I woke up a few minutes later from a bad dream that felt like it went on forever.

"Are you okay?!" Travis appeared in the train doorway looking worried.

"Me?" I asked. "I'm fine. Bad dream."

"Again?" He sighed.

I shrugged and stood up to leave the train and walk around a bit, expecting we'd be moving soon.

"Don't go too far," Ben called from the roof of the train.

I nodded and headed to the edge of the woods, closely followed by Travis.

"You're following me?" I crossed my arms.

"I'm not leaving you to go wandering off alone," he narrowed his eyes.

He followed as I walked ahead.

"Why are you going out of sight? Are you trying to run away or something?"

"I just wanted a break from everyone," I said, spotting a walker dragging itself across the floor in front of us. It had no legs, it's bottom half entirely missing.

Travis made a noise in disgust. I stood on its head and killed it. The boy looked at me as I continued walking.

"You wanted to prove yourself, didn't you?" He questioned. "You wanted to show you're not useless."

"Leave it, Trav," I warned.

"Marceline, you don't need to go risking your life by yourself like this to show them you can help out," he tried to reassure me. "Marcey?"

I kept my head down and continued walking- or limping.

"Have I done something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing you've done."

"Then speak to me," he sounded a little bit upset. "Please."

I kept my head down and marched ahead.

"Marceline!" He finally snapped, grabbing my wrist in his hand and spinning me around to talk to him. "Will you fucking listen to me? You don't have to prove yourself to anyone! If they think you can't do anything because you got shot in the goddamn leg then fuck them! Their opinions don't mean anything."

I looked away from his face and pulled my hand to get out of his grasp.

"Marcey please, please talk to me," he sounded both angry and upset, a feeling I knew well. "I don't know what I've done to make you so mad at me, or what anyone else has said that's made you like this, but you need to know that-"

"Run," I whispered, interrupting his speech.

"Run?" He shook his head in disbelief before following the direction my eyes were in.

A parade of walkers scrambled their way through the trees and toward the train track.

"Run!" I shoved his chest and we ran through the woods to warn the others. My heart raced as the train came into sight, the pain in my leg screaming out for me to stop putting pressure on it.

"Everybody move!" I yelled, hoping everyone would hear me.

"Marceline!" Travis pushed me and I fell to the side, tripping over my own feet but managing not to fall.

Travis was punching a walker in the head before running with me again. We cleared the woods and got closer to the train.

"Ben!" Travis shouted, drawing his attention.

"Guys, there's something coming," Ben told the group.

"Everybody go! Come on!" I screamed.

"We gotta go!" Ben ran up the train to collect everybody.

"Get in the train!" Travis instructed me, helping me into it as the walkers got closer. "I'm gonna help out with the tanker!"

"Travis, be careful," I said, my eyes burning into his. He nodded his head once and ran.

The tanker still hadn't been cut down, and he climbed the ladder onto the bridge quickly.

Clementine and Ben rushed into the train.

"Where's Travis?" Clem asked.

"Helping with the tanker," I replied, peeking my head out from the train to see the walkers just a short distance away from our train.

I held onto the walls quickly as the train began to move, but I could still see Lee, Omid and Travis on the bridge. The tanker had fallen and was leaking out liquid. I moved into another empty car in the train alone to see better.

We started lengthening the distance between the walkers and the train. Suddenly the liquid on the floor caught fire, which I hoped would keep some of the walkers back a bit.

We began to pass the bridge and there was a small thump on the roof. Then another. And the third sound resulted in a cry.

"Omid!"

Christa ran past the moving train, and I stuck my head out to see Omid lying on the floor and the walkers catching up. Lee lowered himself into the train with me.

Suddenly, Travis jumped from the roof of the train and aided in Omid's rescue attempt.

He helped Omid to his feet before running behind him to ensure Omid got on the train safely. Christa ran alongside them and Lee put a hand out of the train to pull them up.

Lee grabbed Omid's hand, dragging him into the train.

"No! Her, not me!" Omid cried. Christa and Travis fell back. "Christa, no!"

The man turned to Lee. "You piece of shit! She's a woman! Don't you know-"

Christa heaved herself up into the train.

"Travis!" I shouted, putting my hand out of the train.

He had wide eyes, full of panic and fear. His arm stretched out to grab mine, our fingers just reaching each other, until Lee flew to our help and Travis grabbed both of our hands. We pulled him up onto the train and he lay flat on his back, breathing heavily as I stared at him in the shock of the events.

"What an adrenaline rush," he panted, trying to get his breath back.

I giggled and punched him lightly in the arm.

Travis sat up in front of me, smiling softly.

"You're not hurt, right?"

He shook his head but looked at my leg which had begun to bleed from the running. "You on the other hand..."

"I'll be fine. I'm just glad everyone got out of that alive."

Travis put up a hand to move a stray strand of hair that had fallen over my face. Lee coughed. Travis moved backwards. I tried to ignore my face blushing as I stared at the floor.

"That was a lot of them," Christa stated.

Clementine appeared in the doorway with a concerned look on her face. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Lee answered her. "We're okay."

"Speak for yourself! My leg is fucked," Omid raised his voice.

"We're fine, Clementine. We're fine," Christa reassured strongly.


The car of the train was empty apart from Travis, Ben and I. Omid and Christa stayed in the same car they'd been in since the walker threat, and Clementine went with Lee to the front of the train where Kenny and Chuck were.

I rested my head against the wall, looking out of the train as the trees become a blur in the movement of the vehicle. My injured leg was stretched out in front of me while the other was bent upwards, my arm resting on it.

Travis was asleep opposite me, his head lolled to the side and half resting on the wall next to him. He'd been asleep for a while, and I was glad because he needed the rest. Everybody needed to sleep.

I missed the days at the motor inn. We felt safe there before the bandits became a threat. Walkers couldn't get in, we had food (most of the time), water at the start, and a warm bed to rest in. I wanted it back.

The best thing about the train was the calm of it. The constant movement without stopping made us feel like there was no danger of walkers or anything, the only problems being the ones we'd already encountered. I hoped that'd be the last of it.

Ben was silent, his head buried in his hands again and a dejected expression on his face.

"Hey," a gravelly voiced Travis greeted, awakening from his sleep.

I looked over to where he sat, a glowing smile was on his face and I returned it.

"Hi."

"Have I missed anything?" He enquired.

"Nope," I shook my head. "I think most people are just trying to sleep while Kenny and Lee keep at the controls."

Travis glanced at Ben. "You okay, bud?"

Ben faced him, frown and all. "I'm not doing anything good for the group."

"Ben-"

"No!" Ben shot before his old classmate could speak. "Don't deny it. I know everybody is thinking the same thing. All I've done is put people in danger."

"Hey," I shuffled over to where he sat and put an arm around his shoulders in a weird hug. "We all make mistakes. We can only move on from it. They're in the past now and we gain nothing from thinking about it all of the time."

Ben leaned into my hug, putting his arms back around me. Travis cleared his throat but I didn't move, despite how awkward the hug was.

"Is that Savannah?" Travis quizzed.

I released Ben from the hug and looked out of the train, a city entering my view.

"It is!" I beamed. "I came here once when I was younger for a cousin's wedding. I was a bridesmaid."

"That's really lovely," Ben told me.

I shrugged. "I fell over in my shoes during the ceremony."

The two boys chuckled.

"Only you," Travis smiled.

"I know, right?" I grinned back. "Please tell me you guys have embarrassing stories too."

Ben and Travis looked at each other.

"No!" Travis said to Ben in a threatening way when the younger boy raised an eyebrow. "Something different."

"I think Marcey will like that story," Ben smirked.

"Tell me, Ben!"

Ben nodded his head.

"Okay so at a homecoming dance, Travis went with this really popular girl, Becky Adams. She was like... Regina George."

"She wasn't that bad," Travis defended.

Ben raised an eyebrow but moved on. "Anyway, so Travis was a little bit ill on that day, but knew he couldn't just not go. Becky had this light pink dress on, brand new and amazing. Travis drank some punch to try and ignore how bad he felt. There was dancing, obviously, and people were watching them because Becky was so admired, but-"

"Long story short, I threw up on her," Travis groaned.

My hands flew to my mouth and I desperately tried not to laugh. "Oh my God."

"The dress was ruined and Becky never spoke to him again. It was the highlight of homecoming," Ben began to laugh.

I joined in.

"It was so embarrassing," Travis hid his face behind his hands although there was still laughing from him.

"I don't really blame her for not talking to you again," I giggled.

Travis removed his hands from his face, which had now turned a shade of pink itself, and shook his head.

"Aww, you're blushing," I highlighted, making his face even more red.

"You're the same colour as the punch bowl from the dance," Ben joined in.

Travis punched his arm. "You guys are so mean."

I gave Travis a cheesy grin. "You're too cute. A cat called Petal and you blush the colour of a tomato."

"Shut up," he hid his face again while Ben and I laughed as the train sped into the city we hoped would provide us with a boat for safety.