Those Who Survive

The Choices of Others

The drive was silent for a long while. They had only taken a small stop to a convenience store to find some food and supplies for Minx's wound. They needed to do something about it before it got infected.

"Stay still," Cry urges, using a pair of tweezers to try and get the bullet and shrapnel from her thigh.

"Trying." She huffs back, crossing her arms tightly, nails digging into her skin.

"Here, bite down on this," Thomas walks past, handing a small dish rag still in the packaging to her.

She nods, doing as he suggests. Cry leans on her leg to try and keep it still as he tries again to get the bullet out of her thigh. It's somewhat slow going and Minx curses Cry with every movement he makes, but he eventually gets the bullet and shrapnel from her leg. Using a belt, he tourniquets her leg before wrapping a cloth around the wound to slow the bleeding. Minx looks worse for ware, but she's not complaining much anymore. Cry hands her a bottle of water, "Drink up and rest for now."

"Don't have to tell me twice." She mumbles, taking a long drink, the plastic bottle crackling as she squeezes it. Cry chuckles lightly and stands, stetching before walking over to where Dan is sitting on the check out counter, drawing aimlessly in the dust that's collected there. Cry leans against the counter, "How are you holding up?"

"Does it really matter?" Dan sighs, glancing up through his dark bangs, "What are we even doing, Cry? Going to find ghosts? Dragging us across the country? It's over, man. The world is gone, dead and it's not coming back. Everywhere is infected, and sooner or later, we're all going to die to it."

Cry frowns, while he doesn't like Dan's outlook, he can't say he's wrong either. They stare in silence for a moment before Dan looks away, continuing to scribble unintelligible shapes or words into the dust on the counter, "Hoping for a miracle only gets you killed. How many more people are we going to watch die before we get that..?"

"I don't think hope brings death." Cry says, "I think it brings the opposite. It's easy to give up, mentally, physically. Holding on to some semblance of hope, something to strive for, or live for.. It's the only way we're going to survive."

"What if.. You don't want to survive..?" Dan asks softly, writing a name into the dust, "What if your choices.. Kill someone else, too? What does hope do for someone like that?"

Cry looks at Dan with concern and he frowns lightly, looking down at the name Dan's been scribbling: Signe. He looks back at Dan, "Hope.. Is a choice, too. You can't..force someone to believe in something they don't want to."

He sighs, "All you can do is try to forgive them, and try not to make the same mistakes. If you want to give up, no one can make you change your mind but you."

Dan frowns and angrily runs his hand through the scribbles of dust before wiping the dust off his hands. He hopes off the counter and disappears behind an aisle wordlessly. Cry sighs and closes his eyes, hoping his words meant something. He knew what Dan was talking about, based on what he saw in that house so long ago and the name Dan scribbled. It was obvious by the wounds Signe and Dave had before Cry added new ones.

Signe had killed herself, and then she, or what was left of her, killed Dave. Clearly this affected Dan more than he's ever let on. Cry and Minx both could tell he had been upset but Cry never really knew to what exact extent. He blamed Signe.. Entoan had died for her, too and she made his sacrifice meaningless by doing what she did. Took Dave's choice of life away from him, too. I can see why he'd be angry with her, even now. Cry opens his eyes and looks towards Minx to check on her.

She seems to be doing fine, as she's still sitting where he left her, staring off into space and fidgeting with the rings on the chain around her neck. His attention is caught by Thomas, as the eccentric man comes running out of the storage room with a big grin on his face, "Guys, guys! You have to come look at this!"

Cry gestures at Minx to stay put before meeting with Dan at the door to the storage room where Thomas waits. He jumps lightly, like a giddy child and waves at them to follow before he runs back in. Dan shrugs and follows, with Cry right behind. They look around and both are astonished to see the storage room is full of canned foods and boxes of water bottles. Thomas grins, "See? It's amazing! We won't have to stop for food for so long!"

"This.. Looks like it belonged to someone." Cry frowns, "Wasn't this room locked earlier?"

"It was," Thomas nods, "But I found this dead guy out in the alley, where the fences block it off? I know we agreed to just leave him, but.. After we found the door was locked.."

Thomas looks more sheepish, avoiding their eyes as he fidgets with the sleeves of his jacket, "I, uh.. I searched him.."

Cry frowns, "Kind of disrespectful, but.. I guess it works in our favor."

"Did he have anything else on him?" Dan asks.

Thomas nods, pulling a crumbled paper from his pocket. He unfolds it and hands it out to Dan. Dan takes it and reads the words hastily scrawled in pen and what might be blood. Cry steps close to him, looking over his shoulder at the paper, "What does it say?"

"Addy, if you find this, go to North Platte Nebraska. Jenny's there waiting for you, the men in uniform said they'd come back for me, too." Dan reads. He sighs and folds the paper back up, "Guess they never came back."

"Do you think it's a settlement? It could be safe there." Thomas says hopefully.

"I don't know.." Cry steps back, looking thoughtful, "It's been what? Almost seven months? Some people probably have started making settlements to survive the apocalypse.."

"We're not going." Dan shakes his head, "You already have us driving across the country for ghosts, I'm not going to some place that could be overrun. Who knows when this message was left? That guy looked to be dead for awhile."

"We'll think on it, it's not the prime objective right now. But eventually, gas will run out so we'll have to settle down somewhere." Cry replies.

"Sure, I get that." Dan shrugs, "As long as it's just us, and whoever isn't a ghost if we find anyone still alive in California."

"Noted." Cry nods, "Let's start packing this stuff into the truck for now, then we can get back on the road."

Dan and Thomas nod and The three of them get to work while Minx diligently supervises.