''There,'' Olivia said and crouched down. I quickly followed her lead and dropped to my knees behind a bush. Several walkers were stumbling a few feet further and close to that, was a house. It was next to the road and I was sure that a few feet away were train tracks.
It was one of the first houses we'd come across in a while. We were hungry and tired, we needed a rest. All the food that we found had gone to Judith, the leftovers had gotten to us. We were waiting for rain so we could fill up our bottles and finally have some water.
It had been the third day since we got robbed from all our supplies. I thought I had gotten through some tough times, but this was by far the worst. I had lost the few pounds of weight I had gained at my time in the prison. I was amazed at how much weight you could lose in a week. Even though my condition had gotten pretty good in the last 2 years, because of my lack of nutrition and hydration, I constantly needed to rest and I couldn't run for more than 20 minutes.
We both could use some food and a good night's sleep. Olivia had had dark circles under her eyes and we were both visibly weaker than when we met.
''Are we gonna sneak past them?'' I asked, glancing down at Judith in the baby carrier. She was slowly looking around, taking in her surroundings,
''We can't take them.'' Liv sighed, I nodded slowly. I looked at the walkers, most of them were on the highway, so if we just walked around it then we wouldn't be seen. There were only around 5 walkers, but we just couldn't take the chance right now. My eyes suddenly fell on a glass bottle about a feet away, and idea popped up in my head and I slowly crept towards it.
''Aubrey, what the hell are you doing?'' She angrily whispered to me, not seeing the bottle. If I had to grab the bottle I had to step into the sight of walkers, I had to be quick and silent so I just put my finger against my lips and took another step.
When I almost reached the bottle, I looked up, trying to see if any of the mindlessly roaming walkers had seen me. Fortunately, they hadn't. In one swift movement I had grabbed the bottle and I quickly made my way back to Olivia, my heart pounding in my chest as I did.
When I held up the bottle she grinned and gave me a thumbs up.
''Do you want to throw it?'' I asked her, she had stronger arms then me, I blamed it on her years of archery. She nodded and swung her arm back, throwing the bottle away. It landed a bit closer to the house then I would have liked, but the plan worked and the walkers turned around and followed the noise, their groans excited as they expected a meal.
''Let's go.'' I mumbled and we both took off towards the house.
Fortunate for us, the doors weren't locked and we quickly stepped inside. Olivia closed the door behind her and locked it.
''Thank god that worked.'' I said, a bit louder now that we were inside.
''You can say that again, I think that was the first time something went so smooth.'' I nodded at Liv's statement. It seemed like everywhere we went, bad luck followed us. Mostly walkers chased us away again. Judith would cry and we had to run, there would be no food and we had to search for another place. It was tough, but I couldn't express how glad I was that I wasn't alone. Even though these days had been one of the hardest, having Olivia here made it all do-able. We supported each other and made sure we wouldn't give up.
''Hey, I was thinking-'' I started while walking around in the kitchen, looking for food. ''We should probably follow the train tracks, I saw on the map that they lead straight to Macon.'' I opened a new cabinet and smiled when I saw what was inside.
''Bingo.'' I grinned and I showed her the three cans of food. She looked up from her cabinet and grinned at me.
''Finally.'' She sighed and stepped away from the cabinet and walked over to me. She grabbed the cans in her hand and put them in her backpack. ''Also, I think that's good idea. We won't get lost that way.'' She spoke up about the train tracks, agreeing with me.
''Good.'' I said and at that moment Olivia cheered silently.
''We found the jackpot!'' She said with a bigger smile on her face than first. She pointed towards the cabinet she was just searching and when I looked over I understood why she said that. There had to be at least a dozen canned foods in there. My mouth fell open and I gave Olivia a look. It sounded weird, why would somebody leave so much food behind?
''What if someone's still here?'' Olivia spoke up, reading my thoughts. She had a questioning look on her face and instantly her guard was up. ''You stay here with Judith, I'm gonna check it out upstairs.''
''No, Liv-''
''Just wait here.'' She interrupted me. Before I could say anything else she left, heading for the stairs. I wanted to follow her, but we both still didn't have a gun and I had Judith. I clenched my fists, why did she have to be so stubborn?
I pulled out my machete and walked over to the stairs. I waited for something to happen, to hear the sounds of fighting or a gunshot maybe. After 5 minutes, nothing had happened yet. Just when I was thinking about going upstairs to go check it out, Liv came back downstairs, but this time with a gun in her hand.
''Where did you get that?'' I questioned her, pointing at the gun.
''Dead guy, shot himself in the head. He seemed to have died recently, which explains the cans.'' She said while pointing behind her at the stairs. It scared me a bit how she didn't even seem phased by the fact that there was a dead guy upstairs. She just shrugged it off like it was nothing.
''What do we do with him?'' I asked, my eyes glancing upstairs, wondering why he killed himself.
''What do you mean? Nothing of course, he wanted to rot upstairs. Let him.'' I pressed my lips together at her answer and decided not to react to it. Walking back to the kitchen, I felt a weird feeling in my stomach. I had only seen this part of Olivia twice, when those people took our stuff, and once when a walker fell on top of her and she got so angry that she smashed its head in several times and even kicked it afterwards, to get her anger out.
I could honestly say that that part of Olivia scared me a bit, I wasn't scared that she was going to hurt me or something. Just that she was going to hurt innocent people around her or maybe even herself. She was acting stupid, and stupid gets you killed.
The next day we packed up again, feeling much better. We had a good amount of food, got a good nights sleep, no trouble and we felt ready to get going again.
We walked on the train tracks, keeping a good pace. We were talking to each other about the things we missed the most from our pre-apocalyptic lives.
''Cheeseburgers,'' I said and Olivia moaned, ''Omg I can almost taste them.'' She joked as she placed a hand over her heart.
''My playstation.'' Olivia said as she pouted, ''I would give anything to play on it one more time.''
''Yeah, but I always beat you though.'' I said sticking my tongue out. She fake gasped at my comment and tried to look shocked.
''You did not!'' She disagreed with me.
''I absolutely did.'' I said, although it wasn't true at all. I sucked at playing games, the only games I beat her with was with board games, which she thought was boring.
''you always accidently killed yourself.'' She laughed as she thought of that, this time it was my turn to pout.
''Not always.'' I tried, but Olivia didn't hear me anymore she was laughing so hard that she was grabbing her stomach and I raised my eyebrow at her. When she was done with laughing she let out a huge breath.
''Phew, that was fun.'' She sighed and I smiled at her, shaking my head.
''Hey, you remember that time when-'' I starter, but then my eyes caught something only a few feet away. I didn't know how I could have missed it, it was huge. We were just walking by some small kind of building, when I saw that there were words written on it, but that wasn't the only thing we saw. Next to the building, a board was placed, with the word Terminus on it.
''Aubrey?'' Olivia asked me, and when she saw what I was looking at she slowly walked over to it.
Written in blood were the words: 'Glenn come to Terminus - Maggie,'' I gasped as I walked over the the wall where it was written on. I read it again, and again, just to be sure that I wasn't imagining it.
''Liv, I know them.'' I said pointing at the words. It was only then that I turned to the other sign where Liv was currently looking at.
It was a map, above it was written in big letters 'TERMINUS'. As I looked at the map the spot where Macon was supposed to be was marked with a star. Above the map was another sign that said: 'Sanctuary for all, community for all, those who arrive survive.'
''Ehm, Aubrey-'' She started, but I didn't hear her, my heart was pounding in my chest as I looked at the map and the board. If Glenn and Maggie were still alive, then that meant that they were heading for Terminus, and they couldn't be the only ones that were alive.
''They're alive.'' I nervously laughed, shaking Olivia's shoulders. Olivia looked a bit unsure about this whole thing and her face was full of doubt, but I refused to acknowledge it.
''Look, Aubrey, I don't think that-''
''We have to go to Terminus.'' I said, determined to keep going. We couldn't stop now, not when we were so close to my group.
''Aubrey!'' Olivia yelled and I seemed to snap out of it. ''We shouldn't go there.'' She stated and frowned, a bit offended.
''Well, why not?'' I questioned a bit angry. My friends were out there and she just decided that we shouldn't go? If there really was a sanctuary then that would be the perfect place to raise Judith.
''Why would they take people in?'' She said, obviously cautious, ''I just doesn't seem realistic.'' She crossed her arms, staring at me.
''This place could be it, for Judith, for us.'' I said pointing the the little kid. At the mention of Judith her hard gaze faltered a bit, but she still remained with her arms crossed. ''I get it, you don't trust it, because you don't believe in good people anymore. But people can do the right thing.'' I told her, thinking about the group. ''We can just go there, check it out and if we both don't trust it, we'll just leave again.'' I tried to convince her.
''You have to start taking chances.'' I tried one last time and she sighed, unfolded her arms and pinched the bridge off her nose. My heart was beating in my throat, hoping she would agree to come with me.
''Fine.'' She said. ''Let's just go.'' I let out a sigh of relief when she spoke those words and I had the urge to go and hug her. Only she didn't really look like she wanted a hug, so I just awkwardly nodded and we both continued in our way.
Now that I had seen the signs, my mind was racing with thoughts and questions. Did they really take people in? Was Maggie already there? Did Glenn and Maggie find each other? Were there other people from our group? Was it safe? What if it was already destroyed when we got there? Did they have other children?
My mind flashed back to Daryl, and I felt my heart beat a little faster at the thought of seeing him again. Before the day the Governor attacked I wasn't really sure what I felt for Daryl, well that's what I told myself. I told myself that I didn't like him, I wasn't looking for a relationship, I just avoided thinking about that prospect all together. But now, I felt like I should tell him what I feel. I wasn't sure what I felt, but it was something. It was a bit more then friendship, but it didn't feel like the standard partnerships I'd had. He could annoy me so bad, that I'd want to slap him and sometimes he was just so calm and collected, and then other times he'd just blow up.