Those Who Remain

Chapter 2

Ridge and I made it back to the house in one piece but were scarred by what we had seen. I knew getting to the lake house wasn't going to be easy after seeing that, but I had to try because my family was counting on me.

I turned to Ridge to tell him my plan, and he was already looking at me with a lost expression. "I spoke with my mom on the phone this morning. We agreed to meet at our house on Norris lake. I'm leaving tomorrow morning. You are free to come with me, but I won't ask because I know you may have reasons you want to stay."

"You already know I'm coming with you," he said and I felt my body sag with relief. I didn't want to travel alone. "Let's get you packed and go over to my apartment to get my things."

We went to the basement to get some suitcases, and I gave him the largest one I could find pointing upward towards where the kitchen was. "Can you go and pack up all the non-perishable food? It's a good idea to take as much as we can. Stores are probably already out of a lot of things."

"I'm on it," he replied as he started climbing up the stairs and walked into the kitchen. I could hear his light footsteps upstairs as I continued to rummage through the luggage stored down here.

My thoughts started to wander to the sight we saw at the gas station. This type of event was something many only dreamed about or learned about in history books. The disease is spreading across America and Canada like Black Death did in Europe, but resembled fictional stories written about zombies.

There had been no reported cases in other countries around the world, but there was always the possibility since there were still a lot of unknowns surrounding the outbreak. We had no idea how many ways it could be transmitted. We only know it started with the pill, and it spreads to others via bodily fluids. We could only pray it wasn't airborne.

As I carried the bag I chose up the stairs, I started to think through everything I should bring with me. It was doubtful that we would be coming back here in the near future, so I needed to be sure I grabbed everything. Clothes and food were the two obvious answers, but we also needed to think strategically.

I walked up the stairs and into the kitchen to join Ridge with an idea that we needed to complete. "Ridge," I said, setting my suitcase on the counter as he turned to look at me, "We should make a list of everything we need to pack. It'll help us check everything after we finish."

"Okay, lets get some pens and paper," he replied, walking to the office to grab some from the printer, and we took the next half hour to sit on the kitchen bar and brainstorm everything we need to pack or get along the way.

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We were smart enough to put our cars in the garage when we came back from the gas station which meant we did not have to haul our luggage outside to the cars. After what happened this morning, neither of us were keen on spending too much time outside.

"Is that everything?" Ridge asked me as he closed the locking lid he had on the flatbed of his truck. It was a luxury that I was now very thankful for. Looting was probably going to be a big issue soon.

"I believe so, and if it isn't, I'm sure you'll have it at your place," I replied, climbing into my own car. "Do you mind running inside and looking out a window to make sure there aren't any visitors?" I didn't want to look at one of those things again.

He nodded at me going back inside, and while I waited, I turned on the Indianapolis news radio station to see if they had any new information.

"-ected have different sorts of attack methods. Three have been reported. One being projectile spitting. These individuals have the ability to spit long distances, up to forty feet. The public have named these individuals as spitters. Another type of attack method they have is stalking. It is said that once you've caught their attention, they won't leave you alone until you are able to obstruct their line of sight. These individuals are known as stickers. The final-" the radio starts to project, but the connection inside the garage isn't great.