[b]Buck Bradley – On the road – Farren North[/b]

Buck knew he had made the right decision.

As painful as it could be to care about and lose people, the thought of abandoning this girl and her son was even harder. His stout heart broke when she quietly pleaded with him not to steal her bag. [i]What kind of people has she run into out here?[/i] He carefully hoisted the bag onto his shoulder. “Don’t worry darlin’,” he whispered, careful not to wake the boy. “I ain’t the stealin’ kind.” He smiled gently at the girl, Farren, as she took the hammer from the bag. “Good idea.”

Buck was not that surprised to hear the boy, Dean, was her son. The tender care with which she handled him spoke volumes. Buck knew firsthand how hard this new world was on children. The ones in his former camp had become so desensitized to everything, had to grow up so fast. It wasn’t fair. Kids like Dean were going to have a totally different childhood than any other generation. He pushed those thoughts aside as the two started walking together. He turned the conversation to their common destination. “Yeah as near as I can figure it if there’s someplace with power up ahead there is a good chance that there’s food there. We’ll have to be careful, of course. Noise and light will draw any of those walkers in the area. And if there are people there-”

He was cut off as the two walkers emerged from behind them. One male and one female. The male was a big one – almost as big as Buck. His eyes met Farren’s as his face went grim. Slowly, not wanting to draw any more attention he set the bag down on the ground and gripped his 2x4 like a baseball bat. “Stay here,” he said in a low, controlled voice. “Protect the boy.” 
 
The female walker approached first, she was a bit faster than her male counterpart. Buck was by no means an expert at dispatching these things – not like some of the military types who had populated his old group. But he had picked up a few tricks along the way. He brought the 2x4 low and then with great force smashed the butt end of the board up into the creature’s jaw. The blow lifted the walker clean off its feet and to the ground. As it sat up Buck brought the 2x4 whistling down onto the top of its skull. Both board and head exploded in a geyser of gore and splinters.

Buck took a step back, shocked. He looked down at his trusty 2x4. He now held less than a foot of its original length in his hands. [i]It’s just a piece of wood,[/i] he told himself. Still, that piece of wood had gotten him out of many jams since he’d picked it up on night one of this whole debacle. He shook his head in silent disbelief. 

He didn’t have long to lament, however. A raspy growl alerted him to the fact that the larger walker was closing in on Farren and Dean. Buck dropped the piece of board he still held. He roared in frustration, anger burning inside of him. [b]“NO!” he bellowed. “You’re not taking them too!”[/b] He launched himself at the monster. As it turned towards him he executed a flawless double leg takedown, landing squarely on top of the creature. He rained down punches in the general head and upper torso area of the walker, but it continued to thrash and turn underneath of him. Eventually it succeeded in flipping Buck over and pounced on top of him. Buck barely had enough time to drive his forearm up across the creature’s throat. Still, it pressed down on him, so heavy. Its jaws snapped closer to his face every second. Reaching around blindly with his free hand Buck found the piece of broken board he had dropped earlier. Grabbing it, he brought it up and tried to wedge it between the walker’s snapping teeth. It bought him a few precious seconds, but he was in a bad spot.