Round in Circles

She always knew he was out there somewhere. Rory wondered out loud sometimes, whether he might be dead or not, but Willa always knew. If she was alive, so was he. He taught her everything she knew about surviving in the wilderness; how to use a crossbow, how to make a fire, how to track down dinner, how to navigate without a compass. She had never reached his level of mastery so if she was alive, then he had to be. No doubt about it.

Even though it had a been a while, exactly how long she couldn't be sure, Willa could remember him as vividly as if it were only yesterday she'd last seen him. She remembered the location of every scar on his body, and the stories behind them all. She remembered how he smelled, like soap and cigarettes and whiskey, the very last time she saw him. She had lost the picture she carried around a while ago, but she never really needed it. He was unforgettable.

They weren't on very good terms when the world went to shit. They had never really been on good terms except for in the bedroom, and Willa wasn't sure that really counted. She hadn't spoken to him in 6 months when things started getting bad. She tried to call, because no matter how angry she was she never stopped caring, but he never picked up. It was always like that. He'd buy a cheap cell phone when she bitched about how unreachable he was and then he'd "misplace" it when he decided she called too much. Willa was never surprised when some robotic voice told her whatever new number he'd given her was out of service.

Normally, she didn't care. He'd always show up again eventually. When there's biters knocking on your front door though, it's a little different. She and Rory stayed at the house as long as they could because Willa was so sure he'd come, but he didn't. A herd of biters came through and they had no choice but to run. You might think things would slow down with the world ending and all, but running was the only way to survive anymore.

For a while it was just Rory and Willa. They were trying to get out of state but that didn't work out so well. They had to get off the highway because it had become completely impassible. That's when they came across their first group. There was Andrew and Louanne, an older couple with a well barricaded home, and they had two of their surviving neighbors, Dean and Tommy, staying with them. They took in Willa and Rory without hesitation. She thought maybe they were done, maybe they could just stay there until somebody put the world back to rights, but it was just wishful thinking. Dean, Rory, and Willa had been out gathering firewood one day and when they came back there was blood everywhere and Andrew, Louanne, and Tommy were nowhere to be found.

Willa didn't know how long it was, few months maybe, that they just kept moving from house to house. They scavenged up all the food and supplies they could find and then they were gone without a trace. Rory said once that they were like ghosts. Then on a particularly hopeless feeling day, they found it. Home. It was a makeshift camp, but it was the best thing they'd seen in a long time. There were 2 small RVs and 5 tents, 13 people in all. There was small creek with running water nearby, plenty of canned food, weapons, and a barbed wire fence which, at the time, had seemed like sufficient enough protection. Perhaps from the walkers it would have been, but it wasn't the walkers they had to worry about.