Too much about this strange man is putting you on edge. Your instincts tell you that the shotgun would be better with you than with him and you didn't want to take any chances. Trying to act as casual as possible you reach into the pocket that has the hammer inside of it and try to step towards Hayes and swing at his head in one fluid motion. Hopefully enough to stun or knock him out so you can grab that shotgun.

Sadly by the time you reached into your pocket, Hayes was already smiling. Whatever training or experience he had made it so he was miles ahead of you in terms of reaction. As you raised your arm to ready your hammer attack, Hayes had already grabbed his shotgun in one motion and fired it at you. You were already well aware of what a shotgun could do at this range, and felt little surprise as your mid-section was torn asunder by the buckshot.

You heard Hayes say :

Just as I thought....

As your vision went from grey to black. You didn't even feel yourself hit the floor, before everything went silent.

It was risky, but it was the most direct way of getting to where your cousin might be. And with what you had just observed it was clear that every minute counted in this situation. Taking three quick breaths as you mentally bid farewell to your long time vehicle, you fling the door open and begin running to the center of the road. Although thier reactions are slow, you notice at least 4 of the corpse people turn towards you. They don't say words, they are more like pained gasps. Like what you would hear from someone who has lost their voice from shouting but is still trying to call attention. The sound makes the sweat on the back of your neck run cold.

After darting round two abandon cars, you see the main obstacle, a flaming jeep that is twisted around the tail end of an also burning Sedan. The Sedan look empty, but your can someone slumped over the wheel in the Jeep with the insides of the window splattered in blood. You do your best to hold in whatever you haven't fully digested and commit to getting through. The fire isn't huge but you can tell its starting to grow, you know as well as anyone that fire and petrol filled vehicles is never a good mix. You think that you could probably jump across the hood of the Jeep knowing you wont be near the fire long. Your time to mentally prepare yourself is cut short as you hear another gasping sound directly behind you!

You don't even turn around, in one motion you take two running steps and leap as high and far as you can over the wreckage, and it works. Your legs brush the fire but it happens so quickly you take no damage. Sadly your landing doesn't go as well.

Your hasty jump puts your landing path directly into a busted bicycle. The landing is nasty and you feel a graze on both knees along with a sharp pain on you forearm followed by the slow tickle of dripping blood. Quickly checking yourself you see that it is a fairly shallow scratch and you pull your sleeve over it, hoping that the blood will dry quickly against the fabric and will heal quickly enough.

Luckily there seems to be no corpse people as you walk towards the ATM that Dale went to.

Continue to the ATM where Dale was last spotted.