Nothing But Survival: Dead Eyes

Down The Road

His vision is blurred as Wallis began to wake up. The first thing he saw was his mother. "Ma" He said hoarsely. Wallis' mother went straight over to him from the bookshelf that she was standing in front of. "Wally, my poor Wally" she said in a caring tone. Wallis wanted to know what injuries he had but his loving mother couldn't tell for sure. "I can't say, we need to get some help" she said again as she put his pillow above his head. At this point they both heard the door open and close and a male voice call out "Teresa!" Wallis reached for his gun thinking that this person was an intruder but it turned out they were far from that. Teresa lowered Wallis' arm and said "In the den Robert!" The man walked in and saw Wallis. He didn't acknowledge Teresa at this point. He said straight away "You must be Wallis?" as Wallis nodded his head. Teresa then introduced them by saying "Wallis, this is Robert Oldman. He bought a piece of land in these parts shortly before the outbreak started. Robert, this is my son Wallis"

As the day went on Wallis and Robert got to know each other. In Teresa's eyes it was a productive relationship. "Ma, you know you've since 20 years before I was born to now, but my men have been killed, this is the only place I could come to. If we stay here too long someone will either take it for themselves or the dead will drive us out. Ma, we have to move out. Robert you're welcome to come with us" At the point when Wallis said this he and Robert were sitting in the kitchen eating stew that Teresa had made. After Wallis said this Robert and Teresa who was standing at the sink stared at him in confusion. "Umm Wallis, I think this place is fairly defensible. I know you're just protectin' your mom but, It's safe here" Robert said. To this Wallis disagreed. "The longer you stay in the one place, the harder the fall will be when you lose it. I lost my camp, John Lewis lost his farm and the same place that fucker is at right now, he'll lose that to. To me or eaters or someone else, he will lose it. And we'll lose here to if we don't leave. Nowhere is safe anymore". Wallis said back to Robert. It had always been hard to convince Teresa to make changes especially when it came to the ranch, but this time Wallis had succeed. "You're right honey. We should leave as soon as you're feeling more like yourself" She said to her son that seemed to be showing sense. 

A week later, Wallis was able to get around better then he could when he first arrived at his mothers. It was dawn and all three were packed and ready to go wherever the road would take them. Wallis walked out of the house and over the the red four door sedan that Robert was putting bottles of fuel into the boot of. "Where is she?" Robert asked Wallis to which he said, "She's inside taking a last look". 

Teresa stood alone in the kitchen of where she had lived 50 years of 70 year long life. As she looked around tears fell from her eyes and she heard echoes of her husband and Wallis as a child. Now she knew that the time for her to move on from the ranch that her and her husband built when they were only 20 years old had come. She would go with the roads of the crazy world of today. 

5 hours later the three of them were well on the road. Not a word had been spoken since they left the ranch. Wallis and Robert were both okay with leaving the ranch. It was Teresa who was upset. "Hey Wallis, pull up man. I need a piss" Robert said to Wallis as he pull the car over to the side of the road. Once Robert was out Wallis said to Teresa "Listen Ma, I know it's hard for you leaving the ranch and all but sooner or later we we're gonna have to leave anyway. Eaters or a bad group of people like John Lewis' group would've taken it. It belongs to itself now. It's better than a bunch of assholes or the fucking dead living their and us knowing it. We can pretend it's exactly how we left it" Teresa didn't say a word to this but Robert was now back in the car and they had to keep on moving. 

The sun has now setting and Wallis felt the need to stop the car and pull up on the side of the road for the night. As Wallis went to get out of the car he saw that the fuel gauge was getting close to low. While he still had daylight he decided to refill the car. As he did this Robert got out of the car and said to Wallis in a subtle way "She hasn't said a word?" What could Wallis say to this but "Nope. I'm worried. She's never been like this. Not even before pa died" Once Wallis said this they both looked over the trees that were surrounding them on each side of the road. They could see smoke. They could tell it wasn't burning because the smoke was white. Robert asked Wallis what he thought it was. "I don't know, but it's probably in Everton, we'll see it tomorrow when we go through" he said.

That night they had luck as they did not see an eater. A few hours into the daylight they drove forward. They went all that day with no stops. Not even for anyone to preform their necessaries. Teresa still hadn't said anything. This deeply worried Wallis. What was going through his poor mothers mind. Day slowly became night as Wallis pulled the car over on the outskirts of Everton. Just as everyone go settled in the car they saw a fire rise in the distance. It was coming from Everton and they knew this for certain this time. "Shit, Wallis we better go!" Robert said. Wallis began to drive at full speed through Everton and as they went on, the saw a high school that's oval was burning. As they looked ahead they saw two SUVs driving away from the fire.