004.
GAS IS WORTH MORE
THAN YOUR EGO, EUGENE.

     Retracing steps was annoying, especially since Natalia wasn't the most thrilled with their current state. They were short of two very useful people— but in a way, she was glad. For she felt like death was something that was a part of her bad luck charm. Everyone around her would die.

     Meeting up with her brother and nephew after being separated for a couple weeks was arguably the best feeling ever. But just days later, both of them were bit. Torn to shreds.

     And then the quest. The special little quest they had— saving the world. No biggie. Countless died from that too, and although Talia was the farthest person from being at fault, she felt like her presence was what got them killed. It wasn't a strong feeling, and it wasn't something she took all too serious, but it was a strange coincidence.

     Obviously, those nuances were far from accurate— death was just something that happened often those days. Talia was the complete opposite; she kept them alive. Sure, maybe not with a katana or machete, but alive. The type of alive that reminded people what they were fighting for in the first place. The type of alive that made survivors want to keep going and not just give up one day.

     To be fair, that was just as important as any weapon expertise. Even though she had that too.

     "You got him?" Abraham questioned, peering over towards Rosita and Natalia. He was about to open the car door to an SUV. Hopefully it drove well.

     "Yep. We'll babysit 'em," Talia popped the p. As she "watched" Eugene, her baseball bat swung around out of boredom. She spun around in circles, making herself lose her footing after a mere ten rotations.

     "I got her," he remarked, referring to the corpse sitting in the backseat of the vehicle. Abraham opened the door, and then pinned her in place so she wouldn't move all that much.

     "Damn, seems like some children drove soccer mom batshit crazy during carpool," Natalia uttered jokingly, to which she only received a flick to the head with Rosita's pointy fingernails. While holding the door in place, the sergeant rammed a knife into its head. She limply fell out, and it was almost comical how he flung the dead body to the side as if it was just a wrapper, or a random piece of garbage.

     With ease, the engine started up, which was music to all of their ears. "Gonna need to air this baby out."

     "Good," Rosita removed the humongous backpack off of her back, giving her shoulders a break, "It'll give us time to figure out how to get back on track." Reaching inside, she pulled out a map. Old school, Nat had to admit, but none of them exactly had access to the internet. Was it even still up and running? "Yo. No, no," Rosita instantly muttered as Eugene attempted to take the piece of paper out of her grasp.

     "I'm the navigator," the man stoically stated, all of his facial features not moving the tiniest bit.

     Ro placed her hands on her hips at his comment. "Then learn to navigate," she sassily retorted. "Remember Thompson?" That made Eugene sigh.

     "I'm formally requesting a straight up do-over on that one. I guided us here from Houston to northern Georgia without incident."

     "What about all the times you were in la-la-land? And all the people we lost?" Natalia nonchalantly mentioned, even though the lists of deaths within their group outruled those who were still breathing.

     Abraham inhaled, stepping out of the car. "Yeah, I wouldn't say without incident."

     "Minimal incident," Eugene corrected, "Navigation-wise, at least. Please? I cannot abide a reality where you are the chosen navigator over a son of the South, who has successfully negotiated the travails and vagaries of journey both real and virtual."

     "Well—" Natalia deeply sighed, clasping her hands together with a clap. "I was a sixth grade dropout, and I don't remember half of those words being on a vocab test, so—"

     "We're goin' North, got it?" Rosita interrupted her younger sister's thought, shoving the map into Eugene's hold.

     Off they went. Back on track, on the way to Washington.

»——⍟——«

     Eugene wasn't redeeming himself with his navigation skills, which he boasted about so much originally. At the rate they were going, Natalia believed she could do a better job— that was how bad it was. For the time being, she was oddly positioned on the edge of the back seat as Abraham napped. It was good he finally got the opportunity to; he always put the others' needs before his own.

     "Turn left up here," Eugene instructed, causing the Espinosa siblings to eye one another bewilderedly.

     "We're making a goddamn box!" Natalia whisper-shouted, careful to not wake up the sleeping man behind her. "I'm gonna see these trees in my night terrors," she joked, but really wasn't when she thought about it.

     "For real. This is the third left turn you've made me make in the last five minutes. You're lost," Rosita insisted, resting her left forearm as her right hand gripped the wheel.

     The scientist waved the map, seemingly to make the girls aware of its presence, when the older of the two was the one who handed it to him in the first place. "I'm not. Turn left."

     "If you're lost, just tell me," Rosita turned to him, awaiting a response, "The gas in this tank is worth more than your ego."

     "If you want to talk fuel efficiency, we could talk—"

     "You want us to suffocate from the stench of rotten intestines, asshat?" Nat spoke up.

     Her older sister agreed completely. "Like Nat said! We are not rolling up the windows! It smells like a damn carcass in here!"

     "Stop the van!" Eugene ordered, and the girl obeyed for no apparent reason.

     Looking out at their surroundings, Natalia knew exactly where they were. "Wait—" Why were they back? For the record, she wasn't really the most thrilled on leaving them either. It seemed like the four sent those people into a place of no return without dispute, and if something happened, Natalia would feel some impending guilt.

     But Eugene— he should've been the one who wanted to hurry the most, so why was he doing such a thing?

     "Why are we stopping?" Rosita raised her voice, pursing her lips together. "Metirosa. Ugh, liar!"

     "Nope."

     "This wasn't your plan? Why you insisted on navigating? Why you told him to go to sleep, and her too?" the Espinosa went off, rapidly firing logical evidence at him.

     "Nope. I never claimed otherwise. And, besides which, Talia never listened," Eugene spoke, causing his two companions to roll their eyes in frustration. "Now how about you apologize for the slander, and we call it square?"

     With a sneer, Rosita shook her head, almost as if that would make it make sense for her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

     "If Glenn and Tara were still alive, and there were no significant delays, and they continued traveling at approximately three miles per hour, and I timed it correctly in my head, they might be somewhere around here," Eugene explained.

     Rosita glanced forward, before turning back to the man. "Those two are not our priority. The only priority is getting you to Washington."

     Awkwardly fidgeting his hands, he quickly replied. "After I save the world, I still have to live with myself. I'm not leaving them behind."

     As much as Talia knew getting the man to D.C. was essential, the teenager felt a small sense of relief in knowing they weren't going to just forget about Tara and Glenn. Having an overwhelming sense of humanity was one of the girl's most notable qualities, and, if anything, she was grateful that Eugene had that mindset as well. At least, in the moment.

     While Eugene went to leave the van, he accidentally slammed down the carseat, making it hit Abraham's head with a strong thud! "Ow! Son of a bitch!" the man shot up, instantly alerted, "Why the hell are we stopped?"

     "If they made it out of that tunnel, they'd be somewhere around here."

     "You're kidding me, right?" he placed his hand on the back of Rosita's seat, doing a double-take. "What's your problem?"

     "My problem?"

     "You're the one in the driver's seat! You're the one who put your damn foot on the break!" the redhead glowered angrily, getting overly worked-up.

     "He told me to stop."

     "You don't stop! You ne-ver stop!" Abraham proceeded to argue, then turning to Natalia. "You just let her? Did you happen to just forget the rules?"

     "Believe me, bucko— I remember the rules," Nat furrowed her brows and challenged him, earning a stunned glare from the sergeant.

     "Well, if you know the rules so well shithead, then why don't you help out your sister?" his voice boomed even louder, which was somehow possible. Talia felt the words coming out of his mouth going right into her ears in a vexatious manner, causing her to wince.

     "Oh? Thank you! " Rosita raised in her seat, her voice coming out high-pitched.

     "When you stop—"

     "Thanks, for letting me know—"

     "Guys!" Eugene screamed, which was quite unusual for him, causing the three others to immediately stop what they were they were so desperately trying to settle.

     In synchronicity, they all answered. "What?"

     Standing about twenty feet away or so stood three people, each holding guns up, ready to fire. Talia exited the van first, with a gun slung carelessly over her shoulder and her hand raised in the air, signaling they weren't a threat. "Don't shoot," she cleared her throat. It wasn't out of anxiety— absolutely not; the fourteen-year-old had well overcome that fear long ago.

     "Don't give us a reason to," the woman with a strong southern accent countered, her eyes flickering between their group. "I'm just lookin' for my husband. Have you—"

     Without even letting her finish her thought, Natalia's eyes widened. That couldn't possibly be a coincidence, right? "Glenn," she stated simply, in a tone that nobody could decipher whether it was positive or not. "Hell yeah, I've seen him. Maggie?" the name finally dawned on her; he had told the young girl the bare minimum while they travelled.

     Hearing that alone, the Greene girl lowered the weapon, and the other two, who were marginally behind her, followed suit. "Do you know where he went?"

     "In there," Rosita pointed towards the tunnel up ahead, where Maggie had spray-painted and they found the second note from her.

     "He went in there?" the other woman inquired in disbelief.

     "Mhm," Nat hummed, "Like a good little knight, off to save the queen. Except, the queen is in no need of saving, and it's probably the knight that actually needs our help."

     "Get in," Abraham piped up, earning everyone's attention. To be honest, it surprised the Espinosa girl— he was on board with that? "We've gone out of our way enough. Might as well finish the deed."

     Although none of the three knew the trouble they endured, or the exact experience they had with Glenn, all of them stifled a nod, opening the back door to the vehicle.

     "Beware— it smells like some goddamn walkers gave birth in here," Natalia casually mentioned, watching as their faces scrunched up at the odor. "You get used to it."

     "Yeah, I'll take your word for it," the third person, a middle-aged man, added.

»——⍟——«

     As the newfound group of seven slowly drove further into the darkness, Natalia squinted, doing her best to see absolutely anything. The only source of brightness being their headlights, she couldn't see shit in the vehicle. Her fingertips ran along her metal bat; she grazed the bottom of the unconventional weapon, finding comfort in the N.E. <3  that was engraved into it with a knife at the very start of the outbreak.

     She had found it while scavenging on one of their first days away from home; it was oddly the only one left in a store, which Talia took as some stupid little sign that she needed to take it. Ever since then, the piece of sporting equipment had been through it all with her.

      Hell, it was used to kill the walkers that bit her brother and nephew.

     Truth be told, she could've used it to kill Diego and Santos when they reanimated, too. But she couldn't bring herself to do such a thing. For only being around thirteen at the time, it was bad enough she had to shoot each of their reanimated corpses.

     "Wait, wait. Stop," the one woman, who Natalia had come to learn was named Sasha, placed a hand on Abraham's shoulder to stop him. "There."

     All of them collectively looked ahead; behind some rubble stood Glenn and Tara. None of them could tell if they were alright— they seemed to be struggling.

     But in between the two sets of people stood a couple dozen walkers, emerging from the other side of the boulders. "Everyone ready?" Bob asked.

     "Yes," everyone else answered at the same time, on the same page.

     "Let's kick some walker ass," Natalia muttered sternly, although she wasn't the most confident about her abilities in a place with that lighting quality. "I guess."

     "No— you stay in here. We got this, Nat," Rosita somehow managed to read her mind, which was something that wasn't too unusual. After all, the younger sister could do the same— they were able to just understand small nuances about the other, as many siblings could.

     "I'm a good shot, Ro."

     "I know you are. You can barely see those two up there— am I wrong?"

     "—No."

     With a reassuring smile, the older Espinosa placed a hand on Talia's knee. "Be right back."

     Watching as the six lined up to take out the dead, Talia hopped up to the passenger's seat, which allowed her to get the best view. "Get down!" Abraham shouted out to Glenn and Tara, and seconds later, they started to fire.

     "What the hell's Eugene contributing?" Natalia whispered to herself, noticing how he stood a few feet behind the rest, out of harm's way. "Screw it," she huffed, opening the car door and being greeted even more with the aroma from inside the tunnel. More carcass smells, how fun !

     As she met up with the rest, Maggie had already run up to Glenn, who enveloped her in the tightest hug imaginable. Watching such a happy, joyous reunion made the smallest grin creep its way unknowingly to the teen's cheeks.

     It was just a brief reminder for her; that was what they were fighting for. Those moments.

talia's dialogue>>>>