Mushaboom • Daryl Dixon

3

Rachel

We pulled out a map when we got to the river and filled up seven gallons of water. We took a moment to figure out where we were and where a good place to settle could be. Ricky drew a perimeter and pointed out a spot on the map, "There's a town farther east, and on the other side of it, is that prison? ..Maybe we can be on the other side, a few miles in from the town, just in case we need to make a run for supplies."

I became uneasy at the thought of us going on runs, being so close to the main road. "What if we run into people?"

Ricky sighed, "We haven't run into anyone in weeks-"

"Maybe we'll find another group?" Milo butted in. "A group that already has a safe place set up?"

I shook my head, "We should start our own place, make sure it works the way that'll keep us safe. It's no better going into a place that's weak than being out of the road."

"Will we ever let people join us then?" He asked.

I hesitated but shook my head, "I don't know Mi, we have to be cautious-"

Milo raised his tone, but managed to keep his words hushed, "I know. I get it. Its just- Not everyone is weak or bad. There's gotta be people who survived like us. But we'll never know if we just close ourselves off to everyone!"

"I'm willing to take that chance. My only concern is keeping the three of us safe, I'm not risking that in hopes of finding good people. I'm sorry." I felt bad, but I didn't have the patience to try and sugarcoat it all; I felt I owed it to Milo to be nothing but straightforward with him.

Milo looked as if he was going to continue fighting me on this. But Ricky finally backed me up, "Your mom's right, it's best if we make our own set up. We'll go from there but for now, let's just focus on finding a place okay?" I nodded to Ricky, thanking him. It felt as if we were a team, raising Milo through all of this. We didn't always agree, but he always had my back. I really appreciated that, especially since Milo thought highly of Ricky's input.

Milo looked from me to Ricky. He pursed his lips and took a deep breath before nodded, "Alright."

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We distanced ourselves a good 15 miles from the town not too far from the river and prison. We drove the car in as far as we could into the woods, siphoned the gas that was left so no one could take it, and started on foot. We figured we'd find some land nearby.

We must've been walking a couple hours before we found ourselves at a small barbed wired fence. We hadn't run into any roamers since we left the car. We took that as a good sign, but we still had to be careful. We continued with our guns drawn, and made our way around the fence.

We walked along the fence line and came to a stop when we saw it. A bit of ways in from inside the fence, was a small home, with a shed and untamed garden. It had to have been an acre. It looked abandoned, like no one had been through here in months.. This could work, but nothing ever came this easy..

Our guns were raised just in case anything went wrong. It was so quiet in the area, we should've been able to hear anything coming our way. I glanced over to Ricky and he motioned for himself to lead the way. Milo followed behind him; I covered our backs.

Ricky took off his flannel and laid it over the barbed-wire, then motioned for mine and Milo's sweaters. He placed the rest on top, and carefully climbed over, and covering us while we followed suit. He continued forward and shook his head, "Doesn't look like anybody's been here in a while."