📖 Chapter 45: The Quiet Before
The first day passed... almost too easily.
After what they had seen before, no one truly relaxed—but as the hours stretched on without incident, the tension began to ease, just a little.
The walkers they encountered were... normal.
Slow.
Uncoordinated.
Mindless.
Rick didn't trust it.
Not for a second.
They kept to the back roads, the two RVs moving steadily west. They didn't stop unless they had to, and when they did, it was quick, quiet, and controlled.
Daryl rode ahead on the bike, scouting. Glenn and Maggie rotated watch. Michonne stayed close to the door, her hand never far from her sword.
Kagome sat by the window, Caleb resting against her chest, his small breaths steady and warm.
She hadn't felt it again.
That presence.
That wrongness.
But that didn't mean it was gone.
"You still feel it?" Rick asked quietly, stepping beside her.
Kagome hesitated.
"...No."
Rick frowned.
That answer didn't make him feel any better.
By the second day, even Daryl had stopped mentioning the strange movement.
"They're just roamers," he muttered after dropping one with a bolt. "Same as always."
Glenn nodded. "Maybe it really was just a fluke."
Kagome said nothing.
That night, they stopped briefly near a tree line.
No fire.
No light.
Just enough time to eat and rest.
A deer stepped cautiously out of the brush.
It froze for a moment—ears twitching—then slowly moved forward, grazing along the edge of the clearing.
Not a single walker turned toward it.
Not one.
Kagome's grip tightened slightly around Caleb.
"They don't see it..." she whispered.
Rick followed her gaze, his expression darkening.
"They're not looking for animals."
"They're looking for us," Kagome finished softly.
The third day—
Everything changed.
It started small.
Too small.
A single walker stood in the road ahead.
Not moving.
Just... standing there.
Rick slowed the RV.
"That one's off."
Daryl circled back on the bike. "Been watchin' it. Ain't moved once."
Kagome leaned forward slightly.
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Apocalyptic Love
FanfictionKagome Higurashi has returned from the past and made a choice-to move forward with her life. Graduating at the top of her class, she leaves Japan behind and travels to America to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor. For a time, everything feels no...
