Don't Talk To Strangers | BOOK 1

fourty one

Elle McBriar
August 5th, 5 months and 24 days since the last zombie report 

It was around 1am when we finally decided to turn in for the night. 

Alex and Gage slept on the pull out seat in the back of the van, obviously having to shift a few things. But they put Riley in between them. It was the cutest thing ever.

Paxton and I slept in the back of the car. Who knew a single mattress could fit two people. I snuggled into Paxton's chest, the smell of him comforting me. I closed my eyes, not able to get the image of that person out of my head. I opened my eyes again, looking up to see Paxton's eyes were open too.

He had one arm under his head as he stared at the roof, "What're you thinking about?" I whisper, kissing his bare stomach, "Everything. My head is so full I feel like it's about to explode." He laughed, but I could hear the worry and tiredness behind his voice. "Care to unload some of your knowledge onto me? I can be very useful sometimes." I smile.

His hand came up to stroke my hair and I closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around his torso, "I don't know. I guess I'm just scared." That was the first time I've heard Paxton say he's scared, "Scared that we might not get there in time. Or the other machines don't turn off or something like that I-I just... I feel like we're running out of time." 

"When in reality, time is all we have." I sigh, "Exactly. Like what if we turn off this said machine, does it kill all the zombies instantly? Or do we have to go and kill every individual zombie?" I thought about his words, taking them in, I drew circles on his chest, his skin tensing and relaxing at the feel of my fingers, "Who knows, Pax. We just have to wait and find out I guess."

He sighed, "Yeah, I guess we do." 

From then on, silence filled the air as tried to sleep. Although I couldn't. I kept seeing that human. Lying on the road. The way it just lay there, dismembered and put back together. That was definitely a humans doing! 

I sighed, lifting myself off Paxton's body. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow, I smiled at his cute figure. I kissed his cheek and forehead before climbing into the front seat. I pulled out my journal. I need to write a long awaited entry.

So turns out our zombie problem is man-made. By two fucking-idiot college students who started by making an infestation of zombie-rats which went around and bit everyone, eventually turning them in zombies.  

But... Alex's 20th birthday was good. I made a cake and got so drunk I'm pretty sure I told Paxton I liked him but he's just keeping quiet. I can barely move my shoulder though, I think it's getting worse. I haven't told anyone because I don't want them to worry!

We're driving to Los Angeles, from New York. We've driven 14 hours so far. Just reached Illinois before we decided to crash. It's almost 2am. And we saw another dead HUMAN body on the road. Dismembered like before. It's horrifying...

And I can't stop thinking about it. Just like I can't stop thinking about Paxton. I don't know where we stand. If we're a 'thing' an 'item'. Apparently Gage and Alex know about us there's no denying it now. I just wish he would give me some clear view on what he wants so I wasn't so damn confused all the time.

I closed the journal after angrily scribbling a bold line under the world 'confused'.

I looked back at Paxton and he was still asleep, hand on his chest, the other under his head. Crawling back over to lay on him, his arm went around my waist and I smiled, closing my eyes.

* * * 

I am officially going to castrate Paxton!

I've been driving for about 4 hours, stopping to get gas and eat beforehand. But he's driving me crazy. He keeps saying how bored he is and how he's hungry. He's poking my thigh, causing me to slap him. He pouts.

"I swear we're never going to get there." I mumble, rolling my eyes. It feels like we've been driving for years, "Remind me again why we decided to drive across the country again?" I grumbled, covering my face as I yawned, "Because it's the end of the world and in order to keep us from dying, we have to drive because none of us know how to fly a plane. So we're driving because we need to turn off a dumb machine some dumb teen boys made that created zombies and ate the entire population!"

I giggled, "Oh yeah!"

Paxton gave me a playful smile. I returned it, keeping my eyes on the road. He was restless, kept moving in his seat and playing with the buttons on the car. At one point, he turned on the radio but it was just static!

"Paxton, stop playing with the buttons." I said. A boyish grin was sketched onto his face as he sat up straight, legs fanned out as he sat still. "Read a book, there's one in the glove box." I said, nodding to it. He frowned, "Who knows, you might actually like it." 

After focusing back on the road and driving for who knows how long, Paxton gasped, "How dare he? Enrique was supposed to wait for Margo but instead he left? The audacity!"

He'd been giving me commentary every time he came across a plot twist in the book. It was a spin on 'Telenovelas' but book form. I've read that book so many times, it's funny listening to Paxton discover them just now!

The sun was setting once again as the 'Welcome To Iowa' sign passed up. Damn, we're already in Iowa? Time does go by quickly when you're driving I guess. 

The radio crackled and Paxton picked it up, "What do you want? I'm reading a really good book and I want to know what happens." He said impatiently, I smiled, "We're in Iowa dumbass. Do you want to camp here or keep going?" 

"Stop here. Our next stop is Nebraska and that's nearly 6 hours. We'll get up around 6 am and start driving. It's another half day before we arrive so we better start early!" 

So we stopped, setting up the mattress as we climbed into the back.

And once again I lay on Paxton's chest, falling asleep to the sound of his breathing.

* * * 

heyy

hope you're enjoying it so far!!
i am going to skip straight to when they reach california only because i don't want to write another chapter about a boring roadtrip :)