Smoke. Fire. Explosions. Walkers.

So much smoke. Smoke that becomes its own wall and isolates you from the world around you. Smoke that crushes air and smashes your nostrils with unwanted odors – burning flesh, exploded bullets, melting organs. Smoke that cannot filter noises you never want to hear again – pleas for help, dying men begging for their mothers, emotionless moans of walkers, survivors' screams while being eaten, smashing glass, crunching flesh in walker mouths.

There was no end in sight for the smoke. The nearest building had to provide an avenue of escape. There was no choice.

So, Andrea ran towards a door, breaking formation from the rest of the walkers. Before she attacked the railroad station Terminus, Andrea killed a walker and smeared its guts all over her poncho. This created a very effective camouflage effect and allowed her to roam along with the walkers. However, a few had caught on to her trick and followed her. But the gorgeous blonde was no match for them. And even as they neared her, Andrea had already closed and bolted the door shut. She ignored their banging on the door and their guttural moans as she turned around to find herself in a makeshift warehouse.

Panting from exhaustion and smoke inhalation, she ignored the blaring alarms and strobe-like red lights. She quickly walked past steel racks, partially empty and nearly collapsing from overuse. Her head up and eyes forward, she picked up her pace, looking for something, anything to add to her already impressive arsenal of weapons. By the time she looked the room over, she was racing to the far end to get out. There had to be weapons in other rooms. Had she been looking down at all, she would've seen the pagan altar the Terminans created for their god.

Andrea found herself in a hallway. At the far right end was a door with a window. She saw a lot of smoke, as expected, and a few people running. And, of course, a walker or five were ambling along. She turned to the left, ran down the hallway, and looked through the window in the door. The room inside was like an Army-lover's dream.

Andrea eagerly opened the door and looked over the weapons, both foreign and familiar. After grabbing two huge backpacks, she began scooping up handgun after handgun, rifles with day and night scopes, automatic weapons, even a familiar looking and beat up crossbow. Smile intact, she grabbed a few Claymore grenades and RPGs, and headed out the door. She didn't even bother to close it as she adjusted the bulky backpacks around her shoulders. After all, why bother?

Her smile dropped a little as she tried to comprehend how she'd carry the enormous bundle out of the burning and walker-filled railroad station. She knelt down and repositioned some of the weapons a little more evenly. After that, it was just a matter of weight. She thought she could handle that. And she was right.

Standing back up, she placed both straps of the backpacks criss-crossed along her body and was satisfied with her progress. Her wide smile returned and she turned down the hall. Ignoring the chaos she heard outside, Andrea found it difficult to run and thanked her lucky stars that she did not throw away the gory poncho. She could just find the walkers and join them for a while, walk along with them, and get out of the burning Terminus.

Andrea opened the door.

"Hands up!"

Andrea saw a disheveled woman, dirty and mentally unstable, holding a handgun towards her. The smoke behind her concealed the burning world beyond both of them. Andrea just looked at the woman and said nothing.

"I said hands ARRRGGHH!"

Three walkers surprised her from the left. Blood exploded out of the woman's throat, arm, and ankle. She turned and ran the other way. There had to be another way out. There just had to be!

The smoke in the warehouse was now becoming a serious problem. Ducking a little and covering her mouth with her hand, she struggled to maneuver with the hefty weight on her shoulders. She crossed this way and that, trying to peer through the smoke to follow the red 'EXIT' signs. And as she moved along, her knees and back complained – searing pain coursed through her thin body. But she had to get out. Now!

Finally, she found an Emergency Exit door. A relieved sigh escaping, she ran to it and pushed open the door. And what appeared before her would make the hardest of veterans cringe in horror.

At least a dozen Terminans were on the ground being killed and eaten by walkers. A Jeep down the alley was on fire. Smoke surrounded her and an explosion could be heard somewhere nearby. Completely lost and turned around, Andrea turned to the right, hoping to find the nearest exit out of Terminus.

She would regret turning right for the remainder of her life.

Andrea moved quickly – she avoided walkers, leaped over heaps of bricks and wooden beams and dead bodies, scooted around partial walls, jumped over pools of blood. She turned right and then later left and then still later turned right. Left then left again. Right, then left and right. And that's when she faced the realization of her little plan –

She didn't find Rick and the others.

Suddenly, the high wall to her right strained and groaned with its weight. She looked up in horror and turned around, running for her life. The wall finally gave way!

As best she could, she took off running! But it was too late. The wall crashed behind her, sending bricks and wall joists hurtling in all directions. Andrea fell when a hot brick smashed on her left calf. Seared with pain, she struggled to get the guns and ammo back into her backpacks. She coughed the entire time, while sounds of screams from the fighting living began to die down. Andrea laughed to herself at how darkly funny that sounded.

Finally, amidst more flying debris and the seemingly endless smoke, Andrea got every single item she stole back in the backpack and stood up. And for the first time since she attacked Terminus, she stood up and smiled.

Across the way, beyond burning vehicles and partial buildings, she made eye contact with the leader of her group, separated for way too long…

Rick Grimes.

She tried to wave, but the backpacks only allowed her to raise her arm a little bit. And as the sunshine had just barely begun to peek through the smoke, she saw Rick smile back at her.

"You bitch!"

Andrea turned to her left only to be punched in the face! She fell back and would've fallen on the uneven concrete. But the backpacks cushioned her fall. Another wall nearby had just collapsed, effectively cutting her off from Rick. And when she looked up, she saw a man with a rag tied over his mouth and brown hair staring down at her.

"You fucking bitch!" he roared. "You would steal from us?!"

"You-"

She tried to retort, but she had inhaled too much smoke. An enormous coughing fit shut her up. She was forced to roll on her right side, almost in a fetal position. But the man snarled, completely annoyed and angry! So, he grabbed her wrist and began to drag her down the alley!

"No!" Andrea screamed. And in response, the man kicked her in the ribs! She screamed in pain as he continued to drag her. Her vision was clouded with so much smoke, debris, fire, and the screams of the dying. And as best as her lungs allowed it, she fought back. She kicked on the ground, twisted her body, screamed, anything to get this…this man to stop dragging her.

"Let me go!" Andrea screamed.

The man ignored her, dragging her around a corner. There wasn't as much smoke here. Or walkers. Or humans. Or…anything. And that meant there wasn't as much noise either.

"Let me go!" she violently screamed.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch!"

More dragging. More kicks from Andrea. More of anything and everything. Andrea couldn't die at Terminus. She couldn't die like this!

"Goddamnit! Let. Me. GO!" And with that, she gave a wild twist of her arm and nearly escaped. But the man came to a stop, hiked his leg up, held it, and Andrea shut her eyes, bracing for the impact.

The man stomped on her left breast!

Andrea had never screamed that loudly from pain in her life!

"I said," he cruelly ordered, "Shut..the fuckUP!"

He began dragging her. She still fought as best she could, but the radiating, lung-crushing pain held her in check. She could feel pebbles, dirt, even nails under her back and buttocks. But Andrea was powerless to stop him. She opened her eyes and regretted it.

She had no idea how powerful that explosion truly was. At least three buildings were no longer completely there. One was completely reduced to rubble. Several others had significant damage.

And the fires. Nearly everywhere, flames licked walls, building clouds of smoke that, thanks to a steady breeze, flowed northwest. The screams of the living were no longer heard – but the dying bellowed out their last, painful moments for Andrea to remember the rest of her life. A walker or two could be seen, but most of them had self-important tasks at hand. That thought always made her shiver.

And as she was being dragged, she resigned to what was happening to her, stunned into a stupor of violence, fear, and the horrible feeling of being trapped.

And still, the masked man dragged her. For minutes, he hauled and hauled and it seemed to go on forever…

Finally, the masked man came to a halt. It seemed he struggled for air as well, for he was nearly gasping, his iron-tight grip on her wrist not relaxing one bit. He didn't stop for very long before Andrea was being dragged again. But this time, she got caught on an uneven rock lodged in the path. Annoyed, he snarled and viciously yanked on her arm, jolting her backpacks beneath her. She watched the ground as he dragged her away. A package of .45 calibre bullets dislodged and emptied one-by-one on the ground as he walked.

Within minutes, they were no longer on any kind of path that she could see. And very soon, Andrea looked up to see trees and bushes. The pair were no longer at the train station – they were now in the woods. Andrea was completely panic-stricken!

"Hey!" she screamed. "Hey-!" Another coughing fit and enormous, radiated pain engulfed her senses, smashing her lungs shut. She tried her best to get air into her lungs. "Where are you taking me? Hey asshole! Where the fuck-?!"

"I swear to God," the man quietly said with venom in his voice, "if you don't shut the fuck up, I will gut you here. I can let the fucking dead ones eat you while you're alive. Got it?"

"But you're hurt."

Surprised, the man looked at the arm that was dragging the blonde woman. He looked down to see three or four rivers of blood draining down his arm from his bicep. Seems like one of those flying shards of glass cut him. Undeterred, he simply resumed dragging her.

"Just shut up."

The went further into the woods. But Andrea wasn't done.

"You could bleed to death, you fucking dumb ass!" Andrea hollered. "Do you really want to-?"

Suddenly, the man let go of her hand. Her arm plopped on the forest floor. And before she could even think of escape, he stomped on her arm with his army boot, holding her in place. He partially turned away from her and she couldn't see what he was doing. But she didn't care.

"The others?" Andrea nastily said. "They'll find me. And when they do, I swear to God they'll-!"

She suddenly felt a handkerchief cover her mouth and nose. She immediately smelled it and realized some chemical coated it. Violently alarmed, her eyes widened and she struggled under the rag. But he held it firm over her mouth and nose.

"Shh, shh, shhhhh." He cooed. And a few seconds later, Andrea stopped struggling. And another few more seconds later, she was unconscious.

"I didn't want to have to do that." He muttered. He put the bottle back in his own backpack, readjusted it, reached for her wrist, and drug her unresponsive body further into the forest. Her backpack was never adjusted, as bullet after bullet popped out from time to time.

They'd probably gone a couple of miles into the woods before he stopped, needing a rest.

He refused to look behind him. His home had been destroyed. He didn't know how. He didn't know why. But in this cruel, unforgiving world, he was now homeless. And he didn't like that one bit.

The man took a seat on a nearby dilapidated log. He grabbed a water bottle and took a healthy swig of the clear liquid. When that was done, he screwed the cap back on and put it back into the bowels of his backpack. He almost braved a look at what was left of Terminus. But he just couldn't do it.

His home was gone. Just…gone.

He let his eyes drift over to the unconscious blonde near him. He found he couldn't take his eyes off her meaty thighs.

.