by Riva, Aline
As they stepped apart, a voice spoke up from behind them and they turned around.
“I forgot to mention this earlier,” said Jason, “But I'm coming with you. You're right, David – we can't sit back and do nothing. Mortiz needs to be stopped and if Carrie's still alive, we have to save her.”
Toby shook his hand, then David did the same.
“Welcome on board,” he told him.
Rick said nothing as he shot him a hostile glance, then he went over to the car where Lois was waiting, got in and closed the door heavily.
She shot him a puzzled glance, wondering why he fixed a hard glare in Jason's direction as he made his way over to Sandra's waiting car. In that moment, the way Rick had gripped the wheel and stared at Jason, it had almost seemed as if he had wished he could have started up the engine, slammed down the accelerator and run him over....
“Rick?” said Lois, and he turned his head, blinked, snapping out of his moment of deep mistrust and suspicion.
“They're all with me,” he said as he suddenly felt stronger, knowing the others were willing to stand at his side to help destroy the man who carried out the mall massacre was almost enough to lift out the pain from his heart when he thought about their loss.
“Of course they are,” Lois promised him, “We're all with you on this, Rick.”
As he started up the engine he smiled, watching as the others got into their cars, preparing to leave. Then he looked up at the sky, it looked so perfect up there with its flawless blue and bright sun shining that it seemed such a contradiction that hell could be so plainly below, walking the earth as decaying undead.
“Let's go,” Rick said to Lois, then he cast a glance fondly back at the convoy behind him, knowing he was not alone and then he began to drive away from the safe house as the other cars followed on, heading for the open road.
As the safe house was left far behind the cars went by fields and trees and the living dead who stood at the roadside glaring as they watched them pass like hitch-hikers from hell, the undead were the often present, in a glimpse that served a sharp and ugly reminder that life as it used to be was gone forever.
In the cars that followed on, the occupants all turned their thoughts to the future and what it may or may not have in store:
Lois silently worried for Rick and his obsession with Mortiz as she wondered if this choice he had made would wind up killing him, a thought she couldn't bear to contemplate.
Sandra focussed on the next mile and then the one that followed, taking each moment as it came, staying fixed on thoughts of the near and not a distant future – in case there was no distant future for her.
Toby's mind was on the might of the army of Mortiz as he wondered what kind of back up they would need to stand a chance of getting out of this alive.
Jason's thoughts were on the past and the son he had never met – his main reason for deciding to come along on this crazy and possibly suicidal journey to chase after a madman.
Tara's mind was settled on those back at the safe house as she hoped Maxie would recover enough to have some kind of life he could enjoy with Lauren, this was a hellish world and one not made for love, but it still existed and where it could be found, it needed to be cherished...
And as the convoy went on its way, as they faced an uncertain future they all clung to the single spark of hope that perhaps there existed a way to end the reign of the undead. If Cassie was alive, if she could lay her hands on Adrienne's theories then just maybe humanity stood a chance – if Mortiz could be defeated first... Nothing was certain, all they had was hope, but for the living, it was all they needed as they passed by more undead at the roadside and carried on their way, speeding on with their thoughts set now on a purpose that bonded them all:
Perhaps there could be an end to the nightmare.
Maybe humanity did stand a chance...
Rick Lester:
'As we drive on towards an uncertain future, my sights are set on justice for those lost. I know there's a chance that finding the scientists alive could mean an end to the undead, I really hope that's the case, too.
But my thoughts can't get past Mortiz.
I'm going to kill him for what he did to those innocent people, the ones who trusted me to protect them. When the outbreak first happened I thought life was now about staying safe – but it isn't. For me, it's about making that score even, his life for theirs.
It doesn't seem fair that I've met Lois at a time when I'm probably going to get myself killed in this need for vengeance – but I'm on a mission now, my purpose is to wipe Mortiz off the face of this earth. If I survive that, maybe I can help the others to destroy the undead. But for now, all I can hold in my heart is the need for revenge, and with every mile we travel, I get the feeling that I'm creeping closer to him - and Mortiz is heading ever closer to his early grave...
I used to be the Mall King, that's what they called me – but those people are dead now and I'm the one who will avenge the loss of their lives...
I don't know what Lois thinks because she tries to reassure me in my darker moments – but secretly, I think she's expecting me to get myself killed.
Maybe I will. Who knows?
All I can be sure of is this:
With the way this world is now, with the dead destroying the living, and some of the living with blacker hearts more rotted with evil than even the living dead possess, nothing is certain any more. We may have a year, or we may win this thing and have our lives back – or we could be dead in the next hour. Nothing guaranteed, nothing sure, the word safe means absolutely zero in these terrible times. But we are all agreed on one thing, we have to try, we have to keep going and keep trying, because that is all we have left and for us, that's reason enough to carry on. This war isn't finished, in many ways, it's only just got started...'
End