Newly Revised
Bob had passed early in the morning after finally succumbing to the fever and shock an hour or two after the sun rose. Merle and Sophia had both only offered the man a short and simple farewell as neither had known the man well, though Sasha's heartbreak had been palpable. He had been buried behind the church with Gabriel giving a short eulogy in honor of the man he'd met the day before. Everyone was either preparing the church through fortifications or getting ready to get onto the short bus had head out for DC. Daryl, Ani, and Carol had yet to return to the church and the supplies had already been divvied up and loaded into the vehicle, meaning that the only thing they were waiting on was for Merle and Sophia to get back. Merle had taken the girl out hunting for a bit to clear her head and get her to open up. She was obviously upset with him and the situation at hand and he was pretty sure Sophia was hurt that Ani hadn't said anything before she left. He couldn't exactly blame the girl; he was pretty pissed at them too. They hadn't told anyone they'd left and no one knew when they had and the only one that had seen something had only seen Carol at the back of the church, not when she left. Both Sophia and Merle were unhappy with the other two Dixons, but Sophia's silence and hard expression on her face had him thinking it was more than just that.
"Speak your mind, girl," he told her after a while.
"Why are we goin' to DC instead of waiting for sis?" she asked angrily.
"'Cause we ain't goin' to DC," Merle said plainly. "We won't make it there 'fore we have to turn around's what I reckon. Too much in the road to get far. Too many walkers to get by. Can't blow through a herd. 'Sides, Ani knows somethin' we don't."
"How do you know that?"
"'Not 'cause I believe in your mission,' those were her words. I'd damn near bet my other hand that man is lyin'. So we go, and we make damn sure we get 'em back here to our people. Those guys are too damn strong not to have on our side."
"So, it's like a fake out?"
"Exactly, girly. Now let's get back. They'll be wantin' to head out soon," Merle told her, patting her on the back as he took point and led her back to the church.
"This is our route to DC. We'll stick to it as long as we're able. If not, well, you got our destination. Once Eugene gets to the big brains up there, things are gonna bounce back. This group should be there for it. Tiny should be there for it. You should be there for it," Abraham told Rick as he handed him a map and the hunters walked up.
"They will be," Maggie told him.
"We will," Michonne agreed.
"We will," Rick promised.
"Let's go!" Abraham told everyone who was going, Merle telling Rick to bring his siblings with him and Carl giving Sophia a hug that she reciprocated while blushing.
Abraham sat in the driver's seat looking back at Rick through the rearview mirror rethinking whether or not he really wanted to leave. This group was strong, and they weren't even taking their strongest fighters with them let alone half their supplies. The soldier was pretty tough and a crack shot and the girl knew how to hunt and a bit about medicine and Glenn, Maggie, and Tara had proven themselves on the road. But they weren't anywhere near the same level as Tiny, who was the real prize in the group he'd been eyeing to have along on this adventure. Even with Tiny's skills, though, they couldn't wait around when they didn't know if the girl was going to make it back alive. Eugene's mission was too important to remain in one place for too long, especially when it was the fate of the whole world at stake. They had already stalled long enough getting this far and the shit show Terminus ended up being had stopped their journey even longer. He couldn't keep putting off their mission any longer even if it meant getting more people that could potentially get them closer to DC. He sighed and drove away after one last look in the side mirror at Rick before pulling out.
"It's getting a little messy for you," Rosita told him after a while as she started playing with his hair.
"Gettin' ready for retirement," he told her. "Relaxin' my groomin' standards. Thinkin' about becomin' a plumber, a sheepherder or somethin'."
"You ain't herding sheep, Abraham. Eyes on the prize," she told him as she continued messing with his hair.
"Damn right. That's my girl," he told her as she removed her hand. "Maybe I'll let you shave me down all over, dolphin-smooth."
They both scoffed as the others watched on before Rosita smacked his arm light-heartedly, "I'll cut it for you tonight."
"Hey, maybe Rosita can give you a trim while she's at it. Party's getting a little long in the back. Or is it your source of power?" Tara asked Eugene since the man had been quiet since they'd left.
"I ain't slayin' a lion anytime soon," he told her quickly. "I wouldn't be placin' any wagers on seein' me dispatch a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass."
"Oh, so you'll just settle on saving the world right?" she asked him, noticing the change in his attitude.
"Yeah," he said quietly; he was hoping they could get back to the church before sundown rather than continue on to DC.
"What's up? Last night?" she asked, guessing it had to do with their talk.
"Nope," he responded before correcting himself. "Yes, that and tomorrow. And I'm thinkin' about that preacher, what he did."
Tara kept quiet, looking at the man with the mullet in contemplation considering that what the preacher did was no different than what she had done, to an extent. She had kept the doors to their apartment closed for almost a year before she'd been forced to let Brian in by her niece, and that had landed her with her family dying. She ended up shit's creek without a paddle thanks to Brian's need for revenge and was a part of the reason Maggie's father had been killed. As much as she would have liked to believe otherwise, she wouldn't have done much different if she had been placed in the same situation as the preacher, at least not back then. After Terminus and Glenn and Maggie, though, she knew she'd do whatever she had to whether or not she was scared, to protect herself, to protect her friends. And she was absolutely terrified now that she was without her family and essentially tagging along with strangers.
"Maybe they're just behind us," Maggie's voice broke her out of her thoughts. "Maybe the others came back. Maybe they took the map, they found some cars, and they're just down the road."
"They'll catch up," Glenn assured her. "We're clearing the way for them."
"How long will it be?" Maggie turned and asked Eugene. "After you get on that terminal and do what you have to do?"
"Depends on a number of factors including density of the infected around target sites worldwide," he told her, continuing to pile on the lies he was beginning to regret.
"Wait, target sites?" Glenn asked. "Are you talking about missiles?"
Eugene looked at the man, hoping that he would stop asking questions as he responded, "That's classified."
"I thought we were over that?" he insisted.
"What if we all live?"
"Like secrets will matter then?"
"They might. Anyway, the speed with which things normalize depend on a number of factors including worldwide weather patterns which were modeled without the assumption that cars, planes, boats, and trains wouldn't be pourin' hydrocarbons into the atmosphere this long. Changes the game quite a bit when it comes to air-transmissible pathogens," he said, wondering how Ani had called him out so quickly while these people just stared at him like he was talking gibberish.
"Why the hair?" Glenn asked, not keeping up with what the man said at all; Ani was like that too sometimes when she started talking about psychology and Merle when it came to weapons.
"Because I like it," Eugene said plainly. "And no one is takin' a clipper or scissors to it any time soon. You hear me, Ms. Espinosa?"
"Yes, loud and clear," Rosita laughed back at him.
"Y'all can laugh all you want. The smartest man I ever met happened to love my hair," Eugene bluffed again. "My old boss, T. Brooks Ellis, the director of the Human Genome Project. He said that my hair made me look like, and I quote, 'a fun guy.' Which I am. I just ain't Samson."
"Ani, she won't let anyone cut her hair either," Sophia told him jovially.
"We can braid it, play with it, make fun of it hangin' to her ass, but the minute you mention cuttin' it, she swears up and down to call her Samson," Merle told them. "Pisses me off and takes forever to brush out."
"I didn't know you did her hair," Maggie told him.
"Well, who else do ya think kept it up when she was sick?" Merle asked incredulously. "Certainly wasn't the girl who could barely keep her eyes open! Took an hour and a half to brush that rat's nest out. Should've cut it while she was sle-"
The engine blew before he could finish his sentence, Abraham losing control of the bus as it started swaying wildly down the road. Merle grabbed hold of Sophia and shielded her with his body and arms before the bus finally lost its balance and tipped over. Everyone was tossed to the side hard, Abraham yelling out 'bitchnuts' as everyone slowly started sitting up and most of them groaned in pain. If he wasn't in so much pain from having Sophia land on him on top of the force of the fall, Merle might have been laughing at the other soldier's expressive vocabulary. He seemed to be able to come up with the most flavorful way of saying things that could otherwise be shortened to 'fuck.' As it was, Merle was winded from the girl's elbow colliding with his diaphragm and he was going to have one hell of a headache from the way his head bounced of the window. Everyone began to stand up while Abraham called for Eugene to see if he was alright, the man still laying on the floor and mumbling to himself.
"You okay, Pops?" Sophia asked, after climbing off of Merle and retrieving her bow.
"Yeah. You might as well be a feather, girly. No issues here," he said. "Anyone get the license of the guy that hit us?"
"Funny, Merle. Real funny," Glenn said as Merle smirked.
"Eugene, are you okay?" Tara asked.
"Everyone alright? Everyone else, are you okay?" Abraham asked, a chorus of affirmations responding to him.
"The engine's on fire," Rosita said as walkers started banging on the back door of the bus. "We gotta get out of here."
"Grab what you can, we gotta get outta here 'fore that engine blows," Merle commented, grabbing Sophia's bug out bag and throwing it at her before putting his own on. "Abraham, you and me, we got the doors. Knock the sons a bitches back. Glenn, you and Maggie come out behind us, Rosita, you too. We'll fight off the biters. Tara, Phia, stay with Smartypants. Keep 'im safe. We can fight our way through."
"Yeah, alright, we'll do it live," Abraham said, climbing to the back of the bus over everyone. "Tara, Sophia, you don't come out 'til it's clear and you stay on his six at all times, you hear me?"
"Yes, sir!" Sophia said with a proper solute, something Ani had showed her as a joke against Merle but now she had a second target to make stare at her in shock, Abraham doing just that.
"Let's go," Merle chuckled. "On my mark. Three. Two. One. Go!"
Abraham readied himself to kick the door open as Merle unlatched the door, both of them using brute force to hit the door. It took a couple turns, but they finally managed to knock back the walkers as Merle barreled out with a war cry headfirst as his door opened. Abraham was close behind him as the others climbed out and began to kill the walkers that had followed them up the road. Tara was almost as terrified as Eugene as they others left the bus one by one; even the little girl travelling with them had no problem in facing her fear. She had already left the bus and was fighting right alongside of the others, standing near the back of the bus firing off arrow after arrow before grabbing her knife and starting to fight that way. Tara knew firsthand how kids in this world grew up, or at least she thought she had until she'd met Sophia and Carl. They were both only a few years older than her niece had been and yet they were able to take on the world rather than run and hide from it like she and her family had for nearly a year. She looked behind her at the sound of breaking glass to see Eugene cowering and crying between the seats as a walker tried to grab at the man. Knowing there was no other option at the moment, Tara steeled her nerves and drew out her own knife, grabbing the walker and slamming the blade down into its skull.
"Come on. I know it sucks and it's scary, but it's time to be brave," she told him.
"It isn't voluntary," he responded.
"It is when you're screwed either way," she countered. "So you cut to the choice that might help somebody. I'm right behind you," she told him after handing him a knife and exiting the bus herself.
Merle was standing a position to where he could take on most of the walkers facing him and the little girl, both with blades in their hands. The little girl had completely dropped her bow after she'd run out of arrows and had drawn a second knife, kicking and hitting walkers to make it easier to get at their heads before killing it. Tara was on the other side of the doors doing much the same, albeit in a much less formal way of fighting and with a disgusted look on her face rather than a determined one. In front of all of them, Glenn, Maggie, Rosita, and Abraham were having a seemingly easy time fending off the dead themselves. Eugene wasn't really a coward, well, he was and admittedly so, but it was because everything going on around him was all too much. The smell, the movement, the sounds, it was all too much for his brain to cope with and made him unable to move, paralyzed with an inability to discern one thing from another. All the blood the squelching, the grunting, it was all so confusing and made his ears ring as he took in the carnage around him. It was the muffled snarling sound from behind him that had him turn in fright, a walker being right on his back as he muffled a terror-filled screech and the thing fell. Tara stood behind him with her knife up and double checked if he was alright before she moved on to the next walker. He was still absolutely terrified and overstimulated, but the woman who had saved his life not ten seconds before was now at risk as a walker came at her from behind while she was dealing with two in front. Eugene forced himself to move, forced himself to actually do something for once and shakily moved to the thing. He was quick to stab it in the back and make it fall to its knees, but he had never actually killed one and had failed to go for the head, Tara doing that for him as she turned around and saw the situation. He looked around in both shock that he had actually done that and horror that he had, in fact, actually just tried to take out a walker for the first time ever. Abraham stormed around as the last walker fell, breathing heavily even as the rest simply looked around and Eugene stood with his knife in both hands out in front of him.
"Check Eugene," he told Rosita.
"I'm fine," Eugene told him. "Just cuts and dings is all."
"Check him!" Abraham yelled forcefully.
"Is that your blood?" Maggie asked the soldier, pointing to his hand.
"Yeah," he said. "Damn thing opened again. I swear, the cuts are finer than frog's hair. They're just big bleeders."
"First aid kit's in the bus," Maggie said, moving towards the back of the bus as Merle pulled Sophia away from it. "I'll see what we have."
The only things they'd managed to pull off the bus when they'd left it was Abraham's large blue rucksack and Merle and Sophia's bug out bags. Maggie had barely been able to take two steps towards the bus when it went up in flames; Merle had seen the flames and knew it was about to blow which was why he'd grabbed the girl up in the first place. They needed to get away from the bus quickly considering there were still a few loose shells somewhere in there from supplies getting knocked about. He'd seen them as he got off the bus, but the priority had been escape, not supplies, at the time and the need for a few stray bullets wasn't enough to risk the life of the others. Now he wished he would've taken a few seconds to grab all the supplies he could rather than just worrying about the bug-out bags. They had very limited resources in each of them; a canteen, rations for two days, a change of clothes, a DIY first aid kit complete with a needle, some thread, bandages, herbs, and a small bottle of moonshine for disinfectant. Ani had reamed it so far down Merle's throat about the moonshine, making sure he knew that it wasn't for drinking, that he could still feel her proverbial fist pushing out his asshole. And Sophia was a little snitch to the bitch, so he wouldn't even be able to take a sip of the shit without getting his ass handed to him. It was a good thing they had it, though, as Abraham grabbed the bag from in front of Merle and Merle got to see the man's hand for himself; they'd need to make sure it was treated properly before they got into another fight.
"We're not stopping. We're rolling on. We'll find another vehicle down the road," Abraham told them as he continued forward, only to be stopped by Eugene. "The mission hasn't changed."
"Devil's Advocate, nothin' more, we smashed to a stop hard," the man tried to reason, trying to get Abraham to go back to the church without actually telling him the truth. "We spent a lot of time rolling things out of the road. The church is just 15 miles that way-"
"No," Abraham growled at him. "We don't stop. We don't go back. We're at war, and retreat means we lose. The road fights back, the plan gets jacked. You all know that! Now, we will get through this because we have to. Every direction is a question. We don't go back!"
"Hey now, what'd I say about Ani not takin' your crap when she catches up? I ain't gonna take it either, boy, so calm your ass down," Merle told the man as he began to storm away.
"I am fit as a damn fiddle," Abraham told him.
"We are going with you," Glenn told him as he walked up. "You are calling this thing, but I need to know you're good. That you aren't spiraling."
"This is how things stop," Abraham said after a moment, looking the younger man in the eye. "I can't afford that right now. The world can't afford it. Listen, I took a pretty hard shot to the sack with that crash. I am stressed and depressed to see that ride die, but if you say we're rolling on, I'm good."
"We're rollin' on, Red. No worries 'bout that," Merle told him.
Abraham nodded his head and heaved a heavy sigh before saying, "I'm gonna rub some dirt on it."
"Yeah," Glenn agreed.
"We'll find what we need like we always have," Rosita offered. "On the way."
"Okay, but I'm not rubbing dirt on anything," Maggie agreed.
"We used clay in our poultices at the prison," Sophia informed her, making Merle chuckle at how she was starting to emulate Ani on some things, such as being bluntly direct when correcting someone. "You've already rubbed dirt on wounds."
"Maybe we can find some bikes," Tara offered with a shrug as she looked back at them from staring at the bus. "Bikes don't burn."
"Alright," Abraham said, everyone except Eugene and Rosita moving along with him.
Eugene stared at the walker he had helped kill before walking over to it and kneeling down, somewhat intrigued by the creature and somewhat confident. He was capable of protecting someone else even in that state, which meant he just needed to try a little harder and he could protect himself, right? It didn't matter that everything had been blurred except the tiny moments of clarity when someone was killing a walker. It didn't matter that all his blood had rushed into his ears and made it hard to truly hear anything that was happening around him clearly. It didn't matter that he'd been nearly frozen with fear while his mind refused to concentrate on any one thing at that moment. He had managed to fight his way through all of it and help protect his new friend out and take care of the threat. Eugene had never been able to do that, had barely even had the confidence to speak up unless he was asked a question, and even then, he rarely left his house to be asked. The outside world was daunting and he had no need of participating it more than economically and financially necessary in order to survive. When the world had ended, he had stayed in his apartment for as long as he could, and on his first venture out, he had been chased by walkers. That was when he had found Abraham and the man had saved his life; now he was trying to save his instead but had gone about it an entirely wrong way and he knew that. Staring at the walker on the ground, he knew that he needed to be honest with the others and if he was brave enough to take on a walker, he could be brave enough to do that. He just would wait for the timing to be right and break it to them gently, maybe say that the timeframe for launch had passed or perhaps that the cure would be unviable by the time they got to DC. Eugene could easily come up with a lie to why he couldn't produce a cure if he just took his time to perfect it.
"Eugene, what are you doing?" Rosita asked, completely exasperated by the man's weird tendencies.
"Nothin'," he said before spitting on the walker and standing, following the trail of the others that gave a wide berth around the bus and continuing on to their supposed destination.
~x~
They weren't able to find a vehicle by the time night had fallen and instead began looking for a place to hold up for the night. They found refuge in a bookstore that had obviously once been a camp as the windows were covered with newspaper in most areas. Merle busted open the doors while Abraham entered with his gun raised, Glenn and Rosita entering next as the four of them spread out and made sure the place was clear. The rest entered and began rearranging the bookshelves to make cordoned off rooms after collecting what they could from the place, including water from the back of the toilet. Something was better than nothing was the thought of the day as Eugene used a battery to light a fire using pages from the book so that they could heat up food. Sophia offered Rosita the needle and thread from her pack so that she could stitch up Abraham's hand before pouring some of the moonshine over the wound. The man hissed out a curse as she did before she patted the area dry with a fresh cloth and gave Rosita room to work. Moving over to her bag, she pulled out the herbs and water as well as the small plate and spoon in the bag, and began to make the poultice, waiting until Rosita was done to move back over.
"Won't be as potent since they aren't fresh, but it'll definitely help it heal," she told him as she put the poultice on his hand and bandaged it up.
"Well, thank you kindly little miss," Abraham told her before watching her walk back over to Merle; how the old soldier had found himself a kid like that he didn't know.
Everyone ate their meager meal before settling in for the night, Merle taking up watch by the door after relieving Abraham. Glenn had stayed up talking to Abraham and then Merle about what the journey was going to be like from here on in, specifically asking the one-handed man if he thought they could make it. Merle had been honest with the young man and told him that he thought they'd be heading back to the church soon enough. They'd spent the entire day on the road and had only managed to make it seventeen miles away. Sophia had fallen asleep relatively quickly, for which Merle was thankful, but he started cursing under his breath when he heard Abraham going at it with Rosita. Ani and Daryl had been as careful as possible not to get found out if they were around the others and the only reason Merle knew about it was because he'd teased them about it once only for Ani to blush a deep red. That was all it'd taken to make Merle howl out in laughter and Ani to sucker-punch him in the gut when he was about to answer what he was laughing at to Sophia. Abraham and Rosita didn't care that there was a kid sleeping barely ten feet away; they just kept going at it like a couple of rabbits in the middle of spring. Merle decided that if the two of them felt comfortable enough to screw around like that, they were safe enough, and went over to where Sophia was sleeping. He tried to ignore the noises that were going on and the quiet conversation going on between Eugene and Tara that affirmed what he had thought all along. The man was full of shit and nothing but a coward too afraid to admit he didn't know what he was doing at all.
~x~
Merle barely got any sleep thanks to Abraham's chainsaw snoring, but everyone else seemed to get enough to start gathering whatever supplies they had missed in the dark. There weren't a lot, but Rosita and Sophia both were able to get some silk out of the books so that they could stitch wounds on the road. They tapped out the toilet's water and there hadn't been any food left in the building other than some coffee grounds and saltines. It wasn't the best find and they all felt discouraged, but the big man was determined that they could start moving on as soon as they had their gear together. Rosita was determined that he sit his ass down and let her check on his hand before any of them went anywhere. He did so begrudgingly while the woman began unwrapping the wound, taking the herbs off as well and frowning when she saw that it wasn't as red as it had been yesterday. It wasn't that it wasn't a good thing it showed no signs of infection, it was that she had been fighting to keep this thing from bleeding for a week now. While it was still slightly bleeding in the places where the hand needed to flex, it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when they had finished off with the walkers. Sophia was looking over the woman's shoulder and commented how it shouldn't be at risk for infection anymore, earing a scoff from Rosita.
"Where'd you go to med school?" she asked snobbishly.
"Ani taught me, and I have some petroleum jelly in my bag that we can put on top to keep it from bleeding for a while," she suggested. "And if we put some more of the herbs I did last night, it'll heal even faster."
"Ani isn't a know-it-all," Rosita claimed in a scoff.
"Might as well be," Merle said as he walked up to them. "At least when it comes to people, plants, hunting, and natural medicine. Had an old man who taught her all this stuff and started handin' it down to Phia and Carl at the beginnin'. Everythin' else she's an airhead at. Woman can't control herself when it comes to tryin' to help people. Can't control 'er emotions as well as she thinks she can. She might have a good poker face, but once she gets worked up, all hell breaks loose."
"Those are useful lessons to have," Abraham agreed. "And good to know if I ever piss her off," he added with a chuckle.
"Damn straight," Merle agreed with a smile of his own before getting serious. "Listen, I think we should stick around a little while longer."
"Stay another day," Rosita agreed; they hadn't had a moment's break aside from the church and they were severely short on supplies.
"No," Abraham shot them both down. "You got some reading you need to catch up on?"
"We got lucky yesterday," Rosita countered. "We're all banged up, you especially with this bleeder."
"We've been through worse, and the little girl has a remedy for the bleedin'. Ain't that right girl?"
"Yes, sir!" Sophia said with another solute, making him and Merle chuckle, before she ran off to her bag for the necessary items.
"We keep moving," Abraham told Rosita as he watched the girl go.
"Maybe we keep stopping because we never start at 100%," she countered in an irritated tone.
"Every minute we waste getting him to Washington, people are dyin'."
"People would be dyin' anyway. Won't say how long the reset will take," Merle countered again with a nod of his chin to Eugene. "Tellin' you now, don't be surprised when this all blows up in our faces."
"And what, pray tell, is that supposed to mean, exactly?" Abraham said, about to stand up and square up with the soldier.
"Somethin' Ani said about this trip to DC," Merle said honestly, not rising to the challenge since he knew he could take the man if he wanted to. "She doesn't believe in this mission, and she talked to Eugene alone. I'm tellin' ya now, that man ain't all he says he is."
"If that's the case, why'd you agree to come with us?" Rosita asked, fully exasperated by the older soldier's remarks.
"Simple," he told her, once again being honest and motioning to Abraham. "Y'all need a place to fall back to when it all blows up, and he needs someone to put him on his ass when he blows up. Ani's done it to me a hundred times over. I sure as hell ain't afraid to do it to him."
"So you want us to stop," Abraham decided in anger as Sophia came back and worked on his hand. "You want us to sit around and wait on people who might not even show up."
"Did I say that? Or did I say I'm here to get you where you need to go? Whether it's DC or back to the church, we're goin' where we need to go."
"This town isn't in bad shape," Maggie reasoned. "This store wasn't even touched. We could make a good base here. We could spend one last day doing a sweep for supplies."
"We'll sweep as we go," Rosita told her, glaring at Merle for saying he'd put Abraham down and agreeing with Abraham just to stop an argument from ensuing. "We've done it since Houston, we're not stopping now."
"You heard the lady," Abraham said. "We're takin' it north."
"We tapped out the toilet earlier," Tara informed them. "Broad River is five miles west. At the very least, we stock up there before we find wheels."
"We got a vehicle," Abraham said as he stood up and went to the window, lifting a piece of cardboard to show them. "And it just so happens to have 500 gallons of water on it."
The fire truck was literally just across the road, the compartments stocked and ready for a fire as well as having gear that they could actually use. The entire town seemed to be deserted as they walked over to the firehouse and looked around for anywhere else they might be able to grab supplies real quick. Merle could see at least three places that could have something in them to grab and considered having them all split up while the redhead worked on the truck if it needed it. Even if it didn't, at least there would be something they could use on that truck for a while. The damn thing wouldn't last the entire way unless they could find enough diesel to keep the thing running. They had problems finding gas and running cars anymore, trying to find diesel would be damn near impossible. It was only a matter of time before they were going to be stranded without fuel or stopped by walkers. Abraham clearly wasn't thinking about the matter at hand with caution, only with determination, as he happily hummed to himself and climbed into the cab.
"About time things started goin' our way!" he laughed happily as he started it up successfully on the second try only for it to die again after a few feet. "Come on," Abraham said hitting the steering wheel before angrily climbing out of the truck. "One damn time!"
"We'll find another ride," Glenn told him, coming around the front of the vehicle.
"If there was a ride worth a shit in this town, we would've seen it," Abraham said. "This thing's done some crowd clearin'. Right up into the intake. Which means we've got an air filter filled with damn human remains," he commented as he walked up to the vehicle and started patting at a vent with a towel he grabbed from one of the compartments of the truck in an attempt to get the damn thing running again. "There is no damned corner on this damned Earth that has not been dicked hard beyond all recognition."
"Abraham," Rosita called, earning an angry 'what' from the redhead in return. "That feeds the radiator. The intake for the engine is actually on the roof."
He stopped what he was doing and looked at her, nodding his head in appreciation, even if he was irritated by it. If he was going to say something, though, it got cut off by a tire randomly rolling by him, Glenn, and Rosita, bumping into Merle's leg before falling. All Merle could get out was a 'what the hell' before a slew of walkers poured from a door the fire truck had apparently been backed against. A slew of walkers began to pour out from the door, forcing them to fight all over again and getting between them and Abraham. Merle was pissed at the ginger who had decided he was going to fight his way through the damn things and ended up surrounded by walkers even as the rest fought to get to him. Sophia had tried the hardest, being the smallest and able to get through the walkers a little easier as she knocked them down to make things easier for the others. The little girl got too far ahead, though, as Merle started cussing up a storm and fighting with all his might to try to get to her. He was scared he wouldn't be able to get to her in time until a strong spray of water began to rain down on all of them. As soon as he could, Merle ran and covered Sophia from the spray after she'd already been knocked over once, even if the water had saved her life. As he stood straight from leaning over the girl, he glared at Eugene on the top of the firetruck even as Abraham began laughing.
"I've been to eight county fairs and one goat rodeo. I never seen anything like that," Abraham told him.
Eugene just looked proud of himself as he climbed down while Glenn spoke up, "I think I saw a Good Will over there by the bookstore. It's pretty blown up, but there might be some supplies, some dry clothes, maybe?"
"I can clear that intake in two shakes. Then the engine will get some wind. And so will we. You'll air-dry," he told them as climbed up on top of the fire truck and looked down, catching sight of a spray painted message on the ground and laughing hysterically. 'Sick inside, let them die' it said as Merle read it, cracking a smile of his own as Abraham said, "What? This shit is screwed up!"
"You take your two shakes. I'm takin' my girl to get some dry clothes," Merle told him as he pulled Sophia towards the store. "Go without us if you want, but I ain't leavin' her in wet clothes."
~x~
They'd been able to travel along for another hour before the fire truck started having issues again and they were forced to stop, Abraham and Merle. Glenn, Rosita, and Sophia were on watch while Maggie was attempting to gather the meager supplies they had to sort into rations and Eugene sat on the rear bumper reading a book he'd picked up at the bookstore. When she was done with that, Maggie went to the back and studied the man as he read. He was very similar to Ani in how, when she was reading, the only people who could get her attention were Sophia and Daryl. Everyone else she ignored just as Eugene was doing to her now and it made her smile small. He also was very knowledgeable in his field as Ani was hers and liked to show it when he talked. There was nothing wrong with that, either; he was excited about what he was telling them just like Ani would get. She laughed quietly to herself before she decided that she had waited long enough for him to start talking to her of his own will.
"I know why you have the haircut," she told him.
"I told you, it's 'cause I like it," he told her without stopping reading, something Ani also did if she wasn't interested in the topic at hand.
"I believe that. I like it, too," she told him before sitting next to him. "I think you like it for a reason." When he neither responded nor turned away from his book, she continued, "You're not the person people think you are. And you want them to know who you are."
That got him to put the book down as he looked at her with confusion in his eyes even if his face was blank, "Not followin'."
"If you didn't have that mullet," Maggie explained, "you'd probably be like everyone else in the labs. But you're not like everybody else. I think a lot of people in your position probably would've given up, but you didn't."
"There were people—a lot of them along the way—they made sure I didn't give up," he told her flatly. "It wasn't me remotely."
"It was," she countered. "You started this thing. And you're not like Samson. His story was messed up."
"Not followin' you," he said again.
"Well, his story goes that one day when a lion attacked him, God gave him strength and he tore the lion apart. Then he goes back one day, he's by himself, and he sees that bees have made a hive in the carcass. So later he tells this riddle to people: 'Out of the eater, somethin' to eat. Out of the strong, somethin' sweet.' I always thought, 'How the hell are people supposed to know the answer when it's just about his own life? When the only place the answer is is in his own head?'"
"Whoa, what the hell is that?" Glenn asked, stopping her from saying whatever she was about to.
"What?" she asked as she stood up.
"Wind's picking up, you're about to smell it," he informed her before Sophia gagged.
"That's disgusting!" she complained as the others started groaning about the smell too.
"What is that?" Maggie asked.
"Biters," Merle guessed. "And a lot of 'em."
"Whatever's makin' that stench," Abraham said as he climbed out of the cab of the truck. "It ain't nothin' nice." He grabbed his rifle and started walking, "We're not stoppin'."
"Uh, we're stopped," Tara deadpanned.
Her little sentence had Glenn, Maggie, Merle, and Sophia smiling or chuckling as they walked ahead, Tara confused by them, knowing she stated the obvious but not knowing that was Ani's specialty. If Abraham had noticed her words, he didn't show it as he stormed forward until they saw what was creating the stench. A sea of walkers as far as the eye could see, quite possibly millions just by the sight of it, blocked their way for miles and miles ahead. The sight alone was frightening enough and Sophia was beyond happy that they were far enough away that the walkers couldn't see them. She couldn't even see a single walker from the distance they were at, but they all could tell it was moving. The amount of walkers could even be considered a horde or a herd, but a literal sea that spanned for as far as the eyes could see, only a bit of clear land on the horizon. It would be impossible to get through that many walkers, leaving their only option to either go back or go around. There was no way through it and both Glenn and Merle shared a look before shaking their heads; they didn't sign up for this at all.
"Let's go," Glenn told everyone as he turned around, Merle staying next to Abraham as the man began muttering Army bullshit that was meant to hype one's self up for a battle.
"Don't pull that shit on me now, son," Merle told him, shutting him up just as he said he wouldn't abase. "That there; that's a death sentence. We ain't goin' through that. I ain't lettin' you risk my kid in that."
"Abraham," Rosita called as the man refused to move other than to stare at Merle who was staring him right back down. "Abraham, let's get out of here."
"Hold up," he told the group, still staring down Merle.
"We gotta go," Maggie told him.
"No. No we don't. They can't see us, they can't hear us. Not from here. We're fine," he said.
"Yeah, this is the very definition of 'fine,'" Tara said sarcastically, about to piss her pants in fear.
"We need the map, there's gotta be a detour," Glenn reasoned.
"I'm not doin' it," Abraham said as he started pacing. "We detoured and detoured and detoured from Houston to Georgia. I'm not playin' that game anymore."
"Well, we ain't gonna get through that," Merle said. "And if you want to, good luck to ya. I'm takin' my kid and my people and headin' back to that church. We didn't sign up for no suicide mission 'cause some meat-head doesn't understand strategic retreat."
"We got a shitstorm behind door A and a storm of shit behind door B," Abraham roughly told him. "If you're lucky, it's walkers, or a shot up truck. But sooner or later you get cornered. You wind up stayin' and you wind up killin'. We don't go back. We can't go back."
"Hell yes we can," Merle reasoned. "We need the numbers. We need the weapons. The food, supplies, medicine. Hell, we need Ani and the rest of 'em if we're gonna get through somethin' like that! At the very least, we need to go a few miles out of the way."
"No!" Abraham shouted.
"We already hit a full stop caused by an air filter compromised by innards," Eugene tried to reason. "That will happen again."
"Then we'll hit 'em with the hose."
"The tank is empty, Abraham," Rosita chided.
"If we floor it-"
"We still hit them, they still slow us down, they still stop us, except then we're dead and the mission is over," Glenn reasoned.
"I'm not sayin' we just go straight!" Abraham yelled at them.
"That's the way the road goes," Maggie told him.
"We're goin' back to the church, we're waitin' for my baby brother and his girl, and then we'll find a way through this or pray it moves on, but I'm not puttin' my kid through that with just us," Merle reiterated.
"We can get through!" Abraham roared at him. "I know it! And that means we are not going south, going around, or going back!"
"Bullshit, son," Merle told him. "What you know don't matter when the rest of us know better. You're dumber than a box of rocks if you think we can get through a sea of biters in just that piece a shit truck."
"No," Rosita agreed. "They're right."
Abraham nodded his head and moved to grab Eugene, dragging him along back to the truck with every intention of going it alone since the rest wanted to go back. Knowing what he was about to do, the rest tried to pry him off the scared man, only for him to knock Tara back. That was Merle's last straw as he completely cold cocked the redhead, knocking him to the ground, but not out. Abraham got up and threw a punch at Merle that connected to the man's jaw, but Merle simply reacted by going low and football tackling Abraham to the ground, banging his head on the cement before placing him in shoulder hold and using his entire weight to keep the taller, beefier man down. Ani was right that strength meant very little if you could get someone to submit without the ability to retaliate. Abraham tried to fight against the hold but was completely overpowered in the moment as Eugene began to have a panic attack.
"I am not a scientist!" he shouted, which got Merle to let go of Abraham.
"What?!" Merle yelled, rounding on the man himself.
"I'm not a scientist!" he repeated. "I lied! I'm not a scientist. Ani knew right off the bat. I don't know how to stop it. I'm not a scientist." They all stood around looking at him in various states of denial, disgust, or despair as he repeated himself, unable to look any of them in the eye and standing very still, which made it easy for Merle to notice how bad the man was shaking.
"You are a scientist," Rosita exclaimed. "I've seen the things that you can do!"
"I just know things."
"You just...know things?!" Glenn repeated incredulously. "I left my family to get you to DC, and you just know things?!"
"I know I'm smarter than most people. Thought I was smarter than everyone until I talked to Miss Ani and she sniffed me out like a drug dog on cocaine. I know I'm a very good liar, and I know I needed to get to DC," Eugene told them, the floodgates of truth open now that he'd said the biggest part.
"Why?" Maggie asked.
"For the same reason Ani said we'd go," Sophia guessed. "The nation's capitol should have resources, right? Bunkers for the president and congress and stuff?"
"That is right, little lady," Eugene affirmed. "I do believe that locale holds the strongest possibility for survival, and I wanted to survive. If I could cheat some people into taking me there, well, I just reasoned I'd be doin' them a solid, too, considerin' the perilous state of the city of Houston, the state of everything."
"People died trying to get you here!" Rosita shouted at him while Abraham stared resolutely at the ground.
"I'm aware of that," he told her, looking at her and seeing the state of anger and despair on many of the faces. "Stephanie, Warren, Pam, Rex, Roger, Josiah, Dirk, and Josephine. And Bob," he said as he began breaking down. "You see, I lost my nerve as we grew closer. Miss Ani gave me the option to tell you myself which I did not take when I should have, for I am a coward. The reality of getting to our destination and disclosing the truth of the matter along with Miss Ani already knowing, I took it upon myself to slow our roll. Find time to finesse things so that when we got there, find a way to tell the truth without causin' problems. But as of this moment, I fully realize there is no longer any agreeable options. I'm screwed either way. I also lied about T. Brooks Ellis likin' my hair," he blubbered, truly unable to stop himself from coming clean about his lies. "I do not know T. Brooks Ellis, but I read a book of his once. He seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn't blink twice at Tennessee Top Hat. Again, I am smarter than you, and you may want to leave me here-"
Whatever he was about to say was cut off by Abraham lunging forward and sucker punching Eugene right in the jaw, causing the man to fly backwards. When Abraham went to punch him again, Sophia and Merle moved as one, Sophia swiping a kick at the back of the knee as Merle grabbed the man from the shoulders. He brought him back into the choke hold he'd put him in before while he started to struggle and Sophia went to stand in front of him and give him a hard look. All Abraham could see when she did that was his daughter standing in front of him for a moment before remembering what had happened. That didn't do anything to assuage his anger in the moment though, even as the one-handed bastard put more and more pressure on him.
"Get off me," Abraham wheezed to Merle.
"We're goin' back to the church, Mr Abraham," she told him coolly.
"Promise the little lady and I'll get off ya. If not, well, I'll put you down if I have to. We're goin' back to that church and waiting for baby brother and his wife."
"Why do you put so much faith in that girl, anyway?" Rosita asked as Abraham nodded and was released, glaring at Eugene but making no further attempt to harm him.
"She's our leader," Glenn told them, shocking everyone. "I know, you'd think it was Rick, but she calls the shots for the most part. She's the one who trained us all, too."
"You've all had trainin'?" Abraham asked.
"Well, not all," Tara said. "Kinda just joined."
"Everyone at the church. We've all had some basic self-defense and some training in holds, judo I think," Glenn told them. "I don't know. Ani's got training in a bunch of stuff since she practiced mixed martial arts."
"That and she's a sharpshooter with them knives of hers. Can throw 'em like she's throwing a damn ball," Merle added. "Also knows some things we can eat along the way far as findin' stuff in the woods goes. She's worth the trip back for."
"Fine. But only 'cause we can't go through that sea of rotters," Abraham said, pointing to Eugene. "And that ass-monkey rides on top. I don't want to see his face right now else I'll make him look even more like a jackass than he already does."
