Shane wiped his forehead as sweat ran down his brow. The kids were his priority right now and he quickly pushed thoughts of his best friend out of his mind.
Emmy sat in the back of the car Carl's head in her lap as he slowly dozed off.
Their car sat at a complete standstill on the highway. "Well looks like we're going to be here for a while" Shane said unbuckling his seatbelt. "I'm gonna go get a lay of the land-Emmy you watch Carl."
Emmy ignored Shane's request. She wasn't about to let him walk out on them and leave them in the car the way he had left Rick. Despite his new role as their father their time at his house had been nothing short of uncomfortable and to be perfectly honest she had never fully trusted Shane. Even at a young age she had seen the way he looked at their mother, but now he was all they had.
Carl hung onto her side as they rounded around to the back of the car. "Hey I told you to stay in the car" Shane barked.
Emmy sighed "carl's scared" she said. It wasn't entirely true, but she wasn't about to tell Shane her real reason for not wanting him to wander off.
"I can watch them" said a timid voice from the car behind theirs. A woman with short gray hair emerged with a young girl clinging to her hand as though she would drown if she were to let go.
"really it's no trouble and your boy looks about the age of my Sophia,"she said beaming.
Shane nodded "alright then," he said "I'm just going to check on the cliffside and see if I can find out what's happening."
Emmy noted how quickly he was willing to leave them with a stranger but the woman did have a kid and she could already feel that there was something about her that she liked so she relented and sat down on the trunk of the car watching as sophia wandered over to talk introduce herself to Carl.
Sophia was timid and Emmy could guess why as she eyed her father roughly grab at Carol's hand and yell muffled threats at her from the front seat of the car.
"Your dad seems nice" Sophia said breaking the silence. emmy snorted although compared to sophia's dad anyone probably seemed nice. "shane's not our dad." Carl said shortly-pain still in his voice after not being there to say goodbye.
Their conversation was cut short by an explosion in the distance. The sky lit up a brilliant orange and red before the dead were upon them. Sophia screamed as her mother grabbed her. Gunfire rang out in the same chaotic way it had in the hospital.
There was no distinguishing between the living and the dead in the darkness.
Suddenly a huge truck shot out along the side of the road. It wound around pulling up beside the cars.
Shane jumped out accompanied by a man with a fishing hat and white beard. "Emmy Carl hurry!" he said pulling them into the vehicle.
"Please!" Carol screamed "you can't leave us!"
The man with the white beard eyed sophia "Alright hurry up then." he said as they jumped after Emmy and Carl into the back of the truck.
Emmy turned to sit in the corner of the truck but there was already someone there. She whirled around realizing they weren't alone as five strangers emerged from the darkness.