Parker had been half-asleep when the soldiers were killed. Really, he would've just ignored the guns if Abraham wouldn't have run past him, yelling like an idiot. Unless Baker'd been killed, he couldn't see Abraham acting like that.

But he didn't ignore the guns, and he was greeted with the lovely sight of multiple dead soldiers. A group of locals were running around, waving their guns and shooting at any soldier. Almost all of the Walkers – everyone but Stebbins, who kept walking, the totally insane ones, who… well, kept walking, and Barkovitch, who just kind of stood there in shock – were running for an escape.

Parker decided to join them.

He passed Barkovitch on the way and – completely spur-of-the-moment decision, by the way, completely spur-of-the-moment, if he hadn't ran past Barkovitch he wouldn't have bothered – picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. The kid was tiny, incredibly light, and it took little to no force to pick him up. Other than a short, protesting squeak, Barkovitch was silent.

A nice change, Parker thought, grinning a little. Abe had hijacked a random car, and Parker made a beeline for it, throwing Barkovitch in the back seat before squeezing in himself. It was a tight fit, considering McVries and Garraty were also in there, but, hey, it worked. For the most part.

"We all in?" Abraham yelled. "Yep? Then let's go!"

Baker was in the passenger seat, grinning like a madman. Before any of them could react, he grabbed Abraham's head and kissed him.

Okay.

Well.

That was odd.

Abraham didn't seem to mind, however, he just grinned wider and hit the gas. They set off, probably hitting a few pedestrians along the way. But that didn't matter, and just then Parker realized that he was sitting down, all of them were sitting down, and it was incredible. He didn't even mind that he it was incredibly cramped with four people in the back seat, or that Abraham seemed to be going out of his way to find every pothole and speed bump he could, or that the person next to him was the most annoying little prick on the planet.

"So, what are we doing now?" Garraty asked. Parker looked out the window. Nobody was chasing them – yet. He was pretty sure that, eventually, Stebbins would be declared the winner of the Walk and they'd be chased down. And then killed, if that part wasn't obvious enough already.

"Driving," Abraham said, speeding up a little. Parker rolled his eyes and tried his best to not strangle someone. The euphoria that had come with their initial escape was gone and now? Now he just wanted to strangle all of them.

He did like Abraham. And Baker. Garraty was bearable. McVries… eh… he was okay. Barkovitch… well, let's not get into that just now.

Speaking of Barkovitch, he seemed to have gotten over the initial 'why the fuck was I just picked up and dumped in a car with people who hate me?' and started talking. "Wh-"

McVries didn't agree. "Don't open your mouth or I swear I will strangle you."

Barkovitch just looked at him. "Yeah. Sure. Do it. I dare you, Scarface."

McVries lunged, and suddenly Parker found himself crushed in between two fighting Walkers and the door.

"Hey- hey- stop it!" Parker eventually yelled. They froze, McVries pinning Barkovitch down, hand on his throat. "Now. Barkobitch, you shut the fuck up. McVries… just stop. Okay? I don't wanna deal with your shit right now."

"Barkobitch?"

"Better than killer," Baker called back.

"Not really!"

"Shut the fuck up."

Barkovitch swallowed and nodded. McVries got back to his original position, glaring one last time. Parker debated sitting between them and decided against it. If they were going to fight again… yeah. He didn't want to be between that.

Parker smiled.

"Now. We're all going to be friends, and we're not going to call each other names-"

"You just-"

"And Barkovitch isn't going to talk unless we ask him a direct question. Now. I'm Collie Parker. Let's go around the circle and introduce ourselves like the nice people we are. Abe, you next."

"James Abraham," Abraham said, keeping his eyes on the road. Parker swore he sped up a bit. What, did he have to do that every time he talked?

"Art Baker."

"Ray Garraty."

"Peter McVries."

Barkovitch glared at them for a little bit, and finally muttered "Gary Barkovitch."

Parker smiled another strained smile and nodded. "There. Now we're all friends and, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go to sleep. Abe, wake me up if you wanna sleep, I can drive."

"Okay," Abraham said. Thankfully, he didn't speed up this time.