When a beaten and lost, near-dead girl walks up upon the gates of Jackson unannounced, people are bound to be suspicious of why she's shown up. But, when she reveals that she knows something about an organization in Seattle planning to come to Jacks...
"I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it."
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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE The County
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Heat blared upon the small, post-apocalyptic town as it reached the afternoon. Robin gazed up at the sky as the sun slowly began to set beneath the clouds, shadowing the entire town of Jackson under the thick fog. She stood beside the large gates, waiting for Maria and Tommy to introduce her to whoever she was going with on her patrol assignment. Every minute she had to remind herself that she wasn't there to stay, but the small, little girl in her wished it to be the opposite sometimes.
The small town reminded her of where she lived as a young girl. She missed hearing her mother and father's bickering, no matter how many times she would sneak out just to get away from it. Something about Jackson just made her want to go back to the Lakeside Resort. Even if the leaders and civilians had been killed all those years ago, it made her wonder what happened to the community. Maybe they built themselves up again. Empty hope.
Robin was snapped from her wishes as Tommy and Maria's footsteps approached. She turned to face them, still gripping tightly onto the reins of her horse. A second man was also walking beside them. He looked much older than the other two people she had met, but he held a large backpack full of weapons. She gazed over towards him, he already had holsters placed against his back, why would he need any more?
Tommy, seemingly hearing her question that was inside of her head, introduced the two people. Robin assumed it was her patrol partner, but she waited for the greeting, nonetheless. "This here is Joel, he'll be takin' you around Teton County." Robin nodded at the man across from her in a mutual respect, greeting him with no words. "If you come across any infected, report it through him, we've been experiencing more and more hordes recently."
She nodded, watching as Joel stepped forward and handed her the backpack. Upon closer inspection, it was filled to the brim with ammo and a few guns. "You trust me enough to use these?" Robin asked, still confused as to why they would just let a stranger into the county. She was with the enemy division, they trusted her too fast.
Maria answered her question. "Look, Niki, you're obviously not from a big organization." She stated confidently, making Robin want to smirk. "Tommy has a pretty good judge in character, I trust him." Her saying that made Joel scoff, obviously something had happened that disproved her statement. She only shot a glare at the man beside him, that shut him up. Maria turned back to Robin, who had decided to begin slinging her weaponry against her shoulders. "You're just a kid."
The young girl sighed, shaking her head. "Age doesn't mean a thing in this world." It was true. Anyone could shoot a gun or pull a grenade pin. It was not a matter of age anymore; it was whoever could survive and kill.
"Let's get goin', shall we?" Joel grumbled, obviously not up for waiting around anymore. Tommy pat him a few times on the back, whispering something before pushing him forward. Robin mounted her horse without a problem, wrapping her legs around the leather saddle. She gazed over beside her, watching as the man she was leaving the county with did the same but with his own animal. The large, green and electric gates opened, revealing the outside world.
Joel led them both, while Robin stayed a bit behind. She still rode beside him, but she did not want to seem overly confident. Plus- she didn't know the area; she didn't need another infected to knock her to the ground. No; what was to come would be much, much worse.
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After a while of making sure that everything was okay around the main area of the county, Robin and Joel found themselves on a small hill. It was surrounded by bare woods, but it showed a beautiful view of Jackson. The almost yellow grass brushed against their horse's hooves, making them buck backwards in surprise. Robin smiled as she looked out at the town with electricity. She envied the people who got to live in comfort without any corrupt government leading them.
The sky above the two flickered blue, the sun poking out from behind the white clouds. Near the mountains a ways back, the blue colour began to slowly fade into orange. Robin hadn't seen a beautiful view like that in a long time, it was a relief to see that something so gorgeous still existed in nature, even if everything else had slowly dissipated over time. Words couldn't express how the near sunset slowly took her breath away.
A small 'click' noise came from underneath Robin's horse as she took a few steps forward. She gazed down to the side, inspecting the strange object. A pin of a grenade sat separated from the bomb in the grass. "Joel-!" A large, bright light covered her field of vision before she could even utter the man's name.
