You Are The Wilderness

Chapter 21 - Prison Break

Rick's POV

            Kiara and I were getting dressed to head back and reconnect with our group. It was getting darker every minute. We were loading the car with scavenged supplies and smirking at each other. It was great to feel her warm body against me again. The withdrawal had been driving me crazy. I felt relieved that I didn't have to restrain myself anymore, but also heartbroken that she couldn't have kids. Perhaps that was one of the reasons she treated Carl pretty much like her own. It made me love her all the more.

            "Hey look," Kiara hollered from the passenger's seat. "There's a driveway, let's go and check it out. We still have time. If it's safe, we can take the group there tomorrow morning."

            We looked around and it seemed quiet. The place was covered with foliage and hidden from the road. The next day we all assembled in front of the house. Me, Daryl, T-dog, Kiara and Carl barged in and killed two stranded Walkers in the hall. Kiara hurried beside me and proceeded to check the downstairs along with Carl while Daryl and I took the upstairs. I was walking through a narrow corridor and heard fumbling coming from the opposite doors. I carefully approached it and when I tore the door open ready to fire, I came up face to face with Daryl.  We smirked at each other and continued our search.

            Moments later, we were gathered in the living room munching on whatever scraps of food we found when Carl came in with two cans of dog food and started to hungrily open one of them. I couldn't bear the thought of my son eating dog food so I took the can and threw it into the fireplace. I myself haven't eaten for days and I was getting really desperate. My thoughts were cut short by T-dog alerting us to Walkers that started to emerge from the woods. We gathered our stuff and bolted for the cars just in time.

            "We've got no place left to go," said T-dog unfolding the map on the hood of the car.

            "When this herd meets up with this one we'll be cut off," Maggie continued. "We'll never make it south."

            "What'd you say, it's about a hundred and fifty head?" Daryl asked propping himself on the hood.

            "That was last week, could be twice that by now," Glenn retorted.

            "The river could've delayed them," Hershel chimed in. "If we move fast, we might have a shot to tear right through this."

            "Yeah, but if this group joins with that one, they could spill out this way," T-dog retorted, pointing on the map.

            "So we're blocked," Maggie murmured.

            "The only thing to do is to double back to 27 and swing toward Greenville," I suggested.

            "We picked through that already," T-dog shut me down. "It's like we've spent the winter goin' in circles."

            "Yeah, I know... I know," I said. "At Newman we push west. Haven't been through there yet."

            "Yeah, you guys. We can't keep goin' house to house," Kiara chimed in. "We need to find some place to hole up for a few weeks," she said pointing towards Lori sitting in the Cherokee.

            "It's true, she can't take much more of this movin' about," Hershel stated.

            "What else can we do? Let her give birth on the road?" I asked.

            "You see a way around that?" Hershel countered patting me on my shoulder.

            "We'll find a place," Kiara said. "I'll go with Daryl and try to scout out a house or something."