Glory And Gore

Prologue

Shane Walsh had made a lot of mistakes in his life. He never seemed to quite get it right with women, he was maybe a little too aggressive as a police officer, and he fucked his best friend's wife at the first given opportunity. Love, career, and friendship were all personal things he had found he messed up in one way or another before the end of the world. He only did worse after it did end.

But this? This group of kids and half adults who figured out a way to get this far but needed some direction? Nah, this wasn't one of his mistakes.

He'd picked each of 'em up over time. Jude and Zayden had been at a farm near the Greenes, surrounded by the dead and sobbing, not a bullet between 'em. Step-siblings from the age of four, they loved each other as if they were biological. When he found them, their parents had just died. Literally.

Rory and Archer were half brothers, sharing a father in prison that neither wanted anything to do with. Shane hadn't even found them together. Archer had been picking his way through some garbage, looking for a pair of shoes better than the socks he had covered with duct tape. Rory had been with his girlfriend, holding her dead, mutilated body. Found two weeks apart, and Shane only stopped because Archer wanted to help and found his half-brother staring back.

Cas was with Ae Ri, the two foreign exchange students living next door to one another. Ae Ri was a skittish thing, more like a house cat let loose than a person. Cas was doing his best to step up. But he wasn't quite built for it at first, too scared to cross the line he knew he had to cross before it killed him, or worse killed Ae Ri.

Maverick really found them. His group had started to go downhill, and he bolted when he had the chance. Shane and his set of six kids were trapped between a rock and a hard place, a group of the dead on one side and a group of raiders on the other. Maverick helped them out, took one look at the kids, stared at Shane and declared he was joining whether Shane liked it or not.

Shane didn't have a problem with it. Maverick was straight to the point, more than capable of carrying his own weight, and he was fucking smart. He kept his emotions under better control than Shane ever had. Although, he could have been a little quieter when he laughed.

"Thinking hard, aren't you?"

Think of the motherfucker, and he will appear.

Shane had lost himself in his thoughts, looking over the map. Maverick stood beside him, chest touching his shoulder as he bent over the map too. He scrutinized it, looking to different pieces of it. Setting up some sort of strategy in his mind.

"This, right here, this lake. It could still be good for fishing," Maverick said, which was what Shane had been thinking about too.

"But a group could have set up there. I know back when it started, that's what we did," Shane said, taking a deep breath. "It's a water source. Just gotta know how to start a fire, and dehydration won't be too much of a problem, apart from electrolytes."

"Nah, look at where it is. The roads to it are all private, so it was probably private too. If anyone is there, it'll be the people who owned it," he said, gesturing to the roads. "Better shot than the shitty towns we've been looking at at least."

It was. Significantly.

Shane nodded. "Tell everyone to get ready. We're headed out."

A three hour hike was what Shane asked for. His group delivered it. They joked a few times, pushing each other over to keep everyone going. Archer and Rory even started chasing each other for a few minutes, weaving between everyone. Zayden and Jude rolled their eyes as they walked, swinging their hands between them. It was a good walk. One of lightheartedness and laughter despite the aches of their muscles.