𝕃𝕠𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝔽𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 | Daryl Dixon

10 | HERD ON THE HIGHWAY

In the time that had passed since everything at the CDC, the small group of survivors Tori had found herself to be a part of had been on the road. It was okay at first, but as the hours turned into days, it was harder to hold onto faith that they'd eventually find a place for themselves in the world that was safe.

The plan was to head for Fort Benning, far out of Atlanta. One hundred and twenty-five miles... That's what lay ahead.

As Tori drove her truck, one hand on the wheel and the other rested in her lap, she could hear the hum of a motorcycle engine driving along the road beside her. Daryl had decided he didn't want Merle's bike sitting idle anymore, so a few days ago, he started driving it instead of hitching a ride in Tori's truck.

She glanced out her rolled down window to look at him, and he looked in her direction as if he could sense her eyes on him already. The gaze only lasted a second before they looked away at the same time, focussing on the road ahead of them.

The pair had barely shared a full conversation since what happened at the CDC. Whenever they did talk, it was usually very blunt answers, eye contact being mostly avoided. It was a little awkward at times, and you wouldn't exactly call it getting along, but at least the bickering and snide comments had stopped.

As she drove along, following the RV, Tori's hand travelled around her lap to tap at her thigh where she used to holster her gun. That was another thing to change since the CDC incident – her gun had been taken off her. They had gone through everything they had and made an inventory, but once it was done, the guns were kept on the RV in a bag. Tori had asked for her gun back but had been refused.

Of course, she understood why. Dale saw her as a risk to herself now they'd seen her almost choose to die. It's not like she was planning to shoot herself in the face the second a gun was put in her hand. She'd actually made the decision to try and make the best of being alive. But still, she decided to drop the subject of getting the weapon back the first time Dale turned her down.

Their convoy arrived on a highway where many cars were left abandoned outside of a town, some headed in, most trying to leave. The RV came to a stop, and Daryl went ahead on the bike to try and find a route for the bigger vehicles to get through. Dale started moving off slowly when the hose in the RV radiator blew up, white smoke pouring out of the front.

Dale honked the horn before climbing out of the broken-down RV, walking around to the front, and opening the radiator grate. He covered his mouth with one hand whilst he used a cloth to try and waft away some of the smoke. The others started to come over to see what happened.

"Didn't I say it?" the older man huffed. "A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" Shane called as he joined the group.

Dale hummed. "Oh, just the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of..." He trailed off as he looked all around at the abandonment of cars and vans. "Okay, that was dumb," he admitted.

"You'll find a radiator hose here," Daryl nodded. "Hell, there's a whole bunch of stuff we could find here."

"Siphon some fuel from these cars," T-Dog said.

"Maybe find some water?" Carol added hopefully. "And food?"

"This is a graveyard," Lori said flatly, seeing dead bodies in some of the cars. "I don't know how I feel about this," she sighed, looking at her husband for support.

After a few seconds of silence, Shane started walking around. "Come on, y'all," he encouraged the others. "Look around, gather what you can."

As the group all broke off to search the vehicles, Tori went her own way. She pulled on her headphones, hitting play on her walkman as she clipped it to her belt. She glanced into a couple of the cars, holding her breath to avoid smelling the rotting flesh and bone of the bodies sat in the seats of the cars that had crashed. Flies buzzed as they hovered around the decaying bodies, and Tori waved her hand to waft them away from her face.