Chapter 39: "Terminus"
Day 97; Group C
The group had been on the road for days, wandering from building to building in town to town. No place seemed to be very suitable as a permanent home, despite the numerous places they had been through. The places they had found were either too crowded with walkers, too compact with buildings, too secluded from resources they needed, or unstable as a home, such as having large holes or broken windows or doors in them.
On top of it all, a few of the members of the group were unsure of settling down, hoping to find everyone else in the group. Otis and Amanda wanted to stay out on the road, and start hunting down their lost friends and family. There was little chance of finding them, but hopefully they could be out there somewhere.
Kelly and Amanda sat in the back as everyone else, including Steve, their captive, slept as best they could down the bumpy road. Amanda was finding it hard to get rest, uncertain about everything she was doing and that was going on around her now.
Kelly simply could not sleep through the bumps, no matter how soft the couch was.
The two sat at the end closest to the back door, away from the resting bodies, sharing a can of beans.
"I wish we didn't always eat all the salt so quickly," Amanda moaned.
"Well, what can you do?" Kelly said. "People 'round here aren't too keen on that old phrase, 'save the best for last.' They always just want to eat whatever goodies are in front of 'em, like scared little piggies."
"Afraid every meal will be their last, I guess?"
"I'd say so," Kelly shrugged, shoveling another spoonful of flavorless beans into her mouth. She stared off at Xavier, and was once again lost in thought; afraid she might soon regret everything she had done with the man.
"You really love him," Amanda smiled, slightly misreading the expression. "don't you?"
"Yeah," she sighed. "That's a bit of the problem, though."
"I don't think you're gonna lose him," Amanda said comfortingly. "All the strong people are still here. We've pretty much only lost weak people," Amanda said factually. "I mean, there was this guy Lee," she shrugged, "but that was only because he was stupid. Fell asleep watching someone who got bit."
Kelly nodded, contemplating. If Amanda was right, there was no doubt Roger was still alive. And there'd be no doubt Xavier will live on. If she ever had to see Roger again, she would have a lot to explain. Honestly, she has no idea what she would do, especially if she had to pick just one.
"Really," Kelly whispered, lowering her voice in case someone else might be awake, "I'm not worried about anybody dying. I think we'll be okay. I hope, at least," she frowned. "It's…" she trailed off.
The recovering addict raised a brow at the purple-haired girl. "It's what?"
Kelly looked to the blond as seriously as she could, trying to demonstrate the seriousness of her situation. "If I tell you this," Kelly threatened, "you have to promise me you won't tell anybody else. I mean anybody!" The purple-haired girl then looked back to the group, hoping no one had heard her raise her voice.
"I promise," Amanda said, a confused expression still sitting on her face. "Seriously," she said, straightening up, "I promise."
Kelly studied the other girl for a long time, glaring into her eyes. "Alright," she sighed. "So, I'm not sure if you heard or not, but a lot of my group came from this place called West Little Rock."
Amanda nodded, recalling hearing that name once or twice in other people's conversations at the house.
"Well," Kelly said again, making absolutely sure Amanda could be trusted, "when I lived there, I was with this guy named Roger. We loved each other to death, and honestly, I think he's the love of my life. But we got into a fight, and I stayed with my friends Olga and Britney that night. The next day, Ryan announced he was leaving, and a few people began heading out with him and his girls. They didn't care about Ryan, but they didn't want anything to happen to Lizzie and Mika. He was, like, nuts.
"Anyways, though, like...I looked over at Roger, and he still looked pissed off. And I really did love those girls. So, impulsively, I jumped ship." Amanda gasped, and looked over to Xavier. "And...yeah. That was like, almost two months ago, I think? I know if I had stayed, we would have worked it out and everything would have been fine."
"So, you think he might be waiting for you to come back or something?" Amanda asked.
"I dunno," Kelly shrugged. "If we ever go back there, though, and he's still there — or still alive, I guess — then we'd have a lot to discuss, and I don't want anybody's feelings getting hurt. And it's not like I have any reason to still be out here, other than to be with you all. But I'm scared of going back and finding out that the place is destroyed, or that Roger moved on… If I'm honest, I kind of regret getting with Xavier."
Amanda frowned, seeing the dilemma Kelly was in. "Are you going to break up with him?"
"No," Kelly said, still looking slightly distraught. "Do you think it's possible to love two people at the same time?"
Amanda shrugged. "For some people, I'm sure."
"I think that I am. I couldn't bear the thought of hurting Xavier. Breaking up with him. I truly love him."
Amanda sighed, unsure of what to say to the girl. "Well," she said genuinely with a smile, "whatever you decide, you know I've got your back."
Driving around aimlessly for hours, they finally pulled into another town. "Lebanon," Gabriel said nonchalantly, barely even caring anymore as he read the sign aloud.
"Isn't that a country or something?" Otis asked dumbly in the driver's seat.
"It is," Gabriel chuckled to himself. "But we're still in Missouri, Otis."
Otis rolled his eyes. "I'm not a complete idiot," he claimed.
"I'm sure," Gabriel joked.
They drove through the town, keeping their eyes peeled for a suitable home. Mostly, as with everywhere else, it was destroyed or burned up places, or buildings graffitied with hopeless messages. There seemed to be nowhere to go that wasn't in shambles or unstable.
The only option clearly available to them was houses. Houses, which could barely be defended, simply because they would be hard to watch out for. The neighboring houses would be in the way of potential threats, and they would have to constantly keep tabs on all of the buildings around them, in case people had showed up in them.
Then, just as they were about to give up and move on, they found the perfect thing: a train station. There was at least twenty yards of open space on all sides of it, other than the train tracks, where a single train lay dormant. According to Shakira, whose dad was apparently a conductor, it was in pretty good condition, and was likely still useful.
They exited the moving van, their weapons at the ready, all of them holding their knives and axes and screwdrivers. Kelly stayed behind to guard the van and the prisoner.
Sierra went up to the door, placing her free hand on the handle. Above the doors, a sign read "Kage Brothers Train Station."
As the others stood around her, she nodded to them before pulling it wide open. Xavier and Amanda rushed through the door, blades high in the air, ready to stab whatever may be lurking inside. After they both made it in safely, everyone else ran in as well, prepared to back up their companions.
To their delight, there were no walkers inside, and it seemed very secure. To their dismay, they were met with three old men pointing guns at them.
Quickly, everyone in the group backed up; some reached for their gun with their free hand, while other scrambled to put their melee weapon back in its holster or pocket, though most just ended up dropping them in favor of their guns.
The three men stood their ground, eyes locked on the intruders. "Get the hell out of my house!" the biggest one, with a long white beard, yelled from the center of the three.
Sierra looked among them, then to her people. They could totally take them. She had double the people they did — these old men didn't stand a chance.
"What do you think?" Otis asked the leader.
"I don't know," she said.
"We could totally do it."
"There could be more," she pointed out, hesitant of starting a battle they couldn't handle.
"There are," the man in a fisherman's hat claimed. "Women and children. You don't want to kill them, do you?"
Xavier looked back hesitantly to Sierra, whose face remained expressionless as she contemplated the scenario.
"How am I supposed to believe you?" she asked.
"You're crazy if you think we'll bring them out here just to 'prove it,'" the central man stated, "you follow me? If you're going to hurt us, go for it; you'll regret every moment of it. I suggest you go steal from someone else."
"We're not here to rob you," Amanda said defensively. "Do we look like marauders to you?"
"Doesn't matter what you look like anymore," the fisherman said. "You could be anyone."
The thinnest looked to the other men and attempted to whisper, "They could be alright, though," but failed, as Sierra and Xavier, who were nearest to them, clearly heard what he had said. "They haven't shot at us yet, and they could be useful."
"Do you really want to take that chance?" The white-bearded man asked.
Then, a gruff-looking man slammed a door behind the old trio open. He had a massive machine gun in his hand. Not a few seconds later, he was followed by a bony, brown man and two thin girls, one much fitter and taller than the other; they all carried guns equally as large as the gruff one's.
"Put your fucking weapons down now, or else I'll kill all of ya!"
They looked among themselves, and noticed Sierra's solid expression had dissipated, and now was one of great concern. They were outnumbered, and these new four seemed to be much more tough than the three in front of them.
Apparently taking too long, the gruff man shot, flying too close past the thin old man for his comfort, and shooting a hole into the floor by Otis, who the gruff man assumed to be their leader.
Instantly, Otis dropped his gun, fearing for his life. Sierra sighed, knowing they had no chance if they weren't all fighting. She dropped her gun on the floor and put her hands up. "Come on, then," she said to her companions.
The opposing leader smiled to himself. "Yeah," he said in delight as the intruders surrendered. "That's right. Follow the leader."
"What the fuck, Merle?!" the thin old man yelled to his apparent leader about nearly being shot.
"Shut up, man," he said. "Just remindin' you who's in charge around here." He paused a few seconds, and raised his voice in fury, "Don't just stand there you old fucks! Get their damn weapons."
The three scrambled to take their weapons, and the old one with the long beard seemed to be quite remorseful. Shakira began crying, fearing for the future, and her life, and the lives of everyone around her. "I'm sorry," he whispered to them. "Trust me, y'all are gonna be okay. You follow me?"
"I," Gabriel hesitated, "no?"
"Axel!" Merle yelled, causing the bearded old man to jump and continue grabbing the intruders' weapons. "Stop flirtin' with the enemy!"
Shakira's tears didn't stop as she began trembling, terrified of what could happen.
Merle sneered. "Can someone shut the spicy one up?"
No one in his group moved, but Sierra and Gabriel looked to her. "Shakira," Sierra whispered to the girl.
"Shakira, it'll be okay," Gabriel said. "We're gonna be okay."
Shakira didn't calm, only growing more and more scared with each dirty look she got from the intimidating people.
"Little miss Latin," Merle said almost flirtatiously, "if you don't shut up, things are gonna be a lot worse for you 'round here."
Shakira did her best to control her breathing and remain calm, but all she could do is hold her breath.
Merle sneered once again. "Which one of you's the leader?"
No one moved, frozen in fear.
"I'm not gonna repeat myself," he said, moving to stand right in front of Otis. He put his gun to the fat man's belly and cocked it, readying the bullet. "Which," he began, placing his finger on the trigger, "one-"
"It's me!" Sierra yelled. "It's me. I'm the leader."
Merle smiled a big, unsettling smile as he turned his gun to Sierra. "No," he said. "Couldn't be a pretty little girl like you. How old are you? Sixteen?"
"I'm twenty-six. And yeah, I'm the leader."
Xavier, Gabriel, and Otis nodded their heads, confirming the claim.
"All o' you big, strong men takin' orders from this pretty little thing?" Merle chuckled. "It's almost like you're not even men. Look at her!"
The people in Sierra's group remained stoic, not feeling shame or regret at all. Xavier was tempted to stick up for his ex-girlfriend's leadership skills, but decided it wouldn't be wise to yell at his captor.
"Alright then," the gruff man said. "Take 'em away. I wanna have a little chit-chat with Barbie over here."
Everyone looked worriedly amongst themselves, not sure whether to be scared more for themselves or Sierra, but they all gave her reassuring looks. At this point, they could only pray Kelly would know something was wrong because they hadn't come out yet and could rescue them.
Everyone except for Sierra and Merle left the room, taking the intruders into a back room to tie and lock them up. Sierra and Merle went into a small office, which probably belonged to the owner of the train station. The name tag had been replaced with a piece of paper that read "Merle Dixon." The original name tag lied on the ground, broken into pieces and left illegible among other garbage and broken things from when the station was in use.
"So," Merle began, "where are the rest of you?"
Sierra shook her head, "There isn't anyone else."
"I'm not stupid. If you're all looking for a place, you wouldn't just send everybody in at once. Surely you've got a vehicle somewhere, where everyone else is hiding out."
The blonde subtly bit her lip in worry, but quickly laid off, trying to remain stone-cold.
"The only other explanation is that you're scavengers and you're lying to me. You're clearly not big, bad people — you all look like pussies to me. You've probably got a base, people sittin' around waiting for you to come home. Maybe you have kids. You wouldn't want us to go out there and...hurt them. Would you?"
Sierra was unsure of what to say, and thought about lying and saying that they did have a base not far from here. Then, outside of the window of the office, she saw the thin brown man and the two girls from before walk in, Steve and Kelly tied up with rope in the center of them. There were bruises strewn about the duo, mostly on their faces. One of the girls, the smaller one, came toward the office and Sierra sighed. They were hopeless.
"Merle," she said.
"Yes?" Merle smiled, knowing from the blonde's reaction they were her people.
"We found two more people out in a moving van outside."
"Thank you, Alicia. Lock them up, too." The short brunette left the room and Merle's confident smile seemed to become demented. "Looks like we found them anyways, huh?"
Sierra sighed, completely unsure of what to do or say. She couldn't hide the despair and horror in her expression.
"Too shocked to speak? That's fine. You'll have plenty of time to explain yourself later." The gruff man smiled and picked up a walkie-talkie. "Amanda," he said, instantly confusing the blonde before she realized that must be the other, taller girl's name, "get in here and take Barbie away."
Sierra's heart began to pound as the weight of the situation began to sink in. Not only had she and her entire group been taken hostage, but it was by this crazy, awful, creepy redneck. On top of it all, if she had any hope at getting out, she would have to put a lot of trust into Steve. Now, they were equals fighting against a common enemy — Merle Dixon.
"I'm done with her...for now."