Forfeit ~Shane Walsh/OC~

Chapter Seven

            The plan was to head for Fort Benning. We gathered all the supplies we could. Siphoned some gas and narrowed down the cars we were using. It led to a tighter riding situation but we were saving some fuel by leaving some cars behind. Daryl just rode a motorcycle. Rick drove Carol’s car with her, Sophia, Lori and Carl. Dale’s RV carried Glenn, who was our navigator, Andrea, T-Dog, Shane, and me. As we drove, Shane and I made a point to get all the guns cleaned up. He was cleaning all the hand guns and I took care of the hunting rifles and shot guns, since that’s what most of my experience came from. Andrea sat across from us at the small table and studied us, hoping to learn something.

            “It looks complicated,” she said.

“The trick is getting all these pieces the same way,” I told her motioning to the dozens on parts in front of Shane and me.

“I could clean yours, show you how,” Shane offered her and she smiled. Shane picked up her gun and took a good look at it. “Oh, yeah. That’s a sweet piece,” he said as he played with it.

“It was a gift from my father. He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves,” Andrea explained.

“Smart man, your father. Sounds a lot like Abby’s dad.” Shane smiled before showing her exactly how her gun worked. “It’s a limited capacity. Only hold seven rounds.”

“Oh, jeez.” We heard Dale say from the driver’s seat. Shane rubbed my arm to get me to let him out of the booth and I did. We all looked around to see what the problem was and there were cars piled up and flipped over all over the interstate. We came to a complete stop and Daryl turned around and stopped by Dale’s window. “See a way through?” Dale asked him. Daryl nodded and revved up his bike before turning around again and leading us through the path of wreckage.

“Maybe we should just go back. There’s an interstate bypass-” Glenn started to say as he looked at the map but I interrupted him.

“We can’t spare the fuel,” I told him. Everything was going smoothly. We drove nice and slowly through the interstate graveyard. We all looked around at the horror around us until the RV started smoking again. Dale immediately turned off the vehicle and storming out the door while we all followed him out.

“I said it. Didn’t I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water,” Dale complained angrily as he approached the front of the RV.

“Problem, Dale?” Shane asked him. I handed him his freshly clean shot gun and he held it close to him.

“Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-” he stopped talking as he noticed Daryl going through a car. “Okay, that was dumb.”

“If you can’t find a radiator hose here, there’s a bunch of stuff we can find,” Daryl explained, rummaging through the trunk of a minivan.

“I can siphon more fuel from these cars, for a start,” T-Dog said as he gathered what he needed to do so.

“Maybe some water,” I said.

“Or food,” Andrea followed.

“This is a graveyard. I don’t know how I feel about this,” Lori said. I just rolled my eyes and followed the rest as we all started scavenging. I decided to stick close enough to Shane so he could see me but to notice I didn’t want to speak to him. I noticed him opening a truck but figured of course he’d find something.

“Glenn, were we short on water?” I heard him ask and I looked up to see the entire truck filled with gallons of it. Glenn started laughing as he continued working on the RV and I smiled too. Shane opened a jug and drenched himself in water and I decided that was a good idea. I rushed over to get in on the action and poured water all over my self and opened my mouth for a drink. I giggled as a refreshed feeling washed over me.