"Now just aim for the head. That's the only way to stop them." Toby says to Santana as she approaches a nearby walker. Santana lifts the baseball bat and hits the walker.
WHACK!
The walker fell to the ground, however, he was still alive and began to stand up once more.
"What the hell? I hit him! Y'all saw that, right?" Santana says to Toby
"Hit him again. Harder." Elijah says as Santana splits it's skull with multiple blows, turning her bat all red.
"There ya go!" Toby says to Santana as she starts breathing hard. She didn't know how to feel about what she had just done.
The three continue their journey back to Santana's house in search of anything that could be useful. Santana leads the way, but stops and looks around at the mess that used to be her home.
Quinn had always kept the house spotless. Every picture frame we had didn't have a speck of dust. The pictures-
"They're alive!" Santana turns to doubtful Toby. "My wife. My son. At least they were when they left."
"How can you know? From the looks of this place, I don't think…"
"The picture frames. The ones on the walls. Our photo albums. They're gone."
Toby shakes his head and starts laughing. "My wife did the exact same thing. There I was packing survival things, while she's grabbing photo albums." He laughs and wipes a single tear away.
"I bet they are in New York City." Elijah says standing by the doorway.
"Why there?" Santana responds as Toby nods.
"Yeah, that's right. If they got out safely, they're in New York City. There's a refugee center. Military protection, food, shelter. Broadcasts told people to go there." Toby explains.
A feeling of hope begins to stir up in Santana for the first time ever since she woke up. She enters the kitchen and opens a drawer, pulling out a set of keys.
Santana drives the three of them to her station. She takes the set of keys and opens the back door. The place was deserted. They begin to make their way through the halls and past the offices as Santana leads them to the back.
"Over here."
Rows of lockers and several shower stalls appear as they enter the locker room. Santana goes to the shower stall, turns the handle, and puts her hand under the hot water. The three of them went into separate stalls and started covering themselves in shampoo and body soap like crazy.
After having fun in the showers, the three of them were seated on the locker room bench wearing towels around their waist and shoulders.
"Dressing room is back there." Santana says to Elijah as Toby hands him clothes.
"What do you say, Eli?"
"Thank you!" the boy says as he hurries off.
"NYC sounds like a good deal." Santana says to Toby
"That's where we were headed. Things got so crazy and there was lots of panic. My wife…When she died, we just stayed put. I guess we just froze in place."
"Plan to move on?"
"Haven't worked up to it yet."
"Well whenever you're ready, we'll meet up again." Santana says with a friendly smile.
Santana, dressed in a new uniform, takes Toby and Elijah to the gun closet. As they enter, she notices that there's not much left, just some shotguns, sidearms, and snipers.
"A lot of it's gone missing."
"Daddy? Can I learn to shoot? I'm old enough now."
"Hell yes, you're gonna learn Elijah. But we're gonna do it carefully and teach you to respect the weapon."
"That's right. It's not a toy. When you pull the trigger, you have to mean it. Always remember that, Elijah." Santana says to the young boy.
"Yes ma'am." the boy says as he starts packing ammo into the duffle bag.
Santana finds a bolt-action rifle with a scope and hands it to Toby. "You can take that one. Nothing fancy and the scope's accurate." Toby accepts and continues to pick out more weapons.
The group emerges from the station's doors and started heading towards their cars, carrying their duffle bags.
"Conserve your ammo. It goes faster than you think." Santana says to the father and son duo. "Are you sure you don't want to come along?"
"Maybe another week or so. By then at least Elijah will know how to shoot and I won't be rusty anymore. It'll improve our chances on the road. We'll meet again though. Don't you worry."
Santana pulls out a walkie-talkie and hands it to Toby. "A week from now, I'll start turning mine on for a few minutes every day at dawn. This is the easiest way we can find each other."
"Hey Santana, one thing. They may not seem like much, one at a time. But in a group? That's the most dangerous situation you can be in. So please, watch your back." Toby offers to shake Santana's hand. "You're a good person, Santana. I hope you find your wife and son."
They shake hands and Elijah comes up to say goodbye. "Thank you for everything. I'm sorry I hit you with the shovel."
"It's all good kiddo. You were protecting yourself and that's good. Hey, take care of your old man for me."
"Yes, ma'am." Elijah says as he goes and hugs Santana.
With nothing more said, they got in their cars and parted ways.
Toby and Elijah made their way back to the house and began to lay out all their stuff that they had brought home. Toby meets Duane's eyes and sees that they both want to leave this place and be with people again. Having been with Santana for a few days reminded them of that feeling.
Toby grabs one of the duffle bags and suitcases and sees that Elijah is watching him. "You read your comic books for a while. I'll be upstairs, alright bud?" Elijah nods and starts to read.
Toby opens the little suitcase revealing: photo albums. The ones that his wife wouldn't leave behind. He picks up one of the photos of his wife and just smiles at it. Toby then picks up the rifle that Santana had given him and moves near the open window.
Crosshairs start to sweep the street as Toby tries to grab a feel for the sniper. He finds a walker and lines up the crosshairs and-
BANG!
"Daddy?" Elijah jumps from his bed as his heart starts pounding.
"It's all right Eli. Stay down there. Don't come up."
Toby puts his eye back to the scope. "Annie. Come on, I know you're here baby." Toby says as he has his fingers on the trigger and waits until he sees her. His wife. The world seems to stop for a moment as his finger tightens on the trigger.
The crosshairs find her forehead. At that moment, she seems to pause and looks up at Toby. Staring right at him, sensing as if she knows who he is. Tears begin to drop Toby's face as he hangs his head and starts to sob.
He can't do it.
Santana's car travels up the highway to New York City. She has one hand on the wheel, while the other is holding her radio handset.
"...broadcasting on emergency bands…traveling on Highway 80. Anyone out there…anyone hear my voice." She waits. It's been a while since she last spoke and received no response. She tries again. "Hello, Hello, can anybody hear my voice."
Yeah, this storyline from the show absolutely broke me. I love Morgan so much and seeing him so broken, just hurt.
Anyways, what did y'all think? Don't forget to review :)