A loud bang vibrated the bus. Simultaneously, smoke rose from the engine and blocked Abaraham's view of the road. It smelt like gas and metal. Glenn held onto Maggie.

"What the hell is happening?!" I shouted as I grabbed the green vinyl in front of me.

Abraham attempted to slam on the brakes but we continued to barrel forward. "Bitch nuts!"

Suddenly, the bus slammed into a large obstacle. Metal scraped against metal. Rubber screeched against concrete.  My body lifted off of my seat as if I had lost gravity. Then, my hip and head hit the windows. Glass flew around me like violent confetti.

My ears were ringing and I couldn't distinguish anything around me. A sharp pain shot through my thigh.

"Eugene!" Abraham called out.

His voice shot through the air and pierced me like an arrow. I was swiftly brought back into reality.

"Eugene!"

The glass crunched below me as I sat up. I pulled myself up using the seat as leverage. As I put pressure on my right leg, it almost gave out below me. I touched the source of the pain and felt a sharp edge and blood.

"God dammit," I huffed.

Around me, everyone else was getting up. They were bloody and bruised as well.

"Everyone else, you all right?" Abraham asked.

"Just dandy," I muttered, eyeing the walkers banging against the vehicle. If more were to build up, they could easily break through the barrier.

I obtained my hat and pistol from below me. My bag was nowhere to be found. There was no time for me to look for it.

Abraham swung his feet against the emergency exit. The opening door shoved the walkers out of the way. Glenn was the first to go through the opening after Abraham. Rosita, Maggie, and I followed. All of us stabbed the walkers that surrounded the bus. I pushed my pain away to a deeper part of my brain so I could focus on surviving in this moment.

I killed one walker before I spun around and saw another one reaching for Rosita. She was turned the other way so she had no idea it was there.

"Rosita, behind!" I warned as I sprinted toward her.

When she reacted with wide eyes, I charged into the rotting corpse. Its lipless mouth attempted to take a bite out of my face. Before I could get my own knife, Rosita bent down and stabbed its head. I flinched as blood splattered on my forehead.

Rosita held out her hand. "Thanks for having my back," she said.

I took her help and pushed myself off of the walker. "Of course."

"Check Eugene, see if he's hurt," instructed Abraham to Rosita.

"I'm fine," Eugene protested. "Just cuts and dings is a—"

"Check him!"

Reluctantly, Rosita complied.

"Is that your blood?" Eugene asked the military man.

Abraham held up his hand; his knuckles were covered in blood. "Yeah. Damn thing opened again. I swear, the cuts are finer than frog's hair. They're just big bleeders."

"Jo," Glenn said. He looked at me with concern. "Your leg."

My jeans were covered in blood on my right side. A shard of glass stuck out from my thigh. "Shit," I huffed.

Maggie stood up from her crouched position. "First aid kit's in the bus. I'll see what we have for you two."

Just then, the bus erupted in flames. The heat from the fire brushed against my damaged skin.

I clicked my tongue against my teeth and put my hands on my hips. "Well, this is just great."

"We're not stopping. We're rolling on," said Abraham. "We'll find another vehicle down the road. The mission hasn't changed."

"Can we wait like ten minutes?" I asked, limping forward.

Abraham shot me an angry look. "No."

"You gonna carry me to this hypothetical vehicle then?"

"If I have to."

Abraham and I held intense eye contact with each other. My blood was boiling inside of me at the same time as it was gushing out of my leg. The only thing I wanted to do was punch him square in the jaw. "Get your head out of your
as—"

"Devil's advocate, nothing more," interrupted Eugene. It was probably a good thing he did or else I would not have been able to hold myself back anymore. I don't think the other redhead would have been able to either. "We smashed to a stop hard. We spent a lot of time rolling things out of the road. The church is just 15 miles back that way—"

"No," Abraham snapped. "We don't stop. We don't go back. We're at war, and retreat means we lose. The road fights back, the plan gets jacked. You all know that!"

The fire raged on in the bus. I imagined that same fire inside of this man.

"Now, we will get through this because we have to. Every direction is a question. We don't go back!"

Glenn stopped Abraham from walking forward. "Hey, hey, hey. You okay?"

"I am fit as a damn fiddle," he said.

I scoffed at the remark. My attempt to take a step forward failed when my leg throbbed harshly. Tara held me up by putting my arm around her shoulders. I gave her a silent 'thanks.'

"We are going with you," Glenn told him. "You are calling this thing. I just need to know you're good."

Abraham calmed down. It was strange how good Glenn was at deescalating tense situations. He would have been a really good teacher.

The redhead nodded. "This is how things stop. I can't afford that right now. The world can't afford it. Listen, I took a pretty hard shot to the sack with that crash. I am stressed and depressed to see that ride die, but if you say we're rolling on, I'm good."

"As soon as we get Jo's leg patched up, then we go. Five minutes max," Glenn added.

"I can do five minutes."

Tara held me as Maggie pulled out the glass. Luckily it wasn't that big of a piece so the wound wasn't serious. It probably needed a few snitches but for right now Glenn tore off a sleeve from my shirt and wrapped it around my thigh.

___

I pulled a bookshelf to create a little makeshift bedroom for myself. Eugene was kind enough to start a fire for me in a small trash can so I stayed warm throughout the night.

"Jo," Maggie called, "you ready?"

"Yeah, be there in a sec," I replied.

I limped between the tall, wooden shelves over to Maggie and Glenn's area. Like my bedroom, Maggie held a makeshift needle and thread. I pulled down my blood-stained jeans right below my knees.

"O-Oh!" Glenn stammered before shielding his view and turning away.

Maggie and I met eyes and then burst out laughing.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. "You're good, Glenn," I said. "I'm still decent enough."

Maggie grinned at her husband. "Nothin' to be afraid of, honey."

Glenn slowly turned around. He still avoided looking below my waist. "Just trying to be respectful."

I chuckled again as Maggie prepped the needle.

"Okay, brace yourself," the woman told me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and gripped the armrests as the metal pierced my skin. Although it was a familiar sting, I did not miss it. When I opened my eyes, Hershel's features became prominent in this daughter's face.

"Must be nice being surrounded by books again," said Glenn.

I winced as the string was pulled through. "Yeah, it is," I breathed. "Don't much enjoy seein' them burned, though. I need to find some comic books for Carl for whenever I see him again."

Maggie gazed up at me through her eyebrows. "You miss him a lot, don't you?"

I nodded.

My wound continued to be stitched up. Glenn paced around the area.

"Do you love Rick?" the man asked suddenly as he stopped his movement.

Maggie glared at him. "Glenn!"

My mouth fell open at the question. My instinct was to say no, but I didn't. I rubbed my face as a million different thoughts battled in my head.

"I think I did love him," I answered. "I'm not sure I do now."

"Why?" probed Glenn, pushing his black hair out of his eyes.

I shrugged. "After the prison, everything changed between us. I feel like I'm miles away from him now. Literally and figuratively. When I got back with you two we just continued from where we left off. But with Rick... we started over, almost." I picked at my fingernails. "That's why I came with. I need to figure out what I'm really feeling and get away from potentially being hurt."

Maggie finished her task and tied off the string. "Why would you get hurt?" she questioned.

"I used to feel like whoever I was close to died just by being near me. That's starting to change but I can't shake the thought of someday losing him." Will's smiling face flashed in my mind. "Besides, I don't even know if I've fully processed Will dying. I also feel like I'm betraying him by even thinking of another man."

"You shouldn't stop livin' your life just because he's gone," said Maggie. "You owe it to Will to be happy. He'd want that, wouldn't he?"

"Yeah, he would," I nodded.

"Then stop holding yourself back so much, Jo," Glenn added.

I chuckled dryly. "It's a little too late for that now."

"Tomorrow is not set in stone. You never know when we'll see Rick again."

"How about for now you pull up your pants and get some rest. You got a lot of contemplatin' to do," Maggie said as she smiled at me.

I shoved her shoulder playfully before getting my pants up. "Thanks for fixin' me up, doc."

"Goodnight, Jo."

"Goodnight you two," I said pulling my two friends into a hug.

I went back to my bedroom feeling healthier in body and soul. That was the first time I had confessed to anyone, even myself, that I had feelings for Rick. Even if those feelings were different now at least I could start coming to terms with their existence. 

I pulled my bookshelves closed. My fire had gotten low in the time that I was gone.

"Shoot," I sighed.

My fingers ran along the books' spines until I grabbed a random one. I flipped it over to observe the cover and make sure it wasn't a novel that I deemed as important. A short, quiet laugh left my throat at the sight. It was a cowboy romance called Stolen Horses and Hearts. A woman in a torn dress held onto a dashing cowboy with a lustful look in her eyes.

I shook my head in disbelief and tore out its pages. I threw them into the fire a couple at a time. When the flames were high enough, I laid my head down on a seat cushion.

I didn't do much contemplating as Maggie said. My limbs and eyelids felt like fifty pound weights. In an instant I was in dreamland where everything was perfect and there was no death. I held a calloused hand. I was happy.