Feral Citizens

Left

We'd been travelling two days. Jacqui and Miranda had died the day before last, something that stuck in all of our minds. The road was long, and we'd only stopped for a couple of hours rest before moving.

I clung to Daryl's waist as lightly as I could without crushing him. The only other motorbike I'd ever been on had been Lucas', who had driven like a maniac and liked to make sharp turns. The wind blew my hair into my face, making it very hard to see.

The bike's roars softened to a purr as we pulled up in front of a pile up of cars. The interstate stank of corpses and rot. From my view on the bike, I could see the outlines of bodies sat in the cars, all shapes and sizes. It was only when I saw the outline of a baby car seat that I decided I'd seen enough.

"We should go through, see if we can find a way through." Daryl mumbled, revving the bike back to life. "you got my back?"

"Sure thing." We manoeuvred our way through the car wreckage, cautious and alert. A lot of cars usually meant lots of people, dead or alive. I made note of some cars; ones that had canned food in the open trunks, or had backpacks piled in the back seats. We could use all of that later.

"RV could fit through that gap there. Don't know if there's anythin' up ahead after that."

"I could get off the bike and look?" I suggested. Daryl shook his head.

"Nah. Best not go off alone right now. 'Sides, don't want you tryin' to skip out on us." My eyebrows furrowed as I tried to figure out what he meant. "yeah, I know. Rick heard you and your sister discussin' leavin' at some point."

"Oh really?"

"Uh huh. They don't think you'll stick around long." He said, turning the bike back around to go tell the others what we had found.

"And what about you? Do you think I'm gonna stick around?" He went quiet. The RV appeared in sight, as well as Dale's head stuck out the window.

"See a way through?" The old man asked. Daryl nodded, and turned the bike around again to lead Dale through the cars. We barely even made it past the first few rows before the RV began to splutter and smoke. Guess our makeshift radiator hose replacement had finally gave out.

With the RV immobile, there was no point trying to move on yet. The sight of dirty and tired survivors piling out of cars was becoming a recurring image these days. Dale yanked the charred hose replacement out of the RV. "Well Liz, I guess that's not gonna work anymore. Can't say I didn't try as best I could."

Shane groaned, rubbing the back of his head with vigour. "So what you're saying is, we're stranded?"

"Until we find something to get this working, yes." Dale confirmed, slapping the hood of the Winnebago.

"Don't get too worked up over it, man," T-Dog chimed in. "we're surrounded by cars. Gotta something we can use around here."

"He's right," I added, popping the trunk of an abandoned car. Inside was a mix of canned goods and clothes. "we can probably find everything we need somewhere on this highway if we look hard enough."

Lori crossed her arms, "I don't feel good about taking things that belonged to the dead." others in the group looked at each other, debating her words.

"Sometimes you're not going to get the choice." I said quietly. Lori screwed up her eyes and turned away. She was a compassionate woman, I had to give her that much. But there was no room for compassion for the dead right now. We needed it, they didn't. It was plain survival.

"Okay," Rick interjected. "we spread out and search for things we need- food, water and gas most of all. Nobody go too far out of shouting distance and keep an eye out for walkers everywhere."