Chapter 101: Fourth

The atmosphere gradually shifted from distrust to increasingly serious consideration as Chloe went on with her explanation.

Miles stared at the rough sketch in her book. The page was split in half by a long line, with around six to eight lines branching off from it. Crudely drawn icons marked different points on each branch. An arrow pointed to a blocky house on a short branch closest to the end of the line. A line of text was written next to it.

We are here.

’Does anyone even know how to draw?’

It had reached a point he had seriously started wondering if they’d been taught at all in elementary or middle school.

’Is it just a Nebraska thing?’

He would never claim to be the best artist or anything of the sort, but even his worst crow sketches were at least half decent.

"Why do I feel like you’re judging me?"

He felt Chloe’s burning gaze on him at that moment.

"Oh, me. No, I was just... properly visualizing the plan in my head."

Miles did his best not to meet her gaze, putting all his attention on the drawing, even as he still sensed it boring into his back.

"If you say so."

She turned to other matters, finally freeing him. Miles sighed a bit internally, his focus still lingering on the sketch, seriously considering it this time.

For what it was worth, her plan wasn’t all too complicated. Apparently, she’d lived in this town before the apocalypse, unlike Miles who’d arrived from a neighboring town. Her experience made it quite easy for her to map things out.

The school was located on the southern edge of town, putting it very close to the southbound exit of the road.

Their destination was Lincoln, which was located much further down that very road. Although it would’ve been theoretically easy to just step out of the school, get onto the road, and start heading down until they reached their destination, it wasn’t a realistic plan, not if they wanted to live.

Supplies were a necessity if they wanted to stand any chance, that, and not run crazy from eating beans for every meal.

Marked on the paper were two more icons, much closer to the city center. They were respectively labeled The hardware store and Benny’s.

The second was apparently a supermarket.

A line connected the school icon to both. It was her proposed path to get there. They were ripe with supplies, weapons, equipment, and most importantly, food.

There’d hardly be anyone else thinking of raiding such a location. Certainly not in conditions as bad as this. It would be their insurance if anything happened on the way to Lincoln.

Next the line followed back towards the school, touching it and moving to an icon at the very end of the line. Chloe had apparently given up with drawing at that point, and just wrote dealership.

There were at least three towns between Lincoln and their current location. Trying to trek that distance was as good as suicide. They needed a car.

With the car and supplies in tow, they’d finally be able to escape. Plus,

"I doubt we won’t encounter anything while getting the supplies. Taking down whatever attacks us then could net us some points, we can spend it all once we stop by the school again. That way everyone still gets to upgrade before leaving."

"Hmm..."

Ryan rubbed his forehead, eyes still lowered in consideration. He scanned the room slowly, before his eyes found their way back to Chloe.

"It isn’t a bad idea... but still, how can you be sure we won’t just find something worse out there. We’ve been struggling to reach the fence for the past few days, all to no avail. What guarantee-"

"She can’t give you any guarantees, Ryan. You know that."

Miles cut his train of doubts halfway. He couldn’t let the boy reason his way into staying any longer. Perhaps it was selfish, cruel to push them for his own desires. He couldn’t bring himself to care. Not with Henry and Anna on the line.

Ryan sighed, but said nothing, so Miles pushed even further.

"It’s always been about risk. We took a risk when we left the gym to get here, we took a risk when we chose to remain in that room instead of following Mr. Freeman. Playing it safe won’t get us anywhere, not when things are actively getting worse."

"Fine."

Ryan threw his hands up lightly in defeat, before rubbing his face.

"We’ll head out tomorrow. Let’s just hope those things aren’t there this time around."

"It’ll be alright."

"Yeah."

Mia patted his back, but she’d said nothing to defend his caution back then. Even she didn’t seem against the idea of leaving.

’Beans probably played a large part of that decision.’

It was just a gut feeling.

Mia clapped her hands.

"Alright, then. Who knows how to drive?"

The room fell silent. Then slowly two hands were raised.

Grimm and Ryan.

’Grimm?’

He’d expected Ryan, but of all people, Grimm?

Mia snorted, her gleeful gaze landing on Brandon’s lowered hand. The boy avoided her stare, choosing to pretend she didn’t exist. It was perhaps the only proper response to such obvious bait.

She pouted at the lack of reaction before turning to Grimm. She didn’t seem too surprised at the fact Ryan could drive.

"You can drive?"

"I drive my dad’s old Chevy sometimes."

He didn’t seem willing to explain any further past that. Mia tilted her head a little at that, but just nodded on, not pushing any further.

"I’m willing to trek if he’s the one driving."

Naturally, Brandon saw it as the perfect chance to stir the pot. Grimm responded with a glare at first, but stopped halfway, smiling lightly instead.

"What are you smiling for?"

The boy ignored Brandon and just continued smiling.

"Y-"

Chloe cleared her throat again, drawing their attention back to her.

"There are still a lot of details we need to iron out before going any further."

"Wait."

She turned to face Grimm.

"Is anything wrong?"

"There’s something I need to do on Fourth Street. It’s not too far off from the hardware store."

The mention of Fourth Street jogged Miles’s memory. An image flashed through his mind. A shaky, bloodied finger, desperately scribbling words on the ground.

"I also have something to do on Fourth Street."