𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄
𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐃 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍
︶꒦꒷★꒷꒦︶

When morning came, Claire felt like she hadn't slept at all, which couldn't be true because she fell asleep almost the moment her head hit the pillow. But it was a light sleep, the kind where any small noise woke you up, where R.E.M was nowhere to be found.

The early morning light streamed through the old sheets over the windows, and Claire sat up, taking a brief glance at the watch on her wrist. 6:49. A little later than she wanted, but still early enough to get back on the road.

She slid off the mattress quietly, standing to her feet and pulling the blanket back up over Kira, gently walking past the sleeping ground into the small kitchen, where their supplies sat on the table. She rummaged through the clothes she and Roman found, finding a clean dark green t-shirt, definitely a size too small but good enough.

She took a peek into the living room, where it appeared everyone was still asleep, before moving behind the wall and peeling the shirt off with a wince. Left in just her bra, she peered down at her bicep, where the bullet graze had crusted over with old blood. "Fuck me." She whispered, tearing a strip of fabric off her old shirt and tossing the shirt onto the table. Biting down on a piece of the fabric, she stretched it out and started wrapping it around her arm.

"Need some help?"

Claire turned around, looking back at James and shaking her head, "No." She whispered through the fabric, quickly wrapping it around the graze before tying the knot as best she could. "I'm fine." She mumbled once it was wrapped, reaching for the new t-shirt.

"Are you okay? Feeling better?"

Claire shrugged, looking over at him, "I feel fine. I just want to find my brother." James nodded, eyes trailing down from her esposed collar bones to the bruise on her side. "We'll find him, Claire. He's okay."

Claire huffed, turning towards him in annoyance. She didn't know why she felt so irritable, he was just trying to help her feel better, to reassure her. But she just felt...on edge. "Seriously, James. I'm fine, please just leave it-"

"We ready to get going?" Roman turned the corner, looking between the two. "Yeah, we're ready." James mumbled, looking over at Roman, who's eyes were locked on Claire. The boy scoffed, turning on his good foot and returning to the living room to pack. "We gotta find the others. I doubt the bus will be anywhere to be found by now. I'm sure they met up with some of the others." Claire mumbled, slipping the t-shirt over her head and pulling her hair out from it. "I always told Eli that if we get separated, to leave messages on things. Signs, walls, trains, anything he can find to tell me where he's going. We'll keep our eyes out for those."

Roman nodded, clearing his throat and pushing the sight of Claire's body from his mind. "Got it. Let's go, people. Early bird gets the worm, I guess."

︶꒦꒷★꒷꒦︶

They had been walking for almost 2 hours, according to her watch. And they hadn't found much. No sign of any of the others.

And then they found the bus.

"Oh, my God." Claire mumbled, eyeing the sight of the bus in the middle of the dirt road, back door open and bodies of walkers behind it, all dead. "No, no no no." Claire rushed to the bus, the others calling after her.

When she got to it, her heart was pounding out of her chest, her ears were ringing, eyes flicking over each of the bodies on the floor. Looking for any of them; Eli, Glenn, Marcus. "Claire, let me look-" Roman mumbled, but she shook her head, a laugh escaping her, "He's not here. They're not here."

The others approached, Veronica and James the last to arrive, "They got out. They got fucking out. And someone obviously killed the walkers. It couldn't have been Eli and Marcus alone and Glenn was too weak." She turned her attention to the bus, "One of us got here first, and I'll bet you it was Maggie. That'd be the first thing she'd do if she got out, find the bus, find Glenn."

"We got to get off the road," Nick mumbled, pointing towards a ground of walkers emerging from the trees to their left, "Okay, into the woods, triangle formation. There's some train tracks about a mile into the woods that go in the same direction of the road, if they got out, they'd be going that way." Roman ushered the others in the woods, Claire keeping her eyes open and hopes high as they walked towards the train tracks.

They walked for a while, no sign of anyone or anything. They kept quiet and aware of their surroundings, except for Kira and Veronica, who couldn't shut up at the back of the group.

When they came to a stop at a signal box beside the tracks, they all paused to stare up at it.

"Think it's safe?"

Claire looked up at the sign nailed to the side of a train, raising an eyebrow.

SANCTUARY FOR ALL
COMMUNITY FOR ALL
THOSE WHO ARRIVE
SURVIVE

She sucked in a breath and tilted her head to look at the map, showing all of the train trask in the area, intercepting at one point on the map. A big star over the intersection and TERMINUS underneath it. "Can't be so sure."

"Maybe that's where the others are going." Nick spoke up, "I mean, look at all of those tracks, they've gotta have dozens of signs in the area, if not more. Anybody who escaped would be bound to see them."

Claire tilted her head in agreement, but Roman had his doubts, clearly, "I don't know. This sign is new, I've sure as hell never see it before."

"I say we go. What's the harm, I mean, if the others aren't there, we turn on our heels and look somewhere else." Kira said, shrugging, "If it's safe, we leave Veronica to get better and James to watch her, and then we go back to looking. I'm not stopping till I find my brother." She moved past the group, continuing on the train tracks in the direction of Terminus.

"Well, I guess that's that, then." James chuckled, following after to Korean girl. Claire smiled, patting Roman's bicep, "Vote's up, Abramson. Get to walking."

Claire grabbing Veronica, helping the girl and walking alongside her on the tracks.

★

The sun was setting on the sky, and due to James' limp and Veronica's prevailing symptoms, shey hadn't made it nearly as far as they had wanted to. "We've gotta stop, I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Veronica grunted, leaning against Nicks side, "I need to sit down for more than 5 minutes."

Roman nodded, looking around at their surroundings. About a quarter mile from the train tracks looked to be the back of a housing unit, the concrete brick wall not quite tall enough to cover the back end second stories of the lined up houses. "We've got a neighborhood over there, I've never seen it so I'm not sure if it's safe. Worth a try?"

Claire looked back at the others who were clearly worn out after a long day of stop-and-go walking. "You, me and Kira will go and check it out, Nick, stay here with James and Veronica, if it's safe we'll come get you, if not, we'll take up camp in the signal box—" She turned back towards the houses, "Against my better judgement. Let's go."

Kira squeezed Veronicas shoulder, before catching up to Claire and Roman, the two readying their guns just in case.

The walk wasn't long, and the grass wasn't too high. If it weren't for the circumstances, Claire would've considered it a decent walk.

The small abandonded housing unit wasn't huge, but it was big enough that they didn't want to risk a full walk around, picking the street full of houses that they had seen from the tracks. The street wasn't filled with many walkers, maybe 10 of them, all distracted enough to not take notice of the three.

"See that one." Roman whispered, pointing at a light blue house with white trim. There weren't any walkers near it or around it, and the door was fully closed, unlike some of the other houses. "Probably our safest bet, let's do knives, no guns. Keep it as quiet as possible."

The each nodded, putting their guns away and yanking out their knives, Claire lowly chuckling at Kira's giant machete.

Roman was at the front door first, motioning the two to stand beside and keep an eye out as he opened the door quietly. No walkers came stumbling out when he did, and the three turned into the house and began doing the check, Kira closing the door behind them as a precaution.

"Don't stray too far," He whispered, "We check first floor together, and then second floor. Holler for trouble." Kira and Claire nodded, taking off in separate directions. Claire had ended up in the downstairs hallway, keeping her knife ready in the air as she opened empty bathroom doors and an empty laundry room. The place was nice, gorgeous actually. It looked like a show house, the kind they'd use for open houses when selling new housing developments. If it wasn't for the family portaits on the wall, it's exactly what she'd think it was.

She backed out of the hallway, turning a corner quickly. She gasped when Kira appeared out of nowhere from the other side, the two girls staring wide-eyed at each other for a second before they both muffled their laughter. "You scared the shit out of me." Claire whispered, nudging her best friends shoulder. "No, you scared the shit out of me, asshole."

"You two done clearing?"

The two girls turned to Roman, who looked unamused, "Mhm, all clear, Captain." Kira saluted him, mocking his choice of second hand military clothing. "Shut up." Roman rolled his eyes, hiding his smile as they slowly made their way up the stairs, knives ready.

All the upstairs doors were closed, which worried Claire. "Okay, I'll take this one." Kira nodded, pointing to a door opposite of Claires, "I'll go there."

"Guess those ones are mine, then." Roman glared at the two doors side by side, Claire silently chuckled and raising her weapon as she approached the door. She sucked in a deep breath, looking back at the other two who were doing the same, "Go."

Claire shoved the door open, stepping back and raising her knife, waiting a couple seconds just in case, despite it being dead quiet inside. Releasing a relieved breath, she stepped inside. It was pretty big room, bigger than hers was back home, with a queen bed in the middle, pink walls and a fuzzy white carpet. Music and movie posters covered the wall around a vanity. Definitely a teen girls room, and it made Claire smile. She missed her house.

Shaking the thought off, she walked towards the bathroom door on the other wall and raised her knife again, opening the door.

Before she could react, a walker fell forward from the bathroom, grunts and growls escaping it as it fell on top of Claire. She gasped, falling backwards with a grunt. She reached out, pushing against the walkers shoulders to keep it away. She had dropped her knife, like an idiot, and she was too scared to reach for it in fear of dropping the walker on her.

"No!" Claire gasped out, pressing a against the walkers cheek. She grimaced as the skin peeled off it's decomposing face, trying her best to keep it's teeth away from her. Moving her legs, she managed to get her feet on it's stomach, kicking it backwards into the ajar bathroom door, a loud bang echoing as she grabbed her knife, bringing it down into the top of it's head, just as it lunged for her again, it's body falling limp onto her lap.

She stared down at it for a second, before yanking her knife from it's head and shoving it off her, scooting herself away from it and standing to her feet, "Fuck. Are you okay?" Kira gasped, stumbling into the room followed by Roman, "What happened?"

"I'm fine, seriously. Just caught me off guard." She nodded reassuringly, looking back at it, "Other rooms clear?"

They both nodded, "Let's go get the others."

★

"This place is great, dude." Nick chuckled, grabbing a couple cans of baked beans from the cupboard, "I'm shocked no one's raided it yet."

Claire smiled, taking a bite of her granola bar, "Roman says it probably fell pretty quickly. We saw a lot of eldery walkers, it was probably a 55+ community. They would've gone fast." Nick nodded, sitting down beside James on the couch and placing the cans on the table.

"We'll stay here tonight and tomorrow night. It's safe enough, and we need Veronica feeling better before we keep going." Roman muttered, finishing closing all of the curtains in the downstairs areas. "Oh, Roman, I'm okay—"

"I think that's a good idea, Roni. We can't keep doing the stop-and-go walking. We'll never reach Terminus in time if you're sick." Claire spoke up, finishing the last bite of her granola bar before standing, "We've got three bedrooms upstairs and one down here."

"Oh, dibs on the one I found." Kira spoke up, finishing her bite of an apple, "That rooms dope." Claire chuckled, "We're bunking up, safer that way." She raised a teasing eyebrow at Kira, "Roni, wanna bunk with Kira? That rooms got a bathroom so you'll be close to a toiulet if you need to throw up."

Roni nodded and smiled at Claire, "Yeah, that'll be great." Kira tightened her lips at Claire, rolling her eyes before smiling at Roni.

"I can take the downstairs room," Roman muttered, but James shook his head, "Actually, I was thinking of taking that one. If something happens and I'm upstairs, it'll be hard to get back down alone with my leg." Roman sucked in a breath and nodded, placing his hands on his hips, "Yeah, yeah that's fine. Good idea. You get the AR, then. You'll be our first defence if something happens."

James nodded, taking the AR from Roman, "I'll bunk with James," Nick muttered, looking over at his friend, "I'm not sleeping on the same floor as that dead walker in the bathroom up there." They all looked over at Nick, before they each started laughing, "You're a pussy, man." Roman joked, tossing his granola bar wrapper at the boy.

"I'll take the room I found, then." Claire spoke after her chuckles died down, "You're not sleeping in there with that thing." James shook his head, but Claire furrowed her brows at him, "I killed it, it's dead, James. I'll be fine. We'll get it out tomorrow morning."

James looked down at his shoes, leaning back on the couch with a nod, Claire standing to her feet, "It's late, I'm gonna get some sleep."

★

She couldn't sleep.

James was right, she hated to admit it. As comfy as the bed was, she couldn't stop thinking about the dead walker in the bathroom. Did she live here? She didn't look like an old lady, and taking the room into account, she guessed it was maybe a granddaughter. Did someone stick her in there because they didn't have the guts to kill her? Did she lock herself in there? What happened to the people who lived here?

She could've died. If she hadn't thought as fast as she did, the walker could have gotten her. Then she'd never find Eli, even if he was alive.

She huffed, sitting up in the bed and running her hands through her tangled hair. She'll just go sleep on the floor in Kira and Roni's room across the hall.

Sliding off the bed, she grabbed the pillow and the pink duvet, wrapping it around her shoulders and quietly crossing the room, opening the door as slowly as possible and walking over to the room across the hall.

She quietly pushed the door open squinting her eyes to see around the room, sight landing on Kira and Roni, the two sound asleep on the black bed, the two holding hands between them. Claire raised an eyebrow, debating her options before stepping out and carefully closing the door again. She didn't want to be a buzzkill when the two inevitably woke up cuddling in the morning. Kira was a serious cuddler and loved physical touch.

She sighed, looking back at the room she was in and slowly walking back over to it. She paused, eyeing the room beside the stairs where Roman was, door wide open.

She debated mentally, looking between the pink room and his for a moment. They should be bunking up, after all. Safety and shit. It wasn't even about Roman and her persisting feelings for him, it was about the fact that she could not sleep in that room. She'd be up all night.

Sucking in a deep breath, she padded over to the room, peeking inside the darkness. "Ro?" She whispered, waiting a couple seconds for a response. Silence followed, signaling he was asleep, and she didn't give herself enough time to turn back before she was closing door, leaning it open a crack before rushing into the smaller room and rounding the side of the bed. He was laying on the opposite side, chest slowly rising and falling with sleep and scattered soft snores escaping him.

Biting her lip, she dropped the pillow and the blanket to the ground, going down with it and wrapping the blanket around her.

Shockingly, the moment her head hit the pillow, she was asleep.

︶꒦꒷★꒷꒦︶

Roman woke up calmer than he had in months, sun shining in his eyes and a soft groan escaping him. He stretched his arms over his head, swinging his feet over the side of the bed and standing with a soft grunt. He walked over to the dresser, wiping his eyes in the process and reaching for his shirt.

It wasn't until he adjusted his eyes and glanced out the window did he notice the body in the corner of his eye. He looked over at Claire with furrowed eyebrows, placing his clothes on the bed and looking down at her, "What—" He smiled, bending down and resting his thighs against his heels, reaching out and gently nudging her leg, "Hey, wake up—" Claire gasped, sitting up quickly before relaxing when she realized who it was. "You scared me."

Roman chuckled, "What the hell are you doing in here?" Claire paused, biting the skin of her lip and shrugging, "I couldn't sleep. Kept thinking about the walker in the bathroom. I don't know, I'm sorry—"

"Hey, it's okay. It's okay. Just, you don't need to sleep on the floor next, time." He laughed, standing to his feet and grabbing his shirt. Claire hadn't realized he was shirtless, eyes going wide and quickly averting her attention away from his bare chest, old dogtag necklace hanging low around his neck. One she'd never noticed before.

He was built like a house. And this was not helping the lingering feelings she had for him.

He slipped his shirt over his head before nodding in the direction of the door, "We'll get that walker out now, yeah?"

Claire nodded, standing to her feet and gathering the blanket and pillow, following him into the pink room.

When Claire and Roman got downstairs with the dead walker, all eyes were on them. "You're down here late. It's 7." Nick chuckled, sending a teasing smile at Roman, whob rolled his eyes. "Just go open the back door, dude. This things getting heavy."

Nick nodded and rushed to open the back door, looking left and right for walkers before stepping out of the way. Claire had the walkers feet while Roman was holding it under the arms, the two of them stepping into the empty backyard and carrying it over to the corner.

"Thank you." Claire muttered, looking over at Roman at her right. He nodded, looking down at her and meeting her eyes. "Of course. We should go on a food run if we're staying here a while."

She nodded, looking back at the house, "Who should we take?"

Roman sucked in a breath, "I was thinking I'd go with Nick and Kira, and you'd stay with Roni and James—" Claire shook her head. She didn't want to stay alone with James. It'd leave room for conversation and she knew he wanted to talk about them, and why she'd been ignoring him. She didn't have the energy to tell him she couldn't care less about him while her brother was missing.

"Nice try, Ro. We'll take Nick, leave Kira. Hey, by any chance do you know if Roni like girls?"