The Apocalypse: The First Year

Strength In Numbers

"When are we gonna sleep daddy?" Francisco asks his father for the third time. We've been walking for what seems like forever now but I don't want to seem like a child so I'mfighting through my fatigue.

"We're almost there buddy." Tim tells his son.

"Mom." Francisco whines out.

"You want me to carry you bud?" Glen asks the little boy. Francisco nods enthusiastically as Glen throws him over his shoulders onto his back.

"Glen you really don't have to-"

"It's cool." Glen waves Tim off. "I don't mind."

"You hear that?" I ask Tim as we all stop, we hear leaves ruffling around us. Glen place Francisco back on the ground and readies his gun.

"Walkers?" Jo asks her husband, pulling Francisco to stand behind her.

"I don't know." He shakes his head as the movements grow louder and closer.

"What do we do?" I ask.

"Everyone get down." He tells us and we all kneel. "Shh." He says putting a finger to his mouth then using that same finger to point in the direction of the movement. All our eyes focus on the spot. A few seconds later a woman appears.

"Don't shoot." She says raising her hands. Behind her is another woman and a little girl. "We don't mean any harm, we're just migrating away from town." She says and Tim looks at her with narrowed eyes before he stands. We all follow suit.

"Who are you?" Tim asks the woman.

"I'm Carmen." The woman says pointing to herself. "This is my girlfriend Jayden and our daughter Jessica." She adds.

"I'm Tim." Tim says visibly relaxing a bit. "This is my wife Jo and our son Francisco." He introduces his family.

"I'm Glen and this is my sister Spencer." Glen introduces us.

"Nice to meet you all." Carmen smiles.

"You're headed east?" Tim asks.

"Yeah." Carmen nods. "The city is crawling with walkers."

"Yeah, we know." Glen says.

"We were headed east as well." Tim says. "You guys are welcome to join our group if you'd like." He offers and a smile appears at Carmen's lips. She looks back at her girlfriend who smiles then turns back to us.

"We'd love to."

–

"We're back." Carmen announces as we enter the house. Everyone comes downstairs to greet us.

Rick rolls his eyes when he see's how much our group has grown. "Great." He sighs. "More mouths to feed." He adds. I roll my eyes at him and walk over by the wall and sit down.

"Tim!" Jo says running to her husband and hugging him.

"Daaaaaadddddy!" Francisco shouts.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Tim chuckles as he hugs his family. "We just got separated that's all." He adds and kisses his wife then bends down and kisses his son's hair.

"You had us worried sick." Jo says.

"My apologies." Tim says, smiling lovingly at his wife.

Everyone finishes greeting everyone. I've learned that the names of the three other people in Ashley's group are: Jackie, Leo, and Owen.