26

Johnny slowly started to kind of stabilize, and his driving became smoother. The fact that he had the whole road was probably helping. I wondered who'd driven the mini van to his grandma's birthday since this car didn't have a car seat in it, and clearly didn't belong to the boy's mom. I knew the two of them were probably only together when the attack happened because their mom had probably forced them to play together like many parents did when there was a big gap between siblings. She was probably lecturing Johnny when the attack happened. 

Grabbing them up, and hiding them in the upstairs bathroom before trying to help the other children, and failing. Either that or she didn't make it to the bathroom at all. I wasn't willing to bring it up to Johnny or Sam. I looked at both boys with a sad expression knowing that after protecting them for the last few days I wouldn't be able to part with them easily. I watched as Johnny drove. 

We still had a few hours before dark, and we were creeping towards our goal. There was no real reason to rush. I opened the window, and grabbed my bow. Leaning out the window while still buckled in to get a better look around. I wanted to climb onto the roof or stand on the bumper so I could fire arrows if I needed to.

We were approaching the forested area I was worried about. I didn't want Johnny to panic, and drive erratically if we came across something dangerous. I slumped back down into the seat, and looked at Johnny who was nervous about my heightened awareness. 

"I want you to keep the car at twenty while I ride on the outside," I told Johnny, "I'm not saying we're going to get attacked. I just don't like how little we can see through the trees."

"Are you sure?" Johnny started oversteering again.

"You're doing pretty good," I nodded, "I'm going to tie myself to the car so I don't get knocked off, but I can't really use my bow from inside the car. Go ahead, and use the breaks to stop. Then put the car in park."

The car jerked a bit as he pressed on the breaks too hard too quickly. He managed to stop the car, but didn't put it in the park. 

"Don't forget to put the car in park," I pointed at the shifter. 

He started to pull the shifter down. 

"Up," I reminded him. 

I knew he was nervous, but if I couldn't fight then we'd be in even more trouble then a little jerky driving might give me. I'd spent a lot of time helping my grandpa haul hay as a kid. A jerky ride was basically a constant when stacking hay on trailers. Mainly because you were forcing a truck to drive as slow as possible with a load. No vehicle liked that kind of thing. 

I confirmed the mini van was in park before grabbing the extra twine at my feet. Then I hopped out, and climbed on the hood before moving up to the roof. Confirming my quiver was in place, and adjusting my bow before sitting down in the little extra space in front of the rabbit cage. Then I tied my belt loosely to the headache rack on both sides so I could turn or stand up if I needed. Then I tied the bow itself to my wrist so I couldn't drop it if I got jerked. 

I tapped on the driver window, and told him to get moving. He was nervous. I grabbed the upturned leg of my rabbit cage, and waited for the jolt. I heard the car go into drive, and then there was a moment of hesitation before the car jerked a little as it got going. 

"Keep us straight on this road, and keep the speed low," I shouted to make sure my voice reached him. 

Then we started the slow creeping march toward Darington. I scanned the trees as we approached them. Soon we'd have high trees on both sides. I didn't like it, but this was the best route to Darington. An uncomfortable quiet surrounded us. 

Only the sound of the engine broke the silence. It wasn't a loud engine, but I didn't like the fact that it was the only sound I could hear. I knew that the ecosystem had been heavily disrupted by this whole monster outbreak. A lot of animals that used to live in the area were probably fleeing to safety. I was more worried about the ones that hadn't fled. 

I could see the occasional corpse of a farm animal in the empty fields. I frowned to myself. Seeing the corpse of a full grown beef cow wasn't exactly encouraging. What looked like a dead horse was in the field we were currently passing. I only had a dozen or so arrows left in my quiver. 

I ran my fingers through them nervously. Feeling the difference between the two types of arrows in my quiver. The poison ones had a smoother more refined feel to them. The bone ones felt almost greasy. I wanted to experiment with my flames, but I couldn't afford to waste my mana. 

I hadn't done any physical exercises the last couple days, and I couldn't do them now. I wasn't exactly pouting about it. I never like to exercise, but I needed to manually increase my stats. I would probably have time to do that once we were in a safer space. I was hoping for there to be a settlement in Darington where we were headed, but part of me was worried there might not be. 

Chaos didn't favor the dreamers or hopeful. I inhaled slowly as I continued to feel my arrows. Scanning our surroundings as the trees grew nearer. I could feel myself slowly tensing up as we grew closer. I knew that I was probably being paranoid.