Feral Citizens

Lonely Hearts

"We'd like to join you for gun training today." This was just a bad idea. Shane had rounded up everyone interested in shooting guns and most of them had never even held a gun before. I had not signed up for this.

"Hershel's been very clear. I can't involve any of you in what we do without his okay."

"He doesn't like it, but he consented. Otis was the only one who knew guns. Now that he's gone, we gotta learn to protect ourselves. Her father saw the sense in that." Rick wasn't taking Patricia at her word.

"No offense, but I'll ask Hershel myself." He decided. According to Shane, Hershel had scolded Rick for allowing Jimmy to help them, and for Daryl taking one of his horses.

I spotted Carol standing with Sophia; it looked like she had taken our advice and decided to try gun practise herself.

"Hey Carol." She returned the greeting and looked at the guns laying on the wooden table, eyeing them with caution. "Will you be joining us?"

"Me and Sophia." She stroked Sophia's strawberry blonde hair and smiled at her daughter. Both of them had put-on long-sleeved tops. "I thought that maybe she could use some practise. I'd like her to be able to look after herself."

"Sure, I can ask Shane if I can keep an eye on you two whilst we're training." Shane and Rick walked back, with a red-faced wife and son behind Rick. "Shane, you mind if I focus on Carol and Sophia today?"

"Long as you take some time to help everyone else as well."

"No problem."

"Right!" Shane jumped to the front of the group and began to bellow out instructions. "Now, we're gonna be walking to the practise area. It's a little while down, so I hope ya'll don't mind the trek."

I turned around to Beth and Maggie to try and make some conversation. "Ya'll doing okay?" Beth grinned, and I immediately regretted asking. She talked and talked and talked. Damn teenagers. Maggie looked at me and rolled her eyes in agreement. As a sister myself, I knew what it was like to put up with younger siblings.

Beth stopped talking to breathe, and Maggie took her opening. "So, Glenn says you ain't even from Georgia?"

"Nah, I'm an Arkansas girl. Dad owned a store, Mom was a kinda midwife at the local clinic."

"So she was like a nurse?"

"Sorta. I mean, she taught me a couple of things, but not a lot, I couldn't like- do surgeries of some shit like that." They didn't seem to care. Even Lori seemed interested in what I had to say, and all of a sudden, everyone as asking questions about how I'd gotten to Georgia.

"We took a Greyhound to visit my Aunt in hospital, some Romanian tourist on a trip with her boyfriend got on as we entered Georgia, bleedin' all over the place. Said her boyfriend had attacked her."

"So what happened after that?" Carl asked. His eyes shone with excitement, poor kid was still recovering from his wounds and had been bored out of his mind since then.

"Well, we couldn't get a hold of any emergency services, so she died while sitting in her seat. The hostess came over while she wasn't breathing and tried to give her CPR." A collective gasp rose up from the group. Only Shane looked particularly unfazed. "she turned and bit the hostess."

"So how did you stop her from biting anyone else?" Lori asked.

"I didn't. I was on the top floor; she was on the bottom. Some Native American guy called Kit took her out." Kit, now there was a face that hurt to think about. Actually, there were a lot of faces that hurt to think about. And so many names. Some had died, and some had just never come back, or went missing in the night. All those people we had lost. A full bus, and now it was likely just me and Josie left.