Highway To Hell

Chapter 3

"You been up all night?" I glance over as Shane climbs up the ladder.

   "Yeah. What of it?"
   "Not exactly healthy." I shrug. "Why'd you stay up?"
   "Couldn't sleep," I mutter. Is he always this nosy?
   "It's Ivy, right?"

"Yes."

"Mind telling me where your family is?"

"Mind keeping out of my business?" I snap. I throw my bag to the ground and walk to the ladder. I climb down and grab my bag. People were starting to wake up as I walk through camp.

"Hey, Ivy." I glance back at Amy.

"What up, Barbie doll?" I ask. She grins. She seemed to not mind her nickname half as much as her sister. She holds out a change of clothes.

"Glenn mentioned you not having a change of clothes. They won't fit the best, but here." She holds out a small stack of clothes. I take them with a nod of thanks. "Come on. You can change in my tent. Andrea isn't in there right now." She leads me to her tent and waits outside while I change into a pair of jean shorts and a T-shirt. The shorts fit fine, but the shirt was a bit baggy. I have more muscle than Amy, but she's way taller and has bigger boobs. I step out and she looks me up and down. "It'll do."

"Amy!" Amy glances back at Andrea.

"Gotta go. See you later." She walks over to Andrea. They start hanging wet clothes up. I sit on a log and start checking my ammo. I sigh. I don't have much more. I start cleaning my guns.

"You sure know your way around a weapon." I look up and see Dale behind me. I shrug.

"My dad and brothers were always into guns. Guess they rubbed off on me."

"Were?"

"Dad died a while back. I don't know about my brothers. We got separated when everything went down." He nods.

"I'm sorry about your father." I shrug.

"John was never much of a father in the first place. He loved us, sure, but he was never around. My brothers are the ones who raised me." I hope that the more harmless info I give them, the less they're likely to ask questions. Except Shane. I don't want to tell him anything.

"And your mother?" He sits next to me.

"Killed when I was four. That's how I came to live with my dad and brothers. They didn't even know I existed before that. My uncle caught wind of me and hunted me down so I wouldn't be put in foster care."

"Oh," he says, looking at a loss for words. I let out a small laugh.

"I'm okay. Like Dad, Mom loved me, but she loved the bottle more. Life sucks sometimes." I smile at him. "I had my brothers. They were enough. I know they're still alive and I'll find them." He smiles at me, but I can see in his eyes that he doesn't believe that last tidbit. That's fine. He doesn't know what I know. Everyone is up now and doing something. I notice Rick come out of his tent. I raise my hand and he waves at me with a smile. I yawn as I finish cleaning my guns. The lack of sleep will start getting to me here soon. Yesterday had been a long day. I get up and walk over to where Lori, Andrea, and Amy are hanging up clothes.

"Need a hand?" I ask. Not exactly my kinda thing, but what else am I gonna do? Lori smiles at me.

"Sure." I grab a shirt and start helping.

"So, Ivy, do you have any siblings?" I chuckle. "What?"

"I feel like I've been over this a million times in the past twenty-four hours." Lori and Amy laugh, but Andrea doesn't. "Yeah, I do. Two brothers. We got separated."