Chapter 9

"Oh my god, what do we do!"

I look at Mikayla and try to figure out what we CAN do.

"I don't know... I don't know." My hands are clammy and I lean down next to the man and try to assess the damage but I have no clue what to do.

Blood seeps from his mouth as he struggles to sit up. Mikayla comes and puts her hand on my shoulder. The worry in her eyes matching my own.

"I think he's trying to say something..." she whispers to me.

I lean closer to try and hear what he's trying to say in between raspy breaths but it's hard to make out. Suddenly he turns his eyes to mine and the clear wrath is very evident. A smile breaks out across his face, blood coating his teeth. He speaks again, slowly this time, intent on making sure I understand.

"You'll die for this bitch."

With that he begins coughing, more blood coming up from what must be internal injuries, running down his chin and splattering his dirty shirt. His rugged voice sounded similar to a voice I had heard before. I couldn't wrack my brain to figure out where I had heard it from because I was too shocked at the situation I managed to get us in.

I back up very quickly, stumbling a bit from my sore ankle. I grab Mikayla and yank her towards the car.

"We have to go. NOW."

She doesn't say anything and just jumps in the back as I scramble to get in the driver's seat and throw the car in gear. Locking the doors, I make sure Mikayla is all the way in before hitting the gas. We don't speak and I assume she heard the man as well. Just as the shaking of my hands begins to slow down and I think we are in the clear I spot something up ahead. I squint my eyes and try to make out what the moving shape is.

"Mikayla... do you see that, up ahead?"

She pops her head in between the two front seats and shakes her head slowly.

"Yeah... it almost looks like... a group of zombies."

I realize she is right. There is a smattering of zombies on the road. Just enough that we can't go around them.

"We can try slamming into them, but it may not work. We might have to try to find a different route."

As we pull closer, I see something shiny between each of the bodies.

"Wait... are those chains?"

Someone has connected chains to each of the bodies, which explains the perfect distance between each one. I press the brakes lightly and slow down about 30 feet from the group. My hands start to shake again as I get nervous. They shuffle back and forth, their movement heavily restricted by the chains. Almost as if they are just supposed to draw our attention.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

I put the car in reverse just as someone slams something against the back window. Panicking, I slam the gas and the horrid thudding of another body going beneath my car is enough to make me start hyperventilating.

"Oh my god, Alexis. There are more. I think this is a trap." She sounds terrified and I can see the perspiration along her forehead. I look around and notice that she is right. There are at least 3 more men and a woman. All armed with melee weapons from the looks of it. The military outfits they have on look vaguely familiar, but once again I am too wound up in the situation to recall the memory. There isn't room to turn the car around without risking them being able to succeed at smashing the windows which would lower our defense significantly.

I look to the left of the car and see that the terrain is very rocky, to the right has a relatively shallow ditch and some fields that I could maybe use to our advantage to get around. I decide in a split second and throwing the car back into drive, I hit the gas, clipping one of the men as my car heads for the ditch. I pray that my all-wheel drive will help us out a bit and when the front tires hit the ditch I bite down on my tongue, hard.

The metallic taste of warm blood fills my mouth, but I don't let it distract me. My heartbeat fills my ears and I force myself to not look back as I force my car out of the ditch as fast as possible. Swinging to the left to go around the chained zombies is still hard to do and probably not good for my car's shocks. Mikayla holds on to the back of my seat for dear life as the car hits every dip in the ground before hitting the ditch again to get back on the road. I look in the rear-view mirror and see the people standing to the side, not moving, but I don't want to take any chances, so I don't slow down.

"At least we know what that guy meant now."

I glance at her in the rearview mirror as she whispers. I nod slightly, my mouth is dry from the terror of what just happened.

"I'm sure he was a part of their group. How are we supposed to find more people to survive with when any of them could be psychos like that? I felt so bad for that guy. Guilty even. Ha." I laugh sarcastically and she doesn't respond.

It doesn't matter right now though because we are coming into the next city and that means finding somewhere to stop and regroup. I can't forget about the people we just ran into though, and I wonder what they are after.