Brain Dead

Chapter Two

“Can you pass the jerky?” I asked Conner, as we relaxed in the trunk of his Prius, eating. He passed a plastic bag full of the beef jerky, and returned to eating his nuts. As we munched in the silence, my phone buzzed in the front seat. “I’ll be right back.” I told him, and I checked who the caller was. Immediately, I hung up the phone. “Who was it?” Connor asked. “My stepmom, for the thousandth time.” My phone buzzed again, this time a voicemail. I put it on speaker and played the message:

“Alex, where are you? Your stepfather and I have been searching for your sneaky ass. I swear, if you’re not home by 10:00, I’m going to make you and your pesky, disgusting life a living hell.”

    Connor and I laughed at the message, both aware that I obviously wasn’t returning anytime soon, and anyways, life with her was already a living hell.

 

    The two of us discussed where we’d run off to in his Prius, which was parked in a sandy parking lot near a small, deserted beach. After an hour or so of talking and eating, the two of us decided to rest since the sun was setting over the ocean. However, as we began to snuggle in the car seats, my phone vibrated. I picked it up, curious. “Who is it?” Connor asked. “My stepmom.” I said distastefully. I set aside the phone and picked it up again to find she left a voicemail. We smiled as we prepared for the nagging, but the voicemail was a lot different than the others.

“Alex!” She shrieked. “Alex, please! Help us!” She panted, screamed and a loud slam blared through the speaker. She must’ve fell. “Alex!” She shrieked again, but this time what seemed like from farther away. More screams. Allegra let out on more final gasp, and we began to hear groans. Zombies found a way to town. A way to our town. The message ended. Connor and I exchanged looks, both horrified at what we had just listened to. “We need to get out of here.” I demanded, still grasping my phone. “Now.”

 

    Connor hopped in the drivers seat, gripped the wheel, and started the car. Obviously, he didn’t know where we were going, all he knew was we just needed to go. The scenery changed the farther we drove, first there where beaches, then forests, and soon just barren land. Sometimes trees stood out, baking in the humid, gray weather. Land passed by in a blur, and after all, speed limit was the least of our problems judging from the two facts that a) Nobody was driving down this road except for us, and b) A zombie apocalypse was going on at the moment, and the police probably don’t care about two teenagers driving a few miles over the speed limit. The silence in the car lulled me to sleep and I slowly found myself snoozing for a few hours.

 

    I woke up to screeching tires. Awake and alert, Connor sat behind the wheel, holding it so tightly his knuckles where white. Eyebags had formed under his hazel eyes. The car spun out of control. I noticed the road was caked in wet, damp liquid, meaning it must’ve been raining while I was asleep. In panic, I turned to Connor. “What’s happening?” I asked sternly. “I fell-” He was interrupted as the car slammed into a tree.

 

    My eyes slowly drifted open to the sight of Connor’s distressed face. He sighed in relief as I opened my eyes fully. “She’s awake!” Connor yelled. “Don’t yell!” I snapped. My head hurt, and throbbed. I looked around. We where in some sort of tent. In the doorway, a man around our age held a wooden bowl. He sat next to me, and passed the bowl to Connor, who spoon fed the liquid to me. After a few spoon fulls of what was a delicious chicken soup, Connor introduced to me to the man.

 

“Alex, this is Jasper. Jasper, Alex.” Jasper’s straight, brown hair fell in his eyes as he towered over me. He held out his skinny hand, and I shook it. “You’re pretty beat up,” He warned me, gesturing to my body that was sprawled out on a sleeping bag. My body had bruises and cuts everywhere, some places patched up and covered with gawz. I glanced back to Connor who had a black eye, and multiple bruises as well. I pulled myself up and rested on the pillow that laid behind me. Softly, I brushed my thin fingers over a swollen bruise on his cheek. He winced, and his jaw tightened. I pulled my hand back quickly. “I’m sorry-”

“It’s okay.” He interrupted.

Jasper and I exchanged looks. “Well,” He said, breaking the silence. “I should probably get packing.” I turned to Connor, hoping for an explanation. “Jasper’s driving us to the nearest city after what...what happened to my car.” Slowly, the car crash memories flooded back into my head.

 

    Anxiety took over and I fought against the pain as I forced myself to stand up and check out the scenery outside. The tent laid on a large patch of grass, the road not to far from where the tent laid. I focused on the rim of the road and to the right was Connor’s prius, engulfing a tree as it bent around its trunk. Connor walked over to me and showed me Jasper’s truck. The sight of some sort of transportation eased me. I looked back at the tent that was slowly being taken apart, rolled up, and put in the back of Jasper’s truck. Connor bent over and snatched up a blue Walmart bag full of the goods we had bought. “Let’s get going, people.” Jasper called out to us as he started the truck. Together, Connor and I crawled in the back of the truck even though the seats inside the truck where empty.

 

    Eventually the truck began to travel at a fast speed. Both Connor and I getting our faces covered as our hair bellowed in the wind. Silence took over for a few hours, and a few times I witnessed Connor doze off for a short amount of time and then wake himself up. I figured he must’ve stayed up the whole time I was asleep. “How long was I asleep?” I asked him. “Two days.” It had felt like hours. I couldn’t help but feel surprised. There was more silence. I wanted to ask Connor if he had stayed up for me, but I lost the courage to.

    Time flew by quickly, and so did Jasper’s truck as it drove 15 miles over the speed limit. “Alex, I have something to confess.” Connor said over the wind. I was beginning to turn my whole body in his direction, but just as I had started to, rotting and broken buildings passed by. Things like moldy and borded up windows covered in dry- and wet blood passed by. We both looked over the sides of the truck. The car came to a halt, and the sound of Jasper’s window fly open was all we could hear, beside the quiet and faint moaning of what was the infected probably roaming the dead, rotting streets. “My god…” Connor began to say. I flipped my head to the right and observed a sign in horror. We had just reached New York.