We'll Fall Together (Austin Carlile)

"Why the hell didn't you take the back roads?" Sadie groaned as she leaned back into her seat.

"I thought the freeway would be quicker," Austin replied with a sigh. "I didn't know there'd be this much traffic."

"It's Los Angeles," Sadie retorted. "Of course there's going to be traffic, especially with shit like this going on."

"But why is traffic completely stopped?" Austin asked, irritability tapping his tattooed fingers on the steering wheel. He honked his horn in aggravation, yelling at the cars in front of them to move, but of course, that didn't help.

"Like that's going to work," Sadie commented. "Get off at the next exit. We're taking the back roads."

"That's if we can actually get to the exit," Austin mumbled. He reached for the stereo and turned up the volume. Usually, the local rock station would be playing, but instead an emergency news broadcast played through the speakers.

"A state of emergency has been conducted. Please return to your homes and lock your doors and windows. Report any unusual or hostile behavior. Do not engage with the infected," the robotic voice said. "I repeat, do not engage with the infected."

"Is this really happening?" Sadie thought aloud. She turned to Austin. "Is this the actual apocalypse?" She felt stupid for asking that sort of question. She couldn't exactly understand why she did, but she was just so shocked. She planned on spending her day venturing around the woods, clearing her head and getting away from chaos, now she's doing the complete opposite. Now she's stuck in traffic with someone she never thought she'd be in the same vehicle with, trying to get out of a now dangerous city; that's apparently turned into a full on war-zone, from what it seems.

"I hope not," Austin answered with a sigh. "I really fucking hope not."

The broadcast continued to repeat itself, but neither Austin nor Sadie bothered to turn it off. Austin was too caught up with the traffic, and Sadie was still trying to process this whole ordeal.
After a good half an hour, traffic finally started moving. With a breath of relief, Austin began driving forward. He was about to merge into the right lane to get off at the exit, but some idiot sped up and cut in front of them, and then the car in the lane next to them as well. That asshole's bright idea caused the car in the lane next to them to swerve right and slam right into Austin's car, causing them to flip over (more dramatically than both Sadie and Austin would like).

They were now upside down while cars tried to drive around them, not even bothering to stop to see if they were alright.

"Holy shit," Sadie commented. She felt as if her heart was going to burst through her chest. Her hands were trembling and she felt a stinging pain in her face and hands. She looked down to see small shards of glass in her hands. She saw that it had come from the now shattered windshield and flipped the sun visor down and looked in the mirror, noticing a few small shards of glass in her cheek as well. The rest scattered her clothes and the roof of the car.
It was hard to keep her eyes open, as she was falling in and out of consciousness. She tried to stay awake, but her eyes closed shut, and let sleep consume her.

When Sadie opened her eyes, she was surrounded by darkness. The only light was the sun that was beginning to set in the distance. Her head ached and she wanted to just close her eyes and give in once more. She turned to look at Austin, who had been knocked unconscious. At least Sadie hoped he was unconscious.

"Fuck," she said. She shook his shoulder in an attempt to wake him. By now all of the cars had sped passed the scene and left the freeway silent. "Austin, come on." Sadie continued trying to wake him up, but it was no use; he was knocked out cold.

The sound of footsteps brought Sadie's attempts to wake Austin up to a halt. They were slow and sounded as if the person walking had a limp. She looked through the large hole that was once the windshield and watched as a man slowly made his way towards the car.
For a second Sadie actually thought it was a zombie.

Turns out she was right.

Her eyes widened as the thing growled, now quickening it's pace. She unbuckled her seatbelt and quickly reached back to find her suitcase, knowing her only form of defense was in it. It was rather difficult finding in the dark.

The piece of luggage stood between Sadie's seat and the backseats. She attempted to pull it free, but it was stuck.

She looked over her shoulder and saw how close the cannibal was to the car. She let out an anxious whine, now feeling her pulse quicken with fear.

Finally, with one more strong pull, Sadie got the suitcase down onto the roof of the car. Without hesitation, her shaking hands unzipped the suitcase and immediately reached for the gun and box of ammunition. She released the empty clip from the pistol and loaded it with a couple of bullets. Once it was loaded, she turned around and made direct eye contact with the corpse that had crouched down and began reaching into the vehicle.

She aimed for it's head. "I'm sorry," was all she said before pulling the trigger. The corpse went limp and collapsed to the ground, it's own blood starting to pool around it.

The noise from the gunshot startled Austin awake. He looked over to Sadie with wide eyes, glanced at the gun, then to the corpse, and looked back at Sadie.

"What the fuck?" He finally spoke up. "You killed somebody?"

"No, I didn't kill somebody," Sadie sneered. "I killed one of those things."

"A zombie?" Austin asked, thinking back to earlier that day when he saw a "man" take a bite out of an officer.

"I guess so," Sadie answered. "It came out of nowhere."

"Why are we upside down?" Austin asked Sadie, looking around the car and then back at Sadie. "Are you okay? Did it hurt you?"

"No, it didn't," Sadie replied. "But I think we should get out of here. We were knocked out for hours."

The two climbed out of the overturned vehicle and met in front of it, next to the dead corpse.
"So what do we do?" Austin asked, looking down at the corpse. "Do I call my insurance company?"

"No, you don't call your insurance company," Sadie retorted. "We get the hell out of here, is what we do. Who knows how many more of those assholes are out here."

"Okay," Austin said. "How are we going to get to Riverside, though?" Sadie followed him as he walked to the drivers side of the car.

"We walk," Sadie told him. "That is until we find a new mode of transportation." Austin crawled into the backseat and pulled out Sadie's suitcase along with an empty duffel bag.

"In the dark?" Austin looked at Sadie as if she were insane. He had seen enough horror movies to know that going out at night was not the best survival tactic.

"Well, either that, or we find a place to stay and head out in the morning."

"I think we should just wait," Austin decided. "I'll call Alan and tell him we'll be there tomorrow."

"Alright," Sadie said with a nod. "Why don't you have anything in there?" She took notice of Austin's empty duffel bag that he had began filling with the canned foods that had spilled from their bags in the event of the car flipping over. "Didn't you pack?"

"I didn't have enough time," Austin informed her. "I just had this in my car. I went looking for you as soon as I heard the news."

"But why?" Sadie asked.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"The real question here is, why would you?" Sadie shot at him rather harshly. "We haven't talked in months, and now is the time you decide to give me a call?"

"Just because we haven't talked doesn't mean I don't care about you, Sadie," Austin said sternly. He put the last item in the bag and zipped it shut. He stood up and brought the bag over his shoulder. "We've been friends for years. I wasn't just going to leave town without knowing you were safe."

Sadie sighed and kneeled down to her suitcase and began to reload her gun. Once she was finished, she stood up and looked at Austin.

"That doesn't mean I'm not hurt."

"I'm sorry," Austin apologized. "I didn't realize that hurt you."

"Well, it did." Sadie laughed. "It hurt a lot."

"I'm really sorry," Austin apologized again. "When all of this blows over, I promise I'll make it up to you."

"You do that," Sadie said, now completely brushing the conversation under the rug. "So, what's the plan? Are you going to call Alan?"

"I.." Austin trailed off, confused. "Yeah." He gave in, trying to ignore the fact that Sadie had just brushed it off after telling him how hurt she was. Austin pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly began dialing Alan's phone number. "Hey, we're not going to be able to make it tonight. Yes, she's with me - we're fine. I don't know. We don't have a car.. we got in an accident. Yes, we're fine. Just a few scrapes. We're not going to walk fifty miles, Alan. We'll find a way. Okay, see you then."

Austin hung up the phone and looked at Sadie. "So, I think we should just walk to your place and you drive us in your car." Austin lifted his hand to his forehead and rubbed it. He brought down his hand and inspected his finger, which had a few drops of blood on it. "Because I probably shouldn't be driving."

"That's like an hour walk," Sadie reminded him. "And it's getting darker by the minute." She looked up at the sky. The sun had disappeared behind the buildings in the city and had left the sky a dark blue.

"You have your gun," Austin pointed out. "We'll be safe as long as you have it."

"Fine," Sadie gave in. "Let's get going. If there's more of those things." She pointed to the dead corpse with the barrel of her pistol. "Then we shouldn't be out here."

Sadie turned around and began walking down the empty freeway. In movies, you'd expect there to be a few abandoned cars that you'd be able to steal, but the freeway was entirely empty. It really freaked her out because the freeway was packed not too long ago.
Austin and Sadie walked in silence for a good forty minutes. They stayed near the guard rails, hoping not to draw any attention to themselves by walking in the middle of the road.
"Is that a car?" Austin asked, pointing to the lights in the distance.
"I think so," Sadie replied. "Come on." She tugged at Austin's shirt and then leaped over the guard rail.

"What are you doing?" Austin asked as she crouched down.

"Staying hidden," Sadie said as if it couldn't be more obvious. "Now get over here."

Austin obeyed and stepped over the railing, crouching down next to Sadie.

"Why would we need to stay hidden?" Austin asked her as the sound of an engine began to fill their ears.

"I've seen enough episodes of The Walking Dead to know that not letting people see you is probably one of the smartest things you could do," Sadie explained. "If they don't see us, and they're a threat, then we're safe."

The light from the headlights lit up the road as the vehicle drove by. Sadie watched and noticed it wasn't just any vehicle, it was an armored vehicle, and it wasn't alone. Three more armored trucks followed it as it made it's way to the city. But they didn't keep going, instead they stopped and the last truck's (that was parked about six feet away from Sadie and Austin's hiding spot) door opened and two men stepped out. They were dressed in typical military attire, large weapons and all.

"Why are we stopped?" One asked.

"Sergeant said he saw something," the other replied. "Wanted to check it out."

Loud footsteps could be heard as, what Sadie guessed was, the Sergeant approaching the two men.

"They were over here," the sergeant said in a deep, gruff voice. "I saw them jump over the railings."

"What do you want us to do?" The first man asked.

"Find them and kill them," the sergeant ordered, his voice showing absolutely no emotion.

"But, sir-"

"Anyone that could have escaped the city could be infected," the sergeant began. "We cannot have the chance of the disease spreading any further."

"Shit," Sadie whispered. She turned to Austin, whose eyes were wide with worry. "We need to get out of here."

"I'll be waiting," the sergeant said as he began to walk back to his vehicle. "Be quick about it!"

"Should we run for it?" Austin asked, his voice barely above a whisper, in fear they'd be heard and killed on the spot.

"We don't run yet," Sadie mumbled. "We walk, very, very slowly, and very, very quietly." She looked back at the men who were now talking in a small group. "When we're far enough, we run like hell."

"Sounds like a plan," Austin agreed.

Sadie crawled a few feet, and slid down the small hill they had been sitting. She then crouched down and slowly walked through the grass, with Austin in tow.

"We know you're out there!" One of the men called out. Sadie and Austin ignored him and kept making their way through the grass.

Sadie felt her heart pounding through her chest for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Her hands were shaking and her legs were going weak. Her breathing was becoming unsteady rather quickly and she started feeling dizzy.

And to make the situation so much better, Sadie tripped over a large rock she hadn't seen, causing her to fall to the ground and land on the grass with an unnecessarily loud oomph!

"Over there!" One of the men called, and the group came running to where they had heard the noise.

"Run!" Sadie hissed, pushing Austin's arm away as he tried to help her up. She stood up on her own and the two bolted.

The cans in Austin's duffel bag crashed into one another as he ran, only making their presence more obvious. But Austin's long legs had it's perks, as he was a good five yards ahead of the stubby legged woman. She had no idea how he was running so fast with that weight on his shoulder.

"Austin, wait!" She called out. Austin turned his head and saw his friend falling behind. He slowed down just enough for her to catch up.

When they thought they were at a safe enough distance, the two stopped to catch their breath.

"Are you okay?" Austin asked Sadie, taking notice of her trembling hands.

"Y-Yeah," Sadie stuttered as she tried to steady her breathing. "Let's keep going." Deep breath. "Don't want them to catch up to us."

---
"Well, we're here," Sadie told Austin as they walked down her driveway. "Thank God."

"I think we should just get your car and go," Austin admitted as Sadie unlocked the door. She turned around to look at him after she opened the door.

"I thought you wanted to wait until tomorrow?"

"I did, but now I wanna get us as far from here as possible," Austin replied. "After what happened, I don't think we should stick around much longer."

"But what if they catch us this time?" Sadie asked. "They'll kill us, Austin."

"We'll take the long way around," he said. "It's far away from the city. We'll be hidden."

Sadie sighed. "I need to make a few calls before we do anything."
---
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Sadie groaned and slammed her cell phone down on the kitchen counter. Austin looked up at Sadie from the stool he was seated in across from her.
"What is it?"

"I've called four people, and I got sent to voicemail each damn time!" Sadie answered angrily. "Nobody's answering. How should I know they're okay? What if they're dead!"

"Are any of them out of town?" Austin asked.

"I have a friend and my brother in Washington," she explained. "And the two others here aren't answering." She let out a long sigh. "I should've called sooner. I shouldn't have waited."

"I'm sure they're fine, Sadie," Austin assured. "There's no way this has reached Washington, and your friends are probably asleep, or they're busy."

"Busy being killed," Sadie muttered.

"Don't think like that," Austin said. "It's not your fault that you didn't call sooner. This shit came out of nowhere. You didn't have a chance to think about anything else."

"I just hope they're okay."

Austin had left his seat at the counter and had walked over to Sadie.

"They're gonna be okay," he said as he pulled her into a hug.

"Thanks, Austin." Sadie looked up at him after he pulled away. She gave him a small smile, but it quickly faded when she remembered she didn't grab her suitcase on the freeway.

"What?"

"I forgot my fucking suitcase," Sadie moaned. "I didn't have time to grab it when we were hiding from those assholes."

"Just go pack more clothes," Austin suggested. "They'll have toothpaste and shit at the cabin."

Sadie shook her head. "No you don't understand. I had the rest of my ammunition in that thing."

Notes