John
That was… unexpected, to say the least.
I thought that people would've been pissed at me. Instead, most of them were just surprised, shocked, which I do understand. But I was expecting some kind of anger at the fact that I kept my powers a secret.
Hell, even Merle didn't seem to care about me keeping it a secret. Then again, it didn't seem like he cared at all.
Now I'm the one who's a little surprised.
When Rick came up to me earlier, I was expecting a demand, some kind of sternness, like I owed it to these people. Which, I did. But instead, he wanted to make sure I was alright. He wanted make me feel like I belonged.
Looking back on it, it was kind of stupid to think Rick of all people would be pissed. Man's a saint, especially compared to everyone who's been in this shit since it started.
Now that I think about it, that man has a guardian angel watching over him, and it sure as shit ain't me. He went into a coma before shit started, from what I heard. That's a solid nine, maybe ten months. Power would've shut down long ago, and I find it hard to believe anyone stayed in that hospital that long to switch out his IV bags and take care of him.
The fact that Rick woke up at all is a miracle all on its own.
The trip seems kind of quiet. It's no surprise that I'm hitching a ride in the RV once again. I've decided to opt for the bed in the back. Dale told me to get some sleep, since I was up all night. I tried to tell him I don't get tired like others do, but he wouldn't hear any of it.
'Son, you were up all night. I don't care if you have some crazy powers, get some sleep.'
He sounds just like Papaw.
Papaw and Dale are so alike it's unreal. Hell, take away the temper of Papaw and the rather crude and rude sense of humor, you'd have Dale instead of Papaw.
Oh, and the sailor mouth. Definitely the sailor mouth.
So far, I don't think I've heard Dale utter a single swear. If it weren't for the fact that killing walkers is how we survive, I don't think you'd see the man raising his gun at anything on two legs.
"Hey, John?"
I'm thrown from my thoughts, not by Jacqui, Glenn, or any of the Harrison sisters, but Sophia. I didn't even know she was on here.
"Soph? I thought you and your mom were riding with Rick." I say as I sit up on the bed, looking at her in the small hallway, or whatever it's called in an RV. She's got one hand braced against the wall, to try and help her keep her balance on the moving vehicle.
"I asked Mom if I could ride with you." She admitted, kind of shrinking in on herself, almost like I'm about to snap at her.
"Here, take a seat." I swing my legs off bed situate myself so that I'm sitting on the side, allowing Sophia to plop down next to me. "What's up?"
"I… I wanted to ask you a question. But I was too scared to ask in front of everyone else." Sophia says, keeping her gaze to the floor. It's like she's afraid I'm gonna get mad. Considering the way her dad was, it's not exactly unexpected.
I let a small smile cross my face as I rest a hand on her back in a reassuring manner. "Ask away, kiddo. I'm not gonna be mad."
Sophia turns her gaze up to me for a moment, before nodding. "Okay." She says quietly. "I… why are you being so nice to us?"
I can't help it when my smile fades in favor of confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Some people would get mad at Ed every once in a while, but no one ever really said anything about how he was to me and Mom." She explained, bringing her feet up onto the bed as she tucked her knees into her chest. "You were the first person who said anything about what Ed was doing to us. You were only there for a day, and then suddenly, you're trying to keep us safe."
"Soph, I was beat as kid too." I remind her, letting my hands come to rest on my knees as I look at her. "I might've used it as an excuse of sorts, but that wasn't a lie. My step-dad would beat into the ground for just opening a bag of chips. I don't take well to abusive assholes, especially ones like Ed."
"Why didn't anyone else say anything?" Sophia responds with the question, and she finally brings her gaze up to me, her entire expression begging an answer. "You're there for a day and you put a stop to it. Anyone else tries not to say anything unless they have to."
"Sophia, Ed would have just turned and around and beat you and your mom if anyone else said anything about it." I tell her, bringing a hand to her shoulder to provide some sort of comfort. "Shane's a cop, he knew that. He'd step in where he could, but unless he saw it himself, his own habits would tell him not to intervene anymore than he legally could've before shit went down. Same with everyone else."
"But that didn't stop you."
I can't help but to let out a chuckle at her words. She's got a point, admittedly, but I'm not just anyone else.
"Before this, I was a high school student who doubled as… well, not technically a governmet agent, but I don't want to say superhero, cause I'm not one. To me, it was never about what's legal. It's about what's right." I tell her, and I'm sincere in my words. Even before the society collapsed, the laws never stopped me from doing what I felt was right.
Maybe that's not necessarily a good thing, but I don't care. I will not stand by and watch someone be hurt because the law says I have to.
"And besides, I didn't just tell him to stop. I threatened to kill him."
"Would you have done it?" She suddenly asks me, her expression now curious.
"Probably." I tell her bluntly. I know she's a kid and all, and I definitely don't want her thinking cold blooded murder is okay. But I know myself well enough to know that yes, I would've followed through on my threat and beat Ed to death, just because I know I'd be too pissed to do anything else till he's dead. "I meant what I said. If either you or your mom showed up with a bruise, I don't care who'd try to stop me. I'd have killed him."
"Isn't it bad to kill people?"
"Yeah." I say without a moments hesitation. "But the thing is, Soph, I don't care. I'm not saying you shouldn't, and please don't take my words as an excuse to go out and kill someone who's being an asshole, but I just can't bring myself to care about people truly despicable. People who hurt others simply because they can."
Sophia looks at me for a few moments, before she nods. "Okay…"
"Now, don't hold anything against anyone else for not stepping in." I advise her. "Just because they didn't step in out of habit doesn't make them bad people. I won't say it was a good decision, but that doesn't mean it's a bad decision either. Some of these people might know your pain, not just me."
"You really think that?" She asks me in surprise. "No one else seems like they've had to deal with someone like Ed."
Ed. Not Dad. That's how you that despite her rather mousy demeanor, she hated Ed with a passion.
"I don't know." I tell her, because admittedly, I actually do think there's a few people here that might have felt that kind of pain. "You don't end up the way you are simply because you are like that. Look at Daryl and Merle."
"What about them?" Sophia asks me in confusion. "They're both mean."
"No argument about Merle, but be honest with me, have you ever had a conversation with Daryl?"
"No."
I smile at her words. "Daryl's a bit gruff and rude, admittedly, but he's willing to reach out and help at times. He comes as rude, for sure, but he's not exactly the asshole Merle is."
And I mean it. Me and Daryl haven't really talked much, admittedly. But the few interactions we have had tell me that he's a good person, just rough around the edges. Hell, when we left the quarry, Daryl was the first person to offer me a ride, and he didn't say anything when I turned him down.
"I don't think Merle and Daryl had a happy childhood." I explain to Sophia, turning to look at them. "But they both adapted in different ways. Daryl trucked through, Merle turned to drugs and being an ass. But hey, when we needed it, they both came through to help."
Yes, Merle is asshole, and god forbid if he doesn't piss someone off with every word that leaves his mouth, but when push comes to shove, he fought against the walkers in the camp, and he and Daryl both played protector during the incidents at the CDC and the quarry.
Merle's a dick. But I'll be damned if I don't recognize that he has his moments.
"You think Merle and Daryl had parents like Ed?" Sophia asks me in genuine curiosity, I nod.
"One parent, both parents, either way, I'm almost certain there was someone mean to them as kids." I say with a nod.
A silence befalls the two of us, so I turned to look at her with a grin. "So, what do you think of the jacket?"
Even though she's had a change of clothes since the incident at the CDC, she's still got the jacket I gave her back at the quarry wrapped around her little frame.
She actually smiles at my question, and looks down at the jacket for a moment. "It's comfy." She says, before raising her hands up in front of her and eying them. "It's a little big, though."
"Ah, you'll grow into it."
"Really?"
"... No, probably not."
A giggle escapes Sophia at my joke, and I can't help my own amused grin that escapes me. There ain't nothing that can cheer a person up like a child's laughter.
Well, a normal person, anyway.
"I wish I could've had a brother like you." Sophia says with a smile. I gotta admit, those words catch me off-guard, and I'm not sure what to say at first.
So I with something simple.
"I appreciate that, kiddo." I tell her with a smile. "You and my sister would get along just fine."
"What's your sister like?" Sophia asks me, and I can't help but to grin.
"Shiela is… she's a good kid, but she has a nasty habit of pulling pranks on you when you least expect it." I say with a chuckle as I recall some of Shiela's more… thought out pranks. "There was this one time, after I got my powers, she decided to pull a prank on me. With my powers, she could get a bit more creative without running the risk of hurting me."
"What'd she do?" Sophia asks me, tilting her head in curiosity.
"She smeared super glue all over my one of my controllers and glued it to the table. I go in to pick the thing up, and the whole back of it snaps off." I remember how surpised I was at the prank. No warning or nothing, Shiela's hiding in my bathroom, waiting for me to do it. "Not only did I know a busted controller, but the damn the stuck to my hand, and I had to wait for the glue to dry to peel it off."
"Sounds painful." Sophia admits with a wince.
I let out a chuckle in response. "To anyone else, maybe, but to me, it was just an annoyance. It dried up, shit cracking all over my hand, and I couldn't touch anything for a bit unless I wanted to glue my hand to something."
Sophia giggles at the image in her head, trying to cover it up with her hands. "Sounds funny."
"You want funny?" I can't help the grin on my face as I recall a particular incident when I was in sixth grade, long before I got my powers. "When I was in sixth grade, I was a test in science class, and I had to sneeze."
"That doesn't seem that funny." Sophia says, though she's still got a look of amusement on her face.
I can't help the chuckle that escapes me. "You ain't heard the whole story. I don't want to bring attention to my self, so instead of trying to muffle it the normal way, I put my lips on my forearm, trying to kind of plug my mouth. And it backfired so bad."
"Why?"
"When I sneezed, it sounded like somebody let out a really loud fart." I explain, and Sophia's eyes widen, before she's giggling like a madwoman next to me.
"Did you get in trouble?" She asks me between her giggles, and I shake my head.
"Teacher looked at me funny, but she didn't say anything."
Suddenly, our conversation is halted by the sensation of the RV coming to a stop, and a sound of annoyance from Dale.
I stand up off the bed and make my way towards the front of the RV, where Dale's driving and Glenn is sitting in the passenger seat with a map.
"Oh no." Glenn mutters in exasperation as he sees what lies in front of us, and now that I'm up to see it, I understand it too.
"Shit." I can't help but to mutter under my breath. Cars sit, dead and abandoned in front of us, left behind by their former owners after everything went to shit. I can see a semi trailer thrown onto it's side, and this looks like it'll be a mess to navigate through.
Glenn lets out a sigh next to me as he surveys the place, and I can practically feel the tension in the air at the situation.
"Is there a way through?" Amy asks from behind me.
I look through the cars as best I can, trying to see if there is a way through this shit show. None that I can see so far. Except maybe for Merle's bike.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Merle comes riding out of the clusterfuck in front of us, and he pulls up next to Dale's window as me and the old man look at him.
"See a way through?" Dale asks.
Merle nods his head, and gestures towards the pile without saying a word, an unspoken request to follow him through.
Looks like we got no choice, though if we get held up, I can move some of the cars out of the way, clear a path for us.
Merle circles around and gets back in front of us, and as we move to follow him, Glenn speaks up, hesitation in his voice.
"Uh, maybe we should just go back." He advices, and I can see the nervousness on his face. "There's an interstate bypass-"
"We can't spare the fuel." Dale shoots down the idea almost immediately.
I'll say this, Dale's a good driver in an RV. He manages to maneuver us through the trainwreck pretty well, but I don't think many people are focusing on that any more.
This is… disturbing.
It's an eerie site, a grim reminder of all the people who probably died here, tried to get in the shelter or get out of the city. The cars lay abandoned, some of them with their doors thrown open, signs of a hasty departure all around, while others look relatively untouched, and then there's the few here and there thrown onto their sides or flipped over, as if something heavy it them.
"Oh geez…" Glenn can't help but to mutter, his entire body language a clear sign of discomfort.
There's a sense of unease through everyone here, including me.
Some of these cars have bodies in them, though none of them look like the walkers. They all look dead and gone for good.
Though, you can never be too sure, I suppose.
Then again, with all the noise our vehicles were making, if any of them were live walkers, we'd probably have a good few coming out way by now.
I feel a sudden weight pushing into my side, and a small pair of arms wrapping around me, and I glance down to see Sophia hugging up against my side, an expression of fear and unease on her face.
"We'll be okay, Soph." I assure her as I let my hand leave Glenn's seat, bringing it down to rub her back slightly.
"Can we get through here?" Glenn asks Dale as we come up on a cluster of cars packed more tightly together, and I gotta say, it doesn't look like the RV's gonna fit through.
I can fix that.
Of course, before I even get a chance to open my mouth, fate decides to kick our asses.
A loud hissing sound along with the sound of something not quite right in the engine shrieks out as a steady stream of smoke begins billowing out the front of the RV, the engine sputtering as something goes wrong.
I can hear Dale let out a groan of annoyance, as well as most of the others in here gasping in disbelief or surprise, and I can't help the steady stream of muffled swears that escape my own mouth.
"What's that?" I ask as Dale brings the RV to a stop, moving out of his way as best I can as he stands up out of the seat and moves towards the RV door.
"It sounds like the radiator hose." Dale grumbles as we follow him outside the door. I can hear engines being killed as everyone behind us stops their vehicles and exits to see what's going on. "At least this one bought us some time."
"The one in that box van wasn't a fix?" Glenn asks in disbelief, referring to the box truck that we'd taken back to camp the day I met him and Rick.
"Damn thing had it's own wear and tear, but it kept us up for a while, at least." Dale says with a sigh as he moves in front of the RV to inspect the damage. "Now it's busted too."
I can hear the sounds of footsteps approaching us, coming up to the RV as everyone abandons their vehicles to see what's going on.
"Problem, Dale?" Shane asks as he comes up next to the man, keeping an eye ahead for any threats as he addresses the older man.
"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Dale seems like he's about to go on a tangent, but he stops himself as he turns around and sees Daryl and Merle moving to insect the cars around us. "Okay that was dumb." He admits.
"If you can't find a radiator hose here."
"There's a hole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl mutters as he begins searching through a small car in front of us with the rear window propped open.
"Probably all kinds of shit left behind when these cars were abandoned." I note as I begin glancing around, thinking about all the stuff we could find here. Food, water, gas, not even mentioning tools and possible weaponry.
"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dog says as he makes his way forward to examine some of the cars himself.
"Maybe some water?" Carol throws in with a hopeful tone.
"Food." Glenn adds as well.
"Some more medical supplies." Jenner adds in his two cents as well. "Can never have too much of that."
I put a hand on my hip as I look out among the cars. "If you can name it, it's probably here."
"This is a graveyard." Lori suddenly speaks up, and I can see the hesitation in her entire person, from her expression to her body language, as she looks at us.
At those words, we all turn to look at each other, because she's got a point. All the shit that's left here…
It's left because people died here.
But… get shit done, and you don't have to do it.
Everyone needs to be some type of monster these days, I guess.
"We don't take it, someone else." I say with a sigh as I turn to look back at her. "I ain't as comfortable with is as anyone else might be, but the truth is, whatever's here, we need it."
"He's right." Rick says in agreement as he turns towards his wife. "We're low on just about everything but ammo. We need this stuff."
"Come on, ya'll." Shane speaks up, turning to look at us. "Just look around, gather what you can."
At his words, everyone begins to spread out. T-Dog snags some gas cans and a few hoses while almost everyone else goes to work on scavenging for some supplies for these cars. Lori has Carl's hand in her own as she goes to look in some the vehicles. Carol's following behind her, and Sophia's moved to join her mom as both women look inside one of the vehicles at what's probably a corpse.
"Kids, don't look." Carol says, turning to look at Carl and Sophia and urging them to move along, though of course Carl's gonna take a glance towards the interior anyway.
I turn towards Glenn and Dale at the front of the RV, where Glenn pops up next to Dale with some screwdrivers in hand. "Which one?" He asks as he holds them out to the older man.
"Flathead." Dale says as he snags the flathead screwdriver from Glenn's grip. "Radiator hose clamp is always a flathead." He advised the younger man for future reference, before offering screwdriver back. "Here, you do it. Learn something." He says as he trades Glenn for the phillips head, in return for the rag and flathead.
Dale goes to move towards the back of the RV, while Glenn goes to work on the engine, coughing a little as he gets some smoke in his face.
I'm debating on taking watch duty, but Jim approaches me before I get the chance.
"Hey, John." He says, causing me to turn towards him as he approaches me.
"What's up?" I ask him.
"Think you can go ahead and clear a path for when we load up?" He asks me, pointing towards the cluster of cars in front of us. "I figure while everyone's looking around, you can make some use of that strength of yours."
I can't help but to grin at his little jab, and I give him a smile as I nod. "Sure thing."
This is probably gonna take a bit, since it looks like there's a lot of cars here, but I really don't have anything better to do, and I can see Dale pulling himself to the roof of the RV now, so I guess it's safe to assume that he's got watch duty covered.
I turn away from Jim and move towards the cluster in front of us. It's best to start with the cars on the edges, the outside, so that way I don't run the risk of squishing somebody.
I move towards the side of one of the outermost cars, on the edge of the road, and crouch down, feeling around for a place for a firm grip so that the car doesn't just snap the piece of and fall back down.
With practiced motion, I get a grip, and lift the car off the ground with ease. To anyone else, it'd be an adrenaline feat of strength. To me, it's like picking up a toy.
I don't lift the car over my head, no need to be flamboyant when it's just as easy to lift a side of the car and drag it.
Although, I decide against just straight dragging it when I can hear the tires squeal from movement.
It's not loud enough to draw in too many walkers, but it's way to loud for comfort considering how open and exposed we are at the moment, regardless of who's on watch.
I stop dragging it, and take one hand away from the other side. Unless a car has four way breaks, either the front or back will move when I roll them.
The front tire has a brake locked, so that answers my question. I sit the car back down on the ground, before I move to the front and grip the bumper, lifting it with one hand.
Now, it's much easier to move the car since the tires will actually roll when I pull it.
With a game plan in motion, I get to work.
Shane
Even after seeing the kid take that door down and smash out an entire bulletproof window, it's still a site to see to watch John lift up a car and drag it to the side of the road, up next to the guard rails.
Seeing someone who doesn't look any different from you lift that kind of weight like a he's dragging a carpet is pretty incredible.
But I can't linger too long.
I following Glenn around, keeping an eye out for walkers or anything that might sneak up on us while he looks through these cars to find a radiator hose for the RV.
We just switched the damn thing out, but considering how long the truck was sitting there, the thing probably deteriorated. Maybe it was in a maintenance yard or something, I don't know.
Glenn's sitting at a car with the hood popped open, trying to fiddle with getting the radiator hose off, guess he's gonna try and see if it'll work. I can see Jim a little bit further away, probably looking for a radiator hose himself, and considering he's a mechanic, he probably knows what to look for better than Glenn does.
My eyes wander around, but I stop when I spot a truck right behind Glenn. It's a delivery truck, and it's got some lettering on it, but the only two words I really pay attention to is 'spring water'. I lean the shotgun against the rear bumper and move to the side. It's one of those box trucks with a rolling door on the side, and there's no lock that I can see.
I put my hands on the the door, and pull, and the thing goes flying up with ease.
And then I find myself staring at a bunch of jugs in some kind of crate, filled with water.
This… this is perfect. Now, we have more water than I could've ever imagined. Talk about luck.
"Glenn…" I say, catching the man's attention as he pauses his actions on the car behind the truck and turns to look at me. "Were we short on water?"
He looks at me in confusion for a second, but his eyes go wide as he looks at me with a face of realization, but I'm not looking at him anymore.
The back of this truck is like a freezer, so all the water is cold. And I need some cold water.
I snag one of the jugs and slide out further out, scrambling to get the cap off. The cap comes off with an audible pop.
And then there's water gushing out the jug.
Aw man, that feels so good.
I open my mouth to drink a little bit of it, and admittedly, most of it just splashes all over my face, neck, and chest, but I could care less. We have plenty of water, and I don't think anyone would complain, especially considering how hot it is out today.
Goddamn, I needed this.
I take a few gulps before leaning my head forward and letting the water splash all down my head, running down my back, and soaking my hair. I can hear Glenn laughing in excitement as he watches the scene, and I can't help it when I laugh right along with him. This, man… this feels good.
"Hey, save me some!" Glenn says to me as he tries to hurry with the radiator hose, and I let the water keep running, rubbing some of it through my hair as I turn to look at Glenn with the biggest smile on my face that I can imagine.
"It's like being baptized, man!" I say as I go back to gulping down some water.
Man, this day just can't get any better.
John
With an actual system in place, it doesn't take me long to get a good few cars moved. Just lift and pull where you want it.
I've kind of just occupied myself with moving these things. I ain't really been thinking about much, just focusing on the job, you could say. The things we could find here… I'll be damn if this isn't a miracle and a half for us.
Lori and Carol are over searching one of the cars I just moves, and Carl and Sophia ain't far behind as I occupy myself. However, I'm distracted from my current activity when Lori suddenly walks up to me.
"John?"
I turn to look at her, and she's got her arms crossed, and there's a small smile on her face. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure, just let me move this real quick." I say with a smile, before I quickly finish moving the car I had a grip on. Once it's safely out of the way, I walk back up to Lori. "What's up?"
"I want to thank you."
Well, that has me confused.
"What for?" I ask her with a raised eyebrow. What could she have to thank me for?
Lori just smiles at me. "Everything." She says, and she lets out an amused laugh when it's clear that I'm still confused. "Saving Rick, protecting us at the camp, the CDC…"
"Don't need to thank me for it." I say with a shrug and a smile. "I was just doing what I had to."
"That's the thing, you didn't have to do anything." Lori responds, and it seems like her smile grows even bigger. "You're the Juggernaut. You can throw cars like their softballs and walk away from things that could level a building. You don't have to anything, because there's no one to stop you."
"Just because I have these powers don't mean I should just do whatever I want." I tell her with a chuckle. "If everyone was like that, especially superhumans, this world would probably be a lot more different, walkers or not."
"But that's the thing, you choose to help." Lori replies. "John, if you had wanted to leave us behind, let us die, there's absolutely nothing we could do to stop you. And yet, you stay, and you help, and I cannot thank you enough for that." Her voice is sincere, and I can't help the smile on my face.
"I was raised right." Is my simple reply. "And I care for all of you."
Lori smiles, and it looks like she's about to say something else, but we're interrupted before we even get a chance to continue, when Rick's suddenly rushing in our direction, crouched low, and look of alarm and terror on his face.
"Lori, get under the cars!" He calls out, and I can't help the feeling of nervousness in my gut. He turns his attention to me. "John, stay low, warn the others! There's a whole herd of walkers coming through!"
What?!
Oh shit!
Me and Lori waste no time, and I hear nothing that any of them say passed that, I crouch down as best as I can and manuever my way through the cars, searching for any body further ahead as best I can.
I catch a glimpse of Shane throwing Glenn to the ground and rolling under a box truck after him, before I find Jim and Amy at a car just ahead of me.
"Jim, Amy!" I call out in a hushed voice, and they both turn to look at me in surprise. "Under the cars, now! We got a herd rolling through!"
There aren't enough words to describe the horror that etches across both their faces as they let what I just told them sink in, before both of them are quick to follow. I think Jenner, Jacqui and Andrea are still in the RV, and they have to have noticed the herd by now.
As Jim and Amy scramble under a car together, I rush past them, turning a corner around a car and finding T-Dog still focused on siphoning some gas.
"T!" I call out to him, and he turns to look at me in surprise. "Get under a car! There's a herd coming through!"
Just like Amy and Jim, T-Dog's eyes go wide in horrified surprise, before he nods his head and throws himself under a nearby truck. I move up a little further, and I can see Merle and Daryl scavenging for supplies.
"Daryl, Merle! Under the cars!" The two glance at me for a moment, seeing me crouched down, before confusion etches into their faces for a moment. "We got a herd coming through!"
At that, their eyes widen, before the quickly drop to the ground and roll under cars opposite of each other.
Alright, I think that's everyone who came back this way.
I turn around and make my way back towards Rick and the others, but I come to a stop when I can see the slowly growing gaggle of walkers becoming more and more visible. With a curse, I drop to the ground and roll under a car myself.
Could I wipe the herd? Yes.
Do I want to? Yes.
Is it a bad idea? Definitely.
The sounds of any kind of scuffle between me and these walkers might just draw some more in. Bodies landing vehicles, the loud yells and snarls of the walkers, and god forbid if I get to into it and start cutting loose, cracking concret, smashing cars, just causing havoc.
As easy as it would be for me to wipe out this entire herd, there's a chance that I draw in more, maybe even another herd, and put everyone here at risk.
That's not a risk I'm willing to take.
That's not even taking into account that I risk hurting someone here if I get too distracted with the herd. A walker might land on somebody, someone might get hit with a car…
So as much as it pains me, everyone's best bet is to just hide under the cars.
I can see a few people under the cars around me, and they all look completely terrified. I can see Shane with his shot gun tucked close, but outside of him, I can't see anyone else with any kind of weapon. I think Rick has a rifle, but he's too far ahead for me to see him.
Slowly, the herd descends and makes it's way past us all. Until they pass… we're all trapped.
The feeling of this kind of helplessness… it's suffocating. I can't do anything without putting everyone here in danger, and it feels like someone's put a weight on my chest that I can't lift up.
The place is filled with sounds of shuffling dead, and the groans and snarls of the walkers as they make their way past.
Please, god, please don't let anyone get caught.
The walkers aren't smart enough to search the cars, and even a living person probably wouldn't notice us under the cars, but in the kind of scenario, you can't help but thing of the worst possible outcome.
All it would take is for one of the to trip over themselves, to stumble, and spot someone under a car. Then these things will start coming after that person, which leads to more walkers on the ground, more people getting caught.
So for once, I'm counting on the walkers having enough intelligence not to trip over themselves.
Seconds feel like agonizing hours, as these things shuffle along without so much as a hint of letting up, and I got to admit, even I'm feeling more and more nervous at the predicament.
It's scary, nerve wracking.
This fucking sucks.
I can see through the gaggle of walker feet and over to Amy and Jim, and Amy's got tears running down her eyes in pure terror. Jim has a hand covering her mouth, trying to keep her silent so that the dead doesn't hear her.
Come on, move!
The herd is taking way too long to pass for my liking. But… we call them walkers for a reason.
Slowly but surely, feet of the passing walkers grow less and less in numbers, the noises of their snarling is slowly quieting down as they move past us, further and further away from us.
Finally, there's nothing but silence.
But no one moves. Not a single soul.
Everyone's frozen, waiting for some kind of assurance, just to be sure, or their frozen in shock, or both. There's no sugarcoating this, it's a terrifying ordeal. Especially for everyone else. At least I know that regardless of what happens, I'm walking away from this without any problems.
The silence lingers, no one makes so much as a sound, and we're all looking at each other, making sure everyone's alright, nothing's gonna go wrong.
It seems like the herd passed.
After a few tense moments, I let a sigh of relief escape me.
The herd's past. We're safe. Everyone's gonna be-
A scream suddenly fills the air, and I can't help the horror that floods through me at the sound. Following it, are the whimpers of a terrified child, and I can tell you exactly who it is.
Sophia.
I scramble out from under the car, and stand up to my feet. The rest of the herd is far enough away that they didn't hear the scream, luckily, but that's not my prime concern right now.
I can see Sophia sliding down the bank towards the woods on the other side of the guard rail, whimpering, tears running down her eyes, absolutely terrified as two walkers pursue her.
Not Sophia. Not now.
Not ever.
I take off into a sprint, jumping over the guard rail and easily clearing the entire bank as I land onto the grassy ground and take off running towards the sounds of snarling walkers and a terrified child.
We haven't lost anyone since the quarry.
I'm not going to lose Sophia first.