A Different Virus: Heartfire

Chapter 2

Two days later, I woke up to the faint smell of smoke. A few hours later, it was much stronger and I was starting to get worried. Evan quickly climbed a tree and then came back down even faster than he had gone up.

He spoke urgently, "Forest fire, and the wind is blowing this way. We have to get out of here, quickly."

Our hand had been forced. We had to leave.

We hastily loaded both our vehicles with as much as they could hold and started driving. There was just enough time to throw the essentials into our vehicles and for me to grab a couple of pictures of Evan, Kailey, and myself off my desk. Clouds of smoke were being blown towards us by the strengthening wind.

I followed Evan's jeep out of the driveway with tears slightly blurring my vision. This was my home, with pictures and memories of my parents and friends that I may never see again. My parents were travelling on the other side of the world somewhere, and I had no other living relatives.

To be forced out of it was terrible, especially when I had no idea if it would still be standing in a couple of days. I didn't know if I would even be able to come back to this spot. Zombies were taking over the world and a forest fire was threatening my home. This was not one of my better days.

The rutted gravel road in front of my house hadn't seen much traffic, but the larger paved highway in the distance was a different story. Other people must have heard the radio broadcast, or perhaps, they were simply trying to flee the big cities or the forest fire. Even though a week had passed since the outbreak, the roads were still fairly busy.

I made sure to keep Evan's Jeep in my sight, tightly gripping the steering wheel as various vehicles passed us like we were standing still. Every few minutes we passed an abandoned vehicle that had been left parked at the edge of the road or in the ditch; they had likely run out of gasoline or encountered mechanical problems. My car's fuel gauge said that I had plenty of fuel left.

Once we were halfway to Wainwright, we turned onto a larger highway. It had even more abandoned vehicles on the side of the road. Doors had been left open as if the occupants were in too much of a hurry to close them.

I craned my neck as I spotted movement ahead – a handful of people were running along the edge of the road. An abandoned truck blocked most of my view at the moment, but once I passed it, I got a better look at the group. There were two adults and three kids. At the same moment, I also saw my first zombies. Three of them to be exact, and all three were covered with a large amount of blood.

My stomach turned when I noticed that one was missing an arm. From the way it was trying to hurry along in an odd shuffling-skipping gait, it must have had a few other injuries as well. My heart rate picked up as I realized that the zombies were chasing after the terrified family at a speed that was similar to a speed-walk. The family was outrunning their slower adversaries quickly enough, but they were tiring. From what I remembered, the zombies wouldn't tire or slow down.

Evan's Jeep swung to the side of the road as he slammed on the brakes, coming to a stop just ahead of the family. I saw Kailey jump out and yank the back door open, yelling at them to run faster and get in. The zombies were about ten car-lengths behind them. Thinking quickly, I pulled over on the side of the highway. The zombies were closer to me than they were to Kailey, but not by much.

I opened up my door and stood up. I grabbed the first object that came to hand and threw a can of soup at them as I yelled, "Hey, over here!"

I always knew that my aim was terrible, so the fact that I actually hit one in the shoulder shocked me, although the zombie looked even more confused than I did. He stopped to stare blankly at the can that had bounced off his shoulder and was slowly rolling away. I came to the conclusion that this guy had not been the sharpest crayon in the box before being infected.