8 One Step Too Far

We were currently stationed at a small gas station, snooping through abandoned cars taking any food, supplies, or gas they held. Our plan next was Fort Bennett, 125 miles from where we were, that's what lies ahead. It was going to be a long and tough journey, but I can't imagine it being harder than what we've gone through already. Can it?

I finished filling up the gas tank to the campervan, while everyone else was packing up the last of their things. Leaving the CDC the way we did had left us with a loss of a lot of our things. Luckily I had all my close possessions from my family on me, but my bag of medical supplies, my crowbar, and my Glocks was all left behind in that room. The only weapon I had left was my rifle and it wasn't the easiest of weapons to carry around and use for close combat.

Revving up his engine Daryl walked his bike closer to the group, him using only his bike now left me to take a spot in the campervan along with Dale, Carol, Sophia, and Glenn. Rick and his family still traveled together in their own car and Shane, T-Dog, and Andrea all grouped together in the Jeep. The group felt so much smaller now, we were losing numbers rapidly.

"Come on, let's saddle up," Dale yelled out to everyone, climbing into the RV. Everyone shuffled around, agreeing that it was time to get a move on. Swinging my rifle back over my shoulder, I followed Dale's actions into the RV taking a seat across from Carol and her daughter. With everyone on board, Dale started the vehicle and led the group off.

We drove for about an hour in just silence, all were tired from the draining experience of yesterday and stressed about what comes next for us. No one knows what lies ahead or if there even is anything to find at Fort Bennett and I think that's what scares everyone the most.

"I saw your hesitation back at the CDC," Carol's soft voice pulled me out of my thoughts, she was the first one to say anything the entire trip. At first, I didn't realize she was even talking to me, I haven't really spoken to this women all that much, but when I looked around Glenn was zoned out on the other side of the camper, her daughter Sophia was asleep on her shoulder and Dale was out of hearing range for the volume she was speaking at. I glanced back at her and she very gently placed one of her hands on top of mine. I flinched slightly at the comfort of her hand but settled quickly as it felt like my mother was holding it. Carol was a sweet, timid woman, her grey hair had been buzzed and her face was one of the kindest I've ever seen. "It's okay to be scared sometimes," she smiled, "you've been through a lot in the last few days and you try to take it on all on your own, but it's okay to lean on us now. You have us now, this is our group."

Something about her saying the word 'our' made my heart drop. A sense of comfort and relief overcame my body and I immediately smiled at her. I nearly felt tears form in my eyes, as for the first time I actually felt like I belonged with these people.

"Thank you," I said as I squeezed her hand back slightly. She grinned before we both went back to our previous actions of staring aimlessly out the window.

"Oh dammit," Dale muttered under his breath as he slowed the campervan which caught all of our attention. Glenn immediately got up, taking a seat beside Dale and pulling out a map. I walked up near the front to get a look at what was going on.

"Can we go back?" Glenn asked as he read the map. "There's another route-"

Dale cut him off, "Can't waste the fuel, we can't go back," he said which worried Glenn. "Are there any paths through it?" Dale then yelled out the window to Daryl who pulled up beside us on his bike.

I stared ahead at the collection of abandoned cars that littered the highway. Daryl nodded his head and led the group through. We drove slowly as we weaved around cars that had been flipped, raided, and turned into a casket for those who couldn't get out in time,

"Jesus," Glenn muttered under his breath at the sight of it. I swallowed hard at what surrounded us, this place was a graveyard.

All of a sudden a loud bang came from the hood of the RV, sending steam shooting out from the front of it, blinding Dale's view of the road. The sound of it caused both Glenn and I to jump. Everyone was uneasy as we already didn't want to be in this place from the comfort of our cars and now we were going to be stuck here in the midst of it. Dale brought the van to a screeching halt, cursing under his breath.

"I said it, didn't I say it a thousand times?" Dale spoke, referring to the shitty quality of this campervan as we all shuffled out of the vehicle. Walking to the front of it to look at the problem, everyone else approached from their cars as well.

"Problem Dale?" Shane asked, annoyance in his voice. These two never got along with each other.

"Oh just the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no hope of-" Dale trailed off as he watched Daryl already begin to raid through the hundreds of cars that laid around us. "Okay that was dumb," Dale retracted his statement.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find," Daryl spoke up as he grabbed the snacks that he found in the trunk of a car.

"Some more fuel for a start," T-Dog grinned.

"Maybe even some water?" Carol prayed.

"This is a graveyard," Lori spoke, which caused everyone to stop what they were doing, putting people on edge again. "I don't know how I feel about this."

Her saying that annoyed me. I mean these people were long gone and what were we gonna do, just let all of this stuff go to waste because these people couldn't last long enough to use it?

"This graveyard is our blessing," I spoke up, looking over to Lori who furrowed her eyebrows at me. "If it's not us it'll just be someone else who takes it… and lord knows we need it."

With that said everyone set out to start looking around for things that could be useful. Daryl and T-Dog went looking for fuel, Carol and Lori looked around for food and clothes, Dale and Rick stood watch, Glenn stayed back to try and fix the van, and I desperately looked for a new weapon. Rick had plenty of guns and ammo that I could use, but I wanted something similar to my crowbar. Even though I was good with aim and accuracy, something about letting walkers get too close to me caused me to get flustered and get myself into trouble. My close combat skills were lacking.

I walked along the road, peeking in cars every once in a while, but most of them held dead walkers and a few trapped live ones that I didn't feel like wasting my ammo on. Walking up to a blue minivan, I hit the jackpot. Snooping through their trunk I had found a closed bag of goldfish, my favorite snack before everything went to shit. I used to eat these damn things all the time. Pouring a few in my hand, I placed the rest in my backpack and continued to search. I came across a couple of things that could be good weapons but nothing that I felt really willing to bet my life on, literally.

"Hey Scar!" Shane called out to me which quickly caught my attention and made my heart race slightly as my mind automatically jumped to thinking something was wrong.

"Yeah?" I answered, walking towards him, he wasn't too far away from where I already was though.

"Thought you might like this," He smiled for the first time I think I've ever seen as he tossed me a crowbar that he had found.

I caught it and smiled immediately, a sense of relief washing over me as I found comfort in this weapon. "Thanks," I responded and he nodded his head in return.

I was about to go back to snooping around when the sight of Dale on top of the campervan quickly getting down as low as possible caught my eye. I turned back around to see what was wrong when a walker grabbed me by the shoulders, causing me to stumble to the floor and to fall on top of me. Reacting quickly, I rolled it off of me and I sunk my crowbar into its skull, killing it. When I looked up in the direction it came from my eyes landed on a herd of maybe one hundred walkers. My stomach twisted at the sight of them. I looked around to see Rick weaving through cars trying to get to Lori, Carol, and the kids to warn them. I watched as Shane got Glenn's attention and dragged him under the campervan. I'm pretty sure Andrea was in the RV and I had no idea where T-Dog and Daryl had gone. Rick quietly motioned for everyone to get under the cars as fast as possible, Carl was closest to me so I ran over and pulled him under the closest car to us. Lying flat on our stomach we shuffled our way under and I put my finger over my mouth to motion for him to stay quiet. He nodded his head and looked over to his dad who laid under the car a few over from ours. It was me who almost gasped at the sight of multiple feet dragging by, the sound of moans and groans filling the atmosphere. I held my breath, hoping that we would get out of this alive.

After a couple of minutes, the sound trailed off as the herd got further away. It had been at least two minutes since we've seen a walker go by, but we continued to lay there for a little while longer to stay on the safe side. Shortly afterward both Sophia and Carl went to shuffle their way out from under the cars. I watched as Sophia, who was just on the other side of Rick, made it about halfway out when a walker approached. She screamed and I pulled Carl back underneath.

"Stay here," I said as I rolled out the other side of the car, as did Rick.

Sophia continued to scream and cry as she moved her way to the other side of the car and ran towards the woods to getaway. The one walker that was grabbing at her from under the car stood back up, allowing me to get a visual of it. I couldn't use my gun to take it down as it would draw the herd back towards us. Thinking fast I grabbed a screwdriver from off the ground and threw it with so much force that it lodged its way through the walker's head. Although, two other walkers that trailed behind spotted Sophia and continued to follow her into the woods. Rick, without thinking twice, ran after her as everyone else emerged from under the cars.

Carol cried out in fear, "Oh Lori, there are two walkers after my baby," she stumbled towards the woods, but Lori wrapped her arms around her to stop her from going any further. If she went after Sophia she would be just as good as dead.

So I went instead.