"Let's not be stupid about this," Min said, when she finally agreed to follow Rick into Atlanta. The three adults paused, then turned to her.
They were standing in the gated-off parking lot of the police station. Rick had just killed Leon, the walker rookie, or whatever. Morgan had just elected to stay here for a while, to follow Rick to Atlanta later.
Min wasn't going to try and change his mind. She knew, however, if she did nothing, Duane would die and Morgan would lose his mind. She settled on making small changes, instead.
"Morgan," she turned to him. Rick had just given him the walkie-talkie. "You have to use it every day. Don't wait, okay? Everyday. You can't expect Rick to keep checking after weeks of no answer."
That covered one of the first issues she had with Morgan in the TV show. In season three, when discovered by Rick, he says that he waited. He didn't check his walkie right away, and yet blamed Rick for not being there to answer.
"And…" she hesitated, "you need to kill it. That walker is not your wife."
"The hell you know about that?"
Min sighed, "Just think about it. It might be a mercy, not letting her corpse wander around like that."
Morgan frowned, face set in hard lines. He didn't answer her, so Min didn't offer any other words. Instead, she ruffled through everything that was in the back of Lily's car, finding the hose and empty gas canister. One thing that could never be said about Min is that she wasn't prepared, and she'd had a month or so of overthinking to help.
"What are you doing?" Rick asked, watching her drag the gas canister to the first unused police car. Min didn't answer him, popping open the gas nozzle and sicking the hose down into it.
"This is gonna suck," Min said, to no one in imparticular, and started sucking on the other end. Sure enough, the horrible taste of gasoline was invading her mouth. She placed the hose on the nozzle of the canister, listening to the gas pour in. She then allowed herself to cough, spitting out her gasoline-coated spit onto the ground.
Rick finally caught on. "Are you siphoning gas?"
"Lily's car doesn't have enough gas to get us to Atlanta," she answered. "And no," she said, as soon as she saw Rick's mouth open, "we are not going in your police cruiser. Not enough room for the supplies, and yes, we need it all."
She must have guessed right about what Rick was going to say, because he shut his mouth, and nodded his head.
"One smart kid." That was Morgan, so she guessed he had thought about her words on Jenny, and didn't hate her for it.
Min started on siphoning gas out of the next cruiser, seeing that there was room left in the canister, but Rick stopped her. "Let me," he said, and she nodded, handing him the hose. Any excuse not to have gas in her mouth, she'd take.
Lily looked pale. "What's wrong?" Min asked, partly to be nice, partly to make sure she wasn't going to go AWOL or anything on them. Connor and Chen, who were standing at her side, glance up at her.
"Just…" Lily trailed her words off a lot, she realized. Almost like she was hesitating, or hadn't fully thought out her words before speaking. It was halfway to be annoying. Not fully yet. "Just thinking."
"'Bout what?" Connor asked, which was just as well, since Min was going to anyways.
"The siphoning." She turned her eyes onto Min, "How did you know?"
"Know what?"
"How to do that."
There was a long, drawn-out silence as Min thought about her answer. Morgan and Duane were packing up the police cruiser they were claiming as their own, and Rick was onto the third car. "I saw it in a movie."
That was the honest answer, technically. She had siphoned gas from a car once, before she died, which she had gotten the idea from The Walking Dead . That was a story for another time, though. A very embarrassing story.
Lily pressed her lips together, like she didn't believe her, but let it go.
Rick started hacking, spitting up gas. That broke them out of whatever private moments they were all having. "There," he said, voice hoarse, "canister's filled."
"Good," Min nodded, "And if we run out, we can find more on the way."
"You have this all planned out," Rick noted, though not in a disapproving way. That was odd. He took her word seriously, and went to finish the task she set out to do without asking for an explanation.
Each adult treated her differently. Mr. and Mrs. Zhang with general indifference. Lily both like she was a child who knew nothing and could do nothing, and as someone to look to when things went wrong. Morgan thought she was smart – even before he said it. But that's all. She was just a smart kid raising her brother to him, not an equal.
Rick, though, was looking at her. Really looking. He looked quite like Andrew Lincoln, though he was pale and clammy, still coming through the effects of being in a coma. There was something you could never get through acting, with makeup or editing. A realness to the almost sickly complexion he had.
"I've had a lot of time to think," Min answered him. It was true, just more time than he would think. She had been hashing out survival techniques since before the dead were walking.
Min and the three boys had to sit together in the backseat. There was enough room for all of them if they squeezed enough, though Min's body was pressed against the door, and Chen's hips were digging into hers.
Rick had gotten the photo of him, Lori, and Carl out of his cruiser. He went to go without it, but Min remembered its existence right before he started the car, and told him he should check it before we left. He thank her when he got back into the car holding onto it like a lifeline.
"We'll find them." Her voice held certainty, because she was certain. Rick nodded. They were on the road now, driving back to the Zhang's house, Morgan and Duane behind them. They still had one last member to look out for,
Both of them parked in the middle of the road. Min got out first, thankful to be free, and made her way over to the Jones' car. "You guys can stay in our house, now."
She kept the key in her pocket, which she had fished out ad handed to Morgan. "Penny's gonna need someone to care for her, y'know, up until you decide to come to Atlanta."
Morgan nodded, taking the key from her hand, though she knew he understood. He got that she wasn't actually giving him the key to caring for the dog, but because their house was safer. Not that it was wigged out with booby traps or had mystical powers, but Min had been stockpiling so much that there was enough in there to last the two of them two or so weeks, at the least.
They couldn't take it all to Atlanta.
Another upside was maybe moving Duane a few neighborhoods away would take him out of his walker-mother's path. Enough so he'd never have to go face-to-face with her.
The car had the necessities already. Food, water, some random knives she threw together into a bag. Min added a Firs-Aid Kit, Lily packed their clothes (only two suitcases for all four of them, Min told her. Rick agreed), and Rick had added his bag of guns before they left the police station.
"Can we bring Penny?" Chen asked.
Min shook her head, "No." She answered, without a doubt in her mind. There was no room for the dog, or dog food, and if they ended up cornered in Atlanta like in the TV show, she was not going to be worrying about a dog, as well. "Duane and Morgan will take good care of her, okay?"
Chen frowned. "No."
"No?"
"No!" He stomped his foot, which was cute, but she made an attempt to take him seriously. "No more leaving."
Min frowned, "What?"
"No more leaving. I am tired of people leaving."
So, this was about Mr. and Mrs. Zhang again. Min sighed, and got down to his level. "Buddy, what's going on?"
"We're leaving," he said, sniffling. "What if they come home, and we're not here?"
"Who?" She asked, though she knew the answer.
Chen glared at her, though it didn't do much, "Mom and dad! How can we just leave them?"
"I thought we talked about this," she tried her best to keep anger or annoyance out of her tone, but she wasn't sure if she was successful. "They're gone, Chen. It's been weeks."
"No," Chen shook their head, "you don't know that! You're just making that up!"
"I'm assuming." Though, Min wasn't sure he knew what that meant, so she reworded herself. "I'm guessing, but smartly. The world is dangerous and they were unprepared, unlike us. They haven't gotten home yet, and I can't risk your safety on maybes."
Min wasn't sure if she knew, 100%, that the couple would survive and make their way home, that she would wait up for them. She didn't know them, and they never made an attempt to get to know her. Who looked out for Chen before her? Who made sure he had lunches, and got home safe? It made her angry to think of it.
Chen was crying again, thick tears rolling down his flushed cheeks. He didn't sob, or let out a loud cry. He cried silently.
"Are we ready to go?" Rick called from the porch, seemingly unaware of what was going on. Or maybe he did know, and wanted to give Min and out. She wasn't sure.
"Yeah." She responded, pressing a kiss on Chen's forehead, "We'll talk about this later, okay? We gotta go." She stood up, running a hand through her hair. Chen never answered her. She would worry about that later.
Min was just as cramped the second time in the back seat. Chen had fallen asleep on her shoulder, soft snores passing his lips, and Connor was beginning to lose his patience. He had started the age-old are we there yet ? Every so often.
She wondered if when Rick decided to go to Atlanta, did he think it would include a road trip with a random woman and three children?
"Are we there yet?" Connor asked.
Min sighed, turning her version to the passing skyline, She should have brought a book.
"No, baby," said Lily.
"How much longer?"
Rick answered for Lily, "Twenty minutes."
King County was forty-two minutes away from Atlanta. They had been in the car for twenty-two minutes already, and Min was ready to go insane.
They ran out of gas shortly thereafter. Rick got out without a word and filled up the tank, using the gas Min and he siphoned. He gave her a nod when he got back in the car.
A few more minutes go by unbothered. Min had started to zone out, as the grass and trees turned into concrete, signifying the closeness to Atlanta. Chen wakes up, yawns, and lays his head right back on her shoulder.
"Are we there yet?"
"Ten minutes."
Chen fell back asleep. Min has started counting abandoned cars. She got to ten when her train of thought was interrupted.
"Are we there yet?"
"Yes," Rick responded, finally, "we just got there."
Min shook Chen awake. His eyes blinked open, then peered up at her. "We're here." He nodded, lifting his head off of her shoulder and yawning again. This time he added in a stretch for dramatics, not that he got much of one in, given the cramped room.
"We have to be smart," Min said, repeating her earlier words from that day." We don't know what Atlanta's like." A lie, again. She knew. It was dangerous, and she wasn't sure how all of them were going to get back to the quarry safe.
And stay safe. That was the most important.
authors note
the got published twice. the first chapter was unedited and was 50% errors
1.) this will not be the last time we hear from duane and morgan
2.) in my personal opinion, i think that rick is first of all is in no position to treat min like she's just a child or talking about things she doesn't understand. he has just woken up in a totally new world, and min not only has shown she can handle herself, he is introduced to her in a situation where she is caring for her brother, and lily and morgan take her opinions and ideas seriously. he's not stupid, he can pick up on group dynamics.
second of all, min is mature. that's a big thing for all the kids (in earlier seasons) in twd. carl, sophia, the morales twins, even beth are childish. they have their paren(s), they are babied, and they can't survive on their own. the same can be said for sam in the later seasons. this changes (sophia, the morales twins, and sam die; carl and beth adapt), but min is an adult in a child's body. she doesn't have parents to hide behind, and is actively a caretaker to another child. if it was chen or connor doing these, then rick would definitely not treat them as seriously as he does min.
3.) some of you guys have made predictions about what goes down in atlanta. i have two ideas so far, but in both, it is not how it occurs in the TV show or comics. min's not about to let them get stuck in a tank (however, glenn still saves the day).