It had gotten cold after the first two hours. Some snow would occasionally flick up from the tire treads and land on me. I ended up tying my scarf back around my face to keep myself thawed out. Dalton walked up behind me and lightly put his hand on my shoulder. I turned around, but he had already stepped back in case I tried to hurt him. I wonder how he knew so much about how harsh the South was. He wasn’t like everyone. He wasn’t on edge all the time. “You’re going to freeze up here. Let me swap you?" I shook my head.
“No.” I readjusted my grip on the gun.
“Just go back there. Your face is getting frostbite. You're no good dead.” I tensed my muscles to get a little warmth into my body, then stood up and walked past him. I sat in the back, the far corner from his usual spot, but he sat down on the crate in front of me. “I’m Dalton Walker,” He had a knife in his hand. He rubbed something off it with his hoodie, like he was polishing the blade. People usually used that as a scare tactic. “I'm from Pennsylvania. It’s not as bad up there, but it’s still different. I moved here a few months ago after I lost my mom to the disease. Rosie’s my friend’s sister,” I could see her sleeping from this angle I was sitting at. She seemed very peaceful. My nerves eased a little bit. “They took her brother. I found her hiding in the closet. The rest of her family…” He lightly touched the blade of his clean knife before sliding it into the holster. “That’s our story. I figured if we follow the trucks, then we’ll end up somewhere better. I figured you'd understand that?” I crossed my legs to keep myself warm, but I was very, very cold. I had gotten so cold up there that I stopped feeling. I stayed in the cold to keep myself reminded that I was here for a reason, though. I didn’t want to sleep. I deserved the pain, and it kept me alive. “You said you’re an EMT. You’ve had to have seen the worst of the decline,” I looked up at him. It was like he was staring right through my eyes and into my innermost memories. The decline, he had said. That had to be what he called the beginning of the end. “You know, I think I saw you. They broadcast the football game all over this place, before and after the bombing. You were helping people, weren’t you?”
“I was supposed to be in the bombing zone. I couldn’t sit still long enough without the gun in my hand.” I slowly set my gun down next to me. “So I had to walk away. That’s when it hit,” I thought back to the muffled screams in my burst eardrums. “I’ve only been here for a few days. The odds of this happening are close to nothing. I have my family back home, my mom and dad, my brother, but I've lost just as much family as I have left. I don’t know how much longer-" I paused for a second. I picked my gun up again. “I’m the only chance my friends have to make it out. If I go out trying, that's better than not trying at all.” I couldn’t tell what expression he was giving me. I thought it was pity he was feeling, but he wasn’t the pitying type.
“You’re not getting much warmer, are you?” I slowly crossed my arms around my gun.
“I’ll live.” He reached behind him and grabbed a tarp, then sat down next to me. His leg was pressed against mine, and he threw it over our heads. I wasn’t sure where he had gotten it from, but he lit a lantern in here, too. I felt like a child in a blanketfort.
“Once you live so long in independence, you forget what it’s like to be taken care of.” He handed me a jacket. I stared at him, confused, but I took it from his hand and turned it inside out. Squeezing it against my body made me warmer. “You’re going to Nebraska, right? That’s your plan?” I nodded. “Whatever we find there, don’t jump to any conclusions. What if it’s the last chance for humanity?” He cracked a smile. We both knew it wasn't smart to walk into a place like that, and he found humor in ignorant bliss. If it were anyone else, any of my friends, maybe I would be smiling right now. I would be cracking jokes, too, but I wasn’t able to feel comfortable around any strangers. I couldn’t bring myself to let my guard down. I didn't like the way that he could pick me apart. Whether I said so or not, he knew things. He said them, just to make sure. He was reading me for something greater than just his own sake. “What do you plan to do if you do get them out?” I hadn’t thought that far yet. I didn’t really want to.
If I went back home, there was a high chance that whatever happened here had happened in all the other places, too. I didn’t want to risk the chance of finding my family dead. The less I knew, the better. Either way, I couldn’t take everyone home with me, and they didn’t have a home to go back to either. That would be a problem I'd have to solve with their help.
“I ain't got a clue,” I finally admitted. I clutched my gun and pulled the tarp down when the truck came to a halt. “Why're we stopped?”
“We’re stopping in a town. This isn’t the first time they’ve stopped,” He looked over to Rosie to make sure she was still sleeping. He blew out the lantern and rearranged the boxes to their original spot. “Stay down. They’ll take some people, then they’ll move on,” I looked at him like he had lost his mind.
“You just sit back and let them shoot families and take the remains? What the hell is wrong with you?” He looked back at me, almost insulted, but he didn’t care enough to say anything.
“It’s just kids that they missed. There aren’t a lot of us out here. They go back through towns when they get a sign of life, then move forward.” Sudden screams cut through our conversation. I looked over the crates, a girl around my age running through the snow. She had a frantic look on her face and a bruise over her eye. She looked back, throwing her arms up as she dodged a bullet. I stood up, aiming out of the back when a soldier came into sight, but Dalton grabbed me from behind. He put one hand over my mouth and one on the gun. I watched as she collapsed to the ground, and he dragged me back to the floor.
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” he whispered. “Stand down!” I wiggled free of his grasp and turned my back to the scene. I brought the butt of the gun up to my forehead, resting the weight of my head onto it as I took deep breaths. We would be out of here sooner or later. An hour passed before we were finally on the road again.
I didn’t notice that I had fallen asleep while sitting up, my hand still on the gun and my head still resting on it. Dalton was sitting close by, watching out of the open back while whispering a story to Rosie. I could hear her laugh on occasion. He embodied the last remnant of humanity. I looked around. The snow was lighter here and less thick on the ground. We had made it far, but how far? I sat up and stretched my arms, then realized we weren’t moving. “How long was I asleep?” He looked over at me.
“About two hours. I’ve never seen someone sleep in such a defensive position,” He handed Rosie’s doll back to her. “You woke up immediately when we stopped. Do you ever even feel rested?” he tried to put on a friendly face with a joking tone, but the way he looked at me was like he was expecting an answer.
“Not really,” I looked around the side of the crate. We weren’t exactly in a town. I think we were in the middle of a highway… stopped. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. We can just wait it out, I'm sure we’ll be moving here soon.” We suddenly heard a gunshot. A real one. We looked at each other as Rosie retreated into her crate. Dalton grabbed his gun and was immediately on my heels as I jumped out of the back. He stayed behind me as I crouched down low, the snow up to my waist in this position. I stayed hunkered behind the tire as I looked at what was ahead. A big, black mass was moving across the snow. It looked deformed and made an eerie noise, then it reared back on its back legs, and I realized what it was---or at least had once been. I leaned back behind the tire, releasing a heavy breath with my eyes wide. I have had my fair share of haywire animals, especially the deer, but a bear? There was only dighting of one in the southern part of the state, and that was years ago. My hands started to shake, but I gripped my gun to steady them.
“It’s a bear. A very, very big bear,” I gritted my teeth and released a deep breath again. Humans were predictable, but animals weren't soldiers. I looked ahead as some cars in our convoy made it through, but our truck and the car in front of it were paused. The bear was standing in the road. I peeked out again and saw it climbing up on the car… then the car flipped. I saw all of the glass shatter. A soldier climbed out of the top and started running for our truck, but he didn't go unseen. In three big strides, the bear was right on top of them. A soldier peered out from the shattered window and started shooting. The bullets soared into its back end, but that only pissed it off. It turned around and ran straight for the truck, sending it into a spiral roll. A few soldiers fell out, or at least the bodies of some people. Dalton had been watching the whole scene with me, and we were terrified. Suddenly, our truck began to roll forward. It was moving. Dalton grabbed the tailgate and started running with the truck. I got up, running after him. He took my hand and pulled me closer so I could jump in. He waited until I was up to jump in himself. The whole truck shifted to the side as we went off into the median to pass, but as I saw the scene behind us with the bodies and soldiers on the ground, I realized the bear was gone. Dalton did too. Where would something that big be hiding when we were surrounded by a field of white?
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“Where’d it go?” My heart dropped. I could barely get through my sentence before the whole truck started to tip sideways. “Shit!” I grabbed onto the handle at the far side of the truck and held on for dear life. I could feel the frame of the truck struggling to get over the pivot point of the tires before finally giving in and falling over. It slammed against the ground, my hands sliding off and slamming me into the opposite end of the truck. It knocked the wind out of me, and crates were falling all around. I started coughing and gasping for air, all while throwing my arms around to find my gun and get a tarp off of me. “Dalton!” I yelled. I looked back and saw him holding onto Rosie. She was unscathed, but he had a big gash on his face. I felt something stinging on my skin, but that wasn’t the biggest problem. I looked back at the scene behind us. The ceiling of the truck had now become the wall, and the canvas topping had ripped. People were moving around, and the bear was nowhere to be seen. I winced and groaned as I tried to stand up, but I was stuck. There was a crate on top of me, pinning my waist against the ground. It was crushing me. I looked over to Dalton again, my only chance of getting out of this mess. He was tucking Rosie back into a crate and covering it to hide her.
“Don’t come out unless I tell you to, okay?” She nodded, and he sealed the top to keep her inside. He looked up at me as I stared the opposite way, watching the shadow of the bear moving closer and closer to the open tailgate. The opening that I was right next to. I looked back at him, and he aimed his gun past me, ready to shoot if it came into sight. Slowly, he walked closer and closer to me, still aiming forward as he took one hand and tried to move the crate. I suppressed my screams as one side started to dig into my body. He slowly set it back down, and I caught my breath. I looked back at the opening, and the bear walked right past. It was heading for the soldiers. One of them started to shoot, and that was the one it went after first. I released another painful and fear-filled sigh.
“Take Rosie and run,” I clamped my mouth shut to suppress a groan. “Get out of here. Go find the Nebraska base and find Jacob, okay? Find him,” I pinched my eyes shut.
“I’m not going to leave you under here,” He sat his gun down and bent over, grabbing one side of the crate to try and move it off. He couldn’t use both of his arms because of his shoulder. How ironic. I had given him the injury that would make him too weak to save my life. Everything inside the crate shifted over upon his leverage. It shot severe pain that ran through my right side as it lifted off my left. Still, it wasn’t enough. I was out of breath as he set it back down again. “Just hold on, okay? It’s going to hurt, but I'll have to push it off one side."
“God, help me,” I whispered, turning my head to the side as a tear slid down my cheek. He grabbed a metal pole from the rubble and propped it underneath the crate. Without warning, he used it as a leverage point. The pain became too close to unbearable, and I couldn’t help but scream, but then it toppled over with a loud thud. A soldier was screaming and firing in a frenzy. The bear didn’t hear me. He reached down, putting one arm under my shoulders and lifting me. “Thank you,” I leaned my head on his shoulder, catching my breath, and I closed my eyes. I was out of breath to the point my head felt light. “Thank you,” I put an arm around his shoulders, avoiding his bullet wound as he lifted me, letting me test the waters as I stood on my two feet. Slowly, he let go of me. My hips were sore, and one of my legs was burning with each step, but I was upright. I was okay. We stepped back against the wall again, staring as another soldier shot at the bear. This time, he was shooting at its head. We watched as it fell to the ground, lying still now after skidding in the snow. We then realized our problem; the rest of the convoy was gone. We were stuck here, alone with the soldiers who had no way to leave. “I’m taking the soldier out.” I wrapped my scarf tighter around my head and climbed out of the car, then immediately crawled to the opposite ditch. Dalton, with no warning, followed behind me. I couldn't tell if he was for or against my decision.
We crawled up behind the flipped car and pressed our backs up to it. The soldier was saying something I couldn’t understand, and then I heard another voice. A girl's voice. I looked around the corner. It was the girl with a bruised eye. She was on the ground, very groggy from the dart’s effects, just now wearing off. The soldier was aiming a gun at her, yelling curse words. “He's going to kill her,” I whispered. I cocked back my gun and went to peer around the corner, but Dalton grabbed me.
“There are two of them,” He ticked his head to the side. I could see another soldier walking into my sight. He was wounded, though. He had a deep limp. I shook my head.
“He’s going to kill her, I have to try-” I gritted my teeth as a familiar, large figure started moving in the snow. The bear wasn’t dead yet. It reared up on its legs, and in one stride it attacked the upright soldier. The one with a limp started shooting at it. “Run!” I yelled. Dalton and I started wading through the snow as fast as we could to make it back to the truck, but we didn’t stand a chance. I turned back around, grabbing the weapon on my back. It was the sniper-looking gun I had taken from the game-hunter's armory. This is what he used to take out bigger animals. It had to work for this, too, right? I didn't see a bear in that house, but there was a buffalo. It didn't size up to this, though.
The soldiers lay motionless on the ground, and the bear was going for the girl. She couldn’t move; the dart's effects were overcoming her. “Hey!” I yelled. It looked up, staring at me. I had ripped my gloves off with my teeth, staring at it through the scope. It was looking at me. I took a breath out and rested it on my leg to steady myself, then I shot it right between the eyes. The gun kicked back, and I fell backwards, barely catching myself with an outstretched hand. I immediately set it back up again, cocking it back one more time and shooting it in the head. I was a little more prepared for the kick this time, but it still landed me on my back. I wasn't built for this kind of gunpower. I scrambled to my feet, throwing it over my shoulder and grabbing my rifle. I ran up to it, sending a consistent flow of bullets into its head until I was sure it was over. Its eyes were clouded over with that same death look my brother and Tristan had in their eyes. I looked around, dead soldiers covered in blood and snow all over the place. The girl was the only one left, but something wasn’t right. I went up to her and kneeled, checking her pulse. Nothing at all. I brought my ear to her mouth to listen for breaths, but there was nothing. I sat back on my knees, running my hands through my hair as I tilted my head to the sky. How did we end up here? “Dammit!” I yelled, dropping my hands into the snow. I couldn’t fight back the tears in my eyes anymore. Dalton walked up behind me, grabbing my arm to get me onto my feet. He handed me my gloves, and I took them, stepping away from him. He couldn’t see me like this. I took a few deep breaths and wiped my tears. This is the only amount of time I was giving myself. I had a mission to finish. I put my gloves on and turned back around, lowering my eyelids a bit to cover my glossy eyes.
“I’m going to keep following the highway,” I readjusted the gun straps. “You and Rosie are better off following the off-ramp ahead. It leads to a town, you’ll be safer there,” He looked very confused. “You can’t tell me you didn’t think of this? We have two different goals, Dalton. I’m not stopping for anything, and you aren’t either. I have places to be. If you make it through and I somehow survive, maybe I'll see you again. Until then,” I walked up to him and grabbed his hand. I squeezed it. I could tell he was about to counteract me. “Go live what's left of your life.” I let go and walked past him and towards the truck. This was where the highway was going. If I kept moving, I could make it a long way before nightfall. The plowed path that the convoy left behind would take a very long time to be covered up, but that didn’t mean it would last forever.
“Amelia, stop!” He yelled. I didn’t turn around. “Hey!” He yelled again. He ran up to me, grabbing my shoulder. “We’re coming with you.” He didn’t let go of me. He knew I would keep walking. “She needs her brother. I have to find him, and he’s at that base, and so is my girlfriend. That’s my goal,” I pushed his hand off of me. I wanted to go off on him. I didn’t want him to hold me back, especially with that child. They would slow me down, but part of me knew I needed him. I bit the inside of my cheek and looked past him for a few moments. I needed to think.
“Get Rosie. We need to go sooner rather than later. You either keep up, or I'm leaving you behind." He nodded. He ran back to the truck and reappeared a couple of minutes later with Rosie in one arm, still wrapped in a blanket, and a bag on her back. He had a gun in his other hand. I turned and started walking, and he jogged to catch up with me, matching my quick pace. After twenty minutes of silence, my thighs were already burning from maneuvering these bulky clothes through the thick snow, and the pain in my thigh was getting worse. We were in the middle of an endless highway, though. I couldn’t slow down for anything. My family was counting on me.
