Deadland

Chapter 74- The End Was With You

"Two. I promise it'll be fine. Now," I grunt as I climb back under the wheel and begin trying to wrap the cords around each other. "Go do something productive." 

He chuckles and climbs out of the car, "I don't know why you say you're not good at advice." He says as he walks off. 

A few minutes later, after Damien and I have tried to turn on multiple cars, all six of us re-group. "No luck." Glenn sighs. 

"Nadda." I say and Nicholas shakes his head. 

"We have to stay on foot," Heath says. "Nicholas was here last. He can show us the way." Heath side-eyes Nicholas like he's really pissed at him, I'm not surprised.

Nicholas nods, "Uh, okay." He agrees nervously. 

"Alright." Glenn nods, beginning to walk back to Scott, Annie, and the man who was bit. They're approaching us as well, they look in worse shape than before we left them. 

"There's no cars." He says, jogging to the trio.

All nine of us begin walking through the town together. We don't waste time looking through any buildings, we stay in the middle of the road with our guns loaded and our knives ready. 

Suddenly, Nicholas speaks up, "Oh, jesus." He leans down and picks up Sturgess' hat, the man who shot Scott then ran. 

"Sturgess?" Scott asks. 

"Yeah." Nicholas confirms. 

"He left us behind." Annie states. 

Nicholas nods absent-mindedly, he stares at the hat for a moment before walking again, eventually jogging. 

He leads us through a small alleyway and we then get stopped by a small group of Walkers eating Sturgess' stomach. They don't seem to notice us as we're quiet and they're preoccupied with their lunch, dinner? I don't even know what time it is.

"Oh!" I whisper. "We should bounce before we..." I motion to Sturgess. 

Glenn definitely agrees with me because he pulls Nicholas roughly to get him out of his staring contest with the feasting group of Walkers and he begins running, leading the rest of us.

I'm actually proud of Nicholas, he's doing really well. He's trying to prove he's different from when Noah died, that he regrets it, but deep down, we all know he can't ever make up for it. But he can try.

 We walk back through the alley and Nicholas stops, "Herd's that way." He says, noticing a group of Walkers approaching us from the left. He turns and begins walking the opposite way before whispering "shit." as another group of Walkers comes the other way. 

"Oh, joy." I grunt. 

Nicholas pauses as if trying to think whether to leave us or not. "Nicholas." Glenn whispers as a warning. 

He shakes his head, trying to think, "Uh-follow me." Silently, we run a few stores down and Nicholas kicks open the doors of a pet store. 

The man who got bit closes and locks the doors behind us as we slowly walk through the aisles, checking for any dangers. 

"Thank god 'Lyss isn't here." Damien whispers, looking at all the dead animals in the cages. 

"I currently wish I was her." I groan nauseously at the dead animals and walk up to Michonne and Heath, as do Glenn and Nicholas. 

"Hey," Glenn whispers. "I was thinking, if we can find a way to distract the herd coming in, then they won't make it back to the community." 

"How?" Heath asks.