Laura tries to keep focused on the road but can’t drift her thoughts from what had just happened to Magnis and what she had to do to him.
She continued to struggle with this until she stopped the vehicle and threw her head onto the steering wheel crying loudly.
“Laura we can’t stop now,” Ken said from the backseat.
Through sobs she said, “I know. I just need a moment.”
Hillary patted her on the shoulder. “Here hun, let me drive.”
“Ok,” Laura said sniffing softly as she took her head off the wheel.
The two girls traded places quickly and Hillary started driving as soon as she clicked her seatbelt in place.
No one was saying anything as they drove. Every once in a while Laura or Ginger would let out a sob each from their own pains, mental or physical.
“Hey look, there are some lights up ahead, coming out of the woods,” Hillary said loudly. “Let’s hope there is help for Ginger.”
Ken looked out the window at the lights ahead “We need to hurry, it has been at least half an hour and Yang was out maybe an hour at best before he attacked us again.”
Ginger whimpered at his words. She didn’t like hearing that she might not have much time left before the thing dangling out of her head tried getting back in. Either that or the lucky thing to happen would be that Ken was able to shock it again, something that she also didn’t look to forward to.
Hillary drove out of the woods and into the town. She asked if anyone saw a sign saying where they were. Ken was distracted with Ginger and Laura was stuck in a self hating daze, so no one knew; not that it was really important anyways.
The town was dark except a few porch lights here and there. Close together houses lined the streets deeper into the town.
“Laura, snap out of it and look for something that might be a hospital,” Ken said.
Laura didn’t want to listen but did anyways.
She knew that back at the cabin when Ken told her that Magnis was lost to them he was right. She also knew they might still be able to save Ginger. She was better off concentrating on that right now. But it wasn’t going to be easy for her. Magnis was her husband and they loved each other very much.
Hillary drove to an intersection that was partly barricaded so the only direction was to go left. She didn’t think anything of it and neither did the rest of the group.
Just after Hillary made the turn she slammed on the breaks almost causing Ginger to fall off Ken’s lap despite being strapped in with seatbelts.
“What’s the big idea!” Ginger yelled at her sister painfully.
“Look…,” Hillary said to those in the SUV that were able.
Down the road fire was pouring out of several buildings along with a few piles of random debris that had likely been thrown out of the buildings. Vehicles had been stopped and abandoned in the middle of the street. Those two things weren’t even the most horrible part of it. There were bodies every dozen or so feet in almost every direction down the street.
Hillary looked away from the bodies and put the SUV in park.
The scene in front of them was enough to distract Laura from her pity. She looked out the windshield trying to make sense of what was going on.
Ken sat up and looked over the front seat out the windshield as well.
“Why are you all so quiet?” Ginger asked. “Why did we stop?”
“The town… it’s a wreck,” Laura stated quietly.
“What?” Ginger asked obviously very confused.
“Fires are littered about on the street and buildings are on fire too,” Hillary explained. “There are even a few cars with their doors still open and…,” her voice trailed off.
“And what?”
Laura finished the sentence for Hillary. “Bodies everywhere.”
“What? The same thing happened here, turn around.” Ginger started freaking out, “We have to get out of here. Please turn around now!” She started to cry loudly.
Ken stroked her hair and whispered her things to settle her down. After a minute she was calm enough again and they all started talking about what to do.
“Does anyone see anything medical related down the street?” Hillary asked.
“I don’t,” said Laura.
“Well, even if there was we can’t drive over there due to what is in the road. It’s just not right,” Hillary rubbed her shoulders feeling cold suddenly.
Laura tried to look out the window but it was just too dark to tell what was all the way down the road. Still trying to peer further down into the town she said, “Like Ginger said, I’d wager the same thing has already happened in this town as what happened at the cabin. I don’t want to stick around to see for sure.”
“Just back up and we’ll go back the other way,” Ken said turning his head around.
“And what? Come across my husband again?” Laura said in a snotty tone.
“He isn’t your husband anymore Laura,” Ginger said.
“The hell he isn’t!”
“Hey now, calm down,” Ken scolded the two women. “You two need to stop yelling at each other. Just do as The Ken suggested and turning around a block or two. We’ll see if there is a different street further into town.”
“Good idea,” Hillary said.
She put the SUV in reverse and turned the vehicle around. She was about to drive forward when a loud bang came from a nearby building.
At the sound the second floor of a brick house collapsed into the street blocking their way out.
“Oh come on!” Ken yelled. “Can we seriously be that unlucky?”
“I don’t think I can drive over that without wrecking the SUV or getting us stuck,” Hillary said keeping calm. “That and some of the debris is still on fire. I drive over that and we could go ka-boom,” she acted out them exploding with her hands.
“Laura do you think you can go out and knock that stuff out of the way with your spark?”
“I don’t want to get out. Not with knowing those things could be anywhere,” she said frightened.
Hillary gave her friend encouragement. “I’ll go out with you Laura to watch your back.”
Laura grumbled but grabbed the handle of the door and waited for Hillary to grab the handle too. Together they opened their doors and got out.
The two looked around. No bodies got up from the ground to charge at them. No worms jumping through the air either. It was just a lot of fallen bricks blocking the way with some fire thrown into the mix.
Laura started freaking out. “I don’t want to do it Hillary. It’s going to make a lot of noise and something is going to come out of nowhere and attack us.”
Hillary walked over and grabbed her by the shoulders to comfort her. “Just do it fast and we’ll get back in the vehicle and drive away before anything can show up, ok? I promise we’ll be ok.”
Usually Laura would be a lot more collect than this but the events that had happened with Magnis had her emotionally a mess. She was drifting back and forth from being upset and scared to calm and collect without having any real control over it.
A strange noise came from the right of the girls. They both jumped and Laura got closer to Hillary while putting her shield up instinctively.
The sound had come from a house that had the front door broken off of it. There was another noise that was loud enough to be heard over the crackling of the flames.
A dim light appeared just inside the doorway and got brighter as it came outside of the house.
Hillary looked at Laura confused, “Can the zombie people hold flashlights?”
“I… I… I don’t know,” Laura said being scared out of her mind. “I told you I didn’t want to come out here, why did you make me come out here Hillary?” She grabbed her friend by the shoulders and shook her violently. “Now we’re both going to die!”
An old raspy voice spoke from the direction of the light. “No one is going to die. At least not yet.”
Hillary pushed Laura off her and she fell on her butt to the ground. “Oh thank goodness, a live person. Judging by your streets we didn’t know if there was anyone left.” She pointed to the SUV. “My sister needs medical help, she has—”
“Shut your dang mouth woman,” the old man said as he stepped out of the doorway into the open. The flashlight was tied around his arm and shining just beneath his armpit. In his other hand he held a shotgun. Coming into plain view he cocked the gun threateningly and let out a wheezy laugh.
Four other equally old and armed people, three men and one female stepped out behind him.
“What do you say Joe?” the elderly woman asked holding her shotgun up to point at the girls.
Ken saw Laura run over to Hillary and then the light in the doorway. Now that there were people with guns, old people or not, he had to get involved.
“The Ken is going to step out for a bit.”
“No, why? What’s wrong?” Ginger said gripping onto his clothes to get him to stay with her. She could only see the seats and the dashboard and nothing outside the windows so she was unaware of what was going on outside.
“Just don’t try to move too much alright?”
“Don’t leave me; I want to know what’s going on.” She clawed at him some more as he opened the door. “Ken! Get back here!”
When Ken got out of the vehicle the old people all switched their aim to him and took a step back. It was obvious that being a marvel of muscle he was quiet intimidating to them.
“You stand back big guy,” Joe said.
Ken made sure that his shield was applied. He wasn’t sure if he could stop bullets with it like Laura’s could, but it might help.
The new situation had Laura being more like her normal self and she took a step forward to try to explain things. She pointed at the vehicle. “Listen, my friend in there—”
“Didn’t I already tell you to shut your mouth?” Joe yelled.
“It isn’t polite to interrupt you know,” Hillary glared at him.
“Hmph. You think all those bodies over there just fell over by themselves. I think my friends and our guns have something to do with it. With that in mind I suggest you shut your yap.”
“You didn’t!” Hillary yelled at him.
The group of old people all laughed. “There is no way we are going to let those things get inside them to turn against us,” Joe stated.
“Things?” Laura looked confused. “You aren’t talking about worm things are you?”
Two of the old people turned to each other whispering.
“I don’t know how much you exactly know, but we aren’t going to let you stay alive to turn into one of them and come after us,” Joe said.
At that he swung the gun away from Ken and pointed it at Laura.
The gun went off and she felt the pellets from the buck shot only lightly on her body. She smiled at him confidently and put her hands on her hips.
“You going to let me talk? Or you want to see what else I can do?”
“You sure that thing is loaded properly?” one of the other old people asked Joe.
He turned around and yelled at them. “Of course I’m sure!”
“No one could have survived being that close of range,” the female of the group said.
“I’m pretty sure she just did,” Hillary pointed out from safely behind her friend.
“The Ken can see you have this under control so The Ken is going to make sure Ginger is ok.”
Laura nodded.
“Are you alien?” one of the old men asked lowering his gun feeling that it was now useless.
“No…,” Laura said raising her eyebrow.
Everyone including Ken who was about to open the SUV door turned to the rubble pile as it produced the kind of sound that makes a person instinctively say, “Oh shit.”
Want to continue? Part 7
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