This Is Not The End.

Chapter 7

Freedom was just a lot of walking.

It was intoxicating, to start with; the trees reaching out with their spindly fingers to brush our clothes and remember what healthy humans felt like, what people felt like. But as soon as we breached the forest line, all we had was a motorway that stretched further than I could see.

"Well this is basically every zombie movie I ever watched," Kai said, keeping to the treeline as he stared out at the side of ransacked cars closest to us, and then the completely clear one on the other side.

"Don't call this a zombie movie," Jack shifted uncomfortably.

"Okay, disaster movie,"

"That's no better,"

I didn't like it either. To calm myself a little, I buttoned my jacket up and popped the collar.

"Nervous?" Kai grinned, but I could see the anxiety in his eyes.

"Terrified," I corrected. He nodded.

"Yup, me too,"

Jack took a breath, "We don't want to waste any more time, do we?"

Looking up, the sun was just passing midday. We needed to find some sort of shelter to spend the night in, and by the looks of it there was nothing for miles.

"You're right," I said, "Looks like it's about one o'clock,"

"It's twelve-seventeen," Kai read from the digital watch on his wrist. Jack and I both stared at him blankly. "What? You got the phone, he got the powers, I get the watch. Pretty sure I lucked out on that one too,"

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes.

"It doesn't matter, anyway." Jack pushed on, jumping the guardrails and landing as quietly as he could on the other side. He frowned at us when we didn't move to come after him, "What're you waiting for?"

"Some fucker to come and rip your skin off," Kai shrugged.

Jack gave him a bitchface, something which looked alien on him, "I think I'm safe,"

"For now," I raised my eyebrows and clambered over the guardrails after him.

It was dangerously quiet once Kai had joined us. Car boots had been left open in a panic and the suitcases and assorted bags in there had each been raided in the desperate haze of survival. A blue Toyota had crashed into a Ford and taken out the windscreen, sending shards of glass into the car. Through the wreckage, I could see a bloodstained baby's car seat in the back, and I forced my eyes away.

Like I said, we were in their territory now.

Jack peered into another car and pulled out the keys, "We could take a car?"

"Yeah, okay, can you drive?" Kai raised his eyebrows at him, keeping as far from the cars as he could, eyes darting between windows.

"Uh, no..."

"Great. Skye, how's your driving looking?"

"I mean, I could fuck you up in Mario Kart," I reached through the broken window into a red Honda and fumbled around in the glove compartment, pulling out a bottle of water with the seal unbroken. "Other than that, pretty shocking – catch,"

I threw the bottle at Kai, who stumbled and almost dropped it.

"So, yeah, back to the drawing board with that one, I'd say," he said to Jack.

"No need to be a smartass about it," Jack huffed, chucking the keys back into the car.

Balancing on top of a guardrail, I looked out at the chaos of abandoned cars, trucks, and caravans. There were more than I could count, and the colours tended to blur together as they got further and further down the motorway. I squinted to stop the blur, scanning the gaps for movement.