Broken Dreams(101)

“Calm down, Elaina…” My heart was racing, and I began sweating. The air was thick, and it felt muggy. It was so uncomfortable. I don’t remember it ever being that humid that late in the year. The only thing I could think of was that a killer storm was coming in.

Looking up to the sky through the windshield, I saw nothing but stark blackness. No stars, no moon…just blackness. It was creepy. I looked back down at the dash, and hoped there was enough gas to get out to my parent’s home. I closed my eyes and started the truck.

“Come on, please. Let there be gas in this beast.” I opened one eye and peeked at the gas gauge. “A half-tank.” Shit, I thought. I really wished there was more. It wasn’t enough, but it was more than I had expected.

There had to be less in Sophie’s. She had driven her truck a few times more than Henry had driven his. I’m sure her keys were hidden in her cleavage, where she hid all of her other valuables, and I wasn’t about to go hunt them down. I wasn’t sure what Henry’s plans were for gas. I assumed he had already siphoned from every vehicle around his apartment.

I quickly unzipped the pack to check its contents. “Water, fruit leathers, ammo, a couple knives, bandages…vials? Needles? What the hell?” I paused for a moment, examining the vials and needles before I dug through the rest of the pack.

“A siphon still in its package. Boy Scout Henry comes through again.” I held it up and looked at it. I had no idea how to use one of those things, nor did I have the patience to read the directions. I jammed everything back into the pack and tossed it into the passenger seat.

I put the truck in gear and crept down the street, avoiding rotting true deads in the road. The smell was nauseating. My stomach became uneasy, and my mouth filled with saliva.

“Calm down, calm down,” I said to myself. Concentrating on my driving seemed to help some.

I made it to the end of the street. So far, so good. Somehow, I needed to get on the highway. I remembered Henry saying he had to make a few roads of his own when he went to mine and Claire’s apartments. The only way I could get to my parent’s home was the highway. I had to try.

Slowly, I inched my way toward the highway on-ramp. Weaving around undeads, true deads, and randomly parked vehicles in the middle of the road was taking forever. I couldn’t wait to get to my parent’s home. After my dream, I just knew she had to be there. I could feel it. Huge droplets of rain started hitting the windshield.

“Shit!” I yelled. It seemed the closer I got to the highway, the harder it rained. The wipers were not doing a great job clearing the windshield. The truck was filthy and the wipers were just smearing the dirt and undead goo.

“Ugh! Come on! It would be helpful to be able to see!” I turned on the washer fluid and it was empty. “Of course! Damn it!”

I stopped where I was, turned off the wipers, and let the rain come down on the windshield for a couple of seconds. I turned on the wipers again, and it was a little better.

“Stupid fucking cars. Ugh!” I threw it back in drive and continued creeping toward the on-ramp.

The lightning and thunder were close together. I hated thunderstorms. The lightning always made me nearly piss myself. When I was a kid, the next door neighbor’s house went up in flames after one of our crazy storms. Ever since then, I had a real fear of lightning.

I tried to pick up the pace, but there was too much debris scattered everywhere. Plus, the rain was making it hard to see.

“Stupid fucking rain!” I yelled.

There were a lot of undeads just wandering about. I will admit that I was scared out of my mind. I worried what would happen if I needed to stop and get out. It was quite probable that I would get overrun by them. Maybe taking off wasn’t such a brilliant idea, after all. I kept thinking I should have thought this through, instead of acting on impulse. Then I saw the sign for the highway.

“Yes! Wait… What the fuck?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Oh, my god,” I whispered as I stopped the truck and put it in park.

Both lanes of the on-ramp were packed with cars. There were cars backed up right down to the street.

“Fuck me! How the hell am I supposed to get to my mom now?” I hadn’t anticipated anything like that. I knew I would have some issues getting there, but I hadn’t thought that I wouldn’t even be able to get on the highway. My plan was well thought out.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” I pounded on the steering wheel. I couldn’t stop my tears from falling. The thunder and lightning was directly on top of me. It was raining harder and harder by the second. My thoughts were scattered and scrambled.