1. Michael, Alone

Oh my god!

The air is burning in my lungs as I run through the thick scrub. My shirt, drenched with sweat, the material dark with blood and dirt, clung to my chest and back. Every breath was a loud gasp. I had been running at full tilt since leaving the fuel depleted sedan a few miles back. I didn't know if they were still behind me but they had been a few moments before, so I just kept moving. My limbs were like lead weights now and exhaustion made me stumble several times until I fell, burying my head in the earth. Dirt now coated my dark lank hair and crusted around my eyes. Quickly I pushed myself up and twisted my body to face back the way I had come, the pistol shook in my hand but it was ready for anything that was about to attack. Nothing! God damn it... I almost cried out clenching my bearded jaw and my filthy free hand. The Australian bush was quiet except for the gentle breeze teasing the gum and eucalyptus leaves, everything else was silent but the gushing of my breath through my teeth and flaring nostrils it sounded like a hurricane to my ears. The trail I had made in my hurry was clear and only after several minutes did I let myself go limp and drop back onto the ground behind me.

In those few moments some memories stirred, from when the 'outbreak' had began to when the news that this strange virus had been diagnosed in Washington and was closing down all the airports, I had been waiting to go home to Australia after a week spent with my parents. I paid little attention to such things since the chicken flu and SARS outbreaks in the past so I just turned my rental car around and went back to my parent's home to wait it all out. They lived in a prestigious part of the city since my mother was a retired American diplomat and my father a surgeon in the Memorial Hospital. I had no idea that these few weeks would see the end of every thing I had ever known and loved/

How the hell I escaped was amazing even to me, but to lay here and think about it was stupid. Despite my exhaustion, I hauled myself up and after taking a swig of precious water; I moved on and made my way out of this god-damn place. It was near dusk when I reached the road. As I stood under the cover of the trees, I could see both ways at the curved country road, littered by huge potholes and debris caused by months of neglect. When winter comes, I would be struggling to get through snow and ice to survive. The road was clear I begin to walk east toward the smaller townships and away from the danger behind. Light was failing and I was facing the night in the open.

It was a stroke of luck that I found a small car that had crashed into a tree many months ago. The carcass of the driver was lying across the bonnet, bone and rotted remains was all that was left of him. I ignored him and slipped into the back of the car where I found a dark dusty jacket which I put on as the air was beginning to cool down quickly now. There was some papers and rubbish in the front but nothing that I could salvage so I sunk back into the rear seat and spent the night cold but not exposed.

I dreamed, like I often did, of warm faces smiling at me. Loving arms and laughter, warm like a summer's day. Her face so close to mine whispering in the semi light of our bedroom here we let our hands touch intimately, lingering kisses led to that familiar tension my loins… I woke and stared into the darkness my chest was hurting with emotion. She was gone now, gone like my parents and my twin brother, this self pity was of no use to me and I had to make a conscious effort to shake it off. I was cold and hungry and this heart ache was so much worse and I was sick of it. But no matter how fed up I was, whilst I still wept for the losses, my urge to move on was stronger and I really didn't know why. Suicide had been in my mind most of those earlier days but now it was because of those that died that I was forcing myself to live.

The sun woke me; it was just peaking through the tree line and glaring into the car. The musty smell of the car filled my nostrils. I sat up and blinked against the morning light then slipped out of the car. The familiar sound from somewhere deep in the bush brought tension to my body. Quickly, grabbing my things I jogged along the road to put some distance between me and the herd that I had escaped the day before.

I think I first heard the bike from a distance but really paid no attention to it. The soft hum grew steadily loader eventually pierced my automated walking and thoughts forcing me to look back. Now I could see the bike making its way toward me and for a moment fear rose inside me but I had been alone for so long now that I had an urge to run and hide. Instead I waited.

He had scraggy dark brown hair that partly hid his narrow blue eyes. Skinny but with an air of strength, he got off the bike and had a pistol out, pointed at me before I could even think of mine. On his back he had a compound bow with several arrows ready for battle and on his bike he had a rifle with a wooden stock. I stared at him for a moment and he met my gaze unflinching.

"You alone?" he asked in a deep redneck drawl. His eyes moved, scanning the bushland looking for hidden accomplices. I nodded but said nothing. "You're armed!" he stated and I took out my gun from halter I wore and slowly put it down. The biker looked ready to strike if any false moves were made. It was now he began to relax a little. "Where you headed?" he stepped a bit closer and ran his eyes over every inch of me. I just shrugged. "Like us all I s'pose, any where! I'm Darryl." He stared at me waiting for an answer. Without a thought I stuck out my hand,

"Michael Hardy." He looked at it and I gave a bit of a laugh … it was a stupid gesture in these times. He smiled then and shook the hand.

"Pick up your gun, Hardy. Come on and join my group if you want to?" We got on his bike and he turned us back the way I had come.

"The creatures are this way." I said

"Most went into the trees so we should be ok." We sped off down the road and back toward the small town of Jamison. We didn't talk at all for most of the journey but halfway there Darryl stopped and waited. "Some others will join us further on." I was a bit nervous. Meeting one person was nerve racking but more was almost terrifying. He must have sensed my anxiety and turned his head toward me. "Its ok, there good guys too." We got off the bike and I drank some of my water. He had a bottle in the back pack that was tied up to the front of the bike. He had food too and gave me a tin of beans... Wow! That tasted so good.

"How long have you been alone?"

"A few weeks now, I think, time is so strange now." I answered between mouthfuls. "Once it was so important, now ... Who gives a fuck," glancing over at him with a wry smile I added: "right?" Darryl nodded staring at me and sipped at the water bottle in his hand whilst the other held a stale cigarette. "How long have you been with your group?"

"A Couple of months now, long enough to trust them." He added. We finished eating then got back on the bike. It wasn't long before we arrived and an encampment of sorts. It was a clearing with two cars and a campervan circling a low burning fire and some makeshift beds. I teenage boy and baby were the first things I saw. My eyes were drawn to them as they played in the dirt close to one of four armed adults. As I got off the bike I had all those guns pointed at me and it was then I realized that this group must have seen some terrible shit, and here, I was the intruder.

I knew he was the leader when he stepped forward and stared at me grimly. He had tussled fair hair, blue eyes and a short beard. His gaze was ice and he gritted his teeth audibly before glancing over at Darryl.

"Who is this?" He sounded pissed off and his body stiffened. "I wish you'd stop bringing in strangers."

"This guys ok... Hardy this is Rick Grimes." I nodded and just stared at him. He met my look unflinching. He was steel as he stood there looking at me. "He's OK Rick!" Darryl repeated. A woman came over with a bottle of water and threw it across to Darryl who caught it and then handed it to me. I thanked them both. "This is Maggie" Maggie was a pretty brunette, dressed in dark pants loose from weight loss a grey tank top and a loose shirt. I could see a pistol in the belt of her pants and her hands were on her hips. She smiled at me and behind her a young Asian man took her free hand and gently pulled her away.

"You look hungry and tired." Her voice was soft, welcoming. I just nodded. The Asian reached out and shook my hand.

"I'm Glenn. Come over to the fire and get some food." I followed like a sheep, feeling every eye on me, and I suspect Rick would have like to have had a gun on me too.

They fed me well despite not having much really to offer, and despite the grumblings of Rick. I was grateful for the warm Beans, dried biscuits and a nice apple. Even the stale coffee tasted good. But all this just made me tired, and evening was creeping in. I did manage to meet every one. The boy, Carl and the baby were Rick's kids. There was a toughened looking woman who watched me with distrust and that was Carroll. A ginger haired military type who sported a bike handle moustache, Abraham who stood beside a dark woman called Sasha and another dark woman who had a sword beside her was Michone. Sitting almost sheepish in manner close to the fire was a very tall man with a strange old fashion hair cut. He talked in a monotone sounding voice, he was Eugene. Apparently there were few others not at the camp they were out looking for supplies but I was so tired, exhausted really, that I slumped back against my back pack and with out knowing, fell asleep.

Maggie threw a blanket over me during the night, and Rick stood guard keeping the fire burning. I woke with his gaze still anchored on me. He then whispered: "Don't let us regret the decision to let you join us, because if you hurt anyone here, I will cut your throat and let the dead have you." I nodded

"I haven't got the strength to raise my hand let alone hurt you or your family, nor do I have the inclination" I remained relaxed and went back to sleep.

Lucy

I don't have the greatest memories of my past. I was kicked out of home when I was fifteen for smoking pot and having sex with a guy twice my age. That same guy that got me pregnant, luckily for him I was sixteen, but unlucky for me when I had a miscarriage in my third month and he left me without a backward glance. Was I scarred? Yes I dreamt about that baby for years afterwards and that man. But they were just a moment in my sordid youth, a part that filled me with pain and regret and one I tried to run away from in the relationships that followed.

When the virus hit I had been serving bar in a pub for a living. Twice divorced and currently screwing my boss, I was probably considered a tough chick with attitude to boot. No regulars in the bar caused me any problems and we often had some way ward drunks with dirty groping hands. Maybe my height and athletic look was enough to deter most people. And maybe it was my burley boss hovering in the kitchen where he made toasted sandwiches and chips for hungry guests. He was really my only problem. Ned seemed almost obsessed by me and would drag me into the confines of the pantry or the cellar and screw me against the wall, panting and heaving until he came. Thank god it was quick and I learned to tolerate his lust.

The virus hit him early. We shared a flat above the bar. Three rooms made up the flat. Bedroom come lounge-room, bathroom and a small kitchenette the décor was something out of a sci-fi with images of star wars, star trek, a half naked young Jane Fonda in her Barbarella outfit. Dimly lit and smelling of stale beer and pizza our menu of choice. Ned was once a NFL player, a fullback for two years with Miami Dolphins until he was busted with drugs and sacked on the spot. Since then he let himself go and by the time I met him, he weighed about 135kg and was running a cheap bar in the bad side of the city. I was desperate and hooked up with him rather quickly, penniless and homeless he took me the first time in the cellar on a keg and from there I got a place to live, a fat oversexed lover and a job that kept me in money I had paid little attention to the news about some virus that seemed to be proving fatal to many and causing others to act in strange ways. But then Ned developed a fever and didn't go down to the bar for work.

The next day he lay dead in our bed/ I was horrified. The bed was soaked with sweat and the odour of human excrement assaulted me. I let out a bit of a cry from shock more than anything and rushed downstairs to the bar, which was becoming increasingly quiet in the last week. One of the regulars, an aging alcoholic, went up stairs to check on Ned but soon rushed down yelling out about Ned going nuts. With utter terror I watched dead Ned appear at the top of the stairs, grey in colour, staring down at us with heavily bloodshot eyes. Everyone left in the bar yelled and bedlam broke out. Chairs were thrown to the floor, glasses smashed and people began to push and shove their way out of the pub. I was amongst them.

Where do you go when your home is no longer safe? I went to the local homeless shelter. It was nearly midday and strangely, the place was empty. It made my skin crawl but I went inside and looked around. Usually a local minister would be here but there was no one. Not game enough to stay, I grabbed a jacket that was laying on one of the fold up beds (I had only the clothes on my back) took a bottle of coke from a small fridge in the office and then found an unopened cherry ripe on the desk which I quickly pocketed. I was only in there for less than an hour but when I got outside it was as if I was in a ghost town. The streets were empty. I stood still for a moment then decided to go and get Ned's Truck. I had to get the hell out of here…

"Hay you!" It was a man I had seen occasionally at the bar. A tall man short dark hair and wearing a sheriff's uniform. Shane was rushing toward me with a very thin woman and a boy in tow.

"Oh my god, thank goodness it's you, Shane." He introduced me to Laurie and her son Carl then told me they needed a car to get the hell out of town. It seemed the right thing to do so I let them join me.

It was a beginning and that's how we ended up joining the small band of refugees that took shelter near the Quarry outside of Atlanta. There we rested and nearly had some kind of normal life, if you could call it that. I still lived in denial of what was happening around us as my only real contact with the 'un-dead' was with Ned, but the reality was our lives were forever changed and we would not come back from here.

The months we stayed by the quarry were monotonous. I think I drove everyone crazy because, I am not one to toe the line and do what Im told. I was not going do the cooking and cleaning beside the other women while the men sat around and cleaned guns in the eventuality of an attack. No way! So I asked Two rednecks to teach me all they knew. Darry and Merle Dixon.