"Sorry, but I really am lost."
"Yeah. I'm struggling to put my thoughts into words here, so I'm probably being really confusing. I'm guessing that after this that you'll want to get back into some research topic. You'll probably trap another walker or even a whole bunch of them and start doing some mind-opening series of experiments on them. It's just that right now I don't want my mind opened. I just want to run away for a moment."
"Can I ask why?"
Josh's face softened. "Thanks for trying to understand. I've seen a lot so you'd think that I've toughened up my mind, but what I saw in that camp did me in." Josh's expression hardened. "Fuck. I saw a baby being eaten. A fucking baby! What use is a dead baby?"
Dave stood still and quietly observed Josh.
"That wasn't all that I saw," said Josh. "I've seen all sorts of horrors recently, and somehow I managed to deal with them. Today my mind just reached it's limit. I'm not saying that I never want to see you again. The exact opposite. I think what you're doing is amazing and I want to be a part of it. It's that just right now my mind isn't in a place where I can help you at one hundred percent. I doubt I could even do anything above zero percent."
"So what do you want to do?"
"This will sound whack, but I'd like to take a holiday. I know that a trip to a sunny, deserted island is unrealistic. I'd just like to go to a place where I can just take it easy. You know those people on top of that shopping centre that you helped? That seems like a great place to hang out for a bit and I'm sure that they'll all be really interested in what you have been up to."
Dave nodded. "I'm cool with that. I'll probably rest as well. Sadly, I'm painfully aware that I'm missing a lot of skills. I might just look for a library and hunker down for a cram session."
"Just to be clear. I don't hate you or anything. I'm just a bit overwhelmed. I need some head time."
"I get it. I really do. We're friends, and that means I'm not your master. If you want to do something of your own then I'm cool with that. Try and be safe. That's all that I ask."
"Got it. Which raises the question of how should we meet up again latter. I doubt I can call you on phone."
"And if I do go on a study binge I don't know where that will be located. I'm not too sure where the nearest, biggish library is."
"Well, you know where I'll be."
"And I'll focus myself around our current camp on the supermarket. If I go anywhere I'll leave a note on your bed."
"I can work with that."
Subdued, the pair turned and finished walking over the bridge. In a few minutes they had reached the intersection and were standing in front of the supermarket that they had camped on.
"It's been a long day," said Dave. "Incredibly, there's still a few hours of daylight, but would you want to stay the night?"
Josh shook his head. "If I sleep on it I might convince myself to stay. But I need this time off. I'll just grab my bike and go."
"You'll not even going to take your sleeping bag and some food?"
"I know that it seems rude, but I don't mean it that way at all. I really just need to get moving and now. I think a part of me just needs the exercise to help my mind heal."
Dave nodded. "Be safe."
Josh shook hands with Dave. "And you too."
And with this goodbye Josh ran forward and entered the shopping centre where he collected his bicycle, before lugging it over the various improvised defences around the intersection. Josh didn't even look back as he started pedalling east along the road while Dave watched from a respectable distance.
* * *
A few days had passed since Josh had left, and Dave was still adjusting to being alone. In order to fight off a sense of loneliness, Dave had decided to go to the river and fill some jerry cans with water. He was standing on the bridge that crossed over the river and was relaxing while looking at the view. The trolley with the empty jerry cans had been left standing near the path that led down to the river.
Dave was taking a moment to rest up and take in the scenery. It was also a chance for him to have a look around. After the fall of the big camp that Dave had visited, there had been at first a large number of walkers about the area, but the numbers quickly dropped as the living avoided contact with the walkers. In a few days the walkers had nothing to hold their interest and had left the area. Or at least that's what Dave hoped.
He hadn't yet returned to the camp on the football oval and no one had visited from there, so Dave could only guess that he was seeing the same thinning out of the numbers of the dead as what was being seen over at the camp. And that is to say that they should be seeing nothing. However, their camp had been completely trashed by the walkers so Dave understood a lack of visitors on the grounds that the people at the camp were probably struggling with putting their lives together.
Although Dave was really curious to give them a visit, he was too worried that if he turned up that he would be too distracting. People who were working on putting their lives together would have to stop what they are doing in order to talk to him and, after what
