Arrowbound

8. Hatred and Confusion

Daryl decided he wasn't going to keep the truck anymore, instead he took Merle's motorbike, he said it was to save fuel but Astrid was convinced it was because he was sick of Sophie crying and Astrid being angry at him. He just didn't get it, that bunny was one of the only things Astrid had of her mama, and now the bunny was gone.

The 2 girls had to go into the RV, none of them being in a very good mood right now. There are a fair amount of people in the RV. T-dog, Andrea, Shane, Glenn, Dale, Sophie and Astrid, everyone was focusing on their own things. Astrid was sitting in the back, next to Sophie who had stopped crying but had tear stained cheeks and red puffy eyes.

"I'm really sorry, Sophie." Astrid said, finally breaking the silence between the girls.

"I know," Sophie replied with a faint, obviously fake smile. Truth was she wasn't mad at Astrid at all, she was glad she lived so she could grow up, but she missed and hated her dad at the same time.

Shanes cleaning his gun and Andreas watching him closely, Astrid didn't wanna talk to Shane or even be in the same place as him but she pushed that away and put up with it. After minutes of doing nothing Astrid swallows her anxiety and gets up from her seat, walking over to Shane.

She sits down at the table where Shane and Andrea are, they both look at her confused until she pulls out a gun from her waist, both their eyes widen. "Where did you get that?" Shane asks, raising an eyebrow as he tries to take the small gun.

"No, just teach me how to clean and reload it." Astrid says firmly, she knows she is only eight and he could easily take the gun, but she had his secret that she could tell everyone if he didn't do it. Shane stared at her for a moment, Andrea giving him a look as he actually considered it.

"Fine," Shane muttered.

"What? I don't even get a gun and your teaching the 7 year old?" Andrea blurted, Dale had taken her gun since he thought she would try to shoot herself.

"I'm 8!" Astrid argued, Andrea just rolled her eyes at the girl.

"Whatever, she gotta learn somehow, quit whining." Shane said to Andrea as if she was a child, Andrea scoffed and sat back in her chair, watching as Shane taught the little girl how to clean and reload the gun.

After about 20 minutes Astrid was confident that she could reload and clean guns now, as she stood to go back to Sophie in the corner the RV jolted and came to a stop, almost making her trip. "Oh, jeez" Dale says with a sigh, Astrid looks up with everyone else and sees there is a big traffic jam in the way.

Her dad rides up on his motorbike a second later, "See a way through?" Dale asks. Daryl nods and goes around the RV, Astrid tries to give him a wave when he passes the window since she felt bad for yelling earlier, when he sees her he gives a small, thin lipped smile in return before starting to go through a maze of cars and trucks.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back," Glenn says as he looks at the map, he is in the passenger seat of the RV. "There's an interstate bypass."

"We can't spare the fuel." Dale replied shaking his head, everyone tried to manoeuvre their way around the vehicles, Astrid looked out the window and saw a few dead bodies in a car, she scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"Can we get through here?" Glenn questions and just as he finishes the RV makes a funny sound and the front starts to smoke up. Once we pull to a stop everyone gets out their cars and meet at the RV, Astrid and Sophie stand off to the side, Sophie holding onto Astrid's hand again.

Astrid got a funny feeling whenever Sophie held her hand, it almost felt like a sick feeling in her tummy but it couldn't be that since she wasn't sick. She didn't pull her hand back, since the poor girl just lost her father and probably needed some sort of comfort, Astrid knew she would want it.