Keep Going (Book 1): The Beginning (8 page)

They walked forward looking into car after car trying to find one with keys or at least something that looked promising.

“If you can find something in red, that would be nice. Always wanted a red car or blue but like a Tardis blue not like a blue-blue.” Alex gave shout out of a beat up red truck.

Petey shook his head but didn’t fight the smile that bloomed on his face as he moved towards silver coup. He swung it open not prepared to fall as quickly on his ass as he did when something came at him. He screamed at the sight of soulless blue eyes at they stared into and the thing just stood above him, ready to eat. He shuffled on the ground trying to distance himself but there was no point.

Alex ran to her friend’s rescue grabbing the monster by its shoulder’s from behind. She dragged it like a sack of potatoes a reasonable distance from Petey and pushed it down onto it’s back. She looked around and found a broken piece of metal in the mist of all the cars. Holding it high above her, she took a deep breath in before plunging deep within the monster’s chest, stopping its movements.

“What the fuck? What the literal fuck?” He said breathlessly.

He attempted not to freak out but he could feel his whole body going into shock at what he has just seen settled in. What Alex described stood in front of him and tried to eat him! Petey felt in the right to freak out.

Alex moved to kneel in front of him reaching out for his hand but he flinched away. She pulled her hand back but held her position.

“I know.” She said.

The utter calmness in her voice was like a sharp stab in his side. His eyes turned wide at his friend. How could she be so calm after that thing attacked? After she stabbed that thing?

“It’s human but it’s not.” He tried to reason.

“I know.” She said again.

Alex reached out again and rested her hand on his shoulder. This time he didn’t flinch away but his gaze was distant.

“Give it a couple minutes. You’re in shock.” She said.

The distance look from his eyes left as he narrowed them. Anger filled his features as he pushed her hand off of his shoulder and distanced himself from her. Distance as much as he could with his back to a car.

“Shock!” He yelled. “Fuck you! You had time to process this shit. I mean…Jesus.”

His heart raced. Petey ran his fingers through his hair tugging at the short strands. How could she be so calm? Alex could see she was losing her friend. His panic was over taking and she didn’t know what to do. Leaning in closer she pushed his hands out of his hair and down to the side. Leveling with him she forced eye contact.

“I need you to listen. I need you. Maggie is not even here and I can’t do this alone. I need you. Okay?” She begged.

He could see the genuine fear in her eyes. He knew that she really did need him or at least that’s what he was willing to believe. Hell, if she could keep going after fighting those monsters, then he could as well.

“Yeah, okay.” He nodded.

Alex opened her mouth to say something encouraging a groan interrupted them. The monster stood up, the large metal shard still deep within its chest but it didn’t seem to notice. It moved closer to them, reaching his hands out making grabby motions towards them.

“Christ, it’s still moving.” Petey tried to scoot back but found nowhere to go. Alex got up and reached inside her pocket. She looked down at Petey.

“Close your eyes.” She whispered.

Making a show of shutting his eyes but when Alex looked away he snapped them open. He watched as she breathed in and pulled out a small blue pocketknife. Alex scoffed quietly to herself at the memory of how she got the knife. Her sister had given it to her so that she could protect herself on those nights were she got out of work really late and had to take the bus. God, how she wished that was her only worry once again.

Alex released it, the blade caught the sun as she raised it up. It was a bit difficult with the branch in between them but with a small struggle she finally about to lodged the blade into the side of its head.  She could see it was effective when the groaning had stopped and all movements ceased. The glowing eyes dimmed as she pulled the knife out allowing it to fall to the ground again. She dropped her arm to the side. Her breath became shallow as she turned to see Petey watching her.

His face was dark and unreadable as he started at the blood that dripped from the blade. The tips of her fingers were barely coated with red but it was enough to stir fear within him.

“How dead would you say you are inside?” He asked not sure if it was a joke or not.

Looking at the red on her fingers and the blade, Alex wiped the blood off on her jeans before closing the blade. Slipping it back into her pocket and brushed dirt from her clothes.

“My mom always said I wasn’t dead inside just got a lot of frozen parts.” She cleared her throat and looked down shrugging.

“Still care though.” She attempted to reason.

Petey nodded and stood up drawing her attention. He brushed the dirt off his pants and moved to the back of the car.

“That’s good enough, I suppose.” He said.

Alex knew he was scared of her just a little. People always were. It was just in her nature to take care of people, to protect and emotions usually got in the way of that. She hated how she was, how she appeared to be but she knew it was needed.

“There are keys. Sorry, looks like you’re stuck with silver.” He joked darkly.

9

“She’s sleeping.” Petey commented.

Alex took a glance at the blonde sleeping in the back. She hadn’t said anything when they switched cars. Either she was able to feel the tension or she was lost in her own world. Either way Alex just shrugged and continued to drive.

“Don’t really have a problem with that.” She said.

Petey hummed in agreement and turned to stare out the window at the water below. He hated driving over bridges they made feel sick. Like something bad was about to happen but then again what he had just seen, Petey didn’t think it could get much worse then that.

“How long have we been driving?” He asked.

The silence was becoming to heavy, he felt like he couldn’t breath. Alex took a glance at the cracked clock. She wasn’t sure the time wasn’t even correct. She sat stiffly thinking about the shattered glass. “Really what is with all the glass?’ She thought.

“About twenty minutes, give or take a few. I’m not sure.” Alex yawned.

Petey let out another soft hum to show he had heard her. He still didn’t know what to say to her. She had been given time to process and freak out. He was sure she had done her whole ‘private’ freak out on the surface away from prying eyes. That’s what she had always done. He needed to freak out but he didn’t want to seem weak. But he wasn’t weak. Something had attacked him and tried to eat him! It was fair game to freak out. It was fair to panic and scream or something. But she didn’t.

Why didn’t she? Why was she so inhuman sometimes? It was frustrating. He didn’t want to be irrational or emotional but he needed to be. He wanted to tell her to pull over and let him panic and rant. That’s what he planned to do but when he opened his mouth something completely different came out.

“How many have you killed?” He asked instead.

Alex was taken back by the question just as much as he was but unlike him, she didn’t show it. The only real sign that she had heard him was when her hands tightened on the wheel. She sucked the cut on her lip. The coppery taste seemed to ground her, made sure she was still in this time and place. Made her remember everything was real and not a dream.

“Eight.” She answered coolly.

“Did you know any of them?” He asked.

“Yeah, the Robertson’s, a family that lived down the block.” She rubbed the cut on her lip with her thumb. “George Robertson, just last year got into a nasty custody battle with his ex-wife. Horrible woman. She tried to claim that him and his new wife, Amy, were unfit parents.”

Alex didn’t know why she was giving him their life story. She supposed it was better than silence. Silence brought tension and nasty thoughts. She knew her friend needed time to deal with everything and she felt bad that she had to make him keep going. But Alex was never good at comforting, never could deal with crying or any other emotions besides anger. She thought something was wrong with her a lot of the time but her mother always said she was okay, simply a logical person. Now she started to doubt the truth of that once again. She shook her head to derail the train of thoughts.

“Ex-wife was close to winning and taking the three sons away from them. I don’t think she loved them or anything just wanted to hurt him. Amy asked her what she really wanted. Went on this rant about how she just wanted her boys safe and all this martyr crap. So you know what Amy did?” She looked at Petey.

He shook his head.

“She offered her 50k and plane ticket wherever. Ex-wife took it without a second thought and didn’t even say goodbye to her kids.” She finished.

Petey’s mouth fell open. How could a woman do such a thing? How did Alex know all this? He raised his eyebrow in question.

“George told me when his kid got sick. Sam had this really bad fever and spent a few days in the hospital. I helped take care of his other two sons, Dean and Cassie, while they stayed at the hospital with him. He told me all this and said his son couldn’t die, that he had just gotten him back.” She cleared her throat.

He huffed, so she did care in her own weird way. He rubbed his head trying to pull the question he wanted to ask out. He looked and saw how stiff her body was, how her knuckles were white as she gripped the wheel. It looks like she was trying to fight something within her self and in truth she probably was. He sighed deeply and decided right now was not the best time for any more questions.

He put his hand on her’s, instinctively the grip lightened. She looked over to him and smiled sadly. She was brimming with emotion just none she was willing to show. He gave her a sad smile back and they turned away from each other.

“Shit!” Alex saw the line of monsters that seemed to appear out of nowhere heading for the car. She turned the wheel harshly trying to avoid hitting them but instead losing control. Taking too hard of a right she crashed right into the side of the ramp though it caused a lot of damage it kept them from propelling into the water below.

“Everybody okay?” Alex checked her self for injuries before looking at her companions.

“I’m good.” Petey answered.

Maggie’s screams answered her questions as one of those things slammed against the car door, trying to reach in through the window. Alex grabbed the shotgun and ran outside, shooting it right in the head. She pushed the monster away from the door and flung it open. Roughly grabbing Maggie’s arm and pulling her out as Petey jumped out of the car going around to the back seat to grab the bags.

“Come on.” Alex urged.

She took her own bag from Petey. Finding a great sense of comfort from the machete on her back. They ran down the expressway, Alex looking back to raise her weapon in case a monster had gotten too close. They reached the part where the water was finally over and they hit solid ground. They moved quickly as Petey led them to the underpass. Embedding themselves into the concrete as much as possible. They sat down on the slanted ground breathing heavily from the sudden escape. Maggie sobbed loudly.

“I don’t think the blast helped.” Petey commented.

“No, it didn’t.” She popped open the shotgun and stuck in two more slugs. “They seem to be attracted to the sound.”

Petey looked at her poignantly. She rolled her eyes and tossed him the shogun, pulling out her own machete in the process.

“I didn’t have much of a choice, did I? We’ll just have to be quieter from now on.” She scoffed.

Petey was ready to let out a sarcastic remark when the loud sobbing sounds interrupted them. The two worried about noise and what kind of attention it would draw towards them. Alex moved towards Maggie’s side and kneeled.

“Maggie, I need you to calm down. You have to breath.” Alex said.

Maggie shook her head refusing to listen to her. She continued her loud wails, face puffing up with tears and snot. Alex moved in front of her, pulling her wet face into her hands. She fought back a grimace at the moisture.

“Those things-“ Maggie gasped.

“I know. I know.” Alex interrupted. “I’m sorry but we don’t have time for this. We need to get moving to the base. They can protect us there, they can keep us safe, okay?” Alex tried to keep her tone as gentle as she could.

Forcing Maggie to look her in the eyes Alex made her expression soft and concerned. She wanted her to trust her or at least trust her long enough so they could get the hell out of there. Either way it appeared to work as Maggie nodded and wiped her tears away.