Melissa thought at first it was the nightmares that had woken her, but as she opened her eyes she realized it was the cursing. She spotted Roman in the entryway of the tent, glaring down at Dean.
"Why'd you park your ass in the middle of the entrance?" Roman muttered quietly.
Dean muttered something, but it was too low for Melissa to hear. Whatever it was earned him a kick from Roman, which made Dean exclaim, "Fuck you Roman!" She saw Dean roll over, pulling the sleeping bag up over his head.
Melissa watched as Roman nudged Dean with his boot again. "Hey, it's your turn for watch anyway."
More muttered words came from Dean, but they were muffled by the sleeping bag until Dean sat up, sliding out of the sleeping bag. Roman moved past him, heading for the sleeping bag that was to the far left of the tent, next to Melissa's feet. Dean, meanwhile, left the tent, and Melissa was concerned to see he had one hand wrapped around his torso. She doubted it was from Roman kicking him—it didn't seem like Roman would purposely be violent—but it did mean that it was likely the pain medicine had worn off and Dean was once again in pain. Hopefully Seth would convince him to take some more pain meds.
The man in question entered the tent a little while later, moving past the sleeping bag Dean had occupied a few moments before, taking the one remaining sleeping bag, the one filling the space between Melissa and Dean's sleeping bags.
"Did you convince him to take some meds?" Melissa heard Roman ask in a hushed voice.
"Yeah. He didn't want them but he took them," Seth reported. "So he's on watch right now."
"Maybe I should go switch with him and let him get some more rest," Roman commented.
"You need sleep too Roman. You're going to pass out from sleep exhaustion at this rate."
"I'm fine," Roman told Seth, and Melissa detected a hint of stubbornness, much like how Dean had been stubborn about the pain medicine before.
"Go to sleep Roman," Seth said firmly. "Dean will be fine for a few hours. He's a grown man."
Melissa listened as Roman finally complied by lying back down. There was silence in the tent after that, disturbed only by the sounds of Seth and Roman settling in to sleep. Even that ended after a while, and Melissa finally relaxed, falling back asleep.
She woke to Seth gently shaking her shoulder. Blinking, she sat up, wondering what he wanted. Her mind automatically jumped to zombies, but Seth cut off her worry. "Hey, whoa, take it easy. Everything's fine." Seth paused, waiting for her to calm down. "I was wondering if you could take Roman's watch tonight. I know you were awake earlier… so you should know that he's not getting enough sleep. And he seems to be sleeping now, because he didn't notice Dean come back in, and I don't want to wake him."
Melissa yawned and sat up. "Yeah, I'll take his turn at watch." She'd only been having nightmares anyway, so she figured she could be useful.
"Alright. Don't trip over Dean on the way out." She felt Seth slip a flashlight and Roman's actual watch into her hand before she saw his silhouette move to the side, letting her pass by.
She only stopped to check for her gun and knife before she slid past him, sticking to the edge of the tent to make sure she didn't trip over Dean. Melissa thought she might have stepped on his feet though, because she heard grumbling. Regardless, she slipped out of the tent, heading toward where the campfire had been. Someone had extinguished it, and she was glad she had her jacket on; even though it was summer it was still a cooler night. Moving a bit further beyond the remains of the campfire, she peered out into the darkness, tempted to turn on the flashlight. Knowing it would only make her blind when she turned it on she opted to leave it off. She moved just a bit further out, stopping when she recognized the area Seth had been watching earlier, though it was barely lit by the moon, which was slowly disappearing as dawn drew nearer. For now though, it was still dark enough to be nighttime.
Melissa remained there for a few minutes, her hand straying down to the knife occasionally to make sure it was still there. She knew this wasn't the only direction zombies could come from though, so she decided to move around the outside of camp, toward the cars. By now it was dark enough that she decided to turn on the flashlight for a little, knowing otherwise she was risking the broken bones she wanted to avoid. The flashlight was luckily dim; she really had no idea if light attracted zombies or not, but she figured it was better safe than sorry. Shining it on the ground in front of her, she walked forward, heading around the outside of camp to the other side, peering out into the darkness and stopping every few feet to listen for any approaching noises. At least they had that on their side—the zombies were not exactly stealthy.
She spotted the cars after a moment, and stopped there for a little, looking around. Turning the flashlight off, she waited for her vision to adjust as best as it could, but it was still too dark. That meant she had to rely on her hearing, but she heard nothing at the moment. Leaning back against the Suburban, she waited there for a little longer before she heard gravel shifting behind her, coming from the direction of camp. She grabbed the knife, pulling it out of the sheath as she spun around.
"Hey, it's just me. Live person here." She recognized the voice of Cody Rhodes, and a flashlight came on a moment later, illuminating her face.
Melissa squinted in the bright light, shielding her eyes with her free hand; the light was much brighter than hers. She sheathed the knife before speaking. "Turn that off before all the zombies see, or before I go blind." The light disappeared, and she could hear more gravel shift as Cody drew nearer. She could faintly see his silhouette against the starlit backdrop of the sky and she finally spoke. "Can I help you with something?"
"I… I wanted to apologize for the way I acted earlier tonight."
Melissa had to admit she hadn't seen that one coming. "Really?" was the only response she could think of.
"Yeah, really. It was just really unexpected to hear. And it's really odd to think that someone like you…"
"I don't like to think about it," Melissa cut in. "Sure, I don't fit the profile of murderer. I get it. But things happen."
"I wish these things didn't have to happen," Cody murmured.
"So do I," Melissa said in agreement, taking the pause in the conversation to listen for any sounds from outside of camp. "It doesn't seem like everyone would automatically embrace the dark side, but I guess people will do what they have to do to survive."
"And that's why I wanted to apologize," Cody told her. "You just did what you had to do to make sure you and Punk made it out alive." He paused. "I shouldn't fault you for that."
"Thanks, I guess," Melissa told him, shifting on her feet.
"I guess I'll let you get back to watching for zombies then," Cody said finally. With that he turned on his flashlight, walking back toward the camp, leaving Melissa alone.
She was still surprised to see that Cody had apologized; it hadn't taken much time. Maybe he'd realized she hadn't had a choice, or maybe it was just to take the guilt off of his own conscience for being rude to her. There really wasn't any way of knowing. For now though, it did soothe her conscience a bit; it brought back some of the positive thinking, rather than her worries about murdering everyone.
Leaving the cars, she once again circled around the outside of the small camp, coming back around to the spot where she'd been watching earlier. There were still no zombies, as far as she could tell; not that it was easy with it so dark. Checking Roman's watch, she saw that it was 5:30, meaning the sun should start rising before long. Already she could spot the horizon lightening while the area around her appeared bit by bit. No, it wouldn't be long before sunrise, and not long before they got back on the road.
Melissa could only hope that something good would be at the end of that road. It was constantly on her mind, praying that LA would really be the safe haven everyone thought it would be. If it wasn't…she could only hope they made it back out safely.
The rest of the watch passed easily enough; it grew far easier as the sun finally reached above the horizon, flooding the area in light. Luck had stuck with them most of the night, as there were no zombies in sight. It was probably to be expected though, seeing as they were out in the middle of nowhere at the moment. All the zombies would still likely be in highly populated areas, if the Walking Dead was any indication. It'd be a while before they wandered out into less populated areas. Self-preservation made her want to stay out here, where it was easy to spot the zombies, if there were any to be found, but she didn't want to be left behind.
She was leaning against the cars once again when 6:30 rolled around, and when she was approached by an irritable-looking Roman. "Why are you on watch?" Roman asked, raising his eyebrows as he came to a stop in front of her, his hands resting on his belt. "I remember everyone agreeing I'd have the watch after Dean."
Melissa felt like a child being scolded, and she fought the urge to be meek. "You were sleeping and I filled in. I hadn't been sleeping anyway."
Roman opened the back door of the Suburban now, and Melissa watched as he searched through the food. "That means Seth asked you to take the watch instead, doesn't it?"
"No." She'd never had a good poker face though, so Roman saw right through her.
"He did. You're horrible at lying." Roman found himself something to eat and tossed one of the granola bars to her. "Catch." She nearly dropped it but managed to keep it in her hands, watching as Roman closed the door to the car. "Keep watching while I wake the others," he told her before leaving, heading back toward the tents.
Melissa waited for him to leave before turning back to face the road, away from their campsite. She opened the granola bar, forcing herself to eat it slowly once again, rather than just eating it quickly. Glancing south, she wondered how far they would make it today. It seemed like rather slow going, far too slow. It'd taken her family five to six hours tops to get to LA from their home before the apocalypse. Now it was taking days? She knew the slow pace was partly due to some of the wrecks and abandoned cars spotted along the roadway, but realistically they should be going faster. Maybe it was to avoid hitting any zombies that wandered out into the road—she knew they'd passed some of the groups, and she knew that hitting one of the zombies at full speed would probably total the car. She knew she would have to be satisfied with that as an answer. What she was dreading was how long it would take them to drive in the city if they were this slow in the open.
As she walked around the edge of camp again she spotted the others working on packing up now; the sleeping bags were being rolled up and stacked in the car while the tent got taken down. More food had also been passed out and before long everyone seemed ready to go. Alicia, Damien, and Cody had all headed to their car, the engine starting as Melissa approached the three members of the Shield. She made a noise of surprise as Dean threw the car keys at her, barely catching them. Melissa glanced down at the keys while Dean spoke. "You're driving. Try not to wreck the car."