Chapter 17

Harry had been awake hours before the sun had risen and with nothing to do in the RV, especially since the other kids in there were still sleeping, Harry quietly got up and left the RV with his stuff. He wondered around camp and helped out where he could. Most of the adults just ignored him though or tried to humor him with odd tasks sometimes, he was just a little kid afterall. And since he was just seen as little kid most of the adults didn't care about gossiping around him. This alone made it so much easier for him to listen in on the rumors going on around camp. Like the rumor about how Lori had been cheating on her husband Rick with their leader Shane for example. Oh it was very handy to be underestimated at times, very handy indeed.

Of course Lori seemed quite happy to tell everyone over and over that she hadn't been sleeping with Shane, while said man just huffed and puffed. Given that everyone had probably seen their indiscretions, they were going to extreme lengths to deny it. Probably due to the fact that no one had wanted to tell Rick that his wife had been sleeping with someone else while he'd been trapped in a hospital in a coma. No one had to guess what sort of things that might do to the already unstable man. Though it did amaze Harry how Rick seemed to be so oblivious to the cheating, especially when the two love birds still exchanged rather heavy looks.

After getting his fill of listening in on some of the rumor mill Harry decided to head over towards a small group he saw huddled around a truck. There he found the Dixon brothers and it appeared that they were leaving, smart of them really. The majority of this group didn't really know what they were doing and Harry wouldn't be surprised if most of them ended up dead soon, probably due to stupidity.

Arriving at the brothers' side let Harry see that they were looking at a map, at least they were smart enough to look for a potential place and not just go in blind. It made Harry slightly curious, perhaps last night's massacre was worth it if it was toughening up the group. Ignoring the hushed argument, Harry noticed that a lot of people were missing. Did they die in last night's inferi invasion or had they left earlier?

From the corner of his eye Harry caught a few of the remaining adults gathering gas cans. He assumed they were getting the dead ready for the pyre that someone else was building nearby. He turned back to the map and surveyed the distance between the two points circled. Why would they think that going to a government facility was a good idea? Hadn't they seen the bombings a few months back? Or had they missed that? The quarry was secluded from the cities after all.

"Are we leaving soon and what's with the fire? Are we burning the bodies?" Harry asked the adults.

Shane looked at Harry and replied in his usual haughty way, "We're burning the walkers but we bury our own kid."

Rick looked at Shane not understanding why he would be so short spoken with a kid. Rick didn't ever remember Shane being like this to Carl before.

"Oh, okay." Harry replied while looking hurt.

"Hey it's okay buddy, you didn't know." Rick said trying to reassure the kid while giving Shane a look.

Shane just ignored Rick and continued to act like the stuck up jerk that he is. Harry was so glad Shane wasn't on his list of people to keep from dying. In fact Shane was actually on his death list, which made Harry want to smile.

Rick sighed as he joined Harry, "We haven't decided where to go yet. We've narrowed it down to two places though. That's what we were discussing before you came over."

One more glance at the map and Harry shrugged, "You uh might be better off at the CDC. There is a slim chance that it could still be standing. I think all the military bases got overrun a while ago, they just never got around to bombing it like they did the cities. But the CDC is riskier because of how far into the city it is. At least that's what I noticed when I was scavenging around in the city before Glenn found me."

"Thanks for letting us know buddy." Rick said then went back to discussing where to go.

Since Harry was now being ignored he decided to go speak with the Hispanic family from the night before. Just to check on the children.