Chapter 20
A/N: Thanks to everyone for reading, favouriting, following and reviewing. Thanks to my pre-reader, DewieDTT. Sorry this took longer than normal, I've got lots of studying going on over the next four weeks so chapters might be a bit few and far between. Where possible, I'll still try and get out a chapter each week.
Abraham had managed to get the CD player on the bus working again and was playing some cheerful music as they cruised down the empty roads. Kat was sat in a window seat behind Glenn and Maggie, with Eugene sat next to her. The others were talking to one another but Kat mostly tuned them out and watched the greenery pass by through the window. Her thoughts were so jumbled, she didn't regret what she had done but she was missing the rest of her family already.
Glenn and Maggie's conversation broke through her thoughts. 'Maybe they're just behind us. Maybe Daryl and Carol came back. Maybe they took the map, found some cars, and they're just down the road' Maggie said hopefully.
'They'll catch up. We're clearing the way for 'em' Glenn replied with the same confidence.
Kat couldn't help but wonder what the group would do if Daryl and Carol didn't show up again. Carol had been so reluctant to be around the group after what had happened at the prison. What if Carol had decided to leave and Daryl had gone with her. How long would Rick decide to wait at the church? If they didn't come back, would he go after Daryl and Carol or Glenn, Maggie, Tara and her. She just didn't know.
The conversation changed to asking how long it would take for the world to get back to normal once Eugene managed to do whatever it was he was going to do. It all sounded like techno-babble to Kat.
'Anyway, the speed with which things normalize depend on a number of factors including worldwide weather patterns, which were modelled without the assumption that cars, planes, boats, and trains wouldn't be pouring hydrocarbons into the atmosphere this long. Changed the game quite a bit when it comes to air-transmissible pathogens' Eugene told Glenn and Maggie who were questioning him.
'Why the hair?' Glenn asked, changing the subject.
'Because I like it. And no one is takin' scissor or clipper to it anytime soon. Do you hear me, Miss Espinoza?' Eugene asked.
'Yes, loud and clear' Rosita laughed in reply.
'Same goes for you Miss Kat. After the hash job you made of your own' Eugene said seriously.
'Hey!' Kat laughed, she could take a hit. Everyone laughed in response.
'Y'all can laugh all you want' Eugene said.
'No one was makin' fun' Maggie told him.
'The smartest man I ever met happened to love my hair. My old boss, T. Brooks Ellis, the director of the Human Genome Project. He said my hair made me look like, and I quote, "a fun guy", which I am. I just ain't Samson' Eugene said.
One moment they were all laughing together and the next there was a bang and the bus started swerving. There were abandoned cars left on the road and Abraham did a good job on avoiding the first few, when he clearly had very little control over the bus anymore. He couldn't avoid the last though and the bus became airborne before landing on its side.
Kat groaned in pain as she slowly moved her body, testing that everything was still working. She had been on the side of the bus that had hit the ground, her head had smacked into the glass as it smashed and Eugene was thrown on top of her. Eugene was helped up quickly by Tara and Kat felt better with the weight of the man removed from her. She managed to pull herself up, by some miracle nothing seemed to be broken but she knew she would be bruised and sore tomorrow. She lifted her hand to her head and pulled it away, taking in the large amount of blood. She cursed when she realised that her old scar had opened up. She had a scar running down the right side of her face where Merle had cut her with his knife back when Glenn, Maggie and her had been kidnapped to Woodbury; it was odd to think of Merle being the enemy back then. Her scar was obviously a weak point and had opened up again. She was bleeding quite profusely.
'The engine's on fire. We gotta get out of here' Rosita said. They all took in the state of their situation, with walkers banging on the windows.
'All right, you and I go first' Glenn told Abraham. 'Knock 'em back, clear the way for Maggie and Rosita to get out, then we all start hitting them, okay?'
'Yeah, all right. We'll do it live. Tara? Kat? You cover Eugene, come out when it's clear' Abraham told them.
'Okay' they both confirmed. Kat wanted to be more help but she knew she was losing quite a bit of blood from her cut. She didn't want to pass out while taking out walkers.
'On my go! Go!' yelled Abraham as he kicked out the emergency exit at the back of the bus. He and Glenn climbed out quickly and started taking down walkers, Rosita and Maggie following quickly behind.
'Come on. I know it sucks and it's scary, but it's time to be brave' Tara encouraged him. A walker broke through the side window of the bus and Tara took it out with her knife. It definitely wasn't safe for them to remain within the bus. It was time to join the fight.
'It isn't voluntary' Eugene said, still lacking the courage to join the fight.
'It is, when you're screwed either way. So you cut through the choice that might help somebody. Come on. I'm right behind you' Tara encouraged him, handing him a spare knife. Kat was just focusing on trying to stem the flow of blood with her sleeve. Blood kept trickling into her eye and making it difficult to see. She tore off the sleeve of her shirt and tied it round her head, covering as much of the cut as she could without obscuring her vision. Hopefully it would stem the blood and keep her vision clear for the remainder of the fight.
Eugene climbed out of the bus and Kat and Tara followed after him. They both joined the fight. Abraham, Glenn, Maggie and Rosita had managed to take down a good chunk of the walkers, whose bodies now lay scattered on the ground. There was a manageable number left, particularly now with Tara and Kat to help. Eugene just stood there clinging desperately to his knife while the fight continued around him. He was too scared to help.
The fight was winding down when Kat noticed Tara taking down a walker but another approaching her from behind that she hadn't seen. Kat took down the walker to her right, heading over to help Tara. Before she reached her, Eugene surged forward and stabbed the walker. He stabbed it in the back, not killing it but stopping it from getting Tara, who then turned around and stabbed it through the head. Kat looked around and saw Abraham take out the last of the walkers.
'Welcome to badass training' Kat smiled at Eugene and patted him on the shoulder. The man just looked in shock, still clinging to the knife.
'Check Eugene, see if he's hurt' was Abraham's immediate reaction.
'I'm fine. Just cuts and dings is all' Eugene confirmed that he was okay.
'Check him!' ordered Abraham again.
'Is that your blood?' Maggie asked Abraham, indicating to the blood covering his hand.
'Yeah. Damn thing opened again. I swear, the cuts are finer than frog's hair. They're just big bleeders' Abraham confirmed that he hadn't been bitten.
'First aid kit's in the bus. I'll see what we have' she told him. She turned to head back to the bus just as it burst into flames.
'We should probably get a bit further back from the fire trap' Kat said, taking in their close proximity to the bus.
'We're not stopping. We're rolling on. We'll find another vehicle down the road. The mission hasn't changed' Abraham said, picking up his duffle bag from the road.
'Devil's advocate, nothing more… we smashed to a stop hard. We spent a lot of time rolling things out of the road. The church is just 15 miles back that way…' Eugene reasoned.
'No. We don't stop. We don't go back. We're at war, and retreat means we lose. The road fights back, the plan gets jacked. You all know that. Now, we will get through this because we have to. Every direction is a question. We don't go back!' Abraham was yelling this by the end.
'Hey, hey, hey. You okay?' Glenn asked. Everyone could tell that there was something more to Abraham's obsession with this mission.
'I am fit as a damn fiddle' Abraham snapped.
'We are going with you. You are calling this thing. I just need to know you're good' Glenn replied.
'This is how things stop. I can't afford that right now. The world can't afford it. Listen, I took a pretty hard shot to the sack with that crash. I am stressed and depressed to see that ride die, but if you say we're rolling on, I'm good.'
'We're rolling on' Glenn confirmed.
'I'm gonna rub some dirt on it and walk it off' Abraham said.
'We'll find what we need like we always have, on the way' Rosita added.
'You gonna be okay for a while, with your head like that?' Maggie asked Kat.
'Yeah. My makeshift bandage will hold until we stop for the night' Kat said.
'I can stitch it for you when we stop' Rosita told her.
'As long as Abraham doesn't try to rub any dirt in it, it'll be fine' Kat smirked at Abraham.
'Maybe we can find some bikes. Bikes don't burn' Tara said, looking back at the inferno that the bus had turned into.
Abraham started walking, leading the group down the road. Kat only prayed that they would find a vehicle soon. It would be a very long walk to Washington.
They didn't find any vehicles for the rest of the day that they could use. What they did find was a library that they could spend the night in. They checked that it was free from walkers and then began preparing to spend the night there. They made a fire and set to boiling water from the water tank of the toilet.
Maggie managed to pull thread that had been used in the binding of some of the library books. Rosita had a needle in her pack and was using it to stitch up Abraham's hand and then Kat's head. Kat couldn't help the tears that sprung to her eyes at the pain, after all they had no painkillers.
'Thanks' Kat thanked Rosita once she was finished.
'I've made the stitches as neatly as possible, hopefully it won't scar too badly' Rosita told her.
'Doesn't matter too much these days anyway. Everyone has scars. More like a badge of honour now' Kat smiled.
'Nice way to look at it' Rosita smiled back. 'Try to keep it clean if you can. I'm gonna go see how Abraham is doing on watch.'
Kat smirked at Rosita, knowing full well that Rosita wanted some private time with Abraham. 'Better make sure someone else covers his watch before you do' Kat laughed. Rosita laughed back and swatted her gently on the shoulder as she left.
Kat laid out on the floor. She wasn't due to cover watch until much later. Tara would wake her up when it was her turn. Until then, she should sleep. But night was the worst, the time when she was left alone with her thoughts. She was alone. Everyone else seemed to have paired off. Of course, Rosita and Abraham and Glenn and Maggie were couples but even Eugene seemed to have taken a liking to Tara and was sticking to her like glue. Kat was alone. She sighed, sleep was going to be difficult tonight.
Kat took over watch from Tara at what was probably about 4:00. She was going to stay on watch until morning. She stood looking out of the window as the sun began to rise, watching for anything. Walkers, people, their group.
'Hey, we're gonna go through there and discuss what the plan is. Some of us think we should stay for another day. What do you think?' Glenn asked her.
'I don't know. I'll just go along with whatever you guys decide. You go ahead, I'll stay on watch' Kat volunteered.
'You sure?' Glenn asked and Kat nodded in reply. Glenn gave a loud sigh. 'Are you okay? After everything that happened?'
'Yeah. I'm fine' replied Kat, giving him a false smile.
Glenn saw through this and placed his hand on her shoulder. 'Maybe running away wasn't the solution you wanted it to be.'
Kat's breath hitched as Glenn had got right to the heart of her problem. Glenn saw this and just patted her shoulder. 'They'll follow us and you can sort this out. Just give it time.' With his words of wisdom said, Glenn left to help formulate their plan. He left Kat to think through what he had said. He was right, running away hadn't solved her problems. She thought she was being strong by being on this mission, not letting Daryl be her weakness. Really, she was running away, taking the easy way out.
He returned only a few minutes later. 'Come on, we have a ride.'
Said ride turned out to be a fire truck. They'd had some trouble setting off. The fire truck had moved a few feet before stopping. The air filter had been clogged with human remains. They had had to fight off some walkers that had been released from a building by the fire truck moving. Eugene had taken them down with the water, which was a badass move; it was just a shame that they had lost all of the water. They finally unclogged the engine and got on the road again.
They managed to get a few miles down the road before the clogged air filter forced them to stop again. Abraham was trying to fix it while everyone else stood around twiddling their thumbs.
Kat gagged when the overwhelming scent of rotting flesh hit her nose. That smell could only come from walkers. They couldn't see any walkers and if the smell was that strong, then there was a herd of them somewhere.
'Whatever's making that stench, it ain't nothin' nice. We're not stoppin'' said Abraham.
'Uh, we're stopped' pointed out Tara. Abraham completely ignored her and led them walking down the road.
They reached the top of the hill and Kat gasped at the sight. She quickly regretted it though when her lungs filled with the stench sodden air. She felt like she could taste it. For what seemed like miles in every direction ahead of them was the largest herd that Kat had ever seen. There looked to be thousands of them. There was no way through the roads ahead. They had no choice but to turn around and find another route.
Kat bit her lip at that thought. Her hope was now hinged on the group following them to Washington. If they detoured from their intended route would the group follow them? Would they find the herd and just turn back instead of finding another route to Washington? Kat shook her head. She desperately wanted them to just turn around at this point and head back to the church but she knew that Abraham would never allow it.
Glenn started walking back to the fire truck, everyone else following behind him. Everyone except Abraham who was stood alone, staring at the herd and mumbling to himself.
'Abraham, let's get out of here' Rosita called to him.
'Hold up' Abraham said to them all.
'We gotta go' Maggie said.
'No. No, we don't. They can't hear us and they can't see us. Not from here. We're fine' Abraham told them, although that wasn't really the point that they were making.
'Yeah, this is the definition of fine' Tara said sarcastically.
'We need the map. There's gotta be a detour' Glenn reasoned.
'I'm not doing it. We detoured and detoured and detoured from Houston to Georgia. I'm not playing that game anymore' Abraham rejected the idea but what other choice did they have?
'We are not going through this, okay? It isn't gonna happen' Glenn said firmly.
'You got a shitstorm behind door A and a storm of shit behind door B. If you're lucky, it's walkers or a shot-up truck. But sooner or later you get cornered. You wind up stayin' and you wind up killin'. We don't go back. We can't go back.'
'I'm not talking about going back. Just south a few miles' Glenn tried again.
'No' Abraham rejected.
'We already hit a full stop 'cause of an air filter compromised by innards. That will happen again' Eugene added.
'Then we'll hit 'em with the hose.'
'The tank is empty, Abraham' Rosita tried.
'If we floor it…'
'We still hit them, they still slow us down, and then they stop us' Glenn yelled.
'I'm not saying we just go straight.'
'That's the way the road goes' Maggie said.
'Can't we try to go the way we said on the map. The others need to be able to follow us' Kat said. She was hoping that Abraham had some kind of idea to get them through the herd. Surely he wasn't arguing his case on blind hope that they could power their way through.
'Whichever way we go, the others will follow us. They will find us' Maggie said to Kat with confidence. She then came closer and whispered, 'Daryl wouldn't just give up.'
'We can get through! I know it! And that means we are not going south, going around, or going back!' Abraham continued to yell.
'No. They're right' Rosita said more quietly. Rosita's agreement with them seemed to break Abraham. He stormed back towards the fire truck, grabbing Eugene by the arm and manhandling him back.
Everyone was yelling for Abraham to let go of Eugene but Kat saw red. When she saw the pain on Eugene's face she stormed forward. All she could see was how her father used to manhandle her. He would drag her around, usually before a beating. She stormed up to Abraham and banged her fist against his chest, trying to make him let go of Eugene or at least stop walking away. Abraham lashed out with his free hand, which contained his gun. Kat wasn't sure whether it was intentional but Abraham caught her with the butt of his gun and sent her sprawling to the ground.
Maggie rushed over to Kat to make sure that she was okay. One of her stitches had bust open when she had hit the ground. Luckily it was one of the smaller ones closer to her ear. She could survive without that stitch. She wiped the blood away from her face and stood up.
Everyone was trying to stop Abraham and chaos was occurring. Everyone stopped when Eugene screamed, 'I'm not a scientist! I'm not a scientist!'
Everyone fell deathly silent and everything stopped. 'I lied. I'm not a scientist. I don't know how to stop it. I'm not a scientist' Eugene said.
'You are a scientist. I've seen the things that you can do' Rosita tried to deny.
'I just know things' Eugene replied.
'You just... "know things"?' asked Glenn incredulously.
'I know I'm smarter than most people, I know I'm a very good liar, and I know I needed to get to DC' Eugene said.
'Why?' asked Maggie.
'Because I do believe that locale holds the strongest possibility for survival, and I wanted to survive. If I could cheat some people into taking me there, well, I just reasoned that I'd be doin' them a solid, too, considering the perilous state of the city of Houston, the state of everything' Eugene reasoned.
'People died trying to get you here' Rosita said, sounding on the verge of tears. It had been her and Abraham's mission for a while now and now they were finding out that it was all in vain. Abraham crouched in the road, the purpose taken out of his life seemed to make him deflate before their eyes.
'I'm aware of that… Stephanie, Warren, Pam, Rex, Roger, Josiah, Dirk, and Josephine. And Bob. You see, I lost my nerve as we grew closer, for I am a coward... I'm not a badass at all' Eugene said to Kat. Kat stared at Eugene in shock. They all felt betrayed. They had banded together for a mission that was based on complete bullshit. 'And the reality of getting to our destination and disclosing the truth of the matter became some truly frightening shit. I took it upon myself to slow our roll. Find time to finesse things so then when we got there... But at this moment, I fully realize there are no longer any agreeable options. I was screwed either way. I also lied about T. Brooks Ellis liking my hair. I do not know T. Brooks Ellis. But I did read one of his books, and he seemed like the type of guy that wouldn't blink twice at a Tennessee Top Hat. Again... I am smarter than you. Now, you may want to leave me here…' Eugene started saying to Abraham. He was cut off when Abraham sprang forward and started beating Eugene.
No one particularly liked Eugene at that moment but they all sprang to his defence. It was difficult to hold off the enraged Abraham and they didn't manage to stop him in time before Eugene collapsed face first on to the road. Rosita stepped between Abraham and Eugene, with her hand resting on her gun. This seemed to bring Abraham to his senses and he walked off, behind the fire truck and sank to his knees.
Everyone gathered around Eugene. They rolled him over onto his back and took in the injuries to his head. He had his eyes open but they closed slowly. He was still alive, just unconscious. With the beating that Abraham had given him, who knew how long it would take for him to come round. Their mission was well and truly over. Now they needed to decide which direction they were going to head in. Washington seemed unlikely at this point. Kat couldn't help but internally feel happy that she would probably be returning to her family soon.
Michonne sat outside on the steps of the church on watch, when Gabriel had joined her. They had talked about Gabriel's past actions and how he regretted them. They heard a rustling from the bushes. Michonne indicated for Gabriel to go inside and fetch the others. She drew her katana and made her way towards the noise. Hopefully it would just be a walker that she could dispatch easily.
Michonne was taken by surprise when Daryl emerged from the bushes. She smiled at his return but this then sank when she realised that he was alone. 'Where's Carol?' she asked.
'Come on out' Daryl called over his shoulder. A boy, not Carol, emerged from the bushes. 'He's ok' Daryl reassured Michonne.
Michonne suddenly realised that Daryl had no idea what had happened over the last few days. She didn't really want to be the one to break it to him that they had been attacked and then half of their group had left, including Kat. He wasn't going to take that well at all.
Merle had returned from his hunting trip earlier in the day, carrying the meat from three deer in his backpack. He had gone batshit crazy when he learned that Kat had left. He blamed everyone else for not stopping her.
'Is everyone else inside' Daryl asked, peering round Michonne. 'I've got some stuff to tell them.'
'Daryl, there's things that have happened…' Michonne began but she was cut off when the others emerged from the church, weapons at the ready. They all stopped in shock when they saw Daryl.
Merle stepped forward first. 'Where the hell have you been?' he spat at Daryl and punched him square in the jaw.
A/N: Sorry there's not been much Daryl in the last couple of chapters. He'll be back in full force next chapter. I'd planned more for this chapter but it was getting a bit long so I've cut it in half.
If anyone likes 'The 100' fanfics, I'm beta reading a fanfiction over on Archive of our Own. It's called 'Life makes love look hard' by Black_Wings. It's a Bellarke fanfic and it's great. Check it out!