Three Orphan Pilgrimage (The Alternative to the Final Season)

by J. Gray Dingler

A story about three kids on a post-apocalyptic road trip, and the sequel to Young and Young at Heart. Their reprieve from a world torn apart by the dead coming to a close, a ten-year-old girl and her best friend set out on a journey to find a place to call home for not only themselves but also for the baby boy that they promised to take care of. [Art:Albaharu. Some M-Rated Content]

108. Desert

Clementine tugged at her jacket as a burst of wind cut through her, chilling her to the bone. Her fingertips had long since become numb except for the stumps on her left hand. She could feel them as they were pulsing with pain, crying out in distress as it grew colder with every passing minute. The sun was still rising yet Clem couldn't feel it through the thick layer of clouds blotting out the sky in every direction. It was the most bleak and depressing thing she'd seen all day, but it was still early.

Shivering as she kept watch, Clem couldn't help thinking nothing had changed since leaving Salt Lake City. There were new barren hills, bumpier and even more devoid of life than the old ones, but they were every bit as disheartening to look at for so many miles. Turning her head to the west, Clem focused on a small flock of birds resting on a hill far off in the distance. They were the first signs of life Clem had seen in a long time, and they did little to raise her spirit.

They had spent a grueling day and two restless nights just trying to cross Nevada. The entire state, at least what they had seen of it, was a desert in more ways than one. What few towns they discovered were picked clean, devoid of anything useful or even walkers. Yesterday, they spread out for miles in different directions on bikes to scrap out every last drop of fuel only to run out again before reaching the first major city this morning.

A sign said they were only twenty miles from Reno. Clem was equally frightened and pessimistic about what they'd find. The best case scenario was that it'd be just full enough with walkers to keep away people who didn't know how to deal with them, leaving them something to salvage. Worst case scenario, there were already people waiting for them who weren't friendly. Clem kept watching the birds on the hill to the west, fearful something startling them might be her only warning of a new threat.

"Here, this one is ready." Clem looked over to see Horatio sliding a mostly full can of diesel to her. She groaned as she stood up, the cold nipping at her face as her tired arms dragged the fuel toward her bike. Everything hurt as numbness gave way to renewed pain as her body fought her every attempt to place the can into her bike's saddlebag. Her arms trembling as she finally threaded it into the bag, Clem shuffled back over to where Horatio was slowly working a hand pump and sat down beside him.

"You want me to take over for a while?" mumbled Clem.

"I can keep going," he insisted in-between deep breaths. "You look tired."

"I am," confessed a weary Clem as she rubbed her eyes. "And cold," she said as she rubbed her hands next. "I thought deserts were supposed to be warmer?"

"Desert just means a lack of rainfall." Clem looked up at the sky in response. The last thing they needed now was for it to start raining so they could be wet as well as cold, and the clouds seemed to be growing slowly dimmer despite the rising sun. "What can I say?" said Horatio before turning back to the pump. "Our luck is awful."

"Tell me about it." Clem took a deep breath. "If it stays like this we're not gonna have the moon or stars to help us see tonight." Clem looked over at Horatio and took a deep breath. "I… I wanted to ask you something… about Sarah."

Horatio sighed. He let go of the pump and looked at Clem. "What?" "How… how long do you think until… it's here?"

"That's a hard question to answer," said Horatio. "Depending on—"

"Please, just give me the short version."

"Best case scenario, I'd say three weeks from now," stated Horatio. "Worse case? Could be today."

"Are you serious?"

"She was at least eight months pregnant when I met her, that's been over a week now. If we got the dates wrong or it's a premature birth, or both… yeah, could be any day now."

"Fuck," swore Clem. "Like we don't have enough problems."

"You've been taking care of Omid though," noted Horatio. "So—"

"It's been so hard just getting him to eat lately, and he can eat solid foods," said Clem. "We'd need formula all over again, and I don't think there's any left out there that hasn't expired."

"Sarah could breastfeed it." Just hearing that out loud caused Clem to shudder. "Yeah, Sarah's not wild on that idea either." Horatio took a breath. "I never asked about the father, but—"

"He was a monster," sneered Clem.

"Yeah, I guessed from how Sarah has acted that there's… additional trauma beyond the normal burdens of pregnancy." Horatio took another breath. "Like I told her before: whatever she decides, I'll support it."

"Even if it means killing a baby?"

"Yes," he confirmed with a weary sigh. "I'm… I'm hoping, somehow, it won't come to that… but I know we're not in a good place to be taking care of a second baby right now."

"We're not in a good place to take care of the one we have now," noted Clem.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that too," he said. "It's just… there's been so much death in the world, it'd be nice if there was new life coming into it as well."

"What good does it do to bring another life into this world?" asked Clem as she gestured to the frigid, barren landscape surrounding them. Horatio didn't answer her, he just sat there with a sad look on his face. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he assured. "I remember telling Zahra, Anwar and Ezina the same thing."

"Wait, you told them that Zahra shouldn't have a baby?" asked Clem.

"I told her and Anwar that they were both young and could always try again later, when we were in a better place to raise a child," explained Horatio. "With her, she found out she was pregnant relatively early, so an abortion wouldn't have been too difficult, but they both loved the idea of being parents… then they died.

"It's the opposite with Sarah. She doesn't want a child, but I didn't meet her until she was eight months pregnant. If I had a working hospital or clinic, we'd have more options, but as is, she'd have to stillbirth it at best. It's just–"

"Not fair," finished Clem with a weary sigh. "Let's just get this done so we can get back already." Clem slid over to where Horatio was sitting. "Let me work it for this one, give you a break."

Clementine groaned as she gripped the pump's handle. It was a small metal device with a lever you spun attached to a long pipe on one end and a short hose on the other. You turned the handle and it pumped gas, or at least it was supposed to. Dilawar managed to expand the pipe with some plastic plumbing parts they found so it could reach the very bottom of the fuel tanks. But this meant more force was needed to work the pump. Clem spun the handle as quickly as she could and it was barely producing a drizzle of fuel.

The cold wasn't making things any easier. Winter had plagued Clementine for what felt like longer than physically possible. Her thoughts sometimes drifted back to that long, grueling summer farming; it didn't seem so bad now. Watching that slow stream of diesel trickling into the can, Clem forced herself to move faster. Her lungs ached, the frigid air stabbing her chest with each breath. Her stumps were throbbing in pain now but she persisted, determined to finish so she could finally get back to Sarah and Omid.

"Ow!" The handle slipped from her grip as shooting pains caused her left hand to twitch in agony for several seconds.

"Let me see it." Horatio peeled off Clem's glove and she caught sight of a pair of dark red stumps where her fingers used to be before turning away in fright. "I… I think you're okay, just sore." Clem breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that. "But you should stop for now. Really, you should have just stayed behind today."

"If I had done that it would have taken you twice as long to get back," noted Clem as she tried to catch her breath. "And you'd only be able to carry half as much gas back."

"I could have taken Dilawar; you could have tried your luck at fishing," said Horatio as he started working the pump again.

"You said he tore a ligament," reminded Clem.

"I said he 'may' have torn one," corrected Horatio. "Me taking his place today cuts the odds of him over-exerting himself and tearing one for certain… but now you're out here suffering instead."

"One of us had to," shrugged Clem. "But does that mean you were just saying that so Sabriya would agree to you coming out today?"

"I think it is better for me to shoulder some burdens while everyone else is exhausted."

"But?"

Horatio sighed. "I spend almost every waking moment in that damn bus," he griped. "I know it's dangerous out here but…"

"It can drive you crazy," finished Clem. "I know what that's like, just… sitting and waiting for the next thing to go wrong." Clem looked over at the flock of birds in the distance. "I couldn't sleep last night. I just worried about what we're going to find in Reno the whole time… I just want to get it over with."

"We might find something useful there," suggested Horatio.

"I doubt it," said Clem. "Then why'd you volunteer to come out this morning?"

"Like I said, someone has to."

"Sarah volunteered to come out with me too."

"You agreed with me she should stay on the bus today," reminded Clem. "You think she should go into a big city full of danger, with the way she is?"

"No, but between being stuck on the bus and neither of us knowing exactly what happened in Salt Lake City, I get why she's going stir-crazy. I mean, you just said you know how that feels." Horatio looked over at Clem. "What did happen exactly? Sabriya and the others refuse to tell me more about it."

Clem groaned as she forced herself to remember the day before yesterday. "One of the Vaquero followed Dilawar, and Eskiya had to kill him."

"Did he?"

"Yeah, he did," stated Clem firmly.

"But there's more to it than that," said Horatio. "What else happened?"

"Dilawar and me both watched Eskiya cut his throat," recalled Clem. "He came up right behind the guy and just cut open his neck. I saw him crawl across the grass as blood came pouring out…"

"Jesus Christ," said Horatio.

"He… he had to," insisted Clem, sounding less sure now. "He had figured out Dilawar was lying to him, so we couldn't let him go, but…"

"But I'm guessing Eskiya didn't express the same apprehension you and Dilawar felt over such a grim necessity?"

"Does that really matter?" asked a weary Clem. "We would have had to kill him anyways."

"Death should never be taken lightly," said Horatio. "It's as permanent as things get."

"Not anymore," said Clem. "People come back."

"Not, they don't," corrected Horatio. "They die, they change into something else, shells of their former selves, and if you destroy their head, then even that dies. Dead is dead, there's no taking it back."

Those words sent a chill down Clem's spine. Dead is dead, and if Dilawar had moved a split second sooner he'd probably be dead right now, and by Clem's own hand.

"Do… do you want to talk about that other Vaquero?"

"What?" said Clem.

"The one we had on the bus, when we first met you… the one the others wanted you to shoot." Clem hadn't thought about that in a while. "You don't have to," said Horatio as he turned back to the pump. "But what you told me about Eskiya and how it bothered you, I thought—"

"He deserved it," insisted Clem, finding it very easy to say that. "But… it's just… all the blood coming out of his head. There's been so many times someone has pointed a gun at my head… I had just pulled Eskiya's rifle into my face earlier that day."

"You did?" asked Horatio in surprise. "Why?"

"For a long time… I've had this image stuck in my mind, of someone just shooting me in the head… and that's it. I'd just… bleed all over the ground. And I figured if Eskiya would do that to me, then Sarah and Omid never would have been safe with you people anyways…"

Clem shuddered as she thought back to that day. "Instead, I did it to someone else," professed Clem. "Now it feels like it's a sure thing it's gonna happen to me too eventually."

"I doesn't work like that Clem."

"You don't know that, none of us really do," she insisted. "Even if you're right, it doesn't matter. People get shot all the time now… I almost shot Dilawar back in Salt Lake City."

"What?" exclaimed Horatio. "How did that happen?"

"It was an accident… I guess he hasn't said anything," Clem sighed. "I think he hates me now."

"I really doubt he hates you Clem," assured Horatio. "Dil's not the type to hold grudges and he would know that it was an accident."

"An accident that almost cost him his life," refuted Clem. "I only just barely saw him in time to move my gun, and even then… there was a bullet hole in the coat he was wearing… I don't even know how it hit the coat without hitting him…

"When he left, he said he'd hate to go through all that just for one of us to shoot him by mistake. I think he was talking to Eskiya, but that's almost what I did. It… it was only dumb luck I didn't."

Clem felt herself shuddering, then she felt a reassuring arm on her shoulder. She looked over and saw Horatio comforting her. "Do… do you think that's why Dilawar doesn't use guns himself?" asked Clem. "Because he's afraid someone like me is… just gonna shoot him?"

"I don't know. Dilawar's never said anything to me. I asked Sabriya once about it, but she refuses to talk about it either," said Horatio. "I'm not a psychologist, but I get the impression he's more afraid of killing someone else if he used a gun."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, he never objects to the rest of us using guns, just him carrying one," noted Horatio. "I mean, did he say anything about wanting you to not use a gun anymore after… what happened?"

"No… but I wish he had," admitted Clem.

"You know you don't have to carry a gun if you don't want to." Horatio's words confused Clem.

"Of course I do," she insisted.

"Dilawar doesn't," reminded Horatio.

"Yeah, and we've all complained about it."

"But we can't make him do it," said Horatio. "And it's different for you, you're a child."

"That doesn't matter," insisted Clem.

"It matters to me," retorted Horatio.

"Yeah, well it wouldn't to whoever tries to kill me!" Clem pushed Horatio's arm aside. She stood up and started screwing a cap on the gas can.

"I'm sorry," said Horatio in a quiet voice as he moved the hose to the next empty can. "I was just trying to say… I hate this too. I never touched a gun before any of this."

"Me neither," sighed Clem as she dragged a fuel can toward her bike. "But we need them."

"Yeah, another grim necessity in a world full of killer corpses," mumbled Horatio.

"It's living people I'm more afraid of now," she grunted as she hoisted the fuel can into her bike's saddle bag.

"Yeah, well, some of them are a big reason there are so many undead corpses walking around in the first place," said Horatio.

"What do you mean?" asked Clem as she rubbed her hands for warmth.

"Second day after the news of the outbreak, there was curfew mandated in Chicago, and the police shot anyone who was out that night."

"They just… shot them?"

"That's what they do," said Horatio as he shook his head. "There was regular gunfire all night until the sun finally came up…"

"But, they were shooting at walkers." Horatio just stared at Clem. "They were shooting people?"

"Just from my window, I saw a woman with her hands in the air in front of a couple of cops. They gunned her down on the spot."

"That's… that's horrible," said Clem.

"Yeah, but it didn't end well for them either," groaned Horatio as he started spinning the pump handlr faster. "As they were checking her corpse, she got back up and tore out one of their throats with her teeth."

"She came back. They didn't shoot her in the head because they were told to shoot people in the chest," said Clem, recalling what Devlin had told her about aiming for center of mass.

"Yeah, that's what the other cop started doing… it didn't save him," said Horatio. "And like that, there were three more undead monsters roaming around, all because of two trigger-happy assholes."

"The first group I was with didn't find out you came back no matter how you die until months later," said Clem. "Stuff like that was probably happening the whole time… no wonder things got so bad."

"By the next night, there wasn't any curfew because there was no one left to enforce it," continued Horatio. "Chicago was torn apart by a bunch of psychos with guns who left the rest of us to deal with the monsters they created."

Clem looked around at the vast emptiness surrounding them. "It wasn't just Chicago," she said, her voice absorbed by the eerie silence hanging over the region.

"Yeah, well… hopefully Reno faired better."

"Yeah, hopefully…" Clementine examined their immediate surroundings. This place wasn't a gas station but a row of pumps flanked by an abandoned warehouse on each side. Both warehouses had rolling doors that had been left wide open, probably by the same scavengers who had already broken the locks on the fuel tanks. "Do you think you'll be okay without me for a minute?"

"What, why?"

"I want to check those warehouses real quick," said Clem. "Maybe there's something to eat in there."

"You told me it looked like they'd be empty."

"It does but… hopefully I'm wrong." Horatio shot her a worried look and she could only manage to return a weary one.

"Be careful."

"I will." Clem wasn't careful, at least not as much as she should have been. She didn't bother making any noise at the door to check if there were walkers lurking inside. Nor did she check the corners or anything else. She knew she should have, but her fatigue and hunger made such precautions exhausting. She figured there wasn't much use in caution if they didn't find enough to keep them alive anyway.

She had assumed this place had already been looted by the nearly empty parking lot they saw when they first pulled up. It was a surprise to find any fuel left even. This warehouse though appeared devoid of threats or supplies, as she suspected. There were empty shelves toppled over and scattered piles of withered cardboard littering the interior. And a thin layer of dirt collecting near the entrances that showed no tracks or footprints meant no one had been in here in a long time.

Despite all this, Clem clung to a faint hope there was still something worthwhile left inside. Some stale junk food in the trashcan that was never opened, a jar of olives that had rolled under a shelf, maybe just a pack of gum that still had a hint of flavor. No such luck, as the empty wooden pallets and withered sheets of plastic made it clear the previous looters had been thorough. All that was left were a few half-plundered pallets full of odd toys and other frivolous plastic things. Even searching for something Omid would enjoy, Clem found little of worth.

She pulled a single item from a pile of effective trash and packed it into her bag, if just so this detour wasn't a total waste of time. She didn't bother checking the second warehouse and headed back to the gas pumpw where she found Horatio physically struggling to work the pump..

"Find…. anything?" he asked between groans.

"Nothing we need," reported Clem as Horatio slowly spun the handle. "Do you want me to do that for a while?"

"No… it's… it's…" Horatio took a deep breath and wiped his face; he was more tired than he had been letting on.

"Let me do it for a while," insisted Clem as she knelt down.

"No, why don't you take back the diesel we already pulled up?" suggested Horatio as he carried a fuel can toward Clem's bike. "There should be enough to get the bus here. Then the others can help empty out what's left here."

"Okay," said Clem as she approached her bike. "That makes sense."

"Then… we can see what Reno is like." Clem turned her gaze westward again. She still could see that flock of birds far off in the distance, resting on a distant hill. She wished she could fly.

The ride back was grueling. Somehow it felt like it had gotten even colder from just an hour ago, and the air rushing past seemed to pass right through her every layer of clothing to cut at Clem's skin. Her legs ached worse as she forced the pedals to keep moving. More than once she felt the bike begin to wobble and had to force herself to pedal just fast enough to keep from falling over. She was moving so slowly she started to think that it'd be faster to get off the bike and walk, but she couldn't carry four cans of fuel.

Looking around, trying to find anything to take her mind off yet another arduous commute through the dead of winter, Clem only found more abandoned buildings left wide open for people like her to try and fail to find anything useful inside of. And in between those were more stretches of empty road. This miserable cycle had consumed what little life Clementine had left and forced a question into her mind; how was this going to end? Every outcome Clementine could conceive of just filled her with dread.

Eventually, finally, the bus came into sight on the horizon. Still sitting beside a small river they had been following earlier this morning. They had hoped to find somewhere out of sight to park it before it ran out of gas, but it wasn't meant to be. Before leaving with Horatio, there had been some talk about finding enough fuel nearby to move the bus somewhere out of sight, or failing that, trying to push it out of the way. That it hadn't moved since Clem left made it clear the others hadn't been successful.

"Clem…" croaked a voice from her radio. "Are you okay? Where's Horatio?"

Clem was surprised at how close she had gotten before Sabriya had radioed her; usually she'd see Clem before Clem could see her.

"At some gas pumps not too far from here," answered Clem after slowing her bike to a stop beside the bus. "I think I brought enough diesel to get us there."

"Good, we need it," said Sabriya. "The ones I checked with Eskiya had nothing left."

Clem got off her bike and the weight of diesel practically pulled her down as the bike banged against the side of the bus. Gasping for air, it felt like shards of glass were tearing into her throat. She tried wiping her dripping nose with her sleeve, only for the rancid smell of her coat to make her nearly gag. Trying to hoist the fuel out, Clem discovered her arms refused to cooperate. She strained against the weight with all her might, but her muscles simply shuddered in response.

"Come on, dammit…"

"Here, let me." Clem suddenly found Eskiya beside her. She stepped aside and watched him grab the fuel can. He audibly groaned as he lifted it from the bag. Clem felt a little better at not being able to lift it herself but also unnerved by how worn down Eskiya seemed. His normally stiff stride had devolved into a slow shuffle. "Go rest," he instructed as he dragged the fuel can toward the back of the bus. "You'll need your strength for later."

Clem didn't argue with him and just headed inside the bus. She passed Dilawar lying on his bed, awkwardly rubbing his shoulders while pain pulled at the corners of his face. He hadn't even been able to drive the bus since leaving Salt Lake City. The next morning he could barely move his arms because they hurt so much. Even today, it wasn't clear if he had recovered all that much. Clem wanted to say something to him, but she had no comforting news.

Past him was Sabriya frantically eyeing an atlas she had set on the floor. She had been trying to plan their stops around their best chances of finding more fuel, only to have to go a lot further than they expected anyways. Sabriya rubbed her eyes and then traced her trembling finger across the roadmap. There had been no signs that they were being followed, yet they had little sleep over the last two nights, fearful if they stayed in one place too long, the Vaquero would catch them.

Finally, Clem reached her own bed, and lying on it was Sarah, curled up on her side under a blanket.

"Hey," said Clem as she knelt down, trying to summon some enthusiasm. "Sarah?" said Clem, more concerned now.

Slowly Sarah turned around and sat up. "Clem." Sarah's face lit up a little upon saying that and Clem leaned in to embrace her. The pair hugged each other tightly and Clem nuzzled her cheek against Sarah's for a little bit of extra warmth. Clem found it difficult to lean in any closer with Sarah's stomach pushing back against her; it felt bigger than yesterday.

"Did you find any food?" Sarah asked after hastily breaking off the hug.

"No, sorry," said Clem. "We did find some diesel. Hopefully enough to get us into Reno."

"That's good, we can get food there," said Sarah, sounding anxious and out of breath. "Oh, speaking of which, I did manage to catch another fish after you and Horatio left." Sarah turned in place and picked up a paper plate wrapped in tinfoil. "It wasn't very big and I couldn't get another one after that," rambled Sarah as Clem hastily unwrapped the foil. "Dil tried to fish for a while, but his arms…"

Clem ripped the tinfoil off the plate, her stomach growling as she did, but was disappointed to find only three small, slightly burnt pieces of meat on it.

"I'm sorry," blurted out Sarah suddenly.

"It's okay," said Clem as she picked up a plastic fork. "Not your fault there aren't any big fish out here."

"Not that, I… I ate one of your pieces." Clem looked up suddenly upon hearing that. Sarah covered her face in shame. "And one of Horatio's."

"Oh…"

"I'm… I'm so sorry," she professed, voice racked with guilt. "I… I'm just always so hungry."

"It's… it's okay," mumbled Clem, trying not to look down at Sarah's stomach.

"I'll make it up to both of you with the next fish I catch, I promise."

"Don't worry about it," shrugged Clem as she picked up a piece of fish with her fork. "You're…" Clem stopped herself from saying 'eating for two'. It was true, but Clem doubted Sarah wanted to be reminded of that fact. Instead, she popped the fish into her mouth. It was cold and burnt, yet it was still the best thing she had eaten all day. Clem was drooling as she went for the next piece of fish, and then the next… and that was everything. Clem let the final piece savor in her mouth for a second, then swallowed.

"Again, I'm so sorry," repeated Sarah, sounding even more guilt-laden this time.

"It's okay," repeated Clem as she set the plate aside. Clem turned and looked at a familiar lump under the covers. "Is Omid sleeping?"

"No, he's just cold… and probably hungry."

Clem leaned in close. "Hey, Omid," she whispered as she peeled back the blanket. "I got—"

"I finished fueling the bus," reported Eskiya from the front of the bus.

"Good, we're running behind as is," barmed Sabriya. "Clem!"

"I'm coming," said Clem as she slowly stood up. She dragged herself to the front of the bus and sat down behind the driver's seat.

"How far are we going?" asked Sabriya.

"A few miles, I think…" Clem checked her watch. "It's almost noon," she suddenly realized.

"Yeah, you two were gone for nearly two hours," said Sabriya. "I was getting ready to come out after you when you finally got back."

Clem was surprised how this day paradoxically felt like it was going on forever yet moving incredibly fast.

"Were there any undead in your way?" asked Sabriya as she placed the key in the ignition.

"No," reported Clem.

"That's good," said Sabriya as the engine struggled to turn over. "Come on damnit," she groused as she kept turning the key, which did little but produce the same churning noise from the engine.

"Give it a second," insisted Dil as he stepped forward.

"It's a diesel engine, I can't flood it!" barked Sabriya.

"I know that!" barked Dilawar back. "Just give it a minute, okay?"

Sabriya groaned as she shut off the engine and placed her head in her hands. Clem almost thought she was crying for a second.

"Sab?" said Dilawar, sounding worried himself.

Sabriya just raised her head and put her hand on the ignition. She took a breath and turned the key. The engine churned for a few seconds before finally sputtering to life.

"Thanks Dil," she said quietly as she shifted the bus into drive. "Get some rest, okay?"

"Yeah, I will," he mumbled, stumbling back to his bed.

"All right," said Sabriya to Clem. "Lead the way."

There wasn't much leading involved on Clem's part. She and Horatio had stuck to the interstate for most of their trip. Clem instead closed her eyes and tried to get some rest while they were driving. The familiar sound of the bus's engine was almost soothing but Clem's many lingering pains made it difficult for her to relax. Her legs were sore, her stomach was growling, her left hand was throbbing, and she had this dull ache in her side.

That last one really worried her because it seemed to center around where she had been shot. As far as Sarah knew, the wound had healed, but now and then there was this little ache in the same spot where the bullet hit her. It only seemed to return after Clem ate something and she had no idea why. It didn't hurt much, but every time she felt that little sting it scared her, reminding her of one of her many close brushes with death.

More importantly, it made Clem think about what could be wrong with her that she couldn't see. She couldn't shake the feeling that she never fully healed after being shot, and that there was still some sort of open wound inside of her. Something like a tear that every time she eats, is forced open a little more. Something that one day would cause her stomach or some other organ to burst open from the inside.

"Hey!" Sabriya's voice snapped Clem out of her trance. She sat up suddenly and looked out the windshield. "Are you even listening to me? Where are we going?"

"It's just a bit further," said Clem as she tried to make sense of their surroundings. "It's… it's just another mile then there's gonna be this road leading off to the left, you follow it a bit and it leads to these empty warehouses with some gas pumps outsides."

"This place has its own gas station?" asked Sabriya.

"No. It's just pumps, two warehouses, and a parking lot; no store," explained Clem. "Like… they had their own gas for some reason."

"How'd you and Ray find that?"

"Mostly luck," admitted Clem. "Everything on the main road was already picked clean, so we followed a side road south for a little while, hoping to find something else. The warehouses were cleared out, but the fuel tanks weren't totally empty."

"Do you think it'll have enough to get us into Reno?" asked Sabriya, her voice dripping with anxiety.

"I don't know. I hope so," said Clem. "It was easier to get the pump going than the last few gas stations we hit, so that means there's probably more fuel, right?"

"Yeah… probably."

Before long, Clem spotted the road she and Horatio took earlier and guided the bus onto it. Shortly after that they arrived at the gas pumps. Horatio was still there, seemingly pushing with all his might against a pump handle that refused to move. Clem suddenly was worried the pump had broke.

"All right, me and Eskiya will work it for a while," said Sabriya as she put on the bus's parking brake. "Get some rest for now, we might have to swap out depending on how long this takes." Sabriya and Eskiya headed out and right after that Horatio stumbled in, breathing heavily as he staggered forward and collapsed onto his bed.

"Are you okay?" asked Clem.

"Yeah…" he said as he very slowly rolled over. "I just… need a break…" Clem watched as he took off his jacket and was disturbed to see his shirt was drenched in sweat. "I'll be fine…" He insisted as he rolled over onto his side. "You should rest too… while you can…"

"Jesus, you look like hell." Dilawar sat down beside Horatio, setting a paper plate beside him. "Sorry there's not more. I can't really use a fishing rod very long right now and that's all Sarah caught."

Clem watched as Horatio peeled back the foil. She couldn't help but grimace when she saw only three pieces of meat on Horatio's plate as well.

"I'm guessing you already pumped out every last drop?"

"No…" said Horatio between devouring his bits of fish. "There's still some more… it's just really hard… to pump."

"That doesn't make sense," said Dilawar. "The pump shouldn't be this hard to move if its empty, you just wouldn't get anything." Dil headed outside while Horatio rolled onto his side.

Clem headed back to her own bed and was surprised to see Omid was out from under the covers now.

"Hey there," Clem said in a warm voice. "How are you feeling?" Omid stared at her expectedly. "What is it? Do you need anything Omid?"

"He wants another vitamin," clarified Sarah.

One of the few things they had found heading through Nevada was a couple of jars of gummy multivitamins. Even sealed, the former chewy supplements had shriveled and were tough to eat, being more like hard candies now. The group had been taking one with each meal in hopes it'd offset how little food they had left. Ironically, the faded and stale sugary taste of the vitamins was probably the most appetizing thing in each meager meal they had lately, aside from when they actually caught a fish.

"I'm sorry Omid, we can't right now." Omid just keep staring up at her with hungry eyes. "Sarah, how many vitamins do we have?"

"I don't know. The label says there's seventy-five in each jar."

"So the others wouldn't notice—"

"Clem, no," declared Sarah in strict tone.

"Just one," reasoned Clem. "We've got like over a hundred of them."

"There's seven of us, and we've been taking two a day," explained Sarah. "We'll go through a hundred in just a week."

"Just this one time for—"

"And you, Eskiya, Sabriya and Horatio were all gonna take an extra two before you leave for Reno," reminded Sarah. "You're all gonna need the energy to find more food."

"You can eat me and Horatio's fish but won't take anything for Omid?" snapped Clem. "In fact, why didn't you give him one of the pieces you took? You know fish is one of the only things he actually likes to eat!" Clem glared at Sarah, which startled her. She just angrily stared at Sarah until she noticed tears forming around the corners of her eyes.

"I'm sorry…" she said in a whisper as she turned away.

"No, Sarah…. I'm sorry," said Clem as she came up behind her. "Please don't cry… I didn't mean that… I'm just…"

"Hungry," finished Sarah between sobs. "We're all starving to death… and I'm making it worse…"

"Sarah… please don't cry," begged Clem, tears welling up in her eyes now. "I… I…" Clem jumped as she felt something grab her thigh. She looked down to see Omid, whimpering loudly as he awkwardly hugged Clem and Sarah's legs.

"I'm sorry Omid," said Sarah as she suddenly spun around and wiped her eyes. "Don't cry, we're okay," said Sarah as she knelt down to hold him. "Right Clem?"

"Yeah," said Clem as she wiped her own eyes. "We're okay, see?"

The pair wrapped their arms around Omid and started rubbing his back gently until the whimpering stopped. Clem then suddenly felt Sarah's arm around her.

"I'm sorry Clem," professed Sarah in a tearful whisper.

"We can't even feed him," whispered Clem back.

"We can't even find sand," lamented Sarah as she ran her fingers through Omid's hair. "The first time he's had fun in forever was with sand and we can't get any, in a desert!"

"Horatio told me a desert is just a place that doesn't get much rain," said Clem. "I guess this one doesn't have sand."

"We should have just taken some with us in a bucket or something when we were back at Salt Lake," lamented Sarah. "Now he's got nothing to do all day… like every day."

"Wait," said Clem as she broke off the hug. "I did get one thing. It's not food or sand… but maybe he'll like it." Clem removed a multi-colored bundle from her backpack.

"Is that… a kite?" asked Sarah.

"Yeah," said Clem as she pulled it out of the plastic and unfolded it. "We got nothing better to do while we wait for them to pump gas, maybe he'd like it?" Clem looked down at Omid. "You want to fly a kite?" Omid didn't respond, but he looked at the colorful plastic shape in Clem's hands. "Come on, let's have a little fun for once."

Clem unwrapped the kite as Sarah dressed Omid and herself for the cold. It was a very cheap kite, made of plastic so frail that Clem was afraid it'd tear if she pulled too hard. Just trying to tie the flimsy string to the even flimsier plastic rods running inside the kite, Clem was worried she'd break it by accident. Standing up, Clem felt what little enthusiasm she had for this idea drain away as the kite's tail tore as she tied it off.

"Hey." Clem looked over to see Dilawar returning. He knelt down in front of Horatio. "I've got good news and bad news," he said, sounding oddly chipper. "Which one you want first?"

"There's actually good news?" mumbled Horatio in disbelief.

"Yeah, there's a lot of diesel left down there," said Dilawar. "Probably enough to fill the bus and maybe all of our gas cans."

"Are you serious?" asked Horatio in disbelief. "Oh God… the bad news is it'll take… like two days to pump it out."

"No, the pump's going okay now," said Dil. "The bad news is you spent all morning working it while its filtered was clogged up."

Horatio let out a long groan as he heard that.

"Are you serious?" asked Clem as she walked over to Dil. "There's… there's a filter on that thing?"

"Yeah, the red part on the bottom where you connect the pipe," said Dil. "Should… shoulda told you guys that before you left."

"We should have figured it out ourselves," said Clem as she started rubbing her hands, the aches in them seemingly returning upon the news they wouldn't be aching as much if she had known better. "I feel so stupid."

"You?" asked Horatio. "I went through four years of medical school just to get my ass kicked because I can't work a hand pump."

"Don't beat yourselves up," said Dilawar. "When I was still working as a firefighter, we had someone call us once to help them unlock their car while he was already inside of it."

"While it was on fire?" asked Clem.

"No."

"Did he drive into a river or something?" asked Horatio.

"No, nothing like that," said Dil. "He just didn't know you could pull that tab near the window to unlock the door."

"Wow…"

"If he didn't know that… how'd he lock himself inside in the first place?"

"No idea," said Dilawar. "Didn't think to ask him that while I spent five minutes gesturing to the part of the door that let's you unlock it."

"Is everything okay?"

Clem looked over her shoulder to see Sarah and Omid behind her. Sarah had her jacket on, which barely fit over her stomach anymore. She was holding Omid's hand. He had a wool cap on that was a bit too big for him, a scarf that was even more oversized, and his NASA jacket. Looking at it, Clem barely remembered that day at the space center anymore. It felt longer than a lifetime ago, like it was just a dream she vaguely recalled.

"You ready to have some fun?" asked Clem as she inched over to him. "Let's make sure you stay warm." Adjusting the jacket, Clem saw the beaded ornament hanging from the zipper and turned away; she wished Simon was here instead of her.

"All right, come on," prodded Sarah in the sweetest voice she could muster. "I know it's cold out, but I'll be right here and it's gonna be fun, okay?" Clem watched as Sarah gingerly tugged Omid by the hand and guided him toward the front of the bus. He was hesitant to follow her, but did so with some gentle urging and Clem followed right behind them.

Bracing themselves for the outside, Clem once again felt the cold cutting into her bits of exposed skin as she moved; she never got used to it.

"All right, you just wait here," said Sarah as she knelt down and took the kite from Clem. "You're gonna love this," said Sarah with a smile. "I remember when my… my dad first took me to fly a kite. Once it was in the air, it felt like I was flying too." Sarah started walking backwards with the kite in hand as Clem placed a bundle of string in Omid's hands.

"Now all you gotta do is hang on to this," instructed Clem as she closed her hands around Omid's own until they were both grasping the ragged spool of string. "Now, just wait," said Clem as Sarah fiddled with the kite, trying to catch a breeze long enough to get it in the air. "Just… just be patient." Clem moved in close and started hugging Omid, partially to keep him warm but mostly to get warm herself.

The wind started blowing, and it somehow managed to avoid the kite while still sending a chill across the area. Clem could feel Omid shivering in her grip. She looked over at Sarah, who was fruitlessly trying to get the kite into the air, frustration spelled out across the front of her face. Turning her gaze towards the horizon, Clem looked for that flock of birds again. They appeared gone now, likely scared off by the sound of the bus approaching. Clem could almost feel her life being drained away by this icy void.

"I got it!" Clem turned her head and watched as the kite was pulled right out of Sarah's hands.

"Here we go!" Clem adjusted her grip to guide Omid's fingers around the string just as the kite nearly jerked it out of his grasp. Clem could feel Omid tensing up along with the string. "It's okay," whispered Clem in a calm voice. "There's nothing wrong, look, look up!" Clem watched as Omid nervously started looking up, as if he was expecting something to attack him. "See it? See the kite?"

Omid kept turning his head, looking more anxious with each moment, then his eyes spotted it, that little colorful square dancing about in the air far above them. Clem watched Omid's face closely as his apprehension slowly faded away and was replaced with an inquisitive curiosity.

Clem tugging on the string prompted Omid to take greater notice of it. He saw the kite dip in the air and realized it was attached to the string he was holding. He tugged on it himself and a smile started to form on the edge of his mouth as he watched the kite respond to his whims.

"He's doing it all on his own," beamed Sarah as she hurried over to where Clem and Omid were standing. Clem released her grip as Omid braced himself. He felt the kite pulling back against him. His smile grew bigger as he yanked on the string, again and again, the kite bobbing to his demand.

He started walking with the kite, seemingly transfixed at how it moved with him. Clem watched intently as Omid started moving quicker with a smile so wide he was clearly on the verge of laughter. She quickly looked up at the kite, soaring above without a care in the world. For a brief moment, the cold relented and Clem almost felt like she was flying.

"No!"

Sarah's outburst brought Clem back down to earth. She saw the spool of string fly right out of Omid's hands.

"Shit!" Clem sprinted after the spool as it was dragged across the pavement. Her legs moved faster than they had all morning as she watched the spool suddenly jump up in front of her. She leapt forward, hand stretched out to pluck it out of the air.

Clem collided painfully with the dirt and felt nothing between her fingers as she closed her hand. She looked up just in time to watch the entire spool be pulled into the sky by an especially strong breeze. She watched helplessly as the kite flew further into the air, eventually receding into a distant, colorful speck before disappearing for good.

Clem found Sarah beside her, helping her off the ground. Turning around, Clem saw Omid standing there in the cold, not a trace of joy left on his face.

"It's okay," assured Clem in a frantic voice. "I'll…" Clem watched as Omid headed to the door, rubbing his arms for warmth as he moved. He disappeared inside the bus and Clem felt a sense of despair swell up inside of her. The pair headed for the bus themselves just as Clem noticed Sabriya and Eskiya staring at them. They had been watching Omid, and judging from the looks on their faces, seeing Omid lose the kite was almost as hard on them as it was for Clem and Sarah.

They shuffled back in the bus and headed to their bed. Passing Dilawar and Horatio, they clearly saw what happened too. The whole group got to enjoy the sight of a child losing his new toy right after he figured out how it worked. Just as they reached the bed, Clem watched Omid grab hold of his stuffed elephant, crawl under the covers and go back to being a silent little lump.

"Maybe… maybe I can find another kite?" suggested Clem. "Yeah, there may be another one." She said as she pivoted towards the door. "And the warehouse is right there…"

Clem felt Sarah's hands on her shoulders as she moved in front of her, stopping her from leaving.

"Don't," spoke a weary Sarah.

"But…"

"Save your strength."

Clem sighed. "Yeah, okay." Clem looked up and noticed Sarah still holding onto her shoulders. "What?"

"Did… did you get taller?" asked Sarah.

"I don't know," shrugged Clem. "Did I?"

"I think you did." Clem was surprised when Sarah suddenly leaned in close. Their faces were almost touching as Sarah slid her hand past the top of her head to compare their height. Clem had to resist the sudden urge to lean in and kiss Sarah on the lips.

"You must have had a growth spurt," said Sarah as she backed up. "You're like only an inch shorter than me now… I can't believe I didn't notice that until just now."

"I can't believe I've grown at all," shrugged Clem. "We barely have anything to eat anymore."

"Yeah I know," said Sarah. "I'm worried it's gonna stunt Omid's growth." Sarah looked over at the bed. "Maybe we should make a new height chart, like the one we had on the Brave." Clem stared at Sarah in response. "What, you don't want to do that?"

"Let's just see what's in Reno first," said Clem as she turned away.

Coming up to the front, Clem watched as Sabriya and Eskiya came lurching into the bus, dragging the pump and its hose behind them. Eskiya tossed the pump aside while Sabriya sat down on the floor, gasping for air.

"Are you okay?" asked Clem.

"Just… tired…" said Sabriya between deep breaths.

"Need me to take over?" asked Horatio as he hurried to the front.

"No need," spoke a weary Eskiya as he sat down on the nearest bed. "We've got nowhere left to store any more fuel."

"Well shit, maybe we should find some more fuel cans," suggested Dilawar. "We're probably not gonna get this lucky again anytime soon."

"We were scrapping the bottom of the tank to fill that last can," said Sabriya.

"Did you—"

"Yes I checked the filter," Sabriya assured Dil. "The tank is as good as empty, and we're burning daylight as it is."

"It's time to go," concluded Clem.

"Horatio, you drive," ordered Sabriya. "Clem, you keep watch at the front; the rest of you, pick a window and keep your eyes open."

Clementine took her place in the chair set behind the driver's seat and Horatio took the wheel. Starting the bus took more than a few attempts and both Dilawar and Sarah were preparing to check the engine before it finally turned over. There was a hissing sound as the parking brake was released and slowly they started moving forward again.

Clem had no idea what to expect. None of them could recall anyone ever mentioning Reno, nor had Jet included any mention of it in his guide. They had swapped a few sparse rumors regarding California and the west coast in general, and Eskiya had mentioned once encountering a group planning to travel to Las Vegas, reasoning the Hoover Dam was still generating electricity for the region. It was all speculation though, and none of it even mentioned the city they were heading for right now.

Clem took her post as lookout seriously. A major city looming on the horizon was enough to chase away her fatigue, at least for a while. She watched the road with renewed focus, but all she would find were road signs and the occasional abandoned car pulled off to the side. The road itself was clear of any major obstructions. It had been maintained after the outbreak, but the bits of gravel and some occasional trash blown aside by the bus as it moved suggested no one had driven this way in a while.

Horatio slowed the bus as the first signs of what used to be civilization came into view. Billboards popping up in the distance, more abandoned cars piling up on the shoulders, and a series of small warehouses marking the likely edge of an industrial area. Using her binoculars, Clem could just barely see a couple of tall buildings far off in the distance. None of this was particularly telling in itself, but all together it was painting an all too familiar picture in Clementine's mind.

"Stop!" Clem felt the bus stop almost instantly on her order.

"What is it?" asked Sabriya as she hurried to the front, the rest of the group filing in right behind her.

"Looks like… a couple of semi-trailers parked on each side of the highway," reported Horatio, his hands digging into the steering wheel.

"Barricades," concluded Eskiya.

"Not just them," said Sabriya. "Look on top of the underpass; cinderblocks, sandbags… those are gunner nests, three of them."

"I… I don't see any guns though," noted Dilawar.

"Or gunners," added Clem. She had spotted three crude shacks on top of the underpass through her binoculars before Sabriya mentioned them. They appeared to be watch posts of some kind but appeared in bad shape. The sandbags Sabriya mentioned appeared rotten, with several of them burst wide open and the row of cinderblocks in front of them was missing several bricks.

"There's nobody here," declared Clem with a resigned sigh.

"You don't know that," insisted Sabriya.

"Look around," insisted Clem. "There aren't any walkers or bodies or anything left, and the biggest road leading into the city is wide open. People were here, cleared out the dead, then they left."

"We don't know they're gone!" declared Sabriya.

"One of the trailers isn't even blocking the road," observed a crestfallen Sarah. "Whoever used to be here must have gone this way when they left town."

"How could you possibly know that?" snapped Sabriya, hostility boiling over in her every word.

"Because, it's the left side of the road," said Sarah. "They probably opened it on the way out and there was no one left to close it afterwards."

"It's the end of the world!" retorted Sabriya. "They could have been driving on the other side to get into town. Not like anyone is enforcing the fucking traffic laws."

"No, but I'm driving on the right," noted Horatio. "It's just… habit."

"Yeah, me too…" conceded Dilawar, the realization sinking in.

"Alternatively," Eskiya said to Sabriya. "Even if people were driving in on the other side, why would they leave their gate open behind them?"

"Maybe it broke down and they couldn't move it back?" argued Sabriya in a tone that suggested she didn't believe that herself.

"Then they'd probably have someone watching this road instead of leaving the top of the underpass empty." Sabriya glared at Clem in response; it frightened her a little. Sabriya ran out of the bus.

"Jesus, Sab!" Dilawar raced right after her and Clem found herself following behind him. Chasing after the pair, she saw Sabriya sprinting forward, practically charging at the barricade. Clem watched in shock as Sabriya started scaling up the short hill bordering the underpass.

"Jesus Sab!" yelled Dilawar as he struggled to keep up with her. "Wait up!" Clem watched Sabriya reach the top and disappear from sight as she ran into the nearest shack; a gunner's nest if she was correct. Dilawar ran in after her and Clem hesitated to follow him, then forced herself forward. Inside they found Sabriya kneeling on the floor, studying something.

"Jesus Sab, you're gonna get yourself killed."

"Apparently not…" she mumbled as she tossed something over her shoulder. Clem picked it up and saw it was a shell casing from a spent bullet. Looking around, she saw a couple more on the pavement, but no sign of the guns that used them or anything else at all. "There's no one here, right?" Those words echoed in Clem's ears. Sabriya didn't sound angry anymore; she sounded defeated.

"That was reckless." Clem spun around in shock when she heard Eskiya's voice; he hadn't made a sound. "That's… that's not like you, Sabriya."

"Yeah, well, starting to wonder what the point in being careful all this time was." Hearing Sabriya say out loud what Clem was thinking just made her feel even worse. "We came all this way for nothing."

"We won't know for sure until we investigate," stated Eskiya. "Even if there isn't anyone left here, there might still be things we need, right?" Eskiya looked at Clem when he said that.

"There… there could have been things they didn't have room for when they left." Clem didn't believe that, but she said it anyway. "We could get lucky. We sorta did when we found that diesel this morning."

"Speaking of which, we really can't waste fuel going around Reno at this point," noted Dilawar. "Wherever we go from here, we'll have to go through the city to get there."

"Which means we're burning daylight," said Sabriya, a bit of confidence returning to her voice. "Dil, wait with Sarah in the bus."

"I should come with you," argued Dilawar.

"We discussed this," said Sabriya.

"The rest of you are running on fumes, I'm not," retorted Dilawar.

"You may have torn your ligaments, we haven't," refuted Sabriya, repeating Horatio's words from the last time they had this argument. "Plus… I'm counting on you to get us out if something goes wrong."

"I… I don't like this," he admitted in a meek voice.

"Me neither," confessed Sabriya. "So let's just get it over with."

The group returned to the bus and prepared themselves. It was a ritual Clem was both familiar with and incredibly tired of. She stopped to sharpen her tomahawk even though it was still sharp from the last time. Made sure her gun was loaded and with the safety on before putting it on her belt. Checking her backpack's contents, Clem counted a canteen, a bit of rope, and a half-empty can of spray paint she planned to toss out as soon as she needed the space; so far she hadn't found anything worth replacing it with.

"So," said Sarah as she came up behind Clem. "We came all this way for nothing?"

"Looks like it," said Clem with a sigh and a shrug, already tired of hearing people say that.

"You don't think there will be anyone left in there?"

"We won't know until we check… but probably not."

"Okay… then I'm going," said Sarah as she pulled her gore-smeared coat out. "You're staying here today."

"Not this again," sighed Clem as she rolled her eyes. "We already talked about this earlier."

"Yeah, and now you're even more tired," argued Sarah. "You need rest."

"So do you."

"Not as much as you do," reasoned Sarah. "And… I've eaten more then anyone else today."

"You're pregnant!"

"So?" retorted Sarah. "That didn't stop Christa."

"No, but it made things a lot harder for her, and you know that." Clem looked at Sarah in puzzlement. "Why… why are you doing this?"

"I just… I don't want anything else to happen to you," professed Sarah. "Horatio can watch Omid. I should come with you."

"God, you sound like Dil did a minute ago," Clem mumbled under her breath.

"What?" asked Sarah. "What did you just say?"

Clem thought to herself for a moment. "If something goes wrong, I'm counting on you to…" She stopped herself from repeating what Sabriya said, realizing she didn't like the idea of telling Sarah to come after her if something went wrong.

"Counting on me for what?" asked Sarah. "To take care of Omid." Clem looked over at the bed. Far as she could tell, he was still hiding under the covers.

"I told you, someone else—"

"I mean if I don't come back," clarified Clem. "He can't lose us both."

"Clem, please don't say that…"

The pair exchanged an awkward stare, each unsure of what to say to one another.

"I'm going," said Clem suddenly as she hastily put her coat and mask on. "I… I love you," she said as she stood up.

"Just… be careful," pleaded Sarah.

"I… I will…" Clem lingered awkwardly for a moment, then moved to the front of the bus.

She spotted Sabriya arming herself with the hand grenade, carefully threading it onto her belt. The mere sight of it made Clem nervous. When Patty used one in Oklahoma it was because they were being attacked, and it destroyed their home. When Clem used one in Wyoming, it was because they were being attacked, and it destroyed their home. Seeing that last grenade just now, she was fearful that history may repeat itself again.

"All right," called Sabriya as she motioned to the others. "Everyone who's going out, get your rations. We'll all need the calories."

Horatio distributed meals to himself, Eskiya, Sabriya and Clem. It consisted of two dried-out gummy vitamins, half a can of tomato soup, and a quarter can of chicken soup mixed with a bit of ice-cold water. They couldn't spare the time or resources to heat the soup, having only one lighter with barely any fuel left and needed to save it for the essential tasks of boiling water and cooking fish.

It was difficult even finding things that start a fire lately. There were barely any plants except the occasional dead shrub. The only wooden furniture they found scavenging was heavy and difficult to break. They rarely found any clothes or blankets in the few houses they searched. There was barely any paper even in the trashcans they checked. It reminded Clem of the houses outside of Shaffer's, where they already burnt up everything that makes for good kindling and left nothing of use behind.

As Clem chewed the hardened vitamin, savoring the little bit of sweetness it retained, she noticed Omid staring at her. She was surprised to see him out of bed and seeing him stare hungrily at her, Clem wanted nothing more than to walk over to him and place the other gummy in his hand. Give him some small token of contentment even if it was just a dried-out vitamin.

But she didn't. Sabriya would object, Sarah might too, and it could lead to a group argument that would just slow them all down. Clem reasoned she'd needed every bit of her wits to stand a chance of finding anything worth bringing back. So she turned away from Omid and quietly ate the last vitamin herself. She felt guilty upon swallowing it. Turning around, she hoped to hug Omid before she left, only to witness him crawling back under the covers.

"We'll check in every ten minutes for as long as we're in radio range," stated Sabriya as she forced herself to her feet. "Dil, be ready to move on a moment's notice." Sabriya turned to Clem. "Ready?"

Clem nodded, then headed for the door. She marched outside and back out into the cold, her tender ears aching as they bunched up against the sides of the mask. Gazing out on what remained of Reno, Clem found herself staring at rows upon rows of dark, empty buildings spread out before her like so many plundered tombs; no treasure but maybe still a trap or two. She thought about turning around and just going back in the bus.

"What is it?" asked Sabriya in a concerned tone as she noted Clem's attention. "What do you see?" there was an eagerness in the way she asked those questions, clearly hoping for good news.

"You won't like what we find in there." Sabriya only glared quietly at Clem in response. She stomped away and Clem followed her towards the bus's bike rack. Horatio seemingly volunteered to get the bikes down, something Clem was grateful for as her arms were still store from earlier. Although from the way Horatio struggled more to lift each bike, it's clear his arms weren't doing much better.

Clem's feet ached with each push of the pedals. She wondered if the gears had frozen together as it only got harder to move them with each passing minute. She was worried she'd fall behind the others with how slow she was moving, but looking up she could see Horatio and Sabriya were barely ahead of her. Looking over her shoulder, Clem was shocked to discover Eskiya actually a fair bit behind her.

Reno spread out before them like a massive husk whose bones had long since been picked clean by scavengers. Clem could see the signs everywhere she looked. Busted windows and broken doors left to hang open. Bits of trash, broken glass, and even the occasional body, all left in parking lots full of vacant vehicles whose windows were caked in grime. The highway itself was covered in patches of filth which their bikes left fresh tracks in.

They weren't on the road for long before Clem was desperate for a break. Her nose was stuffed up and she couldn't even wipe it without taking off her mask. Her limbs felt like four rubber bands all stretched to their limits and ready to snap. And her head was so heavy she couldn't even summon the energy to lift it and resigned herself to staring at the pavement. All Clem could do was keep telling herself 'just a little more and you'll be there' in the vain hope it would be true before she collapsed.

"Sabriya!" Clem looked over her shoulder in-time to see Horatio swerving out of the road; she didn't see Sabriya. Before she could react, Eskiya had sped past her. Unsure what to do, Clem followed Eskiya and tried not to think too hard about what was happening, lest her scattered thoughts drain what little willpower she had left. She spotted Sabriya's and Horatio's bikes past the edge of the freeway sitting in front of a chainlink fence flanked by dead trees.

Clem was moving practically on autopilot, carelessly letting her bike fall to her side and following the others as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast. She moved past the chainlink fence, into a small parking lot and arrived in front of a shorter, wooden fence bordering a large patch of barren land. There Clem saw Eskiya approaching Horatio and Sabriya, the latter of which was leaning on a the fence.

"What are you doing?" Clem heard Eskiya ask Sabriya, more angry than concerned. "You're going to get us all killed."

"Want to keep it down yourself?" suggested Horatio in a hushed tone.

Sabriya's mouth moved, but Clem couldn't hear anything.

"What?" Eskiya apparently hadn't heard her either. Sabriya was sweating and breathing deeply as she leaned over the fence, seemingly just to keep her balance.

"...water," She croaked in-between breaths.

"Here," said Horatio as he handed her his canteen.

"Not for me… look!" Sabriya pointed out past the fence and towards the center of the barren lot. The dirt was dried and cracked and gradually slopped downward. Looking more closely, Clem could see far off in the distance was a fairly large puddle of murky-looking water. Looking at it, then looking back at the long patch of empty land leading up it, Clem realized what they were looking at.

"This was a lake," realized Clem.

"It is?" asked Eskiya.

"Was," corrected Sabriya as she pointed to something off in the distance.

"Is… is that a dock?" Looking closely, Clem wasn't sure at first. It looked more like a series of tall tree trunks just stuck in the ground. It wasn't until she noticed the walkway running over them was she convinced. Drawing back her gaze, she noticed something else littering the area; boats. Not a lot of them, and not big ones, but clearly a few small motor boats and what might have been a kayak half-buried in the dirt surrounding the shrunken pond in the middle.

"The people who lived here before must have drained it," Horatio concluded. "It… it must have taken ages."

"Yeah…" Sabriya sighed.

"How did you see that from the road?" asked Eskiya.

"I saw light reflecting in the distance, and thought it was a scope… it was actually just the water," stated Sabriya. "You should radio Dil and tell him to bring the bus here. We always need more water."

"That's a long walk to get it though," noted Clem in a grim tone as she studied how far the puddle was from what used to be the lake shore. "It's probably polluted too," noted Horatio. "Even filtering it and boiling it might not be safe."

"Would you rather we have no water?" asked Sabriya.

"Dilawar and Sarah already fetched water this morning from a stream," reminded Eskiya. "And we have enough fuel to find a river or lake after we get past the city."

Sabriya didn't say anything.

"Well?" asked Clem.

"Well," repeated Sabriya through clenched teeth. "If we're gonna just drive through the city, then this is as good a place as any for them to park the bus, right?"

"I guess," said Clem. "I'll call Sarah and tell them to bring the bus here."

"No," ordered Sabriya. "Tell Dil and Sarah what we found but we need to secure the area first before they come here."

"Secure what?" dismissed Clem. "There's nothing here."

"You wanna bet the sound of the bus's engine won't draw out something we haven't seen yet?" said Sabriya. "None of you even knew there was water here until I spotted it."

"That's… a good point," conceded Clem. "But where do we even start?"

"I think I saw one of those big box supermarkets before we stopped here," said Horatio. "If there's anyone left, living or dead, we might find some clues about them there."

"Or better yet, something to eat," spoke a weary Sabriya.

Clem radioed the bus, which took more than a few tries. They hadn't gone that far which forced her to consider the possibility something was wrong with the radios. They only had enough batteries left for two of them, with the rest spread between a couple of electric lanterns on the bus. Clem looked back the way they came and felt sore just thinking about pedaling back to tell Sarah what they found.

Luckily, she didn't have to. Clem's radio clicked a few times and Sarah's voice could be heard over the static. After bringing Sarah and Dilawar up to speed on the drained lake, the group approached the supermarket Horatio had spotted. Even if the city didn't appear empty, Clem doubted such a big store right off the highway would have anything left, but she went along with the others anyway. If nothing else, it was a break from pedaling.

As the others slowly crept through the parking lot, Clem briefly stopped to examine a corpse curled by the edge of the interstate. It was the first dead body she had seen up close since entering the city. She couldn't tell much about who this person was. They were little more than dried meat gradually peeling off the bones now. Clem was nearly certain it was too far gone to be a walker even, but drew her tomahawk anyways. A single strike produced a loud crunch as most of the head cracked and turned to dust.

It didn't take long for Clem to catch up with the others. They were moving slowly too, probably because they were tired like her, but also they were probing their surroundings for threats. Clem saw none anywhere she looked, nor did she any signs of hope. The parking lot was cluttered with abandoned cars left to hang open after being looted. All clear signs that this store had already been picked clean.

Despite her assumptions, Clem found her body tensing up without her even thinking about it. A reflex from her countless expeditions into dangerous and uncharted regions kicked in as she watched the others proceed cautiously. She found herself occasionally tapping her tomahawk against the pavement to lure out walkers out of habit. They had their coats, which were renewed with fresh walker gore back in Salt Lake City, but Clem was always fearful the smell, if it even was the smell at all, would stop working someday.

She didn't get a chance to test that theory as there were no walkers to find inside the store. There was nothing of note in the store at all. No food, water, medicine, or even batteries. There weren't any clues to what had happened here either from what she could see, just emptiness. It wasn't long before Sabriya and Eskiya came walking back, the crestfallen look on their faces telling Clem and Horatio everything they needed to know.

Clem thought about telling the others they should turn back now. It'd at least save them some time and effort. She opened her mouth to speak when she heard Sarah's voice over the radio. She sounded very worried, and what she told them worried Clem right back. They were having trouble starting the bus. When Sarah asked Clem what they were going to do next, all Clem could tell Sarah is they'd keep looking, and then they were pedaling again.

Clem's lungs ached more and more with every breath. She found herself thinking back to when they left Vernal. By the third straight day of pedaling, Clem felt it was almost certain they were going to die. Instead, they met the others who had a bus, and for a brief moment it felt like things would finally get a little easier. Now they were two states away but still pedaling aimlessly through the dead of winter, no closer to safety.

"Ahh!" Clem felt the hard pavement smacking into her shoulder and her ankling twisting as the bike collapsed on top of her. She tried standing up, but the weight of the bike pushed back against her. She struggled against it for a second, only to give up and let it push her back down.

"Clem!" she could hear Horatio's voice and footsteps approaching. She resisted the urge to cry as she felt the bike being lifted off her.

"What happened?" asked Horatio as he helped Clem sit up.

"I lost my balance," she mumbled as she looked around. "What… what time is it?" asked Clem as she noticed the waning sunlight. Not waiting for his answer, Clem looked at her watch. "We've been pedaling for over an hour…"

"What happened?" asked Eskiya as he rolled his bike up to the pair.

"I fell," said Clem with a shrug.

"Can you stand?"

Clem forced herself up. One of her ankles hurt, but only slightly more than the bottoms of her feet, which were sore as hell.

"Is she okay?" Clem looked up to see Sabriya riding up to her. She had a desperate look in her eyes that unnerved Clem.

"I'm okay," said Clem as she picked up her bike.

"Good, because we're burning daylight." Clem grimaced as Sabriya said that. Looking at Horatio, he seemed irritated by her dismissive attitude as well. Surprisingly, Eskiya also looked irritated.

"We should go back," said Eskiya.

"Not yet," dismissed Sabriya. "We haven't found anything to bring back yet."

"And we almost certainly won't," refuted Eskiya. "This city has been… picked clean."

"We don't know that," insisted Sabriya. "Besides, we're closing in on something that can give us a definitive answer." Sabriya stopped her bike and gestured to a road sign just ahead.

"Exit thirty-four?" read Clem. "What—"

"We take this exit, hang a left at the end, and that puts us on a main road that runs right beside an airport," she explained.

"How could you possibly know that?" asked Eskiya.

"I saw it when I was looking at the road atlas this morning," she said. "I made sure to memorize the exits to get here."

"Wait, have you been leading us the whole time?" asked Clem.

"I was hoping we'd find something promising along the way… but we haven't."

"Sab, why do think the airport is gonna be any different then?" asked Horatio.

"It's a fortifiable location with aircraft, resources and communication. If there's any kind of presence left in this city, it'd be there," she asserted.

"That… sounds unlikely," stated Eskiya.

"There's lots of places with resources you could fortify," reasoned Horatio. "Why would the airport be any better?" "People probably trashed it trying to escape in the first few days," said Clem. "More likely to find walkers there than people."

"Then maybe we'll find something useful amongst the dead," dictated Sabriya.

"I doubt there's any dead even there. We—" Clem watched as Sabriya pedaled ahead of them and out of earshot. "… should head back."

Clem looked to Horatio, who just look baffled, then turned to Eskiya. She watched as he turned his bike around, then stood there for a moment looking back the way they came.

"You… you're not seriously thinking about leaving her?" asked Horatio. Eskiya didn't answer. "Jesus…"

"If we reach the airport, and Sabriya insists we push further into the city, then what?"

Horatio glared at Eskiya, but didn't say anything. Instead, he just turned his bike towards Sabriya's direction and pedaled ahead. Clem expected Eskiya to follow him, but instead he turned his gaze to Clementine.

"What?" Eskiya didn't say anything, but it was obvious what he was inferring. "No, we can't—"

"If we turn back now they'll likely realize we're not coming and turn back themselves."

"What if they don't?" challenged Clem. "What if something happens to them because we're not there?"

"What if something happens to all four of us because we're too tired to act?" asked Eskiya, weariness seeping into his normally cold voice. Clem found her eyes drifting skyward. Even behind the heavy clouds hanging overhead, she could tell the sun was beginning to set. It'd be dark in a few hours, if not sooner. "Come," said Eskiya. "We'll—"

"We'll go to the airport," declared Clem.

"And if Sabriya wants to continue after we find nothing there?" asked Eskiya. "Then what will you do?"

"Then I'm going back to the bus," said Clem without any hesitation. "If you're going now… tell Sarah and Omid I love them."

Clem mounted her bike and started pedaling, again. The pain in her feet was immediate as was her regret in not going back when she got the chance. But she was already moving downhill and it'd be more effort to turn around, so she kept going. Clem stopped briefly and the end of the off-ramp to catch her breath. While she did, she looked over her shoulder, hoping to see Eskiya coming up behind her; he wasn't.

Clem sighed deeply and started moving forward again. She had turned left the first change she got, but couldn't see Horatio or Sabriya. She was so tired at this point Clem found herself having to focus entirely on her movement. Carefully time her breathing between every few pushes of the pedal before coaxing on her momentum for a few seconds, then repeating the cycle. It was all she could do to keep going.

She kept pedaling and pedaling until she coaxed on her momentum a bit too long and felt her bike buckling. Clem quickly skidded to a stop to prevent a second fall. Having already stopped, she took a few deep breaths and looked around; she had no idea where she was. She was far past the highway now and on city street. She had just blindly kept going forward until she was here; lost and alone.

Looking around, Clem was startled by how much darker it had gotten in such a short time. She stood there, shivering as panic crept up her spine. She wasn't sure if she could find her way back to the interstate now. The thought of being forced to spend the night out here terrified her, but not as much as being left behind. If she couldn't find the others, how long would it be until they just left Reno without her? Clem suddenly remembered she told Sarah to care for Omid in case she didn't come back; she wish she hadn't.

"Sarah? Sarah!" spoke Clem into her radio. "Can you hear me? Sarah?" Clem let go of the talk button and waited for a response. While she waited, she double-checked to make sure the radio's volume was turned up and it was on the right channel. Everything was in working order, but there was no answer. Checking it again, Clem found herself staring at a bit of discolored plastic shaped like a flower. It was where one of the stickers used to be on the radio, and seeing that made Clem want to weep.

"What did I tell you!" Clem dropped the radio and instinctively reached for her gun, struggling to dislodge it from her holster as she looked around in a panic for the source of the voice. Clem spotted someone about two blocks ahead of her, standing on a tall van with a rifle clutched in their hands. Clem had lined up the sights of her pistol on them before she noticed a familiar dark-red scarf covering their head; it was Sabriya.

"Fortified! Just like I said!"

Clem breathed a sigh of relief to hear Sabriya's voice. She holstered her gun and picked up her radio. She checked it again to make sure the fall hadn't damaged it. It looked no worse for wear, but she couldn't be sure if everything inside it was still intact.

"I see it!" called a second voice; it was Horatio's.

Clem put away her radio and got back on her bike. Approaching the van Sabriya was standing on, she found Horatio standing beside it, desperately motioning for Sabriya to come down. "Hurry up before someone sees you!" Clem rolled up to the pair as Sabriya leapt down from her spot on the van. "Over here," Horatio motioned to Clem, which felt strange to her; had he not noticed she wasn't behind them until just now? "Where's Eskiya?" Apparently not.

"Eskiya," repeated Clem in-between breaths. "He…"

"I see him." Sabriya's observation surprised Clem. She turned around and saw another person on a bike approaching from the road. For a moment she was terrified it was someone else, but coming into view it became clear it was Eskiya.

"Hurry up, get out of sight." Horatio motioned for Eskiya to join them behind the delivery van and Clem watched as he rolled to a stop beside him. She could hear him wheezing loudly as he did, something that just made her feel even more uneasy. It dawned on her just how careless they all had been acting. Clem's thoughts went back to Vernal, and how she ignored Sarah's protests until she had led them all into a town choked with walkers.

"You all doubted me, but I was right," said Sabriya. "They were using the airport as a base of operations."

"They?" asked Eskiya in-between breaths, alarm in his voice.

"Whoever used to be here," explained Horatio.

"Or still is," said Sabriya.

"We should leave," said Clem, not even trying to hide the panic she felt.

"Not yet, we need to learn more about what happened," insisted Sabriya.

"Sab, we're all tired," said Horatio. "We—"

"Just look!" she barked. "We're already here and it's not like we can leave all that quickly; better to get an idea of what we're up against first."

Clem sighed in resignation and surveyed her immediate surroundings, fearful something was lurking just outside of sight. After finding only more signs of nothingness across the street, Clem parked herself near the edge of the van and peered out. The street bordered a long fence that sat in front of a second, taller fence. The second one was clearly made after the outbreak to replace the first one, which had collapsed in numerous places.

Removing her binoculars, Clem examined the fencing more closely. She could see signs of attack along the second fence; bent posts, breaks in the chain-link, and numerous dark mounds piled up in certain spots. There were bodies, long since eroded into spindly cadavers with the occasional shred of clothing left. Clem found herself wondering if they had been walkers when they died, or if they were still alive when the people in the airport killed them.

"What did I tell you?" asked Sabriya as she studied the area. "This is an M.O.B. if I've ever seen one."

"Mother of the bride?" asked Horatio.

"Main operating base," corrected Clementine.

"Yes," said Sabriya, surprised by Clem's answer.

"This place might be military?" asked Eskiya. "Do we want to risk it?"

"What?" asked Sabriya in shock.

"If there's anyone inside there, we're in no condition to—"

"So you just want to forget about it and hope they don't come looking for us later?" retorted Sabriya. "We at least need to know—"

"I don't think there is anyone in there," informed Clem as she studied the makeshift base. "I can see some little tents inside through the fence, and a bunch of them have fallen down. I can see inside a big shipping container. It's empty." Clem lowered her binoculars. "We should just go back."

"Why?" challenged Sabriya. "If there's no one inside then what's the danger?"

"Sab, we're all exhausted," reasoned Horatio. "Let's just go back to the bus and we'll start again tomorrow."

"We've got almost nothing left to eat," reminded Sabriya, the urgency in her voice frightening Clem. "We go back now and we'll start tomorrow even more tired and with still no idea what to do. If we don't find something, anything today then we're as good as dead by tomorrow!"

Everyone stood there in stunned silence. No one refuted Sabriya's proclamation, probably because they knew it was likely true. Clem certainly thought it was. An exhausting trek across the deserts of Nevada just to arrive in an empty city had drained almost all hope of surviving the winter. Thinking about it, Clem found herself more scared then when it was just her, Sarah, Omid and a couple of bikes. Now she was with a group of five more people and a vehicle, and it still wasn't enough. They were all clinging to the same faint hope there was some kind of salvation yet to be found.

Sabriya suddenly ran ahead of everyone. Without discussion, they all wearily followed after her, resigned to their only option beyond waiting to die. It didn't take them long to find a gate further down the fence, left wide open as if to signal no one was ever coming back here. Clem even checked the pavement surrounding the entrance to see if there were any tire or footprints; there wasn't.

Clem spotted Sabriya a bit ahead of them, staring at a row of canvas tents. They were all olive green, and looked just big enough for maybe one person each. Clem knew little about how the military worked, but even to her this sight looked like the kind of thing you'd see in a movie about soldiers.

"Be careful," warned Clem, fear creeping into her veins as she stepped up behind Sabriya.

"Why?" said Sabriya. "You said we wouldn't find anything."

"I said you won't like what we find," corrected Clem as she drew her pistol. "If there is anyone left here, they probably don't like this either."

Sabriya breathed deeply as she raised her rifle to a ready position, then started moving slowly towards the nearest tent. Clem stuck close to Sabriya at first, a certain apprehension gripping her as they studied what she was hesitant to assume was an abandoned barracks of some kind. There were rows of beds, all unkempt and occasionally littered with bits of trash. Clem tensed up as she reached down to pick up a bucket; it was empty.

She moved away from Sabriya after that, realizing there was too much ground to cover together. Nothing she found was encouraging though. Most of the tents were in terrible shape, several of them had fallen over or even seemingly blown away in the wind. The trucks they found were devoid of any cargo or fuel. Looking over, Clem could see Eskiya and Horatio also surveying the region with no more luck than her.

Moving closer to the airport's terminal building, the group spotted a couple of planes parked nearby. They looked like private jets, appearing a bit too small to be normal airliners. The most curious part was each of them had a set of motorized stairs pushed up against open doors on the sides. Clem found herself moving a bit quicker as she rejoined Sabriya's side, then the pair waited for Horatio and Eskiya to find them.

They each elected to examine one of the planes, and Clem tightened her numb fingers around her gun's grip as she followed Sabriya up those stairs. She hadn't thought about planes in a long while. The last time was when they heard about the ones that flew over New Orleans. That memory sent a chill down Clem's spine that eventually crept through her veins until her hands were trembling. She watched as Sabriya disappeared into the plane and Clem felt herself holding her breath as she stepped past that open hatch.

The interior of the plane didn't reveal much. Some of the seats had been removed to make more room and there were makeshift beds, not unlike their bus. Much like the barracks, all the signs suggested anyone staying here was long gone. There wasn't even clothing beyond a ripped t-shirt Clem found in a tipped-over trash can. She headed for the cockpit next, curious to what it looked like. Clem had no idea what any of the dozens upon dozens of buttons or switches in this room did. Judging from the empty cans and other bits of garbage left strewn about, neither did whoever used to live here.

"Sabriya," said Clem as she headed for the exit. "Let's go."

"Not yet," said Sabriya as she opened one of the overhead compartments; it was empty.

"This place was probably important once but there's nothing here now."

"We still don't know that," insisted Sabriya as she hastily opened two more overhead compartments only to find them also empty.

"We can't stay here all day," asserted Clem in a forceful tone.

"It won't be all day, just until we find something," said Sabriya as she flipped open yet another storage compartment.

"We're not gonna find anything!" Sabriya peered into the compartment. "Are you even listening to me? We aren't gonna—"

Clem felt her heart in her throat as she saw Sabriya's hand shoot into one of the overhead compartments. She pulled out a large, black backpack and Clem suddenly found herself watching in anticipation as Sabriya unzipped it. Nothing came out when she shook it upside down, and one by one she undid each pouch only to find more nothing. Clem's heart sank as Sabriya unzipped the last pouch.

Clem watched in disappointment as Sabriya shook the backpack again, then shock when something long and thin came tumbling out. Clem found her hands moving on their own as she scooped up the lone prize they had found. It was a toothbrush, a somewhat filthy and very worn-out one. Clem sighed as she felt her heart sink all over again. Looking up at Sabriya, she looked like she was ready to cry.

"Let's just go," spoke Clem in a hushed whisper. Sabriya stood there, seemingly frozen in place, then suddenly sprinted towards the door. "Wait!" called Clem as she ran after her. Stepping outside, Clem saw Sabriya had a detached scope in her hands she was using to look out at their surroundings. "Please, let's just go back already," begged Clem. "We're not gonna find—"

"There." Sabriya pointed to a larger, square tent in the center of the tarmac. "That was probably the command center. If there's anything useful left, it'll be there."

"There won't be anything useful!" Clem barked as Sabriya hurried down the stairs and toward the center of tarmac. Clem was breathing hard just thinking about following her. Looking over, she saw Eskiya and Horatio standing on the other staircase to the other plane. Even from this distance, she could see the fatigue gripping their faces. Clem shuffled down the stairs where she met with the pair.

"Where is she going?" asked Horatio, his concern tinged with a hint of irritation.

"She said something about a command center and ran off," said Clem. "She… she won't listen."

"We need to tell Sabriya we're going back," stated Eskiya. "With or without them."

"What? No!" said Horatio. "We—"

"We can't force Sabriya to come back, not in the condition we're in, and we have a long way to get back to the bus," reasoned Eskiya. "Hopefully they'll see reason and realize it's time to leave."

"And if she doesn't?" challenged Horatio. "We just abandon her?"

"What do you suggest?" Eskiya's question left Horatio speechless. He was clearly trying to think of an answer, but one wasn't coming.

"Clem," said Horatio. "You can't be okay with this, are you?"

"No…"

"But?"

"I'm so tired…" mumbled Clem as she rubbed her head. She hadn't eaten anything since they left and the longer they stopped moving the more she could feel hunger pains churning away in her empty stomach. "If… if we go back now, we can bring the bus here. Dil said we'd have to drive it through the city anyway."

"I know you don't like me," Eskiya said to Horatio. "But I really don't see another option."

Horatio let out a weary sigh. "Just… give me the chance to talk to her first," he stated. "If she doesn't agree to come back with us, you go back with Clem and I'll stay with her until you can bring the bus up."

"I don't like that," said Eskiya. "Something could happen to you while we're gone."

"And something could happen to Sabriya if we leave her out here all alone," retorted Horatio. "So one of us should stay with her, and I'm probably still the least tired out of us, so it'll be me."

Eskiya let out a long groan. "Hopefully they'll listen to you," he said as they started walking forward.

"She wasn't listening to me," noted Clem in a grim tone.

"Yeah, I noticed…" The trio headed for this 'command center' Sabriya had sighted. Studying their surroundings on the way, Clem noted there were no bodies inside the fort that she could see. And although some of the tents had fallen down, the remaining ones were still in neat rows. Between that and the relatively small amount of trash inside suggested the people here had plenty of time to pack up and leave.

Eventually, the group found the 'command center'. It was vacated as well, being little more than an open area filled with tables under a tall tent that was falling in on one corner. This area wasn't as tidy as most of the others, with lots of wind-strewn papers scattered about the surrounding pavement. A pile of them had collected by an overturned table, like leaves in a gutter. Clem stepped closer and felt something crunch under her feet.

Looking down, she saw a radio under her shoe. The screen was cracked, probably her doing just now. It also had a broken antenna and was missing a dial on top. Clem flipped the radio over and removed the cover; there were still batteries inside. Her numb fingers instinctively pried at them, only for her to notice a chalky substance covering them. These batteries were badly corroded, and even if they weren't, they probably lost their charge ages ago.

"Sab!" Horatio's cry caused Clem to drop the radio. Looking down at it, she realized she didn't have to worry about breaking this one since it was already broken. Moving to the far end of the tent, Clem found Sabriya sitting on the pavement. "Sab," said Horatio as he knelt down to speak to her. "We need to go, okay? Let's…"

"You were right…" Clem was unnerved when Sabriya looked at her as she said that. Her face was almost blank, like she was in a trance. "I don't like it."

"Don't like what?" Sabriya merely gestured to a table behind her.

"I found that…buried in the trash…"

"Found what?" Eskiya, Clem and Horatio approached the table Sabriya pointed at. Laid out across it was a large, torn map of the United States covered in faded pen marks. There was so much writing on it Clem didn't know where to start.

"Fascinating," said Eskiya as he studied the map.

"That's one way to describe it," mumbled Sabriya as she stood up. "I'd call it hopeless myself." Sabriya sighed as she looked at the map. "I assume the black X's mean a city is effectively wiped out..."

Looking at the map, Clem saw a lot of black ink. There were X's through every major city on the eastern seaboard: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Miami. Clem noticed Savannah was printed on the map but there wasn't any mark on it; apparently it wasn't important enough to bother noting. There was a big black X across Atlanta though. Drifting eastward, she saw an X across New Orleans and Houston too. Tracing her finger upward, she found a big black X across Tulsa. She sighed to herself.

"What do you think these mean?" Eskiya pointed at Salt Lake City. "It's yellow, and it looks like… a circle surrounded by a trio of… crescents?"

"I think they were trying to draw a biohazard symbol," answered Horatio. "Like the kind you see on medical waste. Look, here." Horatio pointed at Chicago, which also had one of the yellow marks on it. "I can tell you that Chicago was overrun by the dead in a couple of days… I guess they never bothered to take it back."

"Salt Lake City was full of undead too," noted Eskiya as his finger drifted to Denver, which also had a yellow mark. "You said Denver was full of the undead."

"Yeah, it is."

"It was you mean," corrected Sabriya. "You told us those Vaquero people had been there, and probably cleaned it out."

"Well I don't know if they did but… yeah, probably."

"Which means this map isn't even accurate anymore," groused Sabriya.

"Still, this is more information about the state of the country than we've ever had before," noted Horatio.

"And it's all bad news," said Sabriya with a strange laugh. "Check out the west coast, that thing we were finally getting close to."

Clem's eyes moved to the left hand of the map and found the west coast was covered in yellow marks. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and most of the smaller cities in between were marked with the bio-hazard symbol. Looking at the Nevada border, Clem found Reno itself, which was unmarked. West of that was Sacramento, which also carried a yellow mark.

"So, everywhere west of here is full of walkers," realized Clem. "That's… really bad."

"What does these mean?" asked Eskiya as he pointed to the top of the map. "They keep writing these same three letters in red over and over."

"DMZ?" read Clem.

"Demilitarized zone," answered Sabriya.

"What's that?" asked Clem.

"It means a chunk of land two countries agree neither controls," mumbled Sabriya. "In essence, a big border neither side is allowed to cross."

"So… anyone trying to go from here to Canada would—"

"Probably be killed, which matches up with the horror stories we heard back in Michigan."

"Not just there, a woman told me about someone who came back from the Canadian border," recalled Clem. "One of their cars were blown up trying to drive over, and then all their friends were shot trying to get over a fence."

"Jesus…" said Horatio.

"Not like we're close enough to even risk dying on the Canadian border."

"It says DMZ down here as well." Eskiya pointed at the southwestern edge of the country; San Diego, California. "Only here though, not the rest of the Mexican border. What do you think that means?"

"Who knows," shrugged Sabriya. "It's not like we're gonna drive a thousand miles past a few million undead just to find out."

"Look at this though," said Horatio as he pointed at Las Vegas. It had multiple marks around it. The name was highlighted in orange, but Clem could see there was a bit of green under that mark, as if someone drew over it. It didn't have an X or bio-hazard mark on it, even though there were multiple marks on the cities south of it.

"I… didn't notice that before," said Sabriya as she looked at the map. Examining it closer, there were black marks on the roads leading to Las Vegas. One was an X and the others were a couple of parallel lines, like an equal sign. None of these roads were close to Reno though.

"Wish this came with a legend," said Horatio as he studied the map. "Then maybe…"

Sabriya suddenly fell to her knees. Clem thought she had collapsed but she was crawling over to the overturned table with papers around it, hastily digging through them.

"What are you doing?" asked Clem.

"There's gotta be more," she reasoned as she studied a couple of pages. "I… I just found that by chance. There's so many more we haven't even looked at." Sabriya looked up at the group. "All of you, take a few and start reading." Sabriya shoved a stack of papers into Clem's hands.

"What? No, we need to head back before it gets dark," said Clem as she set the papers down.

"This won't take long," insisted Sabriya as she scooped up more paper.

"We're going back," announced Eskiya. "We'd prefer you come with us now, but we decided we can't risk exerting ourselves anymore today."

"What?" Sabriya stood up, clearly angered by that comment. "You don't decide that."

"No, we did," refuted Clem. "We're exhausted and the sun is already going down. We can come back here tomorrow, after we move the bus closer."

"We need—"

"Something," finished Horatio. "We have it now, this map at least gives us some idea of where to head next."

"But we don't even know—"

"A lot of things about it, yeah," continued Horatio. "We'll be in a better place to analyze it after some rest."

"And we should let Sarah and Dilawar see it," said Clem. "They might notice something we missed."

"We could also take a handful of papers back to read later," reasoned Eskiya as he scooped up some discarded pages. "They don't weigh much, and it's not like we're carrying a lot of weight right now."

"And if we don't find anything, we can come back in the morning and dig through the rest," reasoned Horatio. "Sound good?" Sabriya stood there awkwardly for a moment. She looked over at Eskiya, then Clem, who did her best to plead with her eyes until she remembered her mask hid them.

"Okay," she said in quiet voice. "Let's… let go home already."

Eskiya carefully folded up the map and placed it inside his pack. Sabriya packed away handfuls of paper in the others' packs until Horatio told her to stop. The group returned to their bikes and began their long trek back. It was more than a struggle going uphill on an on-ramp, but after that they were back on the interstate. Clem tried calling for Sarah again, but there was still no response. With a weary sigh, Clem started pedaling again.

It was getting colder and darker by the second, and they were having to move against the wind now, which felt like it was picking up speed in an effort to knock them off their bikes. Clem's entire body was trembling as she tried to shut out the pain. She kept her eyes fixed on the horizon and watched as the sun shriveled away behind a thick layer of clouds threatening to blot out the stars.

The darkness felt like it was swallowing them as night descended on Reno. The buildings surrounding the highway seemed to fade away into the encroaching inky blackness until the city itself vanished, leaving them alone on a stretch of asphalt leading nowhere. Clem couldn't see the horizon anymore, she couldn't see the others, and a horrible sense of panic gripped her broken and shuddering body.

White light flooded the road and Clem skidded to a stop as she found herself blinded. Her mind was seized by terror, she merely stood frozen in fear, unable to even shiver, submitting to whatever fate had befallen her. She tried to scream but no sound came out when she opened her mouth. She found herself unable to breathe as the light burned her eyes. The only thing she could do is instinctively reach for her gun, unsure what to do with it.

"Guys?" crackled Dilawar from the radio. "That… that's you right?"

"Yu… yeah," spoke a shivering Sabriya, whom Clem just now realized was standing beside her. She motioned to the radio on Clem's belt. It took Clem a few seconds before her hand would move again. She put the gun away and reached for the radio.

"It's… it's us," announced Clem.

"Oh thank God." The group hastily moved past the front of the bus as Dilawar shut off the headlights. They let their bikes fall to the ground and tossed their coats on the payment as they rushed inside.

"Clem!"

"Sarah!" Clem stumbled trying to rush up to her friend and found herself falling into Sarah's arms.

"Of my God, you're freezing!" Clem felt Sarah pull her in close and the sensation of her hands tenderly rubbing up and down Clem's back felt heavenly. Clem just leaned into the embrace and breathed a deep sigh of relief, enjoying Sarah's familiar scent. Clem would have been content to remain like this all night, but then she heard something. It was a subtle but sad whimpering that stung her heart.

"Omid…" Clem saw him standing there, on the verge of crying and he looked up at her. "It's okay. I'm okay," said Clem between breaths. "Come here, Omid." Clem reached out her hand and he immediately rushed out to meet it. Omid hurried into Clem's arm and she pulled him close into a group hug between the three of them. Clem felt a tear rolling down her cheek as she grasped a loved one in each arm.

"Jesus, we've been trying to call you guys for over an hour." Letting her gaze drift, Clem saw Dilawar frantically wrapping a blanket around Sabriya as she sat down on her bed.

"Clem had the radio, I guess she didn't hear it," reasoned a shivering Sabriya. The radio clearly did still work, they had just used it, but Clem realized Sabriya was right and she probably didn't hear it over her own heavy breathing.

"You said you'd check in every ten minutes," reminded Dilawar. "We would have come sooner but the engine was—"

"I'm sorry Dil," mumbled an apologetic Sabriya. "I have been fucking up a lot today." Clem was shocked at how pale Sabriya was, her face oddly stiff as she spoke. She looked like she was dying, which just sent a chill down Clem's spine.

Beyond them, she saw Eskiya, sitting on his bed, alone, trying to get warm. He looked so miserable that Clem pitied him. She was about to pull away from Sarah when there was a knock at the door.

"The bikes are up…" groaned Horatio as he slowly marched up the stairs. "I'll put our coats up in a second."

"Oh Ray… I'm sorry," spoke a weary Sabriya as she tried to stand up. "Let me…" Sabriya lost her balance and fell back onto her bed.

"It's okay," insisted Horatio as he took a seat on the floor. "I wanted to get out of the bus for a while…" He took a deep breath. "I did."

The bus grew quiet as everyone tried to warm up. They couldn't waste diesel on the bus's heater, so instead they just bundled themselves in blankets and huddled close together. Horatio spent a little time trying to block up the slits in the door that was letting cold air in, then gave up and joined the others in the middle of the bus. There they sat around a tiny electric lantern that produced no heat.

"We… we need to discuss our next move," said Eskiya with a weary sigh. "We're still no better now than when we started this morning." Eskiya reached into his backpack.

"What's that?" asked Sarah.

"The only thing we found in all of Reno," said Clem as Eskiya unfolded the map across the floor.

"We obviously can't stay here and we can't go back east," said Sabriya. "So… where do we go next?"

The group gathered around the map for a partly dinner of cold tomato soup and some stale gummy vitamins for dessert. Omid was more hesitant than usual to eat the soup. Clem didn't blame him, it was ice cold and tasted terrible. The best they could manage is Sarah kept the can bundled in her jacket long enough to not be frigid. Even then, Omid would only swallow two spoonfuls of soup. He was eager to get that vitamin though. It was the closest thing they had to candy anymore.

"I think we should start heading south, towards Las Vegas," argued Sabriya. "Clearly, something of importance happened there and the Hoover Dam is next door. You even said you met some people once heading there."

"That was a long time ago, and Las Vegas is a long way from here," noted Eskiya before turning to Clem and Sarah. "Your guide said there might be a war or some other conflict on the southern border."

"There might still be, we don't know," said Sarah.

"We never really knew," admitted Clem. "Just things we heard from people who used to live in Houston."

"What we do know is that there were people here, they were organized, likely left after they cleared out this city and Las Vegas is the one place nearby they didn't mark out," rationalized Sabriya. "I think that's reason enough for us to investigate."

"That's about as long a trip as it was from Salt Lake City to here," noted Dilawar with a sigh. "We've already used all the fuel we took from the Vaquero and haven't found half as much in the gas stations between then and now."

"We just filled up the bus this morning," reminded Sabriya.

"Yeah, that was a lucky windfall after about two days of almost nothing," said Dilawar. "If the people here in Reno did go to Las Vegas, they probably hit every gas station between here and there as well."

"Do any of you have a better idea?" asked an irate Sabriya.

"I think we should go west," suggested Eskiya,

"West?" repeated Clem in disbelief. "You mean towards where all the walkers probably are?"

"Yes," he said without a hint of sarcasm. "If they could never remove the undead from the cities west of here, that means they never finished looting them either. We could get food, fuel, and other things."

"Or die trying," dismissed Clem.

"We know how to deal with the undead," Eskiya told Clem. "You were one of the people who taught us how."

"Yeah, and now I'm telling you this is a bad idea," said Clem. "Walkers are stupid, but they're also never give up. They never get tired, we do… and we are.

"Also, there's only eight of us, and Omid can't fight them," added Sarah. "All these big cities close together… there could be millions of walkers out there."

"You once told us about how you and just six others cleared Tulsa of an entire horde of the undead," reminded Eskiya.

"Yeah, when we were well fed, well armed, and one of those people was a soldier who had been staying in Tulsa for months and knew exactly where an entire warehouse of food was being kept," recounted Clem.

"It took us an entire day to even prepare for that, and another day to actually do it," added Sarah. "We had a lot more food on-hand then we do now, and… we still had some close calls." Sarah tightened her grip on Omid as he clutched her for warmth. "We're… we're not in a good place right now to deal with a whole city of lurkers."

"We're not in a good place at all," noted Eskiya. "But I think we could handle the undead though."

"Last time I went into a city full of walkers… I almost didn't come out." Clem felt Sarah's arm around her as she rubbed her own hand. She could still feel her missing fingers somehow, burning in pain. "And Vernal isn't even on this map."

"What do you suggest?" asked Sabriya.

"I think we should go north," said Clem.

"North?" repeated Sabriya. "What's there?"

"Nothing if this map is accurate," noted Eskiya. "Just more desert. There's forests to the northwest though."

"Then let's go northwest," said Clem. "I don't think we're gonna get lucky no matter where we go, so our best bet is just getting out of the way of everything, at least long enough to get our shit together."

"What are we supposed to eat if we go north?" asked Sabriya. "There's gonna be nothing to find."

"We'll just have to get by on fish and foraging," reasoned Clem. "At least until the winter is over."

"You want us to… just live out in the woods?" asked Sarah.

"I did it before," asserted Clem.

"With Christa's help, and you told me how much you hated it, and how hard it was," said Sarah.

"It was but—"

"You want to go north, into the countryside, in the middle of winter?" asked Sabriya in disbelief. "Do you have any clue how bad an idea that is?"

"A single blizzard would be the end of all of us," lamented Eskiya in an uncharacteristically fearful tone. "We're in a literal desert and it looks like it wants to snow already."

"Take it from people who've already spent a couple of winters in the midwest," said Dilawar. "You don't want to be moving north right now."

"Well, what else can we do?" challenged an irate Clem.

Sabriya and Eskiya didn't have an answer, but Clem noticed Dilawar and Sarah looking at each other briefly before turning back to the rest of the group. "Sarah and I got to talking the other day and the way we see it… we need help."

"We need to find other people," clarified Sarah.

"What?" asked Sabriya in disbelief.

"Other people are why we had to flee in the first place," reminded Eskiya.

"Yeah, obviously we don't mean the Vaquero," said Dilawar. "But they can't be the last people alive in the world other than us. There must be others out there… somewhere."

"Hopefully ones who have food," said Sarah. "And… would be willing to share it with us."

"That's… that' insane!" refuted Sabriya. "You're basically hoping for uh… a miracle!"

"Yeah, we are," confessed Sarah. "Because a miracle is the only way we're gonna survive at this point."

A deadly hush fell over the room as everyone digested what was just said. It was Clem who spoke up first. "Why… why didn't you tell me any of this last night?" she asked, feeling hurt Sarah confided in Dilawar but not her.

"Or me for that matter?" spoke Sabriya in a similar tone to Dilawar.

"We were both hoping we'd luck up in Reno today," said Dilawar with a sigh.

"I was hoping it'd be like Tulsa," Sarah told Clem. "That we'd find some big store of food and we'd have some time to think about what do next. But it's not gonna happen, there aren't any jackpots left waiting for us to find…"

"Or if there are, we're obviously not the only ones looking for them," said Dilawar. "Besides, isn't that what you're suggesting, Sab?"

"What?" she asked in confusion.

"You wanted to go to Las Vegas cause the people here went there," said Dilawar. "Aren't you hoping to run into people by doing that?"

"No, I'm hoping there's something, some resource there that could keep us alive," stated Sabriya. "They mentioned Tulsa had a dam for a while that gave them electricity, and the Hoover Dam is the biggest dam in the country. Maybe it's still working."

"And the people who would have to be there to maintain and use it are just gonna let us walk in and out?" asked Dilawar.

"Shouldn't you want to go there then?" challenged Sabriya. "You and Sarah said we'll need people and a miracle to survive. We might find at least the first thing in Las Vegas."

"Vegas is on the other side of the state," said Dilawar as he pointed to it on the map. "Surely we can find others somewhere closer than four-hundred miles away."

"Can we?" Sarah asked Dilawar. "We thought we might find someone or something in Reno and it's completely empty."

"And you think Las Vegas will be any different?" asked Dilawar.

"It might be," refuted Sarah.

"Thank you," said Sabriya.

"Sacramento is much closer," argued Eskiya. "And we know if there's undead there, there's probably supplies."

"We don't know either of those things," interjected Clem. "We do know how to fish, start a fire and boil water though. We just need to get away from cities and all this shit for a while and get enough food."

"That's a lot of fishing we'd have to do," said Dilawar.

"And we don't have to go north to find lakes or water," added Eskiya "We do if we want to get anyway from anyone who'd want to kill us," said Clem.

"You ever get trapped in a blizzard?" snapped Sabriya.

"You ever get kidnapped and tortured by psychos!" yelled Clem back. "I'll take my chances with the fucking blizzard!"

"Clem, calm down," insisted Sarah.

"Don't tell me to be calm," sneered Clem.

"You're not helping," said Sarah.

"And you are?" Sarah glared at Clem in response.

"West is our best option," insisted Eskiya in a firm voice.

"Nobody thinks that but you," insisted Clem.

"Actually I was thinking maybe west isn't a bad idea," said Dilawar.

"Exactly," said Eskiya. "We—"

"We'd have to avoid the bigger cities," said Dilawar. "But I bet there are smaller ones with people still scavenging off the big ones full of the undead."

"What?" asked Eskiya in confusion. "That completely defeats the point."

"Which is what exactly?" asked a sarcastic Sabriya.

"That the big cities full of undead haven't been looted yet," said Eskiya.

"And it'd be a ton of work just the seven of us to get anything useful from them at this point," said Sabriya. "Assuming we didn't get ourselves eaten in the process."

"Not like that," Clem mumbled to herself. "I don't want to die like that…"

"Those cities had millions of people each, which could mean millions of lurkers now," reasoned Sarah. "There could be whole herds moving around out west for all we know."

"And all it'd take is a gunshot or the bus's engine to bring them right on top of us," added Sabriya.

"I'd rather go north than risk tackling a big city full of the undead right now," stated Dilawar.

"What?" asked an annoyed Sabriya. "Dil, you just told them we don't want to be moving north right now."

"We don't, but between a blizzard and a million of those things… I'll take the blizzard," he said reluctantly.

"Ugh, this is getting us nowhere," said Sabriya as she rubbed her head. "Ray, you haven't said much, what's your idea?" Sabriya waited for Horatio's response, but he didn't say anything. "Ray?"

Looking around, Clem noticed Horatio was missing.

"Omid?" said Sarah. "Where's Omid?"

Clem jumped up upon hearing that. He had been seated right between herself and Sarah this whole time. Or so they thought, he was missing now.

"We're back here," called Horatio in the distance. The entire group stood up and moved back to where Sarah and Clem's bed was. They found Horatio lying beside it, comforting a shaking lump hiding under the blanket.

"I think the yelling bothered him," said Horatio in a quiet voice.

"Omid!" Sarah fell to her knees beside him, Clem coming up right behind her. "I'm so sorry," she said as she placed a hand on the covers.

"We weren't yelling at you," assured Clem.

"Let's all just get some sleep," yawned Horatio. "Figure out where we're going in the morning."

"Yeah, that makes sense," said Dilawar as Horatio headed for his bed. "We can go back to yelling at each other tomorrow," said Dilawar as he collapsed onto his mattress. "Right?" Dilawar looked over at Sabriya, who was fiddling with her backpack. "Sab…"

"What?" she said as she pulled a stack of papers from her bag.

"You're not really going to go through those tonight?" asked Horatio. "Are you?"

"Sab, get some sleep," said Dil.

"Just one… maybe we'll get lucky." Sabriya held a page in front of the tiny electric lantern hanging from the top of the bus.

"Well?" said Eskiya he inched closed. "What does it say?"

"I think it's a list of junk food they had on hand." Eskiya lied down in his bed as Sabriya waded up the piece of paper. "At least we'll have kindling for a few days…"

Clem sighed as she finally took her shoes off. Her toes were still red and numb. Rubbing them to get some sensation back, Clem started remembering hearing about people losing toes to frostbite, and found herself worried she'd never be able to feel them again. Eventually, they warmed up enough to feel again and she breathed a sigh of relief. Crawling into bed, Clem took care not to disturb Omid, who was still hiding under the covers. She looked over at Sarah, and was surprised to see Sarah was staring at her.

"What?" asked Clem.

"Why did you say that?" asked Sarah, sounding irritable.

"Say what?" asked Clem, now irritated herself.

"That I wasn't helping," repeated Sarah.

"What? Really?" Sarah just stared at Clem in response. "Cause you said it first!"

"Well you weren't," argued Sarah.

"I'm sorry, who was out working herself to death all day today?" asked an angered Clem.

"I didn't mean that," said Sarah. "You yelling like that wasn't helping. It scared Omid."

"Like you noticed," mumbled Clem under her breath.

"What?" asked an irate Sarah.

"There some reason you can tell Dilawar you want to find other people but not me?"

"It was just something we talked about yesterday," argued Sarah. "I was just thinking…. maybe there's someone out there who'd want to adopt a baby… so we don't have to kill it after it's born."

Clem just sighed to herself. "That's why you want to find other people?"

"It's one of the reasons."

"And if we do find other people, who's the one who will have to go and meet them?" asked Clem. "Me, like always."

"No, we've got the others, they'll help us," insisted Sarah. "It won't be like last time."

"And if it is, and someone ties me up and tries to rape me, again?" asked Clem. "Will you tell me to calm down then?"

"Last… last time we met Simon." Hearing that name caused Clem to flinch. "And if you had calmed down, then—"

"Enough!" Clem exclaimed before Sarah could finish. "You… you're gonna upset Omid." Clem suddenly looked over to where he was lying under the covers. She could hear him breathing softly. Clem carefully pulled the blanket back enough to see him. Even asleep his face was scrunched in a way that made it clear he was miserable.

"I'm sorry," said Sarah suddenly. "Let's… just talk about it later." "Yeah, okay," mumbled Clem.

Clem packed her gun, radio and tomahawk in her bag. She didn't bother undressing. Sleeping in her clothes was uncomfortable but not as much as shivering was. She stowed her backpack in aisle across from the bed then came back. Crawling onto the mattress, Clem saw Sarah removing a pill bottle from her own backpack. It was xanax, something that Horatio had given Sarah a small supply of when she couldn't sleep after they left Salt Lake City.

"Want one?" asked a weary Sarah as she removed the bottle's cap.

The few times Clem had taken one, they had helped her sleep, but also made her feel kind of drunk afterwards. Eyeing the pill bottle, Clem counted seven pills, which became six after Sarah removed one for herself. Even exhausted, it was hard getting a good night's sleep on a worn-out mattress inside a drafty bus. Clem found herself reaching for the pill bottle when she recalled what Horatio had told her about Anwar and Zahra, and how the latter's pregnancy may have killed her, which resulted in her turning and killing the former in their sleep. Clem pulled her hand back.

"I'll be okay," said Clem.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Clem watched as Sarah put away the bottle and swallowed the pill with a quick gulp of water. Without so much as a word, Sarah laid down on the mattress and turned on her side. Clem sighed to herself and inched in behind Sarah. She wanted to hold Omid, having barely spent a moment with him today, but he was on the other side of Sarah and there was no getting over her to him right now due to how cramped their 'room' was.

Clem also found herself annoyed there was barely any space for her under the covers, having to practically pull with all her might to wrestle enough of the blanket away from Sarah to get under it herself. She tried worming closer to Sarah for the warmth, but struggled to move her arms. Sarah didn't seem to notice, or maybe she was already asleep. The blanket and mattress reeked of some kind of musk and Clem could hear little creeks from the others in their beds.

This had become a recurring problem for Clem, long and exhausting days with even longer, restless nights. She was dead tired but her mind refused to stop thinking anyways. Clem didn't know how long she spent squirming uncomfortably in the dark. It could have been an hour or maybe it was just a few minutes. It all just blurred together into a blurry haze of misery. After fruitlessly trying to get warm, Clem stood up and stumbled through the dark to the bathroom in the back of the bus.

She didn't actually need to use the bathroom, it's just there was nowhere else for her to go right now. She stepped inside, sat down and closed the door. She was so tired she couldn't even hold her head up and just elected to sit there, breathe and try to not let the smell bother her. She actually felt more comfortable in here than in bed, maybe because of the door and this being the one place you could have some actual privacy.

Clem leaned back and let her head lay against the wall. After a while, her exhaustion trumped her discomfort and she found herself content to just sit there for whatever little rest she could get. She sat there in the dark for some time before she started hearing a buzzing sound. At first she thought there was a fly in her ear, but as she sat up she realized the sound was coming from outside the bus.

Slowly, she pulled herself up, the distant buzzing turning into a not-so-distant rumbling, and Clem felt her stomach drop. Her hand trembled as she reached for the door. She could feel it now, the cold air carrying the vibrations through the walls and right into her body. It was an engine she was hearing, a loud one, and it was getting closer with every second.

Opening the door, Clem dropped to the ground as a bright light beamed in through the back window. Her heart pounded against her chest as she heard whatever was approaching slow to a stop, the engine idling now as the light flooded the entire back of the bus. Clem started crawling forward, clinging to the floor in hopes of staying out of sight. She hurried over to Sarah and started shaking her.

"Sarah!" she whispered as loud as she could without yelling. "Wake up!" she pleaded as she shook her. "We—" Clem went silent as she heard a car door swing open and footsteps approach.

There were at least two people walking alongside the bus, heading for the door; the lock was busted. Clem started scurrying as fast as she could to the front, desperately trying to outrun the strangers who were heading her way. She scrambled over to the steps just in time to see the door swing open. The headlights from their vehicle lit up their faces; it was two people wearing gold and blue painted helmets. Clem's only thought was wishing she'd wake up as they raised their guns.

"Move!" Eskiya darted in front of Clem and pulled the door closed. In a flash, he spun around, braced his legs against the wall and pushed against the door with his shoulder. Clem snapped out of her panic and rushed over to him.

"No," he said as he pushed her away. "Drive!"

"Me?" Clem looked over at the driver's seat. "But, I can't—"

Eskiya groaned as two pairs of hands slid into the space between the door and the threshold. They began prying the door open as Eskiya strained to slow the inevitable.

"Hurry!"

Clem raced into the driver's seat and looked for the ignition around the steering wheel, before remembering the key went on a spot to the left of the steering wheel. She snatched the key from the dashboard, but her shaking hand caused the tip of it to dance around the ignition, mocking Clem as the sound of Eskiya groaning and metal creaking got louder. She finally landed the key in the slot and awkwardly stretched out her foot onto the brake while she turned it. The dashboard lit up but there was no sound from the engine.

"It won't start!" yelled Clem.

"Push the button next to key!" yelled Eskiya through clenched teeth as the door audibly shuddered under the Vaquero's assault. Clem found the button and pressed it. The engine started stuttering but it wouldn't start. "Press down on the gas!" yelled Eskiya. "Just a little and—" There was a large bang as the door flung open and one of the Vaquero rushed forward, grabbing at Eskiya.

Clem turned around and mashed on the gas pedal, the engine stuttered then roared to life and Clem switched the bus to drive. Everything shot forward suddenly while a horrible screeching filled the air. Clem felt the steering wheel fighting against her as gunshots sounded just to her left. Her whole body was shaking just before the bus itself started rumbling all around her.

"Headlights!" Clementine suddenly noticed Dilawar beside her, flipping a switch on the dashboard. The lights came on and Clem noticed she was scraping the bus against the side of a concrete divider. "Let me! Let me!" Clem vacated the sit and Dilawar quickly replaced her. He pulled the wheel hard to left, then flicked another switch which ended the screeching sound; it was the parking brake.

"What the hell is going on?" Clem heard Horatio yell from further back.

"We're under attack!" Clem watched as Sabriya picked up and cocked her rifle. "Everyone… shit!" Sabriya pointed her rifle at the door. Clem spun around to see Eskiya hunched over on the ground, blood splattered on the floor in front of him.

"No…" said Clem in a quiet voice as she approached Eskiya.

"Clem, stay back!" ordered Sabriya as she grabbed Clem's collar. "If he's… if he's dead, he'll turn and—"

"I'm not dead," groaned Eskiya as he slowly stood up, blood dripping from a knife in his hand. "At least not yet."

"Whose… whose blood is that?" asked a nervous Horatio.

"Not mine," said Eskiya and as he wiped the knife off on one of the bus seats. "I missed their throat though. So—ugh." The knife fell from Eskiya's hand, which started twitching.

"Let me see," said Horatio as he moved in closer.

"Did… did you get shot?" asked a nervous Clem.

"I don't think so," said Eskiya as he pulled off his glove, revealing his fingers being bruised and almost purple. "Holding the door closed against those Vaquero was… difficult."

"Wait… did you just say Vaquero?" asked Horatio.

"Are… are you serious?" called Dilawar from the driver's seat. "We're five-hundred miles away from Salt Lake City, and they're here already?"

"That's impossible," declared Sabriya in a shaken voice.

"It's them," stated a dismayed Clem. "I saw their helmets."

"How?" said Sabriya, sounding on the verge of panic. "How can—"

A familiar noise crept up from the back of the bus, reverberating through the air like a vengeful storm thundering in everyone's eardrums.

"Is that…"

"Is that's fucking car again," swore Clem.

"Shit," swore Sabriya as she cocked her rifle. "Eskiya, stay up here with Dil in case he needs anything. Ray, Clem; grab your guns and come with me." The trio hurried to the back, Clem only stopping near her bed to grab her backpack.

"Clem…" She looked up to see a trembling Sarah cradling an even more shaken Omid. "Is it really them?" Clem grimly nodded. "Oh God… why?"

Clem leaned forward and kissed Sarah on the forehead. "Just stay with Omid." Clem leaned in and kissed the top of Omid's head. "It'll be okay." Clem paused as she realized she didn't believe that, then raced towards the back window. Just as she got close, blinding light came flooding in again. The vicious roar of the car's engine echoed through the air before a deafening volley of gunshots tore into the bus itself.

Clem hurled herself onto the floor, ears ringing as shattered glass rained down around her. She started crawling forward, brushing glass aside with one arm and dragging her bag with the other. All the while there was gunshot after gunshot, each explosive bang followed by metal crunching and a terrified screaming from Omid. Hurrying forward during a lull in the gunfire, Clem found Sabriya and Horatio taking cover beneath the window.

Clem unzipped her backpack as a couple more gunshots rang out, one immediately followed by a loud metallic bang right beside the wall she was taking cover behind. Looking over, Clem saw Sabriya using the butt of her rifle to break out the remaining glass by the corner of the back window. Sabriya took the grenade from her belt and wrapped her finger around the pin, then the entire bus veered suddenly to the right, throwing them all on their sides.

Clem pulled herself off the ground just in time to see the grenade roll right in front of her face. Panic shot through her body like a bolt of lightning and her hand reached out to grab it without thinking. She looked around for an open window but somehow found only unbroken ones in every direction. She raced into the bathroom, pulled open the toilet lid and was about to toss the grenade inside when she saw something metal jiggling in front of her eyes; the pin and the ring were still in place.

Clem breathed a sigh of relief which was cut short by another trio of gunshots. She tossed the grenade into her backpack and removed her pistol as the walls of the bathroom shuttered from more gunfire. She hurried out during the next lull and raced over to where Sabriya and Horatio were taking cover. Horatio a pistol in his hand while Sabriya was hastily removing the scope off the top of her rifle.

"Next break in the gunfire, you two point your guns out the window and shoot in their direction," ordered Sabriya.

"I can't see shit over the headlights," yelled Horatio over more gunshots.

"You don't need to!" said Sabriya as she pocketed the scope. "Don't leave cover, just aim your guns outside and shoot."

"Why?" yelled a confused Clem over the sound of the Vaquero engine screaming at them through the wall.

"I just need cover fire for a few seconds," said Sabriya as Clem looked up at the broken back window just as she heard another gunshot. There were jagged shards lining the bottom of the window sill, practically waiting to cut up any arm they stuck out.

"I don't—"

"Now!"

Sabriya's order compelled Clem and Horatio to act. Clem pointed her pistol's barrel past the glass and just started pulling the trigger as quickly as she could. The gunfire surrounding Clem chased away all the other sound of the world and left only a horrible ringing as she felt her hand throbbing from the pistol kicking against it. The trigger finally refused to return to her grip meaning the gun was out of bullets.

Clem dropped down to the floor and reached for her bag. She removed the spare magazine inside and ejected the old one, but struggled to the load the gun. Her left hand's grip was weak and a sudden shooting pain from her stumps caused her to drop the magazine. Even with ears ringing, Clem could feel more gunshots pulsing through the air around her. She turned her head and noticed Sabriya standing in front of the window, her rifle braced against her shoulder.

Clem watched as Sabriya fired shot after shot with mechanical precision. Cocking the bolt and pulling the trigger repeatedly with a flawless rhythm as the wind whipped at her short dark hair. Sabriya suddenly dropped behind cover and removed her rifle's magazine. In that moment, Clem couldn't feel or hear any more gunshots, nor see the Vaquero's headlights beaming in through the back window. Clem dared to poke her head up just long enough to see the Vaquero's race car swerve off the road.

"You got them!" announced Clem, unable to her herself over the ringing sound. "Sabriya, you—" Clem watched as Sabriya reloaded her rifle, cocked it, then stood up again, trying to find a target. "You got them," said Clem again as she moved to Sabriya. Sabriya slowly sat down, still clutching her rifle closely with both hands; she seemed afraid to let go of it. "You got them," repeated Clem, finally able to hear herself speak again. "I saw their car crash."

"Yeah, but we know they got others," said Sabriya as she clutched her rifle. "How far behind do you think the others are from that race car?"

"In Colorado, it wasn't long before that school bus showed up," recalled Clem. "We—"

"Oh my God," exclaimed Horatio in a hushed whisper.

Clem turned around and saw Omid screaming as he repeatedly tugged on Sarah, who was leaning against a bloody mark on the wall.

"No…" Clem felt her heart drop as she studied Sarah's motionless form, Omid yelling at the top of his lungs as he kept pulling on her jacket in a desperate attempt to wake her.

"Horatio," said Sabriya. "Get Omid away from her."

"What?" asked a horrified Clem.

"I…" Horatio trailed off and moved towards Omid. "Come on, it'll be okay. I'll—"

Omid started shrieking as Horatio dragged him away.

"Are the Vaquero still chasing us?" called Eskiya from the front.

"What's going on back there?" yelled Dilawar. "Is everyone okay?"

"Sarah's dead."

"No!" refuted Clem loudly as she took a step towards Sarah.

"I'm sorry Clem," said Sabriya as she raised her rifle.

"What… what are you doing?"

"If she's dead."

"She's not dead!"

"If she is, she'll turn and—" Clem loaded her gun and pointed it at Sabriya, shocking both of them. The pair stood there in disbelief while Omid continued to scream at the top of his lungs. "Clem, if she's dead she can turn and kill us all!"

"That's not going to happen!" insisted Clem as her gun trembled in her hands.

"If it does—

"It won't happen!" Clem bite her lip as she spun around, trying to steady her aim on Sarah's head. "I… I won't let it." Tears streaked down Clem's face, pistol trembling in her hand as she inched closer. "Wake up," she whispered as she heard Omid screeching louder behind her. "Please… please just wake up. I'm… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry just… please… let me wake up."

Clem could hear Omid screaming louder and louder, the most horrible crying she'd ever heard. His crying, the roar of the bus's engine and the bumps in the road all blurred into a cacophony of horror. It flooded through Clem's ears, driving her already fragile mind to the brink of breaking as she stared at Sarah lying motionless against the window. She could see the fresh blood smeared across the glass and dripping down Sarah's face and chin.

"Please… please… ple—" Sarah's head spun around and Clem moved her pistol forward, planting it on her forehead just as she found herself staring into Sarah's bulging eyes; she couldn't pull the trigger.

"Clem?" spoke Sarah in a shuddered whisper. "What's going on?"

"Sarah!" Clem dropped her gun and threw her arms around her. "Thank god! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Omid came rushing forward as fast as his little legs could carry him, crying profusely. He threw his arms around Sarah while Clem planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Let me see her," said Horatio as he rushed forward.

"What… what's happening?" asked Sarah, her voice trembling as she tried to look around.

"Don't move your neck," instructed Horatio as he carefully grasped Sarah's chin.

"What's happening?" yelled Dilawar from the front of the bus.

"Sarah's alive," reported Eskiya, a hint of relief in his voice as he moved in closer.

"I… I don't see anything!" called Sabriya as she looked out the back window. "Hopefully wrecking their stupid car slows down the rest of them."

"Is she okay?" Clem asked Horatio as they both studied the large, bloody bruise on Sarah's forehead. It was a mess of red and black with blood trailing down the entire side of her face. "Did the bullet… did it just graze her or—"

"I don't think she was hit by a bullet," reported Horatio.

"I just remember grabbing Omid and the bus skidded and my head hit the wall and…" Sarah drifted off. "Where're my glasses?"

"I'll get them," said Clem as she dropped onto the floor. "They couldn't have gone far." They hadn't. They were right past the edge of their bed, in several pieces.

"Did you find them?"

Clem held up the broken frames, which Sarah took without a moment's notice. It wasn't until she tried putting them on did she realize they were ruined. Sarah held them up close to her face, squinted, then her face sank in disappointment.

"The lenses are gone," she noted.

"Yeah… they broke." Clem looked at the tiny, jagged fragments of glass scattered under the seat in front of them. "There's a lot of pieces…" Clem couldn't be sure if these were all from Sarah's glasses or if pieces from the broken windows had gotten mixed in. "Maybe… maybe we can glue them back together?"

"Well, one bit of good news is I think the bump on your head isn't too bad," said Horatio as he tore off a part of his sleeve. "If you feel any dizziness or anything else, let me know," he explained as he wrapped the cloth around Sarah's forehead.

"I feel kind of light-headed," said Sarah, slurring a little as she spoke. "But I took a xanax before all this started. It feels like that."

"Keep talking for now," said Horatio as he looked Sarah in the eye. "I'll want to watch for any other signs of a concussion. Is anything else bothering you? Any pain?"

"My head hurts and I can't see too well right now," she added.

"Because of your missing glasses or are you experiencing other issues, like double vision?"

"No… nothing like that, it's my glasses," said Sarah with a sigh. "I just don't know what I'm gonna do. I was lucky to find that pair."

"We'll find new ones," assured Clem. "One thing people haven't been hoarding is glasses, so there's—" Clem felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked behind her to find Eskiya offering his glasses with his other hand. She'd never seen him without glasses before. Without them, she could more clearly see his face; he was worried. "Are… are you sure?" He nodded quietly and Clem took them. "Sarah," she said. "Try these."

Sarah took the glasses and placed them on their face. She adjusted them a couple of times, squinted, then took them off with a sigh.

"They're not even close," she said as she handed them back.

"Oh," said Clem as she handed them back to Eskiya. "Thanks anyway."

"No need," he said as he put them back on. "It didn't help."

"Can one of you take the wheel for a minute?" called Dilawar. "My arms are killing me and—"

"I'm coming!" said Sabriya as she rushed to the front.

Eskiya followed after her and Clem took this opportunity to move in close and put her arms around Sarah again. Omid was still clinging to her leg, quietly whimpering as he clutched her for dear life while Horatio kept a watchful and concerned eye on her.

"I… I think you'll be okay," said Horatio as he moved away. "Just… call me if you need anything."

"I will." Horatio moved towards the front of the bus, leaving the three of them alone.

"We… we thought we lost you," confessed a tearful Clem.

"I'm okay," said Sarah in a shaky voice as she moved an arm around Clem and another around Omid. "I'm okay," she repeated. "What happened though?"

"The…" Clem swallowed hard. "The Vaquero chased after us in their car and shot at us."

"What!?" exclaimed Sarah so loudly Omid started crying in response, to which Sarah started rubbing his back to calm him. "How did they—"

A loud popping sound startled the trio and was followed by a whirring sound that seemed to draw down, along with the sound of the engine.

"What now…" Clem got up and hurried to the front bus.

"Dil, we're slowing down," reported a panicked Sabriya from behind the wheel.

"It's probably the gasket, again," lamented Dilawar.

"Probably?" asked a frightened Horatio.

"I mean, I won't know until we pop the hood," said Dilawar.

"Pop the hood?" repeated Sabriya as she fruitlessly tried pumping the gas pedal. "You want to stop, now?"

"We're about to stop anyways," noted Eskiya as he looked out the window. "Dilawar, can you fix the bus?"

"Maybe," answered Sarah as she moved to the front of the bus.

"What?" spoke a confused Clem. "You can't go out there—you can't even see right now."

"Dilawar can be my eyes," reasoned Sarah.

"And Sarah can be my arms," added Dilawar. "Sab—"

"I get it," she said as she applied the brakes, bringing the bus to an abrupt stop. "Eskiya and I will guard you the best as we can," she dictated as stood up suddenly and grabbed her rifle. "Clem, you be our watch; Ray, stay in the bus in case Dil and Sarah need you to try the engine."

"And watch Omid," added Clem suddenly as she saw him hurrying up to the group. She knelt down to intercept him; he was trying to follow Sarah out of the bus. "Just stay with Horatio," she whispered. "We'll be leaving soon, just—" Clem stood up as Horatio put an arm around Omid. As she turned away, she could see Omid crying again, but forced herself back out into the cold darkness.

"You two hurry!" ordered Sabriya.

"Yeah, cause I was gonna take my time until you said that," retorted Dilawar as he and Sarah rushed to the front of the bus.

"Clem, come here," said Sabriya as she tossed her rifle over her shoulder. "We'll boost you up to the roof, keep an eye out from there."

"Got it." Clem moved up to the bus as Sabriya knelt down to put her hands out as a foothold. Clem climbed up with one foot, and felt Eskiya giving her a lift after she moved the other. She pulled herself up on the roof and immediately appraised her surroundings. Pitch blackness in all but one direction; directly behind them.

"I can see a light back the way we came," announced Clem.

"Shit, how far?" called Sabriya.

Clem squinted, then removed her binoculars, hoping to get a better look. Even with them, she could barely see a twinkling in the distance. It almost looked like a star had chosen to take up residence on the highway.

"Really far," announced Clem.

"Are they moving?" called Eskiya.

Clem fixed her gaze on the distant light. It didn't seem to be moving towards them but it seemingly twinkled as she studied, as if things were moving in front of it.

"I think maybe I can see people moving around, but it's really hard to tell," explained Clem.

"Well hopefully you won't have to find out," said Sabriya. "Dil, Sarah, how's it going?"

"We're working on it!" snapped Sarah.

"We're hundreds of miles from Salt Lake City, and we rushed to get here, how the fuck are they here already too?" asked Sabriya. "How could they possibly clear out an entire city and then still catch up with us?"

"That's cause they didn't stay to clear out the rest of Salt Lake City." Clem looked down at Eskiya. "They came after us for revenge, for the man I killed, and the one before that we killed in Wyoming."

"No that… shit, you're probably right," realized Sabriya. "It's not a coincidence this time, they're out for blood and—" A gunshot sounded far in the distance and Clem flattened herself against the roof of the bus in response, praying there wouldn't be another. After a few seconds, Sabriya broke the silence.

"Anyone hit?"

"What the fuck are they shooting at?" griped Dilawar.

"Maybe one of their own who died and then turned?" suggested Eskiya.

"Clem, what do you see?" asked Sabriya.

Clem groaned and forced herself to look, first with just her eyes, then the binoculars. "The light hasn't moved but…"

"But what?" asked Sabriya.

"It's… flickering more than it was a minute ago," said Clem. "I think there're more people moving now than there was a minute ago. It… it could be that school bus," suggested Clem. "In Colorado, they brought it next after shooting their car."

"Dil? Sarah?"

"Believe me, you'll know as soon as we do once it's fixed!" barked Dilawar.

"What I want to know is how did they find us so fast," said Eskiya. "We're hundreds of miles from Salt Lake City, we only stopped when we needed gas and yet they're only half a day behind us?"

"We're the only ones who've come this way in a long time," said Clem as she leaned over the edge of the roof.

"What's your point?" asked Sabriya.

"The point is we were probably leaving tire tracks and footprints everywhere we went," informed Clem.

"Everywhere?" challenged Sabriya.

"Or enough places they noticed them and realized what direction we were going."

"How could they have known which tracks were ours and not someone else's?" challenged Eskiya.

"Because there aren't any other tracks, at least not out here," informed Clem. "I was looking all day for them because I was worried about what was in Reno, but whoever was here last left so long ago there're not even signs of what direction they went. And it was the same yesterday anytime were stopped for gas."

"So it didn't matter if we only left a small trail, it was the only one to be followed," realized Eskiya.

"Still, they would have to stop as well, see if we were nearby every time they saw so much as a tire track," said Sabriya. "How do you explain them getting here so damn fast?"

Sabriya's question prompted Clem's own curiosity. After confirming the distant light hadn't gotten any closer, she turned around and looked forward. There wasn't much to see, but the throw of the bus's headlight went just far enough to see a road sign hanging just ahead.

"We're on Interstate Eighty."

"What?" called Eskiya

"We're on Interstate Eighty," repeated Clem a little louder.

"Why does that matter?" asked Eskiya.

"We… we were supposed to meet our friends on it if we ever got separated," answered Sarah in a quiet voice. "It's such a long road that passes so many cities we figured we'd find something on it."

"It did't take long for them to find us because this is the only major road between here and Salt Lake City," explained Clem. "They were probably already planning on coming this way. In fact, that's probably why we kept running into them so many times before, because it's just the easiest way to move west if you have a car."

"So we need to get off Interstate Eighty," concluded Sabriya. "But where do…" Sabriya stopped, then raced inside the bus.

"What are—"

"Okay," she said as she raced back out of the bus, road atlas in hand. She moved to the bus's headlight and flipped open the book. "Nevada… Reno… Interstate Eighty… here!" She looked over her shoulder at the sign. "The off-ramp just ahead will take us to a road that leads us… north."

"North?" repeated Clem.

"Well, northwest, but… yeah, that means it would take us north."

"So we're—"

"There is another going south about a mile further according to this," added Sabriya. "It leads to Las Vegas, we could—"

"We should keep going West," insisted Eskiya as he looked at the atlas.

"And stay on the same road they keep finding us on?" asked Sabriya.

"Just long enough to—"

"I vote we go North."

"Dil!"

"I'll risk a blizzard if it gets us the hell out of here faster!"

"But we might find other people in Las Vegas," argued Sarah.

"You think these assholes won't follow us to Las Vegas?" There was a short silence after Dilawar asked Sarah that.

"I vote north," announced Sarah.

"I've heard enough to know I want to go north as well!" yelled Horatio from inside the bus.

"Fine, we're going north then!" announced Sabriya. "Assuming we're going anywhere at all.'

"Just one more minute," announced Dilawar. "Then we'll get off this damn interstate and never look back."

"Never…" Clem looked over her shoulder to see if the Vaquero were drawing any closer; not yet. She then looked back at the road sign. If Patty, Jet, or Devlin were still somehow alive, the original plan would have them following behind the Vaquero and into a west coast choked with walkers.

"Clem, update!"

Sabriya's order snapped Clem back to her senses. Checking back the way they came, Clem could see the light far in distance flickering even faster now. Watching it closely, she felt her chest tighten as one light split into two, and then they started growing larger.

"They're moving towards us!"

"Shit! Get down here!" Clem slid over to the ledge and jumped down, Eskiya catching her before she hit the ground.

"Wait by Dil and Sarah," said Sabriya in a whisper as she knelt down and took cover behind the bus's door.

"We've almost got it," insisted Sarah as Clem came around the front of the bus. "Just give us one more minute."

"Hurry!"

Clem turned around and looked out on Interstate Eighty, the road they agreed to remain on if they ever got separated. She hadn't even thought about it lately, what with how difficult it was getting across Nevada, but they had been on for almost their entire journey since the farm was taken from them. And now they'd be leaving it for good. Clem knew that she'd probably never see the friends who'd been left behind again. But as long as they were on Interstate Eighty, there was a faint hope.

Forced to wait quietly until hopefully the engine was fixed, Clem took her backpack off and pulled out the can of spray paint. She shook it a couple of times and spelled out 'CERES' on the pavement in front of her feet as big as she could without leaving cover.

Looking at it for a second, Clem drew a big circle around both the E's. That's where the W and N would be in 'Owens', The Vaquero wouldn't know what it means, but if Patty, Jet and Devlin ever saw it, they'd know to head northwest. That's assuming Clem survived long enough to head that way herself.

"Try it now!" Dil's declaration was followed by a churning sound from the engine. Clem listened intently as the engine sputtered repeatedly. She felt her whole body shaking as the image of the Vaquero barreling forward invaded her mind. She could feel them, coming this way, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I got it!" said Horatio as the bus churned back to life.

"Everyone inside, now!"

Clem hurried back into the bus along with everyone else. Horatio wasted no time hitting the gas and the bus lurched forward again. A squealing Omid came running into the arms of Sarah who took hold of him. Clem inched in and hugged the both of them, taking one long and deep breath in as she felt the bus moving again. Opening her eyes, Clem watched as Sabriya and Eskiya moved towards the windows, guns in hand.

Clem felt herself instinctively moving to the shattered back window and taking up watch in front of it. She felt the frigid night air blow in, sending a biting chill through her entire body. Clem watched the road carefully, what little of it the tail lights illuminated. She could see they were moving down an off-ramp, leaving the interstate behind and hopefully the Vaquero as well.

Clem tensed up as she could see lights in the distance, clearly the Vaquero's vehicles moving across the interstate. Clem's hand moved back to her gun as she watched intently. It was hard to tell, but there were more than two cars now. It could be all five of them, but their lights all blurred together into a single moving body. Clem trembled as she saw them zip across the interstate with great speed.

Then they disappeared from view, having seemingly charged past the off-ramp and further down the interstate. There was only darkness now, yet Clem couldn't turn away. She was fearful the light of the Vaquero's cars would come racing back any second now. When that didn't happen, she found herself staring into the darkness itself. It was following them, stalking them, readying itself to make the kill.