The Highway
Due to the need to siphon fuel, our caravan was down to three vehicles; one car, the RV, and the motorcycle.
The air whipped at us as we rode, and I could feel the subtle push and pull of the bike as gears shifted intermittently. Most of the road was made up of straightaways, and I delighted at the occasional curve we had to lean into. The wind sometimes blew the scent of road kill into my nostrils, but I didn't care at all. It had been too long since I was on a bike. And while I'd rather be at the handlebars, the smile on my face felt permanent.
When I was a passenger on a motorcycle, I tended to get blissed out. I let my grip around his waist relax, to the point where I was just barely holding on. Then, I felt him using one of his hands to readjust my arms to be tighter.
"I've got good balance," I hollered over the engine. "Don't worry!"
Daryl scowled lightly. "Don't wanna have to scrape you off the pavement! You ain't got no seatback!"
I rolled my eyes. "Anybody ever tell you you worry too much?"
"Anybody ever tell you you're too damn brave for your own good?"
"I might've been told similar at some point," I chuckled. "And anyway, you're hardly going that fast!"
He simply shook his head in response. Indulging him, I tightened my arms. With a happy sigh, I rested my chin on his shoulder. He glanced at me, and the corner of his mouth twitched into a small smile. Suddenly, he twisted the throttle and went into a higher gear.
"I feel you loosen your grip at all," he hollered at me. "and I'm slowin' us back down!"
I tipped my head back and laughed as we sped up. I glanced briefly behind us at the other vehicles. Smirking, I freed up one of my hands to take out a walkie talkie.
"Y'all wanna race," I said into the microphone.
The response I received was from Dale. "What?!"
I laughed as I put the walkie talkie away and put my arm back around Daryl. I couldn't tell whether Dale's response was that of incredulous, or because he might not have been able to hear me over the bike. Either way, Daryl had sped the bike up exponentially. For many minutes, the world around us was a thrilling blur of trees, farms, and wheat fields. On the straightaways, Daryl made a show of tilting the bike this way and that, making it do steady weaving motions.
Daryl occasionally glanced back at me. At first, it was with worry, probably thinking I'd get nervous with how fast we were going and with how he manipulated the bike. However, his worry quickly faded when I laughed again at how much fun I was having. Now, when he glanced at me, it was with a smirk, one that told me he was having fun as well.
Our two-lane road eventually turned into a four-lane highway. Instead of fields and crops, we were now looking at scattered abandoned vehicles. Daryl lowered the gears to slow us so we could safely maneuver around. When we arrived at an overturned semi, Daryl swerved right to go around it.
"I don't think the group is gonna be able to make it through all this," I said to him.
He shrugged. "We'll find gaps."
I frowned. "Those gaps'll get smaller and smaller."
"So we'll use the median or the shoulder," he said as he made a U-turn.
"And we'll move vehicles if we have to," I nodded, but was still unsure. I didn't know why I was having a feeling of uncertainty.
The group had finally caught up to us, and they were all paused in front of the semi. Daryl stopped the bike next to the RV.
"See a way through," Dale asked us through the open driver's side window.
Daryl looked over his shoulder once, and then nodded at Dale. Going forward again, we looped around to the back of the RV, nodded at the others in the car to keep going, and made our way back to the front of the RV to lead.
The further we lead the group through the highway, the more dread I was feeling. Daryl had once mentioned something about a highway. I just couldn't remember what. Damn, was it grating at me.
Bang! Hissss!
I snapped my head around to look behind me. Dale's RV was making an awful screeching noise while billowing some sort of smoke or steam.
"Ain't that a bitch," Daryl muttered as he stopped the motorcycle and turned off the ignition. We got off and walked over them.
"I said it," Dale said as he and the others exited the RV. "Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water!"
"Problem, Dale," Shane asked.
"Well, it's the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" He cut himself off as he looked around the highway. "Okay," he admitted. "That was dumb."
"Can't find a radiator hose here…" Shane shrugged.
"Whole buncha stuff we could find," Daryl added as he searched through the nearest vehicle.
"Siphon more fuel from these cars, for a start," T-Dog said.
"Maybe some water," Carol piped up.
"Food," Glenn shrugged.
"This is a graveyard," Lori shook her head.
"Nu-uh," I said. "This is a goldmine. With enough searching, we could find enough food, supplies, and fuel to last us 'til Fort Benning."
"These vehicles belonged to other people," Andrea frowned at me.
"And now they don't," I countered. "If we find any evidence that a vehicle has been recently used, we'll leave it alone. In case the owner has plans on coming back soon."
"And how will we know if anyone's been through here," Lori asked.
"Anything that doesn't have a layer of dust, dirt, or cobwebs on it," I said. "Everything else is ours."
Lori looked at Rick. "I don't know how I feel about this."
Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Lori and Rick. I leaned against the vehicle Daryl was searching through and waited. I understood the trepidation. It was a moral that everyone was struggling with to some degree. Taking stuff from a store or gas station was one thing, taking stuff from other people's vehicles was another. Out of all of us, Daryl and I were probably the only ones with any looting experience under our belts.
Shane was the first to speak up. "Come on, y'all," he encouraged. "Just look around. Gather what you can."
Everyone silently split off into their own little groups. Daryl and I split up as well, both of us going solo and at our own pace. I was on the hunt for any essentials and RV parts.
I opened the back of an ambulance that had been the victim of its tires going flat, possibly deliberately slashed judging by the slice marks along the side of the rubber. Unfortunately, aside from some band-aids and some gauze, the ambulance had been cleaned of everything. There wasn't even a gurney.
I jumped out and continued on. Eventually, I came to the same cluster of vehicles Lori and Carol were searching through.
Carol flinched when she saw movement, but relaxed upon seeing me. "You scared me," she muttered. "Hey, do you have any room in that backpack. I found a few things, but no pockets."
"Sure," I nodded as I held my backpack open. I raised a brow as I looked at her jeans. "Fake pockets," I asked amusedly.
She chuckled and nodded.
I shook my head with a smirk. "For some reason, jean companies never thought we'd need 'em. And now the apocalypse happens. Ain't that a bitch?"
"Language, please," Lori scolded, glancing at Carl and Sophia.
"They doin' okay," Carol asked apprehensively, unable to see them from her position.
"I can see 'em," Lori nodded. "Sophia keeps trying to get Carl to play 'I Spy', but he keeps looking into vehicles. He keeps wanting her to look into vehicles, too." Lori sighed worriedly. "He's been wanting to help so bad lately. I just want him to be a kid for as long as he can."
I snorted. "So the kids are out looking for stuff as well, but no Ed? Who's on Ed duty anyway?"
"No one," Carol said as she looked through a pile of clothes. She was looking quickly, forcing herself to be distracted from the new topic in conversation. "He's still in the RV."
"So he's not bothering anybody," I shrugged as I began walking away. "Cool."
"Lori," came Rick's voice as he jogged in our direction. "Under the cars," he hissed frantically.
As they scrambled to gather Sophia and Carl, I climbed on top of the nearest car to get a better look. I knew Rick was warning us about walkers, going by how scared he was, but…Damn.
It wasn't the biggest herd I'd ever seen, but it was big nonetheless. And we had no time. No time to make a plan to redirect the herd, not enough weapons or people to take them all out, and no adequate place to hide. Hiding under the vehicles was the best we had.
I jumped down onto the pavement and dove under the car. The silent highway was now filled with growls and dragging feet.
I watched as Lori and Carol struggled to keep quiet against the fear. It wasn't just the sight of seeing all those walker legs ambling by us that was causing their rising panic. The kids were several feet away from them, huddled under their own vehicles. All Carol, Lori, and Rick could focus on was keeping eye contact with their children until the herd passed.
All fell as quiet as a grave when the last walker finally shuffled away. I looked around at everyone for them to make the first move. I didn't want to get out of hiding yet in case anyone else had a walker nearby, not wanting to accidentally attract attention to anyone still hiding.
I heard light scuffing across the pavement and immediately looked in the direction of the noise. It was Sophia. She was getting out from under the truck, relieved, but still a little fearful. I scrunched my eyebrows as I, too, got out. And that's when it hit me.
The highway. Sophia. Was this where she was supposed to go missing? There weren't any more walkers, so what would prompt it?
It was at that precise moment that two walkers strolled by, both going up to the truck Sophia was hiding beneath. Sophia shrieked in terror, shoving herself back under. I gripped my knife and started getting out from my hiding place to run to the truck. Just as the walker was crawling under the vehicle after her, I grabbed the walker by the ankles, dragged it out, and stabbed it.
Sophia was still whimpering and screaming, and still pushing herself until she was on the other side of the truck. When she saw the other walker, she went to duck under the highway's guardrail. Swiftly, I made my way around, snagged under Sophia's shoulders, and shoved her back under the truck. I looked into her terrified eyes. After I was assured that she was going to stay put, I straightened up to face off with that last walker. I strode forward and stabbed it.
The only sounds to be heard now were Sophia's terrified whimpers and Carol's crying as everyone else shuffled out of hiding.
I knelt down to look at Sophia, just to once again reassure myself. Her lip quivered, her entire body trembled terribly, but she managed a shaky nod.
I nodded back and then climbed up onto the truck bed. I looked around everywhere as well as kept an ear out. I silently thanked everyone for still keeping as quiet as they could. Determining it was all clear, I looked at the RV. From where I was standing, it looked as though Dale had flattened himself against its roof in an effort to remain as invisible as possible.
I whistled once, and Dale perked his head up. I flashed him two thumbs up, and his head dipped in relief as he moved to stand. I opened my mouth wide and chirped. I received a whistle back. From another mess of vehicles, Daryl poked his head up. I gave him the same thumbs up. He nodded in response.
I jumped down from the truck. "I'm gonna go around," I said to Rick. "Make sure everyone's okay."
Rick shook his head. "That should be my responsibility. I'll do it."
I raised an eyebrow. "Did you memorize which direction everyone went off to?"
After a beat, he shook his head admittedly. Then, he looked surprised. "Did you?"
I shrugged. "It's involuntary, memorizing something like that. It's a weird…defense mechanism I have."
"Defense mechanism?"
"Given that I don't like to be touched, I sometimes remember where people are or where they go just to avoid being touched. It's instinctual at this point. I'm funny like that," I quipped with a scowl. "I'll go make sure everyone is accounted for."
"Thank you," he said.
Before walking away, I saw Carol and Sophia sitting on the pavement, clutching each other for dear life. Tears streamed down their faces as they muttered assurances to each other. When they finally let go of each other, Carl immediately went forward to hug Sophia.
As soon as Carol and I made eye contact, she stood up a came over to me with a purposeful stride. At first I thought she was storming over to me in anger, but then her arms raised.
I took a step back as I tensed. "Look, just wait-"
As soon as her arms came around me, my entire body locked up. I curled my hands into fists and tucked them protectively against my ribs. I forced my lungs to breathe. I wanted to desperately get away, to shove her, to do something, but I tried to be polite about. I tried to wait it out.
"Thank you," Carol whispered. "She's alright. You saved her. Thank you, thank you," she began repeating.
I gritted my teeth together as my eyes slammed shut. For a woman as thin as her, her grip was strong and stifling. Finally, after an eternity, she loosed her grip so that she could rest her hands on the tops of my shoulders.
"Thank you," she sniffled one last time.
I nodded stiffly and finally took the opportunity to shrug her off and walk away. I went in the direction I had seen Daryl. Just as I was getting my breath back, I walked around a set of vehicles to find T-Dog sitting on the ground, clutching his arm and staring off into space.
I stared at the blood. "You bit," I asked.
He shook his head quickly. "Scratched," he rasped. "Piece of metal or glass something from a car." He cringed against the pain. "Pretty bad."
I opened up my backpack as I sat down next to him. I took out a water bottle, gauze, a rag, and sutures. "Bite down on this," I handed him the rag.
"Why," he asked as he finally looked at me, but still in a daze.
"The bleeding's slowed down, but it needs stitches. And it's gonna hurt like a bitch."
He raised a brow at me dubiously. "You done this before?"
I readied the needle and suture. "I was homeless before all this. I had to do my own healthcare."
He pursed his lips, nodded once, and took the rag to bite down on. I poured the entire contents of the water onto his arm. "I have no alcohol or anything to disinfect the wound with," I said as I tossed the water bottle into my bag and got to work. As soon as the needle threaded through his skin, he cried out around the rag. "We'll need to find antibiotics. You're at high risk for an infection right now.
"Good to know," he grumbled, voice muffled.
The cut was long and deep. Just as I was getting done with the last stitch, my sutures ran out. I sighed. "That's the last of them. But you're all done anyway, so that's the good news. Bad news is we need antibiotics."
"I saw…" he said as he gave me the rag and tiredly rubbed at his face. "An ambulance. Across the median."
I nodded. "I saw it. Went inside. Nothing's there. Except for this," I said as I took the gauze out of its packaging and wrapped it around his arm. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell the group about me being homeless."
He snorted. "You think anybody's gonna judge you? Least of all Dixon? After all the things you've done for us?"
"Daryl already knows," I said. "And everyone else…I like to talk and do things on my own terms."
He nodded. "I get you."
As if on cue, I heard Daryl's light footsteps approaching. "Been tryin' to find you," he said as he came into view. "Heard screamin'. Who was it?"
"That was Sophia," I said as I stood up. "She tried to make a run for it. I had to kill a few walkers, but she's alright."
He looked me up and down with concern. "And you?"
"It was only two walkers," I shruged. I gestured to T-Dog. "He's hurt real bad. A piece of a car cut him. I stitched him up, but he'll need antibiotics sooner or later. Can you make sure he gets back to the RV while I try to go find some?"
"No need," he said as he started walking away. "Got stuff in the saddlebags. Come on."
After making sure T-Dog was okay to stand and walk, we followed Daryl.
"Keep your oily rags off my brother's motorcycle," Daryl was saying as he tossed a bunch of rags at Dale.
"What happened to you, T," Dale asked as he pointed at his arm.
"Scratched," T-Dog said.
Shane, who was busy putting large water jugs in the trunk of the car, stalled when he heard that. "By a walker," he demanded as he strode over.
I got in his path. "Back off, Shane," I frowned. "It was a loose car part or something. Not a walker." I shook my head at him before ignoring him. "Don't get everyone worked up."
Daryl was digging around in a saddlebag until he dragged out a Ziploc bag stuffed full of pill bottles. "My brother's stash," he explained to T-Dog and I. Daryl started listing through what he had as he rifled through the bag. "Crystal, X. Don't need that. Got some kick-ass painkillers…Doxycycline," he said as he tossed T-Dog the bottle. "Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class." Daryl put the bag back in the saddlebag. He looked at me and shrugged. "Merle got the clap on occasion."
T-Dog gave a short nod at us in thanks, and he swallowed one of the pills.
"So," Andrea sighed. "What now? We've been picking apart vehicles for hours."
"Carol found a few things," I said as I took the items out of my bag. It was an old magnesium fire starter, a Swiss army knife, and a fish hook set. I set them next to a pile of other supplies that the group had collected. "But you're right. There's not much in this area right now."
"We need to get through this mess," Rick said as he, Lori, Carol, and the kids made their way over. "Our priority is to fix the RV and get to Fort Benning." He glanced around. "We'll have to move vehicles out of the way."
"We shouldn't have to move much," Dale said. "We'll just need to be able turn ourselves around. Once the RV gets running, we can double back to a bypass that Glenn flagged on the map, now that we have enough fuel to do so."
"Going back's gonna be easier than tryin' to get through this mess," Shane agreed.
"Can't be soon enough for me," Andrea said. "I'm still freaked out from that herd that passed us by. Or whatever you call it."
"Yeah," Glenn exhaled. "What was that? All of them just marching along like that?"
"Like we all said," I mused. "They're moving out of the cities. Maybe the bigger herds are keeping to the roads because it's easier than moving through the woods. Less hills, less rocks and roots and things for them to get snagged on."
Glenn shook his head at our surroundings. "As if moving through all of this is any easier."
I shook my head. "We're struggling because we need our cars. That herd passed through here within minutes because they're on foot."
"You really think walkers are smart enough to think things through like that," Andrea asked.
I nodded. "Sort of. Walkers want a quick meal. So they do what they think is easiest to accomplish that. They're slow on the uptake, but they learn things eventually, like how to climb or how to open doors. It just takes them a shit-ton of time to figure it out."
"You've observed walkers," Dale said with a mixture of fascination and mild horror.
"Why not," I shrugged. "They exist. It's only a good idea to learn their habits."
"Takes an animal to know an animal," Shane muttered with a shrug.
Daryl pushed off from the vehicle he was leaning on. "You wanna watch your mouth?"
I put a hand on Daryl's chest to stop him. "Let's just…keep on keeping on." I looked at Rick. "Where do you want all of us?"
Rick looked around at everyone. "Andrea, Lori, I want y'all to start moving vehicles. Dale can keep working on the RV and search around for any more parts he needs. Carol, keep an eye on the kids. Shane, I want you on top of the RV to keep an eye out for things. T-Dog...You should rest."
T-Dog shook his head stubbornly. "I'll keep on siphoning for fuel."
"We got enough fuel," Rick said. "It should be enough to get us to Fort Benning. You've done your part. Rest up."
T-Dog nodded in understanding. "You mind if I chill out in the car. I don't want to have to go into the RV and deal with Ed."
"'Course," Rick nodded. He looked at Daryl and I. "You two keep searching any vehicle you see."
"For what," Daryl scoffed. "Most of these vehicles are already cleaned out. By us or by others."
I looked out towards the woods. "It's almost evening. Daryl and I could do some hunting. See if we can't find us some dinner."
After a moment, Rick nodded. "Alright, but try not to do any gunfire. We don't want that herd circling back to us."
"Can I go with 'em," Carl piped up.
Rick shook his head slightly. "Carl-"
"They could teach me how to track, and how to gut an animal," Carl tried. "And it'd be one less person for Carol to watch."
"But it'd be one more person for Daryl and Layla to watch," Lori countered firmly.
"Please, can I go with 'em? I'll do everything they say, I promise!"
Lori and Rick looked at each other and shook their heads slowly.
"They're right. It's not a good idea, dude," I said to Carl. "Not with that herd still nearby. If Daryl and I have to split up to take care of some walkers, we wouldn't want anything happening to you in the middle of all that chaos."
Carl flexed his jaw with a frown. He looked at his mom and dad. "I just wanna help the group."
"Getting lost in the woods is not the way to do it, baby," Lori said as she knelt to be at eye level with him. "Daryl and Layla know what they're doing. You're still learning."
"I'm not really, though," Carl snapped.
As Lori and Rick tried to reason with Carl, I nodded at Daryl. He nodded back at me. We walked to the shoulder of the highway, climbed over the guardrail, and went down the hill into the woods.
"The kid's persistent," Daryl said as we followed a deer trail. "I'll give him that."
"He's gonna eventually become a good shot with a gun," I said. "He'll just need to work on his impulsiveness to get there."
"So," Daryl said. "What happens next?"
Ever since Daryl told me he believed me, we hadn't talked about it further. It wasn't an uncomfortable topic, it just hadn't come up since then. Daryl had a tendency to live in the moment, whereas I always looked to the future. Ah, how interesting that sentence is.
"Not quite sure exactly," I said. "If I remember correctly, you guys spend a lot of time on that highway. You were originally looking for Sophia, but she's not missing now, so…I don't know. I know some things that are supposed to happen, I just don't know when." I sighed. "I wonder how this is gonna effect Carol?"
"What do you mean?"
"Sophia ended up becoming a walker. From what you described of Carol, it sounded like a hell of a wakeup call for her. Even hardened her." I paused. "I think Ed was supposed to die, too, but the security system I built saved him from the quarry attack somehow." I stopped to lean against a tree. I sighed again, heavily. "I…These events were caused by me…I don't know if I was supposed to interfere."
Daryl contemplated for a second. "You saved people's lives. Not that I give a shit about Ed's life. But you ain't done nothin' wrong."
I shook my head slowly. "How can you know that? You don't know the future, and now I don't know how much of the future I've fucked up."
"Everything you've done is 'cause you were thinkin' of other people instead of yourself. You ain't done nothin' wrong," he repeated firmly. "Whatever happens now…Just happens, I guess."
My shoulders sagged a little. "I guess," I repeated.
We followed the trail some more, until we had to stop and rethink. The deer that were part of the trail separated from each other at some point. One trail went one way, the other trail went another way. Daryl and I looked at each other, nodded once, and split up.
After an almost solid hour of hiking, I followed the trail to a small clearing. A large buck stood not too far away from me, grazing peacefully. Despite being partially hidden by some low tree branches, I was very close to the deer and it hadn't taken notice of me yet. Quietly, I crouched down, removed my bow from my shoulders, and nocked an arrow.
As soon as I raised my bow, the deer's head perked up. His eyes stared at me cautiously. I pulled back the arrow, and the deer did something very interesting. Its posture relaxed, and it looked away for a second before looking back at me. Nothing in this deer's body language was signaling that it was going to bolt.
I lowered my bow and tilted my head. Humans were far and few in between now. This buck didn't seem young, but with how vast the Georgia woodlands were, it was possible that this buck had yet to have any human contact. Deer were naïve creatures when it came to other creatures that had yet to meet. Although, that was a weak theory given how populated the world was only a few months ago.
I shrugged curiously and aimed my bow again. As fascinating as it was, I still had to bring something back for the group to eat. I took my time aiming so its death would be as swift and painless as possible. Just as I started to pull back the arrow again, a gunshot rang through the air.
Burning exploded in my ribcage as I stumbled backwards.
