The truck rattled south along a road that hadn't seen real traffic in months, weeds pushing up through the cracked asphalt, and Michael watched it pass without really seeing it, his mind somewhere further down the line than the road itself.
A better future. That was what he'd told Rick and anyone who asked why he kept pushing to go to Florida when there was nothing waiting for them down there but the dead. It wasn't entirely a lie. If there was really an established base out there, he'd gladly take the chance, and have the camp move there without a second thought.
It's because he knows he'd eventually leave them again, and without him, there's still a small chance that the group might spiral back towards their original path with him gone for long periods of time.
But that is one of the only reasons why he was going.
When he heard what Rick and the others encountered when they drove further south, he was already brewing a plan to go there before the events of Woodbury. The small marina they encountered also further determined his desire to go. Though he was more interested with that sea of walkers that Rick and the others saw that stretched for miles with no end. Numbers like that meant something to him that they couldn't mean to anyone else. Every walker down there was one step closer to something he hadn't told a single person in Hope 101 about, not even Andrea.
With that number, reaching the number I need to purchase the serum would not be impossible. Michael thought. Purchasing the serum had always been one of his goals. Though it was delayed due to his new responsibilities with the group.
"You've been quiet," Rosita said from the back seat.
Michael glanced back at her. "Just thinking."
"About?"
"Plans and what we might encounter down there." Not entirely a lie either.
Jack, who was driving, didn't look over, but there was a faint note of amusement in his voice when he spoke. "Man's been thinking about the plan since we left the gate. Give him a minute and he'll share when he's ready."
"Or never," Michonne said quietly from the seat across Rosita, not looking away from the window.
It was the first thing she'd said in almost an hour, and it landed with enough dry weight that even Jack cracked a small smile.
"She's entirely not wrong since you have a habit of only keeping us in the loop at the last minute" Rosita said, arms crossed.
Michael let it go without answering, and for a while the truck rolled on in silence. Four people who barely knew each other, thrown together by necessity, slowly figuring out the shape of one another one mile at a time.
The first stop came a little before noon, a cluster of ten walkers shuffled aimlessly down the road ahead of them and blocking the road. Hearing the noise coming from the car behind them, the walkers slowly turned their heads around before slowly turning their bodies and moving towards them.
They could also just run them over, but doing that would damage the car and possibly total it. Making their trip already hard before it properly even begins.
"Alright. Time to work." Jack said, already easing the truck to a stop.
"I'll help." Michonne said, climbing out before he'd even finished the sentence.
"Guess it's just the two of us." Jack didn't look bothered when he noticed Michael and Michonne not getting down. He just shrugged his shoulders and moved ahead to meet the walkers with Rosita three steps behind him. He pulled out his pistol and took down the first walker with a single shot to its head. He quickly turned to the second before the first one finished falling.
Bang! Bang!
Rosita quickly followed up behind him and skillfully shot the walkers in concert with Jack. Those kills were made as close as possible to the walkers from a distance they are comfortable with since not everyone is a skilled shot and have a streak of headshots.
"You could have helped," She said to Michonne while walking back to the car, who was leaning against the truck with her arms crossed.
"You had it handled." Michonne smirked and jumped back inside.
"You're getting the hang of it with those headshots," Michael remarked as Jack and Rosita got back inside the car.
"It was a waste of bullets though." She replied as she made herself comfortable on her seat while wiping the sweat off her face.
"We won't make any improvements if all we do is save bullets. Moving targets is still the best way to practice your shooting." Michael argued.
They stopped again two hours later to have lunch along the shoulder of the road. Jack ate a sandwich as he kept watch while the others ate their lunch in comfort. They ate their food in silence and Rosita wondered if it was really necessary to make a stop just to have lunch.
"Was this really necessary? We could have just eaten this while on the road."
"Yes, because we might not have the luxury to eat like this when we're nearing our destination." Michael answered and finished his food entirely after.
"How so? We barely encountered any walkers on the road and not even a sign of people." Rosita said while looking at him and took a bite of her food after.
"Do you remember when I told you the story of when Andrea and I encountered a mutant walker?"
"Yeah – No way, that's where we are headed?"
Michael lightly nodded his head. "Uh huh. We were making a lot of noise during that encounter. So there's a high chance it might have attracted some attention to the area. So it's either there's now more walkers in the area, or curious survivors near the location at that time now occupying the place."
"I'd choose walkers all day. Dealing with people is complicated. You don't know when they'll try to kill you for what you have." Jack remarked from the side while listening to them.
"Walkers don't lie to you, at least," Michael said.
"Not until they start eating you." Rosita muttered, but she was smiling when she said it.
They packed up not long after, back on the road with the sun climbing higher, and for the first time since they left that morning, the air around them didn't feel like four strangers anymore. It felt like something closer to a group that had already survived one thing together, even if that one thing was just ten walkers and a bad joke about people.
By midafternoon, the trees started thinning out. The air carried something different with it now, salty, though faint, a sign they aren't that far off from the coast.
"We're getting close," Jack said.
Michael nodded, he could already spot some familiar sights when they came here before.
"Get ready. This is where it starts." He said as they rode past the warehouse they had looted before. Despite nature taking over, Michael still saw some signs of the aftermath they had left behind during his fight with the mutant hiding here.
Despite the initial worry they had, the town where Andrea and Michael had encountered their first mutant walker was still the same, devoid of life. There were a number of walkers wandering the area, but it's not a number they can't avoid. Leaving the town behind them, the marina slowly came into view a short while later, exactly where Michael remembered it, varying types of boats bobbing gently against the water.
Rosita let out a low whistle. "You weren't kidding."
'I don't remember there being a lot of boats here.' Michael thought with a frown as he climbed out of the truck first, scanning the dock for movement. Nothing stirred except the water itself, lapping soft against the hulls.
'I remember that there wasn't a police boat among the ones here.' Michael was suspicious as he scanned the area with the scope of his rifle.
"What's wrong?"
Jack came up beside him a moment later, eyes moving methodically across the dock, the boats, the tree line behind them. Seeing that Michael is not responding. "Michonne, with me."
Michonne looked at Michael for a moment before quietly following after Jack with a pistol.
"What's wrong?" Sensing the tension in the air, Rosita cautiously asked while hands gripping tight around her weapon. She cautiously looked around while bringing her body close to the hood of the car.
Though seeing nothing amiss around, Michael remained cautious as he slowly turned his eyes to Rosita. "I was just being cautious since there wasn't a police boat here when we came here."
"There's people around here then." She said in a grim tone.
"Yeah. Come on, let's go check the other direction." Michael quickly moved towards the opposite direction from where Jack and Michonne were.
Rosita nodded and followed behind him.
They made a thorough sweep of the surroundings to prevent them from getting ambushed while they were on a boat. They'd be sitting ducks if they're careless with their approach here.