RYLEE

The seconds flying through the air feel like eternity, but then my right foot catches on the wire of the fence and my body flips forward. I land hard on my stomach in the damp grass instead of rolling like the others have. If I thought my shoulder hurt before, boy was I wrong. I can't breathe let alone scream, gasping frantically as I try to get up. With blurry vision I can see Caleb and Jeremy are nearly at the CRV, and are being shot at, they won't be able to wait for me. Dirt clogs under my finger nails as I claw at the grass in an attempt to get up, but trying to regain my breath is agony for my already bruised windpipe. This is it, I killed someone, and now I'm going to die for it.

Arms slip deftly under my own and haul me to my feet, sending searing pains through my shoulder as they do so.

This guy is some kind of super-human, a voice says somewhere in my concussed, panicked mind, when I glimpse the tan boy's blood smeared face.

He runs toward the car, dragging me with him. We're halfway there and I'm starting to think we're going to make it when a bullet finds flesh, the first one to come from the shooters on the roof. My saviour tilts forward from the impact and both of us fall to the ground like a failing couple in a three-legged race. He lets out a strangled sound that's a mix between a grunt and a scream, rolling to his side and taking aim with the gun in one hand. He shoots toward the station three times with Foley's handgun but they all miss, though it still sends the shooters diving for cover momentarily.

"Leave me, you gotta go right now." He manages to say through gritted teeth.

The gunshots are still ringing in my ears as I stare at the blood seeping through his clothes, I can't even tell where he's been hit.

"No way in hell," I wheeze.

With suddenly renewed strength I half drag him the last ten meters to the CRV while Jeremy's firing his shotgun sloppily back to the station, trying to give us some time.

"Help me get him in!" I yell at Caleb and he obliges, dumping bloody-face - well, bloody everything at this point - in the boot, tossing half of the supplies into the backseat to make room. I jump in with him and the boot door is slammed shut. Seconds later the tires are spinning and we flee at ninety miles an hour.

"Where's the first aid kit?" I frantically peel off his bomber jacket and rip through his t-shirt to have a look at the wound, ignoring my own pains. The bullet had gone through the side of his chest but on the outside of his ribs, tearing through the muscle. I hold my hand over the jagged cut as blood flows and grab the first aid kit Caleb hands over from the back seat. I flick it open with one hand and grab a thick packet of padding that I rip open and press against his wound as hard as I can. His chest and arm are slick with blood and his eyelids keep fluttering. I can't let him die. I can't.

"Stay awake, okay? You gotta stay awake."

"Should have left me," he breathes, closing his eyes.

"Look at me," I slap his cheek lightly, leaving a bloody print, "keep your damn eyes open."

"Where do I go?" Emily's voice seems higher than normal as she drives us out of the town, back on the interstate.

"They're following us," Jeremy shouts from the front seat. I look out the back window and sure enough, a large black range rover is quickly gaining.

What. The. Fuck.

"I can't go any faster, I don't even know where I'm going." Emily's voice calls out shrilly.

"What's your name?" I decide to focus on my patient as the others shout at each other, adding another layer of padding as the first has soaked through.

"Kane." His whole body is tense and he's starting to shiver. I get Caleb to hand me one of the blankets and I try to wipe some of the blood him off before covering him with it. 

The police station guys accelerate more as they come up behind us and ram the bumper. Everyone jolts forward and Kane groans in agony from the movement.

"You're okay, it's going to be okay." I grind my teeth and add another layer to his wound. We're rammed once more and the CRV swerves dangerously over the road.

"They're going to run us off, I can't control it!" Emily screams.

The car lights up all of a sudden. For a brief couple of seconds shadows inside the car are filled with light and I get a horrible feeling stir in my gut.

"Lightning," Jeremy says, firmly.

I sit up and lean over Kane to speak into the cab. "You're stupid if you really think that was lightning."

He turns back to look at me, fear cracking through his indignant expression.

Caleb's been fumbling in the centre console and sits back in the backseat again, winding down his window. I stare as he steadies his elbows on the doorframe, the wind buffering his hair and making his denim shirt flutter.

"What are you doing?" Jeremy twists in his seat.

"Binoculars," I answer for Caleb, waiting impatiently for him to tell us what he can see.

He twists the focus ring a few times and I see his lips part when he finally sees clearly through the telescopic glass.

"What is it?" Jeremy prompts. Caleb moves from the window and hands the binoculars to him, slumping in his seat.

Emily smacks her hand on the steering wheel. "Will someone just tell me what you're both looking at?"

"It's another bomb, Em. I can just see the cloud, it's just like before," Jeremy mumbles, clutching the binoculars in trembling hands.

A new wave of hopelessness comes crashing down on me like a thousand tonnes of water. How many times will this happen? Storm clouds are already moving from the south, but soon they'll be carrying more than just rain. It's different than before, the wind had been blowing the New York fallout away from us, but this time we're in the direct path of the weather.

"Where is that, what city?" I stare as hard as I can at the horizon, but with my own eyes all I see is the grey sky.

Caleb swallows hard before replying, his head in his hands. "Washington D.C."

"But that's at least a hundred miles away, how could we see the flash?" Emily asks.

"I watched some documentary about nuclear weapons once. Some blind woman claimed she saw the light of a detonated bomb from two hundred miles away, so I'd say it's not impossible that we could see it from so far ."

"They're not following us anymore," Jeremy announces.

I twist to stare out the back window, and sure enough, the road is empty behind us. The car must have fallen back when they saw the flash, I'd somehow completely forgotten that threat in exchange for our new one.

I didn't even realise we're so close to D.C, I guess I'm not the best at judging distances if google maps isn't there to assist me. If that was a nuclear bomb – I'm no scientist, but from what Caleb and Jeremy have said, well... we're probably doomed.

"We have to get to a fallout shelter, right now," I croak with my new chain-smoker sounding voice.

"In my jacket pocket," Kane mumbles, and I jump. Apparently I forgot about him too. I stare at him for a second before unzipping one of the pockets, pulling out a folded piece of paper.

"A map?" I stare at the lines and the notes scrawled over it, "who are 'Juley and Andrew'?" I trace the circle on the map, labelled with the names.

"Rich people, they have a shelter under their house."

I pass the map over to Caleb and look back at Kane, chewing my lip. "Where did you get the map?"

"A dead man," he says, with closed eyes.

"Did you kill him?" I ask, fearing the answer but also fearing that's something I feel I have to ask.

His eyes open and they lock with mine. His pupils are dilated and his long eyelashes flutter as he fights to keep his eyelids open. "No."

I'm not entirely sure I believe him.

The already overcast sky is growing darker to the east, spreading slowly toward us like a drop of ink on paper as a storm carries what are probably radioactive particles over the land.

"Emily, how long will it take to get to get there?" I call, adding more layers of padding to Kane's wound.

"Shouldn't we just find somewhere closer? Don't cities usually have some kind of shelter for this sort of thing?" Caleb speaks again, I can't see his face but his voice shakes.

"It'd waste time, we can't just take random guesses at each town we pass, might run into more people like the one's at the police station," Jeremy says, "should make it to this place in about an hour if we're fast I think... if you're sure we can trust this guy."

I'm staring at my hands as I press them against Kane's side, a mixture of his and Foley's blood coats my skin, but I know Jeremy's asking me.  If I'm wrong and we spend an hour driving to nothing, it could mean our deaths.

"Yea," I say, drawing in a shuddering breath. An hour. We might be able to beat the weather, but looking down at Kane, I'm not sure he's going to last that long.