Beside the Dying Fire

Danny's POV

As Savannah kept speeding down the road, I was gripping the handles in fear. I looked over at the speedometer.

"SAVANNAH! YOU'RE GOING 125 ON A RESIDENTIAL ROAD!!" I yelled.

"What police is going to stop me?!" she laughed.

I looked at the dashboard again. The temperature gauge was extremely high.

"SAVANNAH, YOU'RE GOING TO OVERHEAT THE CAR!"

"I've got it under control!"

"I DON'T BELIEVE THAT!"

Sure enough, smoke began to emit out from under the engine. The car sputtered to a stop.

"I told you so," I said in a 'know it all' voice. She elbowed me in the gut.

"Relax, I can handle it," she said.

"I'll go, too," I said.

"Me too," Ajax chimed in.

"Kai?" Savannah asked. "Can you look around to see where we are?"

He nodded his head as the four of us exited the van. Kai ran for a gift shop across the street while the rest of us opened the hood. All of the steam seemed to be coming out of the radiator. Ajax figured that out, and reached for the radiator cap.

"AJAX, DON'T!" Savannah yelled.

He didn't listen. He screwed the cap off and immediately regretted the decision. He brought both of his hands up to cover his face from the past boiling water spraying on him. He screeched as the skin on his arms received 3rd degree burns. As this happened, Savannah tackled me, getting me out of the splash zone. Ajax passed out from his pain, and his arms were giving my eyes pain. I looked through the windshield and saw all of the passengers frightened.

"He needs medical attention," I told Savannah.

"No shit," she told me sarcastically.

Savannah walked over to the car door and opened it to talk with everyone.

"You all, find a hospital. Get bandages and pain killers. When Kai gets back from that shop, the three of us will find a new car," she commanded.

"I'll stay with Ajax," Payson volunteered.

"Okay, let's break."

Kai came out of the gift shop and we informed him on what happened. He nodded and we all took off. Kai told Savannah that we were in a town just outside of Reno, Nevada. Not far from San Diego. The three of us walked down the gravel road, no vehicles in sight. We must have walked a mile before we felt like we should turn back. Then we heard the screaming. We all looked at each other and took off for whoever was begging for help.

A man in his 20s and a girl about 14 were fending off walkers. They were surrounded. Kai and Savannah started to move towards them, but I held my hand in front of them.

"There's just too many," I whispered. "You aren't gonna go out there."

"No," Savannah conflicted against me. "What I'm not gonna do stand here like a little bitch."

She yanked out her hatchet and Kai his sword and they both ran out to save them. I figured that I would join them, too.

Savannah launched her hatchet at one walker, getting the survivors' attention. Kai beheaded quite a few, until a walker got too close for him to use his blade. He shoved his forearm under the walker's chin so that he couldn't get bitten until I came up and stabbed the corpse in the head with my knife. The body fell onto Kai, knocking him to the ground. Kai didn't even notice that his pistol had fallen out of his holster. Kai pushed the walker off of him and got back up to fight. Savannah didn't stop swinging her hatchet. The other two just stood and watched us do all of their work. After every walker was dead, we turned to the others.