PHOSPHENES¹ [the walking dead]

B - I

WHAT LIES AHEAD

The group had been driving for a while now and a couple of the cars had to be abandoned. Like Daryl's pick-up truck, Shane's jeep and T-Dog's car.

Daryl took Merle's bike for a spin while Beatrix had to sit in the crowded RV.

The RV's motor started making noise, and soon the vehicle came to a stop. The radiator hose had stopped working, again.

The RV had broken down on a highway, surrounded by hundreds of cars. Still filled to the brim with stuff.

The group decided to look for supplies here.

"This is a graveyard," Lori complained. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"The world is a graveyard, Lori," Beatrix told her.

They ignored the mother and went out to collect some supplies. T-Dog and Daryl went up ahead, funnelling fuel out of the cars.

Beatrix stayed with them looking through bags and suitcases for anything useful, occasionally finding a walker and putting it out of its misery.

Glenn and Dale were working on the RV trying to fix it. The others, which included Lori, were looking through cars for things they could use.

"Hey, Beatrix." She whipped her head around towards the voice, and so did the rest of the group. It was T-Dog, holding up a baseball.

"Wanna play? Go on, hit it." He urged the girl.

Beatrix moved around the cars, bat ready in her hands. "Try me!" T-Dog threw the ball at her, and Beatrix swung her bat hitting the ball. It shot away over the cars into the woods somewhere.

"Homerun!" she yelled while doing a little dance, making the kids laugh.

"Let's get back to looking now!" Shane told them.

"Fucking buzzkill," Beatrix sighed to T-Dog while passing him, referring to Shane. T-Dog couldn't help but smile at the19-year old.

It had gotten very quiet from where the others were. Beatrix felt somebody tug at her wrist.

"Under the car, now!" It was Daryl whispering in an urgent voice. She immediately dropped to the floor and hid.

"T-Dog, he still up there," she whispered back to her brother.

With the last words, "Stay!" he ran off in T-Dog's direction.

Not long after that, Beatrix could hear the shuffling and moaning of the walkers. From under the car, she could see them walk past her, grey feet in run-down shoes shuffling past the car.

She told herself that she wouldn't give up her personality, but that seemed to be more challenging than she thought. She started to feel that she was losing her happiness together with her witty comments. The latter might have been a good thing in the eyes of the other group members but not to her.

The horde had passed and a scream could be heard. It sounded an awful lot like Sophia. She heard Daryl call out her name and she got up from under the car.