Day 1074 – Evening

Becca

Becca jolted awake as someone slammed the dashboard of the car, yelling "For fuck's sake, no! Don't do this!"

It took her a moment to realise but the car was grinding to a halt. "Sully, calm down! There's nothing we can do!" Em ordered. "We're out of gas, that's not something I can fix!"

Becca glanced to her left. Natalia was still asleep, her rhythmic breaths piercing the silence between Sully and Emily growling at each other through hushed whispers.

"What's going on?" Becca asked, wiping her eyes.

"Out of gas about twenty miles from the mall." Sully replied. "Which is just fucking great."

Emily shook her head. "Sully, we're in no rush. It's fine."

"Yeah, but now I have to limp all that way, unless you want to put me in a goddamn wheelchair and push me."

"It's not like we're getting there today." Em told him.

"Whaddya mean? Of course we are!" Sully replied. "Where else are we gonna go?"

Emily passed him a pistol and reached for the handle on her side of the vehicle. "I'm gonna scope out one of these houses. We can head for the mall tomorrow morning." She looked over her shoulder. "Becca, you'd best come with me."

"Oh, you're just gonna leave me here because my leg'll slow you down?" Sully growled. "Thanks!"

"No, we're all capable." Emily told him as she climbed out of the car. "I need you to watch our backs and look after Natalia... because she's somehow managed to sleep through this whole conversation."

Sully nodded but slumped to one side with his cheek in his hand as Becca got out of the vehicle, retrieving her knife as she did so. Emily closed the driver's side door and pointed the teenager towards the house they were going to scope out, and Becca followed without a word.

The red-headed woman led her over to the front door of the house and tried the door handle, surprised to find it left unlocked. "Lucky," she observed, "but probably not good."

"Might be people in here. Or walkers" Becca added.

"Only one way to find out..." Emily replied, tucking her own pistol in the waistband of her jeans and raising her palms. In one swift motion she slammed her hands together in a loud clap that resonated through the house. They heard the echoing hisses and gurgles of a walker in the depths of the house instantly, but there was no sound suggesting living humans were present.

Becca's forehead creased in concern. "Not the best idea, but at least we know."

"I doubted there was anyone here anyway. If they were bandits or something they would have come to check out the truck and rob us straight away." Emily told her.

"Hm. I guess."

The two allies crept into the darkened building, only able to see by the light of the setting sun. Becca scoped out the living room and the kitchen while Emily took the dining room and conservatory, but their search came up clear. "I guess it's upstairs." Emily suggested, then proceeded to lead the charge to the landing where they heard scrabbling coming clearly from an awkwardly placed room. If the door was pulled open it would block the person who opened it and set the walker loose on the other.

"Here's an idea." Emily proposed. "I open the door and let it out, then you get its attention and back away. Before it gets out of the room I slam the door on its leg or something and stab it in the back of the head before it can reach you. Sound good?"

Becca shrugged. "I can't think of anything better. Worth a shot; after all, it's just one walker." She passed Emily her knife and the older woman backed down the hall, hand on the doorknob. "Ready?" she asked.

Becca nodded and Emily whipped the door open. The walker spilled out onto the carpet, not expecting the door to open, and Becca got its attention with a loud shout of the word "Hey!"

The walker dragged itself towards her but before it could stand up Emily pressed a foot onto its weak back, knelt down and stabbed its flailing form in the back of the head.

"Good job." Becca remarked, applauding. Emily grinned and bowed, then passed the knife back to the teenager.

"Let's scope these rooms," the woman said, "Then we can go get the others."

Becca followed Emily into a master bedroom, reeling back as they spied a human corpse with a gun in one hand and its brain splayed all over the wall it was sitting up against. Emily crossed over to the bed and sat down on it, hunching over. "Jesus." she breathed.

"You okay?" Becca asked, wandering further into the room a little. "It's... kinda gross, I know."

"Yeah, I'm good." Emily mumbled. "Just... reminds me of my uncle, and what that asshole Silas did to him."

"Oh." Becca recalled how, when trapped in Sanctum, Kiff had managed to get Annie out so that she could find help for the group. The cost of doing so had been his life, taking a bullet to the back and then several more to the face. "Yeah, I guess you could think of it like that, but without him none of us would've got out of there."

Emily hummed in what seemed like concurrence. "I don't know what I would have done if Hector hadn't pulled me back. I thought he was just stopping me from helping but judging by how things turned out he was probably stopping me from being killed too."

"I don't know about that," Becca retorted. "He always struck me as the kind of guy who was only in it for himself and joined the group just because we'd carry him along. Wasn't that, like... his whole reason for helping us out?"

Emily leaned back and rested her hands on her knees. "Yeah." she paused. "Do you think any of the others are going to be at the mall?"

"I swear someone asked me this the other day," Becca pondered. "I can't remember what I said. I hope so."

Em exhaled. "Honestly, I don't know why Sully and I are going. Kiff's dead. Mitchell's dead. Fuad's dead. No one we know will be there."

"What about Annie, Vince and Wyatt?" Becca told her.

"Sully and I knew them - knew you - for a week, and for the first day or two I didn't like any of you. I can't remember but I think I actually hated Vince until he saved Sully from that herd outside the gas station."

"You seemed pretty happy when you saw me yesterday." Becca frowned. "Was that just for show?"

"No, it was legitimate happiness. A friendly face is better than an unfriendly one, and you gave Sully and I purpose, but once we get to the mall where do we go from there?" Emily brushed her hair out of her face and looked over her shoulder. "It's like we're stuck in limbo, and I don't know if there's anything I can do about it. Sully's lucky I'm as patient with him as I am, because his moaning is getting on my nerves."

"Things can only get better," Becca said, oddly optimistic. "Once we get to the mall we'll all be safe and we can start putting things back the way they used to be. It'll never be how it was but I think it's the best we'll ever get. Just... take every day as it comes, I guess. That's what I've been doing; I was on my own for three months and I haven't gone insane yet."

Emily chuckled. "You're strangely inspirational."

"I've had a long time to think about stuff and no one to share it with. Then I met ten people in the space of two days."

Emily pushed herself to her feet. "It's probably best if we don't use this room with this fella in it," she announced. "Come on, let's go get Sulky and Natalia."