her somewhere along the road. It makes sense. She wouldn't be walking around out in the open. She would have to keep hidden as she works her way home.

You have to go back.

Carefully turning the car around, you start back the way you came, mind whirling. How are you going to find Mom? You could easily drive right past her, again.

Busy watching the road ahead, you don't notice the door of a large van up ahead sliding open. Two men climb out, and step into your path. Startled, you hit the brakes and watch as the one on the right points a gun at you.

"Get out." You can clearly hear the man order in a cold voice.

What are you supposed to do? If you get out, the hoard of walking corpses that are closing in will have you in no time. But, that gun is steadily pointed at your face. These guys look serious.

You can't get out. Making a split second decision, you stomp on the accelerator. The car jumps ahead, nearly plowing over the guys. They both dive to the side, narrowly missing being hit.

You register that the gunman is firing at you as you fly by in a squeal of tires. The glass in the window next to you implodes, covering you in broken shards.

Foot pressed hard to the pedal, you keep going. With wide eyes, you watch the two men disappear in the rearview mirror. After they are no longer visable, you slow to a more reasonable pace. You've somehow managed to avoid a collision during your crazed flight.

The adrenaline flooding your system starts to leave, and you become aware of a throbbing pain in your side. Looking down at yourself, you see a flood of red covering your lap and the car interrior. You were shot, and are bleeding profusely.

Slapping a hand over the bullet hole, you press to try to stop the bleeding. Red seeps between your fingers, refusing to even slow down.

The pain is now morphing into something worse, burning you like an internal inferno. When a snarling zombie starts to reach into the car, you realise that you had rolled to a stop, almost getting yourself eaten. You can't stop now, they will get inside through the broken out window.

Hitting the gas again, you drive with one hand and try to keep pressure on the wound with the other.

It's an impossible task. Your vision starts to blur and you know that you are losing too much blood.

Darkness appears at the edge of your vision, and slowly creeps inward. Now, you can't really see anything. Your head is throbbing and heart pounding, but you can't seem to catch a full breath.

As you slip into unconsciousness, your foot leaves the accelerator.