The other Dixon- The walking dead fanfic

IX

"Oi, get up" I kicked Jay in the side, making him groan loudly. It was 6am and we had to get walking. The boy rolled over before standing up, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"There's a town not too far from here, St George's, we'll try find a car there" I explained, showing Jay the map as we continued walking through the woods. I watched as Jay tripped on a rock, falling flat on his face, clearly he wasn't very good at multitasking.

I put my hands on my knees as I laughed at him, sitting on the floor in defeat, a Pinky shade covering his cheeks as he did. I put my hand out, dragging him to his feet,
"Watch where you're going, mate" I told him as I calmed my laughter down, I could hear grumble something but I couldn't quite make it out.

---

Seeing the town from the edge of the woods was possibly the most relieved I've felt in weeks- months even. I glanced behind me at Jay, who looked just as content as me.

"Okay, let's just... take this slow" I suggested, holding my machete tightly in my hand as I went first, Jay closely behind me. We began searching a couple houses but didn't find much, just a granola bar and an open water bottle- we left that behind.

We stood in the middle of the road, about to separate for a minute,
"All right, you go check out the convenience store, see if it's got anything good, basically just grab anything that's left, I'll be in the car park tryna get one of them start so just... shout if you need me" I could see that he was hesitant at first but after seeing my glare, he nodded, walking of towards the Walmart as I turned on my heels, picking out a couple cars to try get starting.

---

I was on my fifth car when it started, and, if I'm being honest, I was starting to give up hope.
"Hell yeah.." I muttered, opening the boot, filling it with spare fuel I had managed to scavenge from the other cars.

I pulled my gun out quickly when I heard something behind me, shaking my head as Jay stood there, frozen in spot. I dropped it, gesturing to the car behind me,
"Got one working" I said as he moved towards the boot, loading it with medical supplies and water he found on the shop,
"Let me drive, you should get some rest" Holding out his hand for the map. I considered it for a second before giving in, placing the compass and map in his palm, after all, I didn't get any sleep last night,
"Just wake me if anything happens" I told him, climbing into the back of the car, laying down on the three seats, using my bag as a pillow.

I was in a state between sleeping and being awake almost immediately, I felt myself smile as I felt Jay placing something warm over my body before driving, trying to go as carefully as possible not to wake me.

---

I don't know how long I was asleep for. I had woken up a couple times but not for long enough to know where we were.

"Where are we?" I asked, my voice was gravelly and my eyes hurt as I rubbed them,
"We're almost at a town called Dublin" Jay replied as I sat up, looking at the scene outside. The road was darker than normal as there were no street lights on but by the colour of the sky, the sun would be rising soon anyway,
"Do you want me to drive?" I asked, looking down at the Jay's jacket, which had been placed over me whilst I had been sleeping. I smiled to myself,  pulling it over my shoulders as my jacket was in my bag in the boot,
"I'll pull over in the town, we'll stop there anyway" He suggested.

When I first met Jay, I thought he didn't have a single ounce of survival instincts in him, I see now I was wrong, he just shows it differently to me.

---

The town was eerily quiet, I couldn't even see any cranks. We decided not to stay long, just to fill up on fuel as there was a gas station,
"Look at this" I said happily as I walked out the shop, holding up a deck of cards. I saw Jay smiling, shaking his head playfully as he looked down at the ground.

I hadn't found much in the shop apart from the cards, just a couple packs of batteries, which were ours now.

Jay was already asleep in the back seat before I started driving. I glanced back at him before strapping myself in, taking the family photo from my pocket, propping it upright so I had a good view of it as we drive, continuing our journey.

I had agreed to take a slight detour to Atlanta, Jay told me that the rest of his family headed there at the beginning, if that's where he wanted to go, I would be fine dropping him off there. I hadn't told Jay why I was going to the cabin yet, or that there was actually a cabin, I had just told him 'it wasn't his business'.

I had finally figured a good route for us to take too. I was going to drive us to Atlanta, park us on a hill overlooking the city so we didn't have to actually go down, then Jay would leave, go off to the city or whatever. From there I would drive to a town called Greensboro and then I would drive to the cabin.

I put my foot down, we estimated the drive to take about 2 hours but I recon I could shave at least 30 minutes off that...

Word Count: 954
Total word count: 7,613