Dog didn't doubt everything would go wrong if they tried to plan things out thoroughly again... Charlie had told him during nights spent together about her first attempt. They planned well the last time and saw it fail in a matter of minutes. He saw an opportunity and took it on a whim as quickly as the idea came to him, fueled by her desperation and the troubling recount of her growing run-ins with the men in his group...
He made sure that his comrades were distracted while they slipped away, and he timed it well so they wouldn't come looking in the darkness with the clusters of dead still milling around the area, gathering along the coastline and wandering the surrounding forests. It was now or never... she would have a hell of a head start. If she got far enough, they wouldn't even bother to follow her, having their own worries and turbulence among each other now.
The brothers had been fighting more by the day about whether to stay or to go. There was a deeper division between them than there had ever been before, a kind of splintering he had never seen... the pressing issue to come to an agreement on what fate lay ahead for their group would be more important than recovering a boy who clearly didn't want to be found.
"Won't they notice you're gone?" Charlotte whispered to him as they neared the vehicle, the gravel crunching beneath their boots. She tried not to look over her shoulder more than necessary, and stood at the side of the door as Dog dropped the backpacks he toted into the bed of the pickup with a rough thud, drawing a few choice items from his own bag. The Prius was gone, likely returned to the parking garage... It was a shame. He had hoped to snag the rations and water Charlie had packed into the trunk when she tried to make her first escape.
A pair of wire strippers and a screwdriver, as well as a rather hefty black flashlight, were dug from his back before he pulled the handle of the rusted, creaky door and dropped into the driver seat, craning his head down. He fumbled for a moment with the screws before ripping the panel the rest of the way off the damn near ancient Ford, passing the flashlight to Charlie.
"I figure they'd have been after us by now... you'll get into trouble if they catch up." Charlie's fearful whisper was met with a soft smile, and Dog glanced at her through the mess of dark hair falling haphazardly before his eyes. He nudged a set of fingers beneath her chin to perk her head up and gestured for her to take the light for him and help out. The quicker he got this done, the sooner Charlie could breathe a little easier.
Messing with wires wasn't his expertise. In fact, he'd done this shit a handful of times, and only that. Most car batteries didn't have enough life left in them to be worth the trouble. Slash had shown him a year or so ago in the event that he was ever in a bind and needed a sure and quick way out of a bad situation. It was really only possible now with old pieces of garbage, like this pick-up, and it wasn't exactly a quick process.
"Thank you... for helping me," She blamed her inability to be quiet on her nervousness, the sounds of crunching leaves, and the snarling, wheezing dead stumbling about nearby most unsettling. She didn't want to rush Dog, or draw any more attention to them out here than need be, especially with the dead still heavily numbering the area.
He worked for perhaps thirty minutes or so before taking in a deep, frustrated breath. He brushed his hair from his eyes with slender digits, and tried the next bundle of wires, having turned on half the lights and the static-laden radio. The wire colors were different from the first car he hotwired, but sure enough, as he stripped back the protective coating and began to carefully twist a set together, he watched the dash illuminate and the headlights flicker on, quickly dimming them with a smile.
"Did you get it?" Charlie piped up hopefully and tried not to lean too entirely into the vehicle so as to not crowd him. She saw sparks begin to flicker as he teased the live wires together and heard the engine grumble several times before finally roaring on. He pressed his foot into the gas pedal to rev the engine and force the power to flow, quickly twisting the wires together and carefully sliding the panel at least somewhat back into place. Now was the hard part. The steering wheel was locked, as any car's wheel would without the keys in the ignition. He gestured for Charlie to get in.
"...Aren't you going back?"
Dog's expression was unreadable in the dark. He had yet to decide if he was going to return, playing a million and one scenarios in his mind. He'd never contemplated abandoning the group before, the thought alone seemed almost impossible... but... he had also never had a reason to want to. Danny never had any other purpose than to remain loyally at the side of the brothers, to show his gratitude for the way they'd taken him in, protected him... brought him back to the world of the living. It did not sit easily on his conscience to leave them so suddenly. He gritted his teeth, and grasped the steering wheel hard, jerking it to the left, and then the right.
"They're getting closer!" The woman at his side urged fearfully, barely able to keep her eyes on the shuffling monsters in the dark. Dog grasped the wheel and yanked it roughly to the right, trying to break the lock.
"Danny..."
It had yet to budge, causing him to slam a hand into the steering wheel in frustration, and reach for the screwdriver. "
WATCH OUT!
"
Without warning, one of the nearing corpses lunged against the driver's door, slamming it closed and fighting viciously to make its way through the partially rolled down window. It snapped its rotted jaw ferociously several times, snarling as it attempted to clamp a mouthful of any part of the slim male in the driver's seat it could get its teeth around, and Charlie fumbled for the gun as he struggled to avoid its snapping jaws.
She blinked, and nearly missed it. With certain precision Dog drove the screwdriver through the grotesque, mangled eye socket of the violent corpse, causing it to cease all movement and slump down against the side of the car before sliding down into a lifeless pool. They both could've done without the stench of the rotter.
"There's more!
A lot more are coming...
we should run—before we get stuck inside—"
He grasped the handle to crank the window up, but after only a few turns the damn thing snapped clean off. Dog jammed the screwdriver into the ignition, still dripping blackened, stagnant fluid that had once been blood, and popped the metal seal off. He grinned wide, feeling the resistance in the steering wheel release immediately at long last, and without a second thought, he put the car into gear and the old pickup lurched down the gravel path.
The herd of twenty or so corpses tried their damnedest to keep up, shuffling along after the glowing red tail lights with snarls and groans. The two disappeared quickly down the gravel road, making their way swiftly to the main road.
Charlie turned her head, peering back through the old, dirty window of the pickup. She eased her way closer to Dog after a moment, realizing that not only had the crowd of the dead been left behind, but no headlights were trailing after them, either. She turned to look ahead, down the long, empty, pitch-black road. Above, it seemed thousands of stars glimmered in the inky black sky, strangely beautiful in the chill early winter night. A cushioning of thick, dark gray clouds was building rapidly overhead. The storms swept in from the sea were far more frequent these days.
He fiddled with the heat and was pleased it kicked on without needing further attention. At least something worked in the damned relic. Charlie's nerves were slowly subsiding. As she settled into the center seat near him, he dared to loop an arm around her waist and bring her closer. His boot pressed down a bit heavier on the gas, wanting to put as much distance between them and the resort as possible.
"...You're...
not...
going back... are you?" She was almost certain as she questioned him and afraid of herself to be hopeful.
Dog was sullen as he shook his head slowly, but definitely. He had made up his mind. He could have simply left her with the truck, and supplies... he'd have nothing to worry about walking ten, hell, even twenty miles back to his group, but... she needed him. Charlie needed him far more than the men in his group did. If he could get her to someplace safe then maybe he would double back, or find them on the way north up the coast... it wouldn't have been the first time he disappeared for some time. They swore they had lost Dog the full winter last year, only to stumble back across him in the ruins of New Orleans, as comfortable as ever. He told himself that once she was someplace safe, he'd make his way back to the brothers, and hold strong to his debt.
