Highway To Hell

Chapter 5

"Where have you-what the hell happened?" Shane asks, stomping over to me. This gets everyone else's attention. I walk passed him and he grabs my arm. "Hey, what the hell happened?" I yank my arm away from him and keep walking. I grab a bottle of water. I chug the whole thing and toss the empty bottle to the ground.

"Ivy." I look up at Rick. He moves in front of me and places his hands on my shoulders. "What happened?"

"Nothing. Got jumped by a walker. Hit my head. Bumped into a few trees on the way back and fell into a patch of briars. I'm fine. No bites or scratches," I mutter. I've lied to people my whole life . . . so why did that one bother me so much? And why was it such a bad lie? I normally rock at lying.

"Are you sure?" he asks. Lori starts looking over my arms and such to make sure I wasn't bit.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Have you made a decision on Benning or CDC? I would rather not find out if he had any buddies coming for a snack."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Everyone starts packing things up. I help Lori and Carl pack their bags.

"Hey, Ivy?" Carl asks, stuffing a shirt into a bag.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"That tattoo on the back of your neck, is it real?" I pause and my hand drifts up to touch the black ink. "I saw it when we were swimming the other day." I start packing the bag in front of me again.

"Yeah, it is."

"But you're a kid."

"Yep."

"Kids can't have tattoos."

"Maybe not, but I was never one to play by the rules."

"What's it mean?"

"Mean?"

"Yeah. It looks like some kind of symbol. Does it mean anything?"

"It's kind of a safety thing."

"Don't you go gettin' any ideas in your head," Lori says and I chuckle.

"I think it's cool. Your parents let you get it?" I pause again, not quite sure how to answer. It really wasn't a choice. Dad made me get it when I turned thirteen.

"I think that's enough questions," Lori says. "Take these to the car." Lori hands two bags to him and he sighs. "Go. Now."

"Okay," he gets up and runs out of the tent.

"I'm sorry," Lori says. I shake my head.

"Don't be. He's curious. Most of us are at his age." She laughs. "What?"

"Sometimes it's hard to remember that you're just a teenager." I laugh.

"Yeah, I know what you mean." I forget, too, sometimes. We get all the stuff out of the tent and start to take the tent down.

"Alright, everybody listen up. Those of us with CB's, we're gonna be on channel forty. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now, you gotta problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?" Shane announces.

"We're, uh . . . we're not going," Morales announces. Everyone stares at him.

"We have family in Birmingham," Miranda says. "We wanna be with our people."

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Shane warns.

"We'll take the chance," Morales says. "I got to do what's best for my family." I don't see how traveling all the way to Birmingham all alone is the best.