"And we have apple trees. Personally, I can't stand the stuff, but we have a steady supply of applesauce in the fall."

Aaron looked back to gauge my reaction. His eyes focused on something above my shoulder and his expression changed. I turned to see what it was.

Sure enough, a couple ragged figures were moving through the trees and onto the road. Their disjointed, aimless shuffle gave them away immediately. Dead people.

"Come on," Aaron said in a low voice.

We caught up to Daryl, who held his crossbow at the ready. Together we hurried over a fallen tree and skirted around a burnt out tractor trailer, walking along the narrow shoulder.

We were almost in the clear when my sneaker caught on the uneven pavement and I tripped, falling hard on my hands and knees.

Aaron grabbed my hand and helped me up. Before I could assess my injuries, a skeletal corpse stumbled around a thick tree trunk and lurched towards me.

I bolted across the road, passing a mostly dust-free car that had to be Aaron's. I glanced over my shoulder once and saw Daryl and Aaron busy fighting more dead people.

Cold fingers grazed my shoulder, so I had no choice but to keep running, adrenaline pushing me even faster. I skidded down the gravel on the side of the road and ran into the woods.

Once inside the forest, I realized it wasn't much of a forest after all. It was a small wooded area with another highway on the other side. I turned and ran parallel to the road, zigzagging and dodging through the trees, hoping to lose my pursuer.

Eventually I had to slow down. I was dizzy and gasping for air.

A thick patch of brambles forced me to change course. A low branch forced me to duck. Each time I thought I'd put enough distance between us, something would slow me down again.

Suddenly I was in a tight spot. A tall sound barrier wall rose up on one side and everywhere I looked all I could see were tangled thorn bushes.

A cold, greasy hand clamped tight around my arm. I yelped and tried to pull free, but the dead man was too strong.

"Help!" I gasped, not at all sure if anyone could hear me.

With my free arm, I pushed my hand against its chest and locked my arm, fighting to keep my balance and keep the monster at an arm's length.

I cringed as I felt its rib cage start to bend. My palm sank into its chest as the rotten bones caved in on themselves. The snarling teeth were inches from my face.

THUNK!

I blinked. The point of an arrow protruded from the dead man's forehead.

With one last burst of defiance, I shoved it away from me. It collapsed into a heap of bones and gore. I breathed sweet relief into my lungs.

I looked up to see Daryl lowering his crossbow.

"Thank you!" I said breathlessly.

Daryl frowned. He let out a puff of breath, clearly irritated.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"You can't just run off like that," he said, gesturing with a wide sweep of his arm, "What were you thinking?"

I was at a loss for words. I hate being treated like I'm an idiot, even if I was in need of rescue not thirty seconds ago.

"Why the hell didn't you shoot it?!" Daryl demanded.

"With what?!" I retorted, becoming irritated myself.

To answer, he reached out and grabbed the pistol from where it was tucked in my waistband. I'd completely forgotten about it.

"It's empty! No bullets," I said, a little louder than I should have.

As I said it, Daryl already had the magazine free and could see for himself.

"There you are," Aaron had found us.

He glanced at Daryl, then me to make sure that we were unhurt, and then back over his shoulder to check for trouble.

"Let's go," Daryl grunted, pushing through the underbrush to lead the way.

I glared at his back for a few bitter seconds before remember that's he'd saved my life and the misunderstanding about the gun was mostly my fault anyway.

"Go ahead," Aaron held back a tree branch for me, purposefully taking up the rear.

We made it back to their vehicles without incident. I took the passenger seat while Aaron drove the beat-up old sedan. Daryl rode ahead of us on his motorcycle.

I stared out the window. We rode in silence, taking a series of back roads that I couldn't keep track of, occasionally passing by clusters of dead people here and there. Eventually we came to a long highway that cut through open farmland.

Aaron stuck his hand out the window to wave to Daryl and we slowed to a stop.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking at him directly for the first time since we started driving.

"Nothing. Just a pit stop," Aaron reassured me and I wanted to believe him but I was nervous.

I watched Aaron get out and talk to Daryl. Then they walked around to the back of the car. In the side mirror, I watched them open the trunk. Daryl handed something to Aaron, who pulled something else out of the trunk and then came around to my side of the car.

Aaron opened the passenger door and I looked up at him, squinting in the sun.

"Let me take a look at that," he said, gesturing at my bloody knees and holding up a first aid kit.

I turned in my seat and put my feet on the pavement.

"It's not as bad as it looks," I said, "I fell a few days ago. Must have reopened the scabs."

"We have a doctor back home. She'll be able to do a better job, but at least I can get you cleaned up a bit. Bandage it up. I'm afraid your pants are ruined, though," Aaron kept talking as he knelt on the ground and carefully wiped the blood off my knees.

He was rambling on like everything was fine, like nothing had happened.

"I'm sorry I ran off," I blurted out, and then my words kept coming, "I'm sorry I'm not a good fighter. But I'm good at other stuff. I can still help out. I can carry a heavy pack without complaining, I have great night vision so I'm really good at keeping watch at night, I can start a fire almost anywhere, and I..."

Aaron held up a hand to cut me off, "Nylah, hold on. It's okay, really. Don't feel bad about needing help. I'll tell you something a good friend of mine said once. We can make it together, but we can only make it together."

I sniffed and nodded. He really was as nice as he looked.

"And don't worry about Daryl. He can be a little..." Aaron frowned, searching for the right word, "gruff. But it's only because he cares."

Finally I cracked a smile. I really don't know what I would have done if I hadn't found him.

"Thank you," I said sincerely as Aaron finished up placing a bandage on my knee.

"No problem," Aaron smiled, standing up and dusting himself off.

"Here," he produced my gun, holding it out to me.

That must have been what Daryl handed him earlier.

"We had a few spare bullets. Now, you're going to be asked to hand it over when we get inside the walls, but we're still a few hours out," Aaron said.

"Thanks," I repeated, happy that I had his trust.

Dark clouds were gathering on the horizon so we packed up and hit the road again.

I have a theory. Luck is like a spinning coin. First something bad happens then something good will happen because your bad luck can't last forever. The good and bad keep spinning one after the other and each one keeps coming around again and again.

When you're out on the road, every other person you meet is good. So, if the last people I encountered were bad, then the next living person or group of people that I met would be good.

It's not a perfect theory, but it seems to be working today.

"Aaron, can I ask you something?" I ventured.

"Anything," he replied, taking his eyes off the road for a second to smile at me.

"You mentioned something about applesauce?" I questioned hopefully.

At Aaron's direction, I pulled his backpack out of the back seat and rummaged around until I found a jar of homemade applesauce. I ate my fill while Aaron talked about how things were in the early days, building the wall. He told me about finding Daryl's group and bringing them in.

As he talked, I realized that he'd never said exactly where we were going, but then I decided that I didn't care.

I'm leaving the past behind me. For the first time in a long time, I feel like the future can take me anywhere.