route others may have taken. Then it occurs to you, did some just stop, thinking that they had gone far enough? Did others just give up moving forward and allow themselves to be absorbed into the masses of the Undead?
It’s heart wrenching to think that people could just lie down to accept a fate worse than death like that but in the face of something so pervasively evil who could blame them?
We decided we should attempt to make better time. There was just no way that we were going to get through the continental United States without some form of transportation, so we ‘borrowed’ a 4×4 truck from a long-term parking facility and hoped it would help get us as far south as possible. We figured that travelling in the truck would make us less conspicuous and a lot more protected against the Undead and the possibility of piracy.
It also gave us the huge advantage of moving at night, something we’d been unable to do on foot, so long as the roads remained clear ahead of us. Did I mention we might even be able to sleep a little more soundly? Sleep was something in short supply with us and being able to sleep two at a time in a protected space was like giving candy to a bunch of kids. It was like we’d won the lottery.
We were trying to figure out who would get the first sleep shift when Ben noticed something odd off to the west in a field next to the road. A few sheep were acting strangely and pressing themselves so forcefully up against their fencing that it looked like they were going to break through it.
Bob pulled the truck over as both Ben and I got out our binoculars and focused in on the sheep, noting the heavy breathing and panicked looks on their normally vacant faces. Movement caught my eye just to the left and I noticed that the rest of the field appeared to be littered with gory carcasses.
My first thought was of a predator like a coyote but the longer I stared the more my mind began to focus on the real culprit. My blood ran cold as I reached out and touched Ben’s arm. His only words were “My God…” The last few sheep were gone in mere minutes, consumed by the voracious appetites of the swarm of chipmunks.
Undead fucking chipmunks.
Forget the cute little furry friends you talk to in your backyard; these were die-hard, eat the flesh right off your bones critters. Once done with the sheep, the swarming mass of them started to head in our direction.
Bob put the car back into gear as Max and I made sure that all the vents and windows in the truck were closed tightly. The swarm moved quickly, much faster than any ‘human’ Undead we’d ever seen. They broke out onto the road behind us keeping a fairly good pace, Bob only being able to go so fast on the broken dirt road. Up ahead we could see a stop sign, a level meeting of two roads and we could see for a few kilometers in each direction. It was a safe bet that we would be able to run the stop sign and not risk being overrun by them.
In the distance coming from the west I noticed a yellow school bus approaching the intersection. Focusing through my binoculars I could see the open windows with the small hands hanging out to feel the wind. See the innocent, joyful faces of the children probably on their way home from school.
Hastily judging speed and distance, it was obvious that the bus was going to get to the intersection prior to our truck. Looking behind us I could see that the swarm was gaining ground on us with each passing moment.
We had a decision to make: blow through the stop sign and hope for the best, sacrificing those innocent kids to the horde, or slow down and let the mass of rodents overtake us, hoping that the school bus was not going to turn in our direction at the intersection.
There really was no discussion.
We all knew what we had to do.
While we all wanted to survive, to outlast the infection, we knew that we could not sacrifice a bus load of innocent children to do so. We had the means to possibly fight our way out of an
It’s heart wrenching to think that people could just lie down to accept a fate worse than death like that but in the face of something so pervasively evil who could blame them?
We decided we should attempt to make better time. There was just no way that we were going to get through the continental United States without some form of transportation, so we ‘borrowed’ a 4×4 truck from a long-term parking facility and hoped it would help get us as far south as possible. We figured that travelling in the truck would make us less conspicuous and a lot more protected against the Undead and the possibility of piracy.
It also gave us the huge advantage of moving at night, something we’d been unable to do on foot, so long as the roads remained clear ahead of us. Did I mention we might even be able to sleep a little more soundly? Sleep was something in short supply with us and being able to sleep two at a time in a protected space was like giving candy to a bunch of kids. It was like we’d won the lottery.
We were trying to figure out who would get the first sleep shift when Ben noticed something odd off to the west in a field next to the road. A few sheep were acting strangely and pressing themselves so forcefully up against their fencing that it looked like they were going to break through it.
Bob pulled the truck over as both Ben and I got out our binoculars and focused in on the sheep, noting the heavy breathing and panicked looks on their normally vacant faces. Movement caught my eye just to the left and I noticed that the rest of the field appeared to be littered with gory carcasses.
My first thought was of a predator like a coyote but the longer I stared the more my mind began to focus on the real culprit. My blood ran cold as I reached out and touched Ben’s arm. His only words were “My God…” The last few sheep were gone in mere minutes, consumed by the voracious appetites of the swarm of chipmunks.
Undead fucking chipmunks.
Forget the cute little furry friends you talk to in your backyard; these were die-hard, eat the flesh right off your bones critters. Once done with the sheep, the swarming mass of them started to head in our direction.
Bob put the car back into gear as Max and I made sure that all the vents and windows in the truck were closed tightly. The swarm moved quickly, much faster than any ‘human’ Undead we’d ever seen. They broke out onto the road behind us keeping a fairly good pace, Bob only being able to go so fast on the broken dirt road. Up ahead we could see a stop sign, a level meeting of two roads and we could see for a few kilometers in each direction. It was a safe bet that we would be able to run the stop sign and not risk being overrun by them.
In the distance coming from the west I noticed a yellow school bus approaching the intersection. Focusing through my binoculars I could see the open windows with the small hands hanging out to feel the wind. See the innocent, joyful faces of the children probably on their way home from school.
Hastily judging speed and distance, it was obvious that the bus was going to get to the intersection prior to our truck. Looking behind us I could see that the swarm was gaining ground on us with each passing moment.
We had a decision to make: blow through the stop sign and hope for the best, sacrificing those innocent kids to the horde, or slow down and let the mass of rodents overtake us, hoping that the school bus was not going to turn in our direction at the intersection.
There really was no discussion.
We all knew what we had to do.
While we all wanted to survive, to outlast the infection, we knew that we could not sacrifice a bus load of innocent children to do so. We had the means to possibly fight our way out of an
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