It had been at least a week without Jill. All of us were still a little mopey but we were getting by just fine without her, unfortunately. I looked over at Carlos as we drove down the highway in the Hummer on our way to Kentucky. I thought about what Jill had said before she left, how she told me to be careful with Carlos. There were so many layers to what she said it took me days to think of them all. I concluded that rather than her telling me not to fall too hard for him or to practice safe sex that it was in general for all of them.
Carlos slammed on the breaks forcing me from my thoughts. I looked out the windshield to see a gas tanker on the highway, moving incredibly slow. I glanced over to Carlos, thankful that he had noticed it before we ran into it. "How the hell did you miss that?" I asked him, as we stared at the tanker in front of us. It was something that either one of us should have noticed miles ago, not a couple yards away.
"Hey, what's going on up there guys? No time for hanky panky we gotta keep moving." L.J.'s voice came through the radio.
Carlos grabbed the radio before I could say something back to him. "Cover us. There's a gas tanker in front of us, moving really slowly." He said and hung the radio back up not waiting for a response. I took my gun from it's holster that was on the dashboard. I cocked it before glancing to Carlos, who did the same.
"Ready, ojos púrpuras?" he asked. I nodded before we opened the doors and got out of the Hummer. Both of us slowly and cautiously made our way to the front of the drivers side. It was going slow enough that we barely had to jog for a second to catch up. Carlos looked up to the drivers window and saw nothing. He began reaching for the handle when a man appeared at the window making us jump a little. The tanker stopped moving completely as the man inside began to crawl, almost falling, out of the tanker.
He looked relieved as he now stood in front of us. "Oh thank god. There are other people still alive! My name is Chase." he said his smile reaching from ear to ear. He tipped his cowboy hat to towards us. A quick glance to Carlos and we agreed that he did not appear to be a threat. We lowered our weapons.
I held my hand out to Chase. "Alida and this is Carlos." I said as he shook my hand.
He jumped back when he looked at my face. "My god, your eyes are purple." Chase said.
I let out an awkward laugh, Carlos letting out his own chuckle. "Yeah, it's a long story." I said. "Where you headed anyway?" Although we had not gone through Carlos and my careful screening for adding new survivors, I was hoping he would eventually be added. Gas was something that was beginning to become hard to find. The more people we added to the convoy, the more vehicles.
"That way." The man said pointing in the general direction that we were heading.
Carlos looked around the sky, noting it was getting close to the time where we should stop for the night. "If you'd like, we can find some room in our convoy for the night." he mentioned nonchalantly.
Chase gave a curt nod with a smirk. "Much obliged. It does get pretty lonely in this deserted land now that no one is left alive."
With another nod we let him know to follow our convoy and we would discuss things over our famous canned dinners. Carlos and I walked back to the Hummer and let everyone else know that Chase would be joining us for at least the night. We waved to the man as we pulled passed him and continued on trying to find some place to stay.
"What do you think?" Carlos asked.
"I think we should find out a little more about him tonight, but I'm hopeful." I admitted as I looked around the desolate landscape.
The car became silent as we searched for a place to spend the night. As I stared out the window I felt Carlos' hand rest on my leg. I looked down to it before looking back at the landscape with a smile. It was the little things that he did, and started to do more. He would use my nickname, place his hand on my knee, hold my hand, place it on the small of my back when we stood around the campfire. It was never more than that and of course it was never inappropriate. It was a gentle side of him that I was sure, even before all this, was a side that many people didn't witness.
It was going to be a long night, no matter where we settled. Everytime we added, or considered adding someone to the convoy, Carlos and I went through a screening of sorts. After Alice, we realized that Umbrella was capable of literally anything and they knew we were alive. Wherever they were hiding they still held the power of the world. Carlos pulled off to a remote RV campsite for the night. Following protocol that we had made L.J., Carlos and I got out first and surveyed the area as the others eventually got out and prepared camp.
After our general patrol we deemed the area safe and headed back to the now bustling camp.
"I'm fucking hungry!" LJ said as he walked back to his car. I couldn't help but laugh at his honestly. We were all technically starving by now. Limiting ourselves to two cans, sometimes less of food a day. Honestly I was beginning to wonder how long we would survive at this rate. And if we continued adding to our convoy it made food just that much more scarce.
"Hey Candice!" I yelled as everyone milled about the camp doing their "duties." Specific people had specific abilities, certain jobs they were in charge of for the convoy.
"Yeah?"she said as she poked the fire.
"Nice one tonight, don't make it to large. We don't want to attract anything." I said. She gave me as mile and continued to make the fire perfect.
I looked around at the convoy with a smile on my face. It really was the little things at this point in everyone's life that brought the smiles to our faces. After dinner LJ, Carlos, Chase and I were sitting around the main fire talking about life before this. We figured out early on fire pit conversations was a great way to get information out of people without formally sitting them down and interviewing them.
We had found out that Chase was nothing more than your average truck driver who on the side ran a ranch. He lived a very busy life with his work and his family. He admitted that he had a wife and kids that he couldn't save. I stared into the fire remembering Angie, my heart bled for the man knowing that pain myself. By the time the night came to a close we concluded he would be welcome to our convoy if he wished. His knowledge of farming as well as the gas tanker he drove was an asset that we couldn't ignore. In my mind I dubbed him 'the cowboy.' He looked like one, talked like one and hell he probably was before this.
