A Walk Among The Dead

Chapter 11

"Hey, Rowan, wake up."

Amelia's voice woke me from my sleep in the back of our truck. My face was sticky with tears and my eyes were extremely puffy and sore. I grunted as I stretched out my upper body.

"What's going on?" I asked tiredly.

"Your Dad told Brady to pull over. I just wanted to make sure you were awake for whatever's going on." Amelia said. I looked in the cab and noticed Dad had the same appearance as me, puffy and tear stained cheeks. The truck came to a stop on the side of the road.

Dad opened his passenger door and walked to the front of the truck and popped the hood. A giant smoke cloud engulfed Dad's face as he went to investigate the cavity's contents. He cough violently and slammed the hood shut.

Amelia and I jumped out of the truck bed to see what was going on. Dad leaned on the now closed hood and covered his face with both hands.

"What happened?" I asked, concerned. Dad turned and looked at me with sad, defeated eyes.

"The engine's destroyed. It's over heated and ain't ever coolin' down." Dad sighed.

"Shit." Brady whispered under his breath. Amelia threw her hands on her waist and cocked her hip to the side.

"Well, what now?" Amelia asked rudely. The three of us turned and glared at her in disgust.

"I don't know, I don't know!" Dad shouted. His arms flailed in the air out of frustration. I looked around at our surroundings and noticed that we were in the middle of nowhere. No cars, no houses, no corpses. I sighed obnoxiously and walked to the back of the truck to retrieve my backpack. I threw it over my shoulder and walked back over to everyone.

"There's only one thing we can do." I said, starting toward the distance, following the yellow lines in the middle of the road.

"And where the hell is it that we're gonna walk to? There's absolutely no place to go around here." Brady snapped at me.

"We'll keep walkin' until we stumble upon a miracle." I snapped back, not even bothering to stop or turn around to face him. A few moments passed before I heard Amelia grab another backpack out of the truck and jog up beside me.

"I assumed you would have been the last to follow me." I said, continuing to look straight ahead.

"Yeah, well, you're right. This is the only thing we can do." Amelia said quietly, almost like she hated admitting I was right.

I glanced behind me and sure enough Dad and Brady had started following us. I smirked at the idea of Brady having to listen to my command, considering he was still pissed at me for trying to kick his ass back into gear. I glanced over my shoulder one last time to make sure they were still behind me, and continued to walk the long road to our miracle.

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It's been hours, miles. We were still in the middle of nowhere.

My legs burned. My forehead was moist with sticky sweat, even though the air was considerably cool. The exhaustion that was building up inside me was beginning to wear me down. Somehow, we hadn't come across any rotters, not that I'm complaining. I wanted to quit. I wanted to just stop walking and lay in the middle of the road and stare up at the gray, overcast sky. I knew I couldn't quit. This was my idea in the first place.

"Oh my shit, look. Look!" Amelia shrieked, pointing her finger towards an old beat down barn in the middle of a field beside the road.

"Oh my God." I whispered to myself. "Finally."

Amelia took off running, the rest of us quickly following behind her. The pain in my legs had suddenly subsided as I filled with hope.