Day 855 – Morning

Becca

Becca was bored again. She sat in the opening of the truck, drumming her palms against the metal either side of her as she racked her brain for something to do. Shel had returned with Vince and Miles, who were now scoping out one of the houses, but then she'd disappeared around the front of the truck again.

Russell was hopping around on his good leg, desperately trying to put weight on the injured one. Becca watched him, and quickly found it hard to stifle a chuckle. Russell quickly shot her an irritated glance to which she responded with a sheepish look away, scratching behind her ear with one of her hands.

Vince and Miles were scoping out a house, and the attention of Shel and Wyatt was diverted. Becca realised that this was as good a chance as she was going to get to do what she wanted – to explore the area like she had done back at the old truck stop camp with Roman and the others. She quickly patted down the pocket on her right thigh, reassured that her knife was there, and hopped out of the truck, walking straight past Russell. It's not like he'd be able to catch up and she'd already be doing what she wanted by the time he'd be able to tell Shel.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Russell asked, surprised.

"Having a look around," Becca said without making eye contact, "What are you doing?"

"Y-you can't just go out on your own, Becca," Russell pointed out, "what if there are lurkers or something?"

"So what?" Becca argued, "I'll just deal with them like I did last night. They're no big thing."

Russell sighed. Becca was going to get what she wanted no matter what he did. "Well… at least let me come with you," he said, raising a pistol he'd found in the supplies they'd procured from the settlement the night before, "At least let me have your back. If you wanna go look around so badly, then just slow down for me, okay?"

He limped along next to her, muttering, "Man, your sister is gonna kill me for this."

Becca shrugged and continued walking, her hands in her coat pockets. At least Russell had chosen to follow her rather than tell on her, and she was thankful for it.

The road stretched back in a straight line with no twists or turns, heading into a thick forest before disappearing entirely. A few signs were littered either side of the road with names such as 'Parker's Crossroads' and 'Huntingdon' on them. Having heard of neither place, Becca couldn't determine where they were.

Just as she made her way to the first few trees, Russell stopped her. "No, ain't no way we're going in there alone."

Becca groaned, "Ugh, why not?"

"Who knows how many lurkers are hiding in there?"

"Lurkers don't hide, Russell," Becca remarked in a condescending tone, "They're too stupid."

"Well, what about that one that attacked Vince last night? We sure as hell didn't notice that."

Becca smirked, "That one is dead. I stabbed it in the head, and it was only on the ground in the first place because its guts were hanging out and it couldn't get up. It was weak, and weak things die."

Russell turned his head and muttered something. Becca didn't care what he'd said, she just carried on walking. Once the duo made it about fifty metres into the forest, Becca's nose perked up. She lifted up her hand to Russell to stop him, and then asked, "Do you smell something?"

It took a moment for Russell to register any smell, but he slowly nodded and whispered "Smoke."

"We probably shouldn't be standing in the open," Becca realised, gesturing for Russell to climb down the side of the road where the terrain dipped to form a trench of sorts. "If someone's coming, I can still see them without them seeing us," she said, "You try and keep watch for walkers or anything."

The two hid at the side of the road, obscured by plantlife, and waited. Soon enough they heard footsteps, but it sounded like their owners were not the source of the smoke.

"Hey, man, you smell that?" Came one voice; it was a man. Becca recognised the voice, but couldn't place it.

She heard an annoyed sigh come from the same direction. "Yes, Nick, I smell it. Smoke, which means someone's makin' smoke, which means we need to get out of here, quick. Look, we're already lost, and we've lost track of her and we still have to the meetin'. We gotta keep movin'."

"Man, my shoulder's killing me." The first man said.

With that, the footsteps picked up and became more rapid before fading away, heading in the direction that one of the signs Becca had seen earlier had pointed to.

"They're gone," Becca announced, "But they didn't make the smoke."

"No, they didn't" came a voice that Becca didn't recognise. "I did."

She turned around and saw a man with a rifle, pointing it at Russell's chest. "I ain't decided if I wanna kill you yet, but I'll be making my mind up shortly."

The man was speaking through a sort of bandana that covered his mouth, and he was wearing a thick jacket; the hood of which was covering most of his face. He had dark skin, and his face was twisted in a poor representation of anger.

"Look, man, we don't want any trouble." Russell panicked.

"And neither do I," the man said. "I been trackin' one of them folks that just walked past here for almost two weeks now and I've been fixin' to get some revenge on one or two of their pals; I just ain't found a good enough opportunity and all I got is a fuckin' empty rifle."

Becca and Russell's eyes widened along with their assailant's. He'd just admitted that he had no ammunition without realising. Instantly he lifted his gun and backed off. "All right," he sighed, "you got me." He sat down on a nearby rock and placed his head in his hands, "Man, this is so fucked."

"So…" Russell muttered, getting up, "We'll be… on our way."

"Whatever," the man grunted. "I ain't after you; I'm after those other guys. I'll only come after you if you kill my friends like they did. But you tell anyone I'm out here and I'll fuck you up."

Russell nodded, and then said, "You might want to stop with the smoke, then."

The man got up and growled, "You kiddin', boy? That smoke is the only thing keepin' the walkers away from me. I smoke up my clothes, walkers can't smell the human on me 'cause the smoke is so strong."

"That's interesting," Becca pondered, resting a finger on her chin.

"It sure is," the man said, "Now fuck off."

Russell and Becca climbed back up onto the path as they rushed away as fast as they could. Once they made it back out into the open, Becca realised that the man had thought it was only her and Russell on the road, not that they had a group of seven. Maybe he'd decided that they had nothing of worth on them or that they were harmless so he wasn't willing to attack.

No matter what, it had been an odd situation, but at least they had determined that the man was hiding in the trees rather than having him attack them later.

Russell huffed, "What're we gonna do? We can't just go into one of the houses with a psycho like that around."

Becca shrugged. If there were more guys like their new 'friend', the group would have to keep their guard up.