Second {Z Nation}

Chapter 19

Season 2, Episode 10 [We Were Nowhere Near the Grand Canyon]

(There are a couple descriptions of sign language at the end of the chapter, they're in brackets as usual.)

     I sit awake, in the back of the RV. Images flashing behind my eyes, coffee brown eyes without any life left in them, a girl in red turning towards me after I scream her name so horribly that my vocal cords feel like they're tearing apart- a Z gnawing into her neck, a woman- her head flopping lifelessly to her chest- an eye is blown out of her head, an older man his head lolling to the side once my bullet enters his eye, the eye that he has left staring at me, two people lying on a brick pathway, dying in their own pools of blood- their hands are pressed together and there are holes in their heads. A hand shakes me from my thoughts and my eyes tune back into reality, I'm staring down at my shaking hands that rest on my knees.

     I look up to see that 10k is the one that shook me. "Yeah?" I gulp.

     "You okay?" He whispers.

     "Great," I lie as I shove my hands into my pockets.

     10k opens his mouth to say something but Warren's voice interrupts him; "where are we?" She asks. 

     "About a hundred miles north of Flagstaff I'm thinking," replies Addy who sits nearby, fiddling with some wires.

     "I dunno how much longer this old bucket of bolts is gonna keep running," Doc tells her from where he steers the large metal box.

     "Talking about yourself or the rig?" Addy jokes as she fiddles with a radio.

     Doc laughs, "both. I think we're getting near the Grand Canyon," Doc informs us.

     "I went there once when I was a kid," Murphy recounts from the bunk above where Doc sits, reminding me that he had a childhood- honestly sometimes I forget that Murphy was a human once. "It was beautiful," he reminisces, "what? Can't believe I was a kid once?" 

     No one speaks, but Warren stands from where she sits next to Vasquez and slides into the passenger seat next to Doc. "What's that?" She asks, looking out the windshield at a large dust cloud that breezes across the plains ahead of us.

     "I've been watching it for a while," Doc alerts her, "I hope it's not what I think it is cuz it's right where we're going."

     "We need some recon, how's that radio coming?" She asks Addy, turning around.

     "About to find out," The redhead tells her as she finishes fiddling with the wires. "Okay, yeah," she nods to 10k who takes the taped up TV antenna and shoves them out the sunroof at the very back of the RV in the bathroom. "Northern Light, Northern Light do you copy?" Addy asks into the walkie that is attached to the radio. "Northern Light, this is Delta-X-Ray-Delta, do you copy?" 

     "When's the last time you talked to that guy anyway?" Murphy asks, rolling over in the bed. "Probably isn't even alive anymore."

     "Aren't you a ray of sunshine this morning?" Vasquez asks sarcastically.

     "Well excuse me, princess. That's what happens when you haven't had a decent cup of coffee in half a decade," Murphy grunts and turns back over in the bunk.

     "Citizen Z, this is your old pal Addison Carver, do you copy?" Addy asks into the radio once more. "Citizen Z, do you copy? Citizen Z I know you're out there- it's me, Addy, do you read me? Citizen Z, keep reaching out- do you copy? Come on Citizen Z, I know you're out there- you gotta be- do you read me?" She urges the radio.