It had been a few hours until Sharon could see without headlights on, the direction she faced got lighter and lighter as time passed and the sky behind her stayed a dark shade of blue. The clouds turned orange before the sky did.
Sharon's eyes begged to shut, the rare sight of the sky helped her stay awake though driving had become painfully boring and uneventful. At any sign of a large city she'd have to turn back or find a way to get around it, leading the vehicle further and further through Georgia's never ending farm lands and woods.
It was on this road that she deemed too far to backtrack through, if not for her own sanity then for the gas tank, it has also led them too far North for her comfort. She feared Kenny would wake up and find another city by the coast to go to, probably in South Carolina, then tell her to go there instead of Savannah.
She hoped she was hallucinating again when something seemed to be blocking the path far up ahead, she feared this road may be a dead end as the vehicle neared the large structure. The gas dial read too close to empty to turn back now, unless this blockage in impossible to move then this RV will keep going East until someone rips the wheel from her hands.
Someone stirred in their sleep, Sharon eyed Katjaa then Kenny and released the breath she was holding when both didn't move. Lee stood from the couch and turned towards the front, they locked eyes in the rear-view mirror.
"Good morning." Sharon spoke softly, lightly clearing her throat. "There's something up ahead."
Lee stepped around Kenny and Duck to look through the windshield, whispering good morning as he leaned forward.
He squinted, leaning closer to the window. "Looks like a train."
"Crap."
Lee pressed his lips together and blinked a few times. "Uh, we should probably turn around then."
"Unless you have spare gas on you, we're not turning around."
Lee looked out the corner of his eyes and pulled his brows downwards, he stayed quiet.
She noticed. "Look, about earlier-"
"Is now really the best time?"
"Lee, I'm talking about back at the inn." Sharon's eyes stayed glued to the road, pretending she needed to focus to avoid eye contact. "I'm sorry for. . . how I reacted."
It took him a second. "Oh."
"I thought-" we talked "-it over and that was really terrible of me to do. You're a good guy, and I heard you took a few punches from Andy for me. You didn't deserve how I treated you."
"Oh." Lee smiled. "Well, thanks."
She turned, glad to see him smile but couldn't muster the strength to return it. "I was going to say that earlier, but, y'know."
"I understand."
Someone else stirred awake, Kenny sighed loudly from below. "I ain't enjoying this view, Lee."
Lee quickly stood up straight, backing out of the narrow hallway to make room for the man under him to stand.
Kenny sat up. "What do we got?" He muttered, his voice dull.
"A train." Sharon replied, pulling her foot from the gas pedal. "I don't see any way around it."
"Great." Kenny whispered.
His eyes suddenly darted to his wife. Though Katjaa tried to stay awake through the ride her eyes shut closed, her skin had turned a few shades pale overnight.
"Is she-"
"No, Kenny." Katjaa whispered, her eyes stayed shut. "I'm still here."
As the RV slowed to a stop life sprouted around the RV; Duck stayed silent, sitting up with his head leaning on to his mother's lap. Clementine got up and hovered by Lee. Carley stood as well, though she stayed close to the walls. Ben lifted his head from the table but didn't look away from it.
Travis groaned loudly. "God, what time is it?"
"Katjaa, are you okay to walk?" Sharon asked, pulling the keys out from the ignition to coast the rest of the way to the train and looking over the sickly woman in worry.
"Yes sweetie, I'm fine."
Once the RV stopped; Kenny, Lee, and Carley stepped outside.
"Now that we stopped, do you want me to clean up your head?" Sharon whispered, watching as the three armed adults stood around in front of the RV.
"No, a wet rag would be nice, but we shouldn't. . ." Kat looked down at her son sitting silently by her side. "-Waste supplies."
Kenny opened the door and Lee followed behind him.
"Okay, we're gonna break here until we can figure something out." Kenny announced, finding and tucking his gun in his pants. "We should probably have a few people stay inside, in case shit goes bad out there."
Katjaa opened her door, she only stared through the opening.
"Actually." Sharon unbuckled her seat belt and stood up, gaining everyone's attention. "I have to disinfect Travis's wound, it's probably infected by now so it's going to be. . . loud. . . in here."
Travis groaned again.
"Alright then, everybody out." Kenny flung open the door, rushing to his wife's side to help her get out. Duck followed closely behind.
Lee pulled his bag out of one of the cupboards and put it on, handing a small pink one to Clementine and holding on to Carley's purse. He also took Kenny's bag and tried to escort everybody out, aside from Travis and Sharon.
"Actually, I'm going to need Ben's help." Sharon said, watching as Lee instead walked around Ben and left, the door shut with a loud click and they were alone.
"What do I need to do?" Ben asked, watching from the doorway as Sharon pulled out her medical supplies.
"You need to talk." Sharon said, placing the bottle of disinfectant on the table and a fresh roll of bandages. "Now that we are alone, we need to tell Travis why the bandits attacked us."
"What?" Ben paled. "But-"
"'But' nothing." Travis spat. "This is going to hurt really fucking bad and if I don't hear about what you two have been hiding from me: I'm going to fucking hurt someone."
Travis with Sharon's help took off his jacket, though he refused to take off his shirt. She allowed this and sat on the rickety table, he watched closely as she doused a cotton ball with the clear liquid and hovered it over the entry wound.
He tore his eyes away from it and gave Ben a cold stare. "From the beginning."
Clementine flinched at the muffled screaming, eyes glued to the RV door. Kenny winced at the sound but he didn't pay mind to it, his full attention on his wife.
"Clementine, sweetie." Katjaa spoke, her weak voice hardly overpowered Travis's pained wails. "You shouldn't be listening to that."
"It's hard not to." Clem replied, picking at the grass she sat on.
Travis stopped screaming. Clem looked back up at the RV, eyes attached to the splatter of dark red blood, Lilly's. She wondered if the blood is dark because it is old or if it's not light out enough to see the color from where she sat.
Kat moaned, her hand hovering over the dark red spot over her shoulder, Clementine turned and eyed Kat's blood soaked blouse. The little girl tried to say something but her words didn't feel right in her mouth.
"It's okay." Kat said, resting her hands in her lap. "You can say it."
The screaming started again, this time it sounded like he was trying to hold back.
"Does it hurt?"
Kenny and Duck looked up for the response.
"Yes, it does." Katjaa slowly blinked. "The bite doesn't hurt as bad as it did before and I'm feeling a little dehydrated. But it stings a little, aches, it feels warm."
The RV went silent.
"Warm?" Clem asked.
"Yes, it feels like I just have a really bad cold."
"Maybe it is just a bad cold." Duck muttered. "You'll just get better and everything will be okay, right?"
Katjaa and Kenny both looked to one another, Kenny only closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Oh, Ducky. That's not how it works."
"We don't know that." Duck said. "Maybe you'll get better, maybe-"
Kenny stopped him, eyes still shut. "Duck, she's not-"
The RV door slammed open and cut off all conversation. Sharon stepped down with her crossbow in her arms and backpack strapped tight, Ben followed close behind her looking downcast. Travis stumbled out of the doorway with clunky movements, Katjaa could almost see the storm cloud over his head.
"Sharon!" Clem stood and rushed to the young woman's side, Ben and Travis continued foreword. "Is he going to be okay?"
Sharon let go of her weapon with one hand and let it drift to her side. "It's infected, so I'll have to regularly clean it. If he gets a fever I don't know what we can do to help him."
"Oh." Clem's face fell to her feet.
"But, it will be okay." Sharon kneeled, making eye contact with the little girl. "Travis is healthy, with a lot of rest he should be better soon."
"That's good." Clem didn't smile. "What about Katjaa?"
Sharon purposely put Kat out of her mind ever since she sat in the driver's seat, the fact the almost motherly figure of the whole group being bitten hit her full force.
"Kat. . ." Is going to turn- "Is strong too. She. . ." Sharon tried to think of anything else to say to the little girl, anything that will put light on the situation, anything that will tell her everything will be okay.
Clem frowned, shoving her hands in her sweatshirt pocket. "She said she's thirsty, do you have anything to drink?"
The few water bottles stacked at the bottom of her bag suddenly felt heavier, along with the supplies that she's told nobody she has. Ben and Travis agreed not to say anything about the bandits and her midnight supply runs out to the city, meaning she has a lot of supplies in her bag that she needs an excuse for having.
"Not right now, but I can look for one." Sharon lied. "How about you go sit back down, okay?"
Clem nodded. "Okay."
"And. . . I'm sorry that girls night was cancelled. I'll make it up to you."
Clem didn't reply, turning around and slowly walking back to the fallen logs, placing herself back on the grass by Katjaa. Travis sat furthest away from everyone at the other end of the log Kenny sat on, scowling at the train with his hands in his pockets. Carley leaned against a tree and stared into the forest, sometimes glancing at Katjaa. Ben and Lee remained out of sight, occasionally appearing from behind the train.
Sharon finally closed the RV door and decided to inspect the train for 'new' supplies. The engine car and one partially empty storage car remained intact, the rest behind it had been derailed and mangled up in mountains of metal. How this wreck happened is beyond her.
Nothing looked salvageable here so she turned and followed the tracks, pausing and recoiling for a moment as the train seemed to hiss at her. Kenny shot up and jogged inside the engine car, the last figment of his hope being spent on compressed air being released from the brakes.
Sharon ignored the training and continued rounding the front of the train, spotting a damaged car embedded in a tree with a walker still strapped in the passenger seat. After a moment of staring Ben joined her, dragging an old corpse with him.
"This is like, the second dead body I've touched today." Ben shuddered, brushing his hands together once the body was pulled away from the tracks. "What're you doing?"
Sharon opened the car door and made sure her crossbow is ready for firing. "I'm not supposed to have this many supplies, so I'm going to kill this walker and say that everything I have in my bag I got from this car."
"Okay, do you need help with-"
She easily killed the walker with a single arrow through the eye socket, reaching in and yanking her arrow free with little resistance, though her ammo smelled rancid now.
"Nevermind then, I'll be inside the train."
Sharon peered inside the car, the smell of the walker burned her nose but the sight of animal crackers and a bar of chocolate by the walker's feet she held her breath. She quickly pulled her body out of the car and stuffed both items in her pocket, she didn't bother to hold her crossbow with both hands as she returned.
Clementine took the chocolate and split it in half, Duck didn't smile but accepted his half anyways. When offered the animal crackers Travis rolled his eyes and snatched it from Sharon.
Sharon dropped her bag in front of Katjaa and Dug through the bottom of her bag, pulling out a bottle of water. "How. . ." She started, handing Katjaa bottle. "How are you?"
"Thank you, darling." Katjaa struggled to twist the cap, Sharon quickly reached out and cracked it open for her. "The bite is swollen and stings. . . I'm mostly tired though." She took small sips.
Sharon dug through some smaller pockets on her bag. "How is your head?" She asked, offering Kat a white cloth napkin.
Kat took the napkin and doused it with water, slowly bringing it to her head. "It's fine, it looks worse than it is." She paused, looking at the bottle then back to Sharon. "Where did you find this? In the train?"
"I found a car on the other side with some groceries." Sharon lied.
Katjaa lifted her head, Sharon turned and followed her gaze. Ben sulked towards them, his feet dragging as he left the train.
"Did Kenny kick you out?" Travis asked.
Ben sat down in a huff, only a few inches away from his friend. "Yeah, he told me to look after you guys."
Travis scoffed though he didn't say anything else, instead extending his arm over to offer some of the animal crackers to Ben.
"I'm the one who's been to a shooting range and they send him to watch us." Carley muttered. "Typical."
Sharon zipped up her bag and looked to Carley, the brooding woman only shook her head and returned her stare to the woods.
"So what's the plan?" Travis asked, looking to the train. "Move it out of the way?"
Sharon shrugged and put her backpack on, standing in front of the boys as they talked.
"I don't know." Ben shrugged, popping a giraffe shaped cracker in his mouth. "Maybe we can get it running again."
"I thought that trains were really hard to get started." Sharon said, the boys looked up at her. "Like, they leave a lot of trains running indefinitely because it's really hard to get it running again."
"What are you, a train specialist?" Travis asked.
"No, I just watched a lot of History Channel." Sharon tried to smile, Katjaa in the corner of her eye prevented that. "I was a cashier."
Travis shrugged one arm. "I was a cashier once, I kept arguing with the customers so I had to work in the back."
"Wait, I thought your dad was in the army, or something." Ben said. "Didn't army guys make a lot of money?"
"He was in Special Forces." Travis shrugged. "I was living at his house rent-free, that meant I had to get a job. Besides, I only worked part time starting freshman year."
"My parents were low on money after they had my sister so I had to work before freshman year." Sharon said. "After my job as a cashier I got a full-time job at the church."
"Really?" Ben dropped his shoulders. "I've only helped out on a goat farm a few times."
Travis smiled. "You'd come to school and still smell like goat shit."
"Swear."
The three turned to face Clementine, confused. She looked up as well when their conversation didn't continue.
"You said a swear."
"Oh, uh. . ." Travis stumbled for something to say.
"He's sorry Clem." Sharon assured.
Travis rolled his eyes. "Anyway. . ."
"You worked in a church?" Katjaa's voice scratched against her throat, she tried to clear it but the scratch remained. "Doing what?"
"Anything I could do, really. I'd sing sometimes. I was usually the youngest one there so they only really needed an able body. That didn't stop me from taking over some of their work."
"Were you going to be a priest or something?" Travis asked.
"Don't you mean a nun?" Ben said.
Sharon continued. "No, I wasn't. I mostly took care of all their decorations, planning, cleaning, cooking."
Travis squinted. "You make it sound like you wanted to work."
She shrugged. "Well I liked the people at the church and what they stood for, so I was pretty inclined to help them."
"I hated everyone at work and everyone at work hated me."
Ben rolled his eyes. "You had to work with a few crappy coworkers, have you ever been headbutted by a goat?"
"No, but I've been headbutted by Duck."
At the mention of Duck the three looked over, silently staring at Duck glued to his mother's side. It almost felt eerie to be this close to him yet his voice isn't in the air.
"So, uh-" Sharon cleared her throat.
Thankfully Lee approached the group from the train, a large light brown object in his hand. "Hey you guys, I found this in the train." Lee held out a guitar, all strings intact and the wood looked in good condition. "Anyone play?"
Sharon reached out, Lee handed it over to her and watched her inspect it. "Yeah, but I sang mostly." She plucked a few strings and grimaced with each wrong note.
"How about the rest of you?" Lee asked, looking to those who were paying attention. "Play any instruments?"
"Trumpet." Ben spoke.
Sharon sat down next to Ben, her fingers ran up the neck of the guitar and moved the dials around, plucking the strings in a pattern.
"I played the snare drum in Band." Travis said, mid-chew of his chocolate.
Katjaa hummed. "I used to play violin when I was in school, but that was long ago."
Sharon strummed lightly, quickly adjusting the pegs the second her fingers left the strings.
Clementine shook her head.
Lee smiled. "Well, a few odd instruments and some vocals? We got ourselves a band." Lee's face fell when he looked to Duck hoping for a reaction, Duck didn't even look their direction and Carley didn't either.
Sharon finally strummed the guitar loud enough for all to hear, it wasn't completely in tune as she would have liked it. It took her only seconds of finger placement for her to find a calming tune to play.
Travis tilted his head. "Wait, I thought you needed some kind of device to do that right?"
"Usually. I've had a lot practice with tuning." Sharon shrugged, struggling to hit the right notes with her uneven fingernails.
Her distraction cut short. Katjaa was no longer easy to ignore as reality came back. Even the strumming and plucking became too easy, the occasional re-tuning of a string helped.
Lee turned to face Ben and Travis, he squinted at them suddenly. "Where did you two get animal crackers?"
The two boys froze wide eyed mid bite, looking over to Sharon.
"She got it from a car nearby." Katjaa spoke up.
"Yeah, they had groceries so I loaded it all in my bag." Sharon nodded.
Lee hummed. "Mind if I see?"
Sharon tried to calm herself as she shrugged off her bag. He wants to count it, see how long they can make it off the few supplies left, or maybe he wants to make sure she isn't lying. She held her breath as he opened the bag wide, sifting through cans and bottles. She could see the folded up brown bags from where she sat, the same ones she'd give to the bandits.
"Nice." Lee pulled out a can, one with a tab for easy opening. "That should last us a few days, if we ration it. Mind if we do that now?"
Sharon shrugged. "I don't want anyone to eat any of the meat uncooked, so just do fruits for now."
Lee took out a few cans and sighed. "Didn't think I'd be handing out rations again."
Sharon tried to offer advice, she closed her mouth when she remembered that her mind hasn't been focusing on who around the inn was eating and when anymore. Instead she continued strumming the guitar.
As Lee stacked the cans of fruits on the ground he looked back up to the boys. "I was wondering; you uh, happy you two stayed with us all this time?"
"It's with you guys or dead." Ben shrugged.
"If Sharon wouldn't have gotten in front of Mark's gun, I don't think I would be alive." Travis said, looking over waiting for her to notice. She didn't. "I just wish Kenny didn't hold that against me."
"What about you Sharon?" Sharon palmed the strings, watching as Lee zipped up the bag. "Are you happy you stayed?"
"Well. . ." Sharon sighed, looking around. "I don't know, I just keep thinking about Lisa and how she's miles away, she could have left Savannah by now." She stared at the ground, returning to playing.
All the guys kept their mouth, the name Lisa had become familiar but not enough to know how to talk about it.
Lee looked around and changed the subject, eyeing the bloodstain on the RV. "Are you all okay after what happened with Lilly?"
"She screamed at us then tried to kill one of us." Travis crossed one arm. "Carley did the right thing."
"I don't know." Ben shrugged. "She was really angry, is Carley okay?"
Lee turned his head, meeting eyes with her. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Lee turned back, eyeing Travis carefully. "I thought you two were a couple or something."
"Wait, you know?"
"Uh, we do now."
Ben snorted.
Lee narrowed his eyes and held the cans in his arms. "It's not like it's a secret, but yeah, we are."
Lee quickly turned away from them, arms still holding the food as he walked to Carley. Travis smiled, a smug grin on his face.
He stuffed both hands in his pockets, straining to adjust his right arm. "Wait." Travis patted his right jacket pocket, then his left. "No, no, fuck-"
"What's wrong?" Ben asked, scooting away as Travis flew to his feet.
"It- it's not-" Travis pulled the insides of his pockets out, letting loose pocket fuzz. He patted every pocket he could think of having.
"Is something wrong?" Katjaa asked.
"Her phone, it's not in my pocket." Travis tucked in his pockets and checked it again, pausing suddenly with wide eyes. "I think I left it- I-I think it's back on my bed."
Carley and Lee stopped talking.
"What's back on your bed?" Sharon set the guitar down. "Travis, calm down-"
Travis faced the RV. "No! We have to go back!"
"Go back?" Sharon stood, blocking Travis's way. "Travis we can't go back, there's nothing left-"
Travis walked around her. "No! I can't just leave it there! It's all I have left-"
Lee stepped up, one can missing from his stack. "We've been on the road for hours, it would take all day to get back there."
"Fine!" Travis shouted. "That's okay with me!"
"There's not enough gas." Sharon said, keeping her voice level. "Even if you took the RV you wouldn't make it Macon, you would have to walk."
"Then I'll walk!" Travis looked to Sharon, his eyes wide in fear. "I have nothing left, I need to get it back."
"It's just a phone." Sharon said. "I don't-"
"It was my girlfriends phone!" He shouted. "It has all of her pictures on it and texts and videos- She had it turned off and there's still some battery left, I kept it off so in case I needed to I could turn it on-"
Sharon reached out. "Travis, I'm sorry, we can't-"
Travis quickly slapped Sharon's hand away and brushed past her, slamming the door to the RV shut behind him.
"Is he gonna-" Lee started.
"No." Sharon stopped him. "I have the keys in my pocket."
Lee nodded. "Just let him cool off, then." He handed Sharon a can and walked away. "For you or Ben."
Katjaa cleared her throat. "Are you okay, sweetie?"
"I was just about to ask you that." Sharon said, approaching her. "I'm fine, what about you?"
Katjaa didn't reply, taking a deep breath and wiping the sweat from her brow with the now dirty napkin. "I-I'm-" Katjaa had her hand over her mouth in seconds. She started coughing, holding the now balled up napkin to her mouth to muffle herself.
Duck backed away as the coughing only got worse, her mother reaching out for support as she swayed in her seat.
Sharon dropped the can, grasping Katjaa's open hand with her own, she reached around the sickly woman's back and held her steady. She took in ragged breaths in between coughs, her body feeling limp for a brief second as the coughing stopped.
"Katjaa?" Sharon called out, wary as the heavier woman's breathing slowed. If it wasn't for the odd angle Sharon would have taken her pulse. "Katjaa, say something."
"I don't. . ." Katjaa whispered, prompting Sharon to lean close to hear. "I don't think I have a lot of time left."
"Kat." Sharon whispered back. "What. . . what do you need me to do?"
Kat opened her mouth, the sound of a loud engine roaring caught everyone's attention.
Ben asked the question on everyone's mind with a smile and a mouthful of animal crackers. "It's working?"
"That noise. . ." Carley said, stepping away from the woods. "That's going to attract walkers."
Ben swallowed and frowned. "Crap."
Every head turned to face it, some neared it as Kenny and Lee filed out of the engine car with lifted spirits and empty hands.
"Pack your stuff." Lee announced. "We're taking the train."