Serpents Tongue, The Walking Dead

xvi. highway feast

SIXTEEN. highway feast
[ SEASON TWO OF THE WALKING DEAD ]

Two days had passed in a prolonged silence. Unspoken moments, unspoken choices. The caravan of five cars had turned into one of three, that was if you counted the motorcycle driven by Daryl Dixon. The RV was where the Grimes sister found herself to be in alongside her husband, the vehicle also containing Andrea, Dale, Glenn, and T-Dog. When you look at the camper from the outside, the first thought is that it would fit as many as you wanted it to. But when you were confronted with it, when you had to squeeze six sweaty adults inside the small space, it quickly became cramped. The annoying thing was if you were to get up from your seat, when you returned, it was sure to be stolen.

That situation was one Adeline, thankfully, hadn't been confronted with seeing as she rarely walked around unless it was to use the bathroom or change clothes. Shane made sure she rested her ankle during the road trip to Fort Benning. To be able to finally take the pressure off of her injury, she already felt the muscles loose tension and slowly start to heal. When they made their most recent stop at a place that looked like it would hold supplies (it didn't) she already noticed the difference in when she walked. The limp wasn't as visible as it was before, and she could jog a little before it started to cause discomfort.

The wind that blew through the window caused brown strands to fall from their tucked space behind Adelines ears, whisking against the skin of her cheeks. She sat in the same spot she had been for two days, pushed up against the RV's wall next to Shane, his fingers brushing against the sleek metal of his gun while cleaning it. Their conversations had fallen short, not sure what to say to each other now that they had the time to say it. This came to Andreas attention, and due to her reckless mindset - she had even started flirting with Shane when his wife was asleep or wasn't paying attention. The blonde looked to feel anything other than grief. But Adeline being Adeline, took notice in her actions rather quickly.

"That looks complicated." Andrea spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence of the RV. She tucked her blonde strands of hair behind her ear, leaning forward to take a better look at the gun he cleaned.

Adeline pulled her eyes away from the window and furrowed her eyebrows, "It's not." she said abruptly, not giving her husband a chance to respond. At this, Shane tilted his head down and smirked out of habit. "He was the one who taught me how to clean them. I can clean yours if you want," She offered with a small sarcastic smile, leaning over Shanes lap and grabbing Andreas silver pistol from inside of the black duffel bag.

Retreating back to her spot, she found Andreas face in a flustered color - a crimson red blushing against her cheeks. Embarrassment was the main emotion she felt as Adeline examines her gun with ease and scrunched her face up at the uncleaned metal. "Yeah, this one needs a good clean." She informed.

Over the past two days, the change in Adelines personality and attitude had become clear to the whole group. She had become more snappy, more on edge ever since the CDC. They could say the same about theirselves, it made them realize that not everything is what it seemed to be. The building was supposed to be a safe haven, but instead it was a death sentence that all but one had been lucky enough to escape. That realization made Adeline become more defensive, it made her trust less and put her guard up even higher.