Chapter 157: Chapter 157 - On the Road
Morning light filtered through the open doorway.
Iyisha drove the Land Rover out first while Malcolm stood just outside the building, rifle in hand, scanning the perimeter. She kept the engine low and slow, watching him through the windshield as he checked the open lot.
Nothing moved toward them.
The undead scattered near the fence stood where they had been the night before. A walker tilted its head slightly as the vehicle passed. A bloated shape near the drainage channel didn’t react at all.
They looked stuck in place.
The sun wasn’t fully up yet, but there was enough light to move.
They had taken turns guarding through the night. She tried to stay up longer and told him she could take most of it, but he shut that down with a look. They split it. It was uneventful. No alarms from the sensors. No scratching at the door.
She was grateful for that.
They didn’t trust Marybeth enough to put her on watch. And Marybeth still drifted in and out of herself.
Iyisha stopped beside Malcolm. He opened the passenger door and got in. She slid over and they switched without a word.
He pulled the Land Rover around and headed toward the exit.
The gate lay bent where they had entered. He drove through and back onto the main road.
Iyisha unfolded the map across her lap.
"We’ll get out of Ohio today if we don’t stop," she muttered.
Malcolm nodded.
"As long as the road isn’t blocked."
She glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
He was focused on the road, jaw set, hair pushed back but still curling slightly at the front. The early light caught along his cheek.
He looked good.
She cleared her throat and shifted in her seat, forcing her eyes back to the map.
"Yeah," she said. "Those bloaters aren’t as disgusting as that guy made them sound."
"They’re not the bloaters," Marybeth said suddenly from the back.
Iyisha jumped slightly and looked at the rearview mirror.
Marybeth met her eyes through it.
"You’ve seen them?" Iyisha asked.
Marybeth nodded.
"Deeper inside the plant," she said. "The real ones. They say radiation changes them. Walkers and twitchers stay near them because they don’t move much. They only react when they sense food."
Iyisha looked back at the road.
"So the ones outside are just..." she trailed off.
"Early stage," Marybeth said quietly.
Iyisha exhaled slowly.
"Lucky then," she muttered.
She pressed the map flat again, thinking she didn’t want to see whatever made that man almost vomit.
The highway stretched long and flat toward Lake Erie.
Fields on both sides lay empty, wind moving through dry grass. Fences sagged. Road signs leaned. Cars sat abandoned along the shoulder, doors open, tires rotted flat.
There were more walkers there than she had ever seen in Indiana.
They crowded the roadside in loose clusters. Some drifted across the lanes without purpose. Others stood packed near exit ramps, shoulder to shoulder, heads turning slowly as the Land Rover passed. Twitchers darted now and then, but the walkers dominated the landscape.
It felt crowded.
Iyisha shuddered.
"Are there no safe zones in Ohio?" she asked, glancing at Marybeth through the mirror.
Marybeth shook her head.
"I don’t think so."
Iyisha looked back out at the road.
She couldn’t understand it. Why not sweep the highways clean? Why not clear the cities block by block?
Were there not enough soldiers?
Not enough weapons?
Her eyes caught something ahead.
Two overturned military trucks lay near a collapsed guardrail. Camouflage scratched. Doors torn open. Civilian cars were piled around them like someone tried to form a barrier.
As they passed, she saw walkers in partial uniforms wandering near the wreckage. A helmet rolled in the grass. One figure still wore a tactical vest, dried blood staining the fabric.
"Looks like they tried clearing here," she muttered.
Marybeth nodded.
"They did."
Iyisha glanced back at her.
"But they stop when the hunters start exploding inside the cities," Marybeth continued. "Their numbers multiply fast. Whole blocks turn in days."
Iyisha felt her stomach drop.
Hunters appearing in clusters instead of singles. Streets filling faster than soldiers could clear them.
She tightened her grip on the door.
If hunters were multiplying inside cities like that, pushing outward in waves—
She looked at the endless line of walkers along the road.
How bad did it have to get for the ERF to pull back completely?
She looked at Malcolm.
"Did you ever do clearing?" she asked.
He glanced at her briefly.
"No."
That was it.
She waited a second, expecting more. Nothing came.
She rolled her eyes and faced forward again. Back to one word answers.
Walkers drifted into the road ahead, but the Land Rover handled them easily. The reinforced front caught bodies and pushed them aside. The vehicle barely slowed. Inside, she felt safe. The weight of the car. The steel grills. The engine steady beneath them.
Then Malcolm eased off the gas.
The Land Rover slowed.
Stopped.
Iyisha leaned forward, bracing her hand against the dashboard, peering through the windshield.
A horde blocked the road ahead.
Dozens of walkers crowded around something in the middle of the highway. Growls overlapped. Bodies pressed inward, climbing over each other, arms reaching.
"Looks like they’re attacking something," she muttered.
She pulled the map into her lap quickly, scanning for another route.
"Turn right," she said. "We can pass through the service road."
She glanced back at the horde.
An upturned black car sat at the center of the mass. Windows shattered. Walkers crawled inside through broken glass. No movement from within.
Her chest tightened briefly.
No one alive in there.
"What the fuck," she whispered.
Something pale moved above the car.
She squinted.
A figure climbed onto the roof on all fours. Its skin looked almost white against the darker bodies below. It moved differently. Smooth. Controlled. It lifted one hand and gripped the edge of the metal frame like it was testing it.
It didn’t move like a walker.
It didn’t jerk like a twitcher.
"What the hell is that?" she asked, eyes fixed on it.
It was far, but she knew it wasn’t an animal.
The creature tilted its head slightly, crouched low on the roof of the car. One arm stretched forward, fingers curling against metal as if trying to pry it open.
Malcolm shifted the car into reverse.
The engine revved.
He backed up fast.
Iyisha twisted in her seat to keep watching.
The creature straightened slightly, still on all fours.
For a second—
It felt like it was looking straight at them.
Her skin prickled.
Malcolm turned the wheel hard and accelerated away.
