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ADELINE Walsh felt disoriented. Like she had woken up from a coma and found herself in a foreign world that she knew absolutely nothing about. She wondered if it was the same feeling her brother described that night in the Quarry, the mere thought of the memory causing a sickly chill to run down the widow's spine from where she sat. Then again, it was possible that she let Rick give her one too many pain pills for the infected cut on her forearm; her sore eyes moving down to eye the sling that supported the searing limb.
There was a buzz of chatter that emitted throughout the interior of the RV, her back pressed against the soft cushions of the vehicle's dinette chairs. Only a few minutes ago they stopped their drive in order to switch out the battery for a new one that Glenn had thankfully known was hidden underneath the entrance stairs.
After her conversation with Eric the night before, it didn't take long for Rick and the others to find them by the warehouses near the water tower━━which led to the group collectively deciding the sleep for the rest of the night and continue their journey in the morning. During the drive, Adeline couldn't help but tell herself the same thing over and over again in the depths of her mind.
There isn't an enemy waiting behind those gates.
It was all she could let pass the high defenses of her mind, terrified of the possibility that the small amount of hope her family gained would be torn away from them. She didn't want that for them. Especially not after seeing the heavy relief that touched the faces of Carl and Theo at the sight of food out of all things.
She was sure they were getting close, the appearance of Aaron making his way to the front of the vehicle almost confirmed it for her. Adeline felt a movement in her lap as their new friend moved past her, her attention falling to the opening eyes of the once sleeping Theo. The eleven-year-old body was curled up on the short length of the dinette chair, head resting on the legs of the widow as her right arm lay across her stomach.
"Are we there yet?" She questioned, her small voice coming out groggily as she reluctantly scooted to sit up, Adelines' arm carefully moving out of the way for her. Stray strands of brunette hair stuck to the left side of Theos' face, her features twisting in discomfort before tucking them behind her ear.
"Probably about to be," Addy informed, her words spoken softly as the little girl stretched into the back of the seat with a loud yawn that went on for miles. "Get enough sleep?" She added, moving to the side as Theo began unbraiding her now messily styled hair only to push the tangled locks into a low ponytail.
"I can never get enough sleep." The eleven-year-old spoke with honesty, exasperatingly flopping forward onto the surface of the table. The contents scattered across it clattered at the movement, an attentive Glenn that was sitting on the other side hastily reaching out to stop anything from falling over.
