Clarkesville (Chandler Riggs)

Chapter 29

"Bruno, go!"

"Get through!"

"Don't stop!"

We were all shouting. The walkers were coming out of nowhere, trampling in front of our car and scaring us half to death. There were hundreds of them, and they stretched for about a whole mile. Every time we hit one straight on I had to either look away or prepare for a bump.

"I can handle it! We just found this car, and we're not getting out of it. There's no other option other than to get eaten." Bruno yelled over the sound of growling, my yelps and the tires rolling over living corpses.

"There's too many! The car will flip over if you just drive over them." Luke exclaimed.

"Shut up! We can get through!" Bruno shouted back.

He didn't know that. We could end up flipping over and die, trying for nothing. We could have no chance but to slow down and lose the the safety of a car once again. Or, Bruno could drive insanely fast and get around the herd and we live.

I just wanted to go to sleep.

The walkers that were further up were taking notice of our zooming car as they began stumbling over the rail and approaching in our direct path. If we were to go right through them, they'd roll under the car unevenly and we'd flip.

Fortunately, I thought of a solution.

"Roll down your windows, now!" I ordered Luke and Chandler, who were prepared to object. "Just do it! You can shoot them from the car. It'll be easier to get through!" I leaned over Luke and pressed the button.

Chandler pressed his own as well and pulled out the handgun we had first come across at the airport.

"How many have you got left?" I asked him.

He quickly checked the gun's clip, and cocked it. "Nine. Bruno, have you got more?"

"Yeah kid, in the side pocket of my bag."

Luke checked his clip as well and propped his elbow out of the window.

"Chandler! C'mon!" I gripped his shoulder. "Shoot!"

As soon as I told them to shoot, my ears popped and they car bumped up and down.

Shots were blaring from both sides. I looked out the window from Chandler's side as few walkers dropped, until he could no longer shoot.

I shifted to Luke who was firing at the walkers who were closest and currently in front of the car.

Chandler reloaded his gun and once again the booms, and cracks and pops of the gunshots rang in my eardrums. That plan was one of the best things I'd thought of since I met Chandler. But I was wishing I could just tune out all of the fretful noise.

"Woahh!" My nerves gathered all into one word when the car suddenly jerked roughly to the side. Bruno had moved out of the way because the road had a giant pothole in it. Some sort of commotion had caused cracks and ruin on the pavement.

"Riley! Are you alright?" Chandler stopped shooting and pulled himself back inside the car.

"I'm fine." I put my hand to my chest to calm the bombs that were lit inside of me. "Let's just get the fuck out of here already."

Chandler didn't speak to my cursing and annoyance, he just agreed with me and looked forward.

"Bruno, drive." Chandler yelled before rolling up his window. I removed my eyes from Luke's window and looked straight ahead. We were finally past the horrific traffic jam scene and piles of flesh-eating monsters.

I turned around and saw the hundreds of dirty, peeling bodies facing us. Some were close, but most were behind us and moving as fast as possible.

We were out of the herd, we were out of the woods and we were in a car. We were moving toward safety.

What am I thinking? No matter where we go now, nothing will be safe. People, the wilderness, houses, building, cars, fields, I won't even be able to breath. I should have known from the TV show. I should have known I will never be safe now.

***

"You're group was coming from this way. How did you not see it?" I questioned Bruno, who was not in the mood to answer.

"What do you think? Homer and Vincent chose to move through the woods, until Joy convinced them to cross over to the other side to get to the river, then we met you two and that other girl." He explained with tiredness in his tone.

"That was so bad... I wonder why they bunch up like that." I mumbled.

Luke agreed with me and let out a long breath. "Earl would know."

His response caught me quite off guard. "How would he know that?"

"Well he knew their Latin term so..." Luke fixed his dirty blonde hair and leaned back in his seat. I nodded and turned my attention back to Bruno.

"Speaking of Vincent. Who is - was, he anyway?" Chandler asked.

"Vincent was in the army. Pretty much made it in because he was so fierce looking and pushy. He was a pal of Jason and I."

"So you three got made it together?" Luke leant forward.

Bruno sighed. "Yep."

I figured that Bruno took enough questions for the day. After all, he just drove extremely fast during a huge scenario of screaming and gunshots. He was just as tired as everyone else in the world right now.

"I'm glad we got through that." I said aloud, making sure all three of them heard me.

"Me too." Chandler replied.

"There's gonna be much worse things, though. Who knows if we can handle that." I continued.

"Don't think about it. What happened back there; we'll forget out it in the next week." Bruno spoke and shrugged his shoulders, "The biggest things in the past will be the least of your worries in the future."

"How did you possibly learn to remember that part of a poetry book, grown man?" I joked with him.

"Actually, I'm just taking a wild guess."

I glanced at him to see the happy smirk across his face. I rolled my eyes and looked away. I could hear him lightly chuckle from the front seat.

"Where do we go next?" Luke finally asked the big bad question. I was afraid there would be no answer.

"I hear Nebraska's nice." Chandler stated.

"Shut up with your stupid puns, Chandler. He's serious." I lightly punched him in the arm trying hard not to smile.

"We are definitely not turning around..." Luke gestured behind the car.

"How about northeast Georgia? There are a lot if smaller towns there." Bruno told us.

"Like where?"

"Well, off the top of my head, there's Cornelia, Helen, Clarkesville, Lavonia..." Bruno listed, and they all sounded like nice places.

"Okay then we go there. For now, keep a look out for fallen trailer trucks and infestations of reanimated corpses."