The night was going slower than usual, probably because the club was practically empty. In the past hour she had seen one customer. There had been all of these weird stories on the news about some disease that resurrected the dead, she hadn't paid much attention to it. It seemed like nothing but a hoax to her, but everyone else was freaked out to the point where most wouldn't leave their homes. At least it meant she didn't have to do any lap dances tonight.

"Sean, I'm going home. It's too slow tonight." The bouncer nodded in agreement with her. Audrey made her way through the dark hallway that led to the cigarette stained dressing room. She searched for the cubby labeled 'Roxy', her stage name. She removed her painfully high heels and threw them in her cubby. Then, she pulled on a pair of grey sweatpants and a black Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt over her skimpy, two piece outfit. It was rare for anyone to be able to leave early, even in this small town, but the CDC somehow managed to scare the fearless trailer park hicks of Georgia. She tied her long, brown hair up in a messy bun and pushed open the back exit door, dragging her duffle bag behind her. She always walked home from work even though it was usually around 3 in the morning when she left. She only lived about two miles away on Cook's Rd, in the rotting trailer she shared with her failure of a mother.

Her mom was rarely ever home, she was typically at some party doing drugs with her friends and Audrey just assumed that's where she was tonight since the trailer was dark, but as she reached the front steps she could hear groans coming from inside. "Fucking slut," Audrey growled and kicked the door open. She expected to see her mom sucking the dick of yet another filthy redneck, but when she flicked the lights on she saw her mom hunched over the torn apart body of one of her neighbors, Bob, and she was eating him, literally. Her mouth immediately dropped open when she saw the entrails dangling from her mother's yellow teeth. "Mom!" She cried, "Stop! What are you doing?" Her mother didn't answer, but simply lunged at her, trying to bite at any exposed flesh. Audrey kicked her mother into the stained, green couch and ran for the little kitchenette, arming herself with a steak knife. "Mom, stop." Ignoring her daughter's warning, she lunged again and without a second thought, Audrey plunged the knife into her mother's skull. Her lifeless body fell to the ground and Audrey's face turned a ghostly white color. She dropped to her knees and cradled her mother's head in her lap. Tears began to stream down her pale face and her body was shaking uncontrollably. Her mother had been a junkie and she never truly understood what it meant to be a parent, but Audrey had loved her none the less. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

The news reporters hadn't been lying, this disease was real and she knew she needed to get out of here.

Audrey had fallen asleep in her bedroom with the door locked and a steak knife on the nightstand. She had packed her duffel bag the night before with two sets of clothes, extra underwear and some supplies including food and medication. There was no way she could stay here after last night. She stood up from the bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and an old Pink Floyd t-shirt. She let her hair fall down over her shoulders, but she kept a hair tie on her wrist. Pulling on her black Timberland boots, she headed out the door, bag in hand. Before she could bring herself to leave the trailer she turned to the dusty bookshelf and grabbed her dad's old hunting knife. It had a wooden handle and a three-inch blade. It was the only thing of her father's that her mom kept after he died. She had wanted it since she was little, but her mother had refused to part with it. She held back tears that were threatening to come pouring out and she pushed open the door of her trailer, saying a silent goodbye to her home.

She walked down her steps cautiously, knife raised, and ready to defend herself with, but thankfully there weren't any corpses near the house. She took a deep breath and continued down the street slowly. When she saw the infamous Dixon brothers packing their shit up into their blue and grey Ford pick-up truck she decided to see what plan the two biggest survivalists had in mind. Merle spotted her and his signature shit eating grin appeared on his face.

"Well look who it is, Ms. Roxy herself."

"Hi Merle." She said rolling her eyes. She had grown up hearing about them all over town. People always had something bad to say about the Dixons, but Audrey never paid much attention to the town gossip. Most people didn't like their father so they automatically didn't like his sons, but even after he died, people continued to talk shit about the Dixon boys. She didn't know Daryl at all really, she'd seen him around town a few times, but that was it. Merle on the other hand came into the club quite often and harassed the girls. Audrey was always the one to handle him and stop him from causing a scene. She didn't like having to kick people out, it made the club look bad which pissed off the manager and caused him to take a higher percentage from work their nightly tips for at least a week.

"Where are you off too?" Merle asked.

"I don't know really," a thought crossed her mind and she smiled motioning to the truck, "got any room in your shitty Ford there?" It was obvious that the Dixon brothers knew what they were doing and Audrey knew that it was unlikely she'd be able to survive on her own.

"Yeah," Merle grinned, "but what are you willing to do to earn a spot in this shitty Ford?"

Her smile faded and she rolled her eyes, "Are you gonna let me come or not?"

"Maybe, if I can get a little action," Merle winked.

"Screw you Dixon," Audrey began walking away, she wasn't going to do that pig any favors even if it meant she was going to have to find a way to survive on her own. She spent enough time with him at the club. He had always asked her for a lap dance, just to piss her off because he knew she couldn't refuse a customer.

"You can come," the voice caught her off guard. She'd never heard Daryl speak before, his voice had a gravelly tone, but it was softer than his brother's. She smiled at him and nodded a thank you before throwing her bag in the bed of the truck and climbing in the cab.

"Don't slow us down." Merle grunted, obviously displeased with Daryl's agreement to take her with them. She was thankful they were letting her tag along, despite her tough girl act, she didn't have the slightest clue on how to survive alone. Her father had taken her hunting a few times, but that was years ago when she was a little girl, she was twenty-four now and hunting wasn't something she had ever really gotten the hang of. She knew Merle was going to be taking his bike so that meant she'd be riding with Daryl, hopefully it would give her and chance to get to know the mysterious younger Dixon.

They had already been on the road for a minimum of forty-five minutes and they had sat in silence the entire time, Audrey was sorely disappointed. Daryl was much quieter than his brother which probably explained why she'd never met him. Merle was an obnoxious alcoholic and a drug addict, but Daryl seemed to stay under the radar as much as possible. They were like polar opposites.

With the only sound being the light hum of the truck's engine and the roar of Merle's motorcycle behind them, she decided to try starting a conversation. "So," she began, "Where are we going?"

"Atlanta, they got some sorta military base set up there."

"Aren't you worried?"

"About what?"

"Well, there's a lot of people in one place. Diseases spread fast in close quarters."

"You ain't gonna die unless you get bit."

"Bit?" She should have paid more attention to the news report.

"Yeah, by one of the dead ones."

"Well," she said, "in that case, I sure as hell would not want to be in a city full of people."

"Look," he stopped, he couldn't figure out what point he was going to make. She was making him rethink going into the city. Finally he spat out an angry response, "There's nowhere else to go." Frustration began building up inside of him, if the city wasn't safe, where could they go? He didn't just have Merle with him, now he had to worry about protecting this girl, at least Merle could fend for himself. Why had he let her come along in the first place? Atlanta was at least six hours away and he knew he had to get her there in one, living piece.

She had noticed his frustration building and she let out a sigh. Talking was never her strong suit and although she wanted to talk to Daryl and get to know him, she knew it would be a good idea to leave him alone, at least for now.

She shifted in her seat uncomfortably, accidentally kicking the door, and causing a black case to fall onto the floor. "Shit," she mumbled. She never knew how she could be such a graceful dancer, but a complete klutz on a daily basis. She picked up the case and dusted it off. It was a CD case, one of the ones that had pages like a photo album with slots for all of the disks. Without asking, she unzipped the case to reveal CDs ranging from the Beatles, to Pink Floyd, to Lynyrd Skynyrd and so on. A well of excitement boiled within her, she loved music, and classic rock just so happened to be her favorite genre of all time. She flipped through the pages looking at every album available, but when she saw Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens she stopped flipping and pulled it out of its slot. "Can I?" She asked motioning to the stereo in the truck.

"Sure," Daryl chuckled a little when she asked to play music after invading his CD case. She was unusual, but in a good way.

She stuck the disk into the stereo and skipped to song number three, Wild World.

"Now that I've lost everything to you

You say you wanna start something new

And it's breakin' my heart you're leavin'

Baby, I'm grievin'

But if you wanna leave, take good care

I hope you have a lot of nice things to wear

But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there."

She sang along, not missing a single word. Hearing the calming sound of music brought a smile to her face and she almost forgot that it was the end of the world.

"Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world

It's hard to get by just upon a smile

Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world

I'll always remember you like a child, girl."

Daryl watched as she sang, she was having fun, moving side to side along with the beat as if she didn't have a single care in the world. She had the type of personality that made you want to dance along with her, although he'd never do that.

"You know," she said, turning the music down, "maybe this doomsday shit isn't all that bad." Daryl looked at her with confusion sprawled out across his face. "I'm serious, no one ever gets out of that town, but we did."

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"We didn't get stuck like old man Bill, we are fucking free." She may be running away from the roaming dead people, but she wasn't tied down to that shitty little town anymore. She didn't have anything to worry about except survival and for once in her life she felt like she had some sort of future, even with the world having ended.

"You're fucking weird." They both burst out into laughter, her little speech did sound stupid as hell, but it was true, they were finally free.

Merle honked his horn as they neared a small, white house with a fenced in backyard and a huge Maple tree covering the front lawn. They pulled into the driveway and Daryl got out to talk to his brother, who apparently wanted to take a break even though they had only been driving for a little over an hour. Audrey grumbled at Merle's short attention span. He was the one slowing them down, not her. She actually wanted to get to the city to see if there was any chance of a real safe haven, no matter how much she doubted it.

Audrey climbed out of the truck wearing a look of frustration. She refused to make eye contact with Merle as she grabbed her bag out of the back of the truck.

"Get that pout off your face girl." Merle chuckled, Audrey flipped him off as she made her way to the front door of the house. He had ruined her good mood and her patience for him was growing thinner by the second.

The outside of the house was covered in dirt and the lawn was filled with weeds and over grown grass. It was obvious this place had been neglected long before the end of the world. As she pushed open the door, she wasn't surprised to find that the inside looked just as bad as the outside, it was obvious that no one had lived there for at least a year. Feeling confident in the fact that the house was abandoned and most likely empty, she took a few steps inside to look around, but when a hand from behind grabbed ahold of her shoulder she regretted not having her knife out. She spun around quickly trying to get away from the tight grip of whatever was holding onto her only to find Daryl standing there, glaring at her angrily.

"What the hell are you doing?" He grumbled, pulling her back outside. "We have to check the house first. Can't just be walking into places without knowing what's in there."

"Calm down," she pushed his hand off of her shoulder, "I'm fine."

"Cause I pulled your ass outta there before you got yourself eaten."

"Shut up," she spat. She didn't like it when people treated her as if she was helpless. Maybe she wasn't too good with a weapon, but she sure as hell could defend herself. She stood by the truck and waited as Daryl checked the entire house. He didn't take long and as he walked back outside, with an even more agitated look on his face, she knew he hadn't found any walking corpses. She smiled making a tally of her small victory in her mind. Audrey, one, Daryl, zero.

"Get comfy," Merle's voice pulled her out of her own thoughts, "we ain't leavin' til tomorrow mornin'."

She sighed and then headed into the house to find a place to set up for the night. He was right, she might as well get comfortable, at this pace, they'd never make it to Atlanta.