Philip woke to the sound of soft snores on either side of him; his vision was blurry from his sleep but became clear after a few blinks. The sun was what he was met with first; it was clear and the breeze felt nice. He heard birds mingled with trees and their leaves going about in the wind.
It was peaceful, almost peaceful enough he could have forgotten everything that had happened the past two days. The running, the corpses, and the downfall of everything he thought he knew.
Now it was just the four of them, huddling in a musty old structure. No car and little to no hope left in them.
He let a slow breath out, taking a moment to enjoy the peace for a few more minutes. He looked down to his daughter on his right, her small form slept peacefully as if she had nothing to worry about. Like nothing had ever happened. He ran a hand down the back of her head, smoothing out her brown hair. He wrapped his arm around in a protective and loving way.
He worried for her and was determined to protect her through this all.
On his left he felt a small movement; he looked to see Milton curled up right next to him. His head rested against his arm, his sandy blonde hair askew and stuck to his forehead. His face was flushed; Philip noticed radiant warmth from him.
He wasn't sure what it was but he let it go as Milton adjusted slightly letting his face mash against his arm now. His limbs managed to get into awkward positions, and Philip couldn't help but let a small laugh slip. His friend looked ridiculous and couldn't understand how he kept that position.
Philip let his head press against the cold wall; he closed his eyes and just let himself relax a little longer with his most loved ones. There wouldn't be a lot of moments like these anymore of just pure bliss with people he cared for. He would let himself indulge until they woke.
A few moments passed before Philip could hear footsteps coming from below them, he opened his eyes and listened closer, it wasn't shuffling so it couldn't be a biter. It must be Dan He thought as he thought back, he hadn't noticed Dan earlier.
It's when he heard the voices of other people and more footsteps. Philips eyes widened.
"Hey Philip, wanna just pop your head out for a minute?" Dan's voice called out, Philip wiggled out of the two and came to the edge of the wall.
He was surprised to see a few people below, about 5 of them all stared back up at him; he looked to Dan who smirked at him.
"I took it upon myself to go looking for a route and see if it was safe, found these guys on the way." Dan gestured back to them, Philip redirected his gaze to them; they practically looked just as worn as he felt. He smiled slightly as he waved down, he was glad to know there were more.
"One of them has an idea of how to get outta here, wanna come down and give it a listen, might be on to something." Philip looked back to Dan who looked proud that he had managed to bring back people and a potential plan. He was grateful for once that Dan had actually managed to benefit them all instead of himself.
He crawled back a few inches to tap Milton on the shoulder, "Hey, wake up…" Milton grunted softly before letting his eyes flutter open, he couldn't help but squint as he looked up, the invasion of light to his eyes so soon didn't settle well.
"What?" His reply was carried out as he yawned; he looked around before he froze. He, like Philip, had temporally forgotten the circumstances. Milton's face fell to disappointment, looking back up and the look he gave told him to dismiss what he had just asked.
"Head down there, Dan's got something. I'll be down in a minute." Philip patted him on the shoulder before turning to Penny. He rubbed her shoulder and began talking sweetly to wake her.
Milton stretched out his cramped limbs before he began making his way down to the center of the structure. He stopped to note the new faces; he didn't know how to feel about it entirely. Should he feel glad there are now new people or should he be concerned for the potential danger this could have.
New people did however mean extra hands, help, and ground cover. But at the same time it included, more supplies, getting along, which ones to trust. Milton could start to feel his guard come up instinctively, more to do with the fact he just wasn't used to social interaction.
Milton dismissed it, settling on the positives, and there was definitely a need for more people. They were going to need more than just Dan now that they had no car and little supplies.
Philip soon joined them with Penny in his arms, face buried in the crook of his neck. He looked to Dan waiting for the 'plan' one of the new groupies had; Dan merely gestured to one of the men to come forward.
He looked to be around mid-twenties and hard; the type you didn't give funny looks for fear of your own safety. Looking Philip up and down he made a low hum to himself before outstretching a hand to him, "Martinez," Shaking hands with the new comer he then pointed to the piece of paper in the other hand, "Philip, that's your plan there?"
Martinez cleared his throat as he brought the paper up and fanned it out for them all to see; on it was a map of the area with drawings identifying areas with words like 'dead' 'empty' 'clear' 'danger' 'safe house', all signifying where they had been and what they had heard last. It was astonishing that within 2 days there were this many places infected.
He pointed to an area with a large red line circling it, "We passed by this a day ago, it's close by but those things were scattered around it. But also has vehicles that have been ditched…"
"Obviously you're aiming for the cars, but what about the freaks?" Dan cut him off giving him a questioning look; he was suggesting going to an area surrounded by the dead… It didn't seem to make sense to him.
Martinez merely shot him an annoyed look before completely dismissing what he asked and continued, "Up ahead a few miles is a small town that was mentioned to have a small evac station, but shortly abandoned after things went south very quickly."
"What's your point?" Dan was becoming irritated with the man's avoidance of his actual plan, he knew he had a plan but he didn't think it would sound this ridiculous.
"So it's empty?" Philip cut into the conversation before the two would go at it, he already could tell that the two will be butting heads quite a bit as both seemed to be annoyed easily by each other. 'It hasn't even been 5 minutes…' he shook his head lightly as he saw them still glaring intently at each other.
Martinez finally looked to Philip and nodded, "Yea, all we need to do is get into teams here, and snag a car for each group, at least 3 or 4 and head to this town."
"For what though, shouldn't be getting to a working evac station be more important to getting to an abandoned town?" Philip now looked confused, but was at least being more direct and polite as he asked. He wasn't understanding the man's motives for going to this town, the cars was logical enough because that meant less walking and being able to pack more supplies.
As for going to an empty town sounded ridiculous as there wouldn't be anybody there to help. What they needed was a safe house with other survivors and medical treatment, somewhere working on a cure.
"I think I understand what he means." All three men froze to look to the fourth voice that had almost been forgotten; Milton had been listening while working through the plan himself. "Look at everything that has happened in 24 hours, cities are being bombed, people are being shot and turning, everywhere we go is dangerous and filled with those things."
He paused to look around making sure he had everyone's attention still before continuing, "Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think he means we might as well hold up in a place we can make safe for ourselves. Think about it, would you rather have a building that we can reinforce? Or risk everyone's lives for an evac station we don't know that's still working."
Martinez pointed to Milton, "Exactly,"
Philip gave it a minute to sink in, he thought of what Milton had said and he was beginning to realize that he was right. If they kept looking for an evac station, it would mean everyone's life was at risk because the number of dead rising was too much for just nine people. Especially Penny, she was too little, he couldn't leave her for those things.
Philip nodded, adjusting Penny in his arms before looking at Martinez, "When do we start?"