I carried the last of our bags into the garage. Bill and Shawn were already there, trying to figure out the logistics of fitting seven people, a dog, and the small mountain of supplies we had gathered into one van.

We had rested for long enough that everyone felt like they had at least some of their strength back. Devon's leg wasn't really any better, but at least it wasn't worse, and we knew that we were out of options for trying to treat him here. It was time to move on.

We were hoping to find a settlement of some sort. There had to be one out there somewhere. It seemed impossible that the only people left alive would be like us, a small group that was barely hanging on by the tips of their fingers. There had to be people out there who were doing better. Maybe they would even have a real doctor, not a girl with limited first aid training and a few years spent observing the veterinarians in an animal clinic.

"Good riddance to this place," Maya walked into the garage with Devon limping along behind her. She had never gotten rid of her dislike for the creepy little town, not that any of us blamed her. Something about it was just off.

In the end, the two largest members of our group took the seats up front. Fallon and I sat in the middle, with Rex taking up most of our floor space, even too thin the dog was big. Carrie, Maya, and Devon squished into the back seat. The hatch had barely closed on all of the stuff that we had shoved back there. I was really glad that we had found the keys to the van in the kitchen, instead of having to try to carry all of the heavy bags ourselves.

We may have gone a little overboard with packing, but as far as we knew, we would be living out of the van for the foreseeable future. To that end, we had gathered gallon jugs of water, all of the canned or boxed food for a several house radius, and a few comfort items such as blankets and hair brushes. We'd even made room for a giant sized bag of dog kibble. Leaving Rex behind wasn't really an option for any of us.

The sound of the garage door opening must have drawn the zombies. There weren't many of them here, whoever had gone on a spree with a gun had seen to that, but there were a few. Three of them, shambling along and rotting to the point that strips of their flesh were peeling, met the van as Bill drove it out of the driveway. They offered no real threat to us. The doors were all locked and the windows rolled up, but I still flinched when one of them banged on the window by my face. For a second, I thought I felt the stinking, hot breath of the zombie, even though I knew that that was impossible. I rubbed my shoulder reflexively.

Low growling from my feet pulled me back from my thoughts. Rex had climbed to his feet and was watching the zombie alertly, the hint of sound rumbling from his chest. "It's ok, boy." I patted his back in an effort to keep him quiet. That was going to be the only drawback to having a dog. We'd already talked about it. Sometimes dogs made noise, but noise made at the wrong time could get us all killed. Rex was going to have to learn to be quiet when there was a threat nearby.

The plan was simple. South seemed like the most likely option for finding a settled group. With no electricity, the north would be a harsh place to try to survive in the winter. If anyone was going to manage to eke out a living in this new world, it would be in the south. A road map found in the glove box had provided our route. We would go back the way we had come, get on the highway, and just keep driving.

It may have taken us days to walk the distance between the camp and the town, but in what felt like the blink of an eye, I saw the turn off for the camp up ahead. As we drove by, I craned my neck to try to get a view of the place that, for a short time, I had thought would be home.

That wooden bridge that I hated flashed by. The brief view I had of it told me that we had made the right choice when we ran. Several zombies ambled across it's surface. Their heads snapped in our direction and I was sure they gave chase, but the trees stole my view.

We were nearly back to the town just off of the highway when I noticed the thick black smoke trailing high into the sky. I saw the others looking at it too, but no one said anything. I had a feeling we would find out soon enough what was causing it.

The last time I'd been in the other town, Shawn and I had been searching for supplies to make drinking water. It seemed like much longer than it had actually been since we'd saved Fallon and got the heck out of there. The town looked startlingly different than I remembered it.

Windows in nearly every building had been broken, doors stood hanging open. There was a car abandoned by the fuel pumps that hadn't been there earlier. And we found the source of the smoke. The row of trailers that were closest to the main road were all on fire.

A crowd of zombies milled around the burning homes, some getting too close and catching their tattered clothing on fire.

I looked behind me to check on Devon. This was his home town that had been reduced to chaos. He stared out the window with a frown on his face, but didn't comment.

We glided back up the on ramp and the miles passed quickly beneath the tires of our confiscated van. Devon and Fallon talked quietly back and forth, but the rest of us didn't really have much to say. The journey ahead would be dangerous, and with no set destination in mind, or even a guarantee that we would find what we were looking for, everyone was troubled.

The highways were still as silent and empty as they had been when Shawn and I first drove them together. The grass along the side of the road was a little taller, the abandoned vehicles dirtier, but the view was much the same.

The decision had been made before we pulled out of the garage, that we would try to siphon gas from abandoned cars along the way, instead of trying to get gas at a gas station. It seemed safer to avoid towns that we had no intention of stopping at anyhow, and Maya's group had worked out a system when they were on the road before.

We had been driving for a couple of hours when Bill announced that we needed to start looking for a likely place to stop. The first car that appeared ahead of us was stopped unceremoniously in the middle of the road. Three of the four doors, and the trunk, all stood open. Bill didn't slow down, just swerved around the car and kept going.

I wasn't sure why he hadn't stopped. He was the one who had just said we needed gas. Shawn must have been confused too, because he looked curiously over at Bill.

Bill saw the look. "That one was probably empty. We've found that cars that are left the way that one was, were left like that for a reason. We need a car that looks like it was purposefully parked. Like the driver intended to come back for it."

Barely a mile up the road, we found what he had been talking about. A beat up looking pick-up truck and an suv were pulled into the grass along the side of the road. Next to the vehicles, a makeshift camp had been set up. But it was obvious that whoever had been there, wasn't coming back.

The open tent door flapped in the breeze. Belongings were scattered around and tipped over. One door to the truck stood open. I could see blood splattered on the interior, and a large pool had congealed on the ground.

The fine hairs on my arms started to prickle. Whoever these people had been, they had thought that it was safe to stop here, and paid with their lives. I hoped we weren't going to make the same mistake somewhere along the road.

* * *

That's it, guys. The last 30 chapters of this story have been permanently removed due to copyright reasons. Because there has been a lot of confusion about where the rest of this story has gone, let me repeat my message from the author's note at the start of this book: The second half of this story is no longer available for free, anywhere. The First 30 Days is now a published book and providing it for free would be a violation of my publishing contract. The entire story is now on Amazon and is enrolled in kindleunlimited for those of you who use that service. Or the book can be purchased as either an ebook or paperback. The second story in this series is in progress and is available on wattpad for now, but will also eventually be going to the publisher as well. Add it to your library to get updates as they post, and read the story for free while it is available.

 Read on for updates about my Facebook author profile, Goodreads account, and publishing information. There's going to be a cover contest and exclusive bonus material!

Update , The First 30 Days is now available on Amazon! I can't thank you all enough for all of the love and support you have shown me through the last few years.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YGLPDBL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_lRaKDbHJGWDFR

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