Episode 31: A Stroll Through Town

“Honey, why did Joe Hill just melt in front of us?” Jack asked quietly.
“Jack, I can honestly say that I have no idea,” Sally said, staring at the place where he had disappeared.
“Fuck,” Jennifer whistled.
“Shit,” Marty concurred.
“Why didn’t the explosion kill him?” Waldo asked. Mina whimpered in response. Todd glanced at her, and she hid her face.
“Was it some sort of biological weapon he was using?” Todd asked.
“Who was that?” Elli asked.
“He blew himself up to save us all,” Sylvie said, half through real tears and half through crocodile tears.
“Joe...” Sally whispered. “Who were you...?”
Mina whimpered again.
“Mom...” Dawn said to Sally, noticing how scared Mina was. “We should go.”
“Yes,” Sally said softly. “Yes we should.”
“We can try to figure Joe out another time,” Jennifer said, somehow making it very pointed at Sally. Sally gave her a horrible look, and seemed to be about to burst, but she turned.
“Mina, lead the way to your house.” Mina whimpered once again, but then she began walking North. Everyone followed in a cluster, which only nearly didn’t have Mina actually inside its boundaries. She sniffled quite a bit as they walked. For the first ten minutes, everyone did nearly nothing except walk and look out for zombies. There didn’t seem to be any around. They began to relax a little after those ten minutes. It wasn’t exactly relaxing, though. It was more changing the focus. Everyone refocused their energies elsewhere.
Jennifer refocused her energies on what she was going to do about Todd. She had really screwed things up there. For both of them. Because she was feeling things that she hadn’t felt in so very long... She was scared. She was scared that it would all happen again. She had to be clear with him now. Before she made things unchangeable.
“Todd...” She began.
“Wait,” he said quietly.
“Wait?”
“You don’t want to say this in front of Sally. She dislikes you enough already. You don’t need to make her hate you even more.”
“Todd, no, I really have to...”
He smiled into her eyes. “I want to wait. Until we’re alone.”
She looked down at him gently. “Todd...”
He grinned. “It’s weird; you’re taller than me, you’re looking down at me, but I feel like we’re... At each others’ levels.”
She stared at him in astonishment. What the hell did he know? Who was he? He couldn’t be... No, there’s no way he could have been... Him.
“Okay. We’ll wait.”
“Thank you,” He smiled some more. “Besides, I think that Sally really wants to talk to you...” Sally had slowed down to be almost walking at Jennifer’s side. Todd caught Jennifer’s eye once more before moving off and winked.
As Todd walked away, he smiled inwardly. He had never been able to wink. He had tried and tried, and that had been the first time he had ever managed it. He scanned the group briefly; Jennifer and Sally were walking together. They weren’t actually walking together, it seemed, just side by side in the same apparent direction. Elli was propped up between Waldo and Sylvie, who seemed to be talking to him in hushed tones. Jack, Marty, and Dawn seemed to be having an everyday inane conversation. And there, at the front of the group, not with anyone in particular, and vaguely twitching every few seconds, was Mina. Todd suddenly felt very cruel. Mina was scared, terrified, and no one was even walking with her. He decided to overcome the guilt by walking with her.
“Mina,” he said gently. “What’s wrong?”
She looked at him through her teary eyes. “What do you mean?” she asked unconvincingly. “I’m... I’m fine.”
“You always were a bad liar,” He smiled. She snorted.
“I wasn’t always a bad liar.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means nothing.”
“Okay. So I’ve barely known you for a year. But you’ve been a bad liar that whole time.” She smiled weakly at that.
“Todd, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“There’s a lot I don’t know about you, that’s true. There’s a lot I don’t know about Dawn and Jennifer, either.” Mina’s eyes filled with their strange sort of shock that they sometimes did. “I was right, wasn’t I? You and Jennifer and Dawn... And Joe? What happened to you?”
Mina bit her lip. “Nothing. I don’t know Jennifer. I’d never seen Joe in my life. I swear...”
“Okay. Mina, whatever happened, it’s okay. And I’m here for you.”
“Yeah. That helps...”
“Do you want me to walk with you?”
“Actually, yeah. I’m... Lonely.”

Dawn cast a quick glance in Mina’s direction. Todd had his hand on her shoulder. Dawn cast her eyes down. The deja vu and presque vu was back, and with it a small wave of despair. What the hell was happening? She stopped participating in the conversation she was having with her father and sister about whiskey. Both Marty and her father were pro-whiskey, yet the two of them managed to be arguing about it. Dawn knew that they were insane. And she knew that at one point she had been older than Marty. She was sure of it... She touched her head gingerly with her right hand.

Sylvie had also looked up at Todd comforting Mina. She sneered lightly. She was used to both of them paying attention to her, not each other. And especially not that Jennifer. Todd was smitten with her and Mina was terrified of her. Neither of them had even really looked at Sylvie since right before Joe had sacrificed himself. She became concerned. Perhaps she was mattering less...? Well, Elli and Waldo were still with her. She didn’t think that Waldo would ever stop paying attention to her. Well, except for right now, but she was alright with that.
Since their energies had been refocused, they had been carrying Elli and trying to comfort him on the loss of his family and community. Not only had he lost them, but he felt that he had led them to their doom by taking them down those tunnels. He was in awful shape. Emotionally, that is. Physically, he could have walked just fine. But Waldo and Sylvie knew that he couldn’t do it on his own. He would be liable to just stop.
“I killed them,” he whispered.
“No you didn’t,” Waldo said matter-of-factly.
“Yes I did! If I had just stayed... If I hadn’t wanted to go down those tunnels...”
“Elli, it’s not your fault,” Sylvie said in a voice that was at once comforting and chipper.
“Okay, think of it this way,” Waldo said. “You and your family made a sacrifice. If you had stayed there, there would have been too many of you. Supplies would have run out. Your entire community would have died.”
“No... We always stocked enough supplies for the whole neighborhood. We... They would have survived.”
After Sylvie saw Todd comforting Mina, she decided that the best course of action would be to kiss Elli on the cheek. So she did and said “It’ll be okay.” To her shock, Elli slipped loose of her assistance and slapped her.
“I just lost my entire family and you’re trying to seduce me? I need comfort. I don’t need you.” Elli carried the half of himself that Sylvie had been carrying. Sylvie stopped walking and touched her cheek. Tears began to well up in her eyes, making them look almost doe-like. She swallowed her tears and ran to catch up with the group. She stayed away from Elli. It left her walking alone.
“Sorry about that,” Elli said quietly to Waldo after a minute.
“Sorry about what?” Waldo asked mostly sincerely. Elli smiled softly.
“Thanks.”
Waldo smiled his smile that made him look vaguely like he was in pain. It was his sincere smile.

“What was your name?” Sally commanded of Jennifer as soon as Todd had left her.
“I’m Jennifer,” she said distractedly. She was watching Todd approach Mina. Slowly it dawned on her that Mina could tell him all about her before she got the chance. It would make things all fall apart if someone else told him... If she told him, at least she was honest. If Mina told him, she would have a horrible secret past that she kept from even him.
“Well, Jennifer, you have to stop trying to take control of this group. I am the one with military training. I am the one who knows what to do.”
“Sally, you don’t know squat.”
“What?!”
“You don’t know squat. You don’t know what happened to Joe. You don’t know what happened to Mina. You don’t know what happened to the world. You still don’t even know what happened to your own daughter.”
“What the hell are you talking about? I know tho...”
“No, you don’t. You still don’t know why it happened. What caused Dawn’s little problem? What made the last ten years so hard? What made tonight fall apart? And do you know why you don’t know anything? Because you joined the wrong side.”
Sally was speechless. She glared at Jennifer, who was still watching Todd and Mina. And suddenly, she recognized her.
“You’re... Oh my god. You goddamned bitch. You let this happen. You let all the happen, you goddamned , evil, bitch.”
“No. I didn’t let this happen. I tried to stop it. Even back then, I tried to stop it. But I couldn’t. So I chose to find out about it. And I know.”
“Listen, you little monster, I want you to stay the hell away from my daughter. As far away as you can go. I would kill you right now, but I owe Todd too much to do that to him. But remember: I’m letting you stay for him. Not for you. So if you want to live, you will stay the hell away from my daughter.”
“I guess you don’t get to know what happened, then,” Jennifer smiled sardonically. Sally glowered at her and, after a moment, returned to her family. Jennifer’s grin faded as her mind returned to the problem of Mina.
They walked for another twenty five minutes or so. It was about three-thirty when they reached Mina’s house. And they had done it without any external incident. Only two felt any better about the night: Mina and Elli. Marty, Jack, and Todd didn’t feel much different overall, except for the bizarre Joe incident. Waldo, Sylvie, Jennifer, Sally, and Dawn all were feeling worse with every passing second.

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