The Outbreak

Chapter 5: A Roadtrip To Remember

This chapter contains more mature themes. Not recommended for anyone under the age of 14.

"It's been about a month since I've been in this community. I have decided to stay after all. Gwen's dad has asked me to help grow crops until he can find something else for me to do. I like being here, and I like Gwen now that I've warmed up to her. She's introduced me to her friends and so far they seem nice. I've also decided to keep a journal so I can write down my thoughts and experiences. I hope that soon, I'll be recruiting new people from outside the walls. I haven't been around people in a long time, so this is all so new to me. I guess some things just take a little getting used to. Anyway, I have to go now, but I promise to write here later. I told Alex I'd hang out with him today. He's probably my new best friend."
 
                       -Leslie Madson 2026-11-08
 
 
Alex enters Leslie's room as she closes her journal. "Hey. You ready to go?" he says, leaning against the doorframe. "Go? Go where?" She answers, placing her journal under her pillow. "Oh I must've forgotten to tell you. So I kind of have some good news. I was talking to Gwen's father about how well you've been adjusting to your life inside walls, and I've convinced him to let you help me look for new people outside" he explains as he walks further into her room. "Really? No way. You're the best, Alex!", she exclaims, rushing towards him, squeezing him. "Oh, I know" he says, letting out a chuckle. "As nice as it is to be praised for doing a good deed, we should get going. We don't want to be gone for too long." Leslie lets go and runs to the door, excitedly. She yells while running out the door," Come on, we need to get going!" Alex rolls his eyes while smiling gently before chasing after his best friend.
 
(Flashback ) Leslie and Jesse make it outside and start walking down the road as Leslie starts to speak. "So, what exactly is going on around here? Why is everyone suddenly insane?", she says, trying not to make eye contact. "I'll guarantee I don't know any more than you do", he says, looking over at her. He notices there's something wrong and decides to find out exactly what it is. "Hey, are you okay?". She looks over at him. "Yeah I...I'm fine". She says, looking away again. "Okay. If you say you're okay then, I won't push you". They both stop talking as they continue to walk. A few seconds later, Jesse starts to talk again. "How did it happen for you?", He says, avoiding eye contact to not make her uncomfortable. She turns her head away, as tears start running down her face while she's remembering everything. "Hey, it's okay. Please don't cry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked". He says, reaching his hand out and resting it on her shoulder. She turns and looks at him as he sees pure sadness in her eyes. Her eyes start turning puffy and red as she starts to tear up. He starts to sympathize with her pain and then begins to speak, "I am sorry. You don't have to answer that". She wipes the tears from her eyes and says, "Let's just keep going. I don't want to get spotted out here with only one gun, especially if it's you using it.". Jesse watches her as she continues to walk ahead of him. He stands there watching for a few seconds, smiling before jogging at a slow pace to catch up. When he reaches her, he grabs her hand, turning her around to face him as he reaches into his pocket with his other hand. He pulls something out of his pocket, before placing it into Leslie's hand. He then closes and pushes it towards her. She lifts her hand closer to her face before opening her fist and seeing what he gave her. It's her bullets. Every single one. "This is me trusting you not to shoot me in the back", he says with a smirk. Leslie looks at him, as a different feeling washing over her. A feeling she hasn't felt in a long time. She looks up at him to see his cute, sincere smile. She couldn't help but blush as she looked away, completely flustered. "Thank you", she says as she turns in the direction they were walking in while reloading her gun.
 
Leslie and Alex are now driving in a car. They pull up to the gate of the community, ready to leave. Alex signals to the person on watch, and the gate opens, allowing them to continue driving. After a few moments of silence, Alex pulls out a CD from inside the center console. "We found this in the car that you were in. The one that got totaled after we first met," he says while putting it in the CD player. "I thought you wouldn't mind listening to it, considering it was playing when you crashed". Leslie watches as Alex starts playing the song. "Yeah. My family used to have a road trip every week and we'd listen to that song on repeat. It never got old for us. As far as we were concerned, it was our family song", she says, holding back her tears. They sit in silence for around 30 seconds before Alex answers. "I had a brother, before all of this. When it happened, we were at our grandmother's house. We had stayed up pretty late that night, and we talked and joked for hours before we both fell asleep. We woke up when we heard screaming from downstairs. My brother thought we were being robbed, or attacked, so he decided to take a baseball bat with him as he went downstairs. I was scared, so I followed close behind him. When we got there, we went through every room until we made it to the kitchen. I'd never seen so much blood in my life. Not before then, or even since. It was like someone had just, poured somebody else's insides all over the floor. I was so scared. My brother just stood there and stared at the blood on the floor, until we heard a noise in the next room over. I followed him into the living room, and we saw that the door leading outside was open. He went over to close it, but he tripped and fell. I ran over to see if he was okay, but as I pointed the flashlight in his direction, we both saw that he had tripped over the dead body of our neighbor, with a bloody knife on the floor beside him. I screamed and started backing up to get away, but then someone came up behind me. I turned around to see my grandmother, who was bleeding from a deep wound in her stomach. She didn't look like she was in pain. She attacked me, and I dropped my flashlight. My brother came to my rescue, and he started beating her with the bat. When it was over, we just sat in the dark, crying until the sun came up. My brother pushed me to get moving. He knew it wasn't safe. He always did know best, so I listened. We got everything we thought we'd need to survive, and decided to go look for help, but before we left, my brother decided to review the footage on our security cameras to see what happened. Our neighbor started banging on the door, and our grandmother probably thought it was an intruder, so she had a knife. When she opened the door, she was attacked. Just bitten, and torn apart. She killed that "thing", and made her way to the kitchen to get the phone, but she didn't make it. You know the rest" Leslie stares in shock. "I know you've never been comfortable with sharing your past with other people, so I figured I could just share mine with you instead", he says with no emotions visible. "What happened? To your brother, I mean." Alex takes a deep breath before speaking," I think he's dead. He and I traveled for the rest of the night. We went to our parent's house but it was all the same. I didn't want to accept what was happening, but my brother could. We stayed at our house the next day, but there was someone outside. Someone, alive. My brother left me alone to go see what was going on, and he never came back. Soon after he left, I heard an explosion outside of our house. I never saw him again, and I didn't have the guts to see if it was true" he says, now starting to tear up. "Wow, Alex I...I'm so sorry" She starts to think Alex had a more scarring beginning than she did."What was his name?" She asks. "It...It doesn't matter. Just...thanks for being here, and listening". He says, wiping his eyes with his hand. Leslie starts thinking for a moment before talking again. "I woke up that night to gunshots outside. I ran downstairs and saw the front door open. I walked outside and saw my sister eating my brother. Just, tearing him apart. She saw me looking at her, and she started coming towards me. I ran inside the house and closed the door on her arm. It wasn't long before her and my brother were both at the door. My dad came to help me hold the door shut, but he was already bitten. He gave me his gun and told me to run, so I did. I started running for the back door, but I was stupid. I had to turn around, and now looking back on it, I wish I hadn't. They started tearing him apart right in front of me. I couldn't do it, I couldn't shoot them. I was weak. So I closed the door behind me and sat in my backyard, crying myself to sleep. I stayed there until morning, and realized that I had to kill them. So I shot them. All of them. I packed a bag with everything I needed and I got the hell out of there. End of story" Leslie looks out the window and lets herself break into tears. Alex decides it's best to just leave it at that, and he continues to drive. 
 
Hours later, Alex stops the car after pulling into a gas station parking lot. Leslie had fallen asleep, so he decided to just sit in the car for a few more minutes before waking her up. "Hey, sleepyhead" he says, shaking her, gently. She opens her eyes to see Alex with his hand on her shoulder. "Alex? Where are we? Why did we stop?" She says as she looks around in confusion. "I just wanted to stop here to see if there's anything left. I didn't see any people on the drive here so I figured we'd head back after clearing this place out" Leslie looks at him, then back at the building. "I've been here before. There's nothing left" She says, in a hopeless tone. "Well that would've been over a month ago. There might be something in here now" he says, getting out of the car. Leslie stares at the gas station before remembering the last time she was there.
 
(Flashback) Leslie and Jesse are shown walking down a road, as they approach an abandoned gas station. Looking worried, Jesse rushes towards it, peaking through the glass of the front door. "What are you looking for?", Leslie asks, tilting her head slightly in confusion. "I was split up from someone I know. We agreed to meet here if that happened", he says, now reaching for the handle. "Are you any good with that thing?", he says, turning around to see Leslie holding her gun. "I'm decent", she says, making sure it's loaded. "Good. We need to get in there, hopefully without attracting more of these things. But if I were to get into trouble, do you think you could help a guy out?", he says looking at her in hopes of convincing her to agree to his plan. "Y'know, if it weren't for the fact that you trusted me with my gun before we got here, I probably would've just left you if you were attacked", she says with a smirk. "Buuuuuuuut?", Jesse says looking at her, confused. "Buuuuuuuut, since you were generous to trust me, guess I could "help a guy out". I suppose I should put a little bit of trust in you if we're going to be a team, after all", she says, looking at him with a playful look. "Oh so we're a team now?", he says, taking a step closer to her. "I like the sound of that. How about you stick around for a while and see how great of a team we can make?", he says, raising one of his eyebrows. "Play your cards right and I might just take you up on that offer", she says, also taking a step closer to him, causing their faces to be just inches away from one another. The only thing separating them is the difference in height. It almost seems as if they're about to kiss.