Chapter Text
I looked up and I could feel the wind in my face, closing my eyes I let myself dwell for a moment in the memories built in this place. The sound of Dina’s voice, the laugh of little JJ and even the noisy animals that used to roam around the farm. Maybe someday we could return, who knows. I came here to close my last chapter, as I’ve told Dina. Somehow, I needed to say goodbye alone.
I reached the fork in the road, to the right, Jackson, to the left, the road I had taken to get to Abby. The memories were still too fresh to forget and I found myself crying as if I have never cried before. It was exhausting to think about it all.
Somehow, the moment I took to think became an hour, two, and the sun was starting to take its road down. There was an abandoned house somewhere, maybe I could check it and use it to spend the night.
Once I was outside the house, I kneeled next to the door and listened intently, as I’ve done so many times before. The sounds coming from inside were unmistakable. Infected, possibly two. It wasn’t too late to try and get to Jackson, but somehow I felt the urgency of cleaning the place. As if it was some kind of personal mission. Joel would have done it in order to avoid putting others at risk. Joel…
There was a big container outside what looked like a bathroom window, and after pushing it a little closer I used it to look inside. The door was closed from the inside. With an impulse I entered through the window without making any sound. There was an old first aid kit next to the broken mirror and I took it and put it in my bag, which was half full by now. I had found an orange tree nearby and took a bunch of oranges, they would be a nice present when I return.
I turned the doorknob very carefully. One of the infected was banging its head against the wall in a sort of loop. I could hear another one on the room with the blue door, which was closed.
Knife in hand, I approached the creature and put the knife swiftly in its head, then it dropped to the floor, immobile. I could hear grunts behind the blue door to the left, but before open it I decided to check the rest of the house first. It wasn’t as shabby as other houses I had seen, and apart from the infected, it was rather clean. There were a couple of supplies that could be helpful. After putting them in my backpack, I looked around and saw a hole in the ceiling, which immediately reminded me of something that happened long time ago, when I was patrolling with Joel. I shook my head, it’s not good to be distracted when dealing with infected.
The grunts were dimmer and I opened the door very slowly, careful not to make any sound. It used to be a man, now it’s just a monster. I approached silently again, stick the knife in the back of its head and as I was pulling it out, another sound made me startle.
I peered outside and could see a woman and two guys next to her looking around. A second woman with a girl approached the group and they talked. I couldn’t hear a word, but it was too risky to get closer. I mentally checked my options, one of them was to escape through the window in the bathroom I had used to enter in the first place.
Quietly, I took a step back, got to the bathroom and looked at the window, but just before taking the necessary impulse to reach it, I heard voices. Cursing low, I turned to look for another way out. There was a crack on the wall, I would have to be fast. Two more steps and I would sprint and run… one more
“… I never thought we would get this far. Are you sure you wanna keep going? It’s going to get dark soon…”
I was petrified, listening.
“We could get back to one of these houses if we don’t find anything uphill. Promise”
“Ok, let’s go then”
They left heading towards Jackson and I knew that only because the path ahead was one of the easiest to follow. I had told Tommy about this, but he just said that if someone found that path, then they should have the opportunity to find Jackson and its safety.
“If only we could trust humans…” I said to myself as I checked the ammo in my gun. People changed their mind way too often.
I decided to follow them. Five minutes later, I found myself crouching among a huge bush.
“Mom, I’m hungry” the girl said to her mother. The blond woman stopped and made a sign to the others, who quickly began to walk in a circle among them as in a rehearsed choreography. This was interesting, that way they could cover more ground and be prepared in case something appeared. I made a mental note about this strategy for the future. The look on the woman’s face wasn’t one of joy. She moved her head sideways to indicate there was nothing else. The other woman looked down. I could feel the despair. Instinctively, I recalled the contents of my bag: a couple of containers with alcohol, some rugs, a small jar with water, and the oranges. As I moved I felt a pain in my side, I still hadn’t recovered well from my encounter with Abby.
“Help… me”
Abby’s voice echoed in my memory. I could still feel her flesh being cut by the knife I was holding in my now maimed hand. I shook my head, now it wasn’t the time to go down that road. I had a decision to make, and with the memories of Dina, JJ and Joel in my mind I put the knife away and left my hideout.
As soon as I put one footstep towards the group I heard the unmistakable sound of a bow being tensed. My muscles hardened and I raised my hands very slowly. Then, I turned to look and saw someone crouched covered in rags pointing an arrow at me.
“Hello, I…” but I was stopped when the person in front of me stood up. I would say it was a woman, but it was difficult to tell with all that rags. She motioned me to turn around, I did and found the group looking at us.
“Hey, listen, I only wanted to share some food with the girl…” I said looking back to the woman with the bow, but she wasn’t there anymore.
“Come closer, and put your hands down” the blond woman said. The guys resumed their round around the group, looking at me from time to time.
“My name is Maria” she said looking at me.
“I’m Ellie”
“Ellie, this is my daughter Joan and my granddaughter Esther”. The girl looked at me and I noticed she hadn’t eaten well for a while. They all looked kind of burning the last logs, sort of speak.
“I’m sorry for appearing like this, I just happened to have some fruit I could share, if you want to” I looked at the girl and she couldn’t hide her excitement.
“That’s very kind of you, we lost our last supplies a little while back, there were infected around and we had to run for it”
I looked back and frowned, there is an increasing amount of infected near Jackson now, considering the two I found in the house. It made me feel strange.
I opened my bag and took out a couple of oranges.
“I’m sorry it’s not much”
“This is perfect, it’s been a while since I saw an orange, thank you so much”
She took the fruits, cleaned the knife she was carrying in her waist and started rationing. By the end, each of us had slices of orange in our hands.
“Are you going somewhere specific?” I asked the woman near me, they all had started gathering around.
“Well, we are following a path. Someone told us that we may find shelter near here. My daughter is pregnant and we would like to try and find a better place to deal with that. We used to live near the sea, but infected started to roam and we had to leave. At the end, each family took a different way to escape. We were a group of 20” she said and their expression was one of sadness.
“I’m sorry for your loss”
“What about you? What are you doing here?”
“I was in a sort of personal journey, but now I am heading back home.”
“Home? Near here? It’s settled then, we walk together from now on”
“Alright” I said almost too fast and the girl looked at me and smiled, I smiled back. New people, new stories. The thought of recent events menaced to come back, but I pushed them away.
The rest of the road was in silence. At some points we stopped, they were constantly checking with the woman with the bow, I didn’t know how since there were no words, they communicated with signs.
“Over here” I said as I held my hand to the little girl to help her cross the flow of water. It was an old habit, since this was the route most traveled to get to Jackson and I always helped Dina in this part.
“Your hand is weird…” the girl said and the woman named Joan looked at it and widened her eyes at the sight.
“Yeah well… I had a little accident”
“Does it hurt?” Esther asked, worried.
"Not much, just sometimes" I said as I covered it with my other hand.
The rest looked at each other and I felt uneasy, there was nothing to do now but to move forward. It was getting dark and the idea of spending the night in the open, among a group of people I didn’t know, wasn’t too appealing. The past has taught me that no matter how kind a person seems, they can always be demons on the inside.
The next we saw was the huge gate separating Jackson from the infected world. Lights were already on and the view was breathtaking, as always.
There we were, seven people approaching the only safe place around. This was definitely going to be interesting.