The aftermath Ch. 7 city of angels?

After Rick catches his composure, we finish our breakfasts. When I check the time, its just gone 5 am, and its best to get an early start on the day, so I move into the bedroom to wake Morgan and Duane.

Once those two are up and moving, I rouse Rhodey so I can let him out to do his business and scope out the biter activity.

"C'mon lazy boy," I say and give him a good morning rub down, "lets go for a little walk." Rhodey immediately shakes off the vestiges of sleep and bounds to the stairs to be let out, and I can't help but laugh at his antics.

"We'll be back in a few minutes guys!" I call to the men. "Come get me if Rosie wakes up alright?"

They call out their agreements and Rhodey and I are up and outta the trunk in a flash.

Once were outside, we do a quick perimeter search before Rhodey does his business. Surprisingly, there aren't many biters out this morning. I reckon they followed after megaphone tank man and his crew, especially with all the noise they were making.

Shrugging my shoulders, I call Rhodey back to me and we head back inside.

Upon entering the trunk again, I'm greeted by the sight of Rick trying to feed Rosie small bits of scrambled eggs with very little results. My baby girl is more interested in playing with her food then eating it, as evidenced by all the bits of eggs smashed into her hair.

"Didn't I tell you to come get me if she wakes?" I laugh. Rick turns towards me and I can see that his attempts at feeding Rosie didn't leave him unscathed either. There were pieces of eggs splattered across his hairline and in his beard.

He sighs "Well yeah, but she woke in a good mood and I figured she ate so easily for you yesterday, that she would eat just as easily for me this morning. Clearly I was wrong." He laughs as he hands Rosie off to me.

"I'm gonna go clean up. You can finish with this gremlin." He tickles Rosie's belly before walking out of the room and she squeals in delight.

"Well Rick was certainly right about one thing Rosie Posey, you certainly woke up on the right side of the bed today!" I turn her body so were face to face and give her a big smooch on the cheek, and she bursts into happy giggles and presses a slobbery kiss to mine.

She babbles cutely to me while I head to the bedroom to gather up our clothes for the day, and after scraping the egg out of her hair, I dress her in a lightweight pink dress.

I lay her down on a blanket and instruct Rhodey to keep an eye on her while I change as well. I dress in clothing similar to yesterdays outfit; fitted jeans tucked into black work boots and an old band t shirt. I redo the braids in my hair from yesterday, and I'm all ready to go.

Scooping up Rosie, I head into the kitchen where the guys are once again pouring over maps and trying to work out our next plan of action.

As I pass by Duane, I bend over and press a smooch to his forehead. "G'mornin' Miss Indy."

"Morning sweets. Did you eat breakfast yet?" I ask and he gives me a sleepy nod.

"Alright well darlin' if you can hold off for just a bit longer, I promise you can sleep in the car for as long as you want, but for now can you watch Rosie for me? If I don't go help your daddy and Rick, we might never get outta here."

He smiles and gently takes Rosie from my arms, moving over to the blanket set out on the floor with some of her toys.

I clear my throat and step closer to the men. "Alright you two, what have you cooked up?''

"Well, Rick was telling me that he wanted to head to this campground to look for his family."

"Yeah, it's a place we go every summer, and I know that if Shane, Lori and Carl got out of the city safely, that's where they'll head. There are a couple routes I have marked off, but the most direct way is to go through Atlanta. The only problem I have about that is, we don't know the condition its in.

"There are several more ways to get to the campground, but they'll add days to the trip and its mostly through back roads and a little bit of off roading. I know the trucks will be able to handle the off roading, but I'm nervous because it will be a helluva lot more difficult to handle a large group of biters in that setting. Morgan and I agree that Atlanta may be the safest bet because it's the most direct, but we wanted your opinion."

"Well, it sounds like Atlanta should be the way we go, and I think that if we run into trouble, we can either double back or use the alternate back/ off road options. However, in this area at least, biter activity is very low. When I took Rhodey out to do his business, the sun was barely rising and there were only about 6 biters in the immediate area. I'm thinking they were mostly led away by megaphone tank man yesterday."

Morgan's eyebrows climb his forehead in surprise. "Only 6? Usually this early in the morning, we have at least 40. Guess we better strike while the irons hot. Since were all on the same page route wise, let's say wheels up in 30?"

We all spread out to do our last minute packing. Rick makes sandwiches and packs a cooler so that we don't have to stop driving for lunch. Morgan gets Duane and Rosie situated with toys and books to entertain themselves for the car ride, and I go looking for my old car seat in the storage section of the trunk.

Once I find it, I help Morgan and Rick load up the guns and ammo from the weapons vault into a spare bottomless bag while also making sure we have enough fire power on hand, if things were to go south.

While were loading up the truck, I remember that we were never able to stop for gas to fill up the spare tanks yesterday. "Hey Morgan, do you know a way to siphon the gas out of these other cars in the lot? We never got to stop yesterday and this things only got half a tank left."

"The only spell that I know of that could possibly help us with that is a summoning charm, but summoning liquid is always unpredictable and I'm hesitant to try on something that's so easily flammable."

Hes gotta point there. "Maybe Rick knows how?"

Morgan shrugs, grabs the two red canisters and heads over to Rick. While they try to figure out the gas situation, I check on Duane, Rosie and Rhodey in the suv.

"Duane honey, we'll be heading out real soon. You got everything you want for the ride? I don't know when were gonna stop again, and I don't want you to be too bored back there." I ask while setting up Rosie's car seat.

When I don't get a reply, I peek into the third row and see Duane snuggled up against Rhodey with Rosie in his lap. The boy is fast asleep, but Rosie is awake and content to munch on her tiny fist.

Finished with the car seat, I lean over, kiss Duane's cheek and pry Rosie out of his snug grasp, calming him when he stirs.

"Hey Rosie Posey." I cuddle her into my chest and press a kiss to her soft black curls. She starts rooting at my chest and I chuckle. "Oh, okay I see how it is. I'm nothing but a milk machine to you now huh?" I adjust her in my arms, so she'll be more comfortable while she eats.

"Ya know you wouldn't be this hungry if you ate the eggs Uncle Rick was trying to feed you this morning." She completely ignores me, not that I expected anything else, and immediately latches on when I pull up the side of my t shirt. There's less discomfort this time, which is nice.

"Uncle Rick huh?" Rick says startling me.

"Yeah. Uncle Rick and Uncle Morgan. Were in this together and in my books that makes us family."

Rick gives me an undecipherable look but the redness in his cheeks suggest he might still be a bit embarrassed by the breastfeeding.

"Yeah. Family." He smiles and jumps into the drivers seat, while Morgan shuts the trunk and rides shotgun. Finally, we're able to head out.

oOoOoOoOoOo

We've been on the road a few hours and were making pretty good progress. There aren't many abandoned cars blocking the roads and the biter activity is as low as I've ever seen it.

Rosie fell back asleep and is resting comfortably in her car seat while Duane is reading one of his comics and munching on a granola bar.

Suddenly I'm jerked out of my thoughts because Rick slams on the breaks. "Rick what…" I trail off because looking out the windshield, I see the reason. A big ass horse is standing a few feet away from the truck, looking right at us.

"So… ya'll see that horse, too right? Like that's not just me?"

Morgan and I nod our heads but nobody says anything for a minute, until I open my car door and they both snap outta their trances.

"Indy what are you doing? Get back in the truck!"

I sigh and slowly approach the horse. "Calm down Morgan. I've worked with horses before. This fellas nice and calm and I'm gonna try and get him out from the middle of the road.

I summon a few sugar cubes into my hand and hold them out in the center of my palm with my fingers stretched out, so he doesn't nip them. The horse takes a few tentative steps forward and laps the sugar cubes from my hand, nudging for more.

Instead I slowly draw my wand and quietly cast Aguamenti. It startles the horse, but he starts to drink aggressively.

"Whoa there big fella. There's plenty 'a water for ya. Just relax baby."

I start stroking his mane to keep him calm while he drinks his fill.

Morgan exits the car, but does a quick perimeter sweep instead of approaching me and the horse. Meanwhile Rick slowly pulls the car over and parks it.

When Morgan gives an 'all clear', Duane hops out and heads towards me.

"Hey bud, you ever pet a horse before?" I ask him, and he shakes his head in the negative.

The horse is done drinking and he's standing patiently while I pet him, so I motion for Duane to come closer. I take his hand and show him how to gently pet the horse.

The sound of Rosie's babbling causes me to look up and I see her trying to escape Ricks arms to pet the horse as well.

"Bring'er on over Rick. This guys pretty docile and I don't think he's wild. Too patient."

I summon a few more sugar cubes and a carrot and show Duane and Rosie how to feed the horse.

Duane makes a face from the horses tongue scraping across his hand, but Rosie finds it hilarious and giggles nonstop.

"Alrighty, lets get this guy outta the street so we can continue on our way. Too bad we can't take him with us. I reckon a horse could come in real handy."

Shrugging, I use the carrot to lead the horse to the side of the road. Further up, I see a broken wooden fence and assume that's where he escaped from. Once the horse is behind the fence, I give him the carrot and cast a Reparo to fix it so he wont escape again.

We pile back into the car, but we don't get very far before we spot a run-down looking gas station.

"What are the odds you guys think we find any gas here? We weren't able to get any extra gas from the cars at the station and were running a little low."

"I think we may as well stop and check. Sooner or later were gonna run out of gas and I'd rather it be much later. Hopefully this place has what were looking for." Morgan says as Rick pulls up next to a pump.

The guys and Rhodey jump out and do another perimeter sweep.

While Rhodey does his business and stretches his legs, Morgan keeps watch and Rick and I head over to the building. We find that the door is padlocked shut, but I vanish the chains no problem.

Rick bangs on the door of the store then we both take a few steps back. When we don't hear any shuffling or groaning, Rick opens the door and we enter. The place is surprisingly still intact. The shelves are full, and everything is neat, but the smell is god awful.

Rick and I share a quick grin, and his eyes light up, before we pull on some bandannas to cover our mouths, because this place has real potential of having the gas we need.

However, the light quickly leaves Ricks eyes when we turn the first corner of the small shop.

In the aisle is a small figure standing completely still with its back to us. The figure, which is undoubtedly a child doesn't move until Rick speaks.

"Little girl? Hey, little girl? My name is Rick Grimes and I'm a police officer. My friend and I can help you. Are your parents around? Little girl?"

The figure turns in a slow shuffle and Rick sucks in a horrified breath.

The girl is about 8 years old; she's wearing pajamas and has a stuffed bunny clutched to her chest. Her face is scratched up and her mouth is forever curled in a bloody decaying snarl.

"No. No I- what?" Rick stumbles back and his hands start to shake as he aims his gun to shoot. Before he can, I put my hand on his arm and lower it, then step in front of him and take the shot. It hits her forehead dead center.

The silenced shot and thud of the girls body hitting the ground, seem to echo in the tight space.

When I turn back to Rick, his back is pressed against the store front windows and hes hyperventilating. He has a far away look in his eyes.

I step into his personal space and grab his face, pulling down his mask in the process. Instantly I'm inundated with flashes of images of Carl, and I realize that was Ricks first child biter. She looked to be around Carl's age, and it has him terribly shaken.

"Rick darlin, I'm gonna need you to snap outta it honey. Your boy Carl is just fine; remember the vision? He's got Shane and his mama takin' care 'a him. He and I both need you to reel it in. You ain't gonna make it to him if you freak out every time you see a kid biter. It ain't him honey. Now reel it the fuck in, so we can finish clearing this store, get some gas and get back on the road." I smack his cheeks until his eyes clear and focus back on me.

"You with me Ricky?"

He lets out a strangled chuckle. "Yes ma'am. But please for the love of god never call me Ricky again."

"You got it darlin'. You ready to move on?"

He takes a few deep breaths before responding. "Yeah, Yeah, I'm good. Let's hurry up."

We make quick work of cleaning the rest of the shop, and other then the walker girl, and a decomposing body in the back room, its clear.

"Why don't you go out and try to fill up the gas tanks with Morgan. Send Duane in with a few bags; I'll have him grab all the snacks and drinks while I fiddle behind the register to get the gas pumps goin'. Hopefully there's still something left."

oOoOoOoOoOo

All in all, it takes us about 20 minutes to get back on the road. The guys were able to salvage a full tank of gas in the SUV and a canister and a half of extra gas.

We eat the sandwiches Rick made this morning for lunch and its around 1 pm when we get on the highway to Atlanta.

Rosie has settled in for her first nap of the day and Duane is reading an old spider-man comic quietly.

Its eerily quiet as we make our way down the deserted highway, because the other side exiting the city, is bumper to bumper congested. And abandoned. It feels like a bad omen.

"Its making me nervous that we haven't seen any biters yet. I mean were halfway through the city now. There's no way this place is completely deserted." I comment.

Rick makes a right turn and immediately stops at the horde of biters blocking the way.

"You just had to ask, huh." Rick mutters and throws the car into reverse, sparing me a glare in the rear view.

The squealing tires catches the biters attention, and we lead them on a mini chase, but were able to lose them quickly by driving up into a parking garage and cutting the engine.

For what seems like an eternity but is only a few minutes the only sound in the car is our heavy breaths and sighs of relief from temporarily evading the biters.

Because its so quiet though, we all jump, and Rosie wakes up from her nap, when we hear the frantic and static-y call for help coming from the CB radio.

"Base camp this is T- Dog can you read me? Shane? Shane is that you? Can you read me? Were in deep shit down here. There're geeks everywhere and they've got the building surrounded. Were pretty much fucked. Shane? Base camp can you read?"

oOoOoOoOoOo

A/N: Lo' folks! Idk if anyone is still even interested in reading this, esp because its been almost a year since my last update, but here it is! Life has kinda gotten in the way of my writing, and I lost interest for my posted stories for a good while, but I've got a break in the craziness and my muse has popped in to say hello, so I banged out another chapter. It's kinda short and filler-y but I'm trying to move the plot along a little bit. Anyways I hope u guys, like the chap. Lemme know what you think! I have some plans for moving forward, but nothing set in stone, so I guess we'll see what happens!