Chapter 32 "Back"
Day 93; Group C
After the herd that passed through last night, and the loss of Ryan and Oscar, the group was very shaken up. They were unsure of nearly everything. They didn't know what to do, where to go, what to think, who to turn to, or even what anything meant anymore. Lost and confused, no one willing to step up the plate, Sierra stood before them and declared herself the leader.
It was a bit shocking, seeing her pull herself from the sidelines and thrust herself into a position of power. It wasn't entirely unexpected that she would one day go on to lead them, but they much more expected it to be Xavier. He had always been the more talkative, leaderly of the two. They even assumed he was the leader when it was just he, her, and Ron.
"Any objections?" she demanded. No one spoke up. Xavier fidgeted, but Kelly tightened her grip around his arm, and he decided it would be best to not focus his attention into two places; love and leadership. No one was upset about her taking leadership, either. They were lost, and they definitely needed guidance. Sierra was a good, strong person. She handled the deaths of Ryan and Oscar well, and was definitely capable of keeping them safe, they thought. Asking for a leader better than she at this time would be impossible madness.
She nodded her head, and led them downstairs. It was a wreck. The front door had been torn off of its hinges and a few walkers were meandering about inside of the house and growled, making their way forward, when they took notice of the group. Sierra looked to Xavier, Gabriel, and Otis, and they quickly put them all down.
They exited the building and the herd was nowhere in sight. Looking to her watch, Sierra saw that it was about 6:00 A.M.
"So, what do you think we should do?" Gabriel asked the new leader.
"We could do two things. We could move on, or we could go back."
"Go back?" Kelly questioned. "Like, to the house?"
"Yeah," Sierra said, "the herd went the opposite way, so we can head back there and get any supplies that are left. If it's in good enough condition, though I don't think that uh…" Sierra said, looking to the house they had been in last night. "If it's still livable, though, we could pick up where we left off. If that seems like a good idea… Or, we could go back just for a car we left."
"What if we just move on?" Shakira asked, looking badly shaken up. Losing Oscar was definitely not a fun experience for her. Her best friend was now gone. And it all could have been so easily prevented.
"Well, then we could follow the herd, but I don't think that's smart. Or we could go east or west. Start looking for everybody. Or, maybe just...you know. Keep surviving. Get back out there and maybe find a new place to stay."
"So, what? Are we going to do whatever you say?"
"No. Not with something like this. For decisions like this, we're a democracy. So we vote. Raise your hand if you think we should head back."
Everyone looked among themselves. Kelly was the first to raise her hand, hoping that maybe Patti did make it, since the only 'witness' to her death was Oscar. Gabriel, Amanda, and Otis followed, then Xavier hesitantly did, as well.
"All opposed?" Sierra asked as she rose her own hand, and Shakira did, too. Clearly outnumbered, the blonde nodded to the Spanish girl consolingly. "We're movin' out, then. Let's go."
They had been walking for hours, headed back north. Sierra led them through the strangely quiet forest. There had been no walkers at all in the three hours they walked, and it seemed odd. The only thing they found were the corpses of walkers they had put down previously.
"So, you think all the stray walkers joined up in that herd?" Gabriel asked to anyone who would answer.
"That's how herds are formed," Xavier stated. "I'd assume they did. Makes things easier for us, though, doesn't it?"
Gabriel made a faint chuckle. "I guess so, yeah."
After a few more hours of walking, and after a few more breaks, Kelly decided. She looked back in the direction they had been walking from, towards the house they had stayed the night in. She grabbed Xavier's hand, which took him off guard.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
"I don't want to be afraid to be alive," she told him.
He made a very confused face. "Uh…"
"I want to be with you. If you still want us to be together, I'm there."
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I could ever be," she said and stopped, standing on her tip-toes to kiss him on the lips.
Gabriel, Otis, and Amanda smiled and made whistling sounds as they passed by, and Xavier and Kelly grinned into their kiss, and they pulled away from each other smiling. Kelly gripped his hand once more, and they continued walking.
They made it to the river just south of the house and could see the second house from there. The three vehicles were still there, including one of the gas cans they had dropped when the herd got too close and they were forced to flee. It was half-full; Gabriel shoved it into his bag to use later.
Sierra checked her watch as they finally got a good look at the ruined house. It was 11:08 A.M. The house looked terrible, blood and corpses everywhere. Everything was dirty and trampled, and doors and windows were broken. The front door was off of its hinges, lying in the living room where it once stood. The garden was a mess, and nothing was left aside from scattered gardening supplies and dead plants, which made Otis put a hand over his mouth, thinking about what could have happened to Patricia.
"Patricia definitely made it out," Kelly said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"How would you know that?" Otis said, staring at the calamity before him.
"Because the RV's gone," she smiled. "They made it."
They didn't want to speak up, but many of the group saw the flaw in that logic. They could have all perished and any poor fool could have come up and stole the RV, unaware of anything that had happened.
Inside, it was completely looted, and there were no supplies. There were walkers that had been put down all over the floor. Clearly, someone had been here after the herd.
"Fuckin' looters," Xavier said, pissed that they had come all the way back in search of something, but ended up with absolutely nothing.
"Could be the group we sent out to scavenge," Sierra stated. "May have come back, didn't know what happened, grabbed up what they could, and now they're...well, doing something. Could be searching for us. May have just given up and moved on. Found new people."
"I don't think Shawn, Selenis, and Robert would just give up like that," Gabriel said. "If they're out there, they're looking for us."
"If they're looking for us, we should stay here," Kelly suggested. "Wait for them."
"Are you kidding?" Otis said, giving her a look as though she were stupid. "A, we can't stay here. Look at this place! We ain't gonna make it here like this. B, why would they come back? Why would they consider coming back? The state of this place, they wouldn't think anybody'd come back an' fix it back up. I don't know 'bout y'all, but I'm not stayin' here. We need to go."
"And do what?" Sierra asked calmly.
"Survive! This, this here," he gestured to the wreck of a room they were standing in, "ain't survivin'. I say we start lookin' for everyone."
"And where do you suggest we start?"
"Anywhere but here! We could head out towards Bunker, maybe. Start lookin' around everywhere, all the towns 'round here."
Sierra lifted a brow. "Otis, we don't even have a car. We made it here on foot. We can't be out in the woods, exposed to god knows what, forever."
"Then we find a car. We keep moving until we get a good vehicle or two and we get out there."
Sierra looked around the room, hoping to have someone back her up, but no one would meet her eyes, and some were pursing their lips or looking off into the distance, avoiding conflict. Cowards, she thought to herself. "Okay, Otis… I want to find everybody just as badly as anyone else, but going out there, running around blindly, and clinging desperately to the hope that someone made it out alive from this, is…" she paused to consider her words — stupid, idiotic, nonsensical, suicidal — "risky. We have no fuel, no cars, nothing to go on… On top of that, we have no food, only a bit of water left."
"So your idea is to stay here?" he asked angrily. "For how long? I'm not staying here for any longer than today, and I fuckin' mean it."
The blonde sighed. "Alright. I get it. We aren't staying here. We need to stay here for at least a little bit, though. Get some more water, scavenge for a bit more food. Then we'll go see about getting one of those cars out there working. Maybe head to Salem. But Otis, I'm done arguing. The bottom line is: our priority is surviving. If we run out of water but find Mika's doll on the road, we need to be more concerned about getting water. We can't just take off and load up, combing that road until our mouths are dry."
"And if we hear a scream?"
"That's different. That's more immediate. If we hear a scream, see one of them, anything like that, then we'll go and find them — help them if they need it." Otis nodded. "So you got it?" she asked, and turned to everyone else. "Does that sound good to all of you?" A few people nodded, and Sierra clarified what she meant, hoping more people would agree: "We leave before sunset, start looking for everyone. But that's not our main mission. Our biggest worry should be making sure that we have enough food to go around. That we're sleeping somewhere safe, and preferably warm."
Everyone agreed eventually, and Sierra was pleased that the closest thing she got to a disagreement was Shakira sadly nodding her head. The plan was set, and they got going. They loaded into a car, which was the spaciest option between a small pickup truck and another, more cramped car. Otis and Gabriel sat up front, hoping to give more space to everyone else as they were the largest. Shakira sat in Amanda's lap, and Kelly sat in Xavier's, both of which got window seats as Sierra sat in the center, a clear view out of the windshield.
They drove northward, and into Salem, where the group that had been out scavenging was when the herd hit. The sun was too close to setting, so they pulled over at the nicest house they could find, stretched, and cleared it out to sleep in for the night.