Dead Zone: NYC

A Change In Direction

"Woah woah woah. What now?!" I asked, disappointed, yet infuriated at the same time.

"Michael, calm down, we...we want to head back West. You know, Ohio maybe, just like before, only Rose and her family are coming with us," said my father, in the most calming manner.

"Daddy! I don't wanna go back!" yelled Rachel from the back of the car.

"Yeah!" added John.

The commotion slowly quieted itself to the point of only hearing the sounds of the passing traffic. Rose's mom turns up the radio. A news broadcast began to play.

"Reports of what are seen to be, the, "undead," have been seen in the tri-state area, but in small numbers. The infection is expected to reach New York at approximately noon tomorrow, unless the military can quarantine it in Southern Pennsylvania." said the reporter, in a serious, emotionless male voice As soon as he finished those few sentences, the radio was shut off, and the adults talked amongst themselves. I turned around to look at the back seats of the SUV. In them sat John and Rachel.

"You two ok? Haven't heard from you very much all day." I asked.

"Just nervous." replied John. Rachel shook her head, agreeing with John. "But you made a good speech today. I think everyone's in their right minds now."

I leaned back up, and looked over at Rose. "Whatcha thinkin' wonder woman?" I asked, trying to pick on her.

"Je ne sais pah; I really don't know. I'm just too tired and depressed to think right now." she said, expressing her depression.

"Dad, we stopping anytime soon?" I asked.

"Not until we need gas. We got a full tank." he replied.

"Wanna take a nap?" I asked Rose.

"Sounds good. Move your arm." she said as she began to lay against my side. We hit a tight left turn and I put my arm around her to keep her from falling. About 20 minutes passed, and we were both fast asleep.

I wake back up a few hours later, to the sounds of several F-16 fighter jets flying at low altitudes, heading South, and it pouring down freezing rain. It's about 6:45 in the evening. Rose is still asleep. "Must be really stressed?" I thought. Upon my thinking, Rose jumped up, from her heavy sleep.

"How'd you two love birds sleep?" asked her dad, hysterically.

"Shut up Dad!" yelled Rose in retaliation. He began laughing so hard that driving the car became a full contact sport.

"How'd ya sleep?" I asked.

"Pretty good for the most part. Had a weird dream though." she replied.

"What happened?" I asked, somewhat concerned.

"Well, I was waking down this long dark, moist tunnel. On the walls were the letters N, S, E, and W, in that order reoccurring. Oh. And they glowed. And all but the N's were crossed out. I awoke to a loud crashing sound coming from above the tunnel. Oh my god, that's it!"

"What?!" I asked, surprised and scared.

"Mom, Dad, we are headed the wrong direction, we need to go North, not West. I don't know why this didn't hit me before."

"Rose honey, we can't just change destination because you said so.." replied her mom.

"But Mom, you don't understand. Less population, more wilderness. It's a simple equation, less population means less chance of infection/ less infected, and more wilderness means longer time for the infection to reach us."