Shavian turned slowly and looked to the group.
“Who’s got a phone? Let me see it.” She snapped her fingers, turning to the first person she knew would jump to her demand –Elliott. Holding out her hand, he leapt up so fast he smacked his head on the roof. He pulled a smart phone from his pocket with one hand and rubbed the lump already starting to grow on the back of his head.
She took the phone, eyeing it. “This phone is huge, Elliott.” She gave him a sly smile. “Trying to compensate for something?”
“What? No. It-it’s just the best phone. I wanted to test it…”
“Yeah, whatever.” She turned away; he couldn’t even take a joke. She tapped through apps till she found a maps program. “All the cell phone towers are already down or overloaded or maybe zombies send out cellphone blocking waves. But the…” Her voice trailed off. “What the hell, Elliott!” She tossed the phone at him.
“What?” He fumbled, catching the phone till he trapped it against his chest.
“It says your GPS is locked! Who buys the best phone on the market and doesn’t get the plan for it?”
“The phone cost a lot. I don’t make a lot of money so I couldn’t get the full plan,” he said turning red with embarrassment.
“My phone would work of course,” Shavian growled, and slammed her hand into the wall of the truck. “But the person we are trying to save destroyed it!”
“That’s kind of ironic when you think about it,” Elliott said, rubbing the back of his head once more.
Jackson snickered behind her and she spun to do something she knew Jesus wouldn’t like when Roger spoke up.
“Look lass, we could spend the rest of our time on this earth talking about it or maybe we should check out this beer festival? There has to be someone there that can tell us where Treeville is.” He then added under his breath. “And I don’t think we should pass up the opportunity to get a pint either.”
“Yeah, sure, let’s go.” She waved her hand in a huff before sitting down in a chair and, noticing it was too close to Jackson for comfort, moved to sit on the other side of Higgins.
“I wasn’t really asking for permission, Red,” Roger muttered.
“What?” Shavian said with a glare.
“I said we’re going.” Before she could interrogate him further, Roger had put the van into gear and launched forward through the still growing mass of zombies.
The ram bolted to the front of the truck helped to push most of the undead out of the way, and the rest were unlucky enough to be pulled under and chewed up by the tires. Everyone inside winced in unison at the louder crunches heard over the engine.
It was a quarter mile trek to the hotel turned convention center. The sign saying “End of the World Beer Festival” was made out of white, bound-together bed sheets and lettered in red paint. It was strapped to hang a story above the lobby doors and the turn-about had been fenced off to keep the zombies out.
Inside the fence guards with rifles checked people before being allowed in.
They looked up as the rumble of the SWAT van was heard, and forgetting all about the people they were investigating they moved to the chain link fence. The few zombies that had been gnashing their teeth at the fence turned to the sound of the turbo charged diesel engine.
The men called out to them but no one in the truck could hear and Roger didn’t like the idea of rolling down his window with zombies clawing at the glass. Higgins pushed open the roof hatch and used a seat to climb up.
“I see where all the zombies have been going,” one of the men from behind the fence called out. “You didn’t need to bring them back.”
“Directions,” Higgins called back.
“What?”
“Coffee,” Higgins said, unhelpfully.
“No man, beer,” the other man said, pointing to the front door.
Fipps stood up and slapped Higgins on the side of the leg. “Shit, get down and let someone with a vocabulary talk. Fuck.”
Changing places Flips called down, “You haven’t seen a crazy blond chick with a metal coffee cup have you?”
“I don’t know, I mean we have been letting a lot of people in. Maybe?” He motioned to the front doors. “If you guys can get out of that noise wagon you’re welcome to come in and have a brew and look.”