succumb - glenn rhee

[THIRTEEN]the highway

CHAPTER THIRTEEN // THE HIGHWAY
"DAD. WE'RE LITERALLY
SURROUNDED BY CARS."

ִֶָ 𓂃⊹ ִֶָ

The group had cut down on vehicles to save gas supplies, aside from Daryl's bike that he refused to get rid of. They had finally made it out of Atlanta, now riding along a small highway. Jade was reading one of the few books they had stored in the RV, trying to busy her mind from the loss of her friend and the almost loss of her father, her niece asleep in her arms, she had three pillows behind her back as she leaned against the wall, trying to get comfortable on the lumpy bed. She had a good view of her brother in the passenger seat, reading a map for their father, Andrea and Shane cleaning the guns at the table, T-Dog standing beside the counter, and Glenn standing behind Dale.

Jade was enjoying the quiet in the back of the RV, relishing in the peaceful story within the book and the feeling of the sleeping girl in her arms. She felt comforted knowing that her niece and the rest of her family as safe, at least for the time being.

The girl was so enthralled in the story, she hadn't heard the light footsteps moving towards her until a knock sounded at the wall beside her feet. Looking up, she spotted none other than Glenn Rhee, wanting to talk to her about anything as long as he was with her. Jade smiled slightly, carefully placing her bookmark on her page to not wake the girl napping on her arm.

"Do you need something?" Jade asked quietly as Glenn sat on the bed on the other side of the wall.

"No, not really." The man answered, shrugging his shoulders. "Actually- what happened at the CDC. Where you... where you like couldn't breathe?"

Jade shifted in the bed, leaning up more to look at Glenn who was still sitting a few feet away. "It was something I haven't dealt with in a while. It was the early stages of a panic attack. It only happens when I get overwhelmed or really scared. I used to get them a lot when I was younger." Glenn hung onto her every word, paying absolute attention to her. "But, I'm okay now. It was just because of the whole thing with my dad." The girl finished, pressing her lips into a line.

"Are you su-"

"Aw shit." Nick spoke loudly from the front of the RV.

Jade moved her niece off of her as carefully as she could, still waking the girl up as she began to walk towards the front. As she reached the drivers seat, Daryl was moving back towards the RV from where he had been looking in the cluster of cars.

"See a way through?" Dale asked with a sigh, his daughter leaning over his shoulder. Daryl hesitantly nodded before riding off slowly to tell the other vehicle what was going on.

"Maybe we should go back, Dad. I see another back road that'll lead us where we need to be." Nick spoke, looking to the back where his sleepy daughter was stumbling towards the front, wiping sleep from her eyes as she moved.

"We don't have the fuel for that, Nick." Jade commented. "We're just going to have to hope we can squeeze through."

There were many corpses resting in the cars they passed with the supplied they had deemed necessary. As they weaved through the vehicles, smoke emitted from the front of the RV as the engine sputtered.

"Well, shit." Jade muttered, running a hand over her hair. Her and her father were the first ones out the RV, each aggravated with the RV's engine that had failed again.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane questioned, following behind the duo.

"Just a small mater of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope-"