RADIO

chapter 9

The next morning Rider was awake with Everett, sitting side by side at the edge of the truck. The morning sun just barely peered into the tunnel, creating a small pocket of light. 

“You still shaken up about Rome?” Rider asked. 

“Of course I am,” Everett said in a monotone voice, not wanting to deal with any bullshit first thing in the morning, “I watched my best friend die Rider, do you really think I'm gonna bounce back this soon after his death?” He glared at her. 

“Sorry,” she muttered shyly. 

Everett just sighed, “this whole thing is gonna be hard on all of us, some more than others so make sure you're prepared.” 

She nodded, “I know, but let's try not to keep the tension between you and Duchess too high. She was defending you so don't be too mad at her.”

“I don't care about the tension, I care about dealing with this fucking end of the world thing,” Everett threw his hands up in defeat and lay on his back, letting his legs hang half way off the side of the truck. 

“We need to get to Oregon so we can be safer but it’s gonna be one hell of a ride,” he groaned. 

“Isn’t there a military base somewhere around here?” Rider asked. 

“Yeah, in the mountains, but there's not enough stuff there to be able to take care of us all forever, not to mention it's probably heavily guarded, so I don't know if they'd let us in,” Everett said. 

“Maybe we can get some weapons from there, or even find out the cause of all of this.”

“Maybe,” Everett shrugged. 

“Good morning guys,” Monty yawned, coming out of the truck with Dibbs following behind him. 

“Hey” Rider greeted, “where’s Duchess and Haze?” 

“They’re still asleep,” Dibbs said. 

“Haze can sleep through anything,” Hayley commented, stretching her arms up high. “Plus ever since they’ve started dating they’ve been such a power couple,” she chuckled. 

“Tell me about it,” Rider sighed. 

“There's a military base around the mountains we're supposed to cut through, do you think we can stop by and get some weapons?” Everett asked despite his conversation with Rider. 

Monty thought for a second, “maybe? I don't know how guarded it’ll be though,” he shrugged. 

“What's going on?” Duchess peered out of the truck door tiredly. 

“We’re gonna find a way out of the state but before that we were thinking of trying to look in an old military base to find weapons,” Rider summarized. 

“Kay,” Duchess answered, getting out of the car, stretching her arms up towards the roof of the tunnel, and yawning again. 

“Here’s breakfast,” Rider said, opening her backpack that was half full with rations. Everyone distributed them evenly and soon enough they were on the road again. 

Haze had woken up and was sitting beside Duchess in the back seat of the truck. Dibbs got the passenger seat and Monty was driving. Everyone else was in the back, the tarp still shielding them from the vision of the wanderers. It felt like forever while they drove in silence except for Brownie's occasional meows. 

Then they came to a stop. 

“Hey guys we need to get fuel, don't wander too far,” Monty ordered, taking the tarp halfway off the truck so everyone knew that it was alright to get out. Rider immediately got up from lying on her stomach in the uncomfortable truck and looked around.