Silence is the key to surviving 〔 H I A T U S 〕

Animal I have Become - Three Days Grace

I listened to three days grace all day. oops sorry not sorry.

I can't escape this hell

So many times I've tried

But I'm still caged inside

Somebody get me through this nightmare

I can't control myself

There were no words to described exactly how they all were feeling: anger, hatred, relief, confusion, guilt...it was all muddled into one tense mess. The recent horrors of the motor-inn and the attack of the bandits made their heads all spin. Blood had come to a fizzing boil and one woman had fallen from the edge of what sanity the group had been trying to preserve.

All of which gave the atmosphere a hot, racing pulse that electrified the very air with a nervous charge. Something was about to happen, Camila could easily predict as her gaze flickered from each disturbed expression. Simon had gotten the RV working, and just in time too, they had escaped both the walkers and bandits because of the damn thing. But the cramped, musty, old vehicle wasn't the biggest issue.

Camila steadied herself against the sudden rock of the RV hitting uneven pavement; leaning against the tiny sink. She looked at Becky who was standing next to her, one hand on the wall and peering forward at Shawn and Lauren who were both sitting- unnerved by everything. Shawn looked terrified, his face as pale as milk and his skin crawling with what Becky would do to him if she found out that he was to blame for it all. Shawn had been unable to salvage much from the past two weeks since his deal with Charl and the bandits. Sneaking from Becky's supply had gotten harder, especially since she had noticed and hardly left her room. And getting Camila to ask around about the flashlight he had broken one night...he looked at them now, looking very much like a unified front. Shawn squirmed and crossed his arms as if to shield himself- he looked down.

Lauren sighed, clenched her jaw and relaxed against the cushioned seat, feeling every muscle in her body give way. She couldn't bring herself to think about why the bandits had attacked them, because she knew it was long coming: they had stopped the St. Johns after all and they were the source of their food supply. Revenge being dangerous nowadays was increased ten-fold. She recalled being shoved to the ground, a gun pointed at her head and shivered in her beige jacket- wishing she had her vest. Frowning, she remembered how all of their supplies was left back at the motor-inn, but the aspect of clothes and food didn't matter at the moment. All that mattered was putting as many miles as possible between them and Macon. At least Sofi had her little, sky-blue back-pack, tucked underneath the table.

Sofi was seated beside her and sniffed away tears that hardly showed, she didn't feel like crying which was a surprise: she had nearly been killed by the bandits and walkers...shouldn't she be a sobbing mess right now? Sofi cautiously looked at Shawn, who was more scared than she was, and was about to say something before Becky broke the silence.

"So, nobody has anything to say?" she spoke, her tone accusing and harsh. Her glare gave Sofi chills but it never fell upon her, Becky was primarily sneering at Lauren. She felt the woman tense beside her like a puma coiled just before a pounce. Lauren had never been afraid of Becky: it was both brave and foolish and why she didn't hold her tongue.

"What's there to say?" Lauren replied with a shrug of her shoulders, attention at the front of the RV was caught.

"Can somebody please explain to me how in the actual fuck all that happened, or am I the only one wondering?"

"The bandits had our number for weeks, could've been watching us the whole time." Camila added, ignoring the feeling that there was something much more deeper than that. She would have liked it if everything was so shallow but the evidence remained. She and Becky had discovered that one of them had been slipping the bandits supplies. One of them didn't make their last shipment and that was why they had attacked. One of them was to blame for all of this but Camila didn't have any sort of clue who in the hell it was. She had a feeling Becky wasn't going to rest until she found out.