The sun was coming up over the city; casting its light across the rooftop I was sitting on. Shane sat next to me, fiddling with one of his guns like always. It had been a few days since we left the CDC. We've been searching for somewhere-anywhere- safe for us to go. The group finally agreed with Shane to head to Fort Benning after a lot of arguing. Today is the day we're finally leaving the city.
Ever since the CDC Shane hasn't let me out of his sight. I think he's worried I'll get separated from everyone again. It's not like I had meant to be on the other side of those doors, I was just listening to what Lori said.
I hear footsteps approaching us from behind, breaking the silence of the moment.
"Here, breakfast."
It was Lori. She's been more upset at Shane since we left the CDC. I've overheard a couple of the conversations she's had with him. Most of the time I'm mentioned in them, she doesn't think I should be around Shane anymore. Then Shane says something to her about who else is gonna watch over me and round and round they go. Their conversations confuse the heck out of me.
I take the two bags of dried fruit from Lori, muttering a quick thank you. She glares at Shane, who hasn't even acknowledged her presence. Then she gives me a small smile and leaves.
Laying a bag by Shane, I open my own and start eating. I hate dried fruit but I don't complain, it's either this or nothing. So I eat it while holding back the urge to gag.
After another minute of fiddling Shane puts his gun down and grabs the bag of dried fruit. He takes a bite and frowns.
"Terrible, what do you think Charlie?"
I look at him, scrunching up my nose in disgust.
It seems like a good answer to him as he quickly laughs.
"Man, if we don't find more cans soon I'm gonna consider eating grass."
This time I laugh.
"That still sounds gross."
We finish eating our fruit in silence. Once I'm done I toss the bag off the roof and lay flat on the concrete. Littering's no longer a problem. With no one to take out the trash, throwing something in one is pointless.
I rub at one of the bandages on my arm. I've gathered a collection of them after the CDC, it's the price of climbing through broken glass.
In all the excitement of the CDC I'd completely forgotten about all the cuts and it wasn't until the adrenaline faded away that I noticed the stinging sensation. Which quickly turned painful, but I didn't think it was too bad, that was until Shane had glanced at me during the drive. The car had come to a screeching halt when he saw the blood stains on my shirt and pants.
We took a quick pit stop after that so we could bandage me up. Lori was the one to wrap them while Shane told me that if I ever get hurt again to tell him. He was pretty upset about me not saying a word.
After another couple minutes of me and Shane staring out at the rising sun T-Dog walks over to us.
"About time to go. You guys ready?" He asks.
"Ready whenever," Shane answers back. He grabs his gun and stands up.
I get up too, stretching my arms over my head.
A few of the others have started heading down the ladder leading off the roof. Carol stands at the top of it handing Glenn some of our bags. He takes them down to the cars with Rick and starts loading up.
Shane had to get rid of his jeep a few days ago, along with T-dog's van and Daryl's truck. Daryl now rides Merle's old motorcycle and T-dog, Shane, and I ride in the RV with Dale, Andrea, and Glenn.
Carl and Sophia wanted me to ride in Carol's car with them but there's no room left. They then tried to ride in the RV with me but their parents were quick to say no.
I pick up my backpack, Shane's hat is resting on top of it, so I put it on and wait for my turn to go down the ladder.
Taking another glance over the city I yawn. We've been getting up so early the last few days. Rick and Shane say every minute of daylight counts but it feels useless when we do nothing all day.
Andrea climbs down and I follow after her. Jumping off the last few rungs. I wince at the sting it causes to my ankles. Shane and Glenn keep reminding me to stop jumping around until they're healed. I check to make sure neither of them had seen me jump. Luckily for me Shane is still on the roof and Glenn is already inside the RV.
Once I'm inside myself I'm tempted to go to the back and lie down on the bed, but I resist the temptation knowing that I need to get used to being up early. Instead I sit down in the booth like I always do.
Soon the others have all climbed into their vehicles and we get ready to go.
Daryl leads the way, his motorcycle makes it easier for him to scout ahead and find the best path.
Usually it's Andrea who sits in the passenger seat but this time it's Shane. So instead Andrea sits across from me in the booth. She doesn't say a word and neither do I. I haven't really talked to her since Amy died.
I can tell she wants to break the awkward silence so I look at her in an expectant sort of way, waiting for a question.
After a few more seconds of staring she asks one.
"How are those cuts doing?"
"Better. Although the one on my stomach will definitely leave a scar."
"Scars aren't all bad. They can make for some pretty cool stories." She brushes a strand of hair out of her eyes. "You can even make up the stories you tell. Instead of broken glass you can tell people it was from a tiger that escaped from the zoo." She gives me a smile.
I haven't seen her smile in a long time so I give her one back in hopes that she'll keep smiling.
"Do you think anyone would really believe that?" I question.
"Maybe, but they weren't there. How could they really know?"
"Do you think Carl and Sophia would believe me if I told them it was from saving a stray dog from a walker?"
She shrugs. "You can try."
"Cool." I try to act nonchalant, like Andrea does sometimes.
We drift back to our silence. An hour or two passes before we stop at a truck stop. Or what was a truck stop. Half the building is black, strands of smoke escaping between the cracked walls.
I'm starving by this point and I want nothing more than to run inside and hunt for food but I know I'd be quickly stopped so I wait for someone else to go exploring.
I don't have to wait long because Shane stands up and announces he'll go.
"I'll go check it out. See if there's anything worth taking," Shane says to us in the RV. He slings a bag over his shoulder and grabs his shotgun.
"I'll go too," T-dog adds.
They step out of the RV and meet up with Rick and Daryl. The latter joining the other two as they hurry inside the still intact part of the gas station.
With Dale's permission I leave the RV and sit on its steps outside the door. Clouds cover the sun so I take off my hat. No use wearing it to block out the sun if there isn't any.
I was hoping Carl and Sophia would be allowed to stretch their legs too but it looks like Carol and Lori decided to keep them inside the minivan.
Instead Rick comes over to greet me, stuffing the keys to the minivan in his pocket. "Hey, kiddo." He points to the door. "You on watch duty? Gotta ask Dale something, but only with your permission, of course."
"Shane says I can't be on watch duty till I've had 8 years of military training," I say, giving Rick my best attempt at a Shane impression.
He laughs. "Well you're doing a great job at being on "unofficial" watch duty."
Shrugging I stand up and move out of the way so Rick can go inside.
He pats me on the shoulder as he walks into the RV.
Instead of returning to my seat I take to looking around. I promise myself I won't do anything stupid, I just can't bear to sit still anymore. There's not much around, but I don't care, anything at all interests me right now.
I head over to a trash can that's fallen over, trash litters the ground and birds peck at it. As I near they all flap their wings and take off. Most of it is just old fast food bags and cups, hopefully something will be packaged and I can enjoy a quick snack. I grab a stick and poke around in it, there's no way I'm gonna dig around the trash with my hands.
Someone opens the RV door and steps outside.
"Hey kid," Glenn greets me as he walks closer. "Pretty sure Shane doesn't want you out here alone."
"Why does it always matter what Shane wants me to do?" I ask, continuing to poke through the trash. Rotten food and plastic bottles are pretty much what's left at the bottom.
"Well, uh, I guess he's kinda like the one in charge of you, since…you know," Glenn explains.
"I know." Having no parents automatically makes me someone else's problem.
I sigh and toss the stick into the trash. I'm a little light headed from hunger but I've gotten used to it the past few weeks. Besides, everyone else is feeling the same way, so there's no reason for me to start complaining.
Glenn starts to say something and I look up at him before movement to the right catches my eye. Shane and the others are leaving the building.
"Charlie, do you th-" I don't hear the rest of his words as I rush past him toward Shane, who's returned from the gas station. Soot is smeared on his face and hands, I glance at Daryl and T-dog, noticing the same. Must be more smoke inside than I realized.
I stop once I reach Shane's side. "Any walkers?"
"Couple of dead ones."
"Find anything good? Any food?" I glance at Shane's backpack hoping beef jerky and candy bars will fall out of it.
"Some granola bars and a box of pancake mix. T-dog swears he can make some if we find a half decent pan." We get to the RV and stand in its shade.
"Really! Our mission must be to find a pan." My stomach growls at the thought of warm pancakes covered in maple syrup.
Shane laughs. "Shouldn't our mission be to find somewhere safe?" He questions.
"That can wait. First we have to find a pan and if we're lucky some syrup too." I'm practically drooling.
"Walker!" Glenn shouts.
We turn around and see it coming around the corner of the truck stop. Shane walks forward, taking big strides toward it. He pulls out his knife as he gets closer and plunges it into its skull.
He shakes the blood off his knife. "Just cleaned it this morning."
My eyes widen as I watch a walker come out from behind him, then another, and another. "Shane!"
He turns around and sees them coming toward him. He mutters something under his breath-I'm sure it would've earned me a week long grounding-and runs back to the RV.
Something grabs onto my shoulder and without hesitating I punch it.
"Ow!"
Turning around I see it's just Glenn, he's clutching his arm.
I apologize quickly, "Sorry Glenn!" Then I narrow my eyes at him. "There's no way it hurt that much."
"Not the time kid, just get inside!" He pushes me toward the door. I head in, holding the door open for Glenn and then Shane who's behind him. T-dog is already safely inside.
I sit down and try to relax, dropping my hat on the table. The walkers are far enough away that we have plenty of time to get away without any issues. I take a quick look around to make sure everyone really is safe. T-dog and Glenn are sitting across from me in the booth, Shane is leaning against the counters, Andrea is in the passenger seat, Dale in the driver's, and Rick is standing just to the side of him.
It takes my brain a few seconds of staring at Rick before it catches up to itself.
Rick's not supposed to be in here. He has the keys to Carol's minivan.
Shane is the first to react.
He pushes Rick out the door "Go! Now, c'mon!"
They both get out their guns and rush out.
I run to the window above the sink to watch while the others use the front window.
The two cops stop just outside the RV and start shooting the walkers surrounding the minivan from a distance. The walkers must've noticed there were people in the minivan and changed targets from the RV once we had all gotten inside.
I can see the panicked and worried faces of Lori and Carol through the car windows. Carl and Sophia aren't visible so I'm assuming their mom's are telling them not to look.
Once it's clear enough Rick rushes forward toward the driver's side door. Shane stays back and picks off walkers that get too close to him.
Rick's almost to the car when I notice one of the walkers at the back of the group change direction.
I'm curious as to what it's doing when he walks off to the side and comes up behind Shane. It stuns me for a moment to see a walker that smart before I start shouting hoping that Shane will hear me.
"Shane! Shane behind you!" Of course he doesn't hear me. Curse me and my quiet voice.
The others at the front of the RV don't notice the walker either. So without thinking I throw open the RV door and run outside before they even realize I'm gone. I try shouting again.
"Behind you!" This time he hears me. The walker, not Shane, cause why not? It turns quickly and reaches out for me instead.
I don't look away from its dead eyes and snapping jaws as I back up. Out of the corner of my eye I see Rick's only a few steps away from the minivan now. My back hits the side of the RV just as a hand lands on my shoulder.
Assuming it's Glenn again I relax and wait for him to move forward and kill the approaching walker. Instead the grip gets tighter, and the walker ahead stumbles closer.
"Glenn wha-" Turning my head I'm met with blackened teeth and white eyes.
Gasping I push its arm off and this time I turn around to run. Before I get far the walker grabs my shirt and I fall down, slamming my side and leg on the asphalt. I wince when I feel the cut in my leg start hurting again.
The black teeth walker falls down along with me and crawls forward. Both of its hands grab onto my leg and pull me toward itself, mouth wide open, ready to take a bite of my foot.
My converse have enough blood stains already so with my other foot I kick it hard in the head. This gets it to relax its grip for a moment, so I kick it again and jump up.
Again I'm met with the white eyes of the first walker but this time I'm expecting it. I duck under its arms and run. I probably should've run back inside the RV but I'm worried that'll only bring the two walkers inside with me. So instead I run toward Shane, he's shooting a walker that's pounding on one of the car windows.
That's when I notice Rick's safely inside the RV, so I don't feel guilty when I crash into Shane's side, knocking him off balance and completely messing up his aim.
He looks down at me. First confusion crosses his face but it's quickly replaced by anger. "Charlie? What are you doing? Get inside now!"
I look back toward the two walkers. "I can't!"
He follows my gaze and wastes no time in killing them both. Glancing back at Rick he sees that he's started driving, heading off toward Daryl who's already a ways down the road.
He pushes me forward toward the RV now that it's all clear. Needing no further motivation I run as quick as I can inside. Dale drives off not a moment later.
Glenn grabs me by the arms as soon as I'm inside.
"Charlie! You can't do that!"
Panting, I look down. Guilt quickly replacing the fear I was feeling. "He was gonna die," I try to reason.
"So were you!" Glenn releases his hold on me but doesn't move away.
Shane stands next to him. Hands on his hips. I don't look at his face. I already know he's angry, really angry.
"Under no circumstances do you get to run outside into a group of walkers unarmed and without backup." He doesn't yell, but it's so close to it that I shrink back anyways.
I keep my eyes trained on my converse, despite my efforts I still managed to add another red stain.
In an attempt to defend my actions I say, "It was going to bite you." I'm sure my voice comes out as a whisper but both Glenn and Shane hear it.
Glenn sighs and rubs his face.
Shane speaks again, this time a little calmer. "I would've been fine, probably would've heard it when it got closer. It's still no excuse to do what you did."
With a little bravery, I look up at his face. Still, I don't meet his eyes, but I'm close. "Probably isn't good enough."
Glenn speaks up, "No excuses, kid." He gets up and moves away toward the booth.
Shane stays though, his eyes look me up and down. "Were you bit? Scratched?"
I shake my head.
His eyes pause on my leg.
I look down, my eyes widening at the patch of red spreading. Dropping to the ground I roll up my pant leg. The bandage covering my cut is completely soaked through. I knew I hurt it but I didn't think it was this bad.
Shane grabs the first aid kit and sits next to me on the ground, inspecting my leg. "T, grab me a towel."
T-dog hurries to the back and returns with a zebra striped towel.
Shane grabs it. "Thanks man." He peels off the old bandage and covers the cut with the towel, applying pressure to slow the bleeding.
"Any worse and you'd need stitches," He says.
I don't say anything. Looking at my cut makes my head start to spin so I just focus on the window. From where I am on the floor I can only see the tops of trees whizz by.
Once the bleeding slows Shane carefully lifts the towel and applies some ointment before bandaging it back up.
I decide it's probably best to apologize now. My eyes still trained on the window as I speak. "Sorry." I want to say more but I can't find the right words.
He doesn't say anything at first, just finishes bandaging the cut.
When he's done I carefully unroll my pant leg and move to sit at the booth across from Glenn, who's looking out the window.
Shane heads over to one of the counters. He takes some paper towels and starts wiping at the blood on his hands. "It's fine, Charlie," He finally replies. "Takes guts to run out there like you did."
I look down at my leg. "And loads of stupidity."
"Ain't that right." He laughs. "Next time just tell one of the adults, any one of them would've helped out."
"You're right. Sorry."
"Already said that, kid."
He throws away the paper towels and sits beside Glenn at the table. In front of him is my hat, he picks it up, inspecting the sides. "You've had this for what, a week? And it's already got some good dents."
Not believing him I reach over and yank the hat out of his hold and inspect it myself. Sure enough, there are already a lot of scuff marks.
"Sorry." I glance at him and then back to the hat. "Again."
"Hat's yours now, destroy it all you want." He leans back in the seat and closes his eyes.
Putting it on, I mirror Glenn and lean my head against the window, staring out at the passing trees.
Oh would you look at that, it's already been 1. 2. Almost 3 months since my last update! Heh heh sorry…..welp I'm not a time traveler so I can't go back in time and tell myself to hurry it up.
In all honesty I've had this chapter written even before my last update, I just never found the time to go through it and make some much needed edits. It's a filler chapter for sure but I have the next few chapters written and partially edited so it shouldn't take nearly as long for me to post.
Anyways, until the next update, -Sparrow