Free The Reanimates (Book 2): The Highway by J. Rudolph

conversation and I wandered over to them when Trent waved me over. I sat down next to Trent while Matt continued to talk. "I just don't know what to do. My entire game plan rested on staying in Las Vegas, but it was so much more overrun than I could possibly imagine. I can't put my family there. I couldn't put Lucas' family there. We'd be snacks. I have no idea what I'm doing anymore." He rested his head on his hands and sighed. Merideth put her hand on his back and rubbed it. She didn't say anything, but it was pretty clear that she was worried about what was going to happen as well.
    "So stick it out with us." Trent invited. Matt's head lifted up sharply and he looked at Trent in disbelief, almost expecting that there would be a retraction of the offer. "We're rolling up to Idaho via the 15. If you end up wanting to pull out of this and set down roots along the path then cool, but man, it looks like you need us and we need you. So join us." Trent held his breath in a hopeful pause. We did need them. We needed more men in our group, and these guys were a great fit. They knew enough to stay alive this far. Maybe they had tips on what worked for them. Matt looked into Merideth's eyes looking for her opinion on the whole thing. She smiled at him with a look that this was an answer to her prayers.
    "Yeah, alright. Let's do it." Matt said, a little more confident that his world wasn't going to end. He called Lucas and Lacey over. Trent offered the same invite to them as well. Matt told Lucas that joining us was what he wanted to do. Lucas paused for a bit, weighing his options, and agreed to joining us as well.
    For the rest of the night we sat together and got to know one another. Lacey pulled out a bag of marshmallows she had stashed so we all had a super neat dessert in the desert. Jody seemed relieved that the new women wanted to take JJ off her hands and she retreated into a quiet bubble after she fed the baby, grateful for the down time.
    As the fire died and the cold settled in and the adrenalin that the day's events had given us fully wore off, we all decided that a good night sleep was in order. Watch was assigned across several people and we all tucked in for the night. I fell asleep with hope dancing in the back of my brain. There were still good people out there.
     

 
    Utah
     
    The next morning we woke with the sunrise. Ice formed crystals all around, blanketing the ground in sparkles. We made a quick breakfast and packed it all up. We all couldn't wait to get in our vehicles and on the road so we could run a heater.
    Given the risk of ice on the roads we drove slowly despite the lack of cars. After all, no one wanted to get into a car wreck in the middle of the end of the world. It took us 4 hours to get into St. George which we figured would be a good break spot. The air was crisp and storm clouds loomed in the sky. We pulled down a side road and set up base camp there. We decided it would be much easier to scout out the town if we were only using the littler cars. We set up 2 different teams for the scout. Trent, Matt, and I were in one team while Tyreese, Lucas, and Lacey were in the other. We decided that getting supplies at every stop would serve us well, we didn't know what would come up later and how well Kristen was doing. For our first stop, we found a grocery store to pick through. Before we went inside, we loaded up on crossbows and arrows and made sure that the guns were loaded. Someone else had this idea as well, the windows were broken out and the goods were very picked over. There were a few random cans, but nothing significant. We battled icy sidewalks and stopped at a mom and pop style pharmacy to rummage through. There were a few prescriptions left on the counters and some over the counter things like vitamins, which I reminded myself to look at as a positive thing, there was at least something to get. I was able to get the iron for Jody. We were just about out of the store when we found our