A New World

Chapter 2

Rachel's POV
Apocalypse

The hum of the road was the only noise. We've been driving for hours with no real destination in mind. Sitting in this car for so long is making my body feel worse, which I didn't think was possible.

I look to my left. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel. I move my eyes to look at his face. It was contorted with worry and I could tell that he was in deep thought.

"You should have gone with your family." 

He turns his head to look at me. He took one hand off the steering wheel and laced his fingers with mine.

"You are family, Rachel."

We smile at each other and then he turns his gaze back to the road.

"But if you left me behind, you'd be with your family and you wouldn't be worrying so much."

"If I left you behind you'd be dead. I could never forgive myself if I let that happen."

"It wouldn't have been your fault if I died, it would have been my own."

"Because your dad beating you into a pulp and knocking you unconcious is your fault."

"Well, I escaped to my room and then passed out."

Richard turns his head and glares at me.

"I'm the one in medical school. I knew I had a concussion, I shouldn't have fallen asleep."

"It doesn't matter. You're family and I'd be just as worried about you if I went with my family and didn't come for you. Everything just happened too fast and it was safer for them to leave the city before we got to them. At least Bruce is paranoid about this stuff and has certain equipment to help out in these situations."

Richard reaches forward and grabs the radio that was sitting in the corner of the window.

"Thankfully Tim left this were I would find it. We can use this to find them."

He extends the hand that's holding the radio over to me and I take it from him.

"Yeah, its great and all, but what frequency are they on? There wasn't a note left by the radio to tell us that, so we don't have a way to contact your family."

"Then we'll just have to go through them all at every hour."

"How do you know that they're trying to contact you at every hour?"

"I don't, but someone has to try at some point. Right?"

"Right. So is that my job then?"

"I mean, I can go through the channels and drive. No problem at all."

I turn my head to look at him and roll my eyes. I turn my attention to the radio in my hand and start to fidget with it.

Richard glances over to see what I'm doing.

"The 'on' button is right here."

He takes one hand and starts to point all over the radio.

I smile and push his hand away.

"It helps if you use your eyes to find the button.

He takes his hand and covers my eyes. I laugh and pull his hand away from my eyes.

"There's that laugh and smile."

"You make it sound like I haven't done those things in years."

"A day, a year. Kind of the same thing."

I smile and shake my head.

I turned on the radio and start to slowly go through the frequencies.

"-body! Hello!? We need some help if anybody is getting this! Oh God! There's so much blood! Don't let them get through that door! If anybody is hearing this, we are off highway 119. It's a small town, you can't miss it. We're cooped up in an old flower shop with the dead knocking on our door."

I look at Dick.

"What are we going to do?"

He looks at me and takes the radio from my hand.

"Hello? We recieved your message. How bad is your situation?"

"Oh thank God! It's so great to hear someone else's voice! One of us was attached, by a human, and they're bleeding pretty badly. We don't think they are going to make it without help."

"If someone were to give you directions to help your friend, could you follow them?"

"Well, yeah. I guess. But I really think they need a doctor."

"Well I happen to have one sitting next to me. I'm going to pass the radio over to her."

He hands the radio back over to me.

"Richard, I'm not a doctor."

"In this world, I think you qualify."

"Hello, my name is Rachel and I'm going to help you the best I can. Can you explain your friends situation to me?"

"Yeah. He was stabbed."

"Okay. Great, but I'm going to need more than that to help. Where were they stabbed and how many times were they stabbed?"

"I don't know how many times, but all of the stab wounds are in stomach."

I turn my head and look at Dick.

"They're going to need some serious help if the stab wounds are in the abdominal region."

He sighs.

"I know. But it sounds like their situation isn't good Rachel. It's too dangerous for us to go there."

"That person will die if they don't get my help Richard!"

He turns his head and looks at me.

"I need to think about it."

"There's no time! The exit is right there!"

"I'm going to regret this."

Richard slams on the breaks and takes the exit.

"Thank you! I love you!"

I put the radio back up to my mouth.

"Sorry for the wait. Find some clean cloth, place it on the wounds, and find someone to apply pressure to slow down the bleeding. We just took the 119 exit, we'll be there soon to help."