Better off Undead

Chapter 11: Highway of the Dead

They continued on their way like this through the rest of the day, stopping twice more to take similar breaks, though on these occasions, finally, no new groups came to Eli's car.

During the first stop, he stood leaning against his car next to Jay, watching members of the group wander about the nearby cars, grabbing supplies and draining gasoline into containers. "Why SUVs?" he asked suddenly.

"What?" Jay responded absently.

"Why SUVs? Who in the group was like, 'Okay, it's the end of the world, gas stations don't work anymore, oil is in limited supply, let's take the most fuel inefficient vehicles we can find!'"

"They're not the most inefficient," Jay protested. "We could always be driving RVs or something. Besides, if we're ever attacked, they provide a lot more defense than little cars." As he said "little cars" he rapped his knuckles against the side of Eli's car.

"Hey, you got a problem with the car you got a problem with me, pal."

"I don't have a problem," Jay was quick to refute, holding his hands up defensively.

The next time they stopped, Eli could feel himself growing restless. The hours were stretching on ever closer to night. Surrounded as they were by trees, even though it was still a few hours until sunset the sun was out of view, shadows covered all, and an eerie twilight filled the highway and surrounding woods. After finding a sufficiently private enough place to relieve himself, he hurried back to the group.

Stepping up to Marshall, he asked, "How far is this place?"

"What place?" Marshall responded, brow furrowing in confusion.

"This base, or whatever. The place we're supposed to be headed to. That's where we're going, isn't it?"

"Right," Marshall answered, nodding his head dramatically with realization. "Devin says it's only about another hour or so. He's been to it before. There should be a turnoff about a dozen or so exits down the line."

"Let's hope so," Eli said, looking around, a sign of concern painted clearly across his face. "I'm thinking the apocalypse is a bad time for camping outside."

"Believe me," Marshall said coolly, waving his hands in the air in an assuring manner, "nobody here wants to sleep outside any more than you do."

Eli nodded, but the uncertainty did not leave his features. "I can't help but feel like we should be worried about the fact that we haven't seen a zombie almost since we left town," he added.

"Don't call them that!"

Everyone nearly jumped in surprise at the sudden comment. All eyes turned on Kelly, who had been standing nearby, silent until that point. "What," Eli began, turning his head slowly to share a quick glance with most of the others standing nearby, "should I be calling them then?"

Honestly, up that point he hadn't really thought about it. Despite Amber telling him not to use the word, there had been no doubt in his mind since he'd been attacked in his apartment that these horrible creatures were exactly that: zombies. TV and video games had forewarned him of this possibility, and these creatures certainly seemed to match all the typical characteristics.

"I don't know!" She snapped, turning away from them. "Just, anything but that," she added quietly.

"Maybe she's right," a woman Eli hadn't met chimed in. "It's a nasty name."

"Um, there's kind of precedence for this," Eli argued. "All the lore about creatures like this call them zombies. They look like zombies, they walk like zombies, they talk like zombies. Therefore, they are zombies."