25

The journey is smooth. To pass the time, Carl tells the story of how he got stuck in the barn.

"I was checking out the farmhouse and I found a storm cellar. I thought, maybe I'd hit a good spot and find a moonlight still. Right? That would be something. It was locked tight. So I broke the door and guessed what's inside? A whole mess of zombies. Must have been a family. Locked themselves inside to keep the zombies away. Not that it helped. There must have been an infected in there already, just infiltrating I ran up to the second floor. Stupid, right? You never go up in that situation. But I went up and ran straight to the master bedroom. I tried to lock the door, but when that failed, I jumped out My leg was torn off. I ran all the way to the barn, thinking about hiding there. Guess what? There's two zombies there! I had to shoot them. I'm not as good a shooter as someone like Javier. I lost a ton of bullets. Anyway, the zombie family d he must have heard the shots and found me. I went up to the loft, kicked the ladder, and you know the rest. "

You look out over the countryside, drowning in views of farms and trees, the falling day sun and the shadow of the moon appearing in the black and blue sky. You immerse yourself in the air, the thick scent of pine and oak, the warm, fragrant taste of nature. A song plays in your mind,

"I'm going home.

And home is where I'm staying.

I've barely been there before.

But I call it home anyway. "