𝘼dalyn didn't know what she was expecting when they drove down the road near the prison. It was a backwoods path, surrounded by trees on all sides. A good hiding spot for people or biters alike. At the most, she was expecting a few biters. Nothing they couldn't handle.
She wasn't expecting to see a girl, a machine gun held tight in her hands as she bashed in the head of a biter in front of her. A man lay on the ground nearby, dressed in prison riot gear. Adalyn, from the bed of the truck, raised an eyebrow at the sight.
The girl looked up, seeming to just process the truck. She took a deep breath before she stated, "Hope you enjoyed the show, assholes!"
Adalyn hopped out of the truck bed, coming around to investigate. Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita unloaded from the cab.
Abraham looked between the man on the ground and the girl before speaking. "You got a damn mouth on you, you know that?" he asked. And then he smiled. "What else you got?"
The girl, her name was Tara, had agreed, albeit reluctantly, to join them in the truck. Adalyn could tell just how little she actually wanted to go. But it was safety in numbers now, and Tara wasn't an idiot.
And so they loaded her and the guy into the bed of the truck. They'd taken care to check for bites. For now, these strangers were safe.
Adalyn watched as Tara wrote on her hand with a permanent marker. Outside the truck, they zipped on past a trio of biters who had occupied themselves with a balloon tied around a street sign, deflated and flapping uselessly in the breeze. The truck gained their attention, and soon there were three hitchhikers following along behind it.
Abraham stopped driving, looking at the small group through the side mirror. They clambered to get to the truck, grabbing at the lip of the bed. They could smell people in the back, and they weren't going to stop unless they got at them. Or unless someone made them stop.
Tara made to grab at the machine gun, aiming at the biters.
Abraham was quick to put a stop to that, hanging out the cab of the truck as he stated, "Do not fire that weapon."
One of the biters, hearing Abraham's voice, came around the side. A chuckle escaped the red-head. "Shit," he said. "Look at what we got here." He slid a crowbar off of his seat, holding the tool in his hands as the other two joined their brethren.
He swung at the first advancing walker, knocking it to the ground quickly. The second came at him. He caught it by the long hair, forcing its head down just long enough to allow him to shove the crowbar through the front of its head.
That left one more.
Abraham put on an expression of sympathy as he looked over the blonde biter. "Oh, honey, look at you," he said with a laugh. "You're a damn mess." he swung up, knocking its head to the side, but it didn't go down.
"Damn it," he muttered, and he swung again, crowbar sweeping across the remnants of its face and knocking it into the side of the truck. It caught itself on one arm to the best of its ability. "Shit," Abraham said. He jammed the end of the crowbar through its lower jaw. The metal caught against the side, pinning the biter in place.
Adalyn made to stop Tara, but she was out of the bed in seconds, coming around to join Abraham, who smiled as he held out his hands, waving toward the gun she held. "Can I borrow that a sec?"
She tossed it over without a word. "Thanks," he said, and then he was slamming the butt of it into the biter's skull. Adalyn winced at the sight.
From the ground, the first biter let out a gurgle. "Oh, I'm not leaving you out," Abraham said. He brought the gun down hard on its head, sending a splatter of blood across his shirt.
He tossed the gun back over when he was finished. "There's some rags in the back. Addy'll know where," he said.
He took hold of the crowbar, sliding it free from the biter's jaw. Seeing Tara's expression of shock, he asked, "What?"
She shook her head.
"What?" he pressed.
Finally, she spoke. "Never seen that before."
He looked down at the walker on the ground, eyes lingering on what remained of its head. "I've seen you do the same thing," he said.
"You smiled," she said. "You were smiling."
Abraham hesitated. Adalyn sat up, leaning over the side of the truck bed to watch him. "Well, I'm the... luckiest guy in the world," he said finally.
That conversation over with, he waved a hand to the cars in front of them, blocking the truck's path. "How about you help me with one of these cars? We got some miles to go."
