The big yellow school bus bumped along the highway, narrowly missing obstacles littering its path from the invasion. The road was littered with abandoned cars and debris. Bodies lay on the pavement, decomposing in the heat of the day.
Everyone was silent, unwilling to discuss what happened in the previous town's water facility tunnels. The shock of the incident was too much. The way he gripped his blood-drenched machete made them all nervous. It was like standing in front of a loose cannon, not knowing when it would go off.
Joe was not acting himself. He was straight-faced and had his hand held tightly onto his blood-drenched machete. He looked like he would use it any second. In the tunnels below the ruined city, the older man who threatened them was unwilling to allow anyone to have fresh water from the facility's water pipes. Joe, taking it into his own hands, slammed his machete into the man's neck, severing his head from his body, doing it with anger and without a second thought. There was no hesitation in killing another human.
Alice suddenly got up from her seat and made her way to the front of the bus, trying to avoid Joe as she passed, giving him a wide berth, as much as the bus allowed. Something about him frightened her to the point of avoidance. The air around him was thick with a sinister pressure, pressing against anyone who got close.
Alice whispered to Zack, causing him to slow down and pull over. Once stopped, he turned the ignition off and opened the door.
"Pit, stop!" Zack called back. "If you have to relieve yourself, I suggest you do it now. I don't want to stop again until we find the tunnel leading to the sanctuary city," he told them.
Everyone got off the bus, including Joe. His face was a mask, washed of all emotion. The pressure around him was dark, following him everywhere he went. His brown eyes were cold as he scanned his friends, stopping at his younger brother, the only one left of them with their partner. His eyes hardened further as they went to Alice, then back to his brother.
The two aliens were the last to get off the bus, avoiding Joe. However, Zack put his hand out, stopping them before they could step off.
"Do you smell any zombies?" Zack asked them, glancing covertly at Joe. He didn't like the look he was giving to Jamie and Alice.
They shook their heads, not saying anything, and walked to the far side of the area that they had stopped at, waiting for everyone else to be ready to get back on the bus.
Zack walked to Joe, choosing his words carefully. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked. "I know how it feels to lose your other half," he said. "If you want to talk, I'm here for you."
Joe looked at Zack, his mask firmly in place. "I'll be fine," he said coldly. His eyes filled with rage.
"No, you won't. I know that because I'm not fine, Carrie's not fine, we lost the one we love, but we have too much to deal with to ruminate over it right now," Zack told him quietly yet firmly.
"And those two?" Joe asked, eyeing Shelia and Shadick. The sinister pressure surrounding him grew thicker as he stared daggers at them. It was so thick that it made Zack finch.
"They are helping us. Shadick saved my sister's life, and Shelia has been nothing but compliant. I trust both of them. We need them; they can smell the zombies coming, and they are fighting against their people to help us." Zack stepped closer. "They have earned our trust."
Joe looked at Zack, his mask still in place. "I'll believe that when we get attacked by some of their people, and those two kill them to save us," he spat. "I won't hold my breath because it will never happen."
Zack gritted his teeth. "If you can't handle being near Shelia and Shadick, then stay away from them. Do nothing to harm them; you got it?" Zack shot back. "We need them."
"Yeah, I got it," he said, spitting at Zack's feet, barely missing his shoes. "If they do anything to any of us, don't blame me," he growled, abruptly stalking back to the bus. The pressure around him thickened. With one last death glare at the two aliens, Joe got back on the bus.
Just as Joe took the second step onto the bus, Zack cut in. "Do I need to worry about you doing anything to one of us?" he asked.
"No," he shot back. His voice was cold.
They all filed onto the bus, everyone avoiding Joe. The pressure around him was palpable. It made Zack nervous, with Joe sitting right behind him, still gripping his bloody machete. It was the first time that he was afraid of one of his friends. At the moment, Joe terrified him. His mind was telling him that his friend was too dangerous to be around right now.
Carrie was the last one on the bus. Her eyes landed on Joe, then slid to his grip on his machete, and she saw how Joe's knuckles were turning white. She sat down beside him, pressing her hand over his white knuckles.
Zack watched Joe carefully, afraid for his sister; he couldn't help noticing that his twin, sitting next to Joe, made Shadick stiffen. He could tell that if Joe tried to do anything to her, he would defend her, which made him feel a little better, but not much.
"Joe, honey, you're scaring everyone," she whispered to him. Zack could still hear her because they were directly behind him. "I lost Nick. I had to watch him get worse every day until he exploded. Then, I had to clean up his body parts and tainted blood. That wasn't easy to go through. Tammy died quickly, not after weeks of torture. She wouldn't want you to be like this," she pleaded. "Please come back to us. I don't want to lose another friend," she whispered, tears running down her cheeks as she pleaded with Joe.
Zack watched Joe, afraid for his sister. The possibility that Joe would snap and hurt her was high. As he watched through the rearview mirror, he noticed that Shadick had moved closer, making it easy to get to her if he needed to.
Joe stayed stiff until Carrie's tears fell, making contact with his shirt and soaking his skin. She kept her hand on his white knuckles, whispering pleas for him to come back to them. They had been friends for a long time. It hurt to see him in so much pain.
As his shirt soaked through with her tears, he began to relax, loosening his grip on his machete. The pressure surrounding him started to fade. Everyone watched in silence, unsure of what Joe was going to do. They didn't trust him not to lash out suddenly.
Tears began to fall from Joe's eyes as Carrie continued to whisper. Her pleading to come back, her tears soaking his shirt, her gentle grip over his knuckles that underneath that were no longer white.
His grip loosened more, and the machete slipped through his hand, falling to the floor on the bus; a loud clang as it bounced before coming to a stop.
Everyone remained silent, trying not to flinch at the sudden sound. No one dared move. They just watched the transformation take place. The ice thawed from Joe, the pressure fading into nothing as Carrie continued her tearful pleas.
Joe suddenly moved. The sudden movement made Shadick flinch, afraid for Carrie. Jow wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her shoulder, and began to sob; it was heaving sobs from deep in his chest, and his shoulders shook as he cried into Carrie's shoulder as he held her tight. She didn't stop her pleas.
Everyone watched in silence at the two wrapped in each other's arms, sobbing, one quiet, the other loud, one pleading, the other lost in sobs, but both were releasing the loss, the death, the hardships that life had brought them.
Shadick relaxed a little, but not completely, as he watched them. Zack couldn't tell if it was jealousy or just unwillingness to believe Joe wouldn't revert to what he was moments ago, putting everyone in danger. Zack wasn't sure himself.
Zack continued driving, periodically glancing at his sister and best friend as the bus continued to eat up time and miles until, in the distance, the third and final town appeared.
They would be there in less than fifteen minutes. They would then have to find the hidden tunnel that led to the city. It was a human-sized mousetrap. He knew he had to warn the people who had run there to get away from the aftermath of the invasion. He had to do it before it was too late.