"The car continued to hiccup for a bit after that, but after another three blocks it started to purr like a kitten. It had a good three quarters of a tank too, so I didn't have to go back for my car right away. I decided I would scout around a little, see if I could pick up one of my friends and then maybe, go get my own car. I headed over to Scott's place, one of my buddies. The way was pretty clear, I was on back streets though, I had not tried a major street yet. I get to Scotts and his house is trashed, no bodies, but broken windows, blood on the front door, next was Jerome, his place looked good, but the front door was open, the screen was shut, but the door was open. I sat on the street and honked three times. That brought them out, oh yeah the whole zombie neighborhood. Jerome was missing an arm, he came to the door and could not get through it, his parents had installed a security door there with bars, if he had just pressed the lever he could have gotten through it. I sped off and decided to go get my car now, not later and get the hell out of town now, not later. I hit Pecos and a traffic jam of destroyed cars. I backed down forty eighth street to get to a secondary street and made good progress towards the highway, my car was just on the other side of it, but as I got closer to the highway I kept running into more and more cars.
"I backtracked and got on to thirty second and headed towards Federal, the next main thoroughfare, it was pretty packed but I made it to the highway by driving over lawns and through parking lots. When I got on the highway I was stoked, until I hit the first big snarl up around 9 blocks later at the next major exit. Someone had broken through the guardrail though and took the eastbound lane west, I did too, there were zombies around the wrecks, probably thirty or forty. One of them was fast and he threw a spare tire at me, one of those hard dough nut kind. It bounced off the right side and I hit the gas and got out of there.
Around Wadsworth I came across another accident, I was back in the westbound lane again and this one was bad, there was a white dude and his woman and some kids in a blue two door and the zombies were breaking in. The guy, he was all bloody and bitten up from trying to protect his family, I guess. The zoms had pulled him halfway through the driver side window. From inside the car I can see his woman, she's screaming at me but the windshield blocks her words. I know what she wants, though, for me to help them. As I rolled past she looked me dead straight in the eyes, her blue eyes, and pleaded for me to do something. I just know those crystal clear blue eyes followed me the whole way. Even when I was out of sight, I still felt those blue eyes on me. I couldn't, they were already gone. Right? I couldn't stop for them. If I had even slowed down, I would have been dead, they would have got me too. Those kids crying, and banging on the rear window, trying to get out, crying. I won't ever forget it.
Here Kevin started to sob, tears running down his cheeks. Hank reached over and patted him on the back and Kevin grabbed him into a hug and started sobbing, "I just left them! I had to just leave them. How could I leave them? They were kids!"
"Yeah, Kevin, I know, kids, they are the worst. We saw and did worse, you ain't the only one man, you did what you had to do." said Hank, trying to comfort him.
Juan moved over and patted him on the back too, saying "It's okay, it's okay." Looking anxious.
After a bit Kevin calmed down and Hank said, "You wanna go on or do you want to get out of here and finish up later?"
"Will there be a later?" Kevin asked.
"Maybe you better finish up. See you tell a good story too, longer than mine, but mine ain't done either."
"Okay I think I can finish it up. We should get this out now, before we decide what we are going to do. I, uh, kept going up I-70, after the Ward exit it got a lot easier, not so many wrecks, except by Youngsfield and that was on the other side of the highway. I made it up to the hogback, well the bottom of the hill anyway, before it got into the mountains. Hank, it was terrible, like imagine bumper to bumper traffic. Only it is all stopped, every last car. Near the tail end there were cars in the median, cars in both lanes smashed up in both directions. I could see on up the hill and the cars there were still in neat little lines, with what looked like maggots crawling in and around them, only I was far away. As I got closer I stopped, they were zombies you know, crawling inside the cars, under them, over them, through them, like maggots on a piece of meat. The wind shifted a bit and I threw up in the old ladies car, it was that bad. I was still maybe a mile away from the bottom of the real mess, I could still go back or try and turn in the median. I decided to turn around remembering the wreck at the Youngsfield exit. As I did I attracted their attention. The whole mob of them started towards me. Some pretty slow, but a surprising number of them were runners, fast zoms I think I heard Juan call them. Running full tilt all out at me. It is not like they could have caught me or anything, but man it was scary. I swear some of them about touched my rear bumper as I sped off, but I know that can't be true. I went past Youngsfield when I saw the last one disappear from my rear view. By the time I got back towards my end of town I was thinking I could head east, I-70 or I-76 or maybe north, there was too much town south, you know?