We'd been driving for a few hours. When Maggie noticed that I was sad about twenty minutes into the journey, she made me come sit with her and Glenn. I was sitting on Maggie's lap, my head on her shoulder and my back to the window as my legs were stretched onto Glenn's lap. Glenn was holding Maggie's hand with one hand and my calf with another. There was a CD in the bus, I didn't recognise the song, but I enjoyed the soft melody. 

Abraham was driving, Rosita sitting behind him and playing with his hair, she was across from us as me, Maggie and Glenn were in the front row. Eugene was sitting behind me, Maggie and Glenn whereas Tara was across from Eugene.  "It's getting a little messy for you." Rosita commented about Abraham's hair.

"Getting ready for retirement." Abraham countered with a hidden grin on his face. "Relaxing the grooming standards. Thinking about becoming a plumber.  A sheepherder or something."

"You ain't herding sheep now, Abraham." Rosita smiled. "Eyes on the prize."

"Damn straight." Abraham agreed. "That's my girl... Maybe I'll let you shave me down all over. Dolphin smooth."

She laughed and tapped his shoulder before settling back into her seat. "I'll cut it for you tonight."

"Can you do mine as well, please?" I asked her. My hair was halfway down my biceps. 

"Of course, mi amor. But, I think you look pretty with long hair." She smiled at me.

"Yea, don't cut it, Ellie." Maggie ran a a hand through my hair.

"I prefer it short. Less to grab." I responded.

A pained look took over Maggie and Glenn's face. Rosita just nodded with a frown, she didn't know that I was talking about how my mother used to treat me as well. I wanted to tell her, but I didn't know how. "I'll cut it for you tonight, amor." Rosita assured me.

After ignoring Tara and Eugene's short conversation, Maggie started speaking. "Maybe they're right behind us. Maybe Daryl and Carol came back. Maybe they took the map, found some cars and they're just down the road."

"They'll catch up." Glenn insisted. "We're clearing the way for them."

"You really think so?" I asked Glenn.

He squeezed my leg. "I know so."

"Like you knew the Tooth Fairy isn't real but then that dollar showed up under my jacket the next morning. You're not always right, Glenn." I reminded him.

"Yea... Not sure why the Tooth Fairy went out of her way to bring you a dollar when there's nothing for you to spend it on. That one was a shocker. But, I'm right about this, okay?" Glenn smiled.

I nodded, before sitting up straighter to peer over the seat at Eugene. "How long will it be? Once you get to Washington and start doing your science crap?"

"Depends on the number of factors, including density of the infected around target sites world wide." Eugene stated. My eyebrows furrowed, not entirely sure what he just said. Again, ten years old.

"Target sites?" Glenn asked as he and Maggie also turned in their seats to see Eugene. "Are you talking about missiles?"

Eugene stared at the man for a few seconds. "That's classified." Eugene deadpanned. I'd seen the army bomb my school. Most of the nice neighbourhood actually, my neighbourhood stayed untouched, they didn't care about us even at the end of the world.

"I thought we were over that." Glenn stated, talking about the secrets Eugene was keeping from us.

"What if we all live?" Eugene countered.

"The secrets will matter then?" I asked, softly.

"They might." Eugene nodded. "Anyway, the speed with which things normalize depend on the number of factors, including worldwide weather patterns, which were modelled without the assumption that cars, planes, boats, and trains wouldn't be pouring hydrocarbons into the atmosphere this long. Change the game quite a bit when it comes to air transmissible pathogens."

We all stared at him for a few seconds. Nobody being able to figure out what he just said, so I changed the subject. "Why the hair?"

"Because I like it." Eugene told me.

"Why?" I questioned.

"The smartest man I ever met happened to love my hair. My old boss, T. Brooks Ellis." Eugene stated.

"Who?" I raised an eyebrow.

"The director of the Human Genome Project." Eugene told me.

"What's that?" I asked.

"You sure do ask a lot of questions." Eugene raised his eyebrows.

"I like to have a lot of answers." I shrugged.

"The man told me that my hair made me look, and I quote, like a "fun guy", which I am. I just ain't Samson." Eugene continued. I noticed a mini group of walkers that we passed on the road out the window.

I didn't pay much attention to them as I flicked my eyes back to Eugene. "Have you ever made something blow up?"

Before he could answer my question, there was a bang and the bus started to swerve on the road. Maggie wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me back into her. Glenn leaned over us both, using his body to keep us both tight in the seat. After swerving for a bit, it felt like the bus was soaring into the air. A scream left my mouth as the bus came back down and rolled on the ground a few times before scraping about fifteen meters before it came to a stop.

There was a ringing in my ears. I felt someone shaking my leg, I could barely twitch my fingers nevermind move my whole body or respond. I felt hands cup my cheeks and tap them gently. The ringing slowly faded as I felt the blood on my face, my scar must've reopened. I felt glass in my arm as well. I slowly blinked open my eyes and saw Rosita leaning over me. "Ellie, are you okay?" Her panicked voice asked me.

I coughed a little. "I think so... Is everyone else okay?"

"We're all okay." Rosita helped me sit up and I saw that I was sitting on the roof. Cool.

"Ellie, thank god." Glenn breathed out.

I could see the walkers banging on the windows of the bus. I could smell smoke. "The engine's on fire. We gotta get outta here." Rosita told us. Well, that explained the smoke.

"I know." Abraham replied.

"Alright, me and Abraham will go first to knock em back. Clear the way for Maggie and Rosita to get out... Then we'll all start hitting them, okay?" Glenn commanded.

"And me?" I asked.

"I don't think you can fight right now, Ellie. You stay back okay, get out of the bus though." Glenn told me.

"I can figh-" I started.

"Please. Don't argue." Glenn told me as they started heading towards the back door.

"Come on, we'll do it live." Abraham stated. "Tara, cover Eugene. Come out when it's clear." Getting over to the back door. I had to shut my eyes as I was trying to wipe some of the blood from my back. "On my go... Go." I heard banging before I opened my eyes to see Abraham and Glenn leaving the bus. Quickly followed by Maggie and Rosita.

I wasn't going to stay inside with Tara and Eugene, I wanted to help. Moving to the back of the bus. I grabbed my belt from my bag and quickly attached it to my hips, it already had everything in it that I needed. I got out of the bus and chucked my bag over onto the grass before climbing out. "Ellie, you're supposed to stay here!" I heard Tara call, but I ignored her. I hadn't talked to her really since I threatened her with a gun.

I pulled out my boomerang before throwing it at a walker that was coming up behind Glenn that he hadn't noticed. I stayed to the side, basically covering my friends and family. I threw it again when I saw one going for Maggie. When I threw it a third time to cover Abraham, the flying weapon caught Glenn's attention as it came back to my hand. "Ellie, behind you!" He yelled.

I swiftly turned around and planted the knife end into the walker dude's head. When a lady walker pushed up behind him, the pressure was too much for me to keep up so they fell on top of me. I didn't have enough room to free my boomerang and the way my arms were trapped, I couldn't get to my pocketknife. A terrified whimper left my mouth as she tried breaking through the other walker to get to me. 

I watched as Rosita stabbed her in the head before pushing them both off me and helping me up, all before once again stabbing another walker. She kept a hand on my shirt as she killed three more before all of the walkers that surrounded the bus were dead. Rosita fell to her knees from exhaustion, I went down with her and hugged her tightly. She lazily brought up one of her hands to hold onto my right arm that was around her chest. "Thank you." I whispered.

"Don't thank me, mi amor. I'll do anything for you." She whispered, turning her head to place a kiss on my forehead.

"Check Eugene, see if he's hurt." Abraham ordered.

"I'm fine. Just cuts and dings is all." Eugene replied.

"Check him!" Abraham raised his voice and there was a harshness in his tone.

Rosita slowly got up, I stood with her but let her go as she walked over to Eugene. "Is that your blood?" I asked Abraham, noticing a very bloody hand he had.

"Yea. Got a scar that keeps opening. I swear, the cut's finer than frog's hair." Abraham shook his head and sighed.

"Frogs have hair?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"No, little one. That's the point of the saying." Abraham told me. I nodded in understanding. 

"First aid kit's in the buss. I'll see what we have. For the two of you." Maggie looked between me and Abraham before she turned to the bus which was literally on fire. The fire grew more in seconds so we all stepped further away from it.

"We're not stopping. We're rolling on." Abraham grabbed the bag he brought out with him. "We'll find another vehicle down the road. The mission hasn't changed."

"Devil's advocate. Nothing more. We smashed to a stop hard. We spent a lot of time rolling things out of the road. The church is just fifteen miles back up there." I wasn't sure what Eugene was saying until his last sentence. I need to learn to speak Texas if I want to talk to him. I grew up around a lot of slang, but nothing like what Eugene was saying.

"No. We don't stop! We don't go back!" Abraham's tone increased but he wasn't quite yelling. "We're at war, and retreat means we lose! The road fights back, the plan gets jacked! You all know that!" Abraham's tone got louder again and an involuntary flinch gently shook my body causing Maggie to walk over to me and turn me away from Abraham so I was hugging her. Abraham's tone was softer when he spoke again. "Now, we will get through this because we have too. Every direction is a question. We are not going back."

"Hey, you okay?" I heard Glenn ask Abraham.

"I am fit as a damn fiddle." Was the last thing I heard Abraham say because Maggie distracted me.

She put her hand on my left cheek while her hand went to the right side of my neck to avoid my reopened scar. "How you doing, honey? I can take you back right now if you want."

"No, it's okay. I miss them all. And all of me wants to go back cause I miss my mum and dad as well, I wanna know where they are. But, we have to get to Washington. They need us to get to Washington and we'll see them there. A day or two after we get there I bet. I promised Bob that I'd help save the world. I wanna keep that promise." I explained.

Maggie gently caressed her thumbs over my skin. "Okay, sweetheart. You're a very brave girl, you know that?"

I smiled at her. "Thanks, Maggie." 

Maggie glanced up at the others. "Come on, grab your bag. Looks like we're leaving."

I nodded, noticing Rosita in the corner of my eye I saw her staring at Maggie and me with what looked like an expression of jealousy. I frowned before grabbing my bag and putting it on, securing it over my waist and chest. I grabbed Rosita's hand, making her look down to me and she smiled brightly. "I'm glad you're here." I told her.

She tapped my nose with her free hand. "I'm glad I found you."