Getting Ready for a Roadtrip

- Sunset Island #3, Miami South Beach -

Jay immediately picked up his phone and dialed their mom.

"The customer you are trying to reach is unavailable at this moment, please try again lat-"

"F*ck! She's not picking up!"

Upon seeing how terrifying those mutant zombies were and how badly their coastal guard military base had fallen, they immediately began to be concerned about their mom.

"Mom said earlier that she's fortifying in her gunshop with a couple of her veteran friends. They had a lot of guns and ammo in there, we need to go find her!"

The group knew that the difficulty of zombie waves vary depending on the amount of firepower that is detected in the area, and who knows if the gun shop had enough firepower to trigger the mutant zombies to spawn in that area.

After seeing how frightening those things were in combat, they knew that odds won't be on their Mom's side if those things were to attack her gun shop.

The gun shop is just a two-story building on the side of the road with a roof that can be accessed from the second floor. The first- and second-floor windows have metal fences buried inside the glass and the doors are also reinforced. On top of that, there is a large shutter door that covers the entire first-floor storefront.

If Mom and her friends and colleagues hold their ground on the roof and take out zombies with suppressed fire, it may be easier for them to survive by laying low and wait until the zombies wander somewhere else, since it would be difficult for the zombies to break in or climb up.

However, with the introduction of mutants, the risk significantly increased, as A-Class Giant mutants might be able to destroy the blockades or even the entire building, A-Class Hunter mutants may jump onto the roof, and the A-Class Strangler mutants could pull people off the roof with its tongue.

Now, their Mom wasn't even picking up the phone, and that got the group incredibly worried.

"It's an hour drive from here, should we go?" Alex asked.

"When's Wave #4 coming?" Jay asked.

The app's home page updated and showed that the next wave is coming at 9 AM on the next day.

"It's almost 4 o'clock right now, we have more than enough time. I think we should at least go and check, what about you guys?" Jay proposed.

"Yeah, dead or alive, I want to know."

"Alright, let's start packing!" Alex and Christian immediately agreed.

"I'm in. We can also get a lot of supplies from there and bring Mom back to our place. Her gunshop is on one of the main streets in Homestead so it's a lot harder to defend, especially with a giant military base not far east from her," Elon was on board as well.

Looking at the map, the group began devising a travel plan.

Jay: "Okay, so normally, the drive is about 1 hour south, but that's on a normal day without congestion."

Christian: "Yeah, right now I can just imagine how congested the roads and highways are with crashes and abandoned vehicles."

Alex: "Wait, how about we go by water? It will be at least 3-4 hours of travel on the ocean since most boats can only travel at around 30 to 50 miles per hour. Then, when we get there, the worst case scenario for us is to bike to Mama's gun shop if we couldn't find a car. It would be another 10 miles, which should take about another hour. Oh wait..."

Elon: "Good math, but yeah... that will be at least 4 hours of travel at the fastest, making it an 8 hour round trip and we will probably be exhausted enough to feed the zombies when we get there."

Christian: "True. Gonna be pretty dead by then, Bro."

Jay: "I think we should go by car and maybe take some courses off the road if necessary. If we really get to a point when it's impossible to move forward, let's just head back. If Mama really didn't make it, then I'm the big brother that's in charge and I have to make sure nothing happens to any of you guys. I'm sure she wouldn't want us to put ourselves in so much danger."

Alex, Christian, and Elon all nodded and they immediately went to prepare the supplies they would be bringing with them onto the trip.

Although it was planned to be a short day trip, no one could predict what will happen. So, just in case, they decided to bring a car full of ammo and supplies, especially their guns and 4 zombie afterbite packages. All they were planning to leave behind were a few more buckets of ammo, some canned and packaged food that wouldn't expire until next year, and the "Don't Drop Here" device.

"Okay, we might need a car that runs on gasoline if we are planning to go offroad. We won't come across too many charging stations nor would we have the time to spend on waiting for the car to be charged," Jay said.

"Hey what about my Honda Civ-" Christian was about to suggest the other car he bought that was parked in the garage.

"Too small, not comfortable if we are going to bring all this stuff," Jay immediately replied.

"And it won't be powerful enough to pull a trailer. We are going to need it if we are bringing back Mama as well as the guns and ammunition at her shop," Elon added.

"Let's go look around and look for an SUV, truck or van. Once we spot one in the driveway we can go to the owner and ask if we can borrow it," Jay suggested.

Alex: "Wait... what do you mean borrow it?"

Jay: "It means ask nicely if they answer the door, or just break in, find the key and take the car if no one's answers."

Christian: "Sounds like a plan."

The squad quickly traveled on foot down the street and located a typical soccer mom van that was parked in a house's driveway.

Knock knock.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

"Get the f*ck out or I'm going to shoot!" a man's voice shouted from inside the house.

Christian: "Aight, I'm outta here."

The group quickly left and went to the next SUV they saw.