"Of course... So what happened...?" Kenshi asked carefully, staring at Maiko as she fumbled with her fingers. 

"It's just that... Juro never knew, so please don't tell him about this, okay?" she asked, sighing. Kenshi nods, glancing towards the fire crackling in front of them. "I... Juro... He... He wasn't my first child, okay?"

Kenshi fell silent, glancing towards the woman with wide eyes. "Y-You mean...? Did the other..."

She chuckled sadly, "No... No, they didn't turn into one of those things... I had a miscarriage, I lost my baby daughter before she could even be born, actually..." she muttered, taking a deep breath as she held her tears.

"O-Oh... I'm sorry..." Kenshi could only mutter those words as he could only imagine the pain the mother felt from losing her first child.

"It's fine. I guess it's just been a while since i talked about it. I've never actually talked about it since Juro was born. I had occasional talks with my husband but it was short and awkward, I guess." she replied, shaking her head as she grabbed a water bottle.

"Okay, now we leave tomorrow," she started. "But where do we stay after this? We can't lug the entire trailer all the way there."

"Well... I did see a car earlier... It seemed in pretty good condition, probably just needed some gas and some tweaks made on it." the brunette suggested, looking north with a thinking look. 

"Nice... Then we can take this with us, maybe bring it back to camp as well." "Good idea... Leader did need a place for him to sleep at night outside."

"Good, we got a plan. We go for that car tomorrow, how far?" "Just a few kilometers north. But we need to get gas, too..." "There were a bunch of cars near it. Beaten up, but seems like they had gas."

"Great. Early tomorrow, right after dawn, we leave. Get that car and gas, come back and head for the towers." "Sounds good... Now let's turn in, I'll see you tomorrow morning." "'Night."

~*****~

"Morning..." Maiko yawned as she crawled out her sleeping bag, looking underneath her spot on the top bunk to Kenshi, who opens his eyes lazily, his short hair sticking out in awkward ends.

"Morning." he greets back, grinning slightly as he followed Maiko, sliding out of the bunk bed. "You ready to head out?" "Maybe when we change. Let me just wake Juro, too." she suggests, combing through her hair with her fingers.

"Juro... Juro, wake up, we need to go." "Mmm... No... Not yet..." "Come on, Juro. It's late." "Fine... I'm up, I'm up... Just a few more minutes."

"Hah," Maiko sighs, shaking her head with a smile. "Fine, but when I finish changing, you better be up. We have a long trip ahead of us."

Changing into jeans and a tank top, Maiko pulls a black sweater over herself as she heads back out to the small cabin space. "Good, you're up." she smiles at her son, who was pulling on a shirt.

"Yeah, Kenshi's cooking something outside, too." Juro nods, hugging his mother for a brief moment, greeting her good morning. 

"Nice, now hurry up, pull on a jacket. It's starting to get cold outside and we have a walk ahead of us." "We're just going to leave the trailer here?" Juro asked, frowning a little as he looked around the rather cozy place.

"Of course not. It's early dawn, all three of us will be going to get a car we saw up north earlier, get gas and come back here and grab this. We'll use this for the remaining nights we have and bring it back to base."

"Oh good, because Riki said I'm on tower duty now, meaning I might stay up late at night. We'll have somewhere to sleep then!" he cheers, jumping out the trailer and to the fire pit, which was burning brightly, Kenshi boiling something on it. 

"It's just noodles, hope you guys don't mind," Kenshi chuckles. "The toaster seems to work too. It's inside right now, can one of you get it please?" "Sure, I'll get it." Juro nods, jogging back inside.

~*****~

"Ah, there it is!" Kenshi points to a rather good looking car. "Still in pretty good condition."

"Good catch right here... Now let's just get some gas from there. Juro, take out the canisters." The boy pulls out three canisters that they've made back at the trailer, handing them out. "Now, separate, but stay in sight." Maiko says, beginning to walk away. "Especially you, Juro."

"Ah, whatever." the boy says quietly, walking off to a car in the distance. It was quiet, eerily quiet. Then, Kenshi heard cracking of leaves and weak moans. "Shit..." he rushes up to Juro's side, who was nearby. "We need to go. Get your mother while I pour the gas in the car. Hurry up."

The boy runs off obediently, Kenshi hurrying to pour the gas in the car as they came back. "Hurry up, get in the car. Keys are in already." Kenshi orders, pouring the gas Miako had collected. He heard the two climb into the car, Maiko switching the engine on but...

As it turns on, the loud sound caused more groans to sound from the forest, meaning more of those... things, were coming their way.

"Shit... They're coming.... Get in, Inagaki."

~*****~

After narrowly escaping the big predicament, the trio quickly hooked up the trailer to the car and began driving away.

"Whoa... Are those the towers?!" Juro suddenly shouts as Maiko drives down the dirt road. "Are they, Kenshi?"

"I think so... This is around the area Takuto had said." "Alright... We need to park a few lots away from this place so the walkers won't get near it too much."

"Plan set then, let's go." Juro smiles, watching as the towers grow bigger and taller as they drove closer and closer.

Within 20 more minutes, after a few days of travel, they arrived at their destination. "Oh shit..." Juro mutters under his breath once they peek through the fences. There, wandering the tower base, covering almost the entire area, were walkers. The rotten-fleshed monsters stumbled about, thankfully noticing none of them.

"What do we do...? The lurkers already got in, not only that, there's some around here too. In the woods." Maiko sighs, loading her gun. "We can't make too much noise or we'll only attract more."

"How about we turn back?" Juro suggests, already turning around and away from the towers. "No we're not. We've walked and waited too long." 

"How about we just use knives then?" "Nah, too many. We'll get cornered..." Maiko sighs, placing her gun away. "Well we need to get up somehow..." Kenshi sighs, looking up to the tall tower.

"Ah, man... I knew this would come in handy. Riki's gonna be mad though." Juro laughs, kneeling down beside his backpack, which he set down earlier.

He pulls out a few grappling hooks and gave them to Kenshi and Maiko. "Are these from Leader's room?" "Yup! He left for something and I snuck in and grabbed a couple things."

"Man, this is useful... Good job..."

~*****~

"We finished!" they cheered once they finished fixing the control panel of the tower, using the hooks to get back down.

"Holy shit... It's getting dark. Let's just make a short trip and get settled for the night." Maiko curses, sighing as she climbed into the car. Juro was standing outside, fixing his bag as Kenshi climbed into the passenger seat.

"So are you going to tell him?" he said quietly as they waited for her son to climb in.

"Tell what?" "You know what, Maiko." Kenshi answers, looking towards her for a moment.

"I-I... I don't know..." she whispers, tightening her grip on the wheel.

"I don't want him to hate me because of the truth... But he can't be this naive forever..."