A man's voice echoed throughout the house, "Get up! It's time to move again. We don't have that much time right now. We're supposed to be on the road by 9 and we've already slept in. Eat as little as you can, wash quickly, and let's get out on the road. I don't see any walkers but that doesn't mean that they aren't hiding anywhere. Can someone search the radios once again?"
Gertrude slowly opened her eyes as she heard her older brother, David yelling out orders to everyone. She sighed and got up into a sitting position, rubbing the always present ache in her neck as she looked around the room. Her older sister, Alyssa, wasn't in bed which meant that she must've woken up before their brother did. Jayne, however, was still in her bed with her eyes closed, unaware of their brother's demands.
"Jayne, honey, wake up. We got to get moving" Gertrude nudged her sister.
"What else is new?" Jayne opened her eyes and got up. "We've been moving around…"
"Gertrude, get ready!" came Alyssa's voice. "We need you on the front today. Come on you guys… the sooner the better"
"We got to listen to them" Gertrude mumbled as she got up. "They're the ones who found us remember?"
Jayne sighed, "We're a family, True"
"It doesn't matter. Who did they try to find first, Jayne? They didn't try to look for their friends first but us" Gertrude argued.
"But Brandon has a son! Alyssa had her husband that was away for business meeting" Jayne mumbled.
"What about me, Jayne? Ever wondered who I looked for instead of you?" Gertrude retorted back.
"I didn't mean anything by it. We just could've found all of them, True" Jayne replied back.
"We found Cam and Alicia, didn't we?" Gertrude countered.
Jayne took in a shaky breath, "No, True, we still need to keep on searching"
"What do you think we're doing?" Gertrude snapped.
Jayne glared, "Alex and Nicole are still out there"
"They might've turned for all we know. It's either we live or become one of them" Gertrude nodded to the boarded up window.
Jayne shook her head, "We should've stayed in Tennessee. They probably found each other by now"
"You know what the plan is" Gertrude argued. "We all agreed, Jayne, they were present during the meeting"
"Maybe they waited for us, True"
"Everyone agreed that if this kind of stuff went out of hand, we were going to go to the cabin in North Dakota" Gertrude recited.
"I wish mom and dad were here" Jayne whispered.
Gertrude turned around and placed her hands on her hips as she stared down to her little sister. Downstairs it sounded like Alyssa and David were doing fine with all of the packing by themselves.
"I don't"
"Why would you say that, True?" Jayne glared at her sister.
Gertrude leaned her hip to one side, "They died in a car crash, and I believe that's a better death than this. If you ask me, they got the easy way out"
"But you miss them, don't you?"
"Of course, I do!"
Gertrude sighed and rolled her sleeping bag up, "We have to trust that Alexandra and Nicole got out alive"
Jayne started to shake her head, "What do we tell her about Alicia? They used to be tied to the hip. It's so weird to see Alicia as a walker and Alex nowhere to be found. Are we even sure that it was Alicia?"
"Come on, we gotta hit the road" David came into the room.
"Morning, David"
"Where's Alyssa?"
"She's… She's cooking. Maybe you guys can talk, Jayne…" David turned to the younger sister.
Jayne rolled her eyes, "What can I do, David? She won't talk to anyone"
"She's worried about her husband"
"We're all worried about our significant others" Jayne got up. "Maybe since she gave up on our family, she should give up on her husband"
Jayne then marched out of the room, pounding her feet down the old stairs. Gertrude cringed and quickly went over to the window to see if a zombie had heard her.
"Geez, Gertrude, I would take the company of a zombie any day before her" David let out. "She really needs to lighten up"
"She killed her boyfriend, David"
"We all had to kill someone we love"
"David, she was talking about our siblings again. She thinks that leaving Tennessee was a bad idea" Gertrude told him.
"Jayne agreed to the plan"
"Do you think she might be right?" Gertrude said uneasily. "Maybe they were waiting for us"
"Would you have waited?"
"I went and found Alyssa, didn't I?"
"I suppose we all were breaking the rules. I had to break down Jayne's bathroom door in order to show her that I wasn't a zombie" David sighed. "She was so scared"
"We all were" Gertrude looked outside. "So… when are we going to tell her we aren't going there, David? She needs to know… She's the only one that doesn't know. We need to tell her soon"
"Gertrude, she'll flip…" David told her.
"David, she needs to know"
"Gertrude"
"Alyssa didn't put up much a fight when she found out, David"
"Because she's grieving, Gertrude"
"And Jayne isn't? We lost more than half of our family" Gertrude argued. "She'll understand that we don't have enough supplies to get us up to North Dakota"
"She's the impulsive one. Jayne won't like this" David glanced over to the hall; "She just might take some of the stuff and disappear into the night. Jayne doesn't even know how to use a map and she would still leave. She might not even last the first night"
"She's the youngest, David"
"It doesn't matter…"
"So what do we do, David?" Gertrude demanded. "Just run around until we have enough food"
"That sounds like a better idea, True"
"How long do you think they would wait?"
"I have no idea" David sighed. "I hope until we arrive"
"David, do you think there's a chance that they could survive?"
"I don't know, True, I really don't know" David sighed.
"This is all just… Never mind" Gertrude shook her head.
"It can wait, Gertrude, right now we need to move. We don't know how many could be out there" David said.
"Maybe we're the only ones? David, we haven't seen anyone else after this outbreak" Gertrude spoke up. "What if there is no sanctuary?"
"Don't start talking like that"
"I'm serious!" Gertrude then lowered her voice. "We're going crazy over here. We haven't seen anyone in days"
"I need you to have a straight head, True" David gripped her shoulders.
"All of this is making me lose my mind. None of this makes sense as to how it all started. I just wish that this could all be just one dream" Gertrude closed her eyes and rubbed her neck.
"Alyssa and Jayne went overboard; I don't need you to do that too, True"
"Just give me some kind of sign that there is hope on the other side"
David was about to say something, instead, he sighed, "I don't have an answer to that but I know only one thing, that if we don't get moving, we'll end up like the rest"