Chapter 23 "Groceries"
Day 90; Group B
Shawn drove down the road, headed towards Salem. They had just left the safety of the house to go look for more supplies. They weren't in desperate need for supplies, but the more they got the better. "It never hurts to stockpile," Ryan had said about the trip a while back. He's the reason for this whole trip, and he ain't even here, Shawn angrily realized.
In the passenger seat was Seth, who was pretty much his best friend these days. In the back of the RV, Robert sat at the table with Selenis and Greyson, while Daniel was in the bathroom.
"I wish we had some more of that fish," Selenis said. "Made a terrific breakfast."
"Seriously," Robert replied. "Maybe we can find another lake somewhere that hasn't had dead people crawling all around in it."
"Doubt it," Shawn said from the front seat.
"Just be thankful we got any meat at all," Seth added. Everyone nodded their heads, slightly upset that would likely be their last meal of protein for a long time, and they remained silent for a few moments, thinking to themselves.
"I'm so tired," Greyson said after a while, putting his head down on the table.
"Well, then why'd you come?" Robert questioned.
"Because I promised Ryan I would."
"Well, he promised he would come. You don't always have to do what he says, you know."
"He's my leader."
"Not anymore."
Greyson raised his head slightly to meet Robert's eyes. "He's still my leader, Robert. Shawn may be yours, but Ryan is mine."
Robert began laughing. "So, Ryan's yours? All yours?"
Selenis burst into a laugh as well, and a smile crept across Seth and Shawn's faces, who were listening in. Greyson's eyes widened, slightly embarrassed. "You know what I meant, you weirdo."
"Hey, I'm not judging you here," Robert stated, putting his hands up, smiling widely. Greyson couldn't take his eyes off of Robert's smile. Big and goofy, happy and warm. Stop, he thought, forcing himself to look out the window before Robert spoke again. "If you're into Ryan, that's cool," Robert continued and paused to admire Greyson. From the side, with the morning sun shining on his face from the light outside, he looked like a gorgeous painting. Like something he had only dreamed up. Absolutely gorgeous. "Just don't get too attached. 'Cause I want me some lovin', too," Robert cooed, pulling himself closer to the boy across the table and puckering up his lips, and the freckled boy began to blush and feigned annoyance, keeping his eyes focused on outside the window as he made a frustrated face. He did a good job, though, because everyone truly believed that he was annoyed and upset, only Robert really noticing the blush.
Selenis nudged Robert's shoulder, signalling him to stop. Shawn wanted badly to speak up, but though it would be funny, it would only make Greyson feel more uncomfortable, so he decided to simply smile and keep it to himself. Daniel exited the restroom and was going to sit down at the table with everyone else until he saw Robert making kissy-faces to Greyson. He stopped himself and acted like he needed something from his bag, subtly using an excuse to retreat to the bedroom in the back.
Robert noticed. He winked to Selenis, who smiled and began talking to Greyson, causing him to finally pull his eyes from outside of the window. When Robert felt that they had a strong conversation going, he pretended as though he had to use the bathroom and went to the bedroom, where he saw Daniel lying face-down on the bed. Robert closed the door, which caused Daniel to jolt upright at the noise. When he saw it was the younger boy, he rolled his eyes and grunted, "No."
"Shut up," Robert said defiantly, crossing his arms. "You need to pull yourself together if you want to stay in the closet."
"Who said I wanted to?" Daniel said into the pillow.
"You did, you asshole!" Robert yelled. "That's the whole reason we're not together."
Daniel turned himself over, a harsh face of rage as he put a finger to his lips, telling Robert to be quiet, causing the teen to roll his eyes. "That's not true," Daniel said. "The whole reason we're not together is because you can't respect my decisions."
"Because your decisions are stupid!" Robert said, getting extremely angry. "You're doing this because you think it makes you look weak. Because you think it is weak. No one around here judges me for being gay! No one! According to not only Selenis, but also Shawn, Seth, Patricia, Beth, Sierra, Xavier, and just about anybody, I am a valued member of this group. Sure, we may meet people who will judge me, but the people around us aren't like that."
"Ryan is," Daniel said.
"Ryan's not here. What is it with you and Greyson? Why do you two need his approval so much? Need to always be his right-hand-man?"
"He's a good leader, that's why. He's done his best to keep us together, keep us strong. You have no idea about the things he's done for us."
"Well, our old leader Hershel did great things for us, but he understood if you wanted to change your mind about going on a run. If you didn't want to be around a certain person for any reason. If you were gay!"
"Robert, this isn't about Ryan. This is about us."
"Right. Let's talk about us, then. If you won't come out, then this won't work. It's hard enough to not breathe in another person's breath, how cramped and crowded we all are, but you expect you and I to be able to just run off and be in love? To not openly show how much we care for each other unless it's in the middle of the woods at three in the morning? No, Dan. That's not what's going to happen here. This life is too damn short for me to only get appreciation and love in the dark. So make your choice. Right now. Come out to everyone, or move on."
Moments later, Robert exited the bedroom and headed straight for the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and splashed water onto his face. Get yourself together. He was doing his best to hold back tears and rage. He was furious and sad. When he finally thought he looked better, he peed, flushed the toilet, and left the bathroom as if he had been in there the whole time.
Greyson's head was on the table again. Apparently, he and Selenis's conversation had ended, and he was getting some much-needed sleep. He sat down back where he was, right next to Selenis. "So?" she asked.
"No," Robert said quietly, looking down at the table until his eyes met Greyson's hands, gently wrapped around his head. "He said no."
They had a fairly successful, uneventful run. They found much less than they expected in the grocery store, the only thing close to food being more seeds, candy, sodas, and a large array of rotten foods. "No groceries to bring home to mama," Shawn commented. There were a few bottles of medicine and firestarters. They got luckiest, though, when they found an abandoned tanker that was transporting fuel crashed head-first into a house. The entirety of the vehicle seemed to be fine, so it was quite likely that the fuel had burned up or exploded. Though it was a bit confusing to figure out how the tanker expelled fuel at first, they siphoned out all that they could, putting most into the RV, and everything else fit into five red jugs.
They headed on their way back home after nearly three hours of scavenging. This time, Robert was driving while everyone else sat at the table.
"That tanker, though, man," Seth said.
"I know," Shawn said. "Who ever crashed that was a dumbass."
"But also a blessing," Selenis added.
"Well, not for the driver," Daniel smiled, trying to make a joke. "It's just a blessing that none of it was taken."
"You don't think we stole that, do you?" Seth questioned. "Like, the dude that crashed it was still alive and gonna come back for it?"
"That's not our problem," Shawn said.
"It could be, Shawn. You of all people should remember what happened the last time one of us unknowingly stole from someone," the buff man said, reminding Shawn of how they lost the farm.
The Greene boy frowned and shook his head. "Well," he grinned, "we're prepared this time. They want to get revenge, let 'em."
Seth rolled his eyes. "You're going to be the death of us."
The RV suddenly halted to a stop, taking everyone off guard. "What are you doing?!" Daniel yelled.
"Shut up!" Robert whisper-yelled. "If you would look first, you'd see what I see," Robert said, pointing to a herd of walkers visible through the windshield.
"Wait, that's not," Seth said, his voice trailing as he realized where it was going.
"It's headed towards the house," Selenis whispered, sounding horrified.
"It hasn't noticed us," Shawn said. "Keep going. Just drive slowly and they won't notice we're moving. They'll probably just think they're not walking or something."
"Excuse me?!" Robert exclaimed. "They're dumb, but I'm not suicidal."
"Exactly," Selenis added. "We don't know if that would work. And if it doesn't, we couldn't turn around without being buried in the herd. Road's too narrow."
"Well, what do we do?" Greyson asked.
"We leave," Robert replied.
"Okay, we need to be safe, but I'm not abandoning those people," Seth said, annoyed.
"Yeah, my sister's in there!" Shawn exclaimed.
"I'm not abandoning them either. We're going to slowly back out of here before the walkers notice us, wait it out, and when it clears we'll come back. Help any survivors. If there's none, then someone had to have made it out. We'll search. Follow any tracks we find. We're not leaving them, no matter what."
Shawn looked to Robert, slightly stunned. "You know I'm the leader, right?"
"I sure as hell didn't vote for you," Robert said, throwing the RV into reverse. Selenis, Greyson, and Seth smiled at this. Robert's idea wasn't bad, and Shawn needed to be put in his place. Yet again. They made it out of sight of the herd before Robert made a U-turn and went back to the old house, where they would lay low and wait out the herd.