Open Roads by Zach Bohannon

would you do that?”
    Charlie looked down to the ground and shook his head. “Look, man, I’m sorry that I broke into y'all’s van and stole your jacket and gasoline. We’re just out here trying to survive like y’all are. You gotta understand that.”
    “Yeah,” Gabriel said. “That’s why we’re leaving.”
    Gabriel lowered the gun and turned around. He nodded to Will, signaling to him that he was right in saying they needed to go try to find a hose and then get out of there.
    “We have gasoline,” Charlie said.
    Gabriel immediately looked to Will and shook his head. Will’s eyes moved back and forth between Gabriel and Charlie.
    “Where?” Will asked.
    “About twenty minutes from here,” Charlie said. “We have a place up in the mountains. None of these monsters are up there.”
    Gabriel laughed, “What? So we’re just supposed to follow you up into the middle of nowhere and expect you’re just gonna give us some gasoline?”
    When he looked back to Will and Holly, neither of them were laughing.
    “I owe you guys my life,” Charlie said. “We’re good people up there, and we don’t mean you any harm. We’re just trying to survive this mess, just like y’all.”
    “How much can you give us?” Will asked.
    Gabriel scoffed and said, “You’re not really considering this, are you?”
    Will pulled Gabriel aside, out of earshot of both Charlie and Claire.
    “Look, I’ve got a pretty good read on people,” Will said. “They aren’t a threat to us. I saw it in his eyes when I saved him. Just trust me on this one, okay?”
    To Gabriel, none of this felt right. He simply wanted to get the fuck out of there and get on with their business. All he cared about was getting to his wife and kid, and he could give two shits about either of these people or their group up in the mountains. But when he looked into the face of not only Will, but Holly, as well, he knew he’d be fighting a battle he wouldn’t win. So, instead of throwing a verbal jab, he simply sighed.
    “We go there, we get gas, and we leave,” Gabriel said. “Cool?”
    Will nodded. “Cool.”
    He patted Gabriel on the shoulder, then turned back to Charlie and Claire.
    “So, where exactly is this place you speak of?”

CHAPTER EIGHT

    Will followed Charlie and Claire through the exit located at the rear of the store. Outside, Charlie and Claire’s four-door sedan sat nearly blocking the back door, giving the door just enough room to swing open. The vehicle looked to be in less-than-stellar condition, the right side of the front end bashed in.
    “I think you guys need a new car,” Will said.
    Claire said, “We’ve got others at camp. We just use this one for runs since it’s already beat-up.”
    “How many times have you guys made this trip down here?” Will asked.
    “Too many to count,” Charlie said. “This is a small town, and it’s gotten easier and easier to come down here because less people have been around. Not really sure if they’re staying in their homes or… well…”
    “Yeah,” Will said, not needing Charlie to finish the sentence. He assumed the latter, unsaid notion that people were either not surviving, or worse, being possessed by the Empties.
    An engine hummed at the far corner of the building, and Will looked over to see the minivan coming toward them. Gabriel brought the van to a stop a car-length away from the sedan’s front bumper, and then he and Holly stepped out of the front seat. Jessica remained in the middle row with the kids.
    “How far you say this place we’re going is?” Gabriel asked.
    “We’re gonna go east down the interstate for about five miles, then we’ll have a twenty minute hike up into those mountains over there,” Charlie said, pointing out to the horizon.
    Gabriel scoffed. “Well, I can tell you right now that we’re not gonna make it up any mountains. We’d be lucky to get that five miles down the interstate on the fuel we’ve got in the tank.”
    From the