The Bad, The Ugly, And Us

On the Road Again

I wake up early in the morning to hear some noises downstairs. Derrick and Julia are already up and packing up some food and water to get into the RV. I walk back into my room letting them talk. I'm glad Julia has been getting close with Derrick, gives her someone else to talk to when I'm not around. I start packing up my clothes from my room and grab my sleeping bag for the road. I grab my handgun out from under my pillow and put it in my belt. I bring my bag downstairs, I'm more than ready to hit the road. "Morning sleepyhead" Julia says to me. "Good morning little sis. Hope she isn't giving you too much trouble Derrick."
"Of course not Dylan, Julia is always a pleasure to have around." I smirk and hand Derrick my bag for him to go place in the RV. "Oh yeah Dylan, can you grab my spare arrows from our room please."
"Yeah of course Julia." With that I go back upstairs. I'm not very excited to be back on the road but we can't stay here, it's for the safety of my sister. As I gather the arrows I hear distant chatter that for sure isn't Derrick and Julia. I slowly walk down the hallway with my machete in hand. The chatter is coming from Max's room. "Of course I wanna stay with them, they are my friends. It's important to have people in this world you can trust and I trust them." I open the door, "Max are you okay, who are you talking to."
"Yeah I'm okay, and I'm talking to my mother."
"Well where is she?"
"Dead." Before I can even muster up anything else to add Max quickly changes the subject.
"So when are we headed out?"
"Very soon, just loading the last few things into the RV and then we are off."
"It's a shame we couldn't stay here, it was very nice. Always wanted to live in a mansion like this before the world changed. I remember my family always used to live in a shitty rundown apartment, I had about 5 siblings."
"Wow that was one big family, but why are you telling me about this now."
"Well back then my stepfather was an abusive asshole, this after my father died in a boating accident. He was a commercial fisherman. My mother was the closest person to me back then. She was brutally beat to death by my stepfather about 2 weeks before this all started. I'm glad she never had to live to this world. What I mean to say is my world has been fucked up since before this all happened, I've never had a normal life, nothing's ever been normal. This world to me is what the world's always been, crazy and fucked up. You guys are the closest things I've ever had to friends. I'm glad this all started cause I finally have my own little family of friends. Thank you so much for always being here for me Dylan." She smiles at me and gives me a hug. I return the embrace. A part of me feels I need to keep an eye on Max, after all this trauma she just spilled out to me I hope she doesn't go all loose cannon, we need her to be with us and be strong. I hear a horn honking outside and Julia calling from downstairs, "let's go slowpokes it time to leave." With that Max let's go of me and proceeds to grab her bag. I step out into the hallways and once again pick up Julia's bag of arrows. We make our way downstairs where I hand the bag of arrows off the Julia. "Thanks big bro I knew you'd come through." We all walk to the RV where Derrick is awaiting our arrival. "Any plans on a destination Derrick, you know the area better than anyone else here." After a little pause Derrick finally answers.
"Yeah, I got a place in mind "