forever » the walking dead ¹

12. stuck in traffic

After the tragic events at the CDC where they lost Jacqui, the group decided to take the long journey to Fort Benning, Katherine's head still hurt, some symptoms from her concussion a few days ago. She didn't want to go to Fort Benning, in case it was like CDC, deserted and everyone is dead.

But the group went just in case of the small possibility of something being there, it was better than being in Atlanta when there was nothing there at all, it was blown to bits, infested with the dead. They had to abandon Shane's jeep, Daryl pickup and the church van to save gas, which left them with the RV, Carol's Cherokee and Daryl's motorbike.

They slept in their cars most nights, in case they needed to make a quick getaway, and they always had someone on watch. They'd sit on the top of the RV, making sure nothing would surprise them in the night like what happened at camp.

Katherine was one of them, she took a shift in watching from atop the RV. It was so peaceful at night, they always found a spot to camp for the night where there were no visible walkers in the area, but that didn't mean some could wander over, which is why they had the lookout.

The lookout had a gun, just in case things went south, some were inclined on Katherine being lookout and holding a gun since she was only sixteen, but Shane, of all people, said she'd have to learn eventually and it was better to learn when there was no danger, than to figure it out when there was danger. He was the one who showed her the ropes back at the Atlanta camp, the first few weeks of the fall.

Katherine and her sister moved to sit in the RV, instead of Carol's Cherokee with the Grimes and Peletier families, knowing it'd be too much of a squeeze now with the extra stuff from the vehicles they left behind. Katherine didn't mind, she had a bit more space in the RV, and she had T-Dog and Glenn to keep her entertained for the long journey.

"Oh, jeez" Dale's voice from the front broke apart Katherine from her book.

She looked ahead out the window to see the road was blocked by a truck that had tipped on it's side, along with a bunch of other abandoned cars littering the area. "What is it?" Harlow asked, trying to see.

"The road's block. RV's too big to get through" Katherine told her.

Daryl came by to Dale's window and attempted to lead the RV through the traffic, cars were flipped, bodies were littering the streets, Katherine's stomach turned, she pulled Harlow away from the window so she couldn't see. Then the worst possible thing happened, the RV broke down.

Katherine's quick on her feet, following them out the RV, hearing Dale complain as she does, "I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water"

"Problem, Dale?" Shane huffs.

"Yeah, genius, the RV broke down," Katherine scoffed.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of–" Dale stops talking when Daryl starts rummaging through a nearby car., "Okay, that was dumb"

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane trailed off.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find" Daryl stated, Katherine nods in agreement, it might be weird going through these dead people's cars, but it's not like they'll need anything.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start" T-Dog said.

"Maybe some water," Carol suggested.

"Or food," Glenn added.

"This is a graveyard" Lori spoke up, everyone looks at her, "I don't know how I feel about this"

Katherine sighs, "I don't like it much either, Lori. But we need this stuff, these dead guys don't" she says a bit harshly. Katherine had learnt to adapt to the new world, what you have to do in order to survive, and if you can't do anything that's needed to survive, then you won't make it in this new world.

Everyone split and began to search the cars, Katherine told Harlow to stay with Carol while she looked around for anything the group, or herself, could use. She first approaches a black truck, she opens the door and jumps back slightly when there is a walker in the driver's seat. She stabs it through the head and manages to pull the body out and onto the ground below.

She opened the glove compartment, but didn't find anything useful, the only things in there were the car's registration and some plastic knife and fork. Katherine heaved herself into the truck and looked in the back, where she saw a bag. She gave the bag a poke with her knife, just in case and when she was sure there was nothing in there she pulled it to the front and onto the passenger's seat.

She opened the bag and her jaw dropped. Inside was a handgun, and a fair amount of ammo, and a hunting knife, much bigger than the pocket knife she'd been carrying. Katherine smirked, not so puney now is it Shane?

She puts her pocket knife in her pocket, planning to give it to Harlow now, she places her new knife into her belt, along with the gun.She zips up the bag of ammo and heaves it over her shoulder. She sees T-Dog and is about to shout his name, when she sees hundreds of walkers coming her way.

She quickly goes back to the black truck, throws the bag under and crawls under it, holding her breath as she can hear them coming closer. Her mind was racing, Harlow, God she hoped Harlow is okay and isn't freaking out.

She clenches her knife, ready, as they walk past, she moves her free hand over her mouth, to ensure she wasn't making a sound. The walkers stumble by, groaning, Katherine only hopes the others are okay.

After a couple minutes, they all walked past. Katherine stayed under a little longer just incase. She climbed out from under the car, where she saw the others were gathering back by the RV, and made her way back over to them.

She spots Harlow, standing by Carl, she was crying, Carol was crying, Rick was missing, Katherine looked around and noticed someone else was missing. Sophia. "Where the hell is Sophia?"

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Much shorter chapter, but that's okay.

man Sophia :( I liked her, I wish she stuck around longer, like ALOT longer. at least to Alexandria. then died in the pike lineup, like Henry did, then we'd get Carol's revenge era.