Monday, 14 December 2009

Chapter 14

Kenzie and Drew were driving on a snowy, windy road in the middle of nowhere. All around them were nothing but trees. It was a beautiful winters’ night. With no lights to disturb their night vision they could enjoy a sky littered with stars.

“I had forgotten how beautiful the sky can be.” Kenzie said

“Yeah, it’s always too bright in the city.”

“And too noisy.”

“Yes. That to.”

They drove on in silence. Soon they approached a small town, about halfway between Kenzie’s hometown and the safe zone. They had not seen a single person on their way there, but all of a sudden they saw a whole group of people running away into the trees when they saw the car approaching. Kenzie slowed down and looked confusedly at Drew, who shrugged.

Kenzie started driving, but then a man from the group came running back towards them. Kenzie hesitated a bit, but since the man was not carrying a gun she decided to wait.

“Hi. Are you going to drive through the town?” The man asked, looking very nervous

“Well, yes. Where else would we go?” Kenzie said with a fair deal of irritation. All these delays!

“Don’t! They will catch you!” The man said. He looked terrified.

“Who?” Drew asked. “The… infected?”

“Nono… they killed those. But now they put everyone else in holding.”

“Damn. This is the last thing we needed now. But we’re only gonna drive through, we won’t even get out of the car.” Kenzie said

“It doesn’t matter. They’re fanatics. Besides, I heard they’ve put up roadblocks…”

“You’re not from around here, are you? You speak a different dialect.” Kenzie interrupted.

“N-no…” The man stammered. “Me and my family came here for a holiday. We’re staying up in the cottages.”

“Ah… I see.” Kenzie said

“Are there many of you?” Drew asked

“About two dozen. We used to be more but… Some went into town and they never came back.”

Drew raised her eyebrows.

“Thank you for your warning.” Kenzie said. “Would you excuse us for a moment?” She asked him as kindly as possible, and he agreed to stay for a few minutes.

“What are you thinking?” Drew asked

“I’m thinking that it would take us half a day to go back and take another way.”

“You want to drive through town anyway?”

“No. If what the man said about the roadblock is true we’re screwed.”

“So let’s turn back then.”

“I’m getting tired again, and I’m not the best of drivers. I think it would be best if we stayed with these people for the night.”

“Ok.” Drew said

Kenzie waved to the man, who walked up to her. He looked very nervous.

“Can we stay with you for the night?” She asked

“I guess. But we don’t have any food to spare.”

“That’s ok. We just need a good night’s rest before we turn back.”

“All right. Come with us.” The man said

“But we can’t leave the car.” Drew said

“I’ll ride with you and show the way.” The man said

Kenzie’s eyes narrowed. When Drew saw that she elbowed her and whispered:

“If you don’t trust the man why did you agree to stay the night with them?”

Kenzie reluctantly allowed the man to enter the car.

He signaled towards the trees and another man came walking. He spoke to him quickly, and then got into the car.

He directed them to a large skiing lodge and hurried them inside.

They were greeted by two more men. At that moment both Kenzie and Drew realized it was a trap. They started screaming as the men seized them and dragged them into a room without windows and locked the door.

8 comments:

Riklurt said...

Admiral Ackbar would be proud.

Kat said...

Huh?

Nallenon said...

Kristin, you fail geekdom forever. Go fix it. Re-see all the Star Wars movies at once!
And pay more attention this time.

Yeonni said...

Oh my god! I'm, I mean she, I mean we, I mean... panick button! Ctrl-z someone!

I've been wondering for the longest time if I would actually scream if something like that happened. I only screamed once on a rollercoaster because I wanted to know how it felt, and while it was somewhat fun, it didn't significally enhance the experience. I might have trained away some quite useful suvival skills :(

Nallenon said...

On the contrary, screaming is only useful for letting your friends know about the tiger that's about to pounce you, before it bites your throat out. Staying silent and hiding and/or running is much better from a survival-perspective.

Yeonni said...

Uhm, as long as the tiger hasn't noticed you already. Staying silent while running from a tiger certainly doesn't seem very survival-enhancing.

Kat said...

Depends on whether the tiger wants to eat you or is just chasing you for fun. If he's doing it for the lulz your lack of screaming might bore him enough to stop

Nallenon said...

Why would screaming while running help? It just means he will always know where you are, even if you somehow get out of sight. I still hold that screaming is a pack behavior-thing and only helps others.