Chapter 11 "Stranger Road"

Day 22

As usual these days, very few people were getting any sleep. Lyrik, Otis, and Shawn were the only ones who got regular sleep tonight, not waking up at all throughout the night. Robert was constantly waking up throughout the night, being awoken by nightmares and noises he was probably imagining. Looking across the room, Lyrik seemed peaceful, and that was horrifying to Robert. It seemed so out-of-place, so unnatural. He grabbed his new machete and walked to Lyrik's bed slowly, and quietly. He held his breath as he reached out a hand to touch her neck for a pulse, his other hand drawn back, ready to swing. He pressed three fingers against her neck and felt nothing, and he panicked for a moment, before he finally felt another heartbeat, and another a while later. She was fine. Robert ran his hand across his face and sighed. He felt so stupid. He went back across the room and fell down, lying back in his bed, and he drifted back to sleep, hoping he could finally rest.

Hershel was having an equally difficult time sleeping, for the same reasons. So many things were going through his head, and he knew that soon another of his family would be dead. Things were getting stressful, and there was no way of making it any better. He was staring up at the ceiling, and he felt compelled to speak aloud. Not to himself, but to his wife. He felt as though she were lying next to him, as she had for the last seventeen years. As if she were there for him, as she always had been, to help him. Give him advice, tell him everything was going to be okay. Hershel could feel tears coming, but he fought them back. He sat up, accepting that he wasn't going to get any rest tonight, and grabbed his Bible off of his bed stand. If anything could keep him level-headed, keep his mind off of sad things, it was the good book.

After reading a few pages, and as the sun started to rise, he began hearing some very faint noises outside of his room. He assumed that it was just someone getting up to go to another person's room, or perhaps for water, but he wasn't going to take any chances. He grabbed his rifle and got up to check it. He stepped lightly to his door, and opened it as quietly as possible, which wasn't very, as the door creaked open loudly in the quiet of the night, like a shotgun in an open field. Looking around, no one was in the hall, and he began to head towards the living room when the sounds started again, this time a bit louder. They were coming from deeper in the hallway. He started his way back down, listening carefully for the source. He made it to the end of the hall and realized that the faint sounds were coming from Arnold's room. Hershel drew in a deep breath, expecting to find Arnold's body, a knife shoved into his head, and Lee sobbing over his body. Instead, he was met with nearly the opposite. Lee was on the chair Hershel had sat in, dead, blood pouring out of his mouth and neck, his weapons still in their holsters. Arnold was on him, eating into his body, a rabid animal. Arnold's focus is then turned to Hershel, who quickly slams the door closed, panicking.

On the opposite end of the hall, Seth turns the corner and enters the bedrooms hallway. He sees Hershel looking into Arnold's room, and he was about to call out when Hershel slams the door in panic. He locks eyes with Seth, and he motions him to come over quietly. At the slam, Patricia and Robert peek their heads out of their respective rooms, and Hershel whisper-yells at them to get back in their rooms and make sure that they're secure.

When Patricia and Robert finally closed their doors, Seth was beside Hershel and he asked what was going when a thud hit the door. Arnold had thrown himself against it, searching for Hershel, craving his flesh. Seth desperately looked to Hershel, realizing what had happened. "Is that..?" he said to Hershel, his voice shaking. "Where's Lee?"

Hershel looked back and forth between Seth's eyes and his chest, seeing it rise and lower more and more rapid as time went by, and as he got more upset. "I'm sorry," was all Hershel could say. Then, Seth busted through the door, and raised his gun, hitting Arnold in the face, sending him backwards a few feet. Horrified at Seth's sudden, impulsive movement, Hershel hurriedly lifted his gun and shot Arnold dead. Seth quickly noticed the wretched, disgusting mess of organs and blood lying in the chair. Lee's corpse was sitting there, collapsed in on itself, and his eyes were opening, and he was reanimating. Seth gasped and lowered his gun. Hershel noticed and raised his gun to put him down, thinking that Seth was in too much trauma to do it, but Seth put a hand on Hershel's arm. He looked to the older man and nodded. Seth slowly raised his gun and aimed it at Lee's head. Lee's undead eyes stared back at Seth, almost challenging him to pull the trigger. A single tear rolled down Seth's cheek and he shot.

It was dead quiet for two whole minutes, people coming out of their rooms with weapons ready, expecting walkers. They saw Hershel and Seth in the doorway, and they lowered their weapons, and gathered around the room, wordlessly taking in the scene ripped straight from a gory horror movie.

After the silence, everyone had departed to their rooms to pack. There was no way they were going to stay here any more. The tragedies they suffered in such a short time in Albertville were too great, and staying would feel like torture, constant reminders everywhere.

A funeral was held at noon, and Arnold and Lee's bodies were taken to the back yard and buried next to where the young walker was buried by Seth. They planned to leave right after, so everyone was holding their bags and weapons, ready to go when it was all over. Again, Hershel headed the funeral. Once again, coincidentally, it was a funeral with one of his beloved relatives, and the equivalent of a stranger. No one spoke other than Hershel, who said the same thing he said at the last funeral, with an added, "You will never be forgotten. We love you Arnold." Seth seemed like he was going to speak, but decided against it.

They turned away from the graves, and went into their cars. The Greenes plus Patricia and Otis got into the van, and Robert, Lyrik, and Seth's people got into the white car, leaving the blue car behind, though the leftover gas was siphoned out. They drove off, headed westward. As they were driving, a voice came over the radio, though it was hard to understand what it was saying through the static. "Anyone.. Nash-.. It's.. go.. Nashville." Shawn looked to Hershel, and they turned from going west on the road and went north, headed for Nashville.

They made it into a watery town about thirty minutes after departing. Lyrik was the only one who paid attention to the sign that they passed when entering city limits, and according to her, the name of the town was Guntersville. "There's too damn many 'Villes around here," Seth said in response. "We need to get out of the south." The town was like an island, or more accurately a peninsula. There were many large bridges spanning across a large lake surrounding it, and in order to get off the peninsula, they had no choice but to turn around and take a very gas-guzzling detour, or cross one of the bridges. This wouldn't be a problem, as the bridges seem very sturdy, but three of the four bridges are quite thin and are scary to many of the passengers. The largest one heads directly north, just as they are planning to go, but there are many cars cluttering the way through. They decided to just go to the north one, get out, and clear a path.

They went as far into the mass of cars as they could, weaving between trucks and SUVs carefully, before they had to stop and make a path. Otis, Seth, and Shawn got out to push other vehicles. Seeing them out there as the only ones capable of pushing really hammered in how big the loss of Lee and Arnold was. If they were still here, they'd be able to help, was a thought going through nearly everyone's heads.

The three got a van out of the way, which allowed for Hershel and Jessie, who had taken over driving for Seth, to move deeper through the jam. As Seth, Otis, and Shawn turned around to follow the cars and unhinge the next obstacle, a voice behind them shouted, "Freeze!"

Seth whispered under his breath, "Fuck," and they stopped and lifted their hands compliantly.

"Good," the voice said. It was clearly a male's. "Now, put your weapons down. All of them."

Angrily, Seth reached down for his gun and threw it to his feet. Shawn and Otis did the same.

"If that's not it, I'm not afraid to shoot," a woman's voice said.

"Turn around," the man said.

The three turned around, finally able to get a look at the menaces. The man didn't look nearly as tough as he sounded, and was quite thin; very little muscle mass. The woman looked even weaker, holding a gun that looked way too big for her. It appeared to be a fully automatic machine gun, which was quite intimidating to the boys. She had thin, blonde hair up in a bun, and her body was just as thin. She was wearing clothes that seemed to be too big for her, obviously having gone hungry recently.

"We don't want to hurt you," said the woman.

"We don't want to hurt you," echoed Seth cockily.

"Look, we're not here to kill you, or anyone with you. We will. But that's only if you don't listen to us," the man said, a tinge of fear running through his eyes. He knew he and the woman beside him were greatly outnumbered, but they knew what they needed and wanted, and it seems like they were desperate enough to risk dying for it. "We just need some food. A little fuel, medical supplies, ammo, weapons. Anything that could help."

Seth smiled at them. "Oh, so you're just nice people looking for help? Yeah, sure. That's exactly why you drew guns on us and are threatening me and my people, huh? 'Cause you're just lovely folks who need some sugar." He scoffed at them and quickly grabbed his gun and shot it at the woman, trying to take down the one with the most dangerous weapon, but she dodged it and hid behind a car. The man hid behind another car in the opposite direction, and he began firing it back at Seth, Shawn, and Otis, and they all took cover behind a van. The woman behind the car threw her gun to the ground and cussed, peeking over to make sure that her friend was okay. Luckily for them, they both were unscathed, though deathly scared.

Inside the cars, people were ducking, covering their heads, doing their best to stay out of the windows. The smallest people and those in the front seats tried cramming themselves in the floorboards, and many people would occasionally peek up to see what was happening, like Jessie, Lyrik, Beth, and Patricia.

Then, unexpectedly, a very high voice yelled, "Stop!" The gunfire instantly stopped because it sounded almost like a child's. It was a child's. A small white boy with light brown hair exited an RV they had weaved past back down the pile up, and ran for the blonde woman. "Sierra!" he said as he ran to hug her. Sierra quickly grabbed him and pulled him into cover behind her car, scorning him.

"Ron, damn it, didn't I tell you to stay in the RV! It's too dangerous out here. Fuck!" she said and looked across the way to the man. He groaned and frustratedly threw his head back. He raised his hands, and Sierra sighed and did the same. Ron raised his hands as well, as a child might do, and Sierra gave him a dirty look.

Seth squinted at the young boy, keeping his gun raised and he thought he had seen a ghost. He was about to yell back to the cars, but it would have been too late. Jessie had gotten out of her seat and ran for the boy, hysterically screaming, "Ron! My baby, Ron!"

Everyone aside from Seth looked on quizzically, either out of disbelief or confusion. Ron ran past Sierra, who was in shock and let him pass without thinking. She snapped back into reality and chased after Ron, not wanting him to be deceived and hurt. The man looked like he was about to cry, both of joy, and of a twinge of sadness that he may no longer be Ron's guardian. Jessie and Ron were now hugging in the middle of the road, Sierra feet behind them, awkwardly watching them hug, looking stunned. They hugged for what felt like an eternity, crying and whispering "I love you," to each other.

They finally pulled apart from one another and looked into each other's eyes. Reality painted itself back into view, and the stood. Ron waved his hand, gesturing for the man to come over. "Mommy, these are my friends. They helped me out, and took care of me. That's Sierra," he said pointing to the blonde, who awkwardly smiled at Jessie, "and that's Xavier." The man mirrored Sierra's expression and waved.

Jessie smiled genuinely back at them, seemingly already forgetting that they held her friends up at gunpoint. She shook their hands and with a big smile, couldn't stop saying, "Thank you so much. Thank you, really, thank you, you have no idea how much this means to me."

"Of course, Ms. Anderson," Xavier said in return.

"Oh, please, really? Just call me Jessie," she said, smilingly warmly. Sierra smiled back, things not getting any less awkward.

Ron looked up at his mother with desperate eyes and plead, "Mommy, can we please come with you?"

Jessie turned around to look at Seth, who shrugged. Seth turned around as well, to look to Hershel, who looked absolutely dumbfounded. He exited the van and got a good look at them. He bent down to the young boy, looked back up to Sierra and Xavier, and asked the boy, "Do you think these people are good people?"

"Yes, sir," the small boy tweeted.

"How do you know them?"

"When that one building in Atlantica g-"

"Atlanta," Jessie and Sierra said at the same time to correct Ron, and looked to one another slightly stunned.

"Yeah!" Ron said, smiling that they both helped him. "Well, when it got destroyed, Sierra and Xavier were there watching over me and my friends, Ethan, Lila, Nellie, Louis, and Eliza. But I don't know what happened to them. These two other guys were with us, but they got bit…" Ron trailed off.

A few shots then rang with no warning as Seth and Otis had taken down a few stray walkers that were attracted to the gunfire from moments before.

Hershel nodded solemnly to Ron, realizing how awful this world must be to children. "So, young man. You trust them?"

Ron nodded happily. "Yes, sir. I promise," he said, pointing his pinky at the elderly man.

Hershel smiled and put his pinky out, accepting the promise. He looked to the two behind the boy and jokingly said, "Well, the man here says you're all good," and he smiled at them. "You're comin' with us."

Sierra and Xavier smiled to each other and Xavier tousled Ron's hair, who looked giddy. Ron led Jessie and the two back to the RV, and said, "Look mom, come see my room." Sierra and Xavier had obviously been taking turns sleeping on the floor and the couch of the trailer, and they had given Ron the back room for himself.

Hershel and Shawn came up to them a few moments later, and they discussed how they would leave this place. Hershel said that they spotted another RV a bit in front of where he had parked when they stopped the three they had out pushing, and that they could put all of their gas, plus gas from other cars in the pile up, into the two RVs and leave in those; but to do that, room would have to be made in their RV. Sierra and Xavier looked glumly down to Ron, knowing he would now have to give up, or at least share, his bed. Ron spoke up, "Okay. Mommy, Sierra, Xavier, and I can sleep in that bed!"

Sierra looked to Jessie, who smiled at her. "That sounds fine to me, dear," Jessie told Ron. Xavier and Sierra looked to one another awkwardly.

Now, the group would be traveling in the two RVs. Jessie, Ron, Sierra, and Xavier stayed in Xavier's RV, while Hershel, Maggie, and Beth stayed in the other, and everyone else shuffled in between.