Sunday, January 1, 2012

# 38

We headed further down the road and hit the entrance ramp for the highway just past the old speedway that now looked like it had been abandoned for decades. Funny how something like that doesn't take long to become a ghost town, but then again most things now were. The highway on ramp was pretty clear surprisingly and Leeanne was holding my right arm like a blood pressure cuff. I eased off the throttle a bit and then leaned over to her and tried my darnedest to keep her calm. I think she was just getting overwhelmed, every time we were out and about it was death around every curve. I felt a little nerved up too, thinking of hitting the woman back there who appeared normal. I sat there driving between wrecks and cars abandoned and thinking of things to get my mind off the world in front of me. I settled on nicknames for Leeanne because Lee was kind of like a guy or jeans and her whole name was southern sounding and long. I settled on Leeya and then told her from now on I was calling her Leeya. She stopped her breakdown and cleared her nasal passageways and said "OK I like the sound of that".

On the highway it was now a different game. In the back of my mind I was thinking of the crew that was trying to get us to stop and realizing that a group like that could be hiding behind anything out here. A car, a truck, a bush. Suddenly everything had me on edge, as if the "things" weren't enough. Once again I didn't dare voice my issue because Leeya would be in complete overload if I did. We were coming past the state line and I knew I had just a mile or two before we had the exit we needed. I was already playing in my head the different ideas of what to do and how to go about this without leaving us in a bad spot. I was thinking of the best way to get in and then out if things went sour and also the best way not to get the car stuck or blocked in in case of another group of people with bad intentions.

The exit was finally in front of us and the bridge was one of two the newer bridge was just after the one I was on and it looked to be clear as well. I don't know if the military cleared this all out for some reason or if they had some sort of curfew when it all went down but the lack of cars and trucks on the highway all of a sudden was a little bit shocking. I stopped just after the exit almost passing it, Leeya said" why are we stopping here, don't you want to go down the ramp'? inquisitively. I responded with " No I would rather leave the car where it cannot be blocked in and we can reach it, you say your house is a few blocks up we can make less of a commotion sneaking in then driving in". She relaxed a bit and said OK and we proceeded to get suited up so to speak. We put on heavy coats, gloves, and helmets for batting cages. Then for the first time I gave Leeya the closest thing to a gun lesson I could give . I was not even good enough to be a novice with a gun, I just hoped I could teach her enough so she could get out of a jam. I showed her how to load it and gave her extra clips and then showed her the safety. Then I said the most important thing , "do not shoot unless we have to ". The noise will bring them all out. I put the semi automatic around my shoulder and an aluminum bat.

We left the car and the keys are in the ashtray, a quick exit for us or just one if the other was compromised, and I made sure she knew this. In a jam leave don't get killed being a hero for my dumb ass. We headed down the exit ramp and the entire way I had my eyes fixed on the surrounding area. No movement anywhere to be seen and no fires. Leeya was looking around too and she looked good with her combat outfit on, hey what can I say I'm a guy. When we reached the end of the exit I whispered to her which way and she signaled at the end of the exit we go straight up through the house in front of us yard and three blocks up. We had to cut through a few yards and streets and then she said we would only be a few houses over to the right. She pointed the roof out and on the hill you could almost see the house ,it was about a quarter mile up the hill three streets and a few spots.

I told her to stay behind me and keep her ears open and we started to make our way across the street the ramp ended on and into the yard across from it. We made it into the yard and then got up against the side of the house. I am not sure why we did this but it was in every movie I had ever seen. We moved beyond that house to the yard behind it and scaled the three foot high chain link fence. Leeya hopped over it I almost was castrated on it. Ahhh youth , I don't have it. We went past the next house and slowed to a stop before going past it. I leaned out past the side of it and checked the street it was on and looked around a bit. Just a few streets up Oh goody this isn't too unnerving. We had a much easier time on this next year as it had no fences between it and the house behind it. The street was easy too nothing around but when we got to the second street it was an entirely different story.

I peeked around the Victorian house I was leaning up against and could see three of these "things" on what looked like a downed person. I looked back at Leeya and said what was in front of us. I took another peek and noticed they were so mesmerized by what they were doing they were all on all fours eating or gnawing at the body. I whispered to Leeya " give me anything heavy and what I want you to do is go down three houses with me away from them and run across I will follow". She nodded and we made our way down a few more houses to give a bit of room. Leeya got ready and ran to the tree in front and ducked behind it looking right at me. I watched the "things" and when they were all face down I signaled go and she ran like a gazelle across the road to the side of the house across from it. She looked out at them and watched me head to the tree for cover. I waited for her and she was staring at them with a look of horror. I peeked around the tree and could see they were getting up and heading in my general direction. I leaned against the tree and started thinking of options. Option one run for it and hope they either do not see me or can't catch up to us. Option two turn and start firing hoping to get em all with my crappy aim. Option three wait it out and hope they go right past us.

While thinking of options Leeya picked up a big piece of god knows what in the side yard she was in and heaved it as hard as she could past the "things into a house away from us. "BAM" it made a loud echoing noise and the "things" turned around to investigate. She was staring right through me waving cm on. I made the dash and she bear hugged me. I whispered "good thinking you saved my ass on that one". Just then it was painfully obvious the noise had made more than just the three eating buddies pay notice. The thing Leeya threw had awoken more than just these feasting meanies. We turned and were frozen right there while bear hugging each other.

1 comment:

  1. That's not good. See? Two is just too few to be off on their own! Wonder if she knows any of them?

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