When The World Caves In |C.G.

Fort Benning is where we're heading next. Going to try and see if there's any survivors left. It's a real long way away, and I personally don't think it's all that worth it. No one is gonna listen to me though. Well, maybe daddy will. 

Daddy had to leave his truck behind. I'm gonna miss it, I grew up in that truck, crammed in between Uncle Merle and Daddy. Merle would be chain smoking and  rambling on and on about something; using weird euphemisms for things that I didn't understand and Daddy'd tell him to shut the hell up cause I was in the middle of them and didn't know what anything Merle was talking bout. 

I'm crammed into a car with Carl, it's a real tight squeeze but, we make it work. I watch out the window as daddy passes the RV on Merle's motorcycle 

"I was just thinking about our trip to the Grand Canyon with Carl." Lori starts talking to her husband, breaking the silence. Rick starts laughing loudly as he recalls it too. 

"I don't remember that." Carl speaks up from beside me, he's looking at his parents now. 

"No, you wouldn't,"  His mama tells him. "You were just a baby. We never made is past Fort Worth." 

"No, you got sick." Rick tells his son. "I never knew a baby could throw up so much." 

"Ick." Carl says making a face, and I make one too. Babies are gross. 

"Yeah, ick." Lori laughs, then continues with what's left of the story. "But, the doctor in Texas said you'd live and we turned around and drove home."

"That sucks." Carl says with a frown. I think of the vacations I took as a kid, they all include camping in Georgia. 

"No, it was a good trip." Lori says, she's right there but her voice sounds far away. Like she's stuck inside her own mind. 

"The best." Rick says, agreeing with his wife who sits in the passenger seat. 

"Can we go see it?" The Grand Canyon?" Carl asks his parents and I perk up a little bit at the thought. "I'd like too." 

"I would too." Sophia agrees, I keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself. "Can we go?" 

"We'd never go without you or your mom," Rick says. He turns his body to look at all of us crammed into the back seat. "That's a promise, you too Rory." 

"Thank you, that'd be real nice." I reply, looking back out onto the highway. I've been watching my daddy this entire time, making sure he's alright. He's real brave, riding that motorcycle all by himself. 

The line of vehicle stops a half hour later, and daddy's turning around on his motor cycle to talk to Dale. From what I can tell, there's a bunch of cars all clumped up on the highway; and they're stretching on for a long while. The RV ain't gonna get through. Rick navigates himself to a stopping point behind Dale and we get out of the car. 

It's nice to stretch my legs and I get to talk to Daddy for a little bit. 

"I said it, didn't I? A thousand times." Dale's complaining. "Dead in the water." 

"Problem Dale?" Shane asks, approaching Dale.  

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" He pauses and takes a look around. Daddy's already digging through abandoned cars, searching for anything valuable. 

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..." Shane states looking around. I suppose this kind of is the best possible scenario for the RV. Something should be able to fix it. 

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-dog says walking around the cars a bit. He's already getting to work as the others think of more things to find.