BONE CRUSH

Part 19

Streamers from a sign blew in the wind. Leigh had seen so many posters up along roads, seeing the inevitable slow fade of writing by force of seasons and weather. Someone had gotten seperated from someone and left a scrap of hope behind. She wondered if anyone actually managed to reunite like that, if the faith of someone finding their trail was enough to lead them back together again.

The car ride was tense. Michonna drove with a tight grip on the steering wheel and Rick was almost frozen in his seat, except for his fingers restlessly drumming against the car door.

"Hey!" Leigh looked up from her hands. A man was at the side of the road trying to get their attention. He jerked his arms up into the air and started running after the car as Michonne drove by. "Slow down! Please— I'm begging you! Hey!"

Carl looked back. Leigh sat frozen.

"We don't know who he is," Rick said quietly. He wasn't moving his fingers anymore. "Can't take anymore chances with strangers now."

Michonne's gaze flicked to Leigh through the mirror.

"Look at that," Carl said, pointing towards a few cars scattered across the road. A few had flipped, crushing rotters beneath them. It forced Michonne to gravitate over, leaving the asphalt road in favour of driving across the ditch to work around the obstacles.

One of the cars had the windows smashed in. Bodies were stuck to their seats, missing skin and pieces of flesh. A sick feeling bloomed inside her stomach at that exposed red.

It triggered old memories. She had seen people get split open in punishment. Someone did something wrong, so someone got punished for it. And it had always been a public affair, drawing the whole crowd of the compound in together to watch justice play out. Leigh had seen skin break and bones get crushed. Blood splattering the ground, bodies completely ruined for the sake of a lesson.

The car lurched. Michonne pushed down on the gas harder to make the tires spin but soft mud held them captive. It whined as she tried pulling the wheel back and forth, desperate to get some kind of traction.

Rick and Carl were silent but Leigh sensed their mutual frusteration. She wondered why Rick hadn't taken the keys. He seemed to like control.

Rotters suddenly swarmed their car. They pressed their hands and faces to the windows, awkwardly surging around each side. Fingers scratched at the dirty glass. It felt like they were fish inside of a tank, stuck in a tiny bubble.

Rick turned back to look at Carl and Leigh. "Cover your ears," he said flatly. His gun was in his hand. They obeyed and he rolled down the window just enough to stick the gun out, lining up with one of the rotters properly. It still hurt when he fired, dropping the one directly outside of his door, gunshot ringing inside her ears. He then quickly got out of the car, using the gap he created, and started clearing the rotters with efficiency.

They stopped moaning and rasping. Their bodies hit the ground in an orderly process, the man driving down each one with a knife when he could manage the close range, and his gun when it wasn't safe to risk it. They looked sun bleached and filthy, hair matted from dampness and dried blood. Leigh struggled out of the car herself when it was clear and looked down at a man's body sprawled in the grass.

He was nobody.

But the leather jacket...

Leigh couldn't stop looking at it and the blood.

"Stick close," Rick warned her. His feet were inches from the corpse's ruined skull. "Won't take long to clear this mess."

"Right."

He clearly wasn't finished with her yet. "You might not be used to working with us yet, but the solution is staying together. Nobody wanders off. We keep tight, everyone is within eyesight."