Day 964 – Morning

Wyatt

The group walked down a road that was littered with shrubbery. Over the course of the three or so years of the apocalypse the roads had not been maintained and weeds had found their way to sunlight via cracks in the pavement. Wyatt admired the force of nature as he strolled down the path with the group to his back.

As he stared at the greenery, he realised how much he could really do with some weed.

He'd been planning to grow some all the way back in Carver's camp, but he had no way of doing it. If Reggie had helped him in the greenhouses he would have put a good word in with Carver. Reggie decided that it was too much of a risk - he'd rather do what he was told to get back into the fold rather than risk growing weed for someone to 'put in a good word' for him.

Vince was walking to Wyatt's left, his shoulder still sagging from his wound. Behind them Becca and Annie strolled along, Sully and Mitchell behind them and Kiff and Emily bringing up the rear. They had been walking for almost an hour, taking all the supplies that they could. As Wyatt looked back he saw that Sully's bandaged left hand was tucked under his right armpit as he grimaced in pain. His younger brother did not look that interested and was lagging behind slightly.

Wyatt squinted as he noticed something yellow on the horizon, to the side of the road. It wasn't their truck, as that was a dark blue-grey colour. He pointed it out to Vince and waved for the group to advance on the shape.

They all walked purposefully and briskly towards the object, which turned out to be a vehicle that had slipped off of the road. As they made their way closer Wyatt noted a black stripe that travelled across the back of the vehicle and along the side. Wyatt groaned as he recognised the type of automobile and the implications it potentially had.

"School bus." he moaned.

Vince looked over his shoulder. "Better keep the kids back, we don't want them to see this – just in case." Immediately Becca gripped Annie's shoulder and stopped her from walking any further and Sully did the same with Mitchell. The younger brother scoffed and said, "Are you kidding? I'm not five."

Wyatt, Vince, Em, Kiff, Sully and Mitchell walked up to the truck as Becca and Annie hung back. Mitchell confidently stared through the windows of the slightly tipped vehicle and instantly reeled back in horror. "On second thought," he said, "Think I'm gonna go over there with the other two."

The adults watched him briskly walk back over to Becca and Annie, various states of disapproval on their faces. Wyatt leaned over and looked into the bus as his stomach sank.

There were still kids in there. Dead kids. Walker kids all reaching up, dirt and mud up to their waists as they attempted to climb over each other to reach the living. Wyatt could barely tell whether they were male or female as they were so badly deformed and rotted, covered in dirt as the bus had sunk over time.

"Could've done without seeing that." Kiff grunted. "Poor kids, this is probably day one shit we're looking at: bus hits something, flies off the road, everyone dies."

Sully cleared his throat. "There's no driver in there. Hate to say it, but he probably made it out after all the kids died from the impact or left them to die."

"That's some messed up shit." Wyatt said, scratching his beard. "Let's just keep going, we can't do anything here." He waved for the rest of the group to follow him and they continued walking.

Vince didn't look that surprised by the sight. Wyatt asked him why, only for Vince to respond, "I've seen worse."

"When was that?" Wyatt questioned, pressing his friend for answers out of interest.

Vince took a deep breath. "Remember when we first left the camp, and we met the guy that killed Shel? You and Annie were downstairs when we found his secret – let's just say that it was like what we just saw."

Wyatt didn't exactly know what Vince meant, but after hearing his friend's explanation he didn't really want to know. He was glad he had not seen whatever Vince had.

Thinking about the man that had killed Shel sent him on a spiral into the past. Shel had been Becca's older sister, the one who had kept her out of harm. Before Shel's death Becca had been reckless and in harm's way, but afterwards she stopped taking things for granted and had generally mellowed out. As much as Wyatt hated the fact that Shel was dead, he liked the new Becca more than the old one.

The thought led him onto another group member they had lost, Russell. The last he had seen of him Russell had been shot twice by bandits and he'd disappeared. They had looked for him the following day but found no sign of their friend. Deep in his mind, though, Wyatt hoped he had escaped. They had let one of the bandits live – maybe that man had gone on to redeem himself, find Russell and help him out. That would be nice.

He was thoroughly certain that had never happened, though. They had lost another person back in Indiana, the nurse named Lucia, and they had not been sure whether she was dead either. As far as they could tell she had been bitten and had disappeared through a window – maybe she'd got away and cut her arm off in time but that was a hell of a stretch.

As Wyatt kept thinking about the people they had lost, he found that he couldn't stop. It was better to remember them rather than forget them, after all. Daniel – the guy who had given Annie her hat. Miles, who had been a good friend of Wyatt's for a while even if they had argued a lot. Bonnie, who they hadn't been able to track down during their escape and assumed she'd died with the rest of the guards on the roof. Ralph, the ex-scavenger who tried to change his ways and died saving the group from a herd.

All good people, all gone due to things they couldn't control. Then there were people like Ivan, Ethan, Brandon and Donald. Terrible people, bandits who had outlasted all but four of Wyatt's group. Why was it that the good died before the bad?

If that rule still applied, they would all be dead before Fuad.

Wyatt reached into his pocket and withdrew the list of settlements. Fort Recovery was the last in Ohio. The rest were in far off places like Maine and Vermont. Wyatt hoped this settlement was a sure deal because it would take all of their energy and all of their supplies to get any further.

The whole ordeal with the bus had thrown him off a bit. Wyatt had never wanted to see dead kids, but that went without saying. He had an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach that would not subside. Adult walkers were fine- there were tons of them, he was used to it. Adults could take care of themselves. Kids, on the other hand, had someone who looked after them, and the ones that were dead had been split up from their carers or ditched by them. That disgusted him. He'd never do such a thing to Annie; he'd never leave her behind or allow himself to be separated from her. He was responsible for the child, and if anything happened to her he'd never be able to forgive himself.