Day 970 – Late Morning
Wyatt
The group had left the town via a small forest path that was slightly overgrown. It was hard to spot and would put more space between them and Sanctum with any luck.
Wyatt had resumed his place at the front of the group with Vince. Bonnie and Becca were just behind them, Tyler, Lowell and Tessa in the middle, Sully and Mitchell further back followed by Emily and Annie with Hector bringing up the rear.
"I'm still looking back on yesterday and thinking about how smoothly it all went." Vince muttered.
Wyatt shrugged, raising his rifle slightly. "We were long overdue for 'easy', dude. It's about damn time something went well."
Vince nodded in concurrence and kept marching onwards. The terrain was slowly going uphill, a fenced-off ditch to their right side and trees on their left, sticking out of the main hill, hanging over the road. The group's leader paused for a second and stared further down the road. Nothing was moving as far as Wyatt could tell, but Vince warned everyone to hang back just in case.
Wyatt trailed the man for about five seconds before the latter crouched over a dead walker. "Look at this." Vince told him.
"What?" Wyatt asked, unable to see a problem. "Just a dead walker, man. No big deal."
Vince placed his machete on the ground and pushed the walker onto its stomach, revealing a gash in the back of it's head. "This is the problem." he remarked, pointing to the injury that had killed the creature. "This is recent. It's only been dead for a couple of hours, a day at max."
"How can you tell?" Wyatt pressed. "There's no way we can be sure, dude."
"The point where it was taken out is still leaking stuff," Vince told him. "It's not rotted away, either. Someone either went the same way as us or they went the opposite way – they might've stabbed this walker because a gunshot would let us know they were here. We should keep our guard up in case it's Sanctum."
"Could be bandits," Wyatt suggested, "Or another group."
Vince nodded. "Could be, it's worth being cautious." He got back to his feet, raised his machete and gave the group clearance to approach via a brief wave. The group reformed and continued their journey uphill, following the ridge as it curved around.
The group started slowing as they reached a flat platform halfway up. Tessa and Mitchell were lagging behind, prompting Sully to ask whether they could stop. "Can we slow down?" he asked, "We need rest."
Vince nodded. "Alright," he said, "but keep an eye out."
Sully helped Mitchell sit down, then crossed his arms and glanced briefly in Emily's direction before frowning to himself. Wyatt waited with Vince as the others made themselves comfortable, looking for Annie to make sure that she was okay. He saw her with Emily and decided to leave the child be.
Vince was standing at the edge of the platform, leaning on a barrier and staring out onto the town below. Wyatt watched Becca sidle up next to the man and opted not to join them given the tension between Becca and himself.
"Why the long face?" someone asked. Wyatt turned and saw Bonnie striding towards him, a warm smile on her face as she gripped the M4 Hector had given her. "Out of everyone I met, I expected you to be the one who always stayed hopeful."
"I don't know about that." Wyatt shrugged. "People change."
"Not you, Wyatt. You're too set in your ways." Bonnie raised her index finger and poked him in the chest. "I changed, but I like to think it was for the better. You're already good; you don't need to change."
Wyatt wasn't so sure. "Back when we were trapped in Sanctum, Becca helped Annie escape. Once we were all herded back inside I got so mad at her. I yelled at her and called her some awful things." He pressed his palm to his face. "I regret it, I do, but she shouldn't have sent a kid out on her own. That's just not right." He looked at Bonnie for support. "Am I wrong?"
Bonnie paused, chewing her lip and then decided on an answer. "I don't know much about kids, but you seem like you've got a genuine attachment to that little girl." she told him, looking over his shoulder and watching Annie. "I don't blame you, she's kinda... cute. I don't know. If you want to support her enough to have a fall out with Becca, that means you really care. That ain't something wrong in my book."
Wyatt still wasn't convinced, so Bonnie slung her weapon over her shoulder and held her arms out wide. "Come on," she smirked, "bring it in, big guy."
Wyatt groaned as the thin woman wrapped her arms around him, pinning his hands to his sides. They had never really been very close, but being through so much with someone, losing them and finding them months later was bound to tie them together. Wyatt smiled as the woman let go and adjusted her weapon before turning and walking away as if nothing had happened.
"Thanks, Bonnie."
The woman paused, but didn't turn to look at him. "Yup."
Wyatt watched as the woman walked over to talk to Sully, then span around in shock as he heard shouting; Tyler screaming "Say that again, asshole!"
As he looked over his shoulder Wyatt saw Tyler shoving Hector backwards. Hector's hands were pinned to his sides and his face was a mask of concentration, trying not to retaliate.
"Come on!" Tyler snarled. "Tell everybody!"
Hector looked around at the group as they turned to face him, only to be pushed backwards again by Tyler. He remained quiet, saying nothing.
"This motherfucker," Tyler announced, punctuating his words with a harsh chuckle, "cycled through all of the people in Sanctum, waiting for the right ones who could keep him alive. He let all those people die because he didn't think they were good enough, and guess what? He never came to rescue me or Lowell or Tessa. We weren't good enough for him."
Hector stared at the floor but turned his head towards Tyler. "That's not what I said. I said you weren't capable of supporting yourselves out here. You were safer from the walkers in Sanctum. You're all missing crucial features that make it so that you can survive against the dead."
"That's because you didn't tell us what Sanctum was doing!" Tyler yelled, shoving his palm into the man's chest. Hector kept staggering backwards with each hit, but no one was doing anything about it. They were all just watching in awe.
Hector bared his teeth. "You should back off."
"Do as he says." Vince ordered.
"Are you listening?!" Tyler screeched. "This asshole is no better than any of the others from Sanctum – he's in it for himself. Fuck, he's exactly the same!"
Tyler jolted back as Hector shoved him. The ex-prisoner paused, hunched over,for a second until the muscles beneath his eyelid began to twitch and he started drawing in breath. Hector stopped moving, too, his eyes held on Tyler as the man raised his right hand. Not knowing what was coming Hector was hit in the face by Tyler's fist as the man sprung into action.
The ex-Sanctum guard took a few wobbly steps backwards and then regained his composure. Tyler ran at him again, too fast for Emily who tried to grab him by the shoulders. Hector wiped his bleeding nose on his sleeve as Vince tried to get between him and his assailant, but he shrugged the man off and charged at him.
Tyler's next attack was slow and sluggish, a punch with the same fist he had used previously. Hector ducked as the man swung at him and planted his own fist in the man's stomach, winding him. Vince got back to his feet again and tried to separate them but Hector shoved him away again.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Bonnie growled, "Cool it!"
The two brawlers ignored her as Tyler thrust his kneecap into Hector's groin causing him to hunch over, then elbowed him in the back. Hector collapsed and Tyler tried to kick his stomach but the man reached up and grabbed his ankle with both hands.
With a swift tug, Hector pulled Tyler forwards, knocking him off balance. As Tyler fell flat on his back Wyatt tried to intervene only to be stopped by Annie who ran towards him in a panic. He caught the child, crouching and wrapping his arms around her back as she buried her face in his chest. Ensuring that she wasn't watching the fight, Wyatt opted to take care of her and let someone else deal with Hector and Tyler.
Now that Tyler was on his back, he was at Hector's mercy. The ex-guard had only said one thing during the whole exchange and now he was straddled over Tyler, sitting on his chest as he repeatedly punched the one-eyed man in the face. Wyatt looked over to Mitchell and Sully, both of whom were hanging back. Sully had seen this before; he had been part of a similar fight with Fuad not long ago.
Once again Vince and Emily tried to pry Hector off of Tyler, but he wasn't going to go easily. Surprisingly neither Lowell or Tessa had tried to intervene, instead standing and sitting respectively with solemn looks on their faces as they watched Tyler being beaten half to death.
As he stroked the back of Annie's head to comfort her, Wyatt turned and saw Bonnie sighing as she trained her rifle on Hector's back. It was a clear shot. If she fired everyone for five miles would hear it.
Wyatt didn't want to see anyone die. He let go of Annie in an instant and leaped up, giving her a reassuring look as he darted for Bonnie. The woman was prepared to shoot Hector to save Tyler's life, but her face was a mask of sadness; she didn't want to kill anyone.
Wyatt yelled and caught Bonnie's attention. She turned to look at him and her eyes widened when she saw him sprinting directly at her. He held out his palms and charged the woman, shoving her arms out of the way so that she wouldn't shoot anyone, but Bonnie's reflexes kicked in and she flinched, causing her to pull the trigger. Six gunshots fired off, echoing all around the valley below them.
Losing his balance, Wyatt collapsed to the ground. His head connected with the packed dirt quite harshly as his vision swayed and span. Judging by the concentration of survivors in the area, someone must have been hit, but who?
