<strong>June 1, 2012 – 7:25 p.m. – Highway 40, entering downtown New Angeles</strong><br/>The SUV ran idle as Todd sat in the driver’s seat and stared at the destruction which had befallen the highway in front of them.  Accidents had piled traffic up in every lane.  Dead, mutilated bodies, too destroyed to reanimate, littered the pavement of the road.  They had only been sitting in the vehicle for a few minutes, thus far.  Light still filled the sky, though the sun promised to set within hours.  Mary was busy looking at the map and trying to find another way around.  Rebecca was being comforted again by Tony.  The pair sat in the back seat with the teenage girl between his son and her brother.  Max, was being Max, and Todd was doing his best to ignore the ridiculous and inane comments the sixteen year old was making.  It took most of Todd’s inner strength not to reach back and cuff the boy.<br/><br/>Instead, Todd simply stared at the boy through the rear-view mirror and then said that was enough.  Todd wasn’t sure if it was his own chastisement or the way Rebecca further recoiled from her brother that caused the boy to fall into silence.  Either way, he was grateful.<br/><br/>“Mary, the off ramps are all congested.  There’s no way to get there except through that,” Todd said as he pointed ahead.<br/><br/>It was the barest of movement that caught his attention and he reacted without thinking.  He jarred the clutch into reverse and forced the gas pedal to the floor.  The wheels slipped momentarily before the SUV lurched backwards just as the shambling dead began to converge on the vehicle.  Uncoordinated and weak slaps at side windows startled the kids and his wife.  The vehicle traveled fifty yards in reverse before Todd slammed upon the brake and turned the wheel hard.<br/><br/>He traveled five miles upon the highway in the opposite direction they had just come, mostly because he had no idea what to do next.  Finally, as his adrenaline began to subside, he parked the SUV in the center of a road on top of an overpass.<br/><br/>“Everyone keep your eyes opened for those things,” he wouldn’t call them zombies.<br/><br/>The kids did as he said and he glanced at Mary from the corner of his eye.  The color was only now beginning to return to her face, and he placed a tender, affectionate hand on her arm to try and help steady her.<br/><br/>Todd knew that the gas gauge had read a quarter of a tank for the last ten minutes.  He also knew that his vehicle’s gauge tended to drop quickly once it passed half.<br/><br/>He was out of ideas, and after a moment, knowing all in the car could hear him, he gave Mary an apologetic shrug before speaking, “I’m open for suggestions.”<br/><br/><br/><strong>June 1, 2012 – 8:15 p.m. – Downtown Mall</strong><br/>Rebecca couldn’t contain her anguish any longer.  The past few days had passed in a blur of numbness, but the last hour had been a slow torturous grind through Hell.  She was only distantly aware of Tony’s arms around her shoulders, and Mr. Burkahat’s guiding hands upon both of them as they moved through the darkened mall.<br/><br/>The mall had seemed to be the most defensible place at the time.  Mr. Burkhart had thought they could find some supplies with luck.  They had lost half of what they had.  They had lost more than that.  Rebecca felt like she had lost it all.  She didn’t want to think about what she would do if she lost Tony as well.<br/><br/>The hiking pack on her back was beginning to pull her to the ground, and she no longer wished to move her legs.  Only Mr. Burkhart pushing her along kept her moving.  He promised that they would stop soon, and she clung to Tony even tighter.<br/><br/>Her mom and her dad, Mrs. Burkhart, then Max; she wondered how much more she could endure.  She wondered how much more God planned to take from her.  Even in her state, her eyes scanned the darkness certain that the shadows concealed a number of monsters and behind every corner waited the end for one, if not all, of them.<br/><br/>She was pulled to a halt by Mr. Burkhart and then crouched down low at his insistence.  She had to look ahead to see what had caught his attention.  The fright the sudden stop had caused momentary clarity without the tinge of despair.<br/><br/>Ahead, in the store Mr. Burkhart was apparently leading them to, there was certainly movement.  Rebecca thought she saw two forms at least.  One hovering over the other.  She was also hearing something as well.  The pained whimpers of somebody being eaten alive?<br/><br/>If Tony hadn’t been holding her so tightly, she would’ve bolted right there and then.  Instead, she felt Mr. Burkhart rummaging and tugging at the backpack she wore.  A moment later he had what she could make out as a flashlight in his hand.  Her head shook emphatically as she pleaded silently with him to not draw attention upon them.  Rebecca heard him whisper to them to get ready to run, and then in utter horror she watched as Mr. Burkhart covered the lens with his hand and turned the light on.<br/><br/>Mr. Burkhart controlled the amount of light that escaped with the palm of his hand.  Three quick movements followed by three slower and longer delays, which allowed more light to escape, then followed by three short and quick movements, which let only a little bit of light escape.  An S.O.S.<br/><br/>A moment later, a voice was telling them to come to them.<br/>