Malevolent. The Walking Dead

[ 010 ] cope with the worst

010: cope with the worst

Joey felt the blood rushing to her head as they were being dragged into the boxcar. They passed an array of others, people banging on them, pleading for help. She was in the back of the line they had formed, all keeping a hold on the three of them. She felt sick to her stomach. First, they had consumed an actual human, and secondly, they were soon to become their next meal. It was all her fault. It was her idea to come here in the first place. She couldn't let her guard down again. If she let it down again, she was going to die, or get them killed. But, it seemed they were already walking to their death.

They were out in the open at his point, a man behind Joey to make sure they stayed in check. There were snipers littered all over the roof. "Alright. Lebowski, you head toward that train car. Now," Gareth teased Bill, whose hair had nearly grown to his shoulders, and whose beard was hardly clean shaven at all. In normal circumstances Joey would've laughed, if they weren't about to be consumed by these people. Bill hesitantly walked toward the staircase that led into the train car. The door opened and he walked in.

"Alright, now the redneck," he nodded to Finn, who looked to Joey. He swallowed thickly, and at first Joey couldn't tell if they were tears in his eyes. Hers were stinging as she tried to swallow them down. "Keep. Walking," he muttered as Bill stopped in his steps. Joey craned her neck and saw movement in the cars. There were other people there.

"Alright, now Annie," she scowled at the nicknames, but was pushed forward by the guy behind her. Her hands were shaking behind her back. He kept pushing her forward until she arrived at the stairs, and he shoved her one last time. "I can walk myself, asshole!" she yelled back, and someone on the roof fired a warning shot. Joey jumped. "Don't make us shoot you, Annie!" Gareth screamed out, and her chest heaved in duress. The man snickered from behind her, and she pushed into the train car, and he slammed the door closed behind her. She kicked the door when it shut. "Fucking dick head!" She yelled out, looking around at the darkness. She could hardly see anything but Finn and Bill's terrified faces from the sliver of sunlight that was leaking through the crack in the door.

She pressed against the wall, sliding down until she could maneuver her hands from behind her back, around her legs and feet to her lap. Joey reached for the bobby pin in her hair to pop the lock. After wiggling it around a few times in the handcuffs, she was able to get them off her wrists. She rubbed them soothingly, and reached over to get Finn and Bill out of theirs. There was shuffling from the other side of the car.

"Welcome to the shit show," a gruff man muttered, and Joey nearly felt her heart leap out of her chest. "Jesus Christ. We thought we were alone," she breathed, hand clutching on Finn's shirt. A group of people emerged from the darkness. Joey couldn't keep her head on straight. Bill held onto her arm.

"Don't worry. We're not gonna hurt you. Unless you give us a reason to," an Asian man was the first one Joey could decipher. There was a woman by his side, and she could make out the silhouette of a few others. She brought her knees up to her chest.

"Did ya see any others out there? Before you came?" the woman asked, and Joey looked up at her with a foul expression. "No, we didn't see anyone else, we were too busy being fed humans and getting handcuffed to fucking look," Bill placed a hand on her arm. The woman stared at her with a deadpan expression. Bill cleared his throat. "No. We didn't see anyone else. It was just us," he sighed, moving to sit down next to Joey. He put his head in his hands. She stared at her feet. She felt herself wanting to get sick all over the floor.

"I'm Bill. This is Joey and Finn," he motioned his hands between the three of them. Joey kept her eyes ahead. This is all my fault.

"I'm Glenn. This is my wife, Maggie . . . that's Abraham, Eugene, Rosita, Tara, Bob and Sasha. We've been on the road a while too," he attempted to be comforting. Joey didn't bite. She didn't want to trust anyone, anymore. She couldn't.