Self Inflicted

27

Slamming and snarls are the first things I hear, I open my eyes to be met with a blue leather seat. I'm laying on the windows and broken glass shards cover my body. I groan and wipe the glass off, my head is pounding and there is warmth in the area. I reach up touching the liquid, pulling back to see blood on my fingers. I push myself up with the arm that was shot so long ago, grunting as now it's sore too. "Luna," I hear Maggie call.

"I'm alright," I call. I manage to stand myself up and look at the back of the bus, snarling faces snap their jaws at us, banging their hands against the sides.

"Everyone else okay?" Abraham calls and we are.

"The bus is on fire, we have to move," Rosita calls out and the smell of smoke fills my nostrils.

"Alright, you and I go first," Glenn gestures to Abraham breathlessly. "Clear the way for Maggie, Rosita, and Luna to get out. Then we all start hitting them."

"We'll do it live," Abraham agrees. "Tara, you cover Eugene and come out when it's clear. On my go, go!" He reaches up, grabs onto the top, and swings his legs forward, kicking out the door. Abraham and Glenn throw walkers back and I climb out after Rosita, heading to the right of Glenn.

A walker approaches me and snarls, reaching forward with its torn-up arms. I pull out my sword and slice it through the side of its head. Another approaches and grabs my shoulder, I kick its leg and it falls to its knees. I chop down, its snarls stop and I put my foot to its chest, using it as leverage to pull my sword out. There is one more coming at me so I swiftly slice through its head, dropping it. I turn around and see the rest of us are fine, standing on a road surrounded by bodies. "Check Eugene," Abraham instructs me.

"I'm fine," he mumbles. "Just cuts and dings and all."

"Check him," he shouts. I shake my head but oblige, checking his head for wounds and then his arms for scratches, and small cuts but that's all.

"Is that your blood?" Eugene calls to Abraham.

"Yeah, damn thing opened again. I swear the cuts are finer than frog hairs, just big bleeders."

"First aid kit is in the bus, I'll go grab it," when I stand the bus is already on fire, magnifying and covering the inside.

"We're not stopping, we're rolling on," Abraham throws a black bag over his head. "Find another vehicle down the road, the mission hasn't changed."

"Devil's advocate, nothing more, we smashed to a stop hard. We spent a lot of time rolling things out on the road. The church is just fifteen miles back that way-" he points toward the direction we came from.

"No, we don't stop. We don't stop. We don't go back. We're at war. The road fights back, the plan gets jacked. You all know that" he shouts to all of us. "Now we will get through this because we have to, every direction is a question. We don't go back!"

"Hey, hey, hey. Are you okay?" Glenn steps in front of him.

"I am fit as a damn fiddle."

"We are going with you. You are calling this thing. I just need to know you're good."

"This is how things stop. I can't afford that right now, the world can't afford it. Listen, I took a pretty hard shot to the sack with that crash. I am stressed and depressed to see that ride die. But if you say we're rolling on, I'm good."

"We're rolling on."

"I'm going to rub some dirt on it and rub it off," Abraham's words lighten.

"Yeah."

"Find what we need like we always have; on the way," Rosita pipes up confidently.

"We've got you," I speak up.

"Okay, but I'm not rubbing dirt on anything," Maggie chuckles to the two men.

"Maybe we can find some bikes," Tara suggests and shrugs her shoulders. "Bikes don't burn." Abraham nods and we move on, I follow behind Maggie and Glenn as we walk past the bus at a large perimeter. I tear off a section on the bottom of my shirt, using it to stop the bleeding on my head.

-

We find a bookstore in a strip mall to spend the night in, fortifying it and boiling some water. I sit next to Maggie by the fire and we eat some jerky we found earlier. "What's with you and Daryl?" she asks quietly.

"Nothing," I reply sharply. She gives me a strong side-eye and shakes her head. "I kissed him."

"What?"

"It was a moment of weakness," I roll my eyes. "It didn't mean anything, he hasn't even spoken to me since."

"What did he do when you kissed him?"

"He kind of just froze." I just sigh and shake my head "It didn't mean anything and it doesn't matter, he left me."

"You don't know why he left," she urges.

"He still left." She gives me a defeated look and drops the issue, eating some more jerky. I have a pillow to lay my head on and I find a sheet to sleep with, making myself a small spot to lay behind one of the shelves giving me some privacy to sleep.

-

I'm done getting ready and gathered my things to leave when Maggie sits on an arm chair in the room with everyone else. "This town isn't in bad shape, this store wasn't even touched. We could make a good base here, spend one last day doing a sweep for supplies," Maggie suggests.

"We'll sweep as we go, we've done it since Houston we're not stopping now," Rosita replies coldly.

"You heard the lady, we're taking it north," Abraham comments proudly.

"We tapped out the toilet, river is five miles west, at the very least we stop their before we find wheels," Tara gestures to a map in her hand.

"We got a vehicle," Abraham stands swiftly from his chair and walks over to the cardboard covered glass windows and peers out of a hole. "It just so happens, it's got five hundred gallons of water on it."

We make our way out to a fire truck, covered in blood, debris, and dirt. Abraham hums as he hops up into the drivers seat, trying to start the engine. He fails the first attempt but the second succeeds and he chuckles "About time things started going our way." He pulls forward maybe fifty feet when it dies. He climbs down angrily.

"We'll find another ride," Glenn calmly walks up.

"If there was a ride worth a damn in this town we would've found it. This thing has done some crowd clearing, which means we have an air filter filled with damn human remains. There is no damn cornere in this damned earth that has not been dicked hard beyond all damned recognition!" He grabs a plaster bag on the ground and starts wiping away at blood and guts on a grill on the side of the truck.

"Abraham?" Rosita pipes up with an attitude earning an angry 'what' from the ginger. "That feeds the radiator, the intake for the engine is actually on the roof." He nods and looks up and I see the small smile creeping on her face and I watch the interaction with one of my own.

A tire comes rolling out of an open door behind the truck and we all watch it roll, then a pile of tires gets knocked over revealing walkers. I grab my sword quickly and Glenn calls for Tara and Maggie.

I start chopping and slicing, more walkers approach us from behind so I help Glenn there. Then water starts spraying, knocking walkers over and even killing them. We all step against the truck and watch, Eugene has the hose spraying them all down. We are all soaked, dripping in our own disgust.

"I've been to eight county fairs and one goat rodeo," Abraham announces. "I've never seen anything like that."

"There's a Goodwill over there by the bookstore, it's pretty beat up, but there might be some supplies. Some dry clothes maybe!"

"Not neccessary, I can clear that intake in two shakes. Then the engine will get some wind and so will we." He climbs onto the roof to clear the intake. "You'll air dry, we roll on."

"Damn it, I'm disgusting," I huff. Abraham starts laughing like a hyiena at something on the ground. We turn and read in red spray paint 'sick inside let them die.'

"What? Shit is screwed up," he throws his hands in the air as he continues his fit of laughter.