Chapter 45: On the move

“One more night,” Aiden said. “We’ll only stay for one more night.”

“I think one night is generous,” said Ivan, his body trembling.

“If you want, we can leave now. But we have to hope that plant thing won’t come after us when we leave,” Ember stated.

He gave Ember a glare, and she shrugged.

The plant attack shook them to their core. Their understanding of the world has changed. If plants can attack people, what else might be lurking out there?

The group didn’t want to leave today. Even though the danger of the plant was still very much alive, the danger of the unknown made them much more fearful. For the rest of that day, they spent their time staring out the window, packing any essentials they thought they might need, and stress eating.

The night was quiet. No one spoke. As soon as the sun went down, everyone went straight to their rooms. No one suggested an orgy or having some fun. Even Ivan was shaken after almost being lunch for an aggressive plant.

The day came too quickly. Everyone came out early, wearing something comfortable. They all made sure to wear boots since they would most likely need to do some hiking.

The group hadn’t yet registered the fact that it might not be that easy to get to the base.

The previous night, Ember had emptied the house of everything. She took anything she thought people might steal, which left the house relatively empty.

They went straight to the SUV and got in. They didn’t check for the plant. The air around them was tense. Aiden’s hands gripped the steering wheel.

Ember could see how tense he was. He held the steering wheel and hadn’t started the car. Ember pushed the button, and the car roared to life. Still, they didn’t move. Everyone was too afraid to tell him to leave.

The task fell on Ember, who felt as if her mouth was full of cotton. She rested her hand on Aiden’s thigh and whispered, “It’s okay, let’s go.”

Aiden turned his head towards her, noticing her encouraging eyes. He finally let go of his tension and started to drive.

Driving out onto the street, it was quiet. The SUV, although relatively quiet, sounded loud with the absence of other noise. They didn’t go far before they met their first monsters.

A figure jumped out in front of the car. Aiden jerked the car to a stop.

“Don’t stop!” came Ember’s yell, “Drive.”

Meeting the glassy eyes of the ’person’ he just hit, who had already gotten up and was reaching forward, Aiden accelerated.

“Remember, no matter who it is or what you see, keep driving.” Ember reminded. “No one is going to give you a ticket or tell you you’re speeding. This won’t be a hit-and-run. You only need to know that this person might be putting you in danger.”

Ember’s words reached the ears of everyone in the vehicle. When Aiden had hit the ’person’. They all felt the palpitation of their hearts. Their first thought was that he had hit someone until they saw what he had truly hit.

They were lucky they didn’t run into the plant. Now, they were lucky enough to run into a zombie. They needed to think about what the world has truly become.

“If we can’t adapt, we’ll be eliminated,” Adrienne murmured.

The words rang out in the car. No one told her she was saying the wrong thing. They knew she was right.

After more than half an hour, they hadn’t gone far. Their faces were, however, the constant sound of bone crunching and zombie blood on the windshield made them nauseous. No one looked away; however, they knew they needed to adapt.

“Weneed to make a stop,” Aiden said.

“What are we stopping for?” asked Alex.

“There’s a mart not far from here. We need to go there and get some supplies.” Aiden answered as his eyes scanned the roads.

“Why? We’re packed to the teeth.” Ivan replied, his eyes turning to Ember.

Aiden clenched his jaw; his eyes darted to Ember momentarily. “We can’t let everyone know that Ember can hide things. We need to look like any other survivor. Which means we need to find the most basic things, even if it means pretending.”

Ember turned around from the passenger seat. “That’s just one reason. The other is that it can’t always be just the five of us. At some point, we are going to need more people. The more allies we have, the better. Plus, you don’t really think the base can operate with just the five of us having sex, do you?”

“Is the sex thing still happening?” Ivan asked, his ears perked up.

“Of course it is, did you think I was lying to you?” Ember retorted.

Ivan didn’t hesitate, “Yes. What crazy person would have a sex base in doomsday?”

“This crazy person,” Ember said, pointing to herself. “So don’t worry. As long as you can help us get people, you’ll have all the beauties you want. You’ll be so full that you get sick of having sex.”

Ivan scoffed as if it were impossible.

It didn’t take long for them to get the things they needed from the mart. The store was mostly empty. It appeared that people decided it was time to loot as soon as they felt something was wrong.

There will always be people who see the signs earlier than others.

A few minutes after leaving the mart, Alex made a discovery.

“Don’t you think the place is too clean?” he asked. “Ever since Aiden started driving, we’ve been crushing zombies or having people jump out of the way. But that’s not happening now.”

They looked at the road, truly looked. They hadn’t noticed before because the journey was smooth. But that in itself was a problem. The journey shouldn’t be this smooth.

“Maybe a lot of people were home, and there wasn’t much nightlife? Everyone could still be cooped up inside, unwilling to kill the zombies or just afraid to come out,” Ivan suggested.

Alex shook his head, “No, that’s not it.”

They kept their eyes on the road after that. Looking out for some semblance of life. There wasn’t any.

It wasn’t until 10 minutes later that they reached a roadblock.

“Anyone want to guess what this might be for?” Ember asked.

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