What Walks Among Us (book one)

Do-It-Yourself

I kicked a rock, making it hurtle off of the road and Cody simply shook his head while I searched for my next target. No one had really spoken, nor had anyone tried to speak. I've caught Sam open his mouth on multiple occasions only to just close it and look down, eyebrows scrunching like he was trying to figure out a math problem.

There's something I can honestly say I don't miss. Math, though if this is the alternative to struggling through awful tests then I'm not sure which one is worse.I adjusted my bag, at the same time that Trish let out a sigh of what sounded like relief.

"Guys, look, I think it's a gas station.. maybe a do it yourself car wash too," she said, pushing her short black hair out of her eyes. It flopped back momentarily before deciding to be stubborn and falling back into her eyes.

I turned my attention to where her finger was pointing and noticed a small building in the distance, though it clearly looked like a gas station. There were two buildings next to it, and while one looked like a marketplace that accompanied most gas stations, the other did look like a car wash. I couldn't help but smile a little. The car wash was a major thing, I was very eager to get the zombie guts off of me and maybe even some of the dirt if I was lucky.

Cody tilted his head, his eyes narrowing to get a better look, "Maybe about another forty-five minutes to go?"

I set my face into a determined mask and started walking again, with a little more pep in my step at the promise of a shower, no matter how cold the water might end up being. At first there were no footsteps following me, but then Sam was catching up and the other two were right on our tails.

I glanced over at Sam and the goofball made a face, managing to make me crack a smile.

The walk to the gas station was another quiet one, but this time our thoughts were centered around the possibility of finding food, and other supplies at the gas station market, not to mention the likelihood of getting cleaned off.

"Kodi, I wanted to tell you that I didn't mean to push you down, I was in the mindset that you weren't able to defend yourself, and it really wasn't fair of me."

The words startled me out of my day dream of showering in a car wash, and I had to take a second to gather my thoughts enough to process his words.

"Sam," I said, looking over and catching sight of the way he seemed to be beating himself up over it, "honestly, I probably would have frozen up if you hadn't shoved me,-" I was about to say more to ease his guilt when he cut me off.

"No, Kodi, stop. You don't know that and the fact is, we probably will never know because I took the decision out of your hands. I know it's not a huge deal, because no one died, but you got hurt because of it, an injury that you probably wouldn't have gotten if I had just trusted you to make the right moves," he said, running his fingers through his brown hair and looking at me. His eyes were void of any humour, and I knew that he took this seriously in that moment.

A lot of what Sam does is try to make people feel comfortable at ease, always the one to lighten the mood, and for that I had always been sure that he would be a wonderful doctor. But seeing him all serious, reminded me that no matter what he chose to be, being a fighter had to come first.

I looked ahead, noticing that the gas station was a lot closer than what it had been what felt like moments before. I thought out my reply carefully before actually speaking.

"You're right, but so am I. What's done is done, and while it sucks that you didn't let it play out without interference, no one died. And that's all that's important. So what if I got a little bit of a scrape out of it? I'm good to go, and it didn't break the skin so it doesn't even qualify as an injury.."

I peeked over at Sam who was watching me intently. He gave a sigh, and nodded, as if silently agreeing that we would drop the subject.

It wasn't long before we got to the gas station, and when we did, Sam and Cody checked the inside of the store while Trish and I silently stood outside, as backup if needed. There was a moan, and a sickening slice, then a thump.

Cody popped his head out and nodded, "All clear, Kodi how about you and I check out the car wash, while Trish and Sam check the store for anything useful," he turned his eyes away from me to look at Sam, "If we get the water to work, we'll come and get you both if we manage to get the water working."

Sam nodded and pulled off his backpack, setting it on the ground while he dug through it to find the extra one, while Cody and I walked towards the car wash. Well, Cody walked and I practically ran over to it. I stopped in front of the little machine that said it had candy inside. I tried to pull off the door, and then realized that I would have to be a little more inventive than that, so I looked around until I found the perfect rock.

Cody was already pulling tools out of his bag, trying to trick the coin machine into thinking we had given it money, so I didn't bother asking if it was a good idea or not. I hefted the rock up, and using all I had, I threw the rock at the little metal dispenser.

All in all, I probably should have been helping Cody, and we both knew it. But when he looked up to see what I could possibly be doing, he only chuckled and went back to work. I smiled victoriously as I admired the newly dented door, but when I slipped my fingers into the cracks it was still latched on some how.

I found a smaller rock, and started hitting the latch part with the rock, mindful of my fingers. Cody stopped what he was doing to watch me, and while I knew he was watching I knew that if I stopped and faced him I would feel to embarrassed at my antics to continue.

I gave one final blow to the machine before hearing a crunch, and the door practically fell off, barely hanging onto one of the hinges. I dropped the rock, managing to miss my foot by a centimeter or two, before checking out what I had just managed to get.

I smiled in absolute glee when I realized that I may have helped Cody after all, and I wasn't talking about the lemonheads either.