Determined To Live (26 page)

"I have
another place in the Smokies. The picture on the internet I showed
you? That's mine."

Seriously? Or is
he further gone than I thought?

"You're gonna
love it there! The nature and animals; the peace and quiet. Best of
all, we'll be mostly alone. We'll be able to work on our marriage and
our bond will get stronger. How does that sound?"

I
can't control the incredulous look I give him. Fortunately, he
doesn't see it. I'm supposed to answer that question...
without
being beat?

"Um,
sounds great, Jake."
Hell,
what else can I say?
Wait...
mostly
alone? Huh?

"Can't
you just warn my family about Greg?
Please
,
Jake! They've always been good to you. Please don't let them die, not
if you can stop it!"

Jake reaches over
and I force myself to freeze when he squeezes my leg. My skin crawls
under his hand and the material of the fatigues.
He
grins and looks me in the eyes as he slowly shakes his head no. I
already know trying to change his mind won't work because of the evil
gleam in his eyes; I've seen it enough to know.
I
turn my head out the window and pray like I've never prayed before.

I
know most of you think I should be stronger; should be thinking about
a way out of this - but I've told you before I'm really
not
very strong - and did you happen to think about the fact I can't get
around very damn well? And what if I fail? Oh sure, I know the saying
"Even if you fail at least you tried" but think about that
for a minute, would ya? If I fail, that means I'm dead. Whether it's
the zombies or Jake, I'm dead. The result of this failure will not be
disappointment. Nope, it will be death, pain, torture...
death
!
Like I said before, something in me just doesn't want to die at this
point. Sorry to disappoint you, but if you're ever in my situation -
and I pray you never are - you can do things differently. As for me,
I'm going to do what I have to do to stay alive. Whether I - or
you
-
like it or not.

Fortunately, Jake
stays quiet for the next few hours, and I just watch the landscape
pass by. I blank my mind, and keep my mouth firmly shut - afraid if I
open it I may scream and never stop. When Jake's silence ends, and he
asks me a question, I answer as briefly as possible. When he
comments, I nod or shake my head. Other than that, I stay quiet.

Eventually, I lie
down on the seat and sleep, just to avoid him. When Jake wakes me
hours later, I struggle to sit up and blink my eyes a few times to
get them to focus. We're now driving down a street in a town that
looks vaguely familiar.

"Jake, where
are we?"

"Pigeon
Forge, Tennessee! Huge tourist attraction. Nice people, lovely views,
tons of cool places to visit. Course, that was
before
the zombies. Now, the view is about the only thing left."

My hand has been
pressed against my chest since he announced the town's name. Tears
well up in my eyes and my stomach feels as though it's got boulders
inside.

Oh god, no! Why
do we have to be here? Please tell me we aren't staying here!
This
is where Will and I stayed on our honeymoon. We rented a cabin in the
Smokies and spent the majority of our time here in Pigeon Forge and
Gatlinburg, the next town over.

When
I find my voice again, I ask Jake if his place is here.

"It's just on
the other side of Gatlinburg, up in the mountains. You're gonna love
it!" he tells me as he gives me a huge, disgusting grin.

I
turn away as my heart explodes into a thousand pieces.
Of
all the damn places in the world, why
here
?

Jake
drives through Pigeon Forge - dodging and ignoring the cries and
pleas of help from those same "
nice
people
"
he had just been talking about. We narrowly miss being hit by a car
full of more people trying to escape. The man driving reminds me of
Jake - not caring who he hits, who he kills. Zombies and the living
fly in all directions as he drives wildly. When Jake jumps the curb
to avoid the crash, the man turns his head and give us a cocky grin.

Jake swears at the
man and raises his gun. The man's eyes widen twice their size and the
car shoots forward as he decides he doesn't really want to mess with
Jake.

That dumbass
probably just made his first wise decision.

Jake lowers the
gun, his breath coming out in angry bursts. He slams his fist into
the steering wheel a few times and swears a few more times. I stay
quiet, not wanting his anger to turn on me. That is, until a pretty
big mob of undead start heading our way.

"Uh, Jake? Not
trying to hurry you or anything, but we might want to get going."

Jake's head swings
toward me and the fire in his eyes scare me almost as much as the
horde of zombies that are getting closer and closer...almost, but not
quite. I frantically point out the front window and he finally takes
a quick glance out, before he swears once more and slams on the gas
pedal.

As we fly past the
gray-skinned deteriorating walking corpses - and quite a few Runners
- I sigh, believing we're going to make it; but up ahead, the crowd
is much too thick and there's clearly no way around them.

"Canada,
you're gonna have to drive."

"Drive? Drive
where?" I ask him, my voice rising in disbelief.

"Just do what
I said, damn it! I'm going to use the grenades to get through again.
You know the drill by now."

As
he climbs in the back, I scoot over under the wheel. My heartbeat
echoes in my ears as I realize that this is my chance!
When
he gets on that roof, I'm outta here.
Back the way we came,
but avoiding St.
Louis.

It's almost
impossible to hide the grin that wants to appear, but the threat of
being caught sobers me up pretty damn quickly. The rope that's
suddenly around my neck replaces the hope and joy of escape, with
fear and confusion.

What the hell is
this? How is tying me to the seat going to stop me from throwing his
ass of the top?

I turn my head
around when Jake's voice comes from the backseat. All the hope and
joy shatters as I watch him wrap the ends of the rope around his
waist.

"You know
what's going to happen if I fall, don't ya?" he asks me,
flashing a huge cocky grin.

Defeated, I lower
my head and answer, "I'll strangle to death."

"Got that
right, babe. Ask yourself if it's worth it." He then grabs a
handful of my hair and yanks my head back. When his lips attach to
mine, the pain makes me wince. He notices and gives me a scowl and an
angry glare - but surprisingly, he doesn't hit me. I figure it's only
because he doesn't want to give me a reason to say to hell with it
and kill us both.

I watch in the
rearview until his legs, and then his feet, disappear through the
hatch, and then I run my hands over the rope wrapped around my neck.
The rope is thick and scratches into my skin; it's tight, but not
tight enough I can't breathe. Jake had wrapped the rope twice around
my neck, and the ends are both tied around his waist - so when he
moves, the rope turns a little, enough to rub my skin raw. A couple
times he goes to far in one direction or the other, which causes me
to gag.

He bangs on the
roof of the truck and I start forward,
slowly
.
The zombies are heading for us from all directions now, but all we
need is to go forward. As Jake blows zombie parts and liquids all
over the streets, I don't even jump from the explosions anymore.

Probably because
I'm desperately trying to drive without killing Jake - only because
it will kill me too - and searching for a forgotten knife, or
something,
to cut these damn ropes with.

I get so involved
looking for a way to escape, that I don't even realize when I glance
up that the way is fairly clear. I don't realize the grenades have
stopped. I don't realize Jake is sitting right behind me, watching me
- but his deep voice right next to my ear, asking me what I'm looking
for, has me screaming and terrified.

Jake doesn't
respond to my reaction, but orders me to pull over as he unties the
rope from himself, then loosens and lifts it off my head. I scramble
to my side of the truck - almost wild with fear, knowing he's going
to seriously hurt me now.

But Jake does
nothing.
And
that makes me even more nervous.

I try to discreetly
keep at least one eye on Jake as he drives us the rest of the way out
of town. I feel something thick and sticky trickle down my shirt and
onto my chest. I swipe across the stickiness and am shocked to see
bright red blood coating my hand. Then I raise my hands to my neck
and immediately jump and drop my hands when I feel the stinging fire
skin that is a few layers less than it was just minutes before.

Now the pain is
quite noticeable when I try to move my neck in any direction.
I
think I understand why Jake is single, unmarried.
Being in a relationship with
Jake is painful as hell!
And of course there's the
whole crazy as hell thing he's got going on.

I search for
something to wipe my hand off on, but when I can't find anything, I
just use my pant leg. Jake notices but still doesn't say a word; he
just turns his head back to the front, a tiny tight smile frozen on
his lips.

We make it to
Gatlinburg with no real problems. That is,
until
we make it to Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg is packed with the undead. And
the majority of them are Runners! I've never seen so many in one
place. My mind is so confused, that I'm not even sure why that should
worry me.

When Jake swears
and says, "I should have thought of this. Pray to your god we
don't break down now," I finally realize how bad this could get.
I desperately want answers, but I'm too damned scared to ask. Scared
of him, scared of the answers, and scared of
why
he
would know the answers in the first place.

Jake turns left
instead of going through town - which is smart because I don't think
we could, even
with
grenades. He goes straight past the last road into town and circles
around to the northern side. Eventually, he turns onto a dirt and
rock road that takes us up into the mountain. Sometimes we go
straight up, but mostly its around and around and around. My side of
the road is a straight drop off, which I do my best to avoid looking
at after the first time. The road doesn't seem big enough for two
vehicles, and the sharp turns prevent seeing what's up ahead.

It's freakin'
terrifying!
Especially
now, when people are being driven by terror instead of common sense.

Trees rise up next
to the road and seem to be everywhere else you look. The darkness of
night makes this whole trip even scarier. I take a good hard look at
Jake when I realize he's had no sleep yet.
I
really don't want to fall off this mountain!
But
he seems like he's used to this - tired or not. His comfort level
does little to comfort me though.

Finally he turns
right onto another dirt and rock road, but this one has a No
Trespassing sign at the entrance. Trees form a canopy overhead that
make it eerie as hell. Except for the light coming from the truck,
there's not a single thing but darkness. No stars, no moon...
nothin'
!

I'm scared about
being trapped in these mountains with Jake, but I have to admit, I
want out of this damn truck! I want my feet - in a cast or not - on
the damn ground.
One more
turn and his house comes into view.

It's a nice
two-story log cabin. It's nice. That's all the compliments his house
is going to get, I don't care how beautiful it is. After all, I'm
pretty sure I'm not going to be enjoying it.

I notice that
there's another building behind the cabin. It looks to be made from
steel and concrete. Garage? Whatever it is, it looks horribly ugly
and out of place next to the cabin the surrounding woods.