Beyond Terminus (Book Two)

Chapter 38: Blood in the Headlights

Sure enough, Daryl has a cow when I tell him that I'm riding with the first group, but after a long-winded and exhausting fight, he finally agrees to let me go.

That night, we travel down the road. The RV that Aaron brought with him travels at a more than safe distance behind us. In the vehicle that I'm occupying, Michonne and I sit in the back with Aaron wedged in the middle. Glenn drives while Rick sits shotgun.

Rick opens the glove compartment and pulls out a stack of license plates from all these different states.

"Um, I'm trying to collect all fifty states," Aaron explains, smiling weirdly. "Put them all on a wall in my house."

"You have your own house?" Michonne asks.

"Mm. See for yourself."

She picks up the envelope again, flipping through the photos. I look too, interested.

"Why don't you have any pictures of your people?" I ask after a while.

"Oh, I took a picture of the whole group, but I didn't get the exposure right. When I tried to develop it later, it just-"

"Did you ask him the questions?" Michonne asks.

"No," Rick replies.

"How many walkers have you killed?" she asks Aaron.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"How many?"

"I don't know. A lot."

"How many people?"

He doesn't answer for a moment. "Two."

"Why?"

"Because they tried to kill me."

Rick pulls a listening device out of the glove compartment, looking back at us.

"You were listening to us?" Glenn asks, shocked.

"I already said I was watching you," Aaron defends.

"That's how you knew about my baby. That's how you knew our names," I say, horrified.

"Yes, I was listening."

"It means his people could have one, too. They could've heard our plan. This isn't safe!" Rick yells.

Glenn slams on the brakes as he runs into multiple walkers, making blood smear across the windshield.

"Shit!" he cusses.

"Glenn!" I shout.

"They were right behind us. They would have hit us. Now they can get out," Glenn mutters hurriedly.

I spin around, trying to see the RV out the bloody back window. I can't see anything, and fear courses through me.

Daryl.

Glenn keeps smashing into walkers, his visibility completely gone and the headlights red with blood. He skids to a stop once we're away from the main herd. The two men open the doors, looking back out at the road behind us.

"I don't see them," Rick says.

"No, they're gone. They got away," Glenn responds, sounding scared and relieved all at once.

"All right, we'll circle back and find them. Let's go," Rick commands.

"They're okay?" Aaron asks.

"Yeah," Rick replies as he hops back in.

Glenn tries to wipe the blood from the windshield before hopping in too.

"All right, we can take a left a couple of miles up 23. Jefferson Avenue," Rick says as he looks over the map.