A roadtrip for a cure

"We've got plenty time, sweetheart. Don't worry" Silas said not looking away from the road, littered with abandoned cars. There were less cars than when they were in city, but every once in a while he would see them.

"We've got plenty of time" he whispered. Perhaps to convince himself, Evelyn thought.

Evelyn looked outside the window. Seeing the tall trees, expecting to see a monster run out of them. She opened her window to get some fresh air. 

The silence was deafening. Not even the birds sang. Even if they did, it's not song she would have liked to hear. A song of loss, of defeat.

Evelyn presumed that Silas had noticed her despondent expression, because he started making jokes. Like he did before.

"What does a vegan zombie eat?" Silas was already cracking up at the punchline before he had delivered it. He took his arms off the steering wheel, much to Evelyn's displeasure.

He put them like a zombie would, and uttered in a zombie-like voice "GRAINNSSS!".

"Ok, ok that's really funny, now PLEASE KEEP DAMN YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!" Evelyn laughed at the start, but started panicking as she saw that they were heading towards a big rock on the side of the road.

Silas immediently grabbed hold of the steering wheel and stopped the car drastically. Silas and Evelyn looked at each other in pure shock and then laughed. Just like they did before. 

Silas got the car back on the empty road again and was happy to make Evelyn laugh. By god they both needed that.

"Why a vegan zombie tho? Isn't the joke usually about a vegetarian?" Evelyn inquired. It wasn't important, but a noticable detail.

Silas dimmed down and looked a little less happy. "Because you're a vegetarian, and you are NOT becoming a zombie. Not on my watch" Silas said genuinely upset. Not like him at all, Evelyn noted. He grabbed the steering wheel real tight. Yeah, Silas was never like this when everything was fine. Only when things went bad.

Evelyn looked down on her arm. The bite. It had happened the day before and she only had a few hours left. Silas had heard from an "informant" that there was a cure made in a few towns away from them.

Evelyn was not optimistic, but what else could they do, really?

Silas eased his grip on the steering wheel and sighed. He was supposed to make her feel better, not make it worse.

"Knock knock" he said with a bit more happiness in his voice. He believed she hadn't heard this one. Evelyn wanted to humour him and answer him with a "who's there?".

"Figs"

Uh what? Figs, wasn't that a fruit or something. Where was this going, Evelyn thought to herself.

"Figs who?"

Oh and Silas's big smile was back. This was gonna be funny.

"Figs the goddamn doorbell, it's broken!" the broken part was fizzled out because Silas couldn't stop laughing.

It died down happily, both feeling better. Tension still present, but that was a problem for future-Silas and Evelyn.

The night approached, and Silas was very sleepy and Evelyn couldn't drive with that arm of hers.

Silas went out like a light as soon as they had made the car a functional bed. Evelyn just looked at him, not wanting to sleep.

She was about to lose her best friend. The closest thing she had to a relative at this point. The outcasts, the ones who were kicked out of their homes.

They became independent early, which helped in their favour. This was the zombie apocalypse after all. Evelyn would have not skipped out on all those gym classes had she known that it would happen.

She turned away from him and looked through the open roof, at the stars. This could most probably be the last time she looks at the stars before becoming one of them.

Evelyn was glad that the stars were there because, as childish as it was, she was afraid of the dark. Afraid of the unknown.

No wonder she was so scared of what would happen when that bite settled in.

When Silas had heard her scream, he picked up an axe and sliced the zombie. Evelyn had never see him so scared before. She didn't want to remember that, only the good and happy faces. The smiles.

And as she closed her eyes, she dreamt a beautiful dream. The contents unknown to her, but the feeling was there. When she woke to the sound of Silas waking up, she thanked whatever high power gave her that dream.

Silas had been driving for several hours now, and he couldn't ask Evelyn to tag in. He could see that it had spread. He would never tell Evelyn it, but the bite horrified and disgusted him, but he could never say that. Evelyn would take it the wrong way, he presumed.

Evelyn started wondering when the zombies would take over this area too. They were out in the middle of nowhere between towns. There were quite a lot of people in the towns and cities, but not in the middle places.

That was one of the only reasons Evelyn actually got some sleep and Silas didn't guard the car. It took several minutes for Evelyn to convince him that no Zombies would attack them.

Even if she secretly wished they did, but she didn't want Silas to know that. That would be selfish of her. Wanting him to suffer like she is.

They were now just a few miles away from Harriden. The town where the "informant" is. Evelyn had never been in Harriden, never left her and Silas's hometown Springley. Evelyn never really wanted to leave Springley, but now it could be what they had to do for her to survive.

Silas lived in Harriden when he became 18 and got kicked out. Lived with his grandparents, if Evelyn didn't remember it wrong. 

Silas and Evelyn were friends since 3rd grade when he moved to house near their school and they sticked together until Silas got kicked out. Evelyn got kicked out when she was 21 and did the classic "you're not kicking me out, I AM LEAVING!" and packed her bags. Calling Silas was the first thing she did.

Seeing the old "welcome to Harriden!" sign, made Silas nostalgic. He felt more comfortable staying in Harriden than in Springley. The only reason why he moved back was because of Evelyn calling him and saying that she had no place to stay. So they moved in together.

They were so happy together, and now they weren't.

Especially when they finally arrived at the meeting place for the "informant". Evelyn was sure that dude they were meeting was someone who spread lies and false hope. Evil people.

"Come on, it's going to be fine, Lyn" Silas tried to reassure her, but nothing would. She felt so irritable, she just wanted to scream so loud, she just wanted to bit-

Oh no.

Evelyn could feel it brewing up. It was too late. She looked at Silas's face, full of hope. How that would be corrupted.

"Silas..." she murmured, near whispered. "Ar.. are we the... there yet" her words stumbling over each other. Silas didn't look at her and kept walking. They were almost there.

"Come on, we're almost there!" Silas said sounding almost irritated at her for asking. He seemed incredibly stressed. He had to save, he thought to himself, he had to make this work.

A man, whom Silas recalled his name being Robert something, stood by the gas station they were supposed to meet. Evelyn remarked that the man looked shady, but Silas brushed it off. 

"Are you Robert, the guy with cure?" Silas asked, having a worried little squeak in his voice. "You got the money?" Robert with his deep voice asked Silas. Scary eyes, Evelyn noted.

"Ah, oh yes, I do" Silas fumbled trying to find his wallet. Robert took this moment to stab Silas, take his wallet and run. Why get a cut of the money when you could have it all.

He was stabbed and it really didn't look good. It was too late, for both of them. As he bled out, he smiled and started laughing weakly.

"I would have been sad when my flashlight went out, but guess what I was instead-" he coughed at the end, barely finishing his sentence.

Evelyn's cheeks were stained with her tears, feeling herself change, wanting to eat. She wiped off her tears, only for more to come. 

"What... what were you instead, Silas?" she laughed, but it a sad way. Silas smiled.

"I was delighted" he only chuckled now. He reached for Evelyn's hand, wanting to hold his friend's hand one last time as he bled out. She was now on her knees as he laid on the ground. She took his hand to her cheek, letting him stroke it. She laughed.

"You want that to be your last words?"

"It made you laugh, didn't it? No, I have something else" his voice getting weaker.

"What?"

"I love you, Evelyn. Thanks for being my friend".

His hand dropped, and that was the last straw. Her emotional stress of losing her friend caused her to become a monster. 

As Evelyn predicted,

they were never going to make it.