Dead Ends: The Awakening

Chapter | 3 |

Elizabeth continued to drive for a while as the group tried to relax and calm their breathing and pounding hearts. Adrenaline rushed through each of them at the experience, especially Rose. Elizabeth normally would have been the one to comfort her, but seeing as she was driving, Noah took upon himself to make sure she was okay.

"Hey..." He murmured quietly as he looked over at the shaken girl. "I... I'm sorry that happened.." He trailed off.

"Thank you." She said quietly, still looking out the window to her right.

"For what?" He asked, trying to make eye contact with her, but Rose kept her head turned.

"Saving my life." Rose replied shakily.

"It wasn't just me. You should thank everyone." He said a little gruffly, not wanting her to develop a crush on him because he 'saved her life'. He turned his head back to his own window, looking out of it in silence.

Quiet had settled over the back of the van while the front was certainly different.

"Damn Elizabeth, slow down will ya?" James muttered as Elizabeth continued to speed.

"Why, scared?" Elizabeth said, turning her head to look at him.

"Oh my- Eyes on the road!" He yelled.

She chuckled, turning her attention back to the road.

An hour later Elizabeth was still driving, even after James' complaints and concerns had been voiced loudly.

"We should probably be stopping soon." Noah said from the back.

"Or we could continue driving and get far away from here. And those zombies." Rose said, shuddering.

"Yeah, and do you want to drive?" Noah said sharply. "Cause I don't. James doesn't. Elizabeth... I barely trust her driving under normal conditions, much less when she's tired."

Elizabeth snorted in amusement, speeding up again.

"Jesus." James muttered shaking his head.

Rose's shoulders drooped. She hadn't thought if anyone else was tired.

"We're pretty damn far from the center of the city. It should be safe to find somewhere to sleep on the outskirts." Noah commented.

"Yeah... Let's drive around, see what we can find." James said in response.

"I should drive more often." Elizabeth said.

"Noooooooo." James said instantly, looking stressed out.

"We've covered more ground in the past few hours that I have been driving than the entire two days anyone else has." She said flatly.

"Yeah okay, and we've almost died like 10 times." James responded quickly.

"Ya, but we didn't." She said, raising an eyebrow at him, taking her eyes off the road and nearly hitting a road sign.

"Don't jinx it." Noah commented sarcastically from the back.

Elizabeth let her good mood fade, becoming more serious now that they needed to make decisions. "Okay, everyone, keep a look out for someplace to stay." She said, slowing down as they started driving on narrow, ruined streets.

"How about that?" Noah pointed to a small one-story house to the left.

"Too run-down, the front door won't hold." Rose responded intelligently.

"Okay, how about that then?" Noah asked, pointing to a bank.

"Um..." Rose said, looking at him like he was stupid.