Iridescence

Whole

Gripping the reins, Mia tightened her legs and pushed the steed forward. With each bound it took, huffs of air shot out from the horses nostrils. The job was simple: scout ahead.

Their vehicles ran on gas, oil, hopes and dreams. Mia' s however, kept going until it simply couldn't anymore; and with the light weight on It's back, the beast could go for days.

Eventually the land around her started to become a little more familiar. With no signs of walkers nearby, now Mia was concerned with getting back to the others. Up ahead was a spot they could make camp for the upcoming night- getting them there was the challenge of it. She could keep them hidden, under the radar,  but only if they stayed in one place.

Carl and Sophia were always the first to run towards her, their interest in the horse never running dry.

Next to follow, rising to their feet, was daryl, rick, T-dog and Glenn. Each stepped forward waiting for her to dismount.  As soon as she did, the questions began to flow in.

"Any herds?" Rick asked.

Mia simply shook her head no before handing off three pheasants she had tagged on the way there to daryl. "This'll be enough for breakfast." The redneck took them immediately. "Get em fed then get on the road yeah? Take cover 'fore sundown."

Nodding, she grabbed a hold of a water bottle tiredly. The water however, down to to her. Instead she went right back to her horse and cupped it within her hands. .

They would have argued her watering her horse before the others, some of the adults, but these resources they had were because of her and her alone.  Mia was almost in charge of this situation, they were in her world. On the run, drifting from shelter to shelter. Mia was the professional.

In the background, the group was settling down together for breakfast. 

There was one way that she could take care of them, and that was by leaving them. On her own, she had figured out her own strategy. The group was rather large, which meant that they could only travel so far in one day. Without the RV, they were sitting ducks in the open. 

So, she mapped out the roads. Not far away she had been able to recover a red bed sheet, so along the way she had tied them to certain land marker signalling them in which way to go. She would take shorter ways, through the woods, backgrounds, anything to make the trip easier on her horse. 

It didn't matter if Hershel and his family bought the animal before this thing, everyone would agree that it was hers now. 

not to menchine along the way when she was alone, she could hunt, scavenge, and watch out for the others if she needed to. The timing needed to be planned out, something more advanced than she wanted to inform the others on. Well, even if she could. Not being able to use her words really took away from her intelligence towards the others. They couldn't hear her ideas, only the simple ones. So, that's the way that she needed to keep it. Simple. 

Inside her head though, it wasn't. 

calculating teh average speed that they would be traveling, Mia timed just how long it would take for them to get to each "Checkpoint" If there were no hiccups in the road. 

She would meet up with them, at each one, just to make sure that they were okay. If they weren't there, then she knew that something was wrong. Daryl knew to wait for her, they all did. 

The horse stood next to her in silence, each looking over the field with a sigh. Behind her, the three graves of her family stood tall towards the ends of the grass. 

Somewhere, up above, they were there watching her. She knew it. Whatever there was after this world, one day she would meet up with it. 

That was something that she couldn't deny. However, as hard as she could, and for as long as she could, she would fight to stay away from it. She would fight to keep them from it too.