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time.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Five
     
     
     
    We pulled in the town of Thunder Bay a little before 4 in the afternoon. Intelligence had reported no mishaps as of two weeks ago, but we knew anything could happen on a day-to-day basis, so we were cautious.
    “D, see if you can’t raise any of our operatives here; I need to know the situation,” Dad said, handing DeAndre the cellphone as he drove. Cell towers rarely worked nowadays, the zombies were constantly vandalizing them, but there was a small chance the call might go through. Like, a 1 in 1,000 chance. But the closer you were to where you were calling, the better chance you seemed to have.
    “This town looks deserted,” I said, looking out the window. “There should be a lot of people here, but…” I trailed off, knowing what it would mean if the townspeople were gone. Overrun. It was happening more and more these days, and it was usually the death of a town or city. Nearly impossible to take back, a city was overrun when the ratio of zombies to humans passed the tipping point. Until that happened, a city would experience occasional outbreaks of zombie violence that were met a by massive police response., Afterward, the tables turned, and a rapidly shrinking population of humans found themselves hunted by a huge zombie population.
    Until recently, our forces had managed to keep Thunder Bay cleared and safe. You could never keep any area 100 percent free of zombies, since the infection was so unpredictable, but, for nearly a decade now, this town had been relatively clear.
    “Nothing,” DeAndre frowned at the cell phone and put it away. They were nearly useless nowadays. “This is the only way through to Boston,” He explained to Zach, who had come up to the front to sit as we drove into the city. “The Minneapolis area is overrun, for hundreds of miles from the Twin Cities outward, and this highway is the only route east. On one side is wilderness, on the other? Lake Superior. This is our only way through.”
    “Let’s just try to get through it as fast as we can,” said Dad. “I’m not going to stop for anything, if I can help it.”
    “Sounds good, Jake,” Risa said.
    “Let’s do this,” said DeAndre.
    We drove into the outskirts of town and, stopped at an intersection and took the minute to look around.
    “Hey, there’s a convenience store, and I saw some people go inside,” Jonathan said. “Why don’t we stop in and ask them about the town?”
    “Good idea,” said Dad. “We could use some real, up-to-date information about this area.”
    As we pulled up to park in front of the store, we saw it was packed with people, all talking among themselves, as though they had gathered for some impromptu meeting. They seemed to be whispering in one another’s ears, as though they were afraid of drawing someone’s attention. The coast outside seemed clear, so I hopped out with the others and started walking toward the door.
    I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked to the side of the building where it had been, there was nothing there. Shrugging, I pushed the door open and entered, the others close behind me.
    “Zach, let’s get something to drink,” I said, gesturing to the counter where a variety of coffees and cocoas was available. “I hope they have espresso.”
    “Hmmm… I think I’ll have a cinnamon hot cocoa,” said Zach. He reached for a muffin. They looked huge and delicious.
    Dad approached a cluster of people who had been whispering among themselves. “Hello, we’re from out of town,” The people looked frightened at this. Dad continued. “We’re from the Sanctuary team, based out of Winnipeg.” Sanctuary’s efforts were well known throughout the region and beyond. Dad was trying to reassure them, and by all rights, they should have relaxed on hearing this; instead, however, they just seemed to grow more anxious. DeAndre and I leaned in to hear the conversation. I saw Risa and Jonathan