Beside the Dying Fire

Cameron's POV

I yanked my ax out of the walker's skull and its corpse cascaded onto the subway rails. All the other eaters had already been downed by me.

"It's all clear," I whispered to the other 18 survivors that had followed my lead into to the subway tunnels.

We began walking through the darkness with the light of a small flashlight that Theo held as he walked next to me.

"Where are we going?" Theo asked.

I pointed into the tunnel, "That way."

"No, you dipshit," he rolled his eyes at me. "What are we going to do at the end of the tunnel? Are we gonna die fighting Jayla? Are we gonna cower below the surface listening to people die fighting Jayla?"

"We fight, of course!" I held up my ax in honor.

"These people are either way too old to fight, or way to young to fight. I'm right on the line of way too old, I'm nearly 50!"

We heard a scream from behind us. We both spun around, ready for action. An older woman, Evelynn, tripped over a subway rail and hand twisted her ankle.

"We can't keep walking!" another man yelled to me. "We've gone nearly 3 miles and we haven't seen another subway station that is actually passable!"

"We can't just stay in the middle of the tunnel, we have to go defeat Jayla!" I encouraged everyone.

"Well, what if we moved them all?" Elizabeth, Theo's 7 year-old daughter, suggested.

"Honey, we can't carry them all," Theo responded.

"No, we're in a subway tunnel. Can we find the subway and bring it to them?"

Theo and I stared at each other. Our glances said, "It could work."

"Man, you broke her heart back there," I told Theo.

"What did you expect me to do? I wasn't gonna let her find the train with the two of us, it could be dangerous!"

"Yeah, I wouldn't let her come either. However, I would've been easier on her. Like, I would've told her she could use the brakes once or something."

"I know. I'll make it up to her when we get back," Theo reassured me. He pointed at a walker facing the opposite direction ahead of us. "Cold body, up ahead."

I ran up behind it with my ax. I held the handle above my head and thrust the blade of the ax down into the skull of the walker. I kicked the corpse off of my ax and the walker body fell to the ground.

"If you don't mind me asking," I started speaking to Theo again, "why did you take Kai's side?"

"I wanted Elizabeth to learn not to take the easy route in life. She has to stay true to one leader."

"Okay, then," I didn't buy it.

"Why did you take his side?" he asked me.

"I wasn't given a choice, but if I had a choice I still would've taken his side. At least he didn't bruise me up like that bitch did."

"That's the only reason? Just a little scratch and you're gonna just pussy on over to the one who didn't hit you?"

"Of course not," I told him. "These people, they've been with me through every tragedy. I lost my sister a few days before everything happened and this group of men in Seattle took me in."

"Wait," he interrupted to ask me something. "Your sister died just before the outbreak?"

"Yes, she was in a car accident while she was on the phone with me."