So, a while back I put forward four story ideas and asked you guys to vote which Fic you'd like to see. They were out of Protect and Serve, a crossover between TWD TV show and video game, A Place To Call Home where Clem and a group of survivors attempts to make a safe settlement to survive in, an unnamed story, a prequel to the original version of this story, and one called Georgie, about a dog…named Georgie.
But these were all pretty evenly voted, so, combined with the fact that I wanted to rewrite my story Baby Girl, I took all the ideas and this re-write and tried to merge them into one. Obviously, some of the original ideas will be more apparent than others, but this way whichever you voted for, it will be in this story some way or another.
So, enough of me, let's get into this. I hope you enjoy this fleshed out and more story-driven re-write of Baby Girl.
"Alright, we all clear?" Pete said, before looking over his shoulder. "Rebecca, Alvin and Sarah, you go and wait for us by the exit, Reggie should be waiting to break us out of here, make sure he hasn't backed out. Me and Nick, we're getting the weapons from the armory, Luke you're grabbing the food, water, whatever you can nab from the supply. Carlos is getting the meds as we speak, he'll be meeting us at the back gate too."
"Alright, we know what to do, let's move it, everyone. Remember, stay quick, stay quiet and don't draw attention to yourself." Luke said, grabbing a nearby black and blue backpack and holding it by his side.
"Good luck, we'll be out before you know it," Alvin said, putting his arm around his wife's shoulder and splitting up from the group, Sarah keeping close to their side.
Luke nodded at Pete, before moving away from the group as well. He jogged quickly down the dark halls of Howe's Hardware, almost breaking into a sprint. He looked around him every other second, the paranoia of being caught was eating away at him, but he had to stay strong. Before he knew it he was in front of the stockpile of food and water the settlement had.
He dropped his bag next to him and grabbed several bottles of water and cans of food, shoving them into the bag without a second thought.
"Ho-ly shit…" A smug, yet surprised voice chuckled behind him.
Luke's eyes widened as his body tensed up. He slowly turned around, raising his hands above his head. Standing facing Luke was Troy, one of the settlements guards, aiming a hunting rifle at him. "Hey, Troy…now, look let's not do anythin' stupid, alright?" Luke said.
"Stupid? You mean stupid like stealing from Carver? What you breakin' out? Heh…that's good, that's real good." He cackled, in his raspy smoker's voice.
"C'mon now, Troy…this place is falling apart, everyone knows that. You can come with us-
"Us…? There are more of you, huh? I ain't gon' do that, I'll tell you what I'll do, I'm gon' take you and your friends up to Carver, and we'll beat the shit out of ya'll. How's that-
Troy cut himself off with a loud grunt as he fell to the floor. Luke's eyes followed him as he toppled to the ground with a thud, as a boot smacked down on his face, knocking him out cold.
Luke followed the body of the boot to see Pete standing with a grimace, as he slammed a heavy duffle back on the ground next to him. "Didn't manage to grab much, almost got caught." He said, grabbing Troy's rifle and handing it to Nick, who was keeping watch for more guards as the two spoke. "I got these, though."
Pete passed Luke a small handgun before reaching back into the duffel. Luke checked the ammo and safety of the gun before slipping it into the back of his pants. Pete then picked up a machete which was tucked into a sheath. He passed it over to Luke with a nod, before zipping up the bag.
Luke smirked and wrapped the sheath around his back. "Alright, let's get moving, I've got enough food to last us the first few days we're out there," Luke explained, grabbing the backpack.
"C'mon, before that asshole comes to," Nick said, patting Luke's shoulder supportively as the three ran down the halls to the exit.
The three stopped at the double doors which lead to the shipping/receiving bay, to freedom. "This place seem a little empty to you?" Nick questioned.
"Yeah, I don't like it…" Pete said. "Be careful getting out of here, and stick to each other. Like glue, say it."
"Like glue." Nick and Luke said in unison before Pete backed through the doors. The shipping room was completely empty apart from Carlos, Sarah, Alvin and Rebecca, as well as their friend Reggie who was on guard duty that shift.
The group all gathered in a circle, keeping close together. "Alright, ya'll ready?" Luke asked. "Remember, this needs to be quick, once we're out of here and into that forest we're good, at least for now. And keep together, if you get split up from the group, find the old restaurant outside of town, that's just east of here, and wait there."
"Let's move before he finds out something's wrong," Reggie said.
"Reggie's right let's get going," Rebecca said, walking quickly over to the wall-sized steel shutters at the end of the room.
"Reggie! Where the hell are you?!" Reggie's radio yelled. It was Carver.
"C'mon, quickly," Luke said, running over to the shutters, grabbing the bottom of it and attempting to lift it up.
"Reggie! Get your ass up here! It's happen-
The radio cut off as a storm of gunfire could be heard from the roof above them.
The group all gathered together to get the shutter open. They all ran through one by one, stopping just outside the gate, in complete disbelief.
"Fuck me…" Nick gasped.
An army of the walkers were emerging from the forest, one-by-one limping towards Howe's Hardware, with nothing to stop them aside from Carver and a few of the guards on the roof shooting at them, aimlessly, attempting to hold them off for as long as they could.
"What…what do we do?" Sarah squeaked.
"Everyone listening, get up here! Now! Someone's bailing, I want them up-
Reggie turned off the radio which was clipped to his belt and looked at the group. "It's the lurkers or Bill…" He sighed.
"At least with the Lurkers we have a chance," Pete said. The undead were inching closer, the majority of them were out of the forest and moving towards the group at an increasingly fast pace. "We ain't got long before they're too close. Follow me and stick close, good luck everyone."
Pete gave one last look at the group before gesturing to move with a tilt of his head. He began to run diagonally to the herd, attempting to move around them.
The group were managing to keep pace, as Pete led them around the herd, until the gunshots began to fire again. Bullets whistled through the air around the group, one of them landing directly through Reggie's back. He fell to the floor, letting out screams of pain.
"Reggie!" Rebecca cried, jumping back slightly as he fell to the ground.
"What do we do?" Alvin asked, panicking, his voice almost drowned out by the surrounding chaos.
"We need to keep going!" Nick said.
"What?! No, we can't leave him!" Rebecca protested.
Luke looked at his surroundings in utter shock, the lurkers had begun to notice the group and were starting to move towards them, whilst the guards on the roof kept taking pot-shots at them. "Guys! We need to keep moving!" He yelled.
"We can't just leave him for the lurkers!" Sarah sobbed.
"We need to, honey." Carlos sighed, taking his daughter's hand.
"We can't!" Rebecca argued. "He can't become one of them, we've got to take him with us; we can fix him up!"
"I didn't get enough medical supplies as it is, Rebecca, we need to get out of here!" Carlos said.
Luke looked down at Reggie as he groaned and gasped in pain, there was a growing pool of blood seeping into the dirt below him…he wasn't making it. Luke grunted in frustration, taking the pistol from his pants and landing a bullet in Reggie's head.
The group looked over to Luke in shock, before the man could respond he looked over to the herd, they were dangerously close to the group, within grabbing distance of some of the members. "Run!" Luke ordered, sprinting off into a random direction.
The rest of the group did the same, splitting up in all the chaos.
Luke kept sprinting into the forest, south of Howe's. He ran until he knew he was away from the herd, the adrenalin being the only thing keeping him on his feet. He looked behind him until the only thing in sight was a misty forest of evergreens, the occasional walker limping around several feet from Luke.
Luke fell forward onto his hands and knees, vomiting onto the ground below him. He didn't know what caused it, whether it was the thought of mercy-killing one of his friends, from running for what felt like an hour or from the chaos of the entire situation. He huffed, taking exhausted deep breaths, pushing his back up on a nearby tree trunk.
He had no idea what to do next. He was completely lost in the forest, and the rendezvous point was on the other side of the walkers.
Luke brushed his hands through his hair and sighed, finally getting his breath back. He looked around the forest, not knowing where north east or west was. He sighed, choosing a direction and sticking to it, hoping for the best.
So that was the first chapter! Tell me what you think of it so far.
The next chapter will be up very soon!