A/N: Another drabble to cope with my feelings following the airing of 4.04... Happy reading...?
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The neighbourhood at night was disconcerting, unfamiliar. In truth, these streets were brand new, but she felt out of place; like she didn't belong in the suburbs anymore. Such vast traces of abandoned humanity stung her eyes as she drove, the road dark in front of her save for the lights from her own car.
She missed the streetlights; remembered how they used to pound a shadowy rhythm on the pavement. Wanted to hear a distant car alarm wailing to scare away the living, not attract the dead. It was easy to forget, tucked away in the woods, just how quiet and dark this new world had become.
Driving through the abandoned streets of the suburbs, it was impossible to ignore.
Nighttime surrounded her; she drove slowly, but too fast to be caught.
It seemed like hours she'd been driving, but she knew that couldn't be right. She glanced down to see the digits on the dashboard flashing a repeated twelve o'clock, and reached out a hand to fumble at the zipper of her bag. The fabric caught under the clasp; in her struggle she remembered there was nothing left in there to keep time.
The subdivisions stretched on, and identical houses lined the crumbling streets. Rows upon rows of them, watching her as she went. Some of them were surely inhabited, but not by anything she'd care to share a room with.
She used to make herself laugh during power failures, looking out onto the street at the neighbours' darkened windows. Maybe the entire town's gone on vacation. The long, weed-filled grass and shattered panes made for a rather permanent trip.
These were the types of thing she'd hardly needed to consider, when she was with them.
Things she never thought of when she was deep in the forest.
There used to be a moment, in the days before, when the front door would open and she'd hear footsteps, tentative, at first, evaluating the silence. And then they'd grow louder and quicker, bounding up the stairs to greet her, mousey brown hair flying free from the spaces behind her ears. Carol would know the warmth in her arms, and wrap her up tightly, knowing she was real.
And it reminded her of the tombs, after the attack, when she heard them outside and remembered she wasn't alone. When the door opened and he was there.
When the road wasn't so dark.
She wouldn't drive much longer, she decided. Better to find more gas before venturing too far.
She came to an abrupt halt in front of a small, fenced-in yard. A quick scan around and she took the key from the ignition, breathed in deeply and exhaled shakily. With an eye on the tall fence she threw open the drivers' side door, rucksack in hand.
Too far from what?
She scrambled over the fence and made it safely into the yard, the fence high and solid enough to keep walkers out. The inside was deserted. No humans, no animals. Alive or dead. The second-floor bedroom had a set of doors opening onto a balcony. Always good to have an escape route.
She locked the door behind her and opened the window a crack. The nighttime air would hopefully clear out some of the must, even if she stayed only one night.
Fatigue consumed her as she settled down on the bed, the sheets messily pulled up underneath her. The crickets chirped in the yard, hiding in the tall grass and the lonely shadow of the moonlight.
Her aching muscles settled deep into the mattress, her pounding head pressed into a stranger's pillow.
In a half-conscious stupor, she imagined she could hear the low growl of an engine in the distance and the beam of a single headlight breaking through the night.