The Journey - Part 1

It was around dusk when we were on the highway . It was unusual that the highway was so uncrowded , but we kept moving forward .

" Did anyone try calling their families ? " , I asked .

" I tried calling them before leaving the college premises but no one answered the call " , said Arden .

Arden was Kyle's bestfriend , they've been bestfriends since childhood . I had never spoken a word to any of Kyle's friends because they were equally involved in making my life a mess . But that didn't matter anymore because in this situation what mattered was survival . We all had to put our differences aside and cooperate.

" I believe they have evacuated to a safe place , dont worry " , said Linda . Linda was Kyle's girlfriend , or that's what she claimed to be . Kyle was the kind of guy who did not do relationships . He was more of a one-night stand kind of guy .

Linda was sweet , only in front of Kyle . Whenever Kyle was around she would pretend to be the sweetest person but that did not seem to get his attention . Kyle would often warn her not to spread rumors about their relationship but she didn't budge .

" Our parents went out for vacation , so we believe they're safe and must have received the news already " , said Benny. Aria replied , " I had called my parents , our parents are safe and everyone is under military protection of that country "

" Does that mean , if we manage to reach them , we're safe ? " , I asked .

" Yes , but all the flights have been cancelled and airports are crowded with those infected people " , said Kyle . " We could take one of my father's private yacht once we reach the pharma " , he added .

I did not bother to ask who will drive the yacht . I had learnt driving a yacht from my dad . When I was young , me and my dad would go out every weekend and he would teach me how drive his yacht .

SMASH!

I was so busy in my thoughts that I didn't notice Kyle had stopped the car . There was a large crowd of infected people , a hundred meters away from us , surrounded by cars . They were smashing everything that came in their way . It didn't take us much time to understand that the infected people got to those in the cars .

We decided to slowly go back and take a different path . Everyone held their breath in , hoping we would make it out of there unnoticed . Kyle shifted to reverse gear and started driving but luck was barely on our side . None of us had noticed that the fuel was consumed and now we were stuck on an highway full of infected people

And then I noticed it , the light pole next to the highway and an idea popped up in my mind . I know they might not agree to it but we had to take our chances .

" Do you guys see the light pole over there ? " , I asked .

" yes , what about it ? " , Benny asked .

" I know that it's a risk , but we could all climb down the pole and try to find a new vehicle " , I replied .

" No way!!! " , Aria and Linda exclaimed

" Not a bad idea " , said Kyle and Arden

Benny was not sure what to think . All he said was , " Whatever keeps us alive ."

Now it was decided , we were gonna climb down the pole but the only problem was noise . If we made any sort of noise , even a small one , we would have to face the hoard of infected people present on the highway .

Click - clack ! Click - clack !

All of us faced Linda , we could hear the click-clack of her heels which could attract those infected people towards us . She understood what our stare meant , she removed her heels and walked barefoot .

Once we reached the pole and saw the depth we had to climb down , no one agreed to go first . Since it was my idea , I volunteered to go first .

It was getting darker by every minute , the sun was down , so we had to make it quick . I grabbed onto the pole and climbed my way down without any difficulty , I've always been good at sports .

But I feared for Aria , she had never been into sports and in this situation she had to keep all her fears aside and just take a leap .

Kyle was the next one to climb down , right after him Arden and Linda climbed down . Benny was waiting for Aria to go before him because he knew that she would not do it in fear if there was no one to force her .

Aria slowly held onto the pole and started to climb down . She was doing good until she looked down .

" Don't look down Aria , just keep going " , said Benny . " I can't , I'm scared " , she said panicking .

Then I saw Benny grabbing the pole , he was trying to calm her down and climbed the pole to accompany her . They climbed half their way down and then suddenly Aria's grip loosened.

" Ahhh..." , she screamed

I could not believe my eyes , she was falling . I couldn't think straight but then I saw him , Kyle . He had taken position and Arden was helping him , they were going to catch her .

A wave of relief washed over me , I was forever grateful to them .

Aria opened her eyes with tears in them realizing they caught her and sobbed against my shoulder . I held her tight until she stopped crying and she then thanked both Kyle and Arden . Benny had already climbed his way down .

" what now ? " , Benny asked

" We should find a place to stay the night " , I suggested .

Everyone agreed , it was very dark and we could not navigate our way safely out of this place . But then it hit us , where would we go ? The people who live in the apartments must be infected, stores must be filled with infected people too and if there are any survivors , they won't take us in as they'll have to share their resources which are limited at this moment . We started walking in order to find a place that looked abandoned .

" Guys ? Look ! That seems like an abandoned house ", said Arden . " Looks like no one's lived there in years " , replied Aria .

" We should check whether there are any zombies in there first " , I said . " So you agree that they're zombies ? " , Kyle questioned . " I don't know what they are , but we could use zombies for the time being " , I responded .

We decided to check the mansion first . We locked the gate behind us and then broke into the house from the window . The door was locked which already confirmed us that there was no one in the house . But we still didn't want to risk anything , so we checked each and every corner of the house .

We found out that the owner was a military man . We felt it was a safe place to stay for the night . There was nothing to eat in the house because he would barely come home . But everyone was hungry and I remembered that I had packed snacks and water in my bag , we shared those for the night .

" We must restock , first thing in the morning " , said Benny . " I agree , we dont know how long it'll take us to reach Kyle's pharma " , Aria replied.

There were only two rooms in the house , Linda wanted to take one of the rooms along with Kyle but he disagreed and chose to share the room with Arden and Benny instead . Aria was fine with anything , she and Linda shared the other room as I wanted to be left alone for some time .

I took some time to explore the attic and check out the kitchen . While in the attic , I found a letter .

" Go back to your army camp once you finish my work or you'll die ."

-will