Tiptoe Through the Tulips

“They’re not here.”

They’re not here.

Fuck.

“You said they would be here.”

My voice caught in my throat.
They must have left already.

“The fire’s not been out long,” I said shakily, walking over to it, “They can’t of gone far.”

They left me.

“Fantastic,” he said sarcastically, striding over to me, “So, they’re gone. It will be dark soon and we have no idea where the fuck this prison is. Great job Ariella, really. Standard.”

Anger flashed through me.
Mixing with the grief.

“It’s not my fault they’ve left! If we hadn’t stayed at the gas station like you’d wanted we would have met them here.”

“Yeah and you would have turned up covered in blood and half dead with exhaustion. Your little lie wouldn’t have held and they would have shot me without a second thought.”

He was pale. Tense. Angry.

“It would have been fine.” I said stubbornly, taking a few steps away from.
I didn’t know what he was like when he was angry.

“Look they didn’t destroy the fire like we did last time, that fire is new and maybe they left it here for a reason, maybe they were hoping we would see it or something...”

I was making excuses, but they had abandoned me.
He knew that.

He rolled his eyes, “If they were that bothered sweetheart they wouldn’t have let you get caught now would they?”

That did it.

“Fuck you.” I half spat, turning away from him and towards the fire once again, “You have no right to say things like that, I let them take me so everyone could get away, I was intending to die for them...and...” My voice cracked again, "It's not my fault they've just fucking left me here!"

He shrugged, looking uncomfortable and making his way over to me, his hands placed on my
shoulders as I struggled against him.

“Look I know, okay? I was with a larger group, people get left behind. I know that guy left you a note but that was just wishful thinking.” He paused and I went still, listening to him,
“They all think your dead....I'm sorry but...” he used an apologetic tone,trailing off, but that hardly made it better.

They would all think I was dead. By all intents and purposes I should be.

“For all we know, their plans have changed, we can’t afford to go getting lost looking for them, we need to make our own plan sweetheart. We need to look out for ourselves.”

I turned to face him sighing, accepting what he said. He was right annoyingly.

They could of met here, Rick could have completely changed the plan, they would have followed him.
I hadn’t met them here so that would have been the final straw, to them, I was dead.
I was just another Dale, to be forgotten, for them to move on.

“We were heading towards the coast.” I said, looking up at him, “But you’re going the other way?”

He nodded, “I went straight to the coast, when there was more people, worked our way down. There’s no boats saving people or whatever bullshit you’ve heard, and there isn’t a lack of zombies wither way.”

Nevada.
That’s what the men in the bar had spoken about, less buildings, less population. Less Walkers. A camp?

Tyreese listened intently as I filled him in, seeming to agree with the idea, the logic behind it.
“Nevada is a long way away though.”

“Yep.” I pushed the feelings down, popping my lips.

They left me.
Fuck them.

“We need to find somewhere soon, just so we can gather supplies, get enough rest.”

I nodded.
There was only one place anywhere near here that I knew.
The farm.

“We drove pretty much all day to get here, we wouldn’t get to the highway before dark.” I chewed the inside of my cheek realising what that meant, we would have to stay here. Outside, with only the two of us.
With no decent weapons.

Tyreese seemed to have similar concerns, he grabbed the bike, wheeling it over into the walled area, and sitting down next to it, leaning against the wall. I joined him swiftly, my hands already growing numb with cold as evening started to draw in.
“We can’t light a fire,” he said softly, “We don’t have anything to defend ourselves properly so we can’t draw attention to ourselves.”
He was right.
"We'll head towards this farm, but we will keep an eye out for your group, as much as possible...but...if they've gone off and we can't find them."

I closed my eyes hard,pulling the hoodie further up my shoulders, doing the zip up fully and sliding the hood over my increasingly greasy and out of control curls and ignoring him.
"Let's just deal with tonight." I said harshly, I couldn't face the rejection.

“We’ll need to do watches, one of us awake at a time.”
He was right again, but I was far from tired.

“Me neither,” He said softly after I repeated my concern, “But I don’t think it’s worth risking it to keep going in case we don’t find anywhere as good as here, at least we have a slight bit of protection.”

“I wish you’d stop being right all the time.” I complained, earning a grin. I sighed, “It’s going be a long night.”

I was never going to see them again.

He chuckled, “Understatement of the year.”

I pulled myself out of it again.

“Half the year has had people coming back from the dead and trying to kill us.”

He shrugged, “ I can’t believe its been that long, over five months. It doesn’t look like its suddenly going to sort itself out either...”

I gave him a confused look.

“People had a theory it was another stage of evolution, almost a test to see if we could adapt. Natures’ way of fucking with us.”

“Well so far we’re definitely losing.” I said, with a chuckle, once again finding something absolutely ridiculous funny.

Talk about dark humour.