RADIOLOGYFAIRY: Hi! What I meant was to keep giving us a little more background and involvement to catch our attention. Make us feel more invested in Trin and what's happening.

I'll try to :-)

Sorry I've been offline for a while. I've been very busy.

It was about six or seven hours later before we stopped again. The sun was just starting to rise again, so pretty much everyone was awake when Addy pulled the truck over to the side of the road.

"What's going on?" I asked, looking around. We were at one of those rest stops that are just off the highway. There weren't any zombies, surprisingly, but there were some picnic tables, a few buildings, and some abandoned cars.

"I figured, since we're all probably hungry, that we could have a picnic breakfast here. Instead of just, you know, eating on the side of the road, in the back of a pickup truck, like usual." Addy answered, stepping out of the truck.

"That seems like a good plan." Warren said, hopping out of the back of the truck.

I shrugged, and hopped out of the truck. The others followed suit.

"Doc, grab the food. Sketchy and Skeezy, stay here." Warren instructed. "Everyone else, spread out, and check for zombies."

We nodded, and spread out. I went over by the bathrooms, and carefully went into the ladies room. I checked each stall. Empty. No zombies, just toilets and toilet paper.

That's strange

I walked back out of the bathroom. I didn't check the men's room. Vasquez or 10K could check that out, but I most certainly wasn't. I made my way over to the picnic table, where everyone else was waiting.

"Is it clear?" Warren asked.

I nodded. "It's strange. I mean, the whole area is clean of zombies. That doesn't just happen naturally." I said.

"Maybe someone else cleared this out before we got here a little while ago." Doc said, coming up to the table with some food and with Sketchy, Skeezy, and Murphy.

"Let's just eat quickly, then get out here, just in case." Warren said.

We all agreed, and then started eating.

"I wonder where 'The Murphy' is right now." Sketchy wondered out loud.

We all exchanged looks.

"What makes you think he's still alive?" Addy asked carefully.

"Oh, a guy like that, he's probably living like a king right now." Sketchy said.

I tried to hold back a laugh. "You sound like you've actually seen him before." I said.

"That's because I have." Sketchy said.

I swallowed some of my food. "Then, what's he look like?" I asked, curious.

Sketchy stood up. "He's almost ten feet tall, with razor like teeth. He can control your mind, and make you do terrible things." He said in a story telling voice.

I started laughing.

Sketchy looked at me. "Is something funny?" He asked, clearly offended.

"Yeah, it's the fact that you've never really seen 'The Murphy'." I said.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Sketchy asked.

"Yes I am."

"And what makes you think I'm lying?"

I glanced over at Murphy, who hadn't said anything, but was clearly listening to the conversation. "Because I've actually seen 'The Murphy', and that's not what he looks like." I said, looking back at Sketchy.

"So, what does he actually look like?" Skeezy asked, sitting back down.

I stood up. "He's got blood red eyes. He has long gray hair, and a beard too. He has sonar hearing, and an amazing sense of smell. He can smell you from a mile away, so by the time you find him, he already knows you're there."

Sketchy and Skeezy leaned in a little bit, clearly thirsty for more.

So I continued. "He lives in an old abandoned shack, and only comes out at night, which is when he hunts for food. He eats rabbits and field mice and then, before sunrise, goes back to his shack, to sleep the day away." I finished, sitting back down. "That's the real Murphy story for you."

"How exactly do you know all of this?" Sketchy asked.

"I had the opportunity to meet him." I said, sitting down. "Everything you just heard comes from first hand experience."

"Can we talk about something else?" Murphy asked, interrupting the conversation. "Like, I don't know, when are we planning on leaving?"

Vasquez stood up. "I think we should check out that building first. There might be some supplies there." He said, gesturing towards the main building near the bathrooms.

Warren stood up too. "Vasquez is right, we should check that out. Addy and 10K, come with me and Vasquez to check out that building. Trin and Doc, keep an eye out. And everyone else, try not to wander off." On the last part, she looked at Murphy, who just shrugged.

Warren, Vasquez, 10K, and Addy walked over to the building, leaving the rest of us at the table.

"I don't know about you guys, but I feel like taking a walk." Sketchy said, standing up.

"Me too." Skeezy said, standing up as well.

"Warren said not to wander off." I pointed out.

"We're not wandering off. We're just going over to look at the cars." Sketchy said.

I sighed as they walked over towards one of the cars. "Were they this stupid before the apocalypse too?" I wondered out loud.

Doc laughed, and Murphy rolled his eyes.

We sat there for a few minutes in silence.

"Shouldn't they have been back by now?" I asked, looking over at the car they had been at before. There was no one there now.

Doc quickly looked around. "Yeah, they should have been."

I suddenly had a bad feeling. "Doc, clean up all of the food, and get Murphy back to the truck."

Doc started packing up the food, and I pulled my gun out and headed over to the cars.

"Sketchy?" I called out quietly. "Skeezy?"

I noticed something shiny on the path up ahead, and ran over to it.

It was a gun.

I knelt down to pick it up. I was pretty sure this was the gun that Sketchy had been carrying.

I started to stand up again, when something hit me hard on the back of the head. I fell onto the ground, and blacked out.