"I've got it.." Coltrane sullenly answered to Abbie’s despair as the kid grew closer, its contorted ankle dragging across the floor like a dead weight. Sympathetic to the girl's plight, Coltrane knew from experience that it was never easy the first couple of times. Given how small and fragile they were, it was usually a case of there not being anything left to come back once the dead had their fill, but sometimes you’d find a sad example of one that had been condemned to the unfortunate fate that the rest of the dead had found.

Abbie simply nodded, she felt if words broke through her lips then she would crack apart. Her eyes couldn’t leave the shambling boy even well after she had moved clear of the door frame. It wasn’t until Coltrane had moved past her and severed her line of sight did she shudder, the spell broken. Unable to watch she hastily shifted to the door’s side. Her body immediately felt like jello when it slammed against the wall, her back made a soft thump followed by a slight pain from the impact. Slowly her legs gave out forcing her to slide down as her arms wrapped about herself, hugging in feeble comfort. The whole time Abbie was fighting her impulse to throw up. The only thing she heard was the sickly wet sound of Coltrane’s mercy blow making her flinch, tears fueled by pain and guilt swelled in her eyes only to be forced back. 

Quickly and as cleanly as he could, Coltrane had made an end of it to put the boy out of his misery and a few minutes later he stepped out of the kid’s room a few minutes later with a body wrapped up in a blanket, a solemn expression worn across his face. From her lower position, Abbie’s head jerked up to see him shift out. She had curled up, her knees pressed against her forehead and made slight indentations, then watched Coltrane’s movement.

Heading back over towards the garden, the ex-con laid the kid's blanketed corpse across the overgrowth and figured it’d be best to give the kid and what could be assumed to be his family a dignified send-off. A few minutes later and he'd dragged the remaining two bodies back out; albeit he'd decided not to wrap either of the adults in blankets - Abbie could've tolerated that much at least, he hoped.

At first, he briefly considered digging a grave for the trio to rest in, but the idea of leaving the bodies to rot underground seemed just as bad as leaving them, and for the sake of Abbie's well being he figured cremation was the best bet. With any luck, the garage - the one place they’d not yet checked out - would have a little gas to start a pyre for the bodies whilst the overgrown, dried grass on the backyard would do the rest. 

Naturally Abbie had picked herself up and fell in beside him. Her eyes, slightly reddened now, avoided his unlike the first they met making it clear some things had changed. Over the months she had lived with them, Coltrane and the farmers, she no longer saw them as strangers but more like family. A family whose thoughts and image of her had the most importance, unlike strangers who she couldn’t give a shit less about. Her eyes lingered a moment longer then needed on the small, blanketed corpse. It wasn’t until the shuffle of Coltrane’s feet did she note that he was heading to the garage. 

Her hands once more wrapped about her compound bow, an arrow still rested loosely in place, to follow behind him. 

Crowbar at the ready, Coltrane was the first in as always - yet once inside, he found the garage to be clear of dead, yet he was a little surprised to find something else; a Grand Cherokee backed up against the wall in an almost pristine condition, frozen in time save for the massive amounts of dust which had accumulated across the windows. After a few seconds, Abbie’s figure appeared in the doorway while she stood there. Her back propped open the door with her side and head glanced back to Toby’s position, his form just now making it onto the porch. Naturally when Coltrane made a sound, Abbie’s eyebrow raised in question and interest overwhelmed her sober expression. 

 “Huh,” he muttered to himself, briefly pausing to tap on the glass just in case another one was lurking inside behind the screen of dust which barred observation. No dice, it seemed, so after a few he checked the handle to see if it was locked, and lo-and-behold it turned out that the SUV had been left unlocked by its owner. Flicking on the torch in his breast pocket, he quickly learned that the interior was in a similar condition to the exterior; almost untouched, save for a mass of accumulated dust particles.

Abbie chuckled, softly. She couldn’t help it, and it felt damn good to do it she had to admit. Her arms flipped her compound bow over her shoulder and let it rest there while she watched Coltrane examine the fair sized vehicle like a boy with a shiny new toy. 
He perked up at the thought that their little group might’ve found another car after such a long while on-foot, maybe even giving them a shot at getting out of Utah and heading north like he'd wanted, but he knew better than to get their hopes up. For one, they’d need to find the keys, wherever they were, and then make sure they had a filled tank of gas and a charged battery ready to get them moving, and that was assuming the best of conditions. 

As he examined the interior, she couldn’t stay by the door any longer. She darted her eyes around the floor and snapped onto a seemingly rusted tool box. As quietly as she could, Abbie shoved it with her foot to prop open the door while she walked up beside him. Bent slightly at the waist and crunched her eyes, she was trying to examine past his rather thick frame and into the SUV itself. Not easy considering he wasn’t exactly a petite built sort of guy she mused. Not aware at first until her eyes brushed over his backside, her thoughts had influenced her actions. Thankfully it was short lived. When Coltrane started to flip his light about she snapped out of it then averted her gaze quickly, her head shook the thought away. Innerly she had hoped he was too busy with the SUV to notice where her eyes had lingered.The last thing she wanted to do was make him uncomfortable, the thought tugged at her heart and urged her to ease the building tension that felt like it would snap her into pieces shortly. 

Naturally the first and likely worse words came pouring out of her lips. “Well, will she run?” 

Smooth, she scolded herself, really smooth. 

Fortunately for Abbie, he remained oblivious to the awkward nature of the situation, probably distracted by the fact they potentially had a working vehicle on their hands. "Might do. Lemme check something first, though.."

Circling around to the front of the SUV, he quickly popped the hood and shone his light over the engine and its companions, paying a particular focus to the battery. After a little while, he leaned inwards and sniffed; his brow definitely contorting at whatever it was he'd found. Averting his gaze over towards Abbie, he spoke up once more.

“Bad news is that the battery is probably close to dead, if it ain't already flat. Good news is... shit, just that. If we find the keys in the house, get a portable generator with some gas, jumper cables and a charger - we'd be able to get it running again. I figure this thing’s still got some gas in it and if we could scrounge up a little more from any other cars we find, that’d work."

Abbie watched Coltrane float to the SUV front then pop the hood, his head disappeared for several moments while he examined the interior. Idly her eyes shifted to the garage inside to note the lack of tools and even needed equipment that she remembered in her own father’s small workshop. She made a soft sigh only to snap back to Coltrane’s position after the hood snapped close. Abbie blinked, digesting the information, when her head nodded in understanding. “So we just need gas, jumper cables, the charger and...a portable generator.” 

She inhaled, her hand had already started to rub the back of her neck and she began to think. She could see some problems with this plan, namely gathering the supplies. “Won’t the generator be like sounding the dinner bell for every walking corpse around?” 

Abbie wasn’t an expert in the subject, naturally, because they rarely used them back in Eden. And the ones they did use were noisy as hell which usually made her very nervous. 

“We’re getting a working ride outta this so....” Coltrane answered, considering how this little snag in their plans could be met. Granted, it had the potential to become more than a little snag if more than just a few were drawn to the sound, but time on the road had taught him how to improvise. “Yeah. It’ll make a little noise, but we can work with that. Maybe if it’s too loud, we could create a distraction nearby, draw numbers away.”

“Alright. The way I see it, there’s only one fast way to do this: splitting up.” Abbie said, a slight groan came through as she started to shift about the SUV. Her sneakers scuffed across the hard, dirty pavement within the garage interior. 

“You and Toby both can keep an eye for the jumper cables and generator, while I can do the gas or some powerful alcohol, if I can find any, might would also work. That just leaves how to keep the undead distracted while you and Toby get the SUV’s battery charged…” Abbie continued soundly and pondered on the current problem. “I could gather a shitload of cans, string them together and fixed in a way that they can make a lot of noise. Any walker around here would be immediately drawn to it and if we muffle the generator’s sounds by keeping the door closed, stuff towels or something into any cracks then it should help.” 

She hadn’t realized her body continued to move and already edged herself closer to the door until she was shortly facing Toby, his lithe figure currently stood there waiting. He appeared to have only caught some of the plan as he flashed her an unsure smile and slowly prepared to back away to allow her through. Abbie paused just short of heading off. She tilted her head back, eyes fixed on Coltrane’s position with hesitation. In her head, she was unsure if her earlier suggestion was alright. She was fastest and most cautious of the group, small and light on her feet which made it easy to get into places others couldn’t while not having to be sure Toby or Coltrane could keep up. It won’t be too hard for her to get the gas, string up cans and more before she returned. 

Her hand reached out to brace herself against the door’s frame to take in his expression then, unless he stopped her, Abbie would’ve walked out. In this case, he didn't and so she headed toward the front door to see if she had to return to the fence or not.