✓ | SPITFIRE ¹ ✶ the walking dead

⠀⠀⠀𝒙. hope against all hope

⠀⠀⠀Daryl picked his brother's motorcycle over his truck. Which, to Bianca, felt like being thrown to the wolves. She no longer had the quiet space Daryl allowed her in their silent car rides. Now, she was surrounded by the others left without a vehicle and shoved into the RV.

⠀⠀⠀Dale drove, Glenn sat in the passenger's seat reading a map, T-Dog was in the back taking a nap, and Bianca was squeezed into the booth by the window as Shane sat down. Andrea came to sit with them not long after.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca held the book Daryl managed to collect—along with her things—before the CDC exploded. The dusty words beneath her fingers felt fragile, as if she'd brush them away with one flip of the page.

⠀⠀⠀While Bianca attempted to read, Shane started cleaning the group's guns on the table. Andrea watched him, eyes with no spark as she did.

⠀⠀⠀"Looks complicated," Andrea uttered after half an hour of staring. Her words came off dull in Bianca's ear. However, not because of her tone, but because of the man beside her. The shot he fired at the CDC left her ear bleeding, and later she realized it was dead, no words making it through. She worried her hearing might not come back.

⠀⠀⠀At least it was only one, Bianca had to remind herself.

⠀⠀⠀"The trick is getting all the pieces back together the same way. I could clean yours. Show you how," Shane offered, a small smile breaking out across his face as he looked at Andrea across the table.

⠀⠀⠀Bianca's attention drifted from her book to Shane and Andrea. She wanted to blame their conversation for interrupting her focus, but the book was that boring to her. She'd been reading the same paragraph for the last twenty minutes.

⠀⠀⠀Shane leaned to the side and picked up Andrea's gun from the bag at his feet. He handled the pistol, looking over it.

⠀⠀⠀"Oh, yeah," Shane mused, holding the gun out to test how it sat in his hand. "It's a sweet piece."

⠀⠀⠀Andrea smiled softly, leaning forward with her hand pinching at the nape of her neck. She stared fondly at the gun and explained, "It was a gift... from my father.

⠀⠀⠀Shane looked over at her curiously, surprised by her sudden vulnerability. Bianca couldn't say she wasn't the same. Andrea had just lost her sister, but maybe where Bianca needed to clam up, Andrea wanted to remember.

⠀⠀⠀"He gave it to me just before Amy, and I took off on our road trip," Andrea continued, sounding a bit more like herself. "He said, two girls on their own should be able to... defend themselves."

⠀⠀⠀"Smart man, your father," Shane said, giving her the words she needed. "Look, it's a limited capacity. See? Only holds seven rounds," he explained, opening the barrel of the gun for her to look inside.

⠀⠀⠀Before the two could continue, the RV started to slow, and Dale exclaimed, "Oh, geeze. Aw, no."

⠀⠀⠀Bianca turned, along with Shane, to look out of the front windshield where the highway ahead was filled with totaled cars and blocked roads at least a mile ahead. Daryl came from up ahead on his bike and pulled to talk to Dale.

⠀⠀⠀"See a way through?" Dale asked over Daryl's engine.

⠀⠀⠀Daryl looked behind him, then back to Dale, nodding his head, and pulled around for Dale to follow. However, the road for the RV to fit through was a slim fit.

⠀⠀⠀"Uh, maybe we should just go back. There's an interstate bypass—" Glenn anxiously suggested, looking over his map, but Dale stopped him.

⠀⠀⠀"We can't spare the fuel."