Matthew snores from the back seat with both the sleeping babies. Chris was barely blinking, let alone sleeping. Scar was laying back in her seat, bored out of her mind, leaving me to drive.
"Yo, what's that?"
Scar asked, pointing to something at least 2 miles ahead on the side of the road.It looked human, but looks can be deceiving.
Chris pokes her head out from the back in between the front seats.
"I-Is that..."
I inhale deeply
"Levi."
The car's speed slows to a crawl.
"Why is he almost 10 hours out of town? H-How. . . Without us seeing?"
"We should s-see if he needs anything. . ."
"Yeah. . ."
I stop the car on the side of the road, now only about half a mile away. I turn off the car.
"What about Matthew?"
"I'll watch from a distance."
Scar volunteers herself.
"Okay, come on, Chris"
We get out of the Jeep and jog a bit to where we are less than 100 feet away. He stops and so do we. He slowly turns his head to the side and we're both certain it's Levi. He stays absolutely still, but turns, ready to draw something from the back of his belt. Chris and I stumble a step back.
"W-Who are you?"
His voice shakes, but he puts off a cool exterior.
"We're from your school"
"I didn't ask where you're from. I asked who you are?"
'Chris sure knows how to pick 'em'
"I'm April. That's Chrysanthemum"
He stays silent for a few seconds, but doesn't change his stiff body language.
". . . I'm assuming you know who i am?"
"Yeah. We do, Levi."
"What do you want? Where did you come from?"
Chris now steps up to speak
"We emerged from that Jeep-"
She turns to point at Matthew's Jeep
"We want to know if you needed anything. . . "
Levi's eyes light up with hope, but he quickly shuts down his emotions, as he always does.
"I don't need shit from you."
"Good. 'Cause we're not giving you shit."
We all turn to look at Matthew who just spoke.
"Doesn't fuckin' matter. I don't want anything to do with you weird-ass stalkers!"
Matthew snapped and grabbed Levi by his collar, bring him to his face, too close for comfort. Their chests fell heavy against each other.
"Don't you dare insult my family ever again."
"You mean your fuck-buddies."
Matthew and Levi's foreheads touched, Matthew's bright yellow-brown eyes contrasting perfectly against Levi's dark blue ones.
"Do you want to fucking die?"
"No, but i'd love to see your pathetic attempt of trying to kill me"
Matthew drew back his arm, ready to knock Levi out cold, when there was a loud scream. Chris and I run back to the car, but stop, realizing we can't do anything to the thing trying to kill Scar.
Scar is trying to close the door as the thing's arm is propping it open, trying to reach for her.
"W-What do we do?"
Chris asked, frozen, completely convinced we were about to see our friend eaten alive.
She was struggling to fight with the bandage covering her eye. I snap out of the thoughts of Scar being killed. I drag my feet closer to the thing and Scar. At the railing of the street, there's this large rock. I use my numb muscles and pick it up, looking away at what i was about to do.
I looked away, like an idiot, and didn't see the thing turn around to face me, to attack me.
"APRIL-"
Matthew's voice cracks at the volume of his shout, making my stomach simultaneously clench with my heart.
Then there was nothing. That constant white noise in my ears was louder and my body felt light. There was this throbbing pain at the back of my head, but i don't know how or why it's there. I opened my eyes and i saw nothing and everything at the same time.
Levi was emotionless, holding his pistol directly towards my direction. Chris had this sad, horror-filled look that made my heart shatter. If there is one thing i couldn't stand in this pathetic world, it was Chris scared. Matthew looked paralyzed, yet so desperate to be at my side.
"Shit. . . I-I'm sorry. . . "
It sounded muffled and echoed, but it was definitely Levi. My vision was blurry, made of shadows.
"You practically aimed for her!"
Matthew's voice yelled. Chris ran to my side.
"W-What. . ."
I tried to speak, but no one heard
"There's more!"
Levi, once again, said, but pointed in a direction i couldn't force my head to move in.
"Maybe 'cause you shot a fucking gun!"
"CAN YOU STOP FUCKING ARGUING AND GET APRIL IN THE CAR?! OR WOULD YOU PREFER TO BE EATEN ALIVE?!"
Chris yelled, making my head feel like it was splitting down the middle.
I had my basic senses back, but i still couldn't see right. I was put in the back of the seat with the, now crying, babies, making my head want to explode. Chris got in next to me, calming Emerson on her lap. Scar hopped in the trunk and Levi sat in the passenger seat with Matthew driving.
Eli kept tugging at my hair, making me face him.
"What happened, sissy?"
I reached to touch the side of his small head. I tried to speak, but I didn't have anything to say. So i just played with his hair. And it seemed enough for him. And it was close enough for me.
"Where are we going?"
Chris' voice sounded like those cliche voices in those shitty horror movie where they are right next to you, but the still echoed while looking down at the camera that was supposed to stimulate the feeling of you having a first-person view of the protagonist. Chris and I would always make fun of those shitty movies, but we still payed at least thirty-five dollars to see them at the theater.
"I don't know, Chris."
After less than a minute of silence, Levi spoke
"I know you don't give a damn about what i have to say, but you do care about your family, so i recommend heading towards the East coast rather than driving along the West coast. The virus is already spread across the West coast. My parents own an apartment at the edge of Minnesota. If you want, you could head there. It's far away from the coast."
Levi spoke quickly so Matthew couldn't interrupt him with a snobby remark.
"Scar, can you hand me the map from my back pack. . . "
