COLLAPSED ᵀᵂᴰ¹ ✔

54. us

'S-so what was it?' Milo finally managed to stutter.

Eugene looked at him, his expression unreadable. 'It's classified.'

Milo took a deep breath, a thousand questions drifting through his mind but he couldn't get even one of them to leave his lips. Was it actually possible that someone could end it all? Make the world okay again? A normal and safe place to live?

'What's up?' Glenn questioned, taking Milo out of his thoughts. He turned to look at his friend, who had finished piling up the corpses and was now frowning at them.

Rosita and Maggie came walking up behind him, staring at the five people sitting around the fire. Three of them looking as if they'd seen a pig fly.

'He just said,' Sasha spoke slowly, pointing at Eugene, her eyes wide, 'that he knows what caused the outbreak.'

'Yeah,' Glenn said, he had probably heard it many times by now and was no longer bothered by the miracle of it. 'He does. Let me guess he asked you go to D.C. with him?'

'I'm downright tickled y'all found each other,' Abraham spoke up, 'should spend the rest of the night celebrating. Because tomorrow there's absolutely no reason why the nine of us don't stuff ourselves in that van and head up to Washington.'

'He's right,' Tara said, her voice small, as if she was afraid of speaking up. 'I'm gonna go.'

'No,' Eugene countered, 'he's wrong. We're 55% of the way from Houston to Washington. Up until now we've had an armored military vehicle for transport and we lost eight people.'

'That wasn't our fault,' Rosita interrupted him.

'They're gone,' Abraham snapped, making the woman sigh at him.

'I can't imagine we'd have better luck with that grocery grabber we picked up,' Eugene went on. 'We're a day's walk from Terminus. Who knows what they've got there?'

'Look,' Rosita sighed, her gaze focused on Abraham. 'It couldn't hurt to check. Load up on supplies, maybe even recruit some of them to come with.'

'I'll go with you guys,' Sasha spoke up, 'but after. I have to see Terminus, my brother could be there. I gotta know.'

'Same,' Milo said, having made up his mind. If there was even the slightest chance the world could be saved, he wanted to help. He was prepared to fight for a better future, for all the people who were fighting for their lives right now. 'I have to see if my sister's there. And after that I'll go with you.'

'Me too,' Bob added. 'On both counts.'

Silence lingered between them as Milo found himself smiling at Bob and Sasha, who were staring determined at each other.

'He tells me I'm wrong,' Abraham broke the silence, standing up from his position by the fire and looking at Eugene. 'I listen. Tomorrow we go to the end of the line. Then Washington.'