An hour earlier, a family of four was cruising along the highway down the coastal area when they drove past a grocery store. They had already driven a distance from the grocery store when the car suddenly took a U-turn and drove back, before haphazardly parking their car on the side of the road.
"You two stay here, got it?" The middle-aged man who looked like a drug addict got out of the car and commanded the two scared kids at the back to stay put.
With some fear in her eyes, a girl around ten years of age hugged the scared little boy in her arms. She didn't say anything and just glared at the man with resentment and hatred in her eyes.
"Tsk! We'll see if you can keep acting like that when we get to base camp." The man let out a sneer and chuckled.
"Stop bothering the kids. Let's go inside and see if we can get some things to take back with us." Wearing a biker gang jacket, the woman accompanying him lightly reprimanded him before forcing him to lead the way.
"Why me again?" The man complained with some resentment in his tone.
The woman snorted and pushed him from his back. "Shut up. You're the man between us, so man up!"
"Wow, that's a lot coming from you. When the world is peaceful, you women suddenly want equality from us, but when the world turns to shit. You bitches suddenly revert back into your default settings." The man grumbled as he got pushed forward.
"Oh, shut it. I'm not like those dumb bitches who do nothing all day but complain." Offended by his words, the woman angrily kicked his butt, and the man stumbled towards the pitch-black entrance of the grocery store.
Swoosh!
"You b- urglegg"
"Ahhhh! Bitch..help..ME!"
The man turned around and was about to let out a string of curses when something suddenly shot out from inside the grocery store and wrapped the man's neck, before whatever it was, viciously pulled the man inside the store under his horrified screams!
The woman's eyes widened in horror and stupidly stood there as she watched her companion being dragged inside the building while screaming in despair.
Soon after, the horrific sound of something being chewed on echoed from inside the building.
"AHHH!"
Moments later, the realization of what happened finally hit her. She let out a scream as she turned around and started running back towards the car.
Swoosh!
She hadn't even taken more than two steps when another slimy flesh like rope shot out from the same building and wrapped around her waist.
"Noooo!"
She screamed, and different from before, she was slowly pulled towards the mouth of the building as she tried to struggle free by clawing through the concrete ground, her hands becoming bloodied due to her struggles.
Her efforts remained futile as she was eventually pulled inside the building under her horrified screams that slowly died down.
"..."
The surroundings once again regained its tranquility, and the two kids left inside the car had witnessed everything that happened in horror.
The little girl swallowed while covering the little boy's mouth with her hand to prevent him from making any noise because of what they saw
Unsure of what to do next, the two kids remained in the car for the next three hours.
When they got hungry, they silently ate the snacks that were left behind. The little girl wanted to leave, but she's scared about going outside since she knows they wouldn't be able to protect themselves if they were met with danger outside.
Another hour later, the little boy had now fallen asleep while the little girl, though also sleepy, kept herself awake as she was afraid that they might get thrown into danger while both of them were asleep.
Which will make anyone wonder just what experiences the little girl had encountered for such a young soul to be this vigilant.
"Hey, is there anyone out here?! You must leave now! There's a herd of walkers heading this way! Thousands of them! Escape to the East and then head North!"
The little girl was constantly looking at the surroundings around the car while thinking about how they'll get out of there. When suddenly, the muffled voice of someone reached her ears. She quickly turned around to where the voice had come from and saw a man running towards them down the road they came from.
She wanted to call to his attention, but she didn't even have the time to open the door before the man ran past them like a speeding motorcycle.
Swoosh!
"Wait!"
She yelled inside the car, and the little boy was startled awake because of it. She just ignored him and hurriedly opened the door.
Thud!
The door didn't fully open and got stuck when it bumped into something.
The girl looked up and saw the same man from earlier suddenly standing before her and blocking the door.
"Why are you two out here? Where are your parents?" Michael looked at the two kids with worry on his face.
"Gone." The little girl simply said, followed by, "Can you help us?"
Michael wasn't in a rush to answer her. "What's your names?"
"I'm Athena. He's my little brother, Noah." Athena looked at Michael with some wariness in her eyes.
Michael looked at her then turned his gaze towards the hills where the herd of walkers were moving.
Then he turned his attention back to the little girl. "Does this car still work?"
Athena slightly nodded. "Yes. We've only been here for a few hours."
Her words got Michael into thinking and couldn't help but turn towards the grocery store building in the distance. Though slightly curious about what happened, Michael knows that this is not the right time to be curious and immediately got into the driver side of the car and started looking for its keys.
"Any idea where the keys are?"
"There's a spare under your seat." Athena answered from behind him.
Michael looked back but only saw same expression she had from earlier, grave.
He just sighed. He got down from the car and adjusted it to slide back and immediately spotted the spare key under.
"Who the heck even hides a spare key under their seat?"
Michael quickly took the spare key and started the car.
While down the road behind them, the walker herd had already started spilling onto the highway road and soon engulfed one of the neighborhoods. Michael drove the vehicle off into the distance with some screams being drowned far behind them.
On the other hand, Roxy and her team had already been waiting for two hours at the location they agreed to rendezvous with.
Along the streets of the rendezvous location. Inside an abandoned story building.
"It's been two hours. Should we continue waiting?" Joel inquired while looking past outside the window.
In her sports bra that shows her belly button and half of her tummy and with her jacket wrapped around her waist. Roxy was in the midst of sharpening her hatchets when she heard Joel.
"One more hour and we'll make our way to Fresno by ourselves."
"Got it."
Since they didn't have anything to do, the three men continued playing with the cards they brought with them while Roxy took over watch duty.
Over an hour later.
Roxy looked at her watch then gazed at the distant horizon. 'It seems like he won't be coming soon.'
"Get up. We're leave ahead of Michael." Roxy ordered as she slowly made her way towards the door.
"Are we not gonna wait longer?" Lucky hastily collected the cards towards his chest.
"No need. He can take care of himself." Joel patted the man's shoulder with confidence on his face. Though he does not understand why he feels Michael to be very dependable, he just feels like that way from unknown reasons.
'Must be my gut feeling. I should try to make our interactions better when we see each other later.'
"Come on. Stop worrying about him, that guy had survived far longer than any of us." Hans lightly smacked Lucky's back before following after Roxy down the stairs.
'I'm not worried about him. I'm more worried about us!' Lucky wanted to complain, but he knows it will just fall into deaf ears.
The crew soon boarded the truck and headed towards their next destination, Fresno.
Over an hour later, a familiar vehicle was slowly approaching from the opposite direction.
A grey colored CUV stopped at the intersection, and a man slowly got off from it.
"It seems they already left." Michael softly muttered while looking around him.
Michael returned inside the car and followed by the voice of a little girl from behind him.
"Can you tell us where we're going now, mister?" Athena was looking at him through the rearview mirror and with a frown on her face.
Michael chuckled with some helplessness. The little girl wouldn't just believe him no matter how many times he told them that he wasn't a bad person. "I told you; we're looking for my companions. We're supposed to meet up here, but I guess they already went ahead and left us."
Athena hesitated for a moment before speaking up with uncertainty. "Are those companions…are they the ones you'll sell us to?"
Frowning, Michael twisted his body to look behind him. "What do you mean by those words?"
Athena flinched a little when she saw his grave expression, even the little boy beside her was trembling all over.
"The couple who were with us before you. They..they killed our parents. They were planning to sell us to some people."