All Nightmare Long

Chapter 534

Author's Note: I really want to skip the whole Tara episode but it's important and brings in Oceanside, and Quinn is with Tara and Heath so it's important. I did make some changes to the OC's I was going to have in here, so if you go look, you'll see on my profile/or if you are on wattpadd, my character book. I will be jumping around the episode because I don't want to do flashbacks. Please review.

Tara, Quinn and Heath POV:

Quinn sat on the seat beside Tara and looked up as Heath started to talk.

"Eight rusty cans of Okra and a bottle of aspirin. That's what we got to show for our time out here, other than the fact that we're still standing," Heath said as he ate his food from a pouch.

"Your mother and Aunt will be glad that you're still standing," Quinn told him.

"Rule number one of scavenging, there's nothing left in this world that isn't hidden," Tara told them. "We just have to find it."

"Learn that from Glenn?" Quinn asked.

"Yeah, first thing he told me when he taught me how to scavenge," Tara told her.

"Sound advice, right Heath?" Quinn asked.

Heath rolled his eyes. "We just have to find it," he said. He gave a small chuckle. "For a second there, I was worried. Listen, we went farther than we were supposed to. There's nothing left out there. We don't even have enough gas to keep looking even if we wanted too," he told the two women. "Ok so we said we'd be gone for two weeks, it's been two weeks."

"As long as Hilltop keeps there side of the bargain, we have food at home. We need ammo, we need medicine, we can't go back like this, there's people counting on us," Tara stated as she looked at Quinn.

"As much as I'd like to get home to my girls, to Gus, she's right. We told them we'd bring back what we could find, and right now, we haven't held up our part of the deal," Quinn told him.

"Why are you acting like you don't know that?" Tara asked Heath.

Heath scoffed. "I'm not sure that means much to me anymore," he said. "What we did at the satellite station, all those people that we killed. You didn't see it," he told them.

"I did, I was there, I was fighting just like you were," Quinn informed him.

"But it wasn't fighting, Quinn. The men I killed, most of them were asleep. And, Tara you just saw what was left," Heath told them.

"No, I had to do it too," Tara told him.

"Yeah we all had to. For some milk and some corn," Heath stated.

"Heath, that's enough," Quinn warned.

"That isn't the only reason, and yeah we did, you know we did," Tara told Heath.

"That's the thing, you saw how we were living back home before we got there. We didn't know shit, we thought," Heath said as he gave a small laugh.

"What?" Tara questioned.

"We had our heads buried in the sand, thinking nothing was ever going to affect us, that we could live like nothing happened," Quinn told Heath.

"It doesn't matter, I get it now. If it's you, or someone else, you chose you. You take what you can, you take out who you have to, and you get to keep going," Heath told them as he scoffed. "Nobody's in this together, OK? Not anymore."

"Heath, you don't mean that," Quinn told him.

"Hey it only hurts because you know what you just said is total bullshit. That's not you, Heath," Tara told him.

"She's right, I've known you since the beginning, and this isn't you," Quinn told him.

Heath leaned over to be closer to the two women. "Tara, Quinn, that's me, that's you, both of you, and that's everybody that who wants to stay alive. That's the truth. We can push toward the shore, but after today, we go back, even if we just have those rusty cans."

"That decision isn't yours to make, Heath. It's ours, all of ours. Let's go," Quinn said as she went to the drivers seat. "Onward," she said as she drove, the three of them being quiet as she slowed down. "Road block ahead. Some kind of containers, we aren't going to be able to move them," she told them as she stopped the vehicle.

Tara looked out the window. "So up and over," she said as she opened the door.

"Oh this is going to be fun," Heath mumbled.

"Hey, cut out the attitude, alright? We're in this together. We go out there, we do what we need to do then we go home. But to do that we have to have each other's back," Quinn told him.

"I got yours," Heath answered as they looked at Tara who was already climbing. "We should go," he told her.

Quinn climbed up then Heath, both of them looking at deserted cars and tents.

"What do we think?" Tara asks.

"A lot of blind spots down there," Heath answered.

"Yeah," Quinn agreed before jumping down.

Heath followed her then Tara did as Heath picked up a bottle and threw it. The three of them taking out weapons and listening before Tara nodded at them and they started moving forward. The three stopping and looking in abandoned tents and cars, not coming up with anything before Tara spotted a truck, looking in.

"Let's check behind the tarps first," Heath said.

Quinn nodded at Tara as the two of them joined Heath and pulled back the tarp seeing a sand pile and dump trucks.

"Looks like they had plans for something," Tara said as they walked toward the dump trucks.

"Looks like they didn't get to finish," Heath said.

"There's a lot of that happening these days," Quinn responded.

Tara walked over to a bag that was half covered and pulled on it. "It's heavy, could be something good in there," she stated with a smile.

"Or it could be a body," Quinn answered.

"Really? That's your first thought?" Heath asked.

Quinn shrugged. "It's a possibility," she said as Heath started kicking something on the ground.

"Tara," Heath called out as he saw a lot of bullets. "Tara stop," he told her as Quinn turned to look at him.

Tara finally got the bag free, the sand pile coming down with it, taking the three of them with it, and freeing walkers.

Quinn kicked at the walker closest to her and shot at it, getting up, shooting at a walker behind Heath, and helping him up. "Tara!"

Tara finally freed herself, shooting at walkers. "That way," she told them. "Go with him!" Tara yelled at Quinn.

Quinn and Heath climbed up on the containers and hit walkers with anything they could grab.

"Heath! Quinn! I'm coming!" Tara said as she fought off walkers.

Heath looked at Tara. "Go!" he yelled at her.

"We're in this together!" Tara yelled.

"We know," both of them said as they watched her being pushed over the bridge

"Go help her! It's OK, I'll meet up with the two of you! Give me your gun, I'll clear it for you," Heath told her.

Quinn nodded and waited as he cut down a few walkers, and then took off running and jumping in the water to help Tara.

TBC