Sunfowers and Sunshine

And here they were. It hadn't even been two full calendar days since they'd hobbled up, low on food, supplies, and hope, to the guard tower concealing the group from Castillo. Strangers. That's what they'd been not 48 hours before. It seemed cyclical to the Harrises at this point. Alone. Not alone. And alone again. Sunrise, sunset. With Castillo, their reason for hoofing it to Florida had died. What was next? Jordan had repeatedly floated the idea of catching up to the group bound for D.C. but her brother opposed it. Or maybe he feared it. They'd gotten split up from their people before they made it into the ruined capital. By his tally, that might have been fortunate.

"Easy." Jason gently cautioned, helping their new associates as they assisted Stacy out of the truck. "You're gonna need to keep weight off of it for a little while. Few days. And elevate it." he instructed. He and his sister joined Parker in aiding Stacy over to what had been established as their medical area. Once they got her off her feet, Jordan and Jason, with Kate by their side, headed back over to the truck and spoke discretely.

"Look," Jordan began "I'm not saying we bail. Ride off for D.C. and pray the others are still on this side of the grass. But I think you need to be open to it." she spoke matter-of-factly to her brother. "We could stay. For now. See if this works. But Jason... how long? How long until it all comes crashing down again? Until shit breaks down and everyone's dead, and we're on our own all over again? How many times have we been through it? ... How many?" she emphasized to her brother.

"I get it. Alright? I do. And I understand." he replied. "For what it's worth, you're right. We've lost people. Over, and over, and over..." he paused a moment and exhaled, spiritually fatigued. "I'm not saying this has to be our forever. But for now? Shit. My kid has a bed. Some food. A ruck of meds... I can't just walk away from that. Not after everything. And these people... we could've skipped out any time. We kept our weapons. This could actually be something. If we let it." he expressed to his sister.

She understood. For the first time in what felt like forever, they'd found clear common ground on the next move. Jordan knew it was the right call. You could only make it so far alone. One look at the state of Sam out on the road was all you needed to get a sense of how things played out if you were on your own too long. For now, they were agreed. They would stay with their new group. If they were lucky they'd put down some roots with them. Stick around for the remainder. Find a place where Kate could grown up. At least for a while. And that was better than nothing, right?

Jordan and Kate helped unload the truck, while Jason grabbed a ruck bag of meds and headed back toward the medical area. But not before opening the passenger's side door and tossing the bag onto the seat. Making sure no one could see, he quietly slipped another Valium out of the bottle and into his mouth. Another fix wouldn't hurt would it? He pondered as a bead of sweat played down the back of his neck. Just one.

His sister couldn't know. Definitely not his daughter. He sighed a moment, took a bottle of Amoxicillin, as well as a jar of Silvadene and some gauze out of the ruck, and headed over to medical. Suspicion avoided.

"Hey," he gently addressed Stacy again as he entered the area where she was resting. "I'd like to redress that arm. We just wanna make sure it doesn't get infected." he explained. At that, he placed the jar of Silvadene and gauze wrap on a thin platform table and popped a couple of the Amoxicillin into his hand and offered them to Stacy. "Go ahead and take two of these. Just to get ahead of it." He then gently took hold and extended her arm, exposing the temporary bandaging they had put on to get her home.

He then addressed the man in the tent with him. "Sorry. Parker is it? Can you do me a favor and help balance her arm? It'll help relieve some pain if she's not fighitng gravity with it to keep it up and extended." he explained. And so with Parker's help, he set about redressing the wound. And great timing - his Valium had metabolized and starting to work at lightning speed. With the temporary dressing neatly removed, Jason handed it to Parker, who tossed it into a nearby bin. A little blood bubbled up and leaked out of the burn on her arm, which Parker and Jason dabbed clean. With Stacy's teeth clenched in anticipation of some pain, Jason applied a layer of Silvadene to the burned forearm.

"Hrmmmm!" Stacy seemed to grunt through forcibly pursed lips as the ointment spread across the wound. But it didn't last long, and soon enough a fresh dose of mediaction and wrapping had been applied. "I'll want to hit that again later. Stay on top of it. But it'll heal up. Just rest it as much as you can." he assured her.

With that, he stood up and took a few steps back in the direction of the truck and the tower, but not getting more than seven or eight feet from the cot where Stacy was resting. He looked out over where they'd come. Reflected on where they'd been. ...where they were going. He thought about his daughter. His sister. His late wife and brother. These new people. How things could go wrong, but also how they could go right. Staying with them was the right play. That was their next move. After all, they'd never find a better life if they didn't keep fighting for it, would they?