Tiptoe Through the Tulips

The wall furthest away began to crumble, dust filling the air as Walkers descended, mouths gaping, hands stretching towards us as I desperately tried to pull the bike onto the road, Tyreese was swinging the bat madly, trying to hit any close enough to harm us.

“Leave it Tyreese!” I heard myself shriek as I reached the road, swinging my body onto the front of the bike, hands already scrambling to turn the key.

To get us the fuck away from here.

“Fucking move!” I called, the seconds dragging as Tyreese swung the bat one last time, once again causing brain to cling to the battered brick, to spray slightly onto the road close to me as he finally made his way to me, clambering on to the bike.

His grip causing my ribs to burn once again.
“Move the fucking bike.” He said, voice low, eyes narrowed, jaw tense.
The same terror reflected in his eyes that I felt.

The bike roared into life, and we began to move almost as if it was slow motion.
The Walkers continued to approach, at every glance I dared to shoot back there seemed more, over thirty.

“What the hell are they doing so far out?” Tyreese breathed into my ear as we finally reached a safe distance from them,
“Hopefully it means they’re starving.” I said bitterly.

Hopefully.

The minutes continued to pass slowly, we didn’t dare to put the lights on in case it attracted more, although the loud noise created simply by the engine was bound to draw attention to us as it was.
Basically we were fucked.

“Do you think it’s worth trying to find somewhere else to stop?”
He shook his head, “If you can remember the way to the highway I’d much rather get there sooner than later. Quicker we can get back to this farmhouse the better.”

I bit my lip, nodding slightly, “But before when there were so many they were on the highway...”

He didn’t reply and I felt my hands tense up once again, aching as they clung onto the handles.

I still really hate motorbikes.

The road weaved on for hours, Tyreese’s grip had barely loosened around me and I knew he was on edge.
But then again when weren’t we all on edge nowadays.

I spent the hours driving just thinking, panicking. My eyes flicking to the gas gage every few minutes, paranoid it would go to empty and we would be stranded.
Sitting ducks just waiting for the horde of zombies;or any others stumbling around.

We stopped eventually, my eyes drooping and head beginning to pulse. Tyreese had offered to take over since he had had a couple of hours sleep whilst I had been keeping watch earlier. I let my head rest against his back, my arms once again aching from being wrapped around someone’s torso.

It felt wrong that it was someone other than Daryl.

Daryl who by now was more than likely in the opposite fucking direction.
If he had even made it out of there.
No.
Not going down that route again.

The sun was beginning to lighten the sky, to a dull gray at first before slowly melting into a light blue, flusters of clouds spread widely.
No red sky today.
I was going to take this as a good omen.

The road was beginning to change as well, it was widening and signs indicated we were close to the highway, Tyreese twitched, mumbling my name obviously thinking I had been asleep.
Fat chance.

“We’re nearly at the highway, how far along is it to the road for the farm?” I chewed my lip once again, wincing as my teeth found grooves already dug the day before.

I screwed up my eyes, willing myself to remember how long it had been before we had left the highway, “Probably about forty-odd minutes,” I concluded finally, “But I want to go a bit further up.”
Tyreese turned, his eyes questioning me.

“There was the place we met up, and... we lost someone. I want to see if there’s any sign she was there.” He frowned, turning back to face the road, grip tightening as he cleared his throat.

“It far?” Sympathy was present in his voice although I knew he thought it was stupid, he had made his thoughts clear the day before, once someone was lost they were lost.

I just wanted some clearance.
I wanted to know, I couldn’t bear the thought that we may have left Andrea there alone.

“It’s about three miles.” I told him, and he took a few minutes to reply with a reluctant yes.
I smiled, leaning against his back and muttering a thank you.

“There should be some supplies there as well, and Hershel left a gun with a couple of bullets before we headed off so...”

“It’s useful.” he concluded.

I had won him over.

“Then straight to this farm house okay?” I nodded.

Willing the area to have cleared of Walkers by now.

__________________________________________________________

The highway was exactly how we had left it, the cars were still covered in a light mist of dust, bodies still lay in their seats, decomposing.

There had been no rain so once again I was met with the mocking words,

STAY HERE SOPHIA

I felt my throat clench up, watching as Tyreese grabbed the few cans of food off of the car bonnet.

“There’s no gun,” he stated simply, checking quickly underneath the car, “You sure he left one?”
I shrugged, Hershel had definitely said about leaving one. Maybe someone else had taken it as we left.

“It doesn’t matter.” I breathed, there was no sign anyone had been here since the group.

No sign of Andrea.

I don’t know what I was expecting, if she had by some miracle made it here, she would have known we had left.
Why would she leave a message?

“We can just head back now.” my voice cracked and I turned to make my way back to the bike before Tyreese could pity me anymore.

Before I could be any more alone.

“Let’s just get the hell back to the farm.”