Zombies.

What did I tell you?

Ronnie's POV:

We had been driving through the long stretch of completely dry land for a couple of hours now and I couldn't help but be a little tired. The songs on the radio were the same six songs over and over and I could tell Austin was getting annoyed. To be honest I was too, but I could stand it if it meant seeing him that way. It was quite funny!

"Are we there yet?" Alan whined from the back seat. He had gotten sick of sitting in the bed of the truck about an hour ago so we pulled over so he and Tino could switch. I looked in the rear view mirror and glared at him.

"I swear to God Alan! If you ask one more time, I'm going to climb back there and beat the living shit out of you! Understood?!" His eyes widened and he nodded quickly, moving his eyes down to his hands.

My eyes moved back to the road ahead of us and I sighed a little. I could feel Austin's eyes boring into the side of my face and I looked over at him. He looked so shocked, his jaw hanging open and his eyes wide. I couldn't stop the laugh that left my mouth at the stupid look on his face.

"Why do you look so surprised Austin?" I questioned, laughing a little more. His mouth closed and his eyes went back to normal as he settled into the chair.

"I'm just shocked that you actually got Alan to shut up, it doesn't happen very often." I laughed at that.

"Hey! That's not fair! I have a lot to say!!" At that I laughed even harder. These boys are some of the weirdest I've met.

"Of course you do Alan, of course you do." Austin replied, reaching back and tapping him on the head. I smiled as we continued on forward, driving farther into the dry land.

"Ugh! How much longer?!" I snapped. I held onto the wheel so tight that my knuckled turned white and I could feel the skin tensing.

"Austin, take the wheel." I growled between my teeth. Before he could even react, my seat belt was off and I was crawling into the back seat. I grabbed hold of Alan's hair and I yanked. "What the hell did I tell you about asking that?! Are you deaf or something? That is probably the hundredth time you've asked in the past two hours!!" I exclaimed, yanking on his hair harder and harder with every word.

"72! That's how many times he's asked!" Tino shouted from the back of the truck. I growled a little and was about to say something else when I was thrown to the side. I felt my spine crack a little and my feet were thrown from the drivers seat. The truck swerved off of the road and ran into the rocky terrain of God knows what. We spun as Austin tried to take control of the truck. The next thing I knew we were crashing into something hard and I was thrown to the side. My head hit something hard and my eye sight went fuzzy black spots popping up in front of my eyes.

The last thing I remember was the sound of the horn going off and heavy foot steps running towards us. Someone opened the door and I felt myself falling. Everything went black.

*****

Voices. That is all I could hear as my eyes opened slowly. My head was pounding and all I wanted was to curl up in a ball and sleep some more.

"What the hell happened to you guys after the attack?!" That voice, I knew that voice. I grew up with that voice. My eyes snapped open and I rushed to stand up, only to hit my head on something.

"What the hell do I keep hitting my head on?!" I shouted, my hand flying to the top of my head. I heard a few chuckled out of the people who were around me and I opened my eyes again. I lifted my head slowly and looked around.

I saw Austin sitting on the ground in front of me, Tino was sitting on a booth across from us and Alan was sitting on a little stool in front of a counter. It looked like we were in some diner and it looked like it used to actually be a cable car station. I looked around a little more and saw that there were more people, people I knew.

"Alice!!" I stood up and ran into her open arms. She buried her face in my shoulder and I smiled at the familiar feeling of her arms tightening around my torso.

"I missed you so much Ronnie!" I smiled a little and kissed the top of her head.

"I missed you too, Alice! What happened to you guys? Are you okay? You didn't have any run in's with them did you?! Have you eaten?" she laughed at the rush of questions that left my mouth in such a short amount of time.

"We ran in an opposite direction, but I'm guessing we were all going in the same direction eh? I'm fine, we all are! We did have a bit of a run in with some Dracs, but we handled it, they all know my story now though." I nodded my head and looked at her. She had some dirt on her face and looked so tired. I could see the bag laying on the ground behind her and moved to grab it.

Picking it up I moved towards a booth and sat down. I pulled it open and grabbed out the extra pistol that I had stored in there. I checked the clip to make sure it was fully loaded before popping it back in. I dug a little deeper and started to freak out when I couldn't find my baby.

"Alice! Where is my sketch book?!" I shouted, tossing the bag to the side. She looked at me in panic and her eyes widened.

"I have no idea! I thought you had it!" I could feel my throat begin to close up and the panic take over.

"I don't....but....where....oh my god...what....why?" Austin came and kneeled down in front of me. His jaw was set, but I could see the softness in his eyes.

"Breathe, hey, you're gonna be okay. Just look at me." I looked into his chocolate brown eyes and tried to take a deep breath. It didn't work, my breaths were still so shallow.

"Hey, Ronnie, just breathe. There you go, you're okay. It's going to be okay." Austin was stroking the side of my leg gently. I took another deep breath and was very happy when it worked. He smiled a little bit and continued to stroke my leg, whispering kind words to me as I slowly came down from my panic.

"Okay, now that you're alright again, it this what you were looking for?" Austin pulled a thick book with a purple leather cover out of his bag. It had been very worn and so obviously written on. My name was on the top corner in permanent marker and there were silly quotes written on it from mine and Alice's time together. I snatched it out of Austin’s hand and flipped through to see all of my drawings still there. I placed it on the table and stood, taking Austin into my hands, thankful for the fact that he had found it.

My arms wrapped tightly around his neck and I could tell he was incredibly surprised by the sudden action, but after a moment he relaxed a little and wrapped his arms around my waist. I smiled a little and layed my head on his chest.

"Thank you so much for picking it up for me!" I sighed. I could feel his body

shake with a chuckle.

"It was my pleasure. Just be careful as to where you leave it next time." I laughed a little and nodded my head, pulling away. I clapped my hands together and looked around at everyone.

"Alright! Should we head to Dr. D's than?"