Chapter Two - Brooklyn

I gave Tana the rest of the crackers for breakfast and went without food for myself, she was young and still growing, she needed more nutrients and energy than me. We were now walking down the same road as the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that; I was almost convinced at this point that the road led to nowhere.

"Tell me the funny story of your brother again," Tana asked and I smiled.

"Well, I was sixteen and Nathan was eighteen, mum, dad and Olivia who was ten at the time we're out of town and they left Nathan and me with the house to ourselves for the weekend. It was almost dinner time and I was at my friend Callies house for the day and I was on my way to pick up pizza for dinner when Nathan called me saying that he had fallen out the window. I rushed back to the house and went round to the back to find his ass lying on the lawn in a mess. Apparently, the lock in the bathroom was jammed and his toast was going to burn so he decided like the smart person he is that the quickest way down is to scale the water pipe. What he did not know, and dad had told him countless times before was that the water pipe was unstable because he always tried to sneak out that way and next minute it snapped and he fell down two stories. Luckily he wasn't hurt that badly although he broke his arm and the whole way I drove him to the hospital he begged me not to tell dad that it was he who broke the water pipe. He even came up with this elaborate story that someone had tried to break into the house but obviously when mum and dad came back they didn't believe his story and mum was just happy he didn't break his neck but dad made him pay for the damaged water pipe and grounded him for a week. The funniest part was listening to him trying to explain to his girlfriend why he broke his arm at first he tried to tell her he was defending the house from burglars and that he was a hero until I walked into the room and told her what really happened. You should have seen her face, he wanted her to believe he was a hero but instead, she was almost on the floor in fits of laughter." by the time I finished telling the story Tana was howling with laughter, the first night I met her by the highway, she wouldn't stop crying so I told her the story of Nate breaking his arm and it seemed to cheer her up, she finds the bit really funny when he tried to tell his girlfriend he was fighting burglars.

"Are him and his girlfriend still together?" she questioned, doing a skip and hop combination as she walked.

"No, about two months later her family moved to another city and they broke up, it was a shame though because I actually kind of liked her."

We wandered in silence for a moment, "My mommy was with my daddy and then she left town, daddy had said that she had found someone else but I heard him and uncle Merle talking one night and daddy sounded upset and uncle Merle said something about smashing a mans head so maybe the same thing happened to my Nate and my daddy," she explained innocently, at first she didn't tell me anything about her parents or family and then gradually over time she told me that her daddy, Daryl and her uncle Merle who brought her up by themselves. She didn't even know her mum but their neighbour, Alice who was uncle Merles' on and off girlfriend helped them raise her. She said that Alice had her own daughter and they were friends so she helped Daryl and Merle look after her.

She told me a lot about her father and uncle, they were both hunters and they knew how to survive but she also told me her uncle used drugs sometimes and both of them got involved in minor crimes. At first, I thought that maybe it was best that she wasn't with them but the more she told me I realized that her father and uncle were not the stereotypical idealistic parental figures and they both had flaws but they deeply cared for Montana and they would do anything for her. They would go to the ends of the world for her and I knew I had to get her back to them.

"Yeah maybe," I replied with a smile but my eyes fell on a yellow sign by the side of the road, vegetation and grime had covered the mainframe but I could just only make out words painting in black bold letters, 'Hitchhikers may be escaping inmates' I laughed at the irony.

"What does it say?" Tana requested, she was a smart girl but she hadn't learned how to read or write yet in school, I tried to teach her myself but it was difficult not having the appropriate books or even a pencil for that matter.

I repeated the words slowly and sounded out each individual letter until she could read the sign by pointing at the words as she read with pauses in between. Eventually, she managed but struggled with 'escaping' but she got it in the end. We walked further down the road playing a game where I asked her a word and she would spell it and if she got it right she would get to ask me a word and I would have to spell it. It was only small words like dog or car but it was better than nothing, at least she was getting somewhere.

Up ahead through the trees, I saw a clearing and I thought somewhere in the far distance I could see the outline of a structure or a building maybe, or it could just be my eyes playing tricks on me but there had to be a prison around here. There was that sign.

I approached closer, cautiously avoiding the winding branches of the trees above. I held Tana's hand in mine and keeping close to the ground we sneaked through the bushes, the humid undergrowth staining our knees and then we saw it through a thicket of bushes. A large concrete prison with towering wire fencing surrounding it and a large courtyard with two guard towers at either side, there were no walkers and the perimeter looked secure. I was hesitant but it looked safe enough to live in. Out of nowhere a pale green ford focus drove up the dirt driveway and a boy with a sheriff hat and a young woman with blonde hair pulled open the gate and the car drove through. I couldn't see much but a woman with shoulder-length brown hair got out carrying something and a man with a crossbow got out of the passenger side.

Suddenly a decaying hand was gripping at my shoulder.