Sunrise (20 page)

“Hey,” Dakota replied, shielding his eyes from the glaring light. “How long was I out?”

“Three hours,” Desmond said. He gestured Dakota to slide over so he could sit one of the boxes on the floor. “You hungry?”

“What’s in there?”

“Chips.”

Dakota helped himself. Jamie leaned into the vehicle, set his box on the floor beside Desmond’s, then pushed himself further inside to plant a kiss on Dakota’s lips. “How you feeling?”

“My head hurts like hell, but I’ll live.”

“We’ll stop at a gas station and see if we can find any painkillers. Sorry I had to throw you in.”

“That’s ok.” Dakota chuckled. “Just as long as we’re safe.”

“We are. Desmond did a helluva job driving.”

“I tried,” the boy said, sliding into the passenger seat.

“You did good,” Dakota nodded. “You run fast too.”

“I tried.”

“You did more than try,” Jamie said. “You saved our lives, bud. You should be proud.”

Desmond merely frowned. Jamie closed both doors before circling around the vehicle to crawl into the driver’s seat.

“Which way are we headed?” Dakota questioned.

“I couldn’t get on the other side of the road. We’re heading toward Minnesota.”

“Minnesota?”

“We’re gonna keep heading this way, then take the interstate down to Indianapolis before taking I-80 through Nebraska and Wyoming.”

“I know you’ll get us there,” Dakota said.

“Definitely.” Jamie started the truck. “It’ll take us a few hours to get to Minnesota. I’m not sure how the two of you feel, but I’d rather keep driving for as long as we can.”

“I can switch off with you again,” Desmond said. “I don’t think Dakota’s up for driving though.”

“No,” Dakota admitted, grimacing as Jamie maneuvered the truck onto the road. “Not now.”

“I don’t want him driving anyway,” Jamie said, “especially after he passed out.”

Jamie looked up into the rearview mirror and smiled reassuringly at Dakota. Dakota smiled back.

As they started forward, toward Minnesota and the next chapter in their lives, Dakota felt a pang of guilt for ever feeling safe at the asylum.

All good things eventually came to an end. He’d have to remember that.

They drove through the day and late into the night. The interstate was all but empty, an act marked not by cars or the undead—who, in low numbers, seemed to follow the roads as though driven by some clearer instinct. The weather clear, the sun was out, and little hindered them from their pursuit of safety up until evening. About that time, a light drizzle began, followed by what eventually turned into a full-blown thunderstorm.

“We can’t drive in this,” Desmond said, finger placidly tapping the glass as a flash of lightening momentarily lit up the hazy night sky.

“Yeah we can,” Jamie said. “It’s just a little rain.”

A crack of thunder sounded overheard.

The rain thickened and drowned out the fog in front of them.

Dakota swallowed a lump in his throat.

You can’t drive in this,
he thought, watching the windshield wipers struggle even to push the rain to the side, let alone clear them of any water.
You’d be crazy to think you could.

“You need to stop,” Desmond said, this time turning his head to look at Jamie.

When Jamie began to protest, Dakota cut him off. “Listen to him, Jamie. Please pull over.”

“There’s no point in driving if you can’t see where you’re going,” Desmond continued. “Let’s stop, Jamie. We’ll just look like another car on the side of the road.”

Jamie shook his head. His hands tightened around the wheel, bleaching his knuckles to a ghastly shade of white. For a moment, Dakota thought he would ignore them and keep driving, completely disregarding any sense of safety in favor of finding a more suitable location. Then he sighed and pulled over to the side of the road, disengaging the vehicle upon finding a stable place to park. “All right,” he said, leaning back in his seat. “We’ll stop.”

Dakota tightened his grip on his boyfriend’s shoulder. Jamie tensed under the pressure, but soon relaxed and let out a sigh. “See?” Dakota asked, stroking the muscles under his fingers. “You feel better already, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“It’s been a long day,” Desmond murmured. “We need some sleep.”

“It’s gonna get cold in here,” Jamie said. “I think it’ll be ok if we leave the heater on though. The storm shouldn’t last for long.”

“You’re not going to drive once it stops, are you?” Dakota asked.

“There’s no point in sitting out in the open.”

“If it stops in an hour,” Desmond began, “I’ll drive. I’ve had more sleep than you have.”

“You sure you’re ok navigating these roads?”

“I’m fine with them. I’m just not sure about getting down to Indianapolis.”

“I’ll be awake before we get anywhere near I-35,” Jamie said, reaching down to recline his seat. “You fine with my seat being above your head, babe?”

“That works for me,” Dakota said, spreading out along his side. He waited for both Jamie and Desmond to recline their seats before snaking an arm around to set his hand on his boyfriend’s arm. “You sure you’re ok?”

“I’m fine. It’s you I’ve been worried about.”

“I feel better than I did earlier.”

“I don’t like it when people black out.”

“Neither do I,” Dakota chuckled, “especially when it’s me.”

Jamie touched his hand, the tips of his fingers cresti
ng the bridge of his knuckles.
Dakota sighed contentedly.

The low purr of the heater did little to drown out the sounds of the raging storm.

Morning came early with the sound of rolling tires and rain. Brought to consciousness by the moving vehicle, Dakota opened his eyes, half-expecting to be just imagining the movement happening below him. However, when he tilted his head back and saw the hazy sky quickly swimming by, he knew he couldn’t be imagining things.

Unless I’m dreaming,
he thought, shivering. It had been no more than a moment ago that he’d been startled awake by the image of a zombie lashing out at he and Jamie as they were running toward the truck, desperate to escape from the asylum they’d called home for a time.

“You awake?” Desmond asked.

Dakota nodded, pushing himself up.

Desmond looked into the rearview mirror to acknowledge Dakota’s presence before returning his eyes to the road. “We’re in Minnesota now.”

“We are?”

“Uh huh.”

Dakota leaned into the front seat to look at Jamie and smiled when he saw him still sleeping.  He planted a brief kiss on Jamie’s stubbly cheek. “How long have you been driving?”

“Three or four hours.”

“The rain let up pretty quickly then.”

“Uh huh. I had a bad dream and told Jamie to switch with me when I saw that the rain had let up.”

“Only a drizzle now,” Dakota sighed, leaning back in his seat. He strapped the seatbelt across his waist and pushed his arms over his head. “You want me to drive?”

“Jamie said not to let you.”

“I’m feeling better.”

“Still…” Desmond paused, “I’d feel more comfortable if you didn’t.”

“Just offering.”

“I know. I’d let you, but I don’t want Jamie mad at me.”

“I doubt he’d be mad, but I can understand how you wouldn’t want to upset him.”

Especially after what happened the first time I did it.

Shaking his head, Dakota closed his eyes, only opening them when he felt a chill creep along his lower arms. “Is the heater on?” he asked.

“It should be.”

“It’s cold back here.”

“I think there’s a few vents back there. See if you can find them.”

Dakota did. He leaned forward and messed with a few settings on the dividing console and sighed when he felt welcoming warm air blowing out at him. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“You have any idea how long it’ll take to where we’re going?”

“Not sure,” Desmond sighed. “I tried messing with the GPS, but it doesn’t work. The satellites must have gone down.”

“So much for common luxury.”

“No kidding, huh?”

Dakota nodded. He was about to lean forward to say something else when he saw something glimmering in front of the road.

“What the…?” Desmond said.

Jamie stirred. “Wha?” he asked, eyes fluttering open.

“There’s something in the road,” Dakota said, pointing.

“Aww fuck,” Desmond groaned, slowing the truck to a stop.

Dead ahead of them, near a turn-off into the woods and directly in front of their path, a mass of cars and twisted heaps of metal lay like pigs long-dead and gutted in a butcher shop. Jamie, who’d been asleep until that moment, shot up to view the scene before them. It took but a moment for his face to twist into a snarl and his cheeks to brighten as though blood vessels had just exploded below their surfaces. “GODDAMMIT!” he cried, slamming his hand into the dash.

“Don’t do that,” Dakota said, snatching his boyfriend’s arm before he could slam his fist down again.

“Don’t do that?
Dakota, you’re fuckin’ crazy! What the hell are we supposed to do now?”

“Well,” Desmond said, trailing his voice off as though unsure to proceed. “There is one thing we
can
do.”

“What?”
Jamie asked. The boy pointed at the turn-off. Jamie’s face brightened even further. “You can’t be serious.”

“What else can we do?”

“Can we jump the divider?” Dakota asked, looking to his right. “I mean, there aren’t any cars on that side.”

“There’s no way this truck can jump that,” Desmond said. “Even if we
could
find something to use as a ramp, it’d be no use. The truck’s too heavy. We’d just get stuck on it.”

Jamie let out a long, hard exhale and brought a hand to his forehead, rubbing his temples as though he’d suddenly been struck by a migraine. It sure appeared that way, given the flush in his skin and the tremble in his wrist.

“Jamie?” Dakota asked.

“Go,” Jamie said.

“What?” Desmond asked.

“I said go,” Jamie repeated, lifting his head. “Go. Turn off. Do
something.
I can’t stand sitting here.”

“If you don’t want me to turn off, I don’t have to.”

“There’s no point in just sitting here, Desmond. If we can’t get to where we’re going the short way, we’ll go the long way.”

“You sure you know where to go?” Desmond asked, switching gears and making the brief turn that would take them off the interstate.

“That’s what maps are for,” Jamie sighed.

No one said a word as Desmond broke through the treeline.

Illusion took precedence over reality. What appeared to be one road was actually another. One house looked the same as the next. Trees extended for miles on end without any sign of difference between one crop or the other. They went in circles, Dakota knew, even though they were only taking the occasional turn, and by the time night fell, all three of them were at their wits’ end.

“This is ridiculous,” Jamie sighed, defeated, collapsing back into his seat as Desmond pulled over to look at the map in the center console. “We’ve been going at this for hours.”

“You can’t even read the map,” the boy said. He, too, was angry, despite his usually-calm and reserved demeanor. His voice carved daggers in the air and drew fresh blood from microscopic particles. “What the hell are we supposed to do?”

“Keep going?” Dakota offered.

“There’s no point in that,” Jamie sighed. A growl rose in his throat when he saw that the sun was beginning to set behind a hill and the sky was dampening to a dull hue of grey. “I don’t know what to do.”

“There’s not much we can do,” Desmond said. “Maybe we should just stop for the night, see if we can get into someone’s house.”

“For what?”

“Food, maybe a map.”

“We’ve got food in here, buddy.”

“I want to get out of the truck.”

“I do too, but there’s no point in drawing attention to ourselves.”

Dakota leaned back. While Jamie and Desmond argued in the front seat, their tempers finally getting the best of them, he looked outside and frowned at how fast the sky seemed to darken. Maybe it was just a Minnesota thing, but regardless, it set his nerves on edge, especially with the commotion going on in the seats in front of him.

They’ll stop,
he told himself, trying not to keep track of the time in front of him.
Really. They will.

They kept fighting, on and off, for the next half-hour. By the time they stopped, it was full dark.

“Let’s just stay here for the night,” Jamie said, reaching over to disengage the vehicle. “We’re obviously too tired and angry to think about anything rationally.”