The Lusitanian survivor (rewrite)
About a year ago I started my fanfiction channel with this story (last time I updated a chapter was on Christmas 2016), but now that I'm more used to write stories, I decided that I'm gonna write my fanfiction again but I promise that it's gonna be a lot better, and I promise that I'll finish this one.
But enough of that let's get on with the story.
Chapter 1- A Portuguese at the apocalypse.
A TAP plane (Author note- for those who don't know TAP is the name of a Portuguese airline) flew over the Atlantic ocean with destination towards the city of Atlanta on the state of Georgia.
Inside the plane there were all kinds of people, some were tourists with families, others were there to visit family or friends that lived on the USA, others were there to try and find a better life in "The land of opportunities" and others were just there on vacation.
One of this passengers was a 19 year old Portuguese student Rafael de Oliveira. Three things happened in his recent years, he had just finished High School and he had got his drivers license on his first year, and now he was traveling to America.
Rafael was your typical Portuguese teenager, his hair was black and short, his eyes were brown, he was about 1.81 meters tall, he was little stuffed on his sides (but not fat), he was hairy in his all body in general and he had a tanned skin tone.
He wore some jeans, a pair of black sporting shoes, a black and withe college jacket, he had a black Compton cap, some sunglasses and around his neck was a replica of Gerald's wolf necklace from the game Witcher 3.
Rafael (or Rafe like his friends use to call him) was a very patriotic person, he loved Portugal in… almost every way, he loved the food, the beach, the monuments and the history, in fact he loved history in general not just from his country but worldwide.
Rafael was always ready to try and learn new things, for him Europe was the best destination to go in holiday, the culture, the history, the different type of people, during his teenage years he traveled with his family to Germany, France, Spain, England and the Netherlands. He also knew 3 different languages, Portuguese, he mastered English and Spanish (although his accent in English was like a mixture between British and Scottish).
He loved movies, mostly the classic 'gangster' type ones, you know like 'The godfather', 'Goodfellas', 'Scarface'n 'Casino', you name it. He also loved the Tarantino movies with the funny type violence and it's dark humor, he loved the Tim Burton movies with their strange visuals and Stephen Spielberg movies with their adventure vibe and good nature.
Video games was something that he had always appreciated since a young age, he loved games like Metal Gear, GTA, Kingdom Hearts, Bioshock, Witcher and many more… he also loved those point and click adventure games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango.
Books was also a subject that Rafe appreciated, during his younger years he read the entire collection of the Harry Potter book series, he read the Lord of the rings, The Hobbit, 1984 by George Orwell and many more. But his favorite types of books were DC comic books (especially batman stories) and his favorite comic book author was Alan Moore. Books from his country were also highly appreciated, mostly poetry ones.
Rafe loved TV series, anime and cartoons (mostly adult ones). His favorite TV show being Breaking bad and The Sopranos. His favorite anime was Dragon Ball Z. And his favorite Cartoons were Rick and Morty and South Park.
Rafe hears all types of music, from the modern hip ones to the classical type. But by far his most favorite type was the Hip Hop… And no I'm not talking about this modern bullshit we have nowadays i'm talking about the real Hip Hop (2Pac, Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Biggie Smalls, Mobb Deep you name it), that's probably why he would take his Compton cap and sunglasses to everywhere that he go. It could be sunny, raining, snowing or dark. He would go to school, he wold walk the dog, he would go to a party or a nigh out with his friends (which was rare by the way) and his hat and glasses were always on him (which earned him the nickname of 'The Portuguese Eazy-E', that his friends made up, but he didn't cared in fact he liked that name).
But don't judge a book by it's cover, on the outside he looked like a schmuck, he looked like the type of guy that would be armed with a knife on his pocked and would rob anyone around the corner. But in reality Rafe was a very cultural and smart person, he could be sometimes considered a geek or a nerd because of his love for internet and comic books (mostly DC), but he could be all of those things he just didn't show that side of him around other people.
But now he was on a plane headed towards Georgia.
His opinion about America was… pretty much how most of Europe think of the United States. He knew America had a lot of good but he also knew there was a lot of bad.
But that's exactly what Rafe wanted to see. He wanted to explore America state by state, he wanted to see it's people, the history, monument's and food and it's roads.
He wanted to live a true American experience, he wanted to experience the good, the bad and the ugly and he was going to write it all down on his diary journal.
But he would stay the fuck away from politics.
After 6 hours of flight the plane finally landed on 'Harts field-Jackson Atlanta international Airport' and all the passengers got out, Rafe grabbed his backpack and followed the other passengers towards the plane's exit.
Exiting the plane Rafe followed the other passengers to go pick up his suit case. Rafe had heard that this was one of the busiest airports In the world, and he could see why. The airport was flowing with people of all types in both race and language (But Rafe didn't care, he was used to big crowds).
After half an hour, Rafe finally was able to get his suitcase, he then found a free spot so he could check if everything was in order.
He opened the suitcase first "Deixa cá ver se está tudo em ordem. (Let's see if everything is in order)." He said in Portuguese.
He had basically everything, clothes, a first aid kit, toothbrush and toothpaste, some running shoes, two Portuguese books (´The Lusiads` from Luiz Vaz de Camões and `Message` from Fernando Pessoa), a Portuguese flag, and a Benfica scarf and a hunting knife (for protection).
On his backpack he had his money, his phone, headphones, a USA map, a diary (with nothing written on, a pen and some comic books (Watchmen and The killing Joke).
After he found out that everything was on it's rightful place, he closed his bags and got into a bus that was destined to the city of Atlanta.
During the bus ride, Rafe was always looking at the window, appreciating the view of the city, the size of the skyscrapers that tried to reach the clouds, this was the first time he was seeing a building this big.
After 30 minutes the bus got to Rafe's stop. His stop was on a motel. It was a cheap one, hell he was just gonna stay there for the night.
He opened the door and the first thing that he noticed was a sort of moist smell and a stained green couch (those stains could be from anything).
In front was a woman behind a desk, she looked to be on her early 40's and she was watching TV with a tired and bored expression on her face.
Rafe approached the woman "Excuse me madam." Rafe said with his British accent.
The woman looked at him with an expression that dared to be a glare "What'd ya want?"
"I am here to rent a room, just for the night." He said.
"Sorry darlin', they're all full." The woman simply stated.
Rafe was confused "What do ye mean by that?"
The woman let out a frustrated sigh "It means I ain't got a room for you."
She was lying, Rafe could see it in her eyes she wasn't even trying to hide it.
"So the business is going well eh? It sure smells and looks like a successful business." Rafe mocked.
"Are you calling me a liar?" The woman asked.
"Of course not madam." He said with a calm voice "I'm just calling you a bullshitter." he said with the same tone.
This made the woman to look up to him with an angry expression "Listen here kid, I don´t gain enough with this business for me to take crap from some goddamned Briton!" She said clearly revealing her intentions "Now get the fuck outta my motel before I call the law!"
Rafe realized that there was no point on fighting.
"Right… Do excuse me." He said with a fake smile.
He head towards the door "And for yer information, I am Portuguese." He said before leaving the motel.
"Cabra! (Cunt!)" He cursed under his breath.
Rafe was angry, this was not a good start for his road trip and it was most surely not a good introduction to Americans. He was starting to regret ever coming here.
While walking on the street he saw a trash can so he kicked it down out of frustation "Foda-se carago, onde raio é que eu vou dormir agora? (Fuck me man, where the hell am I going to sleep now?)"
He ended up finding a place to sleep on a bench inside Atlanta´s central park.
It was dark but Rafe could see that it was a big park, and it had a basketball field and view for the skyscrapers. It was a nice place were you could have a nice family picnic.
He laid down on one of the benches, took out a small blanket from his suitcase, and used his backpack as a pillow. (He had his knife of his hand just in case anyone would try to rob him).
Rafe was angry that he had to spend his first night as a homeless man, but Rafe wasn't one to give up that easily, he was an optimistic person and he knew that tomorrow was a new day.
So he laid down and tried to sleep.
He woke up in the morning with the sun light on his face.
He grabbed his phone to check the time, it was 9 o'clock in the morning.
After ribbing his eyes (in order to adjust himself to the sunlight) he could see the park more clearly, the grass was green, he could see people jogging and walking their dogs, or just sitting on the said grass talking or having breakfast.
He could also see some kids playing basketball on the field (it was a busy day like most days).
Today Rafe was going to catch a bus to Macon, he wanted to see the cherry blossom festival.
He then looked to his left and saw a trash can, inside there was yesterday's newspaper edition, he still had some time so he took the paper from the trashcan and started to read it.
The front page got his attention, it shows an Afro American male handcuffed with two policeman on his sides.
The highlight explained what it was about.
The news were about a UGA history teacher who was charged for murdering the state senator (who was sleeping with his wife), his name was Lee Everett.
Rafe ripped the newspaper in half and threw it back to the trash.
For him this news were nothing but another fail and mistake on American justice, He hated thing like the death penalty and the life sentence, those were mistakes of the past that people seem to ignorant to change.
Especially when this was clearly a man who had a bad choice in woman, he seemed like a decent enough fella (plus he was a history teacher, a subject that Rafe highly appreciated).
After reading the newspaper (or the highlight at least) Rafe noticed something strange, police sirens could be heard, it wasn't just one car, it was various ones.
Rafe found that weird, but then again this was America, so it could be a bank robbery or something, but then he saw more policeman car going to the same ditection and also swat team cars and then a police helicopter.
"Mas que raio é que-se está a passar? (What the bloody hell is going on?)" Rafe asked to himself.
And then he heard a sceam.
It was the scream of a woman.
Rafe got up and ran to the sound of the scream. But when he got there he saw something horrendous.
Something that changed... everything
The woman was being attacked, no scratch that she was being EATEN, her belly was ripped open by the two people and her intestines pulled out and eaten.
Those things may look like regular humans at first sight, but Rafe had only to look at their faces to realize that there was really nothing human about them.
The skin was pale and rotten (and had a foul smell), the eyes were lifeless and with (like a corpse).
"Mas que diabos é isto?! (What the bloody hell is this?!)" Rafe shouted shocked at the horror unfolding in front of him.
But the noise from his shout caught the attention of the 'cannibals', they looked at Rafe with a lifeless expression and answered his question with a growl.
The noise also attracted others who appeared from the bushes.
But what was weird was how they walked, if you can even call it that.
The way they moved could be described as limping, like if they had lost the ability to run, the muscles were rotting away, the bones were most likely not as strong and they didn't had much fiber and the only thing that seemed to make them moving was the blood circulating on they veins.
Before they had the chance to box him in, Rafe sprinted back to the bench that he slept in, grabbed his backpack and suitcase and run of to the park's exit.
Leaving the park Rafe saw things that he only had seen on both movies and war documentaries.
Panic (Chaos I might say) on the street, people were screaming, running towards the city's exit or were looking for loved ones, general and food stores were being raid and their windows smashed, traffic was jammed, people were abandoning their cars and more swat team vehicles were arriving at the city (backed up by helicopter support).
But Rafe just kept on running towards the city exit, he needed to distance himself from the chaos and find a safe zone, so he could… figure things out.
He eventually found the city's exit and saw a group of people united, so he found the closest thing to a safe zone.
Rafe was confused, what were those things, why were people not informed, and how the bloody hell could this happen?
But then Portugal came to his mind, how were things there?
He grabbed his phone so he could call his family in Portugal.
But there were no bars on his phone "Sem rede. Merda! (No signal. Shit!)"
Rafe knew that this was bad, if there was signal that meant that something serious was going on.
But he needed some useful information, so he was going to do the next best thing, he was going to ask someone about what was happening out there.
He went to ask the first person that crossed his sight, that happen to be a woman with long ebony hair, who was with a child (most likely her son) who must have been around 9 years old.
"Excuse me madam." Rafe said.
The woman looked at him with a look of suspicion "What do you want?"
"I don't want to sound rude but… Do ye have any idea what is going on and what are those things?" Rafe asked.
"Haven't you been reading the news?" The woman asked.
Rafe gave her a tiny smirk "Well yesterday I just arrived from Portugal. So I'm quite in the dark, considering news in the United States."
The woman understood that Rafe was a tourist and he really didn't know anything.
"Look I really don't know much about it, but I have a friend might know something." She said "Could you watch my son for a minute?"
"It would be an honor to help ye… miss?"
"Grimes, Lori Grimes." She said.
"Well miss Grimes, ye can trust me with your son. I may not look depart, but I would never harm or kidnap a child, even if my balls were on the line." Rafe promised Lori.
The answer seemed to satisfy her, so went on to get her friend.
Rafe looked at the boy and he could see by his nervous expression that he clearly didn't trust him.
So Rafe looked down at him with a friendly smile "What's yer name laddie?"
"I-It's Carl."
"I like that name. Well Carl my name is Rafael, but ye can call me Rafe." He said.
"Why do you sound like that?" Carl asked.
Rafe realized that his accent was sounding weird to him "Well Carl, I'm from Portugal, and this is just the way I learned my English." Rafe explained. Rafe then decided to change the subject "Where is ye father Carl?"
Carl answered with a sad frown "He was shot."
"I apologize for ye lost laddie, but remember ye still have ye mother, and I know that ye will survive this chaos." Rafe said.
Carl looked at him with an understandable nod.
But after the conversation Rafe saw Lori coming back and she had a man following her.
The man had short black hair and a police uniform on.
"This is the friend I was talking about, his name is Shane, he can help you." Lori said.
"I thank you for ye time madam." Rafe thanked.
"Don't mention it, we need to help one another." Lori said.
"You are absolutely right, an if by some strange reason we cross paths in the future, I will find a way to help ye too." Rafe promised Lori.
"Hey kid we can talk in private." Shane suggested.
"Oh right, so this is goodbye Carl, remember to take care of ye mother." Rafe waved goodbye, which Carl answered with the same wave.
So with that Rafe and Shane went to a more private place.
"So Lori told me that you needed help, what do you need?" Shane asked.
Rafe crossed his arms "What do I need? I came from Portugal to this country in order to have a good time and experience new things, but now not even a full 24 hours after the plane landed, the country is now being attacked by those bloody things and my phone doesn't have any signal, so I can't call my family. So if I'm being honest mate, I just need ye to tell me anything, because I don't have a fucking clue about any of this."
"I wish I could help you kid, but I wish I knew how the hell this happened." Shane confessed.
"Do ye know, ANYTHING?" Rafe asked getting a little bit annoyed.
"I only know this kid, A few days ago there have been news about something big happening on the hospitals, something that the news said it could end humanity as we know it." Shane explained.
"That is strange, I don't remember reading any news back in Portugal about any epidemic here in America." Rafe said.
"It's not exactly an epidemic kid, this isn't a disease that you can catch in thin air." Shane said.
"Then why in the hell are those creatures walking freely in the city?" Rafe asked.
"It all started on the hospitals, they got overrun and spread towards the city. That's when this shit started… that's when I lost my buddy." Shane said sadly.
"Care to share?"
"His name was Rick Grimes, he was Lori's husband and Carl's father, he was shoot when were in the middle of a crossfire by this crazy old man who was shooting at us with a shotgun. After he was shoot he got into a coma and that's when it all happen." Shane told his story.
"My condolences mate, but now ye need to be strong and stay sober for them." Rafe said before pointing at Lori and Carl (Who was playing with some blond little girl).
"I know and I will." Shane said.
But then something came into Rafe's mind.
"I want ye to be absolutely honest with me now mate." Rafe said with a serious expression "Is there any possibility that I can get a plane back to Portugal?" Rafe asked.
Shane shook his head "Sorry kid but I don't think so."
"So I'm stuck here!?"
"Hate to break it to you, but yeah." Shane said.
This was by far Rafe's worst nightmare, being this far away from his country and family. Being stuck on a different country with no way out, and being so far away from his family with no way of communicating with them.
Right now the Atlantic was like the Berlin wall to him, separating him from Portugal.
But then thinking about the Atlantic gave him an idea.
"I know that planes are no longer an option, but what about the docks?" Rafe asked.
"You're planning on getting a boat?" Shane asked.
"I can't exactly swim to Portugal mate." Rafe said.
Shane understood "There are plenty of docks in Savannah, do you have a map with you?"
Rafe nodded and gave Shane the USA map.
After a while of inspecting the map Shane came out with a solution.
"If you follow this road and it's signs, it should take you to Macon and from Macon you follow the same road and that should lead you straight into Savannah." Shane explained "You're looking at about one week walk."
"I used to be a boy scout, so walking for me is not a problem." Rafe said before adjusting his backpack for the trip that was ahead of him.
"Wait before you go, I need to tell you something about those things." Shane said.
"What is it?" Rafe asked.
"Those things are the dead brought back to life, if you get bitten by one of them, you turn into one, the only way you can kill them is either shooting or stabbing them in the head." Shane explained "Do you have a way to defend yourself?"
"Yes I have a hunting knife with me." Rafe said before showing his knife.
"Keep it close to you." Shane said.
Rafe nodded before strapping the knife to his belt.
"One more thing before you go, you never told me your name." Shane said.
"My name is Rafe."
"Well Rafe, if you're really doing this then watch yourself out there." Shane said.
"You too mate, and I thank ye for telling me this useful information." Rafe said before giving one last good look to Carl and Lori "And make sure that they are safe."
Shane nodded.
So this was the beginning, Rafe looked at the road with a look of determination, he was going to find a way back home no matter what future obstacles were going to appear on his path.
And so he gave the first steps of his survivor adventure.
So this is the first chapter of my rewrite. I hope you people enjoy it.
I surely enjoyed writing it. I should have the new chapter this month.
Also remember to Review.