“No, we take 75 all the way up! It’s the quickest route!” Josh argues back for the fifth time.

“Did you get grease in your eyes while you were fixing this truck?” Matt counters, leaning against the hood of the truck. “Look ahead of us! It’s clogged up! If we backtrack to the last exit, we can take 411 back through Eton!”

Sparrow finally groans loud enough to interrupt their arguing, dropping his empty gas can. “Ladies, ladies! You’re both pretty, so would you please shut the fuck up!”

I sigh, rubbing my temples. “You’ve been arguing for the better part of two hours,” I grumble down at them from my perch on top of a semi-trailer.

“Cass, what do you think we should do?” Josh huffs, turning to look up at me.

Our truck ran out of gas on the outskirts of Grassdale, the highway littered with abandoned vehicles as far as the eye can see. Even if we could scavenge fuel from the vehicles around us, something in the engine of the truck had popped and started smoking. According to Josh, it won’t be a quick fix. Quentin and Dani are busy searching the vehicles around us for supplies and trucks like the one we have in the hopes that we’ll find a part we can use to fix it, but with the sun high in the sky and the heat blasting away at us, it’s been difficult to find anything good out of this situation.

“You can start by not arguing anymore,” I note irritably, “and help us find something to fix the truck with. We’re not going anywhere until we find the part we need.”

Josh sighs, rubbing his neck, and Matt gives him a cheeky grin as though he won the argument.

“Matt, check the vehicles on the other side,” I order. “We need to find some more food. At this rate, we’ll be out in a few days, and I don’t see us going anywhere for a while.”

He nods, rolling his eyes as he swaggers off, and Josh looks like he’s about to strangle him. Josh walks over to the truck, his hands in his pockets.

“Why is this asshole still here?” He huffs.

“Because, unfortunately, that asshole has a few decent ideas, and since he was with the Widow’s more recently, he knows more about them and can help us get around their patrols,” I answer, though I don’t feel as comforted with the idea as I should be.

“We made it pretty far without his help,” Josh returns, crossing his arms and glaring over at Matt.

“What do you suggest that we do?” I sigh. “Tie him up and lock him in one of these vehicles?”

Josh grins, shrugging. “You said it, not me.”

I roll my eyes, but I can’t help but to entertain the idea. “We’re not doing that. The last thing we need is an angry ball of vengeance and a psychopath hot on our heels. Until he decides to go his own way, he’s stuck with us just as much as we’re stuck with him.”

Josh sighs. “I know, I know. But that doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

“I’m not asking you like the guy, Josh. I’m just asking for you to trust me in this.”

He looks up at me, obviously tired of arguing, and nods. “Of course I trust you. You’re the one who got us this far, and you’re the one who rescued Dani and me. But when Matt shows his true colors, just be on your guard. You might be the first person he goes after.”

“I’m always on my guard. How do you think I’ve survived this long?”

That gets a laugh out of him and he wanders back over to the truck to remove the busted part while I go back to watching the road.

“Cass! Cass!” Sparrow shouts further up, and I lift my bow, ready for trouble.

“What is it?” I call back.

“We found something! Check it out!”

He and Quentin are standing next to a small delivery truck, the logo on it too faded for me to read from here. I hop down from the semi and rush over, prepared take out a Feral, but when they show me what they found, I gasp.

“Oh my god,” I breathe. Inside the truck are several full five gallon jugs of water, still sealed, though some of it looks as though it was recently taken. “This could last us for weeks!”

“I know!” Sparrow exclaims, barely able to contain his excitement. “How many do you think we can fit in the truck?”

“Let’s grab as many as we can, but leave a few left inside, it looks like someone else had the same idea,” I tell them.

“Think there might be other people around?” Quentin asks.

“Maybe, but I don’t plan on sticking around to find out who they are. The less of a trace we leave, the less they know we’re the ones who took it. Did you find any gas?”

“Oh yeah, come to find out, this place is full of it! We’re going to need more gas cans at this rate!” Sparrow replies, hefting one of the jugs over his shoulder and carrying it over to the truck. Quentin grabs two more and I snag another, bringing it over to where Josh has some dusty tubes laid out on the hood.

“Any luck?” I ask him.

“We have a busted radiator hose, but with this many vehicles on the road, it should be easy finding one that’ll match what we need. It’ll take a bit to get switched out though, so we better get comfortable. Also, is that water?” He points to the jugs we load into the bed of the truck, and I nod.

“There’s an entire truck full of it a little ways up, but I think other people might also be using it, so we’re leaving some behind.”

“Good idea. Sparrow and Quentin also just made three trips with some gas, and there’s plenty more where that came from. Once we figure out an alternate route, we should be in Tennessee in a few hours.”

“Perfect. Let’s keep this up, and I’ll let Dani and Matt know what’s going on.”

I wander over to Dani, who’s checking out the engine block of another pick-up, and she looks frustrated.

“Any luck?” I ask as I approach.

“I don’t even really know what I’m looking for here,” Dani grumbles, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Josh just took out the busted part if you want to take a look at it. He said it was the radiator tube or something like that.”

Dani steps away from the truck, and glances over at Matt, who looks like he’s just taking a stroll through the abandoned cars. “How much longer are we going to be okay with having him here?”

“Until he’s either no longer of use to us, or until he finds his own way,” I shrug.

Dani glares at him as he picks up a discarded pistol to examine it. “What if it’s a trick?” She asks. “What if he’s just doing this to gain our trust back just to hand us over to the Widow’s once we find your mom and the lockets?”

I pause, having never thought of that, and while it does sound like something me might do, I don’t fully believe that he’d have the resources to do so. “Dani, look at me,” I urge, taking her hands in mine. “I know you don’t trust him after everything he’s done, and I certainly don’t either. He hurt my sister and worked with the Widow’s after all. But we gave him a chance, and with it, he helped us find you and Josh with ease. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without his help.”

Dani stares at me, her face a mixture of emotion I can’t place, and she looks down at our hands. “Would you do the same for Leon?” She asks, almost too quietly for me to hear. “Would you give him a second chance?”

I open my mouth to respond that, yes of course I’d give him a second chance, but I pause, looking over Dani’s shoulder when I notice movement in the tree-line. The moment I see the figures step out into the sunlight, I grab Dani and pull her into cover behind the pick-up.

“What is it?” Dani whispers to me.

“I think I just found the people who have been scavenging this area for a while,” I whisper back, peaking around the side of the truck to get a look at them. There’s only four of them and I can’t tell if they’re with the Widow’s or not, though judging from their attire, I’d say they’re just regular survivors.

I sneak Dani over to Josh, Sparrow, and Quentin, who have also noticed the survivors and have taken cover behind our truck.

“Where’s Matt?” Sparrow asks, looking around.

“I saw him duck into a car when he saw us hiding,” Josh replies. “Who are these guys?”

“No idea, but they don’t look hostile,” I reply, peeking over the hood of the truck as the survivors wander closer, looking as though they’ve done this a thousand times.

“They don’t exactly look friendly, either,” Quentin whispers, readying his rifle.

“No,” I say, lowering his gun. “We don’t to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves. We don’t know if there are any Feral’s in the area.”

“So what do we do?”

I glance over at the survivors, and I’m rather surprised to see how normal looking they are. There’s a young woman, probably our age, wearing a light plaid button up and some rugged jeans, carrying a rifle on her back and a baseball bat at her side. With them is an older hefty gentleman in what looks to be a mechanic’s jumpsuit, with a large wrench in his hand, and a younger girl in a faded graphic shirt, holding a length of pipe. Behind them is a middle aged man leading a pair of horses out of the trees, both of them hauling small carts cobbled together with pieces of wood and tractor tires.

“They just look like they’re gathering supplies, same as us,” I tell them.

“Maybe they can help us fix the truck,” Josh adds, a hint of hope in his voice.

“Should we talk to them?” Dani asks.

“We haven’t found any other regular survivors that aren’t either with the Widow’s or Valkyrie,” I add. “It would be a nice change of pace. We might be able to make a trade for some food.”

Sparrow, Quentin, Dani, and Josh all exchange nervous glances before nodding, and I take a deep breath, slowly standing from cover with my hands in the air.

“Hey there,” I call out to them, keeping my voice light.

The four strangers stop in their tracks, their heads snapping in my direction and their weapons raised. “Who are you?” The older man demands, taking a stance in front of the others. He looks nervous, as though he’s never had to use the wrench to hurt someone before, and despite his rugged appearance, he looks scared.

“We’re just passing through,” I tell them, gesturing for Dani, Josh, Sparrow, and Quentin to stand up. When the survivors see my friends, they take a step back, readying their weapons.

“They’re with those bandits, I’d bet,” the man with the horses tells his people.

“No, wait! It’s just us, plus one other on the other side of the highway!” I inform them. “We’re just looking for some supplies, same as you.”

When they hear that we have one more on the other side, they quickly start looking around, trying to spot him, but Matt doesn’t come out of hiding.

“Where are they?” The older man demands.

“It’s a trap, Hank,” the man with the horses tells the older man. “Don’t listen to them. We should just take care of them and go back home.”

“Please, we’re not here to hurt you,” I urge, looking back to the other side of the highway where Matt hid away. “Matt, you can come out! We’re okay!”

There’s a tense moment of silence before Matt eventually stands up from cover, his pistol aimed at Hank.

“Put your gun down, Matt!” I warn him, but he doesn’t budge.

“What kind of game are you playing, girl?” Hank demands, taking a threatening step closer to us.

“Matt, put it down!” I order, but he still doesn’t bother.

“I’ll put my gun down when they put down theirs!” Matt growls back.

I turn to the survivors who have all aimed their weapons at us at this point. “This doesn’t have to turn violent,” I tell the survivors. “We’re just here looking for supplies and some spare parts for our truck. Maybe we can even help each other. You mentioned bandits, right? We can help you get rid of them if you help us fix our truck. We can even trade some supplies, too.”