1. No. Whatever it was, it's paste now. No point going back. Keep heading west, toward Limestone.
"I don't want to go back," you say. "Whatever was down there is dead now."
You continue up and west. A canyon stretches to your left. The creek at the bottom seems to be where the fire was stopped. Everything past it is blackened. You can still see plumes of smoke rising in the distance. Soon, the road turns away and you put the canyon behind you.
"Pretty grass," Nicole says. You look over to your right to see the Gold Hills Country Club front gate. Behind it stretches the golf course. You actually golfed there, once. The place looks empty now.
As you continue past it, you see what would have been a normal sight a week ago. A man is golfing on the greens. As you watch he swings his club and the little white ball goes flying off into the distance. You're about to comment when the man turns around, and even at this distance, you can see it's Benny. He shoulders the golf club and waves at you.
"I had a membership here," Jacob says.
"Oh yeah?" you ask. "You like golf?"
"Not really," Jacob admits. "But if you're a doctor, you have to play. If you don't occasionally spend a day riding around in a cart hitting a little ball around with a big club into a small hole, they come when you're asleep
they sure do
and tie you up. Dump you onto the course with nothing but a golf club and a bath towel."
David chuckles. "Yeah, but you must have made pretty good money."
"I guess," Jacob says, and looks again at the course through the fence. The grass is starting to get long.
The country club passes behind you. Occasional offshoots lead into the back hills. Houses. Everything looks fine. Empty, but fine.
"Look, up ahead," David says. "There's someone in the road."
Indeed, there's a body laying face down in the middle of the road. As you watch a hand twitches. The body starts to crawl. There's a house nearby, set back off the road a couple hundred feet.
Jacob leans forward. "We should stop. He needs help."
"He's probably infected!" David says.
"We have leftover alcohol in the trunk," Jacob says.
"Just run him over," David says. "Best to put him out of his misery."
Nicole touches your shoulder from behind you.
*****************************************
1. Run him over.
2. Steer around him.
3. Stop.
*****************************************