Chapter Eleven: Sixteen Seconds

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Unlike Madison, whose entire body seemed to be screaming with tension, Gavin looked noticeably more relaxed at this moment.

As he guided the car out of its parking space and smoothly avoided the other vehicles on his way out of the lot, he grinned at Madison.

“What kind of music do you like? Or should we listen to Bruno Mars and Imagine Dragons, like I do?”

“What?” Madison was too nervous to hear him clearly.

“I said, do you listen to Imagine Dragons?”

“Imagine what?” Madison continued to mishear him.

“Fuck, you need to relax, buddy!”

Gavin slapped the top of Madison’s head, then said, “The nearest concentration of zombies is at least a hundred and eighty meters from here. Once they hear the noise, it’ll take them at least twenty-five seconds to get over here.”

“Don’t think I don’t know how, during our past games, you were always complaining that my strategies were both lousy and ridiculously long-winded.”

“I make so many plans precisely so I can act as relaxed as I am now when the time comes!”

With that, Gavin stomped on the accelerator, making the Tyrannosaurus roar with excitement.

Startled by the engine’s roar, Madison looked around in panic. Only then did he realize that the car had already left the parking lot and had even reached the entrance to the estate.

The moment the Tyrannosaurus roared out of the estate, Gavin reached up and turned on the music. A pounding dance track burst from the speakers.

As he lowered the volume, Gavin continued smiling at Madison.

“Guess how far we can get in twenty-five seconds. Look carefully—only sixteen seconds have passed. Just sixteen seconds!”

“That’s my style. I like leaving the tension in the observation phase, then using caution to kill the pressure once the operation begins.”

“To hell with the party mansion. To hell with this goddamn zombie apocalypse. Let them all eat our dust!”

“Oh, right. What do you want to eat later? I’m thinking of getting a fucking hamburger.”

“And a huge Coke with goddamn extra ice!”

“Uh… what?”

After a brief daze, Madison was infected by the excitement and ease in Gavin’s voice, and the tension gradually drained from him.

He answered Gavin while turning his head constantly, watching in every direction.

Only after using the occasional streetlamp to confirm that the scenery around them really was a forest rushing backward—and not a hallucination of his own—did he finally relax. He slumped completely against the seatback and let out a long breath.

“Whew… wow. We made it out?”

“Holy shit, we escaped that easily? I thought we’d run into all kinds of trouble while getting into the car, like in the movies—zombies leaping onto the windows and stuff.”

“I’d already thought it all through. I was going to kick the filthy bastards away with my feet, then have you duck while I blasted the zombies at your window with the shotgun.”

“Then, just as a huge crowd of zombies was about to surround the car, you’d floor it and burst through them. That way, the two of us could celebrate our escape covered in zombie blood!”

As he spoke, Madison rolled down the window and spat a sour mouthful outside.

He was too embarrassed to admit that he had been so nervous he had nearly vomited, and that he could still feel acid rising into his throat.

From the driver’s seat, Gavin shot Madison a sideways glance and shook his head without comment.

That was just Mac’s personality. He was always jumpy, but once he knew they were safe, he relaxed.

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Before safety was confirmed, though?

People who truly wanted to win did not have the luxury of laughing.

After silently mocking Mac, Gavin continued adjusting the music until it was barely audible.

He searched through Mac’s playlist as well. Sure enough, eight out of every ten songs were rap, which was perfectly in keeping with Mac’s style.

While Gavin skipped through two songs, Mac continued chattering excitedly without pause.

“Gavin, having you around is a blessing. We got away so smoothly! Ha-ha!”

“I watched the whole time, and not a single zombie managed to catch up with us before we left. We didn’t even see one!”

“By the way, what did you say earlier? Oh, right, right, I am a little hungry.”

“Burgers sound pretty damn good. I hardly ever dare eat them during normal training, but now I can have as many as I want.”

“And ice-cold Coke. That’s fucking awesome!”

“Wait, weren’t you going to have me call your family? Give me the phone. I’ll call your parents right now.”

“I’ve given up on my family, buddy. None of them have returned my calls, and I haven’t heard from any of my usual crew either.”

“Where’s your phone?”

As he spoke, Mac extended his sweaty hand toward Gavin.

Gavin casually tossed him the iPhone 5.

“The password is four nines. Just find my parents in the contacts.”

“Other than them, there’s no real need to call anyone else.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Gavin turned the car off the side road through the housing development and onto the main road.

The boss’s estate was near Itasca, far to the south of Dallas, more than forty kilometers from the urban areas of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Even if Dallas had already been blown into ruins, it would be impossible for Gavin to notice from this distance.

Besides, he had no desire to find out what was happening in the city.

What could he and Mac possibly accomplish there? Had seeing three hundred zombies running not been enough? Did they really want to go to Dallas and watch the spectacular sight of six or seven million zombies running together?

Give it a rest. Even someone bent on suicide would not seek death that recklessly.

As far as Gavin was concerned, he had long since marked most major cities as forbidden zones.

Unless he had an absolutely necessary reason to enter one, he would rather hide in the wilderness or small towns of Texas until he died of old age than wander anywhere near a major city.

Just then, a cold draft blew in from the passenger-side window, cooling Gavin’s forehead and sharpening his mind a little.

Wait. Cold air?

“Roll up the window, you idiot!”

Gavin hurriedly shouted at Madison before returning his attention to the road.

After being yelled at, Madison gave him an exaggerated eye roll, then sheepishly closed the window.

The 2013 Super Bowl had kicked off on February third. After the Cowboys won their fifth championship, they immediately held a parade and celebrations. Today was only February sixth.

In February, nighttime temperatures in Texas could fall to barely four degrees Celsius above freezing. Gavin was driving fairly fast, so the cold air had been biting.

If he were not worried about getting sick, Gavin would actually have liked to enjoy it. At the very least, the cold would have made his alcohol-and-stress-ravaged brain feel considerably better.

Without the stimulation of the cold air, and with the car’s heater blowing against his face, Madison’s eyes grew slightly hazy.

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He lowered his head and fiddled with Gavin’s phone. Then, with a solemn expression, he held the unanswered call out toward Gavin.

“Sorry, Gavin. I couldn’t get through.”

“It’s fine. I’m not surprised. Find a few more contacts marked ‘Cowboys’ and try calling them. They all work for my family.”

“Okay.”

Madison nodded and continued dialing. Then he fell silent for more than two minutes.

Just as Gavin began slowing down expressionlessly, Madison finally let out a sympathetic sigh and returned the phone.

“Sorry,” he said.

Gavin slipped the phone into his pocket.

“It’s not your fault.”

Then Gavin pointed toward a gas station a little over a hundred meters ahead.

“At least we’ve reached the nearest gas station.”

The car continued slowing until it pulled to a stop in front of the station.

The area around the gas station was eerily quiet. Gavin could not see a single person, only the signs of shattered glass along the side of the convenience store.

Frowning at the broken glass, he said, “If the gas station or convenience store employees hadn’t turned into zombies, they’d have had no reason to smash through the glass to escape.”

“And if someone turned into a zombie inside the store, they would have needed a worthwhile target to chase before they smashed through the glass and left.”

Gavin glanced toward the broken window.

The shattered side faced the road they intended to take.

So Gavin continued, “Mac, it looks like someone else passed along this road before us, after the zombie crisis began.”

“The convenience store employee was probably drawn out by the noise and smashed through that side of the glass to give chase.”

“That’s great! It’s wonderful to know there are other survivors!” Madison immediately exclaimed.

“Even though we got out, I really don’t want to face an apocalypse where we’re the only two people left alive!”

“Hell, if we could eventually put together a group like the main cast from The Walking Dead, I could at least have a few underlings to boss around.”

“Unlike now, buddy. If it’s just the two of us, I’ll have to be the underling for the rest of my life. Ha-ha—uh…”

“Ahem. It’s not that I’d mind. I just mean, I know you’re always right, and following you gives me a better chance of staying alive.”

“But even if I don’t want to be the leader, I still like having a few followers and underlings to order around…”

As he spoke, Madison hugged his shotgun tightly and peered through the window at the surroundings.

Then he looked outside and said to Gavin, “Let’s change the subject. So what’s the plan from here, boss?”

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