Hamsikker 3 by Russ Watts Page A

all right, Dakota, I don’t mind.” Lukas took a deep breath. “Before all of this? I was lost even back then.” Lukas smiled at the memory of his previous life. “Teleconferencing, networking, meetings, marketing strategies, matrix strategies for development chart, more meetings, client liaisons, meetings about meetings…” Lukas laughed. “When I think back to it now, it’s like a dream. I can’t believe how I was so sucked into it. I was raised in Chicago — well, Highland Park actually. Thought I was going to be the world’s best basketball player before I realized I sucked at it. Thankfully my Mom and Dad made me work hard at school, and after I graduated, I landed a job at a telecommunications company. Thought I had hit the big time.” Lukas shook his head. “We really lost sight of what we should be doing though, don’t you think? I don’t miss it slightly. Not the job, the people, or even the money. It was all a waste of time. When the dead rose, we were clueless. We’d lost all sense of ourselves. Nobody knew how to survive, how to really live when the power went off. If it wasn’t for Bishop, well, I’d be dead for sure.”
    “Your parents. Are they..?”
    “Gone,” said Lukas plainly. “I don’t have any family now. I lost my friends too. There’s nothing back there for me now.”
    Jonas knew how painful it was to lose friends. He had lost a lot recently. He’d lost his Mother a long time ago, but the funeral of his Father was still fresh in his mind. Lukas’s grief was real, and the tone of his voice told Jonas that it was still too raw to talk about.
    “How did you meet Bishop?” asked Jonas.
    Lukas swerved the truck around a tanker that had smashed through a fence and come to rest on the side of the road, its rear end still sticking out and partially blocking the way. Checking his mirror, Lukas saw a zombie crawl from its wreckage as they passed. It raised its arms feebly, but was soon disappearing in a cloud of dust as they left it behind.
    “That’s a long story. At first, when the dead started appearing I stayed in my apartment with my roommate, Powell. We figured it would be best to stay put, and let it all blow over. I kept in touch with my parents, but…Dad got bit on his way home from work. Mum said she was going to look after him as the hospital was closed, and she kept trying to call for help, but none came. I spoke to her before the phones went down, but the last time I spoke to her she said Dad was getting worse. Told me he even bit her when she tried to help him…
    “So, anyway, I stayed put, and waited, and waited, and waited, and it just kept getting worse. It wasn’t hard figuring out what had happened to my parents. We knew we couldn’t stay there forever, so in the end we decided we’d have to get out. Chicago was like a war zone. Thinking back, I don’t know how we managed to get as far as we did. We just lived from day to day, trying to get out of the city. It took weeks. Powell almost made it, but…after what I saw, I don’t think I want to go back, ever. What people can do to each other amazes me; there are some real sick fucks out there.”
    Jonas noticed Lukas was gripping the steering wheel tightly. Maybe it wasn’t best to talk about this while he was driving. Jonas needed Lukas focused on the road, not distracted by dredging up bad memories.
    “So where do we go from here?” Jonas asked. “I mean, I have a rough idea of how to get north, but if we hit a road block, I’m afraid I don’t know the area very well.”
    “If we keep heading this way we’re likely to hit Madison, and that is not a good thing,” said Lukas. “It could be real tricky if we get sucked in. We need to give it a wide berth. Of course, if we head east we’re going to hit Chicago or Milwaukee. The whole area is teeming with zombies. There are millions of them, literally. You do not want to end up in Chicago, I promise you that.”
    “We go west, and we’re eventually