The truck ride to Kewanee, Illinois was a worrisome one. Carlos's jaw and shoulders were tight with tension as he followed the winding trail behind the rest of the convoy. He had agreed to take the rear, the least favored position in the driving. The farther back in the line you were, the least likely it was that someone would notice if you were in trouble. Still, Carlos was confident in his ability to take care of himself and K-Mart. Or perhaps he was just being foolish and over-confident.

More than anything, he had taken the back of the line for the semi-private space. It more representative than anything else- a warning to the rest of the convoy to stay back and leave him and K-Mart in peace. No one had spoken to them in the past two days, but they received uncertain glances, glances that said they had trusted them to pull them through this emotionally, and that they had failed.

Carlos's hands gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. He could handle the looks of disappointment- he had received them many times after an attack from the infectants and had been forced to put a bullet in the victims' heads. He had learned to accept that he would never be able to save them all. He was human, and highly trained though he was, one could only do so much against hundreds of creatures that could only die by severing their spinal cord. What he could not handle was the way they looked at K-Mart. The convoy had come to see her as part of him, and thus she received the silent ridicule as well. The fact that the creature had found her was not her fault, but the convoy still viewed her as a disappointment.

He darted his eyes over to the girl that slept up against his shoulder. Her face was calm and quiet, but he could feel her teeth grinding in her sleep against his skin. He took a deep sigh and looked back to the road before him. K-Mart had not handled the convoy's disregardment well. She had reverted back to latching onto Carlos desperately, refusing to leave his side. They had reverted back to square one, and as before, he had no clue how to solve it. He had been lucky enough that she had slowly gained independence over a year and a half on her own, but he doubted he would be so fortunate this round. He had two choices: allow her to become his shadow once again and risk they safety, or find a way to dislodge the girl. He did not care for either choice, but he was not willing to risk K-Mart's safety again. In the first year after he had found the girl huddling in a K-Mart after which she was named, the girl's demand that she stay forever latched to him had nearly gotten them killed numerous times. Each time, however, he had been able to work around the kid, partly because she was so small. Being short and light, she had been easy to push behind him and around him without thought. The difference was that despite the ease with the girl had learned to maneuver around him during the battles; her growing size was making it more and more difficult. Eventually, he had demanded that she stay locked in the cars for protection. He snorted lightly. They had all seen how much protection she had received staying in one of the cars.

K-Mart stirred beside him and rose with sleepy eyes, her honey-blond hair mussed on the side she had used as a pillow on. Pulling her hair out of its frazzled pony-tail, she brushed her dirty hands through hair that was stringy from being unwashed for four days. The tank top she was wearing was also stained with dirt and the blood of the undead that had threatened her life. Glancing down as she pulled her hair into a neater ponytail, the girl started and dropped her arms immediately, turning red with embarrassment. Carlos cocked a crooked smile and mussed her hair with his hand again. She growled at him.

"You're not a kid anymore," he said gently, turning his attention back to the road. "You're going to have hair under your arms. You haven't showered for days." He pretended to wrinkle his nose in disgust. "You stink." Laughing, K-Mart punched his arm lightly. "Ow." He pushed her lightly on the shoulder. Smiling broadly for the first time in days, the girl pushed him back before hugging onto him tightly. She made a point to make loud sniffing noises.

"You don't exactly smell like a flower," she teased back before releasing him from the hug, though she staid against him, savoring the protective arm that lay draped over her side.

"None of us do," he answered, thinking about the fact that they had not found sanitary water to wash any f the convoy in. They had stocks of water bottles, but they could not be wasted on washing. Again, the hopelessness of the situation hit him. "Nothing does."

The two drove on silently, comfortable only in each other's presence. They were alone in the world now. Before, they had at least had the convoy, but for reasons beyond her comprehension, they, too, were abandoning them. No one spoke to them, no one offered them bottles of water at any given time like they used to. Something about the incident of the infectant attacking her had changed their view of her and Carlos, and she simply could not understand it.

Was it because she had fired a gun with dead-aim and without hesitation? Were they frightened of her? Surely not. Any of them would have done the same to survive. Or so she thought. But she had yet to see anyone besides the already armed leaders and herself pick up a gun and fire, even when the weapons were lying just beside them. What she had noticed, and with irritation, was that the convoy, while shirking Carlos off, also continued to look to him as one of their protectors. Why should he protect them when they showed him nothing but disdain?

"Why does the convoy hate us now?" she asked quietly. The man beside her sighed.

"They don't hate us," he answered carefully. "We have something none of them have: hope. I will do anything to protect you, even if it means sacrificing one of them, and they know it. They resent that."

They. They. They… We. She noticed a pattern in his words and realized that Carlos had, whether aware of it or not, separated them almost entirely in his mind, from the rest of the convoy. That frightened her. What would happen if one of them was lost? The other would be left completely alone, having only had the other to look for. Her thoughts were turning deep and dark, her eyes flashing angrily as she thought about the way the convoy was treating the man that protected them with the utmost dedication. Carlos must have felt her spiraling into anger, and squeezed her with his arm gently.

"At least we still have Claire," he said quietly. "She really likes you, you know." K-Mart looked up at him in a surprised fashion.

"Bull," she answered, sitting up straighter. "I irritate her. I'm the shadow that gets in the way. She liked it better when you didn't have me trailing after you." Carlos chuckled and shook his head.

"She likes you," he assured her. "She just doesn't know how to show it. Just wait." He paused, and a painful plan he had been plotting rang through his head. This was his chance to plant the seed…much as he hated to do it. It might be the only way to protect her. "You might try hanging out with her more often. She needs the company."

"Oh, is that why she's always telling me to go be a shadow somewhere else?" se answered sarcastically. Carlos's jaw twitched. Claire was not going to make this easy. He'd have to talk to her as soon as possible.

"She just doesn't want to get close to anyone," he answered. "Keep trying. She'll give in."

"What is this?" K-Mart surveyed him with suspicion. "Some pathetic attempt to get me to leave you alone?" Carlos's face was emotionless, but his heart clenched with pain at the hurt in her tone.

"Claire needs a friend," he replied simply, keeping his words short. And you need someone besides me.

Carlos gently replaced his thigh with a crumpled jacket beneath K-Mart's head, attempting not to wake her as he went on for midnight watch with Claire. The girl shifted slightly, but otherwise did not wake. He let out a sigh of relief and went to join Claire, who waited for him.

"Carlos…" she began hesitantly as she loaded one of her 5 millimeter mindlessly. "I'm sorry for the way the convoy is treating you and the girl. They have no right to act that way."

"Forget it," Carlos answered, flipping his heavy gun's strap over his shoulder. "I need you to do something."

"What?"

Carlos paused at the perimeter, debating if he was making the right choice. His heart ached with the knowledge of what he was about to do, and he gazed down at the ground with blank eyes.

"Take K-Mart."

"What? You're leaving?" Panic rose in Claire's voice, and her heart raced. She had not realized until this moment how much she had grown to care about and depend on Carlos without being aware of it.

"No," he said simply. "But if we have to survive without each other, she needs someone else. I can't protect her forever." Claire shook her head violently.

"Oh hell no," she objected, cocking her gun and testing its aim. "Unlike you, I like my shadow already. I don't need another."

"Just be nice to her," he begged, gazing at her seriously. "All I want is for her to have someone else in case…" He remembered the dreading fear that had filled him when he had been bitten before. He had not even known the full affect of a bite from the undead at that point, and despair had filled him. He repressed a shudder. Claire hesitated, then placed a hand upon his lower arm.

"Shut up, Carlos," she said gently. "I'll take care of her."