It wasn’t long afterwards the winter sun set completely and the only light came from the Jeep’s LEDs, which Marcus had to admit was a lot of light when you thought about it. It did however have a downside, as it attracted every nocturnal zombie with a working pair of eyes in the tri county area. After dodging a third grasping figure Marcus decided it was both time for sleep and time to get off the road.
The Jeep’s exterior thermometer read a balmy -10 celsius, not incredibly cold but definitely not sleep with the windows open weather. Opting to avoid anywhere where zombies might be Marcus instead opted to park the Jeep in a long abandoned farmer’s field. Shutting of the Jeep’s engine to conserve fuel he put his parka over the dog and after leaning his seat back, slid feet first into his sub zero sleeping bag.
At a little over six foot he was too tall to sleep across the narrow Jeep, plus sleeping with his legs bent gave him muscle spasms. The sleeping bag was more than warm enough in the enclosed Jeep and Marcus had plenty of practice sleeping in a vehicle so it didn’t take him long to drift off.
Unfortunately it took him a little longer to drift on, at which point he was assaulted by the sounds of a barking dog, something hitting the jeep, and an unnecessary rocking motion for this early in the morning. As his sleep addled brain finished booting back up he quickly realized what all that meant and his eyes popped open, rather painfully.
The dull sunlight doing its level best to murder his vision meant two things, one important and one not so much. The less important thing was that the day was overcast. The much more important thing was that it was now daylight. This meant Marcus had slept way longer than he’d originally intended and that their so-called hiding spot had been discovered.
He looked around to discover quite a crowd of zombies rocking the Jeep from all sides, and the dog giving him a rather hurtful “are you serious” look. Marcus made a mental note that while this earth’s zombies were fast they were not particularly strong as they seemed unable to damage any of the windows on the Gladiator.
This was when one of the zombies accidentally ripped off the back fender with a rather heart wrenching cracking noise. Marcus let out a defiant roar at this that seemed to even give the zombies outside pause as he quickly unzipped the sleeping bag, put his boots and parka back on, then grabbed the sword from the back seat. He was pissed, not stupid.
All that done and still filled with rage Marcus threw open the driver’s door and plowed through the closest zombies. There were only about ten zombies around the Jeep so this literally meant knocking down two zombies while the rest turned to look at him. Marcus paused for a moment to reflect that all the zombies looked like that chick who thought tanning was a religion. Their varying heights being the only way to tell them apart.
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Marcus immediately went to work with his sword as the zombies charged, technically it was a machete shaped like a sword rather than an actual sword. This had not stopped Marcus from giving it a razor’s edge and sweet paint job. Said badass paint job included some Norse runes along the blade, which had been painted to appear as though they were glowing.
As Marcus went to town on the undead group he could have sworn the runes on the sword began to actually glow faintly. Which he realized sounded crazy but he’d also woken up the day before in an alternate dimension so he wasn’t about to discount anything at this point. Less than a minute later he found himself surrounded by nine headless zombies and one that happened to be missing both its arms and head.
Said arms lay nearby still clutching the rear driver’s side fender of his beloved Gladiator. The fender was removed from the undead clutches and clipped back into its rightful place above the tire. The fender back in place Marcus took a step back to look over the rest of the driver’s side of the Jeep. It was at this point he noticed the dog looking at him from the open driver’s door with what could only be described as an “oh really” eyebrow.
The dog’s very human expressions were starting to unnerve Marcus, especially this one. “What? I’m very protective over him.”
At this the dog actually shook its head before hopping back into the passenger seat. Marcus went to wipe off his sword but found it already clean, muttering to himself about weird dogs and alternate universes he placed the sword in the back seat and started the Jeep.
The Jeeps heavy duty tires crunched through the nasty grey snow back onto the road and pointed east all the while a steady stream of scented vapour poured out the driver’s window. Marcus was rapidly starting to hate his current situation and wondered which of the gods he had pissed off to end up here. He also really wished he had some music to listen to.
It was at this moment the stereo shrieked to life, having apparently been doing its best to find him something to listen to. It was obviously a broadcast on repeat but because this wasn’t a movie and Marcus wasn’t any sort of lucky so it started at some random point.
“...If you can make your way there we have safety and supplies. This is a message for anyone still living. We are here and still alive as long as this message is still broadcasting. We offer safety for anyone who can make it here.”
Marcus glared at the radio with murderous intent as the speaker continued speaking without ever actually giving a location.
“Be safe and god bless… This is the human outpost located in the town of Lloydminister. We located east of the crater along highway sixteen. If you can make your way there…”
Marcus slowed the Jeep down, he was surprised to find that he was so close to Lloydminister but that the crater had really been that big. Putting the Jeep in park he went around to the box and retrieved a map book from one of the storage bins he kept back there. While totally useless without any landmarks and probably even more so depending on how different this earth was at least it was something.
His supply of gasoline was getting low so hopefully the outpost would be able to resupply him, but first he’d have to get there. Best chance he had was to point the Jeep east and go until he ran out of road. With any luck it would be at a landmark.