[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZMOcn8wjIQ]Click for appropriate music.[/url]

A brief murmur slipped out from between the lips of the sleeping giant sprawled out across the narrow mattress, thin cracks of the early dawn light managing to slip through the blinds which were draped over the windows of the compact trailer, though this didn’t seem to stir the occupant whatsoever. Yet the sudden yells of a child’s voice somewhere outside did, causing Coltrane to jolt out of his sleep with an added curse, his fingers having already found their way to the grip of the Glock 17 which he kept at his side every night. Thin beads of sweat running down the rugged features of his face, despite the cold, he wiped his palm against his face and took the opportunity to quickly peer back out through the window, spotting a group of children engaged in some kind of imaginary game that only they would’ve understood. “C’mon, Trane, pull yourself together..” Coltrane lethargically muttered to himself as he climbed out of bed, shuffling over to where his cargo pants leather jacket had been draped over the counter the previous night and sluggishly slipping back into them. He’d been living in the trailer for just over a week and a half and yet it still felt strangely alien to him, but then again the whole of Chico did. He still found it difficult to settle into such a peaceful, ‘safe’ locale as he had, and it wasn’t easy to break out of the habit of being alert on a 24/7 basis, even during sleep, so it wasn’t the first time he’d been jolted awake by the sound of a few kids playing outside or a hammer nailing in some new bodywork on one of the neighbouring trailers. Not that he was complaining about his living conditions - he’d certainly seen worse down in Southern Cali, and he had no intention of going back to that if he had anything of a say in the matter.

Sure, it was a fairly small living space but he’d never needed much. At the back was a narrow mattress which doubly served as a seat and a place to put his head down when he needed, and there were a few cupboards, drawers and other storage compartments where he could put his few belongings, including his beloved CD and mix tapes which he’d been able to retrieve from the old Chevy before he’d passed it on to Daryl’s friend, Wess, for scrap after it turned out that the car wouldn’t have lasted for more than another mile or two, if that. On the counter was an old 90’s ghettoblaster - a new addition to Coltrane’s few prized possessions - which had the capacity to play both CD’s and tapes, surprisingly enough, though the damned thing required new batteries all the time which were fairly costly by themselves, so he limited himself to only a few tracks per day. The only things that the trailer seemed to be missing were central heating and a running water supply from the tiny kitchen unit at the front - though wrapping up in his cargo jacket suited him fine enough for the time being and the availability of a public water pump just outside made it a non-issue.

Zipping up his jacket, Coltrane leaned towards a third of whiskey resting on the nearby kitchen top and wrapped his fingers around the neck of the bottle, bringing it to his lips to take a good, long swig as he savoured the strong but invigorating taste. Outside it was a luxury he was seldom afforded, but behind the thick, sturdy walls of Chico it felt like a commodity almost as available as a warm bed to sleep on. “Man..” He muttered to himself for a moment, before realising that he’d best leave the bottle alone until he’d got back from work - in the short time he’d spent in Chico, he’d managed to find himself a simple job for the time being working on one of the maintenance crews - something in his field that he’d certainly had experience with in the past. The work wasn’t glamorous, but the pay was stable enough that he could get by and afford himself a few extra little things to appreciate after the day’s work - and so he didn’t want to get that all screwed up by turning up half-drunk, so with a brief snort he pressed his palms into his knees to stand up and headed out the door, locking it behind him with a set of keys he guarded just as closely as he did the Impala’s.

It took him about a half hour of walking through crowded suburban streets, a genera of prefabricated housing and carefully arranged mobile homes and trailers dotted across the area, with little allotments and market stalls in between from time to time. Kids were playing soccer, basketball and pretty much any other sport or game they could that took them back to a time when Coltrane himself was a kid, and for just a moment he imagined himself walking through his old neighbourhood in South Central - the morning sun overlooking the street, his best friend Ty stood by his porch with his favourite basketball under one arm and a ‘borrowed’ bottle of malt liquor in the other hand, no doubt with plans to get up to the kind of mischief that most young boys who fooled around with booze would. Good times, he thought. Back before everything had gone as bad as it did, and Coltrane had screwed everything up - at least, that was what he thought about it. The sight of a familiar face in the distance eventually snapped him out of it, a forty-something year old man with a bushy black beard and a ponytail which made him look like the stereotypical biker, sunglasses, leather jacket and all.

“Bruce.” He threw the man a nod as he drew closer, noticing that he was leaning against the bed of a worse-for-wear looking Ford F-350 super duty towtruck. With a gravelly voice, he addressed Coltrane with a fairly casual tone that indicated the two somewhat knew each other and were on friendly terms “Ey’ man, I see you’re up here earlier than most.” Bruce remarked, pointing out the fact that the others weren’t yet here. “Eh, I figured it’d make a better impression if I didn’t turn up late on my first few weeks, know what I’m sayin’?” Coltrane responded as he climbed into the truck bed, propping his knee up against the side of the crane whilst he sat himself against the side. “How’ve you been?” He asked, rubbing a hand down the side of the crane. “Y’know, same old, same old. Neighbours were getting their asses soaked in booze last night, but then again it’s no surprise with all the shit that’s been going on lately.” Bruce shrugged indifferently, glancing back up to Coltrane. “Like what?” was his response, only for Bruce to stare at him with a ‘Really?’ expression before eventually summing it up. “Huh, you ain’t heard? Rumours been going all around the place about them finding some sorta fuckin’ cure, I mean would you fuckin’ believe it? A cure, after all this time? Shit, man...” Coltrane’s eyes widened at the words. “You serious?” he asked again, still a little unsure on whether or not Bruce was pulling his leg. “Course I’m fuckin’ serious, man. There was a big scene the other day, soldiers and shit like that - you can’t be tellin’ me that they’d try and pull a scene like that just for some bullshit.”

“Holy shit..” Coltrane muttered to himself, a little lost for words at this point. Thinking back to the bottle he’d left in the trailer, he wondered whether or not he should’ve really left it there. Left to his train of thought, Coltrane pondered over the implications of what he’d just learned as they waited for the others to turn up. A cure? Sure, it could’ve just been some rumours but he knew Bruce fairly well enough to know that he wouldn’t bullshit something like that, and by the sounds of it the involvement of Chico’s militia indicated this was the real deal. Maybe it would give them a shot at rebuilding the world altogether, and completely ridding the outside world of the dead which had come to know it as home. Eventually the other three turned up, though their faces were only vaguely familiar and he’d seen them at most maybe once or twice before on his past few shifts. With Bruce loaded up in the driver’s seat and the other two loaded up in the cab, Coltrane was the only one riding in the back, though this gave him even more time to dwell on his thoughts as they set off for their first port of call. Damn, he really wanted that bottle just about now...