Chapter 13

Isaac could see that the truck had not moved in quite some time because the dirt around it was absent of tire marks, so he did not have much hope when he put the key into the ignition. He turned it, and as expected, nothing happened. He tried a few more times with the same result.

"Forget it. It's hopeless," he said. The children started up the path, feeling dejected, leaving behind Jeremy who stood staring at the truck.

The children were halfway up the dirt path when they heard the creaking of rusted metal. They turned around and saw Jeremy under the hood of the old truck, working on the engine and moving purposefully.

Several hours passed, and Jeremy had completed a good deal of maintenance and repair. The children watched from the shade of the garage as he changed parts, added coolants, filled the gas tank, and inflated the tires. Having finished, he entered the cabin of the truck and started the engine, which sputtered, coughed up clouds of black smoke, and came to life.

The children shouted and leaped around.

Jeremy came out of the cabin, slammed the hood shut, and wiped the grease from his hands with a rag, when the children ran up to him and hugged him.

"She should be all right now," Jeremy said in a raspy voice. "Just keep her running below forty, and she'll get you where you want to go."

The children let go of him and stumbled backwards in shock for these were the first words they had heard him speak.

"You can talk?" asked Simon.

Jeremy stared down at him blankly.

"Say something else!" said Simon.

But Jeremy's brow only furrowed slightly with confusion.

"Say, I'm Jeremy," Simon pressed.

Jeremy tilted his head to one side.

"I don't think he understands you," said Isaac. "It's probably just some old

memory that came up."

Isaac took a step toward Jeremy.

"Can you drive this truck?" he asked, as slowly and clearly as he could.

Again, no response was given. Only silence and confusion.

"Can you… vroom, vroom, vroom, this truck?" Isaac said while going through the motion of steering.

Again, no response.

"Looks like it's gotta be me then," said Katie.

"Why you?" asked Isaac.

"Have you ever driven before?"

"Not exactly. Have you?"

"No, but that has a 4 speed manual transmission, the same as my daddy's tractor. We spent countless hours together, with him teaching me how to drive that thing. Besides, Simon told me what happened the last time you guys tried to drive," she said with a smirk.

"Fine," Isaac said, "but make sure you're not using too much gas."

The boys got clear of the area, with Simon leading Jeremy away by the hand.

Katie got behind the wheel, which was higher off the ground than she had anticipated. She sat for a moment and tried to remember her experience driving the tractor.

She looked at the dashboard, which had a fine layer of dust. The steering wheel was large, which reminded her of the one on her father's tractor, and this comforted her somewhat. Through the steering wheel, she could see a semi-circular speedometer with prominent white numbers.

She looked below and saw the clutch, brake, and accelerator pedals, just like on the tractor, right where they were supposed to be, and she breathed a small sigh of relief.

"Looks simple enough."

She thought back to the motions her father taught her, all those countless hours they spent out on the field at sun set. With a collage of memories running through her mind, she started the engine, which rumbled and caught, making the entire truck shake.

She extended her toes, pressed down on the clutch, and shifted into first gear.

"And we're off," she mumbled.

Katie took her foot off the brake and carefully pressed down the accelerator until the truck shuddered and rolled away from its berth.

The children shouted encouragements to Katie as they watched her maneuver the truck around the back of the service station. At one point, she stopped and managed to reverse, which brought another round of cheers from the boys.

From his vantage point on the slight rise, Isaac could see the highway, and for the first time since their journey had started, he saw the nearing of the end.

The children and Jeremy sat around the dining table with what was supposed to be a celebratory dinner of sausages and potato chips. They had placed a plate in front of Jeremy as well. They knew he would only stare at it, but it felt wrong for them to be eating while he only watched. But no one was eating.

"Why can't we take him?" asked Simon.

"He's not a pet, Simon," said Isaac.

"What if the truck breaks down? We may need him."

"I know, but it's not right to take him away from his home. He belongs here."

Simon absentmindedly crushed his potato chips with the tip of his finger.

Katie looked at him sympathetically.

"You can have some of my chips, if you want," she said.

"No," Simon replied. "Thank you."

After a moment of quiet, Katie asked Isaac a question. "How long do you think it'll be until we get to the city?"

"If we have enough gas and the car holds together, we could make it to the city by tomorrow night," said Isaac.

"What's it like?" asked Katie.

"What?"

"You know, the city."

"You've never been there?"

"I have, but not since I was a little girl."

"It was okay, I guess. A lot of tall buildings. A lot of cars. And people."

"Oh, right," she said. "The people. So were there a lot of those things?" She glanced at Jeremy whose head was moving side to side as if he were following an invisible flying insect.

"Katie," said Isaac, "there's something you need to know if you're going to come with us."

"Okay," she said.

"On the night my dad took us to the cabin, he tried driving us out of the city. Those things were all over the place, blocking traffic, tearing people out of their cars and dragging them away like a bunch of hyenas."

Listening to the story, Simon grimaced. He then got up quietly from the table, took Jeremy by the hand, and led him into the living room.

Isaac waited until his brother was gone before continuing.

"At one point, my dad tried driving down an alley when one of them jumped onto his windshield and made him crash into a building. It felt like a sledgehammer hit my chest when the seatbelt tightened."

Simon put a hand on his chest as if still experiencing the pain of that moment.

"My dad… he tried getting the engine to start again, but I remember it was just smoking and making clicking noises and not doing much of anything else. So he told us to wait inside, and he grabbed my baseball bat and went out to take a look. And when it was safe, he told us to follow him. As I did, I looked at the thing on the ground, and I saw that it was still moving. It was all twisted and mangled, but still moving."

Isaac looked up at Katie who was staring at him unflinchingly.

"We just started running. I don't even know where. This one time, a car came around the corner and almost ran us over. My dad begged the man inside to open the door, but he screamed something at us and drove away.

I have no idea how long we were running. We just kept going from street to street, and it seemed like forever. But then we saw this car, just sitting in the middle of the street, with the engine running and the door opened. There were a few of those things just walking around, but I guess my dad thought it was our last chance. So he picked up my brother and told us, no matter what, get to the car.

Then we ran. We didn't even make it halfway before they were on us. My dad pushed Simon forward and yelled at us to get in the car before he was dragged down. Before Simon and I could get in the car, I was grabbed around the neck, and I felt fingernails dig in. I tore myself away, but that's how I ended up with this."

Simon pulled down his shirt to reveal three pink, jagged lines from his neck to the right side of his chest.

Katie winced at the sight.

"So what happened to your dad?" she asked.

"He got up. I don't know how, but when I closed the door, I saw him swinging at the creatures like crazy. One was trying to claw through the window, but my dad came from behind and struck it in the back of the head."

Isaac fell silent.

"And then?"

Isaac shaped his thoughts.

"After that, I unlocked the door, my dad got in, and we drove out of the city."

Isaac studied Katie's expression. He could see that she was worried, and he understood. The city was a place filled with monsters and torment, but at the center of it, in the tallest of the buildings, were their parents, wondering where they were. He had not allowed himself to think otherwise, to consider the alternative of what might have happened to them, for a life without his parents was unthinkable and more frightening than any demon awaiting them.

"Just thought you needed to know," he said. "Do you still want to come with us?"

Katie stared into Isaac's eyes resolutely.

"I've got nowhere else to go."