Endure and Survive

“Won’t,” Starling said firmly. No doubt they thought it dramatic when she suddenly called out for all of them to stop. There’d been trudging through the brush on the heels of a bounty head for hours, and now they’d have to take a detour, “I’m sayin’ I won’t go no further. Not the same as can’t.”

She turned, and pointed with her lips towards the old overgrown sign that had stopped her. Well weathered, partially covered in vines and moss, most of the words on it were faded or illegible except for two: Wampanoag and Burial.

“I think it’s some kinda eggs,” Holly answered quietly, carefully examining the dish in front of them; the results of Jake’s first attempt at cooking. In truth it was probably fine, but the color was a little off putting. Half seemed burnt, and the other half looked underdone, and it was near impossible to identify what had been chopped up and mixed in.

Slim’s face fell, and his shoulders slumped slightly. A pang of guilt rippled through his chest.

”If you dare,” Matthew stepped back , holding the door wide and waving him in. The cabin, which was always a bit cluttered, seemed to have exploded at some point. Stacks and piles and crates of everything you could ever imagine littered the house from wall to wall. There were narrow paths from room to room, and space had been left so the furniture could be sat upon, but there was little room for much else. From the back of the house, Holly could be heard muttering to herself and shuffling things around.

“Watch the uh…” Matthew frowned, “…yeah I know know what that is, but don’t trip on it. She’s…restless, I s’pose. Can’t sleep, can’t be still. So she’s re-sorting everything to keep herself busy and…here we are.”

He was teasing, which she took as a good thing. If felt well enough to be playful that was definitely an improvement on his state of mind. Another time she might have offered good natured quip in response, however the truth of it was that she had missed him quite a bit.

That had become something of a standard for her though, even before he’d walked away from the Gunners and gone into hiding from them. If he wasn’t around, she missed him. Current circumstances only made it a little sharper, though she could not say why exactly. Maybe simply the added worry. What if he was found? What if he decided it was all too much trouble and just decided to leave the commonwealth altogether?

Holly tried to shove all of that to the back of her mind, and managed a thin lipped smile and nodded a little.

”Couldn’t agree more,” Grant scowled at the dumbass — who had felt the need to accost them with his asinine thoughts — as he made his way down the road. No doubt he’d meet someone else along the way and he’d become their problem.

Everyone had taken notice of Andy’s sudden absence from the settlement. He had never been a full time resident of course, but he stayed often enough that folks were used to seeing him around. Holly had explained the situation to him, but swore him to secrecy on it.

Then when questions arose, they had to agree on some explanation. Something simple enough to satisfy everyone’s curiosity, but not so mysterious as to invite even more questions. They might have felt guilty, but what they settled on wasn’t a complete lie.

Holly let out the breath she’d been holding, and set the pistol down on the table. Being woken suddenly by half whispers and things clattering around in the kitchen had sent her mind racing. Now, knowing that it was only Jake and Jay, the fear quickly faded to mild exasperation.

“Well, yeah,” she rubbed her face with both hands then raked her fingers through her hair, “You are. But I didn’t think that mean you’d be over in the middle of the damn night scroungin’ for food.”

”We are. Kinda. Just goin’ a diff’ernt way,” Slim replied, waving for her to follow him once the others had disappeared down the alley. The first time Matthew had asked this of him, he’d near fallen into panic and being separated from them. He’d felt exposed, even though they’d put him up on a roof. Not, it just felt like his place, where he was the most useful.