Silence. How nice it sounds. I hate having to think about those things outside and thinking about the other things along the way. But here, in the car with my uncle and scout, I feel normal, like a road trip almost. My dad and me used to take road trips all the time, mainly to the air field where he worked most of the time before they found him unstable and said he couldn't be in the service anymore.
"...spot it? They were supposed to check in." A voice sounded over the radio. My uncle turned it up. Goodbye quietness. "Negative, control... circling the freightyard... wait, there it is. Aw, damn. Yeah, there's the train. Smashed to hell. Off the rails... looking for survivors... What about the cargo? We NEED those munitions for the evac..."
"You hear that?" scout says, sounding... proud? "Trainload of munitions dumped at the freightyard. What do you think now?" She's smirking at him.
"Yeah, I think we're gonna make a stop." Another stop? Really? I just wanna get there already.
"Daryl, what if it's another dead end?" I ask. He send me a look through the review mirror.
"It ain't gonna be another dead end. Whatever'd down there, we can use." He says turning back to his conversation with scout. Then another voice sounded over the radio.
"Scout, come in. Scout, you copy?" The strange voice asked.
"Daddy! I'm here! Where are you?" Well that answers who that man is. We hear him cough. "Daddy? Are you okay!? Scout voice drop a little. There was no response back, which could either be good or bad. But I don't think that matters because we just arrived at the freightyard.
We get out of the car and look around at the abandoned highway and the derailed train below.
"Nice night, huh? I'm having second thoughts about this one." Scout says. Good! Then let's go.
"Hey I'm gonna go check it out. If it looks dicey, I'll be right back." My uncle, always the hero I guess.
"If it looks dicey? Hillbilly you've been at this way too long."
"Alice stay here. I mean it." That tone means I better obey or else, but I ain't In the mood for an adventure right now so I obey and stay with scout like I'm told. I watch my uncle climb down the latter as I whisper 'Be careful' But I don't think he heard me.
"Your uncle is very brave. It's almost stupid." I send her a look.
"He isn't," I snap at her. "He's just trying to protect his family!" she takes a step back and her eyes goes wide.
"I didn't mean—"
"Enough! Just drop it!" I snap, cutting her off and making myself comfortable on the hood of the car.
"I didn't mean to offend you." She says, and I can tell she means it.
"Talking about people, is just something I don't like." I say. "It gets you in trouble."
She looks at me and smiles. "How so?"
"Keep talking and find out." I say and she goes quiet after that. I wait a while and then I see my uncle heading up to far side of the road. I rush over to him.
"I saw you fall." I say to him.
"You're heads bleeding." That's scout, obviously.
"No, I'm okay. Chopper kicked up some shit is all. Isn't merle up here?" I look at him for a second. He talked to my father? When?
"No, just us. Wait! Your brother Merle? You talked to him down there?"
"Yeah, on the walkie! He said—"
"THAT walkie?! It's broken! Must've happened when you fell! It doesn't even have batteries!" I say to him. I didn't know he has hallucinations.
"But—"He starts but scout cuts him off saying lets go, and we all get into the car. Daryl get in the front seat, scout is driving this time, because he needs to take care of his bleeding head. I don't look at him, but I know he knows I'm worried about him.
Finally he speaks. "Seeing your father is a bad idea. Saying goodbye on the radio is the best thing to do."
"When I was seven... I wanted a dog in the worst way. But uhh, my dad has always allergies real bad. One day he came home with a brand new puppy and a grin ear-to-ear. Even though my dad hates needles, he got shot every week for fourteen years and never said a word." He voice breaks then and tears start to fall. "Daryl, I'm have the person he is and he loves twice as much as I deserve." Sometimes I feel that way with my father.
""You're not going to evacuate, are you?" Daryl says, his voice is low.
"He's my dad. What would you do in my place?" In a way, she does have a point. If I had the choice, would i go with my dad, or evacuate with my uncle. I would probably go with my dad, but they never split up unless dad does something stupid like leaving us at the bar.
"Daryl, what do we do from here?" I ask.
"Find the evac point. And leave." He says.
"What about—"
"Merle will be fine. Don't you worry about that."
"Right." I mutter and the subject is dropped.
