Feral Citizens

Bought Time

The road had been a long and silent drive. We'd made one stop, gathered around the cars and discussed a plan for when it got dark.

There was a rest stop just a little farther from the outskirts of Atlanta. After a quick scout inside the building, we found only four spooks, which were dispatched quietly. Shane and T-Dog moved shelves and heavy objects to the entrances, covered the windows with as much cloth as they could find.

Rick has us gathered inside the office; everything was beginning to sink in. This group had lost so many people in the last few days. I supposed I could say my group too. I'd trapped us here the moment I made the decision to take care of the two children that had recently been orphaned. Maybe once we were somewhere safer, I could convince someone to take them off my hands so we could leave and go back home. Arkansas was home. I had cousins there, if they hadn't been killed or turned by now.

"So Rick, that plan didn't work out like you planned." Shane commented dryly, crouching down onto his haunches.

"Shane, you be quiet." Lori snapped.

"Wha- Lori, we just watched our only plan go up in flames. Literally. We ain't got enough gas to get anywhere, we barely made it here."

"We'll find somewhere. For now, we need to rest. We need time to mourn the people we lost." With those final words, Rick stood up and stepped outside. Lori suggested that she and Carol could stay in the office with all the kids; I left the three kids under my care with her and left the office.

Behind the till, I rummaged through my backpack for my sleeping bag. Where was it? I could see crackers, ammo, peanut butter, a hatchet- ah! I yanked the sleeping bag out and flung it to the ground. Today, I would rest. Tomorrow, we'd have to figure out our plan to leave.

I didn't sleep for hours. Every time I drifted off, I had nightmares. It was always the same one. Miranda would appear, burned but still recognisable. She'd mouth words I couldn't hear and then morph into her husband, bitten and ragged. And then it would get much more personal; my mother, throat ripped and bloody. Dad, with a bullet in his head. Hunter, my youngest brother, with wounds made by humans, and not monsters. Macon never appeared dead, I usually heard his voice calling for me, but I never saw him.

Even after all those images, it was Lucas that hurt me the most. That stupid face tattoo was glazed with tears as he begged me to shoot him.

As he asked me to do what I knew I had to.

"We need volunteers, some of the cars need to be left behind

"We need volunteers, some of the cars need to be left behind. We can siphon the gas." Rick explained. Dawn was just breaking over the sky. With no other real plans, Shane had suggested Fort Bennet, again.

"Well, I can give ya'll mine." Shane offered. T-Dog and, surprisingly, Daryl, also offered their own cars.

"Okay. So its settled."

"We'll have to move people around then."

"Okay." Rick agreed. "Carol and Sophia, we'll be with you two. Daryl is on his bike, and everyone else will be in the RV."

Clear of walkers, it looked like a perfect day to be outside. Any other time, I could have been at home, waiting for Dad to finish cooking up a barbeque whilst Mom set up the table with Lucas.

Gas was siphoned from the three cars, and Daryl brought out his bike, which I assumed was Merle's. The SS symbol on the side was definitely something Merle would find funny on a bike. Daryl pulled it up in front of me and, after hesitating, offered to let me sit on the back instead of being in the RV. "S'better than being cramped into that RV."

"Uh, sure." I replied. I knotted my hands together as he swung his leg over the side. This was a lot closer than the truck had been.

We rode out that same day, the RV tailing us as the bike hummed and growled alone the roads. The smoke from the CDC danced in the sky behind us as we left Atlanta behind. How long would it be before more of us died? How much time before we all died?

The long road left room to think.