Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of the characters/plotlines associated with it.

Once again, we were back on the road, trailing each other. Benny and I sat up in the RV, a chessboard spread out between us. My brother seemed to be putting on a good façade of enjoying himself and getting into the game, but I knew it wasn't all what it seemed. I simply sat there and stared out of the window behind him, watching the deserted roads fly past.

"Your move," Benny interrupted my thoughts.

"I don't know," I sighed. "I don't even know how to play chess."

"Don't you remember when Dad taught us how to play? You were nine, and I was sixteen. We stayed a summer out in the lake house and we were bored as hell, so he taught us how to play chess."

"Well, I can't remember. It's a terrible game anyway."

Benny laughed and shrugged, moving my own piece for me. I pushed myself up from the table and headed towards the front of the RV, looking out of the window as Glenn and Dale were up front. Dale turned and smiled at me.

"Do you know where we're headed yet?" I asked.

"Not quite," Dale replied. "I'm sure we'll know the right place when the time comes. Why don't you give me a hand and just clean up a little bit in here, Annie? I know it's not the most fun thing to do, but it'll need it at some point."

I rolled my eyes jokingly at the older man before heading away to tidy up the compact space. His bookshelf was practically destroyed, things tipped over everywhere. I straightened the books and all the bits and pieces that he had cluttered; trying to make everything look like it had done before this hell of a rocky journey.

Andrea and Shane were now occupying the table. I could hear the constant clicking of Andrea's gone, and it annoyed me to no end. Didn't that girl know when to stop? She'd been at it since the early hours of the morning. As always, my hand flitted to my own gun, just to check that it was still there. I was trying to restrain from using it, but it calmed me to know that I still had access to it if I needed.

"Oh jeez," Dale said from up ahead.

I glanced to the front of the road and saw that it was all blocked up with vehicles. This must have been a popular escape route right back when this all started. Daryl rode alongside the RV on his motorcycle. Benny snorted to himself and I rolled my eyes at him. He wouldn't be laughing if he could ride a motorcycle.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back," Glenn frowned. "There's an interstate bypass…"

"We can't spare the fuel," Dale sighed. "Jeez."

We all froze as we heard the engine clanking and sputtering. Oh, great.

The next thing I knew, we were all standing herded around the RV and glaring at the vehicle which had broken down again. I was definitely experiencing déjà vu.

"I said it. Didn't I say it?" Dale tutted. "A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?"

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of…"

"Okay, that was dumb. If you can't find a radiator hose here…"

Despite Lori protesting that it was disrespectful, the majority of us agreed on herding up as much as we could from the deserted cars. I cringed as I stepped around the bodies, but I knew I had to do it. There was no other chance of survival. We had lost everything back in the C.D.C. All of our last hopes had been stored there.

I wrenched open the stiff door of one car, dropping to my knees on the leather seat and reaching into the glove compartment. A half full bottle of painkillers were there. My hand curled around the yellow plastic case and I picked it up, turning it over in my hands. This sure would come in handy at some point at any rate.

Daryl was up ahead, rooting through cars. I got out of the car after looking under the backseat, shutting the door lightly behind me. It couldn't have been as quiet as I thought it had been though, as Daryl glanced up at me and raised an eyebrow.

"You trying to draw attention to us?" He called down the road to me.

He rolled his eyes. I mimicked him, moving onto the next car. A body was sat in the front seat. It wasn't moving, but I couldn't tell whether or not it would when I got closer. It looked like just a skeleton. The door was already swinging open on its latch. I slowly reached closer towards the glove compartment, my finger stretching to unlatch it without it slamming against the dashboard.

There was nothing of importance inside. In fact, there was barely anything except a box of cigarettes. I had never smoked in my life, and I didn't intend to start now, but I pulled them out anyway. Surely somebody in the camp would like a stress reliever like this. Sure, it wouldn't be any good for the health, but what did it matter anymore? None of us were exactly healthy right now.

"If you're not using them, I'll have one," Daryl made his way over to me.

"Here," I chucked the box at him. "I don't smoke."

"Maybe you should start. Looks like everyone needs to calm down a bit. I mean, have you looked at yourself in the mirror recently? You're going grey."

My hand moved quickly to my head and I moved a strand of dark hair in front of my face. Daryl just chuckled to himself as he lit a cigarette that hung from his lips.

"Very funny," I muttered. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. You've already gained a whole head of grey, old man."

"I ain't," Daryl glared at me.

I just smiled and moved on to the next car. Laughing echoed in the distance and I smiled over at Shane and Glenn as they replenished themselves in the water that they had found. Daryl followed my gaze as he stalked along behind me, making a much less thorough search of all the cars.

"Do you like that guy, then?" He asked, nodding at Shane.

"I ain't got any reason to not like him," I shrugged. "Though, I can't say he's my favourite person right now. He's too controlling."

"Yeah, like hell he is."

Another box of cigarettes was found and Daryl quickly pocketed them. I picked up a backpack from the backseats of one of the cars, zipping it open. There was nothing majorly essential in there. The only thing we could use were a few energy bars. It seemed that nobody had packed very smartly in the due course of an apocalypse.

"Get down," Daryl suddenly pushed my head down gruffly with his hand.

I didn't bother to turn around and ask, but instead just rolled under the nearest car like he instructed me to. Then, I noticed why he had done it. A herd of groaning Walkers were making their way towards us overhead. I could see everybody else in the group stationed in different areas. One by one, they dropped into their hiding positions. Up ahead, I could see T-Dogg, but not clearly enough to know what he was doing.

Daryl was pressed under the car beside me. I reached into the waistband of my jeans and slipped out my gun, positioning it in front of me and letting my finger rest lightly on the trigger. Wouldn't they be able to smell us? Wouldn't they drop to our knees and come crawling after us? I couldn't see Benny, but I hoped that he was safe.

"Stay there," Daryl whispered over to me.

I didn't have time to ask where he was going as he shifted out from underneath the car, running up ahead towards T-Dogg. The Walkers were getting closer. I lifted a hand and clapped it to my mouth, hoping to stop a whimper from escaping. There were so many of them. There wasn't a hope in the world if they were all heading so steadily in our direction.

Apart from the groans, silence had settled around all of us. There had only previously been laughter and joking and joy, but now it was all gone. In my moment of distress, my ma came to me in my mind. She would have told me to wipe away my tears and stay strong. She would have gripped my hand but then let go, as a sign of telling me to move on with the situation and sort it out in a logical and strategic way. If only she were here now to tell me what to do.

Then, the Walkers were right beside me. Their feet dragged along inches away from my body on the floor. I held my breath and closed my eyes, trying to think of something else to distract me from the awful noises. The gun was ready and waiting in my hand, if it needed to be used, but it seemed that the Walkers were simply passing by. As the last one stepped away from the car I was shielding myself under, I let out a sigh of relief. I knew that they weren't completely gone, but I could breathe a little, even if it was just for now.

Daryl came crawling along the floor towards me. I noticed that he was now covered in sticky blood, but I didn't dare to question him. He had got me out of harm's way.

"You okay?" He whispered, glancing around to check that the Walkers weren't in sight.

"Yes," I breathed. "What about T-Dogg? Is he alright?"

"He cut his arm open real bad. I'm gonna go back and help him… Don't move until I give the all clear, alright?"

I nodded, and Daryl was off again. He had briefly risked his life just to come and check on me. I couldn't help but feel overly grateful and warmed at his actions. But right now, my mind could only float to Benny and wonder if he was okay.

Without thinking, I started to shift away from underneath the car, moving forward. I stayed under the protection of the vehicles. Three cars later, I heard screams and tears. I jumped to my feet and saw Sophia running down off the edge of the highway, Walkers chasing her as she went. The rest of our survivors slipped out from where they were hiding, expressions of shock upon their faces.

Rick took off after her. Then, we were all just left, standing and staring. A little girl had just been chased away by those monsters. I spotted Benny standing nearby where she had gone running. He glanced at me and I nodded at him, but none of us made a move towards each other. Right now, we were all worried about that little girl.