Caz

They all sat on the four person seats, Caz and Adrian on one side, with Keith and Heather on the other. Adrian had offered a cold water to Heather which she seemed to appreciate, as the others enjoyed their cold beers. Keith seemed to suddenly think Adrian was a good guy, and Caz couldn’t really understand his way of thinking but for now he wasn’t going to say anything.

“So where are you all coming from?” Adrian asked. Keith took a sip of his beer, almost like he was thinking of what to say, while Caz decided to pull out one of the maps they found at the mall and place it on the table between them.

“Well, I came from this direction, traveling along this road for some time and stopped around here, where I met Keith,” Caz explained without giving to much away, as he didn’t think it necessary for the others to know his long travels. Adrian nodded then pointed at a town which was in the direction Caz had travel from.

“Did you stop by this town? Heard it is a safe place,” he said. Caz nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah, but I didn’t really feel like I fit in, so I decided to keep going,” he quickly explain which wasn’t really the truth, but it was good enough.

“What about you Keith?” Adrian asked. Keith looked at the map with a grim expression but pointed in the direction of a well-known bad area, which explains why he was running away from zombies when they met.

“I went from here, to here,” he said and pointed at a small settlement, then followed a road towards the bad area before he just tapped on where Caz had been. “I didn’t really think the area was going to be that bad, and it wasn’t, until I ran into a rapid dog, and that was when everything went downhill and I had to run for my life, where I somehow ended up where Caz was.” Adrian nodded again before he looked at Heather.

“What about you?”

“I met the guys here, coming from this direction,” she said rather flatly. Her expression was guarded as she leaned forward to point at where she met Caz and Keith, then backtracked it to a safe area, but her expression seemed to turn darker as she stopped her finger on top of it. Adrian seemed to notice her stiffness and quickly pointed from where he came from.

“I started here, then traveled for a while down this way, somehow ending up in a junkyard and have stayed there ever since,” he said and pointed on a junkyard, which was a bit away.

“Wait,” Keith suddenly said with a frown. “Where are we right now?” He asked. Adrian looked a bit confused but pointed in a general direction. “Here,” and pointed at the edge of a town in the outskirts of Georgia. 

“What? Are we in Georgia?!” He exclaimed in shock. Adrian nodded uncertainty and Caz had a feeling that Keith just now realized where they were, as he suddenly got up and stood by the edge of the table.

“I’ve strayed too far off the path,” he said with a frown. “So many days waisted away,” he grumbled and looked frustrated at the map.

Adrian looked past Caz at Keith. "You.. got a destination maybe?" He asked.

“Yeah, Chicago...” Keith said as he stared at the map.

“Wait, you do know that Chicago is totally overrun by zombies, that it’s totally a dead town, right?” Adrian asked, and Caz knew that was the wrong thing to say. Keith looked at Adrian like he had just seen a ghost, his face turned pale, and he took a step back.

“But my family…” he faltered, and Caz's eyes widened. He folded the map and put it into his back pocket. He got up from the seat, facing Keith and put his hands up like he was approaching a wounded animal. He carefully put them on Keith's arms. "Keith.. maybe we should sit down for this. Okay?" Caz looked Keith deep into his eyes - hoping that he would listen to him.

“Are...” he began but Caz could guess that whatever he was going to ask, was hard. He had to take a second before he could get himself to continue. “Are you sure? Are there any survivors?” He looked at Caz, his eyes looked painfully hurt, like his heart was slowly shattering.

“From what I’ve heard, there aren’t,” Adrian said but his voice was calm, careful like he knew if he said it in the wrong way, then it could turn out badly. Caz on the other hand wished Adrian hadn’t said anything at that moment.

“It can’t be true, impossible, they said they were safe, that’s why they moved there,” it was like Keith was speaking to himself as he furrowed his brow. “I have to see it, I have to make sure they aren’t there,” Keith suddenly said and pulled away from Caz’s hands.

“Keith,” Heather started but stopped when he looked at her, almost like she knew whatever she wanted to say wouldn’t do anything. Caz frowned and reached out to Keith to grab a hold on his arm.

“Don’t be stupid, you won’t survive if you go there, plus it’s a long way,” Caz said a bit more harshly than he had wanted to. Keith frowned at him and pushed Caz’s hand off him.

“I don’t care! I need to know if they survived, cause if I don’t, I…” He faltered, and clenched his fists as he tightened his jaw, struggling to hold back his feelings. Caz felt annoyed, no angry actually at the stupidity of Keith’s thoughtlessness, but before he could say anything Adrian moved closer.

“Then leave, go and see it for yourself,” he said, and Caz quickly sent him a stern look. “You won’t make him change his mind,” Adrian said to Caz, “and holding him back won’t do you any good, so might as well let him go.”

Heather stood up, uncertain what to say but Caz just stared daggers at Adrian then at Keith, and felt a sense of hopelessness wash over him, yet he also felt something else, disappointment. For the first time in months, he finally felt like he belonged somewhere and this strange group, even though they had only been together for an extremely short time, somehow felt right. It was stupid that he had somehow hoped to be with this group for a longer period of time, and he shouldn’t have made himself get so hopeful, but it was the first time since he left the safe town four months ago, that people had been treating him nicely.

He couldn’t believe he had ended up with those two, or three actually when he thought of Ella. When he left the safe town to travel alone, he hadn’t expected this journey would take him to an untouched house, with food and plenty of it, neither had he expected someone else to join him shortly after, especially when he thought about how the house had been abandoned, for as long as the apocalypse has been there, and that they would meet someone on their short travels afterwards. 

It didn’t really fit his plans but being with them had turned out to be useful and rather nice. Heather’s first aid knowledge was much better than his own and could prove useful in the future. Keith’s brute strength and his foolish bravery had been useful more then once up until now, and Caz knew he was a fast runner even though he hadn’t seen it yet, since he did manage to outrun the runner zombies, and he was rather observant too. Caz on the other hand was good at tactical planning and logic thinking, plus he was experienced in guns compared to the others, and he could lock pick which had been useful to him in many occasions, and Ella was good at… being a toddler but he couldn’t help but wonder if she managed to grow up, she would have very different skill set from the beginning, compared to Caz and the others. 

Knowing this was going to end before it had even really started was a disappointment and it annoyed Caz that Keith was willing to just throw it all away for uncertainty, yet he understood him, for he himself wondered if his family was alive.

When Keith took a step towards his things, Caz wanted to stop him, wanted to tell him that he was just going to end up dying and then what would his family not think, if they were even alive, but he couldn’t do anything but watch Keith pick up his things, then leave the train. Adrian watched Keith leave then looked at Caz and Heather.

“I guess you guys could use some help get to the next shelter?” he said uncertainty, which just fueled the rage and disappointment that filled up inside Caz, which made him pick up his notebook, he had pulled out again to let Adrian look at it, and rush out of the door, then threw it at Keith. Bonk it sounded as it hit home in Keith's retreating back.

"COWARD!" His enraged face, suddenly turned to surprise, like he was surprised over what he had just said and done. But it quickly disappeared. "So.. that's it?" He yelled as he asked, with his hands in the air. Keith stopped in his track and slowly turned around, looking at the book on the ground before picking it up and looked at Caz, before throwing it back to him, using his right hand, which made the book land a bit away and off from Caz, seemingly like he threw it with his bad hand. Keith looked at Caz in anger, yet he also looked lost and sad.

“What do you want from me?” He asked frustratedly while throwing up his arms. “I just heard the place my family were staying are gone,” he sounded defeated. Caz clenched his fist and looked down at them, he then turned his gaze back to Keith’s frustrated ones. He started walking towards him in a fast pace but got stopped by a hand, when he's just about to stand in front of Keith. He looked at Adrian annoyed, while Adrian looked between them.

"It's clearly tha-" Caz didn't care what Arian had to say as he cut him off mid-sentence.

"Then I'll help you!" Caz yelled even though they were both standing right in front of him. Once again he got surprised by his own sudden actions. He didn’t know why he cared so much. He shouldn't. He couldn't. He can't. But he's going to. Adrian looked at Caz in surprise.

"If that's the case. Look,” he started, getting their attention, “we might not have started on the right foot here, and we might not even know each other but,” Adrian paused for a second before he continued, “I might have a way to get there faster than if you just walk, beside you are going to need all the help you can get, if you want to survive long enough to see Chicago and who ever you are looking for.”

Caz looked confused at Adrian, and both Caz and Keith seemed to be intrigued in what Adrian had to offer, whatever it was.

“And how are you suggesting doing that? What could you possibly have to make the journey faster?” Caz asked and crossed his arms. Adrian flashed them both a grin and wiggled his eyebrows.

“Oh, you are going to love it.”