Dead Days

Chapter 8

     The highway was so congested that we had to drive on the opposite side.

"For a cop, you're a real law breaker, you know that?" Cassie says, smirking.

"My cop days were a long time ago, little one." I said, jokingly. Her smirk turned into a frown.

"You take that back." She demanded, eyeing me down.

"Nope."

"Take it back."

"Fine. I'm sorry I called you a little one, little one."

"Thank yo... wait. Hey!" I laugh my ass off, and she punches me in the arm.

"Ouch, that actually hurts. I might have dislocated my shoulder trying to save you." She looks at me.

"Good, you deserve it." She tries to make an angry face but she ends up laughing.

"We haven't seen any of the undead in a while, that's worrying me." Cassie looks at me.

"That's worrying you? That's perfect for us, we don't have to deal with them."

"Yeah, not right now, but we will later. It'll be worse if they're in packs. I mean, sure, one is easy to take down, but any more than that and your chance of surviving drop drastically."

"Are you kidding me, Jack. I seen you take down six of them on your own."

"Yeah, and I almost died, remember? You had to shoot the last one." I say.

"But you got out of the closet. You could have escaped."

"One day my luck will run its course, Cassie. I'm not a super soldier."

"Damn near close to it." She says and looks out the window. "I mean, where the hell did you learn to fight like that?"

"In the marines I took up mixed martial arts. I learned skills from many different fighting styles. I learned how to disarm many weapons and how to avoid getting hit. That's not what fighting is all about, though. It's a mental game, you always have to pay close attention to your opponent. Look away for even a second and they could gain the upper hand."

"Jack?" She looks at me.

"Yes?" I ask back.

"Do you think you could teach me?" She looks at me with questioning eyes.

"Of course, but we have to get somewhere that we know it safe. It's not going to happen overnight, but i have full faith that you'll learn fast." She smiles and goes back to looking out of the window.

The outer limits of New York looked horrible. Cars were rammed into each other, dead bodies littered almost the entire road. Entrails lined a good portion of the highway.

The dark of night begins to set in as we pass the border between New York and Pennsylvania. Every now and then a shadow or something catches my eye moving through the trees, but I brush it off as my imagination.

The truck starts to sputter and jerk. "Shit. Looks like it's on foot from here on out." I say, looking at the gas gauge, hoping that it too is a figment of my imagination.

"You've got to be kidding me, there's still hundreds of miles to South Carolina from here. Not only that, but it's the dead of night right now."

"We'll sleep in the truck tonight, but in the morning we have to hit the road."

"I'll take first watch this time," Cassie says, mocking me. "Since you sucked at it last time."

"Oh, shut up." I say as I'm pulling the lever to lean my seat back. I lean back and close my eyes, within seconds I'm asleep.
                                  ...
     "Jack." Its quiet at first, much like a whisper.