No Rest For the Wicked ~ A Walking Dead Fan Fiction

Chapter 33: Higher Ground

Chapter 33

Higher Ground

First Person~ Kate

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Eight months we'd been on the road running. Always running. I'd nearly forgotten what it was like to call someplace a home. My home was the four vehicles we travelled in, the fourteen people I travelled with.

I kicked open the door to the basement of a house we were raiding, treading silently down the stairs with Elsie behind me. I weaved through the boilers as she covered the rec room. I shot down two, retrieved the arrows and moved on.

Elsie gave me the nod it was clear on her half and I nodded back, jogging up the stairs to give Rick the all-clear. He whistled and Beth, Lori, Carol and Hershel filed in with the bags. Beth, Elsie and I ransacked anything of value in the basement before joining the group in the living room.

We sat in silence.  It was safest that way, but no one really had the inclination to speak anyway.  This life took something out of you.  The spark.  We weren't people, with personalities and interests and hobbies.  We were survivors and that was about all we could afford to be.  I looked around at our dirty faces, dirty hair, dirty clothes.  The house we were in was dirty and cold.  I sat close enough to Glenn that our shoulders touched and Beth sat close enough to me on my other side that our shoulders touched too.  I could feel the warmth of the two of them seeping through our shirt sleeves.  The only warmth in our lives at this point was each other.

Daryl was plucking an owl for the group while Lori was eating peanut butter with a spoon, a treat for just her because with the pregnancy eating the same as the rest of us simply couldn't sustain her and the baby.  She was malnourished enough as it was, even with us giving her everything we could.  Carl came in with some supplies and a can of something. Dog food, I realized. Rick strode across the room and picked up the now open can. He read the label before turning and chucking it at the wall. The noise was assault on all our ears after our careful silence. I slowly got to my feet and retrieved it, the thick gel like food still stuck firmly inside the can. Rick stared at me with those icy blue eyes.

"We're hungry, Rick." I told him quietly as I tucked my stringy hair behind my ear. It had been days since we last bathed. He ran a hand through his hair but nodded once. I took it back to Carl who spooned a mouthful and passed it on. It was cold and slippery and gross, making me swallow twice to feel like it was down but we all ate it anyway. We couldn't get weak.

I could understand Rick.  He wanted to take care of us, prove he could. And feeding us dog food didn't exactly do that. But it was better than nothing.

The can had made a full circle and was back in Beth's hands when T-dog glanced out the window, signalling it was time to go. We expertly gathered our bags and weapons and filed out of the house. I tossed my stuff in the back of the suburban and climbed in the backseat with Carl and Elsie.  We'd switched up some cars in order to get everyone a seat they didn't have to share.  Elsie and I had taken to riding with the Grimes family, Rick always in the driver's seat and Lori in the passenger's. When the backseat started feeling a bit too claustrophobic, I'd hitch a ride with Daryl for a bit. Rick followed the others onto the road yet again. This could have been any day. Some were worse, some were better. It was nothing special.