Shilo drove us for a bit longer before I offered to drive. I needed something to take my mind off of the terrible feeling I kept coming back to since the gas station. It's like a constant something bad is going to happen feeling. The same feeling I got when Avery and I were perched on our roof watching that man before he shot our mother.
"Are you okay? Still shaken up from earlier?" Shilo asked. I wanted to just tell him how sometimes I get these gut feelings and how they are usually right. Instead, I sighed and nodded yes. I don't need somebody looking at me like I'm crazy.
"I'm sorry you're stressed. I can't offer much. I'll admit, you're more prepared for this than I." He said. I snorted. "Not really, I just have a steel mind and some weird curse of calm in situations where most people would panic."
"I wouldn't call it a curse," he replied.
"I would. It gives people the idea that I'm insensitive." I chewed my bottom lip. That familiar queasy feeling in my gut returning as if to say
beware, trouble is coming.
I sighed, and tucked my hair behind my ear with my free hand. "I just have a really bad feeling about this."
"What? Havenshire?" he asked. I nodded and he quirked an eyebrow, "How come?"
I shook my head, trying to figure out how I could explain this to him without sounding like a lunatic.
"I just... sometimes, I have this feeling in my stomach. Like I can sense impending doom from a mile away."
Shilo was quiet for a few moments, and then he said, "Nothing wrong with that. My mother was somewhat intuitive. And she was usually right about the things her gut warned her about. It's how they were able to not get caught the first few times our trailer was raided."
We passed a sign that said we were 10 miles out from our destination. The rest of the ride was silent, except for Avery's soft snores. Until we reached a traffic buildup just before the bridge to get into Havenshire.
All of the cars were abandoned, of course. Buzzards patrolled the sky above us. Blood stained nearly all of the vehicles. Either the undead had been here, or something worse.
"Make sure the doors are locked and the windows are up. Just in case."
Shilo checked everything as Avery's eyes fluttered open.
"What's going on?" Avery asked, unbuckling his seat belt to lean up and observe the surroundings.
"I'm not sure buddy," was all I could offer at the moment. My eyes were scanning everywhere. Looking for feet, slow walking undead, or humans out for blood.
Suddenly, the car was surrounded by men wearing what looked like police gear. Bullet proof vests and padding on their arms and legs. I cracked my window just enough to be able to speak and hear through.
"We're looking for Havenshire." I said to the man up front who I assumed is the leader.
The man seemed to be around mid thirties, the sides of his hair beginning to gray. "Well you found it," the man said. And then he nodded to the rest of his men.
But instead of putting their guns down, they only advanced closer. The man must have read the confusion on our faces because he began to snicker.
"If you haven't guessed by now, Havenshire doesn't exist. Well," he kicked a pinecone from his feet and watched it scatter away, "it exists for us."
"I don't understand," Shilo muttered.
"Oh what the hell, I'll explain. Since you won't be alive for too much longer."
I felt all the blood drain from my face. I glanced in the rear view mirror at Avery. He was just as scared as we were, his face had gone pale as he looked between Shilo and the man.
"My name is Jacob and that town over there," he pointed to the town's sign, "That is our hometown. Everyone that we know and love right now is locked inside of a church, craving the taste of our flesh. Now, we do not know what this is or how it'll be fixed. But what we do know is that my mother," he pointed to himself and then to the man on his right, "and his little daughter, and that man over there's elderly father," he said as he nodded his head in the mans direction, "And so on. You get gist. Well, they all gotta eat."
My breathing began to quicken. And then Jacob spoke again, "You have no reason to panic, little lady. We have a special job for you. You see," he leaned down and put his hands on his knees to get eye level with me, "I'm not sure how long this'll all last. And with a big portion of the human race either eaten or turned, well, we'll need to repopulate. And you have all the right organs to be able to do such."
Bile made its way into my throat. What does he think I am? Some dog he can breed? I must have said as much out loud because the men began to laugh.
"Oh, sweetie," Jacob said, "You're much prettier than a dog."