Zombie Bullshit

[grey scale:]

Kimberly
I chuckled and shook my head. "They can't touch a jeep's speed, Jezebel. Even just going fifty we'd outstretch them before they knew what the hell was going on. Now, in a few months' time, maybe. But for now, I think today we got the worst ones within a few hundred mile-radius," I said, looking around and taking an offroad that used to lead around the Andersons' chicken farm and to highway 15, but now simply drove us past wasted grain crops.

James
I let out another drag of cigarette and rolled down the window, tapping the ashes out onto the grass as we passed an old, run-down farmhouse. "Those sonsofbitches don't do anything but get fucking bigger on us, do they?"

[leeeeeeeah]

Jezebel
"Better safe than sorry," I shrugged. "It's not like we know how these things work. They could have moved onto fucking flying and bullet proof skin for all we know," I said, leaning my head back. I was insanely tired. I hadn't slept in three days due to being on constant high alert because of all the zombies running around causing shit. I couldn't go to sleep now though; I was practically the only one among us with common sense apart from Kim and she was a bit forgetful as far as I could tell. I needed sleep soon though. I wasn't going to be much use to anyone blundering around trying to hit zombies with a baseball bat half asleep.

Cal
"Where are we going?" I asked, turning away from the window to look at Kimberly in the mirror. "Are there even any safe places left? Have you heard anything on this?" I asked, picking up the little radio we'd brought with us off the floor. "Maybe someone's built a safe place."

[grey scale:]

Kimberly
I looked at Calloway through the rearview window and shrugged. "There's a group of survivors in Connecticut, but their camp was full until it got invaded three days ago." I sighed and shook my head, not even bothering with a blinker as I turned onto the highway. "There was a colony in Washington, too, I think, but they don't broadcast often and I don't know where exactly they're set up. They don't sound too welcoming of newcomers, anyway," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

James
I glanced over at Kim, twitching my nose a bit. "So there are survivors? In other states?"

[leeeeeeeah]

Cal
"Maybe we should go anyway. It's not that far. And anywhere is better than nowhere, right?" I said, tilting my head to the side and fiddling with the radio. Just static, mostly. "Especially if the zombies are going to get faster and shit."

Jezebel
"Not necessarily. They might all be batshit crazy. I say we don't try and find anyone," I said, shaking my head. "You're not exactly all there in the head as it is," I muttered, looking out of the window.

[grey scale:]

Kimberly
I agreed with Jezebel, but I kept my mouth shut as I continued driving. "I say we head for the Canadian line. From there we can move on to Nova Scotia, and then farther north. There's less zombies there because the little brianwave they do dies in the cold."

James
I wrinkled my nose at the idea. "I don't quite fancy the idea of freezing my ass off, princess."

[leeeeeeeah]

Jezebel
"How do you know this stuff?" I asked, frowning. Zombie facts were't exactly common knowledge, lets be honest. She might have found out from one of the radio stations, but how would they know? It wasn't like the zombies had been around for a while and had been studied and shit. The zombies had been around for two or three weeks at the most. It was kind of hard to keep track of time when running from zombies. Anyway, stuff like this just wasn't common knowledge to people. How had Kim known a high pitch scream would scare the zombies away earlier? No sane person would ever think to themselves, 'oh I'll just go outside and scream and some zombies and see if it scares them away for future use'. No way. She knew that would work. How, I don't have a clue, but there was something she wasn't telling us.

Cal
"If they're getting smarter, won't they be getting more resilient too? They're kind of evolving if you think about it," I said, bobbing my knee and tapping my fingers together again. "They started out slow and dumb and pretty easy to kill. Now they're getting faster and smarter and probably harder to kill. What if whatever they're infected with learns weaknesses and makes modifications to fix that? They were too slow to catch anyone to eat, so they got faster. They were too stupid to avoid traps and stop easy hits, so they got smarter. They can't survive in the cold? They become more resistant. A hit to the head strong enough to take them out? Thicker skulls. Bullets ripping right through them? Thicker skin. Basically, if this kind of stuff carries on, we're screwed," I said, my eyes wide and slightly wild.

[grey scale:]

Kim
I felt my hands clam up on the steering wheel. I couldn't tell them, I couldn't. "Almost everything I know about them is from my experience or my father's. The cold thing, though, that's kind of a wild guess," I lied easily, waving it off with the hand that wasn't driving. "Plus, the first two months of the attacks were in winter. The younger ones died almost immediately after being infected because they couldn't build up a resistance in time to save themselves."

James
I glanced at Jez though the rearview, raising an eyebrow when we made eye contact. Something was going on with this girl. "That makes sense, too," I said slowly, taking another drag off my cigarette and looking at Kimberly.

[leeeeeeeah]

Jezebel
"Who's to say they don't have resistance to the cold now?" I said, raising an eyebrow. There was definitely something suspicious about her knowing all of this. No normal person hiding from the zombies would know this stuff, even with a damn radio. "Is there something you're not telling us?" I asked, deciding to be outright about it.

Cal
I sat there and mumbled to myself, about the zombies and how they'd eventually be resistant to everything and nobody would be able to stop them and they'd be like fucking superhumans or something and then we'd all die.

[grey scale:]

Kimberly
I sighed again and took a turn off to a former interstate. "My dad is in the military. In the months before the governent fell and the zombies were being somewhat subdued, he was away a lot. When he came home he would tell us stuff about them. Their weaknesses, what repels them, that sort of thing. I don't know what he did while he was away. I don't know how he knows what he knows. All I know is that knowledge saved our lives multiple times."

James
I gave a low whistle and shook my head. "Well ain't that some shit."

[leeeeeeeah]

Jezebel
I frowned. "Was this before or after The Drop?" I asked, sitting slightly forward in my seat. "If the government knew weaknesses about the zombies then why weren't they telling us? What the fuck is going on?"

Cal
"I bet the government created the zombies," I said quietly, wide-eyed. "Probably just to see if they could. But it spread. And loads of people became zombies. It's all their fault."

[grey scale:]

Kimberly
I rolled my eyes at Calloway's theory. "I don't think that's the case, Calloway. He was with them before the Drop," I clarified, glancing at both of them in the rearview, then at James in my peripheral. "I don't know anything else about it, I swear. He wouldn't tell us anything other than what would help us stay safe."

James
I picked at one of my fingernails. "I believe her."

[leeeeeeeah]

Jezebel
I frowned and leaned my head down, between my knees. I was starting to feel dizzy from being so tired and thinking about so many things that I never thought could be possible until recently. It was messing my head up. At this rate I wasn't going to be fit to fight any zombies. I really needed sleep but right now wasn't really the best time.

Cal
"How do you know?" I said, sitting forward in my seat. "It's the government. They can hide whatever they want from whoever they want. You can't know what they have a haven't done," I said, beginning to babble in a not altogether there way.

[grey scale:]

Kimberly
I frowned in a somewhat concerned way. Calloway seemed completely batshit bonkers. I just tried to concentrate on not running over dead zombie or human bodies and staying on the road so we didn't get lost. I didn't bother with staying in the lanes.

James
I tossed the finished cigarette out the window and glanced back at Jezebel. "Get some sleep, Jez. It looks like we're going to be riding for a while. You've not slept in days, take the opportunity. If we get sprung, I'll wake you up."

[leeeeeeeah]

Jez
I nodded after a few seconds and sat back in my seat, bringing my feet up onto the seat. I leant my head to the side and watched the fast-passing scenery outside and eventually, my eyes closed and I fell into much-needed sleep.

Cal
I continued to mutter things to myself for the duration of the jeep ride, my knees up to my chest and my arms around my legs. I really should have had my meds with me, but I never picked them up. As a result I often went into mini-frenzies and panics, and my OCD became a lot worse.

[grey scale:]

James
I grabbed a few packs of MRE's from the back of the Jeep before climbing back in and locking the door. Kim had turned off the lights in the Jeep aside from the one overhead so we could see as we warmed up our meals and eating. I poked Jez's side a few times to wake her, tossing a meal onto her lap. She had been asleep for hours already; it was pitch dark outside. "Wakey, wakey, princess."

Kimberly
I watched as James woke up Jez, and I smiled. It had been over a week since I'd been around people, and about four months since I'd been around anybody other than my Dad, so their company was very much welcomed. I leaned against my locked door and put the water in the warming packet with my meal. "Did you sleep well?" I asked her softly, deciding I should try to get on her good side at least a bit.