009: then, love the world
Spring sprung on them quickly. The normally brittle, snow covered plains were replaced with lush trees and pollen buzzing bees that Joey would swat away from her sticky skin. Her and Finn walked side by side, Bill not too far behind them, on an abandoned highway. It had been a few months since they left Colorado, and were making their way towards Tennessee. Joey had no idea where they were going, but Bill insisted on heading to the east coast. He thought that if they head to DC, there would be some sort of government installation. There has to be, he had insisted, when they were stopped on the road in Kansas. Joey thought they would have met a group of people, or had somewhere to hunker down along the way, but it was a lost cause. It was like they were the last people on earth.
"Personally, I don't think the third Godfather was all that bad," Finn defended, hands gripping his gun. Joey rolled her eyes. "Obviously you've never even seen it," she shook her head. "It's such a disaster you'd think Coppola forgot how to make a movie within those 16 years," she laughed, nudging him in the side. He prevailed.
"I think the expectations were . . . unfairly high. I mean, it was supposed to be the way Michael's sins kinda caught up with him. I mean, movie sequels hardly live up to the first one,"
"Lord of the Rings begs to differ,"
Finn rolled his eyes. "Okay, well, I'm not that much a nerd," he raised his brows, and Joey stopped in her tracks. "Douchebag," she shook her head, giving him the finger as he walked on. She felt back to walk next to Bill, who was looking at her amusingly.
"What're you smirking at, old man?"
He shrugged, looking between the two. "Nothing, nothing, just . . . are you two . . . you know . . ." he made a heart shape with his hands. Joey scowled and made faux gagging noises. "Are you delusional? No way. Nuh ━ uh. He's . . . no way," she shook her head frantically, shoving Bill's shoulder when he gave her a look. "Don't look at me like that! I would never, in a million years even . . . think about it,"
He shook his head, rolling back his shoulders. "He's like a brother to me, okay . . . just . . . shut up old man," she pushed his shoulder again, rolling her eyes. Joey didn't feel any sort of romantic feelings toward Finn ━ she'd be able to tell if she did. At least, she thought she would. Love was a hard thing to define, but it came in many forms, and she wasn't going to proclaim her care and love for Finn as anything other than familial. It just felt wrong.
"Hey . . . hey Jo. Jo!" Bill called out, breaking her from the part of her that zoned off into nowhere. She inhaled, breathing back to reality when she realized she had kept walking while Finn and Bill had stopped. "This is where we get off," he pointed to the exit, and she looked up to the sign. They had been walking on Route 40 for what felt like days, but it was the exit off to Nashville. The skin on her nose was beginning to blister from the sun, and as much as the wind was able to break a bit of its rays, she still felt gross more than ninety percent of the time, and was just waiting for some taste of civilization.
"Shouldn't we be heading to Kentucky, you know, instead of Georgia?" Finn commented, eyebrows furrowed from the sun in his eyes. Bill looked at him as if he was holding a gun to his head. "Why don't you just listen to your elders, kid?"
Finn scoffed, eyeing the city as they stepped foot in it, and how the grass grew out from the cracks in the pavement, carcasses boiling under the hot sun, and the smell of rotters being all but familiar. It made Joey gag, but it seemed to have worked its way into her psyche to just be used to it. Every city they go through seemed desolate, old quarantine zones, abandoned cars, silence. Nothing new. Anything that had any semblance to something that might have been around recently was completely desolate. It made Joey's chest feel heavy as she weighed the possibilities of ever meeting another group of good people again. But, Finn always told her to keep a positive mindset, and you were going to get positive things out of it. It was a good piece of advice that Joey hardly ever listened to. Stubbornness wasn't a good look on her.
"Let's go through here," Bill nodded his head towards an old supermarket that looked as though it had been raided. The doors were smashed in, parts of it covered in ash. "Do you really think we'll find anything in here?" Joey grunted as they slid their way through the broken glass. A shard cut through her sleeve, but didn't pass the bandage that was tied around her bicep.
"It seems pretty quiet . . . might still be some supplies," Finn examined the entrance, banging his fist on the counter. A few rotters stumbled out from the shelves. "Shit . . . I got 'em," Joey pulled her bow from her back, lodging an arrow and shooting one in the skull, before quickly bringing up another to shoot it. Bill clambered to the last one and drove his knife into its head. Joey went to scavenge her arrows from the corpses. One of them must have been a soldier, for he had the uniform on. Joey ran her hands through some of his pockets, but was only able to find a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. Joey looked to the Finn and Bill, who were busy looking for more food, and she pocketed them both. She remembered stealing cigarettes from her grandfather and climbing on the roof when the sky was a navy blue and the stars looked like paintings. She would be able to see and hear the ambience of the city, the lights ricocheting off those around it, the subtle horns of cars and screeches of brakes. Somehow, it was soothing.
"Day like this would be perfect for a nice swim in the lake, nah?" Bill muttered as he stood by Joey, both looking through the canned few aisle. She was too caught in her own head to listen. Her head had been in space for the whole duration of their trip from Colorado. She wasn't sure why ━ maybe it was the multitude of things that had happened. Her run in with Mason. It all haunted her in her sleep. Normally, she would've liked to pride herself on her ability to let go of things. But, every time they would stop to catch up on sleep, or had more time to think to themselves, she felt his hands on her legs, and his awful grin. The way she drove her blade into his face. It was all too much. She wanted to let it go, but things like that were easier said than done.
"I was thinkin', once we find someplace to settle down . . . I could teach you how to swim," Bill proposed, looking up as she was staring at the items on the shelves. She had been staring at the same spot for easily a minute. "Joey, I'm talkin' to you," she broke her stare and nodded. "Yeah, yeah . . . that'd be great,"
They made their way out of the supermarket not shortly after finding a few cans of food and some bottles of Gatorade. Joey wondered if they were expired. She needed a bath.
Her hair was losing its red color, looking more brown. She tied it back to get it out of her face but it was so humid it was beginning to puff up and stick to her neck and forehead. Sometimes when she would move quickly she would catch a whiff of herself and nearly threw up. They were rationing their food even more, now that there was a third person, so sometimes they would go a day or two without eating. She was so hungry it hurt to drink water and walking felt like she was wading through water.
Bill looked different, too. His beard had grown so much it had nearly hidden his face. It was more grey than black. His hair was growing out, too, even so much so it was curling. He grew more lean from letting her eat his rations, and sometimes Joey could see his spinal cord through his shirt when he bent over.
There was another abandoned building that looked to be part of the quarantine zone. There were plenty of gates and makeshift cubicles that littered the lobby, covered with blood and other bodily fluids. Joey wondered if this lasted longer than the rest and was just recently run through ━ everything still seemed relatively intact. "Stay here while I scope out the rest of the place," Bill placed a hand on her shoulder, but before he walked away, he looked at her with worry.
"You okay?" he asked, hand squeezing her shoulder. She swallowed and nodded slowly, avoiding eye contact. "Yeah, why?"
"I don't know, you just . . . you seem a little off today. Quiet,"
She didn't want him to worry, but Joey supposed she was more transparent than she thought she was. "I'm fine, just . . . tired," she gave him a weak smile, that wasn't entirely a lie. She was tired. They had been nonstop for about a week. So, she sat down on a bench in the lobby, and caught herself staring off into space again. There were muffled noises around her ━ she wasn't sure what her problem was. Why she couldn't keep her mind off of a dead man. She wasn't sure if it was because she killed him, or what would've happened if she didn't. Either way, every time she tried to stop thinking about it, she only thought of it more.
"We're gonna need that ladder," Bill grunted, looking up at a ladder that was hanging over the higher level of the building, that's railings had been broken down. He pressed himself up against the wall, cupping his hands together, thinking Joey was going to be ready to get boosted up. But, she was still sitting on the bench, staring at the ground. "Joey . . . Joey!"
She looked up suddenly, itching the back of her neck. "Huh?"
"I need you to get that ladder," he jerked his head upwards, and Finn looked between the two. He couldn't tell if she was being hostile on purpose or not. "Shit . . . yeah, yeah, sorry," she took a deep breath before jogging toward them and bracing herself on Bill's shoulder, before he pushed her up. She grasped onto the floor with her hands before pulling herself up, moving to the ladder to lift it up. When she lifted it up, she heard ruffling in the trees next to the windows not far away. "Is that a ━ holy shit,"
She dropped the ladder onto the ground, and it clambered. "Shit, Joey what's wrong?" Bill called out, looking to Finn who ran to get the ladder and press it against the hall. "Joey, what is it? Answer me!" He frantically climbed up the ladder, not even bothering to see if Finn could get on, and saw that Joey was staring out from the broken ledge. The lush green trees lined his vision and he couldn't see, until he moved, that she saw giraffes in the distance.
"They must've escaped the zoo," she breathed, watching in awe. There must've been other animals crawling out there too. "Woah," Finn gasped, all three leaning against the railing and staring off at the animals in the distance. Joey thought it was beautiful, how they were reclaiming the land. But it also made her wonder if there were any lions prancing in the city below. "Do you think we'll have to fight any tigers or lions?" she asked, which relayed a chuckle from Bill. She looked off to the side, and saw a giraffe not too far from the building, perched up and eating from a tree near the roof. "C'mon, c'mon!" Joey beckoned, running for the stairs.
"Joey, slow down!"
"Shut up and keep up, old man!" she yelled over her shoulder, barreling towards the fire escape and running up the stairs, Finn close behind. Bill let out an exasperated sigh and followed the two teens as they made their way to the roof, and Joey pushed open the door, running over to where the giraffe was standing. She kept her distance in fear of scaring it away. When Bill came up after her, and slowly inched toward it, she reached out for his arm. "Don't scare it," she whispered, but he held up his hand to her. "It's alright,"
"Hey buddy . . ." he cooed, reaching up to stroke its neck. The giraffe didn't move, but kept munching on the tree leaves. "Here, come over," he waved them over, Finn and Joey reaching up to pet the giraffe gently. "Good boy,"
"It could be a girl," Finn commented, and Joey hit him on the arm. "Shut up,"
"Shit, look over there," he pointed to the left, and when they looked, there were a few other giraffes in the distance. The three of them stared in awe at the majestic way of the animals, the way they hardly realized what was going on around them. Joey envied them.
After a while, Bill backed up and went for the door handle. He gripped it but didn't turn it ━ instead, turning around to look at Joey, who took a deep breath before turning to him. "You know . . . we don't have to keep going," he whispered, as Finn still looked off into the distance.
Joey narrowed her eyes in the sun's rays. "What's the other option?"
"I don't know just . . . find some place quaint to settle down. Maybe go back to California or something, by the beach . . ."
Joey scoffed, shaking her head. "After everything we've been through? Everything I've done . . . we've done. Can't be for nothing. There's gotta be something ━ someone out there, right?"
Bill inhaled deeply, as both Finn and Joey passed through the door and went back down the stairs. "Listen, I know you mean well . . . but if this whole thing ends up not working out, we'll go wherever you want. Okay?" Joey insisted, and Finn threw up his hands. "So, I don't get a say?" he pouted, and Joey rolled her eyes. "I will literally push you down the stairs,"
"How loving,"
"Shut up,"
Bill swallowed thickly, beginning to fiddle with his pant pockets. "I mean . . . I'm not leaving without ya, so . . ."
Joey looked back at him when they entered a part of the building, feeling like someone was embracing her in a warm hug. She cleared it out with a cough. They walked throughout the rooms and halls, looking for anything else to scavenge. Bill found a paperback comic book stuffed in a drawer, and opened it. She remembered Ellie reading these. Joey had found a few on the road, and they helped keep her mind off of the problems at hand.
"Hey, Joey, I found one of them comic books," he called out, and she came running from the other room. "Shit, really? Which?"
"Uh ━ Wonder Woman, Issue . . . 9," he read, offering it out to her. She smiled, quickly turning on her heels and shuffling through it as she made her way back outside. "Nerd," Finn commented, and she shoved him away.
━━━━━━
They had made it to Georgia within two weeks. The sun was sweltering and Joey felt like she was about to peel her skin off. She wasn't entirely sure why Bill decided to go through Georgia if they wanted to get to DC, but she ultimately came to the conclusion that it was to avoid disappointment. Trying to get away from the end result as much as possible ━ it seemed grueling and Joey felt herself being more irritable than usual. Swatting away the gnats and trying to escape the hunger that was grumbling in her stomach louder than usual, and the fact that she had to change her tampon in the middle of the woods with bloodthirsty monsters a few feet away from her wasn't exactly opportune. It felt more and more lonely everyday they were on the road. A few times they would stumble upon a town, with hopes of their being people, and there wasn't anything.
They were crossing through an old town outside of Atlanta, and Joey approached the broken down doors of a convenience store. She was tired, the sun setting, and her stomach was growling so loud she would mistake it for rotters sometimes. When she hit the butt of her gun against the doors, there was nothing, so she tried to pry it open ━ and a rotter reached out and clawed for her. Joey fell down to the ground, letting out an annoyed and overall angry sob. She was so unbelievably tired, and sick of finding them everywhere and finding no one else in sight. Bill had run over to her. "Shit, are you bit?"
She didn't answer and Bill tugged at her arm to lift her up. "Joey, Joey, are you bit?"
"No, I am not bit," she sighed, "But I am fucking hungry,"
Bill let out a hefty sigh of relief, but furrowed his brows together. "You scared the fucking shit out of me. Don't pull anything like that again," he took a moment to catch his breath, and Joey stared at him. "Jesus Christ, just relax, will you?"
"I was just looking out for you,"
"Well I can look out for myself,"
Finn saw a sin in the distances, messy writing splashed across a map. He ignored their bickering in the distance and stumbling over a few corpses of the rotters he took down and looking intently at it. He had to wave away some of the gnats that swarmed in front of his face. "Hey guys . . ." he glanced over at the pair, who were still arguing, and now fighting over who was going to kill the few rotters that were stumbling out of the store. The cicadas were consuming any other sound and making Finn's ears go crazy.
"Guys! Look!" he yelled, and the pair of them turned their heads after taking down the rotters and jogging over. Joey wiped off the blood on her pant leg and readjusted her ponytail. Her backpack suddenly felt heavier than normal.
"Sanctuary for all . . . community for all . . . those who arrive, survive. Shit. What does that mean?" Joey read, pulling on the straps of her bag and looking at Bill and Finn. She could tell Bill looked suspicious ━ it wasn't normal that they trusted people too quickly. But, this was the first time they had any allusion to people being alive. "D'ya think they're dead now?" Finn questioned, squinting at the map that was beneath the sign, that had multiple thick, apparent marker lines that led to a place called Terminus.
"We should go," Joey prompted, nodding her head. Bill let out a rush of air. "I dunno . . ."
"C'mon, we've got nothing else to go on. We've been walking this line for nearly a year," Finn sighed, running a hand through his hair, and adjusting his ball cap.
Joey nodded in agreement, messing with the bobby pin that was clipping back pieces of her hair. She noticed how apprehensive Bill was, and she didn't blame him. They hadn't been able to trust anyone for the entirety of this trek across the country ━ but it was about time they let their guard down. "Not everyone can be evil," she mentioned, looking closer at the map. "Besides. If it ends up being too good to be true . . . we'll just kill 'em," she smiled. Bill didn't waver. "Most of the time, when it seems too good to be true, it is," Bill insisted, and Joey rolled her eyes.
"What do we have to lose?"
Finn pulled on the thread that was loose on his cargo shorts. There was an awkward pause that lingered in the air, that only the cicadas seemed to break. "It's the only lead we have. I mean, we can't just sit around and wait for miracle," Finn insisted, which earned a complimentary nudge in the side from Joey that seemed a little too eager for his liking, and he winced and punched her in the arm. Joey stared at him, deadpan. "Asshole," she enunciated with another punch to the side, and the pair continued slapping each other in the arms and abdomens, until their angry huffs turned into chuckles. Bill split them up with his arm. "Alright, alright, we'll go,"
Joey smiled at him, which earned an even brighter smile in return. They stared at each other for a few moments before Bill pulled out his map from his back pocket and marked it up to direct them to Terminus.
"If it ends up being a scam . . . we'll just kill them. Like I said," Joey rubbed Bill's shoulder as they continued on their trek. He winced. He didn't like how comfortable she was getting with the nature of the beast, but it was bound to happen eventually. Bill just had to sit back and endure it.
"Maybe we'll steal their shit and go all kamikaze on them," Finn laughed, miming explosions with his hands. "You do know kamikaze is like . . . suicide," Joey muttered, as she checked her makeshift bow quiver and the magazine of her gun. It was easily a four hour stretch to Terminus, but she had this newfound surge of energy that made her walk with a higher skip in her step. The thought of reaching some part of civilization that wasn't crazy murderers ━ hopefully ━ made her slightly more hopeful instead of just drilling a bullet in her head.
"Like I said. Nerd," Finn emphasized, readjusting his hat. Joey rolled her eyes. "Will you shut the fuck up for two seconds?"
The sun was beating down on them, hard, by the time they got anywhere near Terminus. Joey's sweat was beading on her forehead and she felt like she was being dipped in lava. She presumed it was about four o'clock, by the position of the sun in the sky. They hunkered down on the side of the road to drink some of the scarce water they had left, and eat the canned fruit they had picked up at the supermarket. It was lukewarm and stunk of sour, but she scarfed it down anyways. She was allowed to treat herself a bit if they were going to be in a community sometime soon. Finn insisted that they didn't wait until morning to stretch out the trip, but that they should get there by nightfall ━ Joey agreed. She was too eager to see what this place entailed. Joey picked away at the fruit that was at the bottom of her can, the juice making it sour and bitter. But, she learned to savor whatever flavors were offered. Slim pick ins were normal these days, and she would eat roadkill if she needed to.
The trees were breaking up the sunlight and making the heat more endurable. The only noise was the two other chowing on their own food and gulping down water like it was their last meal. Joey drank the last of the remnants in her can before throwing it off to the side. When the sun went down, it was getting chilly. She wrapped her sweatshirt around her tighter. "We stayin' the night?" she questioned, hugging her knees to her chest. Bill shook his head, discarding his own can and slinging his bag over his shoulder. "Naw. We should get there before sundown," he reached out his hand to lift her up, and Joey grabbed onto it. The sun was heavy on them but the breeze made her shiver.
They walked further down until they were met with train tracks ━ her heart was beating further in her ears. They saw the building in the distance, but didn't know what it was, until they spread from the trees and saw the word TERMINUS displayed brightly on the window boards. They all looked to each other before pressing on.
The gate was weakly chained up, flower beds and plants on the other side. Bill pushed it open, raising his gun as they walked in. Joey readied an arrow in her bow, and Finn held his pistol up as they walked to the other gate. There was another sign. Lower your weapons. You will be met. You have arrived at Terminus.
Joey and Bill looked to each other before they pushed open the gate again, Bill keeping a steady hand on her upper arm. They passed more gardens, baskets of laundry, washing boards and hoses. It was empty ━ no signs of any other people. It seemed desolate, empty. Joey didn't feel the satisfaction she thought she would feel when they arrived. But, they lowered their weapons and pushed on. There was a lady, back turned to them, stirring something in a pot. Joey furrowed her brows, before she turned around, an eerie smile on her face.
"Hello. I'm Mary," she called out, her hair tossed in a loose braid. She looked clean. Joey felt unexplainably dirty looking at her ━ she, herself, was covered in grime, sweat, and rotter blood. Human blood, too. She would vomit at the stench of herself, yet this woman looked unscathed.
"You folks look like you've been through a lot," she grinned, and Bill puffed up his chest. "We have,"
"Well, let's get you settled in. I'll make you a plate. Welcome to Terminus,"
Joey looked around, and saw a few people scattered around at tables. Quiet, silent even. They were picking around at the food on their plates.
"Welcome to Terminus," a voice echoed from behind them, to which all three of them turned around, guard up. It was a man, lanky and tan with shaggy hair. He got closer to them, slowly, as he seemed to be speculatory of them as well as vice versa. "I understand, you're tense, I get it. We all were. I'm Gareth,"
He spoke confidently, as if he had rehearsed this speech. Joey placed a hand on her holster. "I understand you can't trust people easily. But we're going to need you to lay down your weapons. Just for a moment," he breathed cooly, and it only made Joey tense up more. She didn't like being separated from her weapons. Bill, Finn and her looked to each other cautiously, before Bill nodded slowly. He placed his rifle, knife and pistol on the ground. Joey took her pistol and her bow and arrow, and her two knives. Finn put his gun and his knife on the ground. A few of the other people in the community inched closer to pat them down. Joey tensed up, and Bill kept a steady eye on her and the guy. After they were done, they were able to pick everything back up. She felt more at ease being attached to her weapons.
"Mom, could you make them a plate?" Gareth asked the woman who Joey knew to be Mary ━ she was grilling meat, taking other pieces and throwing them into a big pot. She poured three bowls of what appeared to be stew, before handing them off to the three of them. Joey hesitantly took it. "What's this?" she asked, sniffing it. Mary cleared her throat. "Uh, goulash,"
"What type of meat?" Finn added on, and she straightened her posture, phony smile still on display. "Venison,"
They were guided to the picnic benches that were aligned next to each other. The last of converse between the already existing members of the community was troubling. After a few minutes of careful examination, she lifted the bowl to her mouth and drank in some of the stew. It didn't taste like venison. She couldn't put her finger on what it tasted like, but she felt something hard in the mix, and when she reached into her mouth to pull it out, it was a bone. Her hands shook. "Tell me this doesn't look like a finger," she whispered to Finn, who was busy slurping down his stew. Bill perked up, and noticed how the members of Terminus were staring at them all. His hand hovered over his holster.
Finn stared at the bone, then at Joey, whose hand was shaking and lip was quivering. "That doesn't look like a deer bone," he croaked, before the realization dawned on them, and Joey nearly threw her bowl at Gareth who was hovering over them. "Holy fucking shit, Joey get over here and stick your finger down my throat!" Finn cried out, and the three of them grabbed their weapons and pointed them at all of them. They all had their weapons drawn in return, as well as a few snipers that were on top of the buildings.
Joey could nearly feel her vomit crawling up her throat. She stared at the stew from the corner of her eyes as her hands shook, grasping the gun. Gareth was holding up a hand. "Okay, okay, I can see the confusion here . . . it's not that bad, alright? It's going to be okay, if you just listen to us," he advanced on them, before Joey stuck her gun in his face even further.
"Okay, well if you are not going to cooperate, we're just going to have to kill you. And we don't want to do that. Well, not yet. You're going to die just not . . . not right now, you know?" he released a hearty chuckle, that no one reciprocated. Joey couldn't even keep her aim on him, her hands shaking like a leaf.
"There's three of you, and a lot of us. Look around. We've got nearly every gun in our goddamn arsenal pointed at you, I mean . . . you're a lost cause," he waved his hand, and Joey glanced around briefly. They had guns everywhere. They were outnumbered.
"Now just put your gun down. Now," he ordered sternly, and Joey looked to Bill. There was a gun pointed at his head, and same with Finn. She was the only one with her weapon pointed, and she didn't even realize. "Or we'll blow their heads off, simple," he smirked, which made her sweat. There was a slight waver in her breath before she placed her gun on the ground, and lifted her hands up in defense. Another man came and pulled her bow off her back, along with her arrows, and her butterfly knife. They took her hands and pulled them behind her back, locking them in handcuffs, and tying up Bill and Finn's hands. Her eyes welled with tears. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong.
If something seems too good to be true, it definitely is.
authors note: okay, listen. i know i said i was going to have them go to alexandria first, but i thought this storyline would work better. i just didn't want to spoil the surprise because i know i said a few chapters ago that that was would happen. but hey! listen! now we're on course with the show! which means CARL AND JOEY CONTENT!!!! THAT WE'VE ALL BEEN CRAVING!!!
anyways, love you guys. i know this chapter lowkey sucked but..... oh well. i cannot, and will not, give my characters a break!!!