IX

—/<3/—

After a couple hours of driving, the group stopped on the highway. The road was blocked ahead and they needed to figure out where they were going, but first it was a good idea to loot the abandoned vehicles for provisions and weapons. They needed a couple more tents as it was and they were dangerously low on food and drinkable water.

"This feels wrong." Mikey sighed as he pulled a crate of bottled water from the trunk of a red Hyundai, handing it off to Archie so they could find room for it in the back of his car. They were lucky enough to have manage to keep a hold of all of their luggage from their tour, never unpacking it at their previous camp just in case they had to move, though their instruments and amps were all lost with the truck and Jonah. Rory missed her guitar. She'd never be able to play it without electricity but she missed it.

It was a gift from her little sister. Amelie was only 13 when she died but she spent a year working hard teaching other deaf kids sign language and piano so she could buy Aurora a guitar for her birthday. She was so proud when she handed Rory the sage green electric guitar, and Rory promised to cherish it forever. Then Amelie died and Rory's guitar became the only thing tethering her to her lost sister. But now it was gone, lost somewhere in Atlanta and she'd never see it again.

"They're dead Mikey, they don't need it anymore." Archer said, harsher than he intended as he hauled the water into the back seat of his car, placing it in the footwell.

"It still feels disrespectful, they may be dead but it's their stuff." Mikey countered, running a hand through his unkempt blond hair.

"Go sit in the car then, we'll do the looting so your conscience stays intact," Rory rolled her eyes, pulling a couple bottles of aspirin from the glovebox of the same car. Niamh remained silent next to her, digging through the baggage for anything worth taking.

"There any food in that one?" Rick called to Rory from a few cars down.

"No but we got some water and aspirin!" Rory yelled back. Rick threw her a thumbs up and walked to another car.

"Is it wrong if I take these playing cards? They're not a necessity but people will start to get pretty bored if we find someplace safe to settle down," Niamh asked, holding up the cards. She'd found a bunch of clothes for a boy around Carl's age too and clutched the bag under her arm.

"I say take them, we can play Blackjack," Rory smiled. She pulled a gun off the drivers dead body and slid it into the pocket of her cargos before she began her search for the ammo that he surely had lying around somewhere.

"Bingo," she whispered to herself as she opened the backpack in the footwell of the passengers seat, a whole bag of ammunition. She took the bag and jogged over to Rick, who was talking to Daryl, and silently handed him the bag, pulling out the gun that came with in. Rick whistled at her find, impressed. He thanked her quietly and ran back to the RV with it.

"You were right about the crazy scientist," Daryl said, going back to looting the car since Rick had run off. He pulled out a couple tins of Spam and held them out for her to take.

"I know," Rory replied, shoving the tins into the bag Daryl had left on the road.

"Were you actually goin' to shoot his balls off?"

"Were you actually gonna cut his head off?" Rory countered with a lopsided smile.

"touché," Daryl said as he climbed out of the car with a couple bottles of Gatorade, a roll of bandages and a pocket knife. "Oh shit, there's a herd comin' our way." He cussed and then ran to warn the others, his crossbow thumping uncomfortably against his back.

Rory's eyes widened as she turned to where Daryl had pointed behind her and she sprinted back to her family. Mikey had taken her advice and was already sat in the back of Archie's car, but he stared at the herd with wide, scared eyes.

"Niamh, get in the car with Mikey and cover yourselves with the blanket, do not move and do not make a sound, do you hear me? lay as flat as you can across the back seat." She whispered, ushering her into the car. She looked around frantically for Archie, catching sight of him searching a totalled car off the edge of the highway by the trees.

She ran towards him as fast as she could without alerting the herd to her and pulled him out of the trunk of the car. "Archer!" She hissed. Archie turned to look at her, confused. Realisation dawned on him when she pointed to the walkers. "On top of the car and into the tree," she told him, quietly climbing onto the hood of the car and hoping to god that the alarms wouldn't go off. Archie followed her and they both jumped, gripped the thick branch and hoisted themselves up.

Rory moved up to a different branch and leaned against the trunk, trying to slow her breathing as she peeked through the leaves, watching as members of the group hid in and under the cars.

She watched as Rick, Lori and Carol lowered themselves to the ground and rolled under cars to stay out of sight, but she couldn't see anyone else. She couldn't decide if they was a good thing or not. Had they managed to hide in time?

Rory and Archie remained unmoving in the tree as they watched the herd pass by. She supposed the lack of screaming was a good sign but she still held her breath. They weren't in the clear yet.

—/<3/—