Chapter 6
BPOV
Sofia and I made it through the night without any issues. After finishing our stew from the night before, we set off for the day to look for the group. Knowing one of them would find us had me a little on edge. I had no idea which one it would be, or how this was going to go. Alice said it'd be a rough start for me and I wasn't sure how to take that. Sofia had said they were on a highway before they hid in the woods, so I pulled out my map to check where the closest one was. It wasn't good… it was East. The direction Alice specifically said not to travel too far in, but I figured we could cautiously make our way there just to take a peek at the road. We took our time getting there, me continuing to teach her different things like what was edible and what was not. She began to open up a little more and told me about her mom and her friend Carl. I guessed he was the boy I'd seen playing with Sofia at the quarry. She also told me her dad died at the quarry when some of the dead came through; I was starting to feel terrible for not helping more until I noticed she didn't seem very upset about it. After a while she continued on and told me how her dad used to hit her mom when he didn't think she was around, and how he always talked down to them. Well if he wasn't dead already, I'd be planning to fuck him up… No one deserves to go through that. The world is a fucked up enough without having to worry about being abused by someone who's supposed to love you.
I gave Sofia a smaller bowie knife I had in my bag; it was big enough to have its own sheath but not to long for her to handle. I helped her fix it on her belt and showed her how to hold it properly along with some stabbing moves she could use if she ever had to. She really had liked my bow and my pink arrows but the pullback was too heavy for her; maybe I could find her a youth bow to practice with. It would be more practical for her to learn anyway rather than a gun; bullets would run out eventually. As we go closer to the highway, I stopped her and whispered "We have to stay quiet and hidden. Don't leave the cover of the trees until I give the ok, ok?" She nodded at me but looked a little confused so I went on "Not only could a herd of walkers still be by the highway, there could be other people on that road. Some people that survived are not good people Sofia; some are really bad and like to hurt others. So we have to stay out of sight and be quiet until we are sure there isn't anyone around or if there is, you know them. Understand?" She once again nodded but looked like she understood why we can't just run up there and hope to find her mom where she'd last seen her. When we got even closer to the highway, I didn't like the feeling I was getting. We had the lower ground because the highway was up higher and all I could really see was the guard rail. We'd have to expose ourselves if we wanted to see what was happening up there. Before I could decide what action would be best, the choice was made for me. An engine could be heard in the distance and I bolted back into the thicker woods for more cover, pulling Sofia along with me. She didn't seem like she wanted to come with me but rather run up to the edge of the highway. She had high hopes of it being her family I'm guessing but being impulsive it today's world was dangerous; one mistake could cost you gravely. I put my finger to my mouth telling her to keep quiet as we hid the best we could from view in the base of a hollowed out tree. It wasn't my best move, I was basically backing myself into a corner that I normally would avoid; but I couldn't run and expect Sofia to keep up and I wouldn't leave her.
It wasn't just one engine but two. Two vehicles pulled up and stopped close to where we were hiding. I heard several voices talking but couldn't understand what they were saying. I jumped a little as they started to shout out, "SOFIA!" She almost got away from me before I grabbed her and covered her mouth. I shook my head furiously putting my hand up asking her to wait. I had a really bad feeling now; a feeling in my gut I learned not to ignore after all the shit I've been through. The same feeling I had in Port A when those guys attacked me before Edward scared them off, and once again when James came into the baseball clearing, then again with Laurent at the meadow. It was like my very own spidey senses screaming Danger, Danger! After a few more SOFIA's where shouted someone yelled "Eric SHUT THE HELL UP, you're going to get every biter within five miles heading this way!" Not only was he right, but I was getting a little concerned about the dead ones showing up and giving away our hideout. The man was closer to the edge of the road as I could hear him clearly now "I was just seeing if sweet little Sofia wanted to come on out" Eric told the other man. "Man you don't even know if there is anyone really alive out there and we won't be if you don't shut the hell up!" said the unknown man. I looked to Sofia mouthing ERIC, to see if she recognized the name but she shook her head negative. "Well this message wasn't here last week; I just thought I'd give it a whirl Bryan. We could always use some more company if you catch my drift" said Eric. "Come on, you know how crazy some people are now days, looking for people they think are still alive and out there when really they didn't make it past the first week. And as much as I'd love to have some more women in camp, I don't feel like getting my ass chewed on by the biters that are probably surrounding us right now! So let's move our ass'es and get to town for supplies so we can get back before nightfall." Bryan stated impatiently. "Will you guys come the fuck on?!" shouted someone further away. "SHUT THE FUCK UP RANDALL!" Bryan and Eric shouted in unison. As the footsteps where moving further away my heart was beating even faster than before. Randall? FUCK! Alice told me he's no good; group of murderers that kill all the men in the group and don't give the women a choice. No wonder Alice said not to go to town or east. We needed to get the fuck away from here pronto. The cars had started back up and drove off, but still, I made us wait a little longer. You never know when someone might try and pull a fast one on you by hiding out. When I was sure they were gone we got up, still moving quietly, because that guy really did ring the dinner bell by shouting and a few of the dead were moving around in the woods. As I stated to go in the direction of the creek, Sofia pulled on my hand stopping me. I lowered my head and heard her whisper "That man knew my name, he said there was a note up there. I need to know if it's from my mom". Damn it.
I knew Sofia needed to know what it said, but I still didn't want to go up on the highway. So I did the next best thing I could think of. I pulled Sofia to base of a large tree and whispered in her ear to get her knife out just in case. I grabbed the binoculars out of my pack and started to climb up the tree. Once I got to where I could see the road, I saw the message "Sofia stay here, we will come back every day" written on the windshield of a car. There was no way she could stay out here in the open like that. These people had to have some forethought about what could happen on main road like this. It was like they thought they were the only survivors around or something. Why wouldn't one of them stay here and wait for her if they were so confident. I climbed back down and put my binoculars back into my pack. Sofia looked at me with such hope but then with devastation as I shook my head and nodded my head to the side for her to follow me. Once we were closer to the creek and I couldn't hear anymore zombies moving about, I started to explain. "There was a message Sofia, they wanted you to wait there on the highway for them. It said they would be back every day; there was some food and drinks set out as well. I don't really know what to do in this situation. You can't stay there on the highway. We can't even scavenge the supplies or those men will know someone was there and might come looking. That group of men will be back through and we can't just sit around waiting on your group after all that shouting; every walker within a mile is going to be heading that direction. What do you want to do?" I asked while pacing back and forth. She looked back in the direction of the highway and then back to me, "I don't know Bella, I'm scared. Those men sounded really mean. Did you see anything else up there? We were driving in an big camper thing, did you see it?". I hated to tell her no, but I wasn't going to lie to her either, "No Sofia there wasn't an RV up there. Just some old cars that looked broken down… so what do you want to do? We need to start heading back if we want to get in before dark. I promised to help you, and I will; maybe we could start to look for this RV you said you all were driving in. They wouldn't have gone too far if they are still looking for you, so we start to search the area. We have to stay out of town and away from the highway though. What do you think about that?" I asked gently. She finally lifted her eyes from the ground and nodded at me, "I think that's good. I don't want to wait for those men to come back and hurt us. I want to stay with you." I nodded and took her hand in mine as we continued back to the house.
That night was quiet, neither of us speaking much. I was hoping she didn't understand what those assholes on the highway were talking about, but I think she understood more than she let on. We were both a little worried and stayed close to each other that night. We didn't listen to music or light any candles; just laid on the bed till finally we succumbed to sleep.
Fanfiction seems to be having trouble with some reviews posting, but I can still read them in my email; Thank you!