Chapter 8
It took just five minutes of being in a car with Elyza behind the wheel for Alicia to realize that the other girl had absolutely no respect for the rules of the road. Not that it really mattered with no other moving vehicles around them, but Alicia would have preferred it if the blonde at least tried to drive at a manageable speed.
“So are you excited to see your family again?” Elyza asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over the two.
Alicia had to think about that for a moment. Was she excited to see them? She supposed so, she had missed them and was also anxious to find out if they were all okay. That being said, she was definitely not excited about the shit storm she would most certainly have to face from her mother when she returned.
“Yeah, though I doubt they’ll be very excited to see me.” Alicia responded. Elyza gave her a very confused look and Alicia attempted to elaborate.
“Don’t get me wrong, they’ll be happy to know I’m okay. It’s just… I may or may not have snuck off of the boat to join the supply run directly against my mom’s instructions. Which means if I do get back to them she’s probably going to hug me and then rip my head off.”
Elyza laughed and Alicia’s heart rate picked up at the sound.
“Somehow the fact that you pulled a Shawshank Redemption and broke out of that boat doesn’t really surprise me. But don’t worry Licia, when we find your family I’ll protect you from mamma bear.” The blonde said with a smirk.
Alicia did her best to keep her facial expression neutral while her insides fluttered at the sound of her childhood nickname flowing off of Elyza’s tongue. She also didn’t fail to notice the way the girl had been sure to twist Alicia’s uncertainty about finding her family into a more confident statement in an attempt to reassure the young brunette.
“You’ve never met my mother. I’m not sure even you would be able to stop her when she gets going on one of her ‘angry mom tirades’. I’ve learned its best in most cases to just shut up and ride out the storm. My dad was the only person who could snap her out of it, but after he died a few years ago she turned into full on Medusa.” Alicia replied.
“Medusa huh? Well after dealing with zombies, a crazy lady with snakes for hair should be no problem for me.” Elyza said, glancing over at Alicia with a smile
Alicia was grateful Elyza didn’t offer an apology after she revealed her father had died, she was sick of hearing them. She guessed Elyza knew that though, given the way she had spoken of her parents as though they were gone as well Alicia was sure Elyza had dealt with her fair share of empty and meaningless apologies.
Not that they were all empty, most people truly were sorry to hear her father had passed away, but that did little to stem the grief Alicia felt after losing her father and so their words meant nothing to her.
“Well I’m glad one of us is so confident in your ability to keep her under control. I’ll need all the help I can get.” Alicia said dryly.
“Oh come on, she can’t be that bad.”
“You have no idea. She checked out after my dad died, and it’s like now she feels like she needs to make up for lost time by being extra watchful and overprotective. Sometimes I wish she would just go back to acting the way she had when my dad first died – distant and uncaring. It was easier then, when I could actually take care of myself without having her looking over my shoulder all the time.” Alicia paused to take a breath. She was ranting and she knew it, but she needed to get this off her chest and now seemed to be as good a time as any. Elyza was still essentially a stranger to her, but maybe that’s exactly what she needed; to vent her frustrations to someone who didn’t know her or her mother.
“I raised myself those first few years, a fact she conveniently forgot the moment she decided to finally start acting like a mother. By that time it was too late, I didn’t need her anymore. I still don’t. But she doesn’t get that, she thinks she can pick up where she left off when my dad died but I’m not the same person I was then, especially not with everything going on now. I don’t want to be that same person, I can’t be.”
When Alicia finished her rather impromptu tirade, silence filled the Jeep as she glared out the passenger side window at the scenery flying by. She could feel Elyza’s eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to meet the blonde’s gaze. She didn’t want to know what she would see if she did. Judgement? Understanding? Concern? She wasn’t sure which would be worse.
After about a minute of silence Elyza spoke again.
“I get what you’re saying Alicia, I really do. But… you only get one mother. And while it sounds like yours has made some serious mistakes, it seems to me a lot of them were out of love for you. She shouldn’t have left you to raise yourself after your father died, a time when you needed her the most, but it sounds like she’s trying to make up for that fact because she realizes her mistakes and loves you enough to try and make amends for them. Sure, the way she’s gone about it isn’t the greatest, but at least she’s trying. Just… remember that no one is promised forever, especially in this world. So don’t waste precious time being mad at your mother when you could be trying to work though things with her.”
Silence fell over them once more, but this time it was thick with something Alicia couldn’t quite put a finger on; something between nostalgia and perhaps regret. At some point during Elyza’s speech Alicia had turned to look at the other girl who she now saw was very focused on the road ahead of her as she clenched her jaw tightly. Alicia was certain the blonde had been thinking about her own mother when she spoke, who Alicia was now almost positive was dead, but the brunette didn’t press the other girl for information. She could tell Elyza had no interest in sharing whatever was going on inside her head right now, and that she had probably already shared more with Alicia than she intended to.
So instead of responding, Alicia turned her attention to the glove compartment in front of her in order to allow the blonde a few moments to herself. However, Alicia couldn’t keep in the gasp of surprise that pushed past her lips when she opened it to find a cord that would connect her phone to the USB port in Obama and allow her to play her own music through the truck’s speakers. She quickly unzipped the backpack at her feet and pulled her phone out, hoping that playing some music would help lighten the still very thick atmosphere of the car and help take Elyza’s mind off whatever seemed to be plaguing it now.
Plugging her phone into the Jeep, she selected Hey Child by Korbee and turned the volume up as loud as she dared. Chancing a glance over at Elyza as the song began, she was relieved to see the blonde was smiling once again.
“You’re literally the first person I’ve ever met who has heard of this song, let alone has it on their phone.” Elyza said, her smile widening as the song's tempo began began to pick up. She rolled down the windows and slipped her sunglasses over her eyes, but Alicia could still tell that the smile she wore now was the one that seemed to soften her entire face. Alicia felt a smile spread across her own in response.
She closed her eyes and rested her head back on her seat. From this position, with the wind whipping her hair around her face and a good song blasting through the speakers, she was almost able to pretend the world around them wasn’t falling apart. And for just a moment, time seemed to stop and allow them to simply be two girls driving along back roads in their ridiculous black Jeep Patriot named Obama. She was free, they were free, and it was incredible.
Alicia sat like that for most of the drive to the first marina they were going to investigate, only sitting up to sing along to the music playing with Elyza every now and then. Alicia was surprised to learn that the girl was actually a very good singer, her raspy voice and heavy accent mixing together in a way that made Alicia want to turn down the music in the car so she could just listen to the other girl sing the song's words. But she knew that she’d never hear the end of it from the blonde if she revealed how much she enjoyed listening to her sing, so Alicia resisted and simply enjoyed what little of Elyza’s voice she could hear over her own music coming out of the speakers.
Alicia found it much harder to enjoy the music and Elyza’s singing after the first marina they visited didn’t end up being the one she and her family had docked at.
After the second marina also didn’t return any positive results, she found it nearly impossible to focus on anything besides the fear and anxiety slowly growing in her chest.
Thankfully the drive had been fairly uneventful thus far. They came across a few walkers shuffling along the road, but Elyza had easily avoided them (though Alicia was fairly certain the girl had wanted nothing more than to run them over full speed with Obama).
Despite the rather quiet streets around them, Alicia’s mind was anything but. With each passing minute she could feel panic rising in her chest and squeezing her lungs until she found it difficult to breathe. The longer they took to find the right marina, the greater the probability her family would have already left, or worse. She tried to distract herself with Elyza’s constant babbling about nothing of great importance, but it was hard to focus on anything the other girl said as images of her dead family continued running across the inside of her eyes.
Alicia managed to bring her dark thoughts back to the girl beside her just as she was finishing explaining why a shotgun was a far superior weapon to any assault rifle out there.
“… plus with a shotgun you get to blow the head clean off! And look at that, we’re almost to the next marina Little Bean.” She said.
Alicia sat up a little straighter to better look out the window and hopefully see a familiar landmark that would tell her they had finally found the right spot. She let out a loud sigh of relief as she squinted down the road ahead of them and recognized it as being the one she had run down the day before to catch up to Nick, Travis and Daniel.
“This is it! I recognize this road.” She said excitedly.
“Wicked. The marina is just up the road to the left so we shou-“
Elyza’s next words were cut off by load groans streaming through the car’s open windows. Alicia’s stomach dropped at the sound, but that was nothing compared to how it sunk at what she saw when she looked away from Elyza and out the front windshield as the other girl slammed on the breaks. About fifty yards ahead of them was the biggest hoard of walkers Alicia had ever seen. The two girls watched in silent horror as the nearly 40 walkers made their way down the hillside to the right of the road and across it towards the marina.
“Shit!” Elyza growled as she took her foot off the break and spun the wheel as hard as she could to the left to turn the car around.
Alicia knew that the smart thing to do was to get the hell out of there as fast as possible, but the logical part of her brain had been overshadowed by the part that needed to make sure her family was safe. Before she could really think about what she was doing Alicia reached across the console and grabbed Elyza’s arm, making it much more difficult for her to turn the truck around.
“Elyza no! We can’t leave them we have to go back! We have to help them!” Alicia could hear the panic in her voice but she was beyond being able to control it or even care about its presence. The fear she had been working so hard to hold at bay earlier was now coursing through her body like a wildfire.
Without taking her eyes off the road or her foot off the gas pedal, Elyza easily slipped her arm out of Alicia’s grip before grabbing the other girl’s wrist.
“Alicia, relax. We aren’t abandoning your family but it makes no sense for us to try and take on that hoard like this. I’m going to drive up the hill across the road, there’s a ridge up there where we can better see what’s going on out of harm’s way.”
When Alicia didn’t respond, Elya looked away from the road for a moment in order to hold the brunette’s panicked gaze. Her grip on Alicia’s wrist softened, but she continued holding onto it as she spoke.
“Alicia. We will not leave them. I promise.”
And as Alicia studied the girl’s blue eyes, she saw no hint of a lie or fear within them. All she saw was determination, any trace of the arrogance and playfulness that usually filled them was long gone. And somehow that made her feel better; she trusted Elyza, trusted that if she said they wouldn’t leave her family, then the blonde would do everything in her power to make sure they wouldn’t. Alicia took a few more seconds to look into the other girl’s eyes, trying to draw strength from the resolve she saw within them, before nodding her head slightly.
Seemingly satisfied that she had gotten through to the panicked brunette, Elzya released her hold on Alicia’s wrist as she turned her gaze back to the road before her and continued speeding towards her destination. Alicia found she no longer had a problem with the blonde’s apparent need for speed, in fact now she was quite grateful for it as the blonde sped around corners and dodged obstacles without ever even touching the break.
Not a minute later Elyza was throwing Obama into park before both girls jumped out of the Jeep and ran to the edge of the ridge Elyza had brought them too. They crouched behind a few rocks and looked out across the road at the scene below them.
Alicia’s heart sank as she looked towards the sea. She and Elyza hadn’t even gotten close enough to the marina to see if her family was still there before they were forced to turn around, and a small part of Alicia had been holding out hope that her family wouldn’t even be at the marina anymore. But any hope she had immediately vanished when her eyes were immediately drawn to the Abigail still tied up to the dock where it had been yesterday.
As Alicia allowed her vision to zoom out from the Abigail she felt another wave of panic crash over her as she realized the hoard was slowly making its way down the dock and towards the ship. The first of the walkers was already halfway down the dock and while Alicia could see movement on the ship’s deck she couldn’t tell who it was. Suddenly a gunshot rang out across the space between the girls and the Abigail and Alicia watched as the walker closest to the ship crumpled to the ground.
Her attention was brought away from the marina by Elyza moving beside her. She looked over to see that the blonde had brought her backpack with her from the Jeep and was now pulling out a pair of binoculars from it. She hastily handed them off to Alicia.
“I don’t know what your family looks like so you look through these and get a closer look at what’s going on down there.”
Alicia nodded quickly before putting the binoculars up to her eyes and squinting through them.
She could see now that it had been Daniel she’d noticed moving on the deck earlier and she watched as he began lining up to take another shot with the handgun he held. She allowed herself a moment of relief at seeing the man – if he had made it back to the Abigail then there was a good chance her brother and Travis had as well.
Not five seconds later Alicia saw her brother run out of the boat’s living quarters towards Daniel who had just shot another walker that had gotten to close to the boat for his liking. Alicia felt fear overtake her relief at seeing her brother and Daniel alive as she realized there was no way Daniel and his handgun would be able to take on the hoard still making its way towards the Abigail.
Alicia watched as the two men appeared to begin arguing, their hand gestures and facial expressions becoming more aggressive and desperate each second. She couldn’t make out what it was they were saying, but suddenly her brother was raising his hands slightly as though to tell Daniel to remain where he was before Nick spun around and sprinted back into the boat.
Alicia brought the binoculars away from her eyes, but didn’t look away from the marina. She watched as Daniel took down two more walkers before five more took their place and her heart sank as she realized the true gravity of the situation.
“They’ll never be able to fight them off. And we’ll never be able to get to them without getting ourselves killed.” It wasn’t a question, but rather a statement of fact. Her voice was small, barely more than a whisper as she reluctantly turned her eyes away from the scene before her to look at Elyza.
The sympathetic expression the other girl wore told Alicia that she was right in what she had said. Elyza didn’t need to voice her agreement, both girls knew the truth about their current predicament. There was nothing they could do now but watch from their perch and hope that her family somehow made it out of the marina alive.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Alicia that made her eyebrows pull together in confusion. Her family had no idea she was there, they had no reason to linger at the dock any longer, so why was it that Daniel was still firing shot after shot at the hoard of walkers while the boat remained unmoving? She guessed that was what Daniel and Nick had been arguing about a moment ago, but that still didn’t help explain why they still had yet to pull the boat away from the dock and the hoard that walked it.
Putting the binoculars back up to her eyes, Alicia didn’t have to wait more than a minute to get an answer. She watched as her mother, brother, Travis and Ofelia came sprinting onto the deck of the Abigail to join Daniel who now appeared to be out of bullets. Nick, Travis and Ofelia began to hastily untie the boat from the dock, but Alicia couldn’t tear her eyes away from her mother as she jumped onto the dock, the hoard now not more than thirty yards away from her.
“What the hell is she doing?!” Alicia asked aloud, no longer able to keep her panic silent within her.
Alicia looked on in horror as her mother stuck a piece of paper Alicia hadn’t realized she was holding to one of the wooden posts of the dock beside her using a pocket knife. Alicia’s momentary confusion at her mother’s actions was quickly overtaken by understanding – her mother still had hope that Alicia would return to the marina and was leaving a note that would presumably tell her what had happened to her family.
Alicia’s breath caught in her throat at this realization. Her mother had risked her life to get a message to Alicia that she didn’t even know would reach her. She had no idea if Alicia was alive or dead, in fact she had every reason to believe the brunette was long gone, and yet she still put her own safety aside in a last ditch effort to keep her daughter safe.
Alicia looked on numbly as the hoard continued to make its way towards her mother, fighting against the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. With one final glance around her, Madison jumped back onto the now running boat just as it pulled away from the dock and out towards the sea.