Open Roads by Zach Bohannon Page A

driver’s side of the sedan, Charlie smiled, hinged over on one foot, and popped the trunk. He walked around to the back of the car, reached into the trunk, and pulled out a five gallon gas can.
    “This one should have enough inside to get you where we’re going,” Charlie said. He offered the gas can to Gabriel.
    Hesitance in his eyes, Gabriel slowly put his hands out to take the gas can.
    “Thanks,” Gabriel mumbled.
    “No problem, man,” Charlie said.
    Will walked to the passenger side panel door of the van and slid it open. He pulled out the handgun they’d taken from Claire, and handed it over to Jessica.
    “You mind putting that back there for now?” Will asked.
    Jessica reached back and placed the gun into one of the duffle bags.
    “You need anymore ammo for yours?” she asked, looking back while still leaning over the seat.
    “I should be good,” Will said, shaking his head.
    He felt a presence behind him and turned to see Holly.
    “I wanna ride with you,” she said.
    “You need to stay with the others in the van. Besides, I don’t think they have room for me in that car, much less two of us.”
    “Why can’t you just ride with us, too?” Holly asked. “I’m with you, I’m not getting bad vibes from them, but you never know. Just ride with us and we can all just follow them up there.”
    “That’s why I want to ride with them. If I get the sense that something isn’t right, I can do something to get us out of it before they get us all the way up that mountain. But I think we’re going to be fine.”
    Her eyes faced down, signaling to him that she still felt uneasy. He cupped her face in his hands and leaned in to kiss her on the forehead.
    “Trust me,” Will said. “It’ll be fine.”
    ***
    Charlie merged onto Interstate 40 and headed east. Claire rode in the passenger seat and Will sat in the back, his sidearm neatly tucked away at his side. The sun sat in the sky, bringing with it a midday’s heat. Grey clouds shifted in the distance, hinting at rain.
    “Gotta think these warm days’ll be past us soon,” Charlie said, striking up friendly conversation.
    “I’m lucky if I even know what month it is at this point,” Will said.
    “Some of the others in our group keep a calendar up-to-date, but I try not to look. It’s not as if it really matters.”
    Will smiled. Time to him seemed so futile now. He’d thought he’d have plenty more holidays with his parents, and that they’d be around when he finally decided to settle down and get married, and even have a child. But none of that would happen now, and time seemed not to matter much to him, either. In fact, time was bullshit.
    “How many are in your group?” Will asked.
    “Including Claire and I, there’s seven of us now.”
    The now definitely caught Will’s attention, and the next logical question of wondering what happened to the others nearly came spewing out of his mouth. He caught himself, though, knowing that either Charlie or Claire would prod right back if he chose to question how many people they’d had in their group to begin with. Will wasn’t ready to give his own answer back, in hopes that it could maybe come up later for Gabriel, Holly, or Jessica to answer.
    Instead, Claire came at Will with another question he wasn’t ready to give a direct answer to.
    She asked, “Any idea what in the world caused all this?”
    Will chewed on the question for a moment, thinking carefully how he’d answer. He even found himself involuntarily pulling away his shirt sleeve and massaging the bite marks on his arm, before realizing what he was doing and quickly pulling the sleeve back down to his wrist.
    “I don’t know,” Will said, lying.
    “Gotta be some kind of virus,” Charlie said. “At least, that’s what we think. One of the guys with us is hellbent on thinking that it’s a biological terrorist attack, like ISIS or something. Like maybe someone contaminated our food or water system