EPISODE 4 – Foley
894 Words
The road to Sedalia felt longer than it should have.
James kept his hands steady on the wheel, eyes scanning everything. Every abandoned car. Every shadow between trees. Every shape that didn’t look quite right.
The sun was already sliding lower, bleeding gold into gray, and that alone put him on edge.
Night was not something you invited anymore.
They’d waited until first light like he promised. Slept in shifts. Ate quietly. Nobody complained. Nobody joked. The world had taught them better overnight.
Leanne sat in the passenger seat, knees pulled up, shotgun resting across her lap like it belonged there now. Sylvia and Zariah rode in back, quieter than James had ever known them to be.
“So,” Sylvia finally said, breaking the silence, “Sedalia, right?”
“Yeah,” James answered. “Dad always said if you don’t know where to go, you go somewhere with roads leading out. Not in.”
“That’s… comforting,” Zariah muttered.
James almost smiled.
Almost.
They rolled past the sign marking the outskirts of town, and his chest tightened. Sedalia didn’t look abandoned exactly.
It looked paused.
Cars sat crooked in parking lots. Store doors stood open. A light flickered in the distance, humming without purpose. No people. No movement.
“Feels wrong,” Leanne whispered.
“Everything feels wrong,” James replied quietly.
Then he saw it.
The gas station.
Same layout. Same faded sign. Same building.
The one his dad had described growing up. The one he’d worked on engines near when James was little. The one Corey would absolutely stop at if he needed fuel, shelter, or a defensible position.
James slowed the truck.
Heart pounding.
“If they came this way,” he said, “this is where they’d stop.”
He pulled in.
The place was quiet. Too quiet.
“Stay in the truck,” he ordered. “Doors locked. If I shout, you run.”
“You sound just like your dad,” Sylvia said softly.
James swallowed.
He stepped out.
The smell hit him first. Gasoline. Oil. Something faintly metallic that made his stomach turn.
“Hello?” he called, keeping his voice low but steady. “Anyone here?”
Footsteps echoed upstairs.
James froze.
A woman leaned over the railing.
“Bear?”
James’s breath caught.
She stared at him like she was seeing a ghost.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “You’re back.”
He stepped closer. “Ma’am, I think you’ve got the wrong person.”
She frowned, then really looked at him.
Same eyes.
Same build.
Same posture.
Different age.
“Oh,” she said softly. “You’re… you’re his son.”
James nodded once. “James.”
Her hand flew to her mouth. “I’m Kendra.”
The name landed like a punch.
“My dad was here,” James said immediately. “My mom too.”
“Yes,” Kendra said. “They were. They helped me. Your dad saved my life.”
Relief slammed into James so hard his knees almost buckled.
“They were okay?” he asked.
“They were alive,” she said firmly. “Scared. Alert. Together.”
James exhaled a shaky breath. “Where did they go?”
Her expression changed.
“That I don’t know,” Kendra admitted. “They didn’t tell me. Your dad doesn’t seem like the kind of man who leaves trails unless he wants them followed.”
James nodded.
That sounded exactly like Corey.
“They bunked here one night,” Kendra continued. “Fueled up. Cleaned up. Your mom was worried about you the whole time.”
James laughed weakly. “Yeah. That tracks.”
“They left before dawn,” Kendra said. “Headed southeast.”
Southeast.
James felt the path forming in his head.
Devil’s Elbow.
His jaw tightened.
“Thank you,” he said. “For telling me. For staying.”
She studied him. “You’re a lot like him.”
“I’m trying to be,” James said honestly.
Kendra glanced at the truck. “You’ve got others with you.”
“Friends,” James replied. “Family, now.”
She nodded. “That’s how it starts.”
He turned to leave, then hesitated. “Kendra… what did he use?”
Her brows furrowed. “Use?”
“Inside,” James said quietly. “When it went bad.”
Her eyes darkened.
“A bow,” she said. “Didn’t make a sound.”
James closed his eyes.
Of course he did.
“Be careful,” Kendra added. “They’re not all the same. Some move fast. Some don’t stop.”
“Thank you,” James said again.
He climbed back into the truck.
“They were here,” he told them. “Alive.”
Leanne let out a sob she didn’t know she’d been holding.
“They helped her,” James continued. “Saved her. Then moved on.”
“Do we know where?” Sylvia asked.
James stared at the road ahead.
“I think so.”
He turned the key.
The engine roared to life.
As they pulled out, James glanced once more at the gas station in the mirror.
A place where his father had proven, again, that even when the world collapsed…
he chose humanity first.
And James knew exactly where that road led next.
Devil’s Elbow.
- Writer
