The day went without a hitch, except for the handful of infected I would drive by whenever I neared an exit, I just had to keep an eye on the abandoned vehicles I pass. As I drove further south, more and more vehicles started appearing on the road slowing my progress. I clicked on the GPS looking for a back road and found an old highway that was parallel to me. Not waiting until I reached the exit, I pulled of the road, driving down the hill into what looked like an estates village. "Rich people, one thing you can always count on is them liking their privacy," I thought to myself as I sped down the deserted road, "This now way I'm risking my neck for stuck up rich people. Except for Jolie or Yifei, the rest can go to hell." It took me about half an hour to leave the village and reach the old highway, but I was glad I did because the road was empty of living and infected.
The highway went thru a few small towns, but I didn't worry since I would make it out in about 10-30 minutes. If I passed a military truck I would stop and check for ammo, but they were usually empty except for the infected, I did get my hands on a few grenades though. It was noon when I finally reached Orlando. As I drove past theme parks I shuddered at the thought of going in there, it was bad enough that I had a fear of clowns, seeing an infected clown would just drive me mad. But I was running out of gas and needed to find a safe place to refuel. While driving down the road I noticed a fenced in bus station with its own gas station, so I pulled in and closed the gates behind me, certain that I could deal with any infected that happened to be roaming around inside. "One good thing about driving this gas guzzler is that it run on diesel and looters would be shooting for regular gas right now," I thought as I pulled up to the pump. After fueling up I parked near the depot, as I looked thru the windows I only saw a few infected loitering around so I decided to go inside and check it out. I grabbed my machete before thinking twice and strapping a hand gun to my thigh. I didn't want to use it because of the noise, but there was no way I was getting my ass bite, not after I'd come so far.
I went inside to see if I could find anything of use, what I found were a half dozen infected. There were rows of bench inside that were bolted to the floor, so I was able to lead them around as I killed them without getting swarmed. There were a few vending machines and a little pizza place but the smell that came from it ruined my craving for pizza, so I went to the vending machines. As I was loading up the truck with the food and water I found. I noticed two zombies trying to get into the bathroom of one of the buses, I found that odd since I had created such a racket out here, it hit me that they wouldn't be interested in the bathroom unless there was someone living in it, and ran to help.
I paused to take a sip of my coffee when Annabel asked, "So there is another group of people out there, why didn't you tell anyone?" "Because I designed their community to be self-sufficient, which would only work with a close knit group like theirs," I replied, "this group is too large to be housed there for it to remain productive. Besides, it has been so long since I left that I have no way of knowing whether they are alive or not, and I won't risk this groups safety when there is nothing to gain." "It sounds as if you and Isis grew really close, it must have been hard to leave her behind," she commented. "It was, but she was needed there, and if I had not left half the people on this boat wouldn't be alive today," I told her. "Sounds like you're trying to convince yourself more than me," she said while taking a sip from her own cup.
"Speaking of stories, this is where I met Ishtar," I mention to her while patting Ishtar's hair, who was sound asleep. "When I opened the bathroom stall she came charging out, tackling me to the ground. It was a good thing I noticed she was not infected because I would've killed her," I say to Annabel, "it wasn't until after she calmed down that I found out the two infected I killed were her parents, apparently her father went out to get food but ended up getting bitten. He made it back to the bus with the food before turning, her mother grabbed the food and threw her into the bathroom with it, and tried to fight off her husband, with no luck. So I took the little girl with me to Miami, I tried several times to get her to open up to me and tell me her name, to no avail. I remembered when she had tackled me to the ground and decided since she wouldn't tell me her name I would call her Ishtar, after an ancient warrior goddess."
Mentioning this awarded me with a kick from the half asleep individual. "We then packed what we could and came to Miami, the rest will have to wait for another time," I said as I got up from Ishtar's bed. Annabel stopped the recording and packed her stuff up, leaving the captains quarters with a heavy heart and mind because of what she had learned about him. True, she hadn't learned much about his life before the world ended like she was hoping, but if anything she heard tonight about the things he had accomplished since Zero-day were anything to go by, he must have been someone fantastic and wonderful. After she had left, the captain had crawled into bed where Ishtar joined him, something she had not done since they reached the boat, as it so happened, his talking about his past had caused her to remember things she wished to forget, and so she sought the comfort of his embrace by curling herself in his arms. What Ishtar and Annabel did not know was that Fade blamed himself for her parents death, because he could've have been there in time to save them had he not stayed those extra days in Isis's company.