there has been a one or two week time skip that was spent developing the relationship between Aaron and Cassandra! I'll possibly write a part, later on, that fills you in on this. I just wanted to get to the good stuff as soon as possible! <3 by the way, i have a character that will be assuming soe of eugene's scenes, please don't be mad!

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Wind whisked my hair about, the car window down in an effort to conserve as much battery as possible to prevent the event of scouring an infected Virginia for more damned car batteries. The heat was fading as summer transitioned into fall. When the leaves turn crisp, old and beautiful when they cease to live, and they fall. Everything falls eventually.

A soft, yet prickly gaze was shot towards Aaron, who had his eyes trained on smoke from a distance, a spot that was probably about 10, maybe even 20 miles away. It was close, though. Damn, it was close.

"I came this way," The four words sounded, my throat lurching with each syllable.

"Sorry?" Aaron questioned me, not taking his eyes off the billowing gray cloud that floated, lighter than air, up into the atmosphere.

"When I arrived at Alexandria. I went this way. A herd swept through, driving me out into your place, your community, but little do you know what caused the herd," I muttered, a tear welling up in the inner corner of my eye, causing the white around my green iris to engulf itself in red. Everything red.

*--sara what were you thinking what caused the fucking herd what--*

Aaron sighed through his nose, stress and angst expelling from his body through his nose. The man that I had spent the past week or so getting to know kept his dull gray eyes on the cloud, never shifting them from the pillar of gray plaguing the sky.

"Well, about a week beforeI showed up, there was a group. A group that had, um, set up shop on the freeway. It was stupid, reckless even, but it worked out fine for a while. That was until the dead came. The walkers always come, the group knew it but they still stayed there, even after many close calls. Yea, they stood their ground until the dead came that took everything that I loved, and we both know that they will take anything we will love. It's plain and simple; we'll lose everything," The words flowed with passion and emotion that bubbled up from the bottom of my heart. Aaron studied the steering wheel sympathy growing slightly with each and every word that I uttered. 

*--oh haha nevermind. what a stupid fucking place to set up shop--*

"My brother and I... My brother and I were nothing but shit to each other before real shit hit the fan, and then we realized that we needed each other. That I needed him, and he needed me. So after the freeway group was slaughtered, we ran. We ran so far and so fast until we hit Virginia," I swallowed deeply and inhaled.

The familiar olive skin of my small broken boy being shredded to bloodied pieces, death dispersing itself over his innocent skin. 

"Sissy, help!" A piercing, bloodcurdling scream tore through the boy's throat, ending the painful memory.

"The herd trailed us, far behind us at their usual slow gait, but in this moment, there was a more pressing matter. Another smaller herd just right ahead," I sniffled, striving to hide my weaknesses, trying to be strong.

The monsters lumbered towards us, seeing us as fresh meat. Nothing more, nothing less. They saw him, they smelled the inviting aroma of a little boy, and they got quick.

"They got there quick, quicker than I ever thought possible. These fuckers are supposed to be slow," I growled through gritted teeth, wiping a tear that escaped from my eye, daring myself to continue as we neared the thin black smoke.

My tear filled eyes raked down my brother's body, my eyes falling upon the huge chunk of flesh that was ripped from his calf. 

"Jessie, please, we have to run. You can do it, angel, I know you can."

My voice failed me and I clutched my eyes in a failed attempt to stop the flow of tears as they dribbled down the sides of my cheeks. I pulled my fingers away from my damp eyelids, accepting the fact that there was nothing to end my pain, nothing to stop these tears from taking over.

"The thing is... He wasn't fast enough, the herd caught up and the only thing that I could salvage from him was the necklace he made to match mine. It was our symbol, our sign that we love each other, and the last person that I have loved before this whole thing started is gone, and they're not coming back," I whispered, Aaron breaking his eyes from the road to give me a sympathetic look.

Aaron opened the backseat doors to retrieve the water bottles and gallon jugs of water from the back seat, and the trunk of our car. I lugged the heavy water up out of the trunk, with a piece of paper wedged in between my index finger and the cloudy white plastic of the water jug that read 'From a Friend'  in messy capital letters, the Sharpie ink scrawled across the piece of eight by eleven printer paper.

Aaron and I both carried two one-gallon jugs each to a spot up the road that a group was traveling on, the tight-knit group that we had been surveilling for a while now. We walked back to the car to pluck the ten water bottles out of the truck, dividing the weight of the water between both of us.

We watched from a distance as a faceless, toned brown-haired man grasped a water bottle, the clear plastic disappearing in front of his face as he tipped the water bottle back. Immediately after, a fuming red-haired man swatted the bottle out of the strong man's grip, causing the bottle to plummet to the ground and empty its contents, turning the almost tar black road a darker shade. The ginger man had a stern face, his complimenting Hulk Hogan-esque mustache quivering with fury as he spat rage-filled words at the brave man. Angry dagger-like looks were shot at the brown-haired man who dared take a drink of long-awaited fresh water.

I glanced at Aaron, disappointment pervaded throughout my face and a frown tugging at my lips. I figured this would have happened, they've been out here for too long. Too many untrustworthy people they have encountered.

"Damnit, I knew they were too far gone," I whispered under my breath and turned around, trudging back to the car we found on the side of the road alongside Aaron.

Shortly after we started to turn away, a heavy rain began pouring from the sky. I turned around to observe how to group acts towards the rain. Massive smiles are etched onto their faces like marble, their heads turning up to the sky. The boy with a sheriff's hat opens his mouth in an attempt to catch raindrops on his dry pale pink tongue. A warm feeling permeated through my chest accompanied by a pink tint on my cheeks. I hastily turned away, swiftly shuffling back to the car. Aaron knit his eyebrows, shifting around to walk with me.

"What was that, Cas?" The man questioned, his eyes reflecting the blue-gray of the stormy skies above. 

"I-I don't know," I said, my eyebrows also scrunching in confusion. That feeling has never come into my body before... I've never felt anything like that before. What was that?

The sky shot lightning into a nearby tree, the flash of light was superseded by a monstrous roar that rent through the air. Both of our heads whipped around, witnessing the group sprint into the thickly wooded brush that lined the sides of the road. 

"Shit, Aaron we're gonna lose them," I growled, hitting his arm with the back of my hand. A rank stench floated into my nose, accompanied by the moans of the living dead. Aaron looked at me with wide eyes and hurriedly jumpstarted the car. The engine stalled, a strained sound emitting from the engine. The gas meter flashed with a red 'E'. Aaron slammed his hands onto the steering wheel, the walkers nearing. 

"W-we need to go," I whispered frantically, throwing the door open, hopping out of the car. I grasped my bag quickly, flinging it onto my back, bouncing on my toes towards where the group entered the forest for refuge.  Aaron glanced around, his eyes wide in panic, twenty or so walkers chomping their teeth towards us, craving their next meal.

"Aaron, let's go! We gotta move, the rain is coming down harder!" I screamed, not caring if the walkers could hear, they were already on our asses. The man flung his door open, grabbing his backpack in a frenzied craze, dashing down the road beside my person.

The both of us raced in through the forest, facing a barn. A small rickety shack stood behind the barn, the walkers closing in alongside the blinding blackness of night.

'This is it,' My brain tormented me.

'This is the day you die, everything, all you have done disappears. You're going to be gone, and no one will miss you,' The vicious, haunting words etched themselves into my mind, echoing in the caverns of my mind. I shook my head firmly in an attempt to rid my consciousness of the words, scrambling to open the door to the shack. I finally pried it open, Aaron and I shuffling into the adequately stable shelter. It'll have to do for now.

I peered out the crescent moon-shaped hole in the shack door. The corpses that were following us on the road swarmed the fairly large, rotting barn. Several strangled screams erupted from the barn, muffled by the wood and dead bodies that were crowding around it.

The rainfall came down even harder, pangs of worry stabbed at my chest and stomach, which then diffused through my body and prickled my fingertips.  A cracking sound bellowed through the air, the plasma shot from the sky, colliding with a massive tree. The walkers were lured towards the ear-splitting sound. Soon after, a creaking sound emitted from a towering oak tree. The sound of wood ripping apart filled the air, more and more walkers clawing at the tree. The tree finally plummetted to the ground in a pile of wood and leaves, sending splinters everywhere, wood embedded into some of the corpses' bodies. The corpses that had crowded around the tree were crushed, along with several other roamers that were in range. A creepy, deranged smile stretched through my face.

"They're dead, Aaron, all of them. All of the walkers... They've been crushed," I spoke, awestruck. I turned around and threw my arms around Aaron and squeezed his neck tightly. 

The storm ultimately died down, leaving a light sprinkle in its wake. Aaron pushed the door of the shack open, a discarded torso blocking the graying door. With the door opening, two women were revealed to be sitting on a log overlooking a sea of tall, dull tan-hued grass. The two of us snuck around the women to approach them through the tall grass. There the two women with a rusted, beautifully aged yellow and pink music box. I shot Aaron a final look before following him into the jaws of death yet again.

"Hey, hi. Oh, I-I uh, I didn't mean to interrupt. Good morning. My name is Aaron, and this is Cassandra," I raised my hands to shoulder height, mimicking Aaron by offering my surrender. My chapped, weathered and broken lips pulled up a little at the corners to form a straight smile to offer peace, although my eyes distant, as my thoughts were back on the highway with my brother.

"I know, stranger danger, but we're a friend."

*--wow this was shitty --*

And yes, rent is the proper word for that situation. It is past tense for rend, which means to rip something into two or more pieces ^-^