Bad news

Sadly, even if you want to ignore something, this something can come back to slap your face.

Following Kyle's indications, they continued their journey, and they were just over half the way when the phone rang.

Nora, a bit tensed, noticed it was her father and answered.

"Dad ?"

"We lost the drone."

She blinked. The tone of her father was clearly displeased, and she could hear the sound of the poor uncle Eddy crying too. Actually, displeased was not the word. Furious would be more appropriate.

Thrity minutes. The drone only lasted for thirty pitiful minutes.

A zombie jumping from the seventh floor of a building crushed the drone under its weight.

He glanced at his poor neighbor.

Why couldn't he make a faster and stronger drone, huh ?

"So... What does that mean for us ?"

"Unknown."

They still didn't fully understood those zombies. Without fresh blood to bait them away, what would they do ? Would they stay still, or go back to the bodies they left all around ?

In a not so good scenario, they would meet those zombies on the road, maybe even blocking it. And she didn't know if the zombies would react when they saw them in the car. Even with the car and weapons in hand, she wasn't certain everything would go smoothly.

What was a reassuring thought was the fact those policemen succeeded to travel on this road once, their chance of getting out was not that bad.

She hung off and directly told the news to the group.

The four police officers were the one who accepted this fact quickly. They went in the city without any drone, and without the girls' dad, it would have been the same situation on the way out.

"Don't feel too anxious, we still gained more than half an hour of peace. We only have a few kilometers until we are outside. And it's quite a huge city. The zombies will get split."

Despite Jamie's attempt at reassuring them, Millie wasn't that convinced and muttered :

"It would be great if it was their heads that were splitting."

Nora nodded.

"Sounds good to me."

Everyone looked at her.

"Wait, I didn't mean good to eat, guys..."

Shane smirked.

"Sure."

"I really mean it !"

"That you find their splitting heads good ?"

"You !"

A little cry from Shawn shut the two up and the travel continued. The silence made them all tense, but they couldn't do anything about it. All this creepy stuff gave them so much anxiety and yet they could only go along with it.

And a few minutes later, they will witness an event that will stay in their mind forever.

First came the sounds. In the begining, they didn't notice it, as the car was a bit more loud. But after a few more seconds, the sounds came to their ears.

Nora stopped eating and raised her head slowly. Her eyes met her sister's.

They both looked at the window.

Those sounds were horribly familiar.

Daisy became deathly pale, while she held little Shawn tighter.

They couldn't see anything unusual behind the car, but they didn't had to guess what was coming.

They didn't want to interrogate themselves to know if the car was faster than zombies, they just hoped it could take them away from what they thought was happening.

Just a tiny little hope that their fear wasn't becoming reality.

Shane's face became solemn, and his eyes darted from time to time to the side mirror.

"Guns."

Without saying a word, the other men took their munitions while Jamie squeezed softly Daisy's hand before letting go.

Even without seeing the threat, they needed to be ready.

But what they saw first wasn't the zombies they expected.

At the corner of a building, what came running toward them were two children.

The older one didn't look more than thirteen to fourteen while the youngest was ten years old.

And they were obviously still humans.

Their skins didn't show the signs of a zombie transformation, their clothes were neat and there wasn't a single trace of blood on them.

They were running at their fastest speed, looking completely terrified.

However, what was a bit off was the fact the teen was running slightly behind the child with a lot of sweat on his face. He clearly didn't do as much sport as the younger one, who kept running with more ease.

In the car, everyone were horrified by this new situation.

Children in a city full of zombies... They were just poor lambs waiting to be slaughtered !

Soon after the apparition of those kids, the nightmare behind them showed itself.

A horde of zombies was coming.

Hundred of them or much more, followed the children closely.

Enraged monsters, growling and hunting them without end.

Daisy couldn't bear to look away from those boys, completely ashen and started with a trembling voice :

"Shane..."

"I know."

To be honest, apart from the girls who never really saw the worst in humanity yet, The four men were confronted to this reality day by day. To say they were candid ones who believed in fairness and in the goodness of people would be a lie.

But they didn't become heartless because of this.

The world was a huge mess of grey, not entirely black, not completely white and all in nuances.

They weren't the best people, but they weren't willing to be trashes.

The safety of the persons in the car were now their entire priority.

However, they couldn't stay indifferent.

They wanted to help those kids.

Actually, the whole group were of the same mind.

They were scared, and it could be a stupid idea to risk their own lives to save mere strangers, especially when zombies were right behind.

Simply put, their survival instincts wavered in front of those pitiful children.

Maybe they couldn't do anything, maybe they would be too late.

But there was still a possibility they could save them too.

Of course, Shane wouldn't try if it was too dangerous for the ones in the car, but they could give it a shot.

Shane slowed the car while Jake went to open a door.

The idea was to wait until the boys arrived to the car to grab them, close the door and start the journey again, but way faster than before.

It was simple, but to put it in place would mean they had to be quicker than the zombies.

The problem is that zombies use their muscles without feeling tired or pained, while the ones before them were only children, with less endurance than an adult.

Wether the children could safely run until they reach the car or not was unknown.