They make it to the bridge ten minutes later. It’s still intact, but covered in cars. Val weaves in and out of the dead traffic, giving his passengers a good look at the green mucky water below them. There are a few small buildings around, and there are a decent amount of skin eaters stuck on the bridge, but they make it through in no time flat. The road soon gets surrounded by more forest, they pass another bridge, and forty minutes after they changed their route, they come up on Morgan city.
It’s mostly just houses and storage buildings. Cars left behind are either rusted to hell or covered in enough blood to turn anyone away. Maverick picks up the receiver again, staring at Val as he hits the button. “Miss Peters? We’re here.”
Five minutes later, she answers back.
“You...actually came. You survived the drive here? Is it bad out there? Are there many of...them?”
“Just a few.” Maverick says, looking out the window to see the biters coming at the car. Only a small bunch in comparison to the one they had ran from that morning. “Where are you ma’am? Being out in the open is dangerous. Please.” He says, curling up towards the window, leaning his head against the cool glass.
Beck scoffs in the backseat. “I told you, we should just keep going to Houston, not waste our time here.” Val shushes her. She glares at him. Back when they were running from that herd he had let her take as much control as she wanted, but now that he was driving the car suddenly he was Mr. Leader. Well shit.
“I know I said I would come meet you. But I can’t. Not now. Just…take Federal once you come up on it and follow it until you see a blue house. There’s a fence around it with some barbed wire. When you reach it, let me know, and I’ll come let you in.” She doesn’t say anything else.
“Well then, let’s find this house.”
Val wonders why Beck and Jaye are still with them. Clearly only he and Maverick wanted to check this lady out - or at least if Jaye wanted to she hadn’t said anything about it. Beck was practically pleading them to not talk to the radio lady, urging them to go with her plan instead. If she wanted to go to Texas so bad she could damn well go herself. He’d even help her get a car if she would just stop complaining. Or at least if she’d stop talking about it.
As a group of four they had only really been together for a couple of hours, three at the most, and yet they seemed pretty...in sync. Beck, although annoying at times, would be a great war companion, someone he’d be glad to fight side by side with. Maverick was a child prodigy with technology and engineering, much better than most of the PhD students back at the Safe Zone. And from what he could tell, Jaye was smart, like really smart. She hadn’t said much to suggest it, but he was watching her read, eyes zooming over the page and flipping it only after a short time of looking at it. Either she was skim reading or reading at a speed editors could only dream of reading at.
They had been around each other for much longer than that. Maverick and Val had been hanging out for the better part of five years, they’d both seen Jaye around the camp, not bothering with her enough to say anything, and Val had spent the last two weeks hearing about ‘the new girl’s bitchy attitude’. He thought it funny the people he got stuck with after experiencing the ‘Breakdown of Greg’ were people he loved as children, and people he knew little to nothing about.
“There.” Val slowed to a stop at the sound of Beck’s voice behind him. She got out of the car, not waiting for anyone else. Maverick quickly radioed the woman he had speaking to.
“I’m coming out now to let you in. Leave your car outside the gate.” He gave her an affirmative and got out of the car himself, grabbing all of his things.
Val was the last one out of the car, with Jaye following Maverick, a stack of books in her hands. He shut and locked the doors, stuffing his hands in his pockets. The door to the blue house opened slowly, and a dog came stumbling out, its tongue hanging sloppily out of its mouth, licking at the air. A woman came running out next, her blonde hair tied up in a tight ponytail and swinging around her head. She caught the dog just before it reached the gate, scooping it up in her arms and laying it on its back. Up close he could tell it was a little beagle. “Are you the man from the radio?” She asks Val.
He shakes his head. “No, that was this man right here.” He pats Maverick on the back with a smile. She turns to the boy and for a moment the stoic expression on her face morphs into surprise.
“Oh. Come in.”
That’s when Beck pulls a gun on the woman. She doesn’t flinch. “Lead the way lady.” Sydney opens the gate for them with one hand and walks with her back turned to them, into her house. They all follow, Val grabbing Beck’s arm.
“Watch it.”
She tugged her arm out of his grip and got in his face. Even though he was taller than her, she was just tall enough to push her nose into his personal head space and make him uncomfortable. Not that he showed it. “You watch it. You’re not the boss of me. You’re not the boss of any of us! Stop acting like it.”
“So what? You think you can lead three other people, keep them alive? I have experience.” He grabbed her again, pushing her away this time. “You’re a god damn moron, waving that thing around, pointing it at the person who’s gonna give us food, shelter.” She looked away from him and he bent down to meet her gaze. “If you want to lead so bad, go ahead, but recognize the consequences of your actions. And that does include waving a gun at an unarmed woman who’s planning on giving us shelter.” He nudged past her, not too cowardly to knock into her shoulder as he did so.
She may be strong, hell she may even be a good companion in the shit world they called home, but she had an attitude that needed to be checked and he was damn well not going to deal with it until it was.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
