Ashen Sky-Chapter 3 Revised

Zombie Apocalypse, Matt thought as he loaded his Katana swords, a backpack full of food and water, and his cat into his two-door Acura. I mean, really?

It all seemed a little too cliché to him. Zombies were at an all-time high right now in pop culture. There were hundreds of movies, hundreds of videogames, even books being written. Or rewritten. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? What the eff is that? Matt was still half-convinced this was some sort of elaborate practical-Halloween-joke that everybody but him was in on. He laughed grimly to himself. I've believed in this type of thing my whole life, and the second it actually starts to happen, I'm the biggest skeptic of 'em all. That just figures.

"I'm ready!" Sara shouted from the doorway of the apartment. She was hauling a duffle-bag bigger than her petite frame behind her.

"What the hell is in that thing?" asked Matt, annoyed. "We're gonna be gone like six hours, not six weeks!"

Sara shrugged and grinned. "If there's one thing I've learned from videogames besides how to shoot, it's that you've always gotta be prepared."

Matt could not argue with that. She'd probably be my dream girl if she wasn't so weird, Matt snorted to himself. This coming from the king of abnormal. That's saying something.

"We're taking that?" she asked, wrinkling her nose as she reached Matt's car. "It's tiny!"

He was deeply offended, but bit his tongue. Nobody insults my car! "Might be," he said instead of snapping. "But it's fast as hell. We might need the speed to outrun the zombies."

"Yeah…but we might need bulk to break down barricades and run their butts over! Hit one with this thing, and it's gonna be like bumper cars…inconvenient, but not deadly."

"So, what do you drive, then?" retorted Matt.

Sara blushed and waved in the direction of a black Honda Civic.

"Oh, yeah, like that's a hell of a lot better. Get. In." Matt took her duffle bag and threw it into his trunk before climbing into the driver's seat and slamming the door behind him.

He had literally outgrown his little Integra before he had even learned to drive. At six-foot-three, his head bumped up against the low ceiling. He had plenty of chances to replace the old car, but as rusted, as tiny, and as aged as it was, he loved it too much to let it go.

"Just throw that stuff in the back," Matt instructed Sara, motioning to a few empty Mountain Dew cans and some wadded up pages of loose-leaf with grocery lists or directions that littered the floor of the passenger seat. Peaches hopped up onto the armrest between the two front seats.

"Ready, cat?" Matt asked affectionately, rubbing one of her ears.

She gave a cheerful meow in response.

"All right…then we're outta here."

"Thanks for letting me come with, Matt," Sara twittered. She was sitting cross legged in the chair, her head barely even clearing the headrest.

"How tall are you?" he asked, not quite sure why he cared, but also not sure what else to say to this girl he barely knew.

"That's a strange question," she responded, looking slightly offended for a split second before charging onward. "I guess it's better than asking a girl her weight. Five foot flat, one hundred pounds. I used to weigh more, but then I cut soda out of my system. Not to lose weight, of course, but the doctors thought it would help with the ADD. It kinda has but I—"

Matt flipped the radio on to tune her out. Music was still playing, which was a good thing. If the situation in Illinois were getting really serious, Matt figured all stations would be on some sort of news report or another. Maybe it's not that serious, after all.

"Crap! I gotta call Tess!" Matt accidentally slammed on the gas in his attempt to get his phone out of his jeans pocket. Peaches let out a yowl and leapt into Sara's lap, who had flattened herself against her seat. "Sorry," he muttered as he dialed Tess.

"Matt! What's the plan?" she sounded almost frantic.

"We'll meet you at the quarantine line in Rockford. We'll convince them you're not sick and that you need to come back to Cedar Rapids. And if that doesn't work…then we'll sneak you out. Is everything okay? How are you doing?"

"I'm probably an hour or two away from Rockford with all these checkpoints. There's talk that they're going to set a lock down soon and only those traveling from one part of town to another part will be allowed to drive. Things are getting worse. I…it's hard to explain. I've heard gunshots. There's another check point coming up, so I need to let you go."

"Okay, Tess. Just hang in there. We're coming for you."

It was a surprisingly quite drive. Aside from the music playing and the cat purring under Sara's hands, there was nothing to be heard. Matt stared out the windshield, thoughts racing through his head. Every mile his odometer ticked off added one new butterfly to his already churning stomach. His mental chant of "it's not as bad as it seems…everything's fine" was not doing much to ease his worry anymore.

He glanced over to Sara, surprised that she had not said a single word since they had left over an hour ago. He expected her to look frightened, or at the very least slightly worried, but the expression on her face was a tranquil one. She was usually twitchy and endlessly tapping a finger or a foot, but she was still except for her left hand, which was stroking Peaches' back. This worried Matt more than it would have if he had looked over to see her setting her hair on fire out of fright.

"You okay?" he asked softly, making her jump.

Sara blinked her large blue eyes at him as though he had just woken her from a dream. "Mmhm," she nodded. "I like car rides."

"You don't get out much, do you?"

"No, not really. I don't have anywhere to go." There was a sad undertone to her words.

"Don't you ever go visit your parents or anything, at least?"

"They passed away last year," she responded quietly, looking away out the passenger window. "There was a car crash. Mom died instantly, and when dad woke up in the hospital to find out that she was gone…well…he just kinda gave up on living. That's how I got this." She rolled up her shirt to reveal a long scar across her left side. "Piece of the windshield did it. I needed thirty staples and two blood transfusions. They said it was a miracle I survived…but…"

"But what's the point of living if you've got no one left to live for?" Matt finished, a pang of sadness sweeping over him for her. "Sara…I'm sorry. I wouldn't have said anything if I'd known—"

"It's okay, Matt," she interrupted, flashing him an honest smile. "I'm okay on my own. I'm a fighter."

"Yeah…I guess you are." He still could not help feeling guilty. "I'm surprised you still like being in cars after that."

"Why wouldn't I?" Sara asked, raising a black eyebrow at him. "Because that's how my family died? I don't think of it that way. I like car rides because we used to go on trips across the country all the time. We were coming home from one when it happened. So…even though they died in a crash…my fondest memories are in the car. Car rides now make me feel close to them again."

Matt smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way."

"What about your parents? Don't you think they should know what's going on?"

"Well, they're probably safe since they're just on the other side of Cedar Rapids…but yeah…I probably should tell them what we're up to." Matt felt awkward now as he found the house number in his phone. He could not imagine what it must be like for Sara to hear other people talk to their parents when she did not have any of her own to ever talk to again. "Dad?"

"Matt! How are you? Doing okay with everything? Your mother and I have been watching the news since we got home from work."

"Actually, that's why I'm calling. I…I just wanted…" As his voice wavered and almost broke, his resolve shattered. I can't do it. "I just wanted to tell you both that…you mean the world to me. I…wouldn't be who I am without you, and I love you both. So much."

There was silence on the other end for a second. "Oh, honey, we love you, too!" His mother's voice was full of tears. "Everything's going to be just fine, baby. It won't reach us here in the middle of Iowa. You can come by if it will make you feel better."

"I know, mom. And thanks, but…I'm hanging out with one of my neighbors. I just…wanted you to know. Just in case."

"Okay, honey. We know."

"Hey, I gotta go. I'll talk to you soon."

"Goodbye, son." His dad's voice, before the line went dead.

Matt glanced over to Sara to find that she was once more staring out the passenger window, her gaze glassy, as if lost in memory.

"Sorry…" he muttered.

"No, it's a good thing." She sniffed, blinking her eyes a few times and fluffing her wavy, multicolored hair. "But you didn't tell them what we're doing."

"I know." Matt did not know how to explain himself to Sara, but he figured she already knew why he had not mentioned anything to his parents.

A sad smile parted Sara's lips as her grey eyes met his blue ones. "Sometimes goodbyes are easier once you're already gone."

The phone startled them both at the same time as it blared "Carry on My Wayward Son" over a song Matt did not recognize on the radio. He quickly answered.

"Tess! What's up?"

"I'm in Rockford," she responded, for some reason sounding breathless. "They're not letting anyone through. They've got every road out of the city blocked. They're soldiers with guns, Matt. Not National Guard—actual full-blown military! They've called in the army! I just saw a guy get killed by one of them. He tried to rush the barricade with his truck. Do you have another plan?"

"They killed a guy? He wasn't even sick or anything?" Matt was shocked. This has gotta be way more serious than what radios are broadcasting, he thought. "Look, we're probably thirty minutes max from Rockford. I'll have Sara look at a map and—"

"Gimme the phone!" demanded his neighbor suddenly, grabbing it out of Matt's hand so fast that it took him a moment to realize it was gone.

"Tess? Hi, nice to meet you. Or hear you, actually, but that's beside the point. Listen, there's a small town south of Rockford called New Milford—population right around 600. Should be on the quarantine line. But it's all just farmers and stuff. A lotta unmapped dirt roads out that direction that probably haven't been blocked yet. I'll text you with directions. That way, you don't need to write anything down or try to remember it all. I hate it when people just expect you to remember directions to a place you've never been before! I've gotta go. Need to get Matt headed the right direction. 'Kay, bye!"

He just stared at her, speechless.

"Watch where you're driving, please! If I'm gonna die soon, I'd rather it be because a Zombie's eating my brains than because some idiot drove me into a ditch!" Sara instructed as her fingers danced manically across his phone's keyboard. "You're gonna want to go South. Actually, just pull over. I'll drive!"

"How do you know about Mugfield or whatever the hell it was called?" Matt pulled onto the shoulder and the two switched seats.

"I know a guy who used to live there. Well, actually, it's where my dad was born and grew up," Sara explained as she pulled back onto the highway. "I think we've got a good chance of sneaking her out from there, but she might have to leave her car. And it's so small that hopefully nobody's gotten sick there, yet."

Yeah, Matt thought. Keyword here is hopefully.

Suddenly the music on the radio went dead, replaced by the blaring sound of the emergency broadcast.

"This is not a test," the stiff male voice announced. "Repeat, this is not a test. If you are indoors, move to a room with no windows or into the basement. Stay away from windows and doors. If you are on the road, find the nearest building for protection. Repeat, this is not a test. Quarantine zone now spans a 150 mile radius around Chicago, Illinois. If you are within quarantine, do not attempt to leave. You will be shot. Repeat, you will be shot. This is not a test." The message replayed from there.

"But that means…" gulped Sara, her eyes wide behind her glasses as she looked to Matt.

He nodded grimly, a hole in his chest that oozed cold dread. "We're inside quarantine now."