After Death (Season 4)

Chapter 6 (We gotta get away)

Chapter 6: We gotta get away

Ethan Warren

Estimated, April 2025

About 35 months after outbreak

California, The Circus

Season 4

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It's been raining for days now, it was good for the crops but it's not good enough. Our supplies is getting less and less by the minute now that we were sharing with the enemy. They still haven't left and it was driving me insane. I wanted them gone but I didn't know how they'd react if I kicked them out.

Timothy was more of a reasonable man than I first took him for. He wasn't greedy and he respected that I was the one calling the shots as long as he was inside our walls. His people however, were not the same. They shoved guns in our face, stole food off our plates, and beat us in the streets. No one dared to touch me though. I knew they weren't scared of me, they were scared of what Timothy would do if he found out. I knew he wasn't here to protect me but he gave me the impression that he admired me at least a little. He was all fun and games until Thomas came into the room, that's when the machine gun came out. I don't know why he didn't just kill Thomas and leave, he had so many chances to and if he really was here just for that than why didn't he just get it over with. Maybe he had more unresolved business with the former Ringmaster, maybe he had a vision of what his death should be.

I didn't really mind Timothy being here. If he was to stay and send his people back I would have been fine with that. It was Rudi who wanted him gone for obvious reason. He might have even killed him if Airi was still asleep. I hated how I would have stopped him if he tried anything. He deserved to kill him just like how Timothy deserved to kill Thomas.

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On morning I caught Rudi packing bags with Juna. They were filled with clothes and canned food. I immediately knew what was happening. Rudi was leaving and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

"What are you doing," I asked, not really knowing what else to say. He looked like he was choosing his words very carefully. He didn't have to, I already knew what he was going to say.

"Taking a break."

"Where will you go?" I began to fold some of Airianna's clothes and put them into Marcus' old backpack. I wasn't going to talk him out of it, he felt it was for the best and I couldn't argue.

"I don't know. Maybe try to go back home but who knows how that'll work out."

"Back to Minnesota?"

"Yeah, like I said, I don't know." I knew he wasn't in the right mindset. He was angry and wanted a solution to a problem that I was taking too long to solve. It's my fault that he left, I drove him away.

Airianna wasn't fully healed yet but she was much better than before. Evelyn tried to talk Rudi out of it. She told him how Airi wasn't fit to travel but he didn't listen. He took one of the last cars we had, filled it with as much gas as we could spare, probably more than we could spare, and left without saying goodbye. I watched from the gate as the car drove away and I held back tears thinking how I'll never see him again. I had lost another brother to something debatably worse than death.

Timothy tried to show me sympathy but it only made it worse. I began to want him gone as much as Rudi did. Steve was angry at me now, for not stopping Rudi before it was too late, he didn't talk to me no matter how many times I apologized. He was right though, I should have stopped him.

I began to realize what this man was trying to do. Slowly but surely he was making us hate each other. I still don't think he meant to shoot Airi but I do believe that when he did he saw it as an opportunity to watch us all turn on one another because he knew we'd be mad at him but we wouldn't do anything about it. That's when we'd blame each other for him not being dead yet. I didn't have the heart to stop the cycle either. If I would have killed him than they'd have no one else to blame. They'd all be happy that he's dead and we wouldn't have to drift apart anymore. It seemed like a simple solution but what would it turn us into?