22 (TWD Fanfiction)

Chapter 15 - Gone Astray

     Blue? No green, definitely green.

I'm sitting on the bed in the back of the Rv. Paper and markers litter the graying sheets. I grab my green marker and start coloring in the eyes of a pegasus. My plan is to give it to Sophia, she loves all that horse and unicorn stuff.

I'm just about to finish coloring the wings when I feel the RV slowing. Curious, I look out the window. We're in the middle of a highway. Why would we stop here?

Abandoning my drawing I make my way to the front of the RV. Andrea and Shane are at the table, he's cleaning his gun. Again. T-dog is leaning against the counter, drinking some water.

Moving past them all I stop just behind the passenger seat that Glenn is currently occupying. Out the front window I see lines of abandoned cars that stretch down the road as far as I can see, but what really catches my focus is the overturned truck blocking most of the road. I start imagining how that happened, only screams fill my mind at the thought so I shake my head to clear it and focus on what Dale's saying.

"See a way through?" He yells to Daryl, who's parked outside the window. He nods and slowly drives forward, Dale follows after him.

From the passenger seat Glenn's holding up a map, scanning the roads. "Maybe we should just go back. There's an interstate bypass-"

Dale cuts him off. "We can't spare the fuel." He sounds very final on that decision.

He drives forward, carefully avoiding cars and just barely scraping past a few of them when the engine sputters out and our view is covered by white smoke.

The RV comes to an abrupt stop and I catch myself on the back of Glenn's seat.

"Aw man, not this again," T-dog throws his hands up in frustration. He's the first to exit the RV. I follow him out, the others behind me.

Glenn opens the passenger door and gets out groaning at the sight of the engine smoke.

"You're gonna fix it, right?" I ask him.

"Dale's the one who'll be doing the fixing. I'll just be helping."

Dale pops the Rv's hood and everyone's waiting to hear his diagnosis on the engine's condition.

Rick and the others have stepped out of the minivan now and have headed over, Daryl stepping off his motorcycle and joining them.

I already miss the Rv's cooler temperature. The heat is so suffocating I'm worried the rubber on my converse is going to melt on the hot asphalt.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times dead in the water," Dale grumbles.

Shane surveys the area. "Serious problem Dale?" His eyes are looking out over the cars as he asks.

"Oh, just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no hope of-" He looks around at the deserted cars. "Okay, that was dumb."

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

Daryl moves past everyone and starts rummaging through the trunk of the closest car. "There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find."

"Can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-dog suggests.

"Maybe some water," Carol says with a longing look.

"Or food," Glenn adds.

Lori looks disgusted at the rest of us. "This is a graveyard. I...I don't know how I feel about this." Like just the thought of taking stuff from these cars would be the cruelest act we could commit.