EPISODE 5 – The Road to Devil’s Elbow
853 Words
The sky was just beginning to pale when Corey moved through the upstairs apartment, gently nudging shoulders and whispering names.
“Come on,” he said quietly. “Time to move. Day’s breaking.”
Kinsley groaned from the couch cushions. “What time is it?”
“Four-thirty.”
“That’s too early,” she mumbled, burrowing deeper into her blanket. “Let me sleep, Dad.”
Corey scooped her up anyway. “Can’t, little girl. Sun’s coming. That means we move.”
Veronica pushed herself upright, hair messy, eyes still heavy. “Sabrina, boys—up. We’re rolling.”
Corey carried Kinsley downstairs while Veronica helped the others gather their things.
Kendra was already awake behind the counter downstairs.
“Morning,” Corey said.
“Making coffee,” she replied. “Figured you’d try to get on the road as soon as the sky started burning.”
Corey smirked. “You learn fast.”
“Give us a few minutes to wash up,” Veronica called from the stairs.
“Ten,” Corey replied, already heading toward the vehicles. “Then we move.”
Ten Minutes Later
“Alright,” Corey said, clapping once. “Load up.”
He checked straps, fuel caps, tire pressure. The bus hummed quietly when he turned the key.
“Little Bee, you hear me?” he spoke into the CB.
“Loud and clear, Bear,” Veronica answered from her truck.
“Stay close. Don’t get separated. If anything happens, you call it.”
They hadn’t gone far when Hazel leaned forward, squinting through the windshield of the bus.
“Dad… what is that?”
Corey slowed.
A truck sat crooked across the road, nose buried in a ditch.
“Looks like a wreck,” he said.
Hazel’s voice softened. “We have to check. There might be survivors.”
Corey hesitated only a second. “Bee, we’re stopping. Stay alert. Could be a trap.”
He stepped out with the bow in hand.
“Hello?” he called. “Anyone alive?”
Movement.
A man stumbled out from behind the truck, hands raised.
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”
Corey didn’t lower the bow. “Who are you?”
“My name’s John! I was driving that truck—my fiancée went crazy, started attacking me. Tried to bite me while I was driving. I jumped out.”
Veronica’s door opened behind Corey.
“John?” she said slowly.
The man squinted. “Veronica?”
Corey blinked. “Wait… John?”
His cousin.
Older. Rougher. But still him.
“Well I’ll be damned,” John said. “Didn’t think I’d run into family at the end of the world.”
Corey glanced at the truck. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know. I ran.”
Corey circled the vehicle carefully. No body inside.
“She’s gone,” he said quietly. “But your truck still runs.”
He hooked the winch line from the bus to the truck and dragged it free of the ditch.
“Alright,” Corey said, tossing John a handheld CB. “Channel 19. You follow behind Veronica. We’ll explain on the move.”
John nodded, shaken.
Fuel Problem
Twenty minutes later John’s voice crackled over the radio.
“Corey… I got a problem. I’m almost out of diesel.”
Corey exhaled slowly. “Can you still drive a forklift?”
John barked a laugh. “Like we used to?”
Corey grinned. “Exactly like we used to.”
He scanned the roadside.
“There’s a county road department yard near Clarksburg. If they don’t have what we need, we’ll build it.”
They found it an hour later: a fenced equipment yard.
Inside were fuel tanks, scrap steel, and an old flatbed trailer.
“Perfect,” Corey muttered.
“Stay here,” he told Veronica. “I’m grabbing a trailer.”
John and Corey worked for hours welding brackets, rigging a portable fuel trailer from scavenged tanks.
By the time they finished, everyone was exhausted.
“First light,” Corey said. “We leave first light.”
The Next Morning
“Alright,” Corey said, checking the straps one last time. “We head to California, Missouri. Top off there. Then we don’t stop again until we hit the farm.”
Sabrina leaned toward Veronica. “Who’s the other guy?”
“Corey’s cousin, John,” Veronica said. “We all went to school together.”
Corey’s voice crackled over the CB.
“Bee, you think Little Bear’s okay?”
Veronica smiled faintly. “He’s your son. He’s a survivor.”
Later…
They stopped briefly in California, Missouri, just long enough for the kids to stretch.
“Five minutes,” Corey called. “Then we move.”
Hazel sat on the back step of the bus, cleaning a rifle.
“Good,” Corey said. “Keep them ready. Always ready.”
The road ahead curved toward the Ozarks.
Toward Devil’s Elbow.
Toward the farm.
Toward whatever the world had become.
And for the first time since the phone call…
they weren’t just running.
They were heading home.
- Writer
