Chapter Text
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August 17 2010
“Ron! Grab your brother! We’re leaving right now!” Jessie shouted from upstairs. Ron sat on the downstairs couch, with Sam sitting by his side. Sam looked away from his toys and up to Ron, “What's happening Ron?” Ron looked down to Sam and then up to the stairs. He could hear things being moved around upstairs and the sound of running. What was she doing up there?
“I don’t know. Let me go cheek.” Sam nodded and Ron smiled at him before heading up to his mom.
“Mom? What's going on?” Ron poked his head through the open door of his parents room, seeing his mom throwing clothes and hygiene supplies into a bag. “Nothing sweetie, but we need to leave. Get your brother and put your shoes on. Me and your dad will be down there soon.” Ron gave her a puzzled look.
“Dads home?” He asked, tilting his head slightly.
“‘Yes. He came home from work early. Now go get your brother and you ready to leave. Now Ron.” He nodded and left back down the stairs to his brother, who still sat on the couch.
“What's going on Ron? Why are we leaving?” Ron didn’t answer, but instead walked to the front door to grab their shoes. Walking back to Sam he handed him his shoes, and started putting on his own.
“Ron?”
“Nothing Sam, it’s okay.” Ron finally answered. He noticed that Sam wasn’t going to put on his shoes, so instead of waiting for him to do it, he took the shoes and started putting them on Sam himself. “But where are we going? Why are we leaving? Did something-”
“I don’t know Sam.” Ron said shutting him down. His own mind was racing too fast to give him a proper answer. Especially since he didn’t know himself. He can’t answer his brother's questions when he can’t even answer his own.
Sam stayed silent after that. Picking up on the annoyed tone in his brother's voice.
By the time Ron finished putting Sam's shoes on, their mother was already down the stairs, carrying four big bags on her arms.
“Alright. Ron, I need you to go fill this bag up with all the food you can grab. Okay?” She told him, pulling out an empty bag from one of her other bags.
“Okay mom.” Ron took the bag and left for the kitchen.
“Mom? Why are we packing?” Sam asked again. She smiled at him softly, but there was evident fear behind it. “I’ll tell you when we’re in the car. Okay Sam?”
“Okay.”
Once Ron came out of the kitchen dragging the large bag behind him, and their father finally came back in with his own two bags from the garage, they all quickly went out to the car.
Jessie and Pete quietly talked in the front seats. Pete holding a map in one hand, and the wheel in the other.
“The broadcast said to go to LA. That's where safety will be Pete.”
“You think I’m going to lead my family to somewhere that a radio told us to go? No, we're going to..”
Ron couldn’t hear the rest of what was said. The last thing he was able to hear was something about a virus. A dangerous virus.
Ron’s heard something about a virus on the TV. About a virus that's been spreading everywhere, and that it's turning people into- well not people. He heard that it was deadly and that everyone should evacuate. He saw pictures of zombie-like people and then the TV shut down. Everything shut down.
That was a week ago. Are they leaving because of the virus? Shouldn’t they stay inside?
He continued to silently watch his parents, trying to hear their quiet conversation.
Jessie started to mess with the radio until the static started to sound like a voice.
*ATTENTION: This is a statewide emergency— The— Nashville. Everyone needs to evacuate immediately. Proceed with– and caution. This is an evac– order.”
The radio went back to static.
***
It's aweing and yet terrifying to drive through their now empty and abandoned neighborhood. As they drove through the streets Ron carefully watched outside the car windows, looking for any signs of life. But everything and everyone was gone.
As they continued to dive they were soon met with a road packed with other people's cars. Other people who have finally decided to evacuate later than normal people would.
Pete honked and swerved past as many people as he could, but hit a dead stop when there was no more room to.
“Fuck!” He slammed down on the wheel and honked multiple times at the people in front of him.
“Pete calm down. I’m sure we’ll be moving soon.”
“What the hell are they doing up there!?” His shouting loudly rang throughout the car, hurting everyone else's ears.
“We should’ve left a week earlier, there probably would’ve been more control then.” She murmured under her breath, but Pete still heard her.
“Are you blaming me for this now? I told you, there were more people leaving a week ago! It would've been more crowded! Leaving now was the smarter and right decision!” Pete said, starting a pointless argument.
“I know its just- maybe it would've been safer because there wasn’t as much infected-”
A loud slap echoed through their car.
Ron pulled Sam close into his arms, covering the child's poor ears.
It's been awhile since they’ve seen their dad hurt their mom. It was almost fucking nostalgic.
“Stay in your fucking lane. This is the right decision. Don’t try and argue with me, lady.” He yelled at Jessie before opening his car door and stepping out.
Ron watched his dad walk to the other car's front window and yelling questions at whoever was in there. He looked at his poor mom who now sat still in her seat, waiting for Pete to come back.
He turned to his brother, who sat scared in his arms, tears in his eyes.
Ron looked out the window and out to the forest, seeing movement of people. No, not people. The infected.
***
They drove all through the night, with Ron’s parents occasionally talking about where they were going, but for the most part staying quiet.
Sam passed out hours ago, but other than him everyone was deadly awake.
Earlier after Pete's freak out they found out that they were all headed towards a military base. And around an hour or so, military trucks appeared and started following them. Keeping them safe from any infected people that went near the citizens cars.
The radio had stopped working and all the few left standing street lights that they had passed had also stopped working.
The night was quiet, almost peaceful, if it weren't for the faint sound of the infected and the running engines of the cars around them.
The drive was slow paced, they’ve barely even traveled sixty miles since this morning.
All cars then came to a dead stop. Pete squinted forward trying to see what was happening, but saw nothing. “What the hell?”
Like before, he opened the door to get out, but unlike last time, someone was waiting outside the car for him. It was one of the military men.
“Family name sir?” The man asked Pete with a check board in hand. “Uh, Anderson.”
“Alright, how many of you are there?” He questioned Pete again. “Why have we all stopped?” Pete asked, ignoring the young man's question.
“We’re doing a headcount. How many of you are there?” The man seemed tired, he stared at Pete whilst impatiently tapping his pen against his paper, waiting for Pete to answer.
“Four. There's four of us.”
“Alright, thank you sir. We will continue the drive once everyone is written down. You should take a break and relax while you wait. Recharge a little.” The man finished, giving Pete a small nod goodbye, before walking off to the next car.
Once the man had left Pete, Pete reentered his car and sat back down.
“What was that about?” Jessie slowly asked Pete.
“Just doing a headcount.” Pete turned to Ron, giving him a glare before looking down to Ron's feet where the food bag laid.
“Grab any water?” He coldly asked his oldest son.
Ron bent down and searched through the big blue bag, pulling out a full water bottle and handing it to his dad. “Thanks.”
***
Ron woke with a jolt as the car drove over what he supposed was a rock. Slowly blinking open his eyes, giving them time to adjust to the bright sun, he steadily sat up away from his window. Glancing around him he noticed that Sam was still dead asleep, peacefully laying on his older brother's side.
“Mom?” Using his right hand he rubbed his tired eyes and turned his attention away from his sleeping brother, and instead to his awake mother.
“Mom, where are we?” Adjusting himself and Sam he moved slightly forward to fully be able to see out the front window.
“We’re almost there, don't worry. Just go back to sleep and we’ll be there before you even know it.” She turned to him, giving him a weak smile. She glanced down to Sam next, keeping a small smile on her face.
“Can you reach the back Ron?” She motioned to the back of the car where their bags were thrown. “Yeah. Why?”
“Can you grab Sam a blanket from his bag? It's the green and gray one.” He nodded at his mom and carefully moved to reach for Sam's bag.
As he grabbed the bag he looked up and out the back window, meeting eyes with the dead. He froze.
“Ron?”
The infected walked slowly and desperately. Hungerly would fit them just right.
They were a good distance from them. Most walking far behind the cars behind his own. But two had been walking right behind his car and were trying desperately to get them. To get him.
“Mom- the things. They're behind us.” He shakily and timidly said. But that didn’t last long. A man, much like the other from the night before, wearing the same clothes, ran over and sliced their heads off. Blood splattered onto his car's back window.
“What was that Ron?”
“N-nothing. Nevermind.” He picked back up the bag and pulled out a large blue blanket and laid it on top of Sam.
***
Their car came to an abrupt stop as did all the other cars. Ahead of them they could see tall
gates and men with guns guarding the top.
“Are we here mom?” Sam asked leaning forward to his widow, trying to see everything this new place has.
“I think so honey. But we have to be patient.” Pete, doing the complete opposite of what his wife had just said, stood up and left the car once again.
“Pete, we have to wait-” he slammed the door in her face, cutting off whatever she was about to say.
Pete stormed forward past all the other cars, which were now mostly empty since most people had left to the front of the gates as well.
“Alright everyone listen up!” One of the military men yelled from the front, standing on a military truck.
“We have very limited space here, so if we call your family name and the right amount of people in your family, then come to the front. If we do not call your name, then we ask you to wait patiently in your cars until further notice.”
With that said, the man pulled out a check list of names and began to read. “..Smith 3, Robertsons 5..” Families started walking towards the gates, some with bags in hand others with nothing. Some tried driving their cars to the gates, but were blocked by the other cars, and had to abandon their cars.
But with each family that went in meant less of a chance that Ron and his family would be called.
“And lastly, the Banks family with 3 people.” The crowd arose with shouting and people started running to the gates as they closed once the last family entered.
“We have kids!”
“What about us!”
“You can't do this!”
Pete pushed past everyone and stormed up to the man on the truck.
“What about my family! I have an eleven year old and a five year old! What do you expect us to do out here?! We’re people too! You can’t do this to us!”
The crowd cheered.
“Everyone! Everyone please! Calm down!” The man tried yelling over everyone. His efforts were pointless, as everyone continued to protest against him.
A gunshot was heard.
A different older military man had shot his gun in the air, and everyone fell silent.
“Now everyone listen! You are all going to be fine! We have another base in Alexandria, Virginia near Washington, D.C. According to our list there is room for all of you! But you have to learn to be more quiet. This isn’t the world we knew before. We got lucky that we were hit last with the virus, but we still have the dead near us! With all this noise you’re making, you could get us killed!” The man took a breath.
“Now everyone, I want you to all back your cars up so we can get out of the way for the cars left behind by the families.”
Everyone looked at the people around them before reentering their cars, content with the promise of safety.
“But we’re in Georgia! You’re talking about such a long drive! What if we run out of food? Or gas?”
The man sighed and pinched his nose before looking at the woman in front of him.
“Ma’am, I know it's far, but it's all we can do for now. If your car runs out of gas you’ll have to get into someone else's car and ride with them. We’ll deal with any future problems later.”
Satisfied with the man's words, everyone still standing outside their car, entered them and started driving away from the abandoned cars.
***
Ron soon realized that this drive to safety was going to take longer than he had thought. As they drove further away from his hometown and more towards their destination, more infected people started to appear.
People started to get more scared, others didn’t realize how dangerous the infected were. People were running out of gas and they had to keep stopping for said people, in order for them to enter a different car.
Over all people were getting more angsty. Getting annoyed with how long the drive was taking. Every time they stopped at night to rest and eat, people would suggest not stopping for the people who ran out of gas. That stopping for them was a waste of time.
Everyone was showing their true colors, and it's barely been three days.
They had started driving faster now that there were less people, but it wasn’t fast enough.
They haven't had any massive attacks by mobs of infected people, but have definitely been attacked by smaller mobs of infected people. And people were killed off.
They're getting weaker. The longer the drive the more people they lose.
Luckily Ron's family is still alive. They’re starting to run low on gas, but Ron managed to grab a good amount of food and water bottles. He wants to believe they’ll make it there fine, but it's hard to stay optimistic when you’re seeing people get eaten alive.
Ron, luckily, hasn’t seen much people getting murdered, thanks to his mom blocking his view whenever it happened. But he can hear it. Whenever it happened close to their car, his mom would lean back from her chair and hold both Sam and Ron close to her, and say, “don't look, just think of what Alexandria will look like.” And, “Shh, we’re safe. Just stay focused on my voice.”
She didn’t know exactly what to say in situations like this, but it was enough for both Sam and Ron.
But, they were told that the ride should only take two to three more days, and then they’ll be there. They'll be in Alexandria’s safe zone. That seems to be enough for the rest of his family, so it's enough for Ron.
***
“Ron– Ron sweetie.. Wake up.” Jessie shook Ron’s arms. “Ron, we’re here. We’re finally here, wake up.”
Ron woke up rubbing his tired eyes. Ron peered around him. His mom was asleep, same for his brother, and his dad tiredly staring dead ahead at the road.
He could've sworn that his mother was talking to him. That she said they were there. But looking around him he’s obviously still here and not there.
He chose to take this time to study his surroundings and the map that his parents had brought. He knows that they're supposed to get there soon, but he’d prefer if he knew exactly how far they were from Alexandria.
He warily reached to grab the map in between his mom and father, not sure if its a bright idea to be messing with his parents map. But, they aren't using it at the moment, so, quietly, he took hold of the map and unfolded it.
“Dad?” Ron feebly said, turning his view to his dad. “Dad, where are we?” He heard his dad grumble something, but it was too faint for Ron to understand. Realizing that his father wouldn’t give him a proper answer, he opted to look at the window and scan the outside road sides for any signs.
But his efforts were pointless, as all the signs on the roads were either knocked over or vandalized with blood and or graffiti. Thanks a lot edgy teenagers for writing “big cock man” over where they were, because now Ron won't be able to tell how much longer he’ll be in this stinky car.
Sighing in defeat, he looked over the map one last time, knowing that it wouldn’t magically tell him where he is. Looking it over he saw a red circle, where Alexandria must be, and a black circle, which is where they started. And connecting the two circles was a black line, showing the path that they must be on.
Maybe if Ron was good with math he could use the amount of time they’ve been on the road and the distance they've traveled to get an estimate guess of how much longer they’ve got. But Ron doesn’t know exactly how long they’ve been traveling, neither does he know how far they’ve traveled.
He’s also not good at math.
So, accepting defeat, he folded his dad's map back up, and put it back in its place between his parents.
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