[Jake could be scared all he wanted, just so long as he was smart, too. He was just a boy despite numbers, and this was a place where the dead walked when they shouldn't, where the dead ate the living and looked like nightmares come out into the world. Graham had grown up in church and on God, and he didn't think this was ever what God had intended. But then again, his faith hadn't exactly gotten stronger over the years. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd gone to mass.
What mattered was that the truck went on forward, and Graham followed in the piece of shit car, cracked windows and blood, with the insides smelling like death and rot. There was no more shouting, least not yet; he saw the signs, and he hoped the car would last till they got to the town. Fuel looked close low, but it might hold out. He went as fast as the damn thing could go, real quiet, and the ghost he saw next to him was real quiet too.
Least there was still a good few hours of daylight left, Graham thought.
As luck would have it, he didn't run out of gas. The signs told them they were getting closer and closer, and while they passed a few dead things on the side of the road they were left behind in the rearview mirror. When they hit a patch of road that was just plain empty he honked the horn, just once, short, to let Jake know that they should stop at the town coming up.]