[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 576 - An Invitation to Travel Together

Claire held Sherry's hand and followed Tara and Lilly out at a near-run.

Outside the main gate, the gunshots had already done their work. A group of Walkers was rounding the street corner, fast ones, moving with that horrible, purposeful stride.

More coming every second.

"Damn it, there are more and more of these running ones lately!"

"No time — move!"

Tara had her pistol up, eyes fixed on the mouth of the street.

Lilly walked point with her shotgun.

The minivan sat in the shadows across the road.

They sprinted across. A few Walkers with sharp ears had already locked on and lunged.

Claire didn't bother drawing her weapon.

She snapped a kick straight into the chest of the lead one, some thing that used to wear a suit, and sent it stumbling back hard.

In the gap she'd bought, she wrenched open the rear door and shoved Sherry inside.

The back seat had two big travel bags piled on it. A small girl was curled in the corner, Lilly's daughter, Meghan. She stared at Sherry, her eyes going round.

Claire climbed in and hauled the door shut behind her.

Tara hit the driver's seat and had the key in the ignition before she was even sitting down.

The van shot forward.

Two Walkers that had crawled onto the hood got launched. A smear of filthy slime slapped across the windshield. Tara cranked the wipers, scraped the reeking muck away, hauled the wheel hard, and punched out of the block.

The minivan tore through dead streets and left the herd behind.

When she was sure they were clear, Tara pulled into an open lot and cut the engine. Good sightlines in every direction, anything coming would show itself early.

She pulled out the keys and let her breath out slow.

The air in the van finally unclenched.

Sherry gripped Claire's hand tight. Meghan reached beside her, grabbed a few crackers, and held them out. Kids always cut straight through the awkwardness that adults tripped over.

Lilly turned around from the front seat.

Her eyes were still doing that thing, measuring, weighing.

In a world like this, letting a stranger into your vehicle was the kind of mistake that got you killed. The only reason she'd stopped at all was because of what she'd seen back at the station: Claire throwing herself into the fire without a second's hesitation, all for a kid she didn't even know.

Still. Old habits.

"Where are you two headed?" Lilly kept her eyes on Claire.

Claire dragged her fingers through her tangled reddish-brown ponytail.

She'd already clocked the wariness. She didn't dance around it.

"My name is Claire. I'm looking for my brother."

"He's a cop. When the outbreak hit, I found somewhere safe to hide. He said he had duties — keeping order, urgent work — so he never came for me. Just told me he'd find me when things settled down."

"We stayed in contact for a while. But it's been a long time since I heard anything. So I came looking."

Lilly's brow creased.

Searching for someone who'd gone quiet.

In a world where people died every single day, that was a fool's errand. A needle in a haystack the size of the apocalypse.

"You're not exactly traveling light." Tara nodded at Sherry.

Claire looked down at her.

Her thoughts were a mess.

She'd been so locked in on getting the girl out that she hadn't spared a single second on what happened next.

Travel with a child in tow?

That was a death sentence. Forget finding her brother, if they hit a herd, the two of them couldn't outrun it. Claire could. But she couldn't outrun it and carry Sherry at the same time.

And just leave her on the side of the road?

Not a chance. Not something she was physically capable of doing.

"I don't have a choice." Claire spread her hands. "I can't leave her with that maniac. I can't dump her on the street for those things. So."

Lilly looked at her, really looked, at that young, stubborn face, and found exactly what she expected.

No give in it at all.

"We were holed up in an apartment before this." Tara's voice dropped a notch. "Our dad had severe asthma. Oxygen tanks, medication, the whole thing, there was no moving him. We couldn't go anywhere. We just stayed and held on."

Lilly turned her head toward the window.

"A few days ago," Tara said, "Dad didn't make it."

Silence sat in the van for a few seconds.

Claire had nothing useful to say. Death was too ordinary now. Every condolence turned to ash before it left your mouth.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

Tara pulled up one corner of her mouth and shook her head.

"Nothing to be sorry about. Maybe it was a relief for him. At least he's not spending every day terrified about where the next meal's coming from." A beat. "For us too, honestly."

"After he passed, Lilly and I talked it over. We can't keep dragging Meghan through this." She glanced at the two girls in the rearview mirror. "Traveling with a kid out here is just too hard."

"So we're heading somewhere. Somewhere to join up with."

Claire looked up.

"Join up with what? Every shelter out there is a trap right now. And the military, the second those people have guns, there's nothing they won't do."

"It's not military." Lilly turned back around. Something in her expression had shifted. Flat serious now, no hedging in it. "It's privately built. I've seen it. High walls, solid construction, armed patrols running perimeter." She paused. "And there's order."

Order.

Before the outbreak that word had meant nothing. Bureaucracy. Traffic laws. Now it was just another word for not dying.

Order meant the rules actually applied to everyone. It meant, at minimum, that you wouldn't get thrown outside as live bait.

Claire raised an eyebrow. "And you're sure? Not just another cannibal camp flying a sanctuary flag to lure people in as slaves or stock?"

She'd seen those. More than once on the road. The whole operation run by the captain back at that station was a working example.

Most survivors you met out here were smiling liars.

"I'm sure." No hesitation in Lilly's voice. "We've met the person running it. He has a line he won't cross." She paused. "I screwed up before, made trouble for him. I was certain he was going to throw me straight to the Walkers."

"He didn't. He handed me a load of food and water instead." She patted the seatback. "What you're looking at right now."

Claire glanced at the supplies.

Real, quality goods. Every single one of them.

In a time when food was worth more than gold, a person who could give this much away without blinking was either a complete idiot or someone powerful enough that it genuinely didn't matter to them.

"Sounds like a decent place." Claire nodded slowly.

She looked down at Sherry, taking small careful bites of a cracker, still a little glassy from everything that had happened.

This kid had just been through something terrible. If there was somewhere safe she could actually rest, somewhere solid, with walls between her and everything outside,

That would be the best possible thing.

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