11 Act: 3 Part: 2

Gideon is thrown forward through the scrap metal doors. The moment he hits the ground he turns back around, slamming his fist in the door, "Fuck you guys and your stupid ass riddles!" He gives out a breath of though, knowing that he's made it through. His moment if relaxation is cut short but the sound of fighting close by. He turns to see Jay slamming a car door into a zombies head, keeping another at bay with his hand as more move closer behind him, "A little help over here!"

"Are you sure there's no more peanut butter?" David shakes his head, irritated by the question, "Lily...You ate all of the peanut butter, all of the pickles, and basically everything that had sugar in it..." Lily gives a huff, "Don't blame me! It's little Ryan's fault." David looks a little surprised, "You've already named it? We don't even know if it's a boy." Lily gives an awkward smile, "Well, I felt four bumps earlier, and there's four letters in Ryan, so that's my logic." David gives a confused look, "But that "logic" makes no sense..." Lily looks a little hurt by his statement, "Says you!" Connor immediately gets between them, "Do both of you mind if we stay on target here?" Lily crosses her arms but David nods, "You're right sorry..." David then goes deep into thought, "Twelve, six...There's gotta be something we're missing..." If a lightbulb could shine over David's head, it would have at that moment. "Lily, what was that you said about little Ryan? Four bumps and four letters right?" She nods. "So twelve has six letters and six has three letters...holy shit I actually figured it out. It's not half the number! It's the amount of letters in the number!" Everyone suddenly understands and begins to move toward the guard. Connor goes first answering the riddle, suddenly like before, two guards rush out and pull him through the gate. Everyone begins answering, David being the last to go through. As David is grabbed, he moved through the large scrap metal gate and met with the sight of progress. The first location they move through looks to be a market place, all around are stalls selling various goods like canned meats, fresh water, hand-made clothing, ect. Eventually the market vanishes as the guards pull him along, he then passes by a make-shift theater, a row of surprisingly well build homes, a barracks of some sort, and a building that looks to be where Ms. Worth does her business. As they pass by, David actually sees Ms. Worth talking to a man in a well-made suit, she turns and their eyes connect, she nods, knowing that they were clever enough to get though the puzzle.

David is taken by all the sights he had seen, but before he can ask anything, the guards still pull him along to a door. It quickly opens and David is flung through it, seeing the carnage that the group had missed. All around are bodies of the undead, blood soaking the ground, brain matter laying against the ground and certain objects, and the Jay and Gideon pressed against a car, breathing heavily and covered in blood. David moves closer, both Gideon and Jay taking notice and looking to David, and both giving the same answer, "Took you long enough..."

After checking then over and finding nothing life threatening, everyone let's them rest before they begin moving through the city. The city is in shambles, everything looking worn from the lack of care put into them. Various streets have tents with yellow tape covering the area of the street. Connor begins to wonder, "What were those for?" Gideon replies, "Old quarantine zones, most cities were able to put them up in time, but as you can see, this one wasn't as lucky..." Just before everyone can move on again, David stops them, "So if those were defensible positions, then there could be supplies in there right?" Gideon shrugs, "Unless it's already been searched." David smirks and moves toward it, everyone else follows.

David opens the flap to the tent. There's area few lockers towards the back, but most of the area is filled with beds and medical equipment. Multiple bodies cover the floor, Jay tells Connor to keep and eye on Ana as only a few of then search. David pulls a crowbar from his pack and immediately moves for the lockers while Jay and Gideon search around the corpses for dropped weaponry. David tries to open the lockers, and of course, find them locked tight. He then puts the crowbar in a lip of the locker door and begins to put his weight against it. Eventually is pops open, only finding paperwork. With three more lockers to go, he pops each of them open, only finding something useful in the last locker. Inside is a military jacket and a belt with multiple pouches. He grabs them both to put them in his pack, only to feel something in the pouches. He opens one pouch up, revealing a grenade. David smirks as he shows it to Jay and Gideon. Sadly that's the only goods worth retrieving.

The eventually make it through the city, moving towards the woods to set up camo since it was getting late. Everyone sets up there spots and begin to rest, tired from todays activities. David notices AJ working on the cooking fire, he moves toward her, giving her a quick kiss as he sits down beside her. "I never understood why Ryan stressed leading so much, but now I do, I kinda still wish he was here..." AJ nods, "Don't worry, you've been doing a good job and I doubt you'll fail us anytime soon." David lays down, "Y'know, it's pretty hot when you compliment me." That causes AJ to laugh, "Yeah sure, as if your ego isn't big enough as is." David laughs. AJ eventually starts the fire and moves closer to him, putting his arm around her, "You know if it ever gets to become to much, you can count on me right?" David nods, pulling her closer, "I know you'll be at my side. And it's the same for you too."

Jay lays down, obviously tired from having to fight so many undead with Gideon, but won't sleep while Ana is awake, worrying for her safety. Ginny walks by after finishing her chores, noticing Jay's predicament. "Hey Ana, did you know Dewey knows tricks?" Ana's eyes widen, almost sparkling, "Really?" Ginny nods her head and looks to Dewey, "Dewey, give me paw." The canine immediately stood to attention and offered his paw, which she took and shook. She issued other commands like "Dewey, roll over." and "Dewey, play dead." Even aiming a finger gun towards the dog, all he completed, entertaining the child. "Can I try?" She asked with a face of confidence. "Of course." Ginny said with a smile. With a jump of energy she began doing tricks with the dog. With Ana distracted she sat down by Jay, "I know you're feeling tired, you can go to sleep now, I'll watch after her." Jay thanked her but still couldn't sleep, Ginny was curious. "Is everything okay?" Jay shook his head, "I can't stop thinking about my brother..." Ginny sighed, she had a feeling that would be the problem, "Believe it or not Jay, I know exactly how you feel." Jay gives a confused look, but doesn't interrupt her. "When the outbreak happened, Dewey was my brothers dog...He had the idea that we try and escape to Canada...We ended up making it to the border, but suddenly  the dead was there and the crowd there panicked and I lost him...Dewey stayed by me and we started running back south, or atleast what I though was south. I had no idea if my brother was alive or not, but I still mourned him." Tears came to her eyes, Jay didn't know what to do. Ginny wiped away the tears looked to him, "Do you mind if I try something?" Jay shook his head. Ginny beckoned him closer and that's what he did, she laid his head onto her legs and stroked his hair, "This is what my mother used to do to us when me and my brother were upset, she would also sing but none of that is gonna happen, you hear?" Jay chucked and nodded, letting himself slip away in relaxation, but before he fell asleep he opened his eyes and looked into hers. Ginny began to lean down, both not removing there eyes from one another as their lips connect. When they release, both of their faces are red, Jay is about to speak but Ginny puts a finger over his lips, "Not yet, at some point, but not yet..." Jay nods and releases himself into a blissful sleep as Ginny watches Ana tire herself out with Dewey.

Morning eventually rolls around and everyone begins packing up came and putting away certain equipment. Connor suddenly rushes towards David, "David, you gotta see this!" David gives a confused look, but follows Connor towards the edge of the forest and is completely caught off guard. Right infront of them is a locomotive, it's carrying passenger care instead of the usual supplies. Gideon hears the commotion, following them and seeing the surprise, he looks as if he's about to burst with joy. "This can save us so much time!" He moves to board when David stops him, "First off we have no idea if it turns on, second, none of us know how to even drive a train." Gideon gets his hand of of his shoulder, "I don't care, I'll read a manual front and back if it means we can get this thing started." David sighs, "Fine, you move down the back of the train to make sure there's no trouble, I'll go to the front and check it out." Gideon nods and moves towards the back, Connor says he'll stay behind incase there's any trouble.

David makes his way towards the front of the train, it's large and orange, will yellow lines around the trim of the bottom. David makes his way to where the controls of the train are, it isn't a very spacious room, but there's enough room for the movement of two people. As he searched he hears the sound of footsteps behind him, "We'll hello there." He turns around to see a woman, she catches him by surprise, causing him to try to pull the pistol from his holster, but struggling to get it un-latched. She suddenly puts her hands up, "Hold on their big fella, take it easy!" David suddenly calms down and stops trying, "Shit, I'm sorry about that, it's the apocalypse and I'm on edge." The woman nods and chuckles, "Yeah, I noticed." She puts out her hand, "The names Cristine." David accepts her handshake. "Nice to meet you, I'm David." David excuses himself to find Gideon, telling him who he had found. Both move back toward her. "So is this your train, Right?" Cristine nods, "It is and always will be." David smiles, "And you can operate it?" Cristine gives David an irritated look, "Would I have called it mine if I didn't?" David nods, "And if we fuel wise...?" Cristine sighs, "With what I have now, farthest we can get to is Oklahoma." David sits her down, "Well, you might wanna hear this..." He explains everything, Murphy, the travel, everything they've been through and Cristine doesn't take herself away from the explanation. Eventually, David finishes up, "So basically, would you help us get there?" Cristine bites at her nails, "Well, I suppose it's better than us just sitting here, you have a deal." David shakes her hands then immediately leaves to retrieve the others.

Everyone is lead back to the train, being dumbfounded by there luck. Everyone boards the passenger cars as David is up front with Cristine, "If you don't mind David, I prefer to concentrate while I drive, if I need you, I'll call you to come forward." David nods and leaves the master to her work. David gets to his seat beside AJ, pulls her warm body close, and begins to relax. As he sits and he notices that Ginny is leaning against Jay in the seats across from them, Jay notices David and begins to turn red. The train suddenly jerks forward and slowly behind to gain speed, trees zoom past as they move down the tracks. David leans back, happy that for once they can all truly relax.

Two hours pass as they still ride, David looks around, finding most people still relaxing. He looks across and sees Ginny asleep on Jay's shoulder, looks out towards the window, enjoying the peace of the moment. David leans over, "So uh, when did this happen?" Jay suddenly goes red, "Uh...last night..." David smiles, "Don't be like that man, you should be proud, it's about time to be honest..." Jay smiles, "Yeah, you're right." David winks toward him, "But remember, we already have two kids in this group already." They both laugh and continue to talk. Their conversation is suddenly cut short ad the train completely halts, slamming everyone against their seats, David looks around and grabs his weapon, Jay right behind him. David bursts into the engine room with Cristine, "What the hell was that?" Cristine doesn't answer but shakingly points out towards the tracks, standing there are close to twenty men, all armed, and with trucks covering the tracks. David eyes widen, "Shit..." One man with shoulder length hair and a scraggly goatee walks toward with a bullhorn in his hands. He raises it to his mouth. "Why hello there strangers, Why don't y'all come one out and let's talk face to face..."