World of Monsters

17. New Arrivals

     The road was clear and whenever they did bump into a stray undead moseying around, they would take it out with a silenced rifled and carry on. They didn't attract any attention and kept the trucks in a quieter mode they referred to as silent so the engines wouldn't attract any undead to come their way. By the time the sun started to go down, the two trucks had covered half the distance before Gabriel caught up. He landed on one of the trucks as Alyssa opened the hatch on top for him.

     "Good morning," she said playfully.

     "I guess you got impatient," Gabriel said, looking around, "You covered a lot of ground. Any troubles?"

     "Hardly," She replied, "Just a few strays we easily picked off from up here. And if we had, we just would have stopped and waited for you."

     "Good to hear," Gabriel said as he sat down and made himself comfortable. "Do you guys have a plan for when we get there?"

     "Pablo and I have been working on it," Alyssa said, "Just let us do the talking and I have a feeling we'll be just fine. We'll be there in a few hours too."

     "Sounds good," Gabriel said, "I'm going to fly about and scout ahead. Just to make sure there's nothing ahead of us."

     "How can you see anything in this darkness?" she asked him.

     "I'm a creature of the night," he reminded her, "To me this setting is as clear as day, and I can also hear very well too. I can hear the moans of the undead ten miles away so they cannot sneak up on us. Right now I hear nothing."

     "That's a good sign then," Alyssa said, "But it's a good idea to check anyway."

     "Yes ma'am." Gabriel said as he leaped off the roof of the truck and she watched him fly away before closing the hatch.

     The stayed on the road for several hours and with Gabriel flying ahead there was nothing in their blocking their path the entire way. It was around four in the morning, just a few hours before daybreak when the two medium sized trucks started to see Alyssa's town in the distance. She couldn't believe how happy she was to see it. And when the trucks came up to the large gated wall, there were two guards who didn't notice they had arrived until Pablo honked the horn, which got their attention.

     "Holy crap!" one of them said, as if he had just woken up. "Where the hell did these two things come from?"

     The other guard went on the radio and called for someone to wake up the mayor, and it took Max about ten minutes to run over to the gate, and up the stairs to join the guards. He looked down at the two trucks, and then back at the guard that called him over.

     "Have they said anything yet?" Max asked.

     "Not a peep." the guard replied, "They just honked the horn."

     "Who are you?" Max called out to the two trucks. "Identify yourselves!"

     The hatch of one of the trucks opened up, and to the surprise of the two guards, and especially the mayor, Alyssa popped out with a smile on her face.

     "Hey boys!" she called out, "Did you miss me?"

     "Alyssa?" Max called back, startled. "Whose trucks are these?"

     "They'll be ours if we negotiate in good faith," Alyssa answered.

     "Negotiate with whom?" Max inquired, eager to know more.

     This was when Pablo also popped out of the same hatch hole, and waved to the mayor. "Good evening, Max. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Alyssa has said nothing but nice things about you and your town."