ZRP-2 Chapter 6: Scattered

(James)
"She'll be fine. If I know her, she and Sam are okay, better than we are."
=I smiled at her=

"And we're doing good so far."
=Guiding her to the back, I found an exit into an alley and led us out=

Eve went outside, moving carefully.
"I should have been more careful on the boat..." she muttered.

Hibiki sped up. "Let's hope some cars have gas left."

(Sam)
"Are you telling me this thing is almost out of gas?"

(James)
=We had to move quickly, or risk getting surrounded. Moving east through the town, it didn't take long before we neared a line of trees, the edge of town itself=
"Okay, we just need to get through there, and we should be okay."

"No. I'm telling you keep an eye out, alright? Full tank."
Hibiki smiled a bit.

Eve nodded. "Ok..."

(James)
=We ran some more, though I was tempted to pick her up and carry her. But we reached the trees soon, running through the dense cover before ending up in a field. It was clear=
"Okay....okay, now we need to get to Owensboro. That's where everyone else should be meeting up."

Eve stumbled a bit, whimpering.
"I miss the boat."

(James)
"Same here. But we've gotta move."
=Running through the open area, we got farther and farther away from the town=

Eve stumbled again.
Whe looked a bit pale.

(James)
=Stopping,  turned and picked her up in my arms=
"Come on, we're not dying today Eve. Not today."

=And then I ran with her in my arms=

Eve went a bit limp, her head resting against James' shoulder.
"I hate running..."

(James)
"That's why I'm carrying you Eve. So you don't have to run. I'll run for the both of us."

Eve nodded.
"Ok..."

(James)
=And so we ran into the field, and m legs burned as they pumped out beneath me and my arms burned as they carried Eve. And that was in addition to everything I carried=

Hibiki sped up.
"So." She shouted over the wind. "You and Eve finally moving forward?"

(Sam)
"Didn't we have this conversation earlier?"

(James)
=I stopped, finally giving out. Falling to the ground, I tumbled into the grass with Eve in my arms=
"I'm sorry....I'm sorry, I need to rest."

=Lifting her off and setting her down, I sat on the grass and wheezed, catching my breath. It was clear around us, no walkers anywhere. We were safe, for the moment=

Eve laid in the grass, holding her shoulder.

"Yeah. Going through it again." Hibiki said.

(Sam)
"Now doesn't seem like a good time."

(James)
=We sat there for a while, though I wasn't sure how long. But. Hard a noise behind me, and I turned around, gun drawn. And what I saw shocked me, and almost made me believe in god again. Out of the trees, now grazing on the grass......was a horse. It was brown, with a black mane, and a saddle. A foot was hanging from the foot strap of the saddle, and I figured out what happened to the previous rider=
"Hey....hey boy. Look at you."

=Standing up and leaving Eve on the ground, I slowly approached the horse, arms outstretched and voice calm, not wanting to spook him=

"I could start panicing." Hibik retorted.

Eve watched calmly, now merrly sniffling a bit.

(James)
=Slowly, the horse came closer, noticing me. It raised its head, making a chuffing noise. It's snout went to my hand, sniffing it, starting to get comfortable around me. Smiling, I still spoke in a calming tone, now petting the side of its jaw=
"Eve....Eve, come here. Say hello."

(Sam)
"Alright.......yeah, we're moving forward. Though not fast. We're pacing ourselves."

Standing slowly, Eve walked over carefully, hand outstretched towards the horse.

(James)
=It smelled her hand for a few seconds before lowering its snout into her touch. Smiling, and confident she had its attention, I moved to the saddle, and got the foot out. Whoever used to own this boy, the walkers must have grabbed him, maybe tore his leg off. It wasn't that surprising to see the horse was alright. Walkers, for reasons known only to them, never attacked animals. I had been in situations where a deer and I were in the same spot, and the walker went for me instead=
"He looks okay Eve, healthy, strong...... We can probably ride him."

"Can we name him Callus?"
Eve sas smiling happily as she let the horse nuzzle her hand.

(James)
"I don't know. Lets make it his choice. What do you think man? Callus work?"
=The horse flicked its ears, and I was unsure if that was a yes or a no=

"What about.....Nomad?"

"I prefer Callus." Eve persisted.

(James)
"We'll you got too name your cat Sammy. I should get to name the horse."
=At this, the horse turned his head and it almost looked like he was looking at me, his ears going up=

"Either Callus.....or we go with the classic, Hidalgo?"

"No."
Eve looked sad. "I don't have Sammy anymore."

(James)
=Now I just felt guilty about bringing the cat up=
"Uh, why don't we discuss this later? When we're safe somewhere else?"

Nodding, Eve stood back a bit so James had room to get up.

(James)
"Ladies first. Come on, I'll help you get up."
=I held my hand out to her and helped her climb up. The horse didn't mind that much=

Nodding, Eve accepted the help up, scooting back.
"Where are we going to go?"

(James)
"Owensboro."
=I climbed up into the saddle and sat in front of her, grabbing the reigns=

"Should be along the river, to the east. We'll get there pretty fast with our boy here helping us, but we should take it easy."
=Granted, I only had a few camping experiences where I had actually ridden a horse, but I knew the general concept. Holding the reigns, I turned the horses head to the left, to which he turned his body. Then I gently kicked him in the legs, and he broke into a nice little trot=

Eve hung onto James' waist, staying quiet.

(James)
"You gotta admit, this must be nice. Riding a horse and all."

"Yeah..." she rested her head on James' back, whimpering again. "Sam had our asprin..."

(James)
=I winced a little=
"Try not to focus on it."

Eve nodded, pressing against James' back.
Her whimpers died to occasional ones, and Eve fell silent.

(James)
=As we rode on, I spotted a few walkers moving about. Some of the. Spotted us and tried to give chase, but I spurred on Nomad (yeah, I named him that anyway) and we left them in our dust. We'd have to stop by a river soon, so he could get a drink and some rest=
"You doing okay Eve?"

Nodding, Eve looked at the water.
"Thirsty..."

(James)
"I think I still have some water in my pack. Give it a look."

Digging out the canteen, Eve took a drink and replaced it.
"Thank you."

(James)
"No problem."
=I directed Nomad towards the river, where he stopped by the bank to lower his head and take a drink=

"We should probably continue along the river until we reach the town."

Eve leaned into James' back.
"I'm sorry for...not thinking, back at the bar..."

(James)
"Nah it's fine. You were bleeding and in pain, that's enough to make anyone lose focus."
=When Nomad was done taking a drink, we started moving again, keeping close to the river=

Eve nodded.
"I...I should have been more careful though..."

(James)
=I sighed=
"Well, at the very least now you know next time to be more careful."

=Spurring Nomad again, we picked up the pace, and broke into a modest gallop=

Eve held on, whimpering at ever noticable jolt.

=Meanwhile, Marcus and his group continued down the road, oblivious to current events. Book sat back down, tired and still recovering=

(James)
"You want me to slow down?"

"Please..." Eve said.

(James)
=Pulling back on the reigns, I slowed down Nomad=
"This is going to take a while then, to get where we need to go."

"I could cry all the way there instead." Eve said somewhat harshly.