"Boy…somethin' I ain't seen in a long time," Dean said as he gazed out over the afternoon scene of the high school. "Didn't ya say ya used ta go here?" Rylee asked, turning to him and squinting her eyes because of the bright sunset. Dean nodded. "Yep. Dropped out ma junior year." He held onto his rifle tightly as he hopped off the hood of the car they were standing on. Rylee followed and Dean took in one more moment of the sight. "This place was always a shithole," he mumbled to himself. She quietly laughed. "And why's that?" They both started walking toward the school. "Drug dealers, dumb rednecks, and a whole lot o' whores," Dean answered, still moving forward and keeping his eyes straight ahead as Rylee followed closely behind. "You don't have much room ta be talking about dumb rednecks," she replied with an amused tone. "You're a bit o' a country hick yourself."
Most people couldn't tell by physical looks, but Dean could be considered a redneck, being born and raised in the south but Rylee was too. Although, she wasn't as southern as he was. He can hunt and he's good at it. He rides around on a four-wheeler, and knows his way around a farm. But his appearance definitely didn't match that. He's covered in tattoos: sleeves on both arms, a large back piece, a chest piece, and the word 'fearless' tattooed across his knuckles in old English font.
"So, junior year, huh?" she asks after a few moments of silence. "Kind of a shame. You only had two years left." Dean scoffed. "I wanted ta get the hell outta there. Never did think I would amount to anything." He wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Don't none of tha' matter now anyway." Rylee nodded. "Yeah, I guess yer right." And he was. The world has pretty much ended, so it didn't matter if you were a high school dropout or had a college degree. It didn't matter anymore. There wasn't any need for paying jobs and currency. Half the population was gone, maybe more than that. Rylee always thought the Pythagorean Theorem, sine, cosine, tangent, quadrilateral, quadratic, and things like that were just useless math terms. But someone out there somewhere used them on a daily basis. Now, they really are useless.
The two maneuvered around the cars, trucks, and other vehicles on the road, stopping for a moment when they reached each one and looking in to see if there was anything useful inside. They did this for a while before Rylee spoke up again. "I dropped out, too. Sophomore year." Dean kept moving forward, but he replied without looking back, "I never would've guessed tha'." She wasn't too sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but she asked, "Why's tha'?" "Yer pretty damn smart. I would've guessed you went ta college at least." That made her laugh. Rylee never really thought of herself as smart. A quick thinker maybe, but never smart. She never made decent grades in school, but then again she never tried or did anything. "Yeah, you think that," she said, and that was the end of that conversation.
The sun would be down soon, and it was never a good idea to be out after dark. That's when the deadlies are most active. Dean didn't seem to mind, though. Rylee wished she could be like him sometimes. He isn't scared of anything. She supposed that's why he has his 'fearless' tattoo. Out of the time she's known him, the words "I'm scared" have never come out of his mouth. He's the most courageous person she knew or have ever known. If he hadn't took her in when he found her, she'd been dead a long time ago. Rylee's entire family was killed when the Turn happened and she went off on her own. She ended up at some kind of warehouse and Dean and his mother was there. He almost killed her at first, but then something stopped him from blowing her brains out. Still to this day, she hasn't found out exactly what it was that stopped him.
They eventually made it to the high school and came up to the doors to the front office. "Let's hope 'ese bad boys ain't locked," Dean said. He grabbed the handle to the door and pulled it open with ease. "Ladies firs'," he said as he smiled at rolled her eyes and walked in and he followed, closing the door behind them. Once they were in the front office, they stopped. "Alrigh'," Dean started. "If I remember correctly tha nurse's office is righ' down tha hall. We'll run in, grab wha' we need, n' get out. We need ta head back ta camp 'fore dark. It'll be close but we have ta hurry." Rylee looked at him. "Why didn't we just turn back?" He looked down for a moment, then looked back up to her. "We can't. Samantha ain't doing too well. We need anything we can find."
Dean turned away and quickly, but quietly made his way through the doors to the office. There was a hallway on each side of the office and a large staircase in front of them. He looked both ways, checking each hallway, then headed towards the one on the right side. He motioned Rylee to keep up and she speed up a little. But suddenly he stopped and held his arm out in front of her. "Wha' is it?" she whispered. He pointed to a classroom with the door standing wide open. "So?" she asked, but then her question was immediately answered when she heard a bone-chilling growl. Dean looked over his shoulder. "No gunfire," he whispered, pausing between words to make sure he was making himself clear. He pulled his knife out, slowly creeping towards the classroom they heard the growling coming from. Dean then turned to Rylee, placing his finger over his lips. She nodded, then he got up against the wall next to the doorway to the classroom and so did she. Then suddenly, he jumped into the doorway and went into the classroom. Rylee could hear the deadly's growls get louder so it must have seen him, but Dean wasn't making a sound. She listened, but then heard something strange. He was laughing. "What's so funny?" she asks, but he ignores her question. "Well, well, well. Look wha' we have here," he said, sounding amused. It was frustrating not knowing what he was so happy about, so Rylee turned to go into the classroom. As soon as she steps inside, she sees him standing in front of a deadly that's pinned against the wall by a large teacher's desk. Dean shook his head and said, "If it ain't Mrs. Bitchface." "Pardon?" Rylee asks, thinking he was talking to her. "Not you. Her," he said as he pointed to the deadly. "Tenth grade science teacher. We hated each other with a burning passion. I thought tha old hag was dead…well, before the Turn happened, I thought she was. Can't believe she was teachin' tha' long." It growled at Dean and reached out for him meanwhile Rylee observed her. She had long, dirty hair that came down just past her shoulders. The skin under her eyes sagged and her lips were pretty much gone. Her arms seemed to be missing some meat also, probably due to the other deadlies feeding on her. She wore a long blue dress that was drenched in blood and she had a very noticeable wound in the crease between her shoulder and neck. It was a bite. "Guessin' tha bite killed her," she said. "Good," Dean replied, then lifted the knife. "I always hated her n' her smart ass mouth."
Suddenly, the sound of metal slicing bone filled the room and blood splattered on the wall behind the deadly when the knife exited out the back of her skull. He pulled the blade out of her head and wiped it on his pants. "She had it comin'," he said with a sigh. Rylee just simply said, "Well."
Rick and the others, except Jacqui, Andrea, and Dale rushed out of the underground area of the C.D.C.. T-Dog ran to the front entrance and tried to open it, but the doors wouldn't budge. He ran over to the key pad and pressed every button on it, but nothing happened. "Daryl," Rick called. Daryl tossed him one of the axes he was carrying and they swung at the windows of the C.D.C. with every bit of strength they had. "This is no use!" Rick backed away from the window, but Daryl continued to swing at the window, leaving nothing but scratches. "Daryl, look out!" It was T-Dog running towards the glass with a chair. Daryl jumped out of the way and T-Dog charged, but like the axes, the chair was no use. Shane, standing off to the side, loaded his gun quickly.
They didn't have much time at all. Only minutes. If they didn't get that glass busted, they would be consumed in flames. "Ya'll get down! Get down," Shane called, and everyone ducked. He cocked his gun and walked over to the window. Lifting his gun, he shot at it twice. Nothing. "The glass won't break?" Carol's daughter, Sophia asked. But then Carol got up, digging through her purse. "Rick. I have something that might help." He looked over to her as she approached. "Carol, I don't think a nail file's gonna do it," Shane told her, but she ignored him still digging in her bag. "Your first morning at camp," she told Rick, "When I washed your uniform, I found this in your pocket." She held out the grenade-like weapon that Rick had gotten out of the tank in the streets of Atlanta. Rick grabbed it from her, then headed back to the windows. Everybody immediately started getting down on the ground. He knelt down next to the glass and pulled the clip off. After placing it on the ground, he bolted towards the others and it went off. A loud explosion sounded and the ground vibrated along with the sound of glass shattering. Everyone looked up and saw the window was broken. "Come on!" They all rushed to it, and each one jumped out onto the ground, but the loud noise attracted walkers. Rick and Shane were both aiming and firing, clearing out a way for the others. Daryl then headed for one and swung the ax in his hand, slicing its head off. There were just a couple more gun fires before everyone jumped into the vehicles.
Rick started to crank the engine to the RV when Lori pointed and yelled, "Wait, wait, wait! They're coming." He looked up to see Andrea and Dale climb hop down from where the window used to be. Everyone watched them as they ran across the grass. Rick looked down at his watch, breathing heavily. He looked back up and blew the horn a couple times. Lori stuck her head out of the window, waved her arm and yelled, "Get down!" Everyone in the RV climbed to the back and the others got down in their vehicles as Andrea and Dale jumped down behind a barrier. Then it happened. There was suddenly a loud explosion, then the C.D.C. building began to crumble apart and be engulfed by flames. It was so loud and felt just like an earthquake. Everyone raised up, staring in awe as what was left of the building now fell to the ground.
Dale looked over at Andrea, then leaned down to help her up. "Come on," he said. The two got up and headed to the RV as Glenn swung the door open. "Get in!" They quickly rushed to it, and climbed in then sat down at the table. After a moment of everyone catching their breath and exchanging relieved expressions, Rick started the engine to the RV and made a U-turn, then began to drive away, and the others followed.
The ground lightly shook under Rylee and Dean's feet as they looked through cabinets and drawers in the nurse's office. "Woah." Dean turned to Rylee. "Did you hear tha'?" "What tha hell was that?" she asked him. He stood there for a second before answering. "I don't know. I think it was an explosion." He looked down, but then looked back up and an expression of panic spread across Dean's face. "We gotta go. Now." He quickly zipped up his backpack and put it on his shoulders, then tossed Rylee hers. "What? Why?" she asked him. He looked at her. "Tha' explosion is gonna attract every deadly outside of Atlanta. They're gonna be passin' by this way, comin' from all over. We need ta leave 'fore they get here and we gotta get back ta Sammy." Rylee threw her backpack onto her shoulders, then loaded her rifle. "That means we'll have ta deal with some on tha way." Dean just nodded.
They both ran out of the nurse's office and down the hallway. Dean looked back as he heard growling from behind him. Deadlies were coming around the corner towards the back of the hallway and he looked at Rylee. "We gotta haul ass!" Rylee looked back and saw them, then sped up faster. Once they made it to the front office doors, there were deadlies falling down the main staircase. Rylee aimed her gun, but Dean pushed it down. "We can't worry about them! We gotta get out of here!" They turned and ran into the office, letting the doors close behind them. Rylee faced the inside of the school, backing away slowly from the door as the deadlies gnashed their teeth against the glass. She gasped when she backed into Dean, who was facing the other way. "Hey, wha' are you…" She trailed off when she turned around and looked out the front doors and saw them covering the school lawn. "How…how did it happen tha' fast?" Dean asked. Rylee just stared as they walked across the grass. "I…I don't know."