The Walking Dead Apocalypse

It wasn't even one hour near opening at the Finis where Tristan would wake up hung over like he had previously been for the past week. The lack of business he had been having had caused him into a drunken stupor, that and he had been completely isolated for the past couple of weeks. Tristan wasn't always alone, in fact most of the time he was either around his girlfriend Maryor his friend and co-worker Scott, but unfortunately for Tristan it was the worst time in history for him to be alone.

As he awoke from his faltering mattress dazzled like usual he asked himself, "What day is it". He had not been referring to the date, but in fact was asking himself how long it's been before Mary left. Tristan and Mary weren't an ordinary couple, they fought consistently and it always ended the same way, unresolved. Mary herself felt like she needed a break from their "relationship" and headed to her home town to stay with her mother for a few weeks so she could have time to think, well that's what she told him at least. As Tristan recollect these distressing memories he opens up the drapes letting the sun hit his face making his headache even more of an abomination

He did his usual routine, prepared the juice box, and warmed up the expired chicken wings and of course the liquor needed to be poured. Tristan's home lives within his own business; however his business isn't entirely his. His friend Scott and he had owned this bar for well over three years after they both left the military. This bar wasn't exactly something to be considered great, but then again the town near by isn't even considered great, so for them it works. This bar wasn't even in the town really; it was around twelve miles away from it. Both Scott and Tristan were never given permission to open a bar within the town, so instead they used the money they earned from the military to make one of their own and away from the town. It only took however long to attract customers, which are the kind that are fine driving twelve miles away from town just to have a drink. However, around the time Scott left for his hunting trip the amount of customers had been diminished the last few weeks to absolute zero.

Another day had passed with no customers at the Finis, and Tristan was always too drunk to ask why. He did however notice that he was running low on food so a run down to town had been needed, maybe he could ask why all his customers disappeared. The coming morning, on a Sunday, he decided to do his grocery shopping, heading into his 1977 Ford F-100 pondering where all his customers had gone.

One half-hour had passed before entering the town. He had a picture of Mary taped on the end of the windshield. Considering it was the only thing he had left of her after she left, he took it with him, regardless of the situation. Getting out of his truck he noticed no one was here. Not a sound worth hearing within the streets of town, not an odor worth smelling of the old hotdog stand that was around, and not a sight worth seeing of the people that this town inhabited.

Walking for about five minutes in the isolated town, he went inside the grocery store only to see it was empty. The smell of old dried out fruit had caught his nose when entering, and Tristan himself was starting to wonder what exactly is going on. The store shelves were about as empty as the streets, all that remained were a few stacks of old expired baby formula along with the milk that was past the date it needed to be thrown away.

Leaving the store with nothing, he noticed a figure about 40-50 ft. away from him, a person. At first Tristan waved and yelled "Hello!" to this man, but his back was turned and Tristan was mistaken with the idea that he did not hear him. He ran towards the individual, but with Tristan's intense hung-over headache it wasn't as quick as a normal person would run. Tristan was pondering everything he was going to as this person, starting with "Where the hell is everybody?" He had finally reached the individual stopping him, turning him around, seeing only that this person was not what he seemed.

This man, who had a face that looked like half of it was bitten off, had the eyes of something that terrified him. Whatever this thing was, it was no longer human. Tristan fell to the ground at the shock of this creature moments before it decided to attack him. It was slow, and Tristan slowly crawled away to get away from this beast. He reached his feet about to run, then seeing two more figures appearing out of nowhere. They were the same as the one behind him, the eyes made that clear to Tristan, and again he fell to the ground thinking to himself what the hell these creatures were before him. He became easily trapped within the three monsters circling him. Right before Tristan thought it was the end, the thought of Mary had breached his mind.

Take Us Back

One gunshot had pierced a walkers head, silencing him to Tristan's thoughts. Tristan looked up and saw the walkers behind also fall to the ground with the sound of a bullet. "Get up!" had been screamed to Tristan across the street with a man holding a revolver. Tristan immediately got up and ran past the final walker running towards this man. More walkers had immerged from the streets following him. Tristan reached this man who appeared to be more human than anything he's seen all day. He was a white male with long curly brown hair with Jefferson glasses on his face wearing black body armor. "Follow me," this man said. Tristan had no time to think, so with his instincts he listened to this man. They both ran into the building, peaking out seeing dozens of walkers coming towards the structure.

As this savior locked the doors sealing off any walkers from getting to them, he asked Tristan the alerting question of "What kind of stupid son of a bitch are you?"

Ignoring this man's question completely, Tristan reply's "What the hell were those things?" in a loud disoriented way.

This man looked at Tristan briefly, thinking to himself "who is this guy, and does he really not know anything?" and as that moment passed he asked Tristan, "Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Tristan, Tristan Oram," he replied.

"My name is Murray Cobbe, now I'll explain everything to you, but not here," said Murray, turning around walking forward telling Tristan to follow him up to the roof tops.

Following Murray, Tristan was losing his patience with Murray for the lack of answers he had been giving him, but he was thinking based on the situation he shouldn't be getting pissed off at the man who just saved his life.

Reaching the roof top, Tristan and Murray looks over the ledge seeing dozens more walkers surround the building. Murray still looking down to the herd says to Tristan, "we're going to have to wait the before we leave, there's no way we can escape a herd this size and get away with it."

Murray turns to Tristan and asks him "Where do you live?"

Tristan is starting to get fed up with Murray, but he replies with "I own the Finis about twelve miles from here. It makes it all clear to Murray now why Tristan doesn't know about the walkers, but at the same time he thinks to himself how it could possibly be so safe there.

"Damn no wonder you didn't know about the walkers," said Murray

Tristan has a flustered expression on his face and responds with, "a walker?"

"You really don't know what they are?" asks Murray, "they're the dead that walks the earth."

"The dead that walks the earth?" Tristan replies still flustered.

"Yeah, it's a little late to ask but you're not bit are you?" asks Murray.

Tristan looks over the ledge at the herd and replies "No, why?"

"If you get bit, you'll turn," replies Murray, "you really don't know anything at all do you?"

With the more answers Tristan gets, the more questions keep erupting inside his head. Tristan has absolutely no idea what a walker is, he started to feel like he was going mentally insane a little bit.

Murray looks up at the horizon for a moment and realizes it's going to be nightfall soon. "C'mon lets go inside, it'll get dark soon, we'll wait till morning to leave," says Murray. Tristan agrees and they both head back inside the building.

About one hour had passed, and all Tristan had done was look out the window at the herd of walkers on the street. The herd had no more intention on the building anymore, but there were still too many of them on the street for Tristan to go anywhere. All Tristan could keep thinking about was Mary; he started to fear that she might be dead. He began regretting how he acted towards her, he absolutely loathed the idea that she was alone with the possibility one of these monsters killed her, or even over the idea that she might now be a walker.

Murray looks over Tristan's shoulder and whispers "hey, you alive in there?" Tristan turns around and immediately responds saying "First thing tomorrow morning I need to go back to my bar."

Murray asks Tristan why, telling him it's pointless to stay in his home, one day the walkers will arrive there.

"I don't plan on staying, I just need to pack some things and leave," Tristan responds. Tristan walks passed Murray from the frustration of seeing the walkers.

"Where you headed?" asked Murray.

Tristan turned and faced Murray saying, "My girlfriend is living with her mother right now, need to find her as soon as I can."

"Alright, I might as well tell you this now rather than later," says Murray turning away to Tristan, "but you might want to acknowledge the idea she might be dead, don't get your hopes up too high anymore in this world."

"What, did you lose your family to the walkers or something?" asks Tristan. Murray slowly turns around back to Tristan with a very enraged look on his face. Tristan feels like he may have opened a door he wished not to walk through. Tristan knew that if he had lost Mary to these creatures then he would feel uncomfortable to talk about it with someone who asked, but at times like these it's best to be honest.

"No," replies Murray, "not exactly like that." Murray is debating with himself whether or not he should tell Tristan what truly happened to his family. He wonders if it's really appropriate to tell a complete stranger about what happened, but then again he realizes that everybody is a stranger to him now.

"Tristan, there's a few things you're going to need to know when surviving in this world, and the first is that the walkers are not the only threat out there." Murray stuttered.

"What do you mean?" Tristan asks.

"My family," Murray paused briefly, "they were taken from me by looters, and fiends who have succumb to the darkness this world spreads." Murray says. Tristan looks into Murray's eyes with fear and intolerance of what he thinks he's about to tell him.

"It was the first few early days when the apocalypse broke out, and I was with my wife and mother, learning how to protect them and survive, but one night everything changed," said Murray.

"What happened?" Tristan asks.

"That night, I woke up and heard my wife scream. I rushed outside and I see a group of men dragging her into a truck, along with my mother tied up in the back. I ran after them, but they drove away."

"Did you ever find them?"

Murray looks back up at Tristan. "Yes," he says, "but I was too late. I followed them, snuck myself into a camp desperately trying to find them. I walked into a tent, and I found my mother…"

"And?" Tristan asked. Tristan started to feel a sense of pity towards Murray at this point. Hearing all this he began to grow compassionate towards him.

"By the time I cut her loose, I the noticed her throat was slit." Replies Murray. Tristan stood there only being able to utter the words, "I'm sorry".

"I left that tent soaked with my mom's blood, and then I entered the next one. There I found a man who had his back turned facing my wife, still alive and tied up. I was angry about my mom, thought I could get even, so I slit his throat and took his gun. I freed my wife; we left the tent and ran for the truck. My last words to her were 'We're going to be okay,' and that was before she looked into my eyes one last time, before she got shot by the two looters. As my wife died in my arms, something inside my mind snapped."

"What did you do next?" Tristan asked.

Murray smiled at Tristan and began to laugh. "I shot both of them in the face with the gun I took, and then I took whatever equipment they had in that shit hole camp and left."

Tristan dropped his jaw and uttered the words, "Murray, I really don't know what to say." Murray began to chuckle at Tristan, and he looked out the window again onto the streets.

"Tristan, if you want to have any chance of finding your lady, you're going to need to know what must be done out there. You will meet people who will try to take what you have, and you must understand that taking a life might be the only way you can protect what you've got."

It had become nightfall, and being Tristan's first real night of the apocalypse it became hard for him to sleep. He kept thinking about Mary and what she might be doing right now, if she's still alive that is. Tristan began to feel guilty about her going to her hometown with her mother. He thought that if he could have just resolved a few things earlier then she might be safe within his arms.

Tristan heard a creek in front of his bed. He got up to look around but found nothing. He was thinking to himself "damn am I imagining things now?" He turned around, and saw Mary within the shadows. He stood there stuttering the words "Mary, is that you?" He walked closer and hugged her. As he leaned away and looked into her eyes, he realized it wasn't Mary; instead it was a walker with Mary's face.

Tristan woke up screaming covered in sweat. He firmly put his hand on his face saying "it was just a dream." He looked out the window and saw it was daybreak. He got out of bed and looked out the window only seeing a few walkers on the street, but it was something he could handle as long as he'd be quiet.

Murray had knocked on Tristan's door twice before he answered.

"Are you ready?" asked Murray

"Yeah," Tristan replied. "Just let me get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs. Murray nodded and closed his door. Tristan put on his white T-shirt and blue jeans. For some reason he went through his pockets, and he found the picture of Mary he grabbed before leaving his truck. He got up, looked at the picture and smiled before putting it back in his pocket. He walked down the stairs to meet Murray.

They ran out the door towards Tristan truck. They saw one walker in front of them. Murray told him he needed the practice, so he borrowed his knife and experience what it's like killing one of these things. Tristan was a little hesitant because he was afraid he would mess up and this thing might bite him, ruining any chance of him finding Mary, but he knew Murray was right.

He walked up to it and stabbed it three times in the chest, but it had no effect. Tristan backed up and asked Murray what he should do now. Murray shouted "Aim for the brain," and that's what Tristan did. Having the knife pierce the walker's brain and fall down, he turned back to Murray.

"It always has to be the brain man." Said Murray.

"Right, I'll keep that in mind," replied Tristan.

They entered the truck and drove off, leaving the town heading towards the Finis. Tristan ran over one walker along the way, looking into his mirror still seeing it crawl towards the truck. He backed up and ran over its head, silencing it. Murray looked at Tristan with disgust, and all Tristan could reply to was, "Hey, you said it always has to be the brain, man." Murray laughed.

During the ride Tristan and Murray were talking about themselves for a while, who they use to be, what they use to do, and eventually Murray asked, "How come I've never been to this bar before huh?"

"Ha, well Scott and I were never good at advertisement," Tristan replied.

"Scott?" Murray said, "Who's he?"

"He's my co-worker and best friend." Replied Tristan.

"Oh, he at the bar right now?"

"No, he left for a hunting trip about 3 weeks ago unfortunately."

"You think he's okay?"

Tristan laughed and said, "I think so, he's one tough son of a bitch, me and him were in the military together."

Murray began to laugh extremely hard at Tristan, and Tristan had to ask why.

"You have military training and the first thing you do is fall on your ass in the middle of danger?" Murray asked.

Tristan also began to laugh. "Yeah I guess so," Tristan replied.

Murray asked Tristan if he still had his tags. Tristan pulled them out of his shirt, not handing them to Murray but just giving him a glimpse. There was about a minute of silence in the car. Murray looked out the window and saw a grass field pass by, with a body that looked like it had been chewed up by walkers. Murray turned back at Tristan.

"So what's your bar called?" asked Murray.

"The Finis." Tristan replied.

"The Finis? Isn't that Latin for…" replied Murray.

"Latin for the end yes," Tristan said interrupting Murray.

They finally arrived at the Finis, and it was a clear as it had been for the past month. Murray looked at it for a moment and chuckled. He in a joking matter said, "Man, no wonder your customers stopped coming here."

They entered the bar. Tristan told Murray to pack anything that looked valuable enough for the road. Tristan went into his room. Packed all his clothes, photos and the shotgun he kept inside his closet. He looked at his room for a moment and was starting to think he is really going to miss this place, but the next moment he remembered that his bed in the most uncomfortable piece of furniture he and Mary had ever slept on.

Tristan walked to the bar, and he found Murray behind it with a bottle of whiskey and a glass. Tristan stopped and looked at him briefly before Murray would do the same.

"You don't mind do you? Forgot what whiskey tastes like." Murray said. Tristan just shrugged giving him the ok. He watched Murray poor his glass and slowly drink the whiskey, and Murray replied, "Man that's good, days like this make you forgot the good things in life huh?" Tristan just nodded.

Tristan walked up and grabbed his own glass to poor. He slowly drank the whiskey like Murray.

"You know, Mary loves Whiskey, I should bring a few bottles." Said Tristan

"You mean if you find her." Replied Murray

"No, when I find her." Tristan replied. Murray had a slight smile on his face, thinking about all the hope inside Tristan. He did not say it, but Murray had praised Tristan for that.

They walked out the bar, and before entering the truck again, Tristan looked at it one last time before leaving it forever. He began to remember one night he had at the Finis. The place was packed with customers, both Tristan and Scott kept pouring glasses full of whiskey, scotch and beer to their lovely customers, and Mary would always order a glass of whiskey, on the house of course. Tristan began to feel a little teary that he was about to leave this place, but he knew he had to find Mary before it was too late.

It was about 45 minutes before Tristan and Murray entered the town again. They left the truck heading towards the same building they spent the night in. All Tristan needed was a map to he could start looking for Mary.

Once Murray had given him his map, they left the building once again to have one final discussion.

"I couldn't be more grateful to you Murray, you saved my life." Said Tristan

"Don't worry about it." Murray replied.

"Is there anything I can do to pay you back?" asked Tristan

Murray stood there for a minute and grabbed his revolver on the side of his belt. He took it out and began to look at it.

"You know, this was the same gun I took from that loot, the same gun that I killed two people with." Murray said. He handed Tristan the gun, and Tristan didn't know what he was doing it for. Tristan liked the feel of the gun, but he would later regret that thought.

"You really want to show gratitude to me Tristan?" asked Murray.

"Yes" he replied.

Murray began to smile at Tristan and cry. "If you really want to pay me back, then you'll kill me right now."

Tristan backed up and shouted "What!" He didn't know what Murray was talking about, why on earth he would want him to kill him. "Why would you want me to kill you, that isn't being grateful for anything"

"I can't live in this world anymore Tristan, I've lost my family. I've been alone for too long. The only thing I ever see is the dead trying to take my life, so please, let me die by an actually living person instead."

"I…I can't," stuttered Tristan. "I'm sorry."

Tristan ran back inside the building towards the washroom. He kept splashing water in his face to get rid of all the sweat. He didn't want to kill Murray, it just wasn't in his blood. The entire reason why he left the military was because he didn't want to see his friends die, let alone him killing them.

Tristan began to imagine himself in Murray shoes. He would be alone every day getting over the loss of Mary, and he asked himself if he could live in this world alone. He then realized it would be the harsh thing to deny Murrays request.

Tristan walked back outside to Murray. He looked at him for a moment and smiled. Murray would do the same. He pointed the revolver at his face and began to cry. Murray began to smile and spoke his final words to Tristan, saying "Thank you."

Murray fell to the ground with a shot to the chest. Tristan fell to his knees and began screaming and crying at the same time. Tristan had now murdered a man. He looked into Murray's cold dead eyes, and closed them. Tristan kept whipping his own tears off Murray's face.

Tristan heard some sounds behind him. He turned around, and there were two walkers right before his eyes. He pointed the revolver at them. He looked for a moment and realized he knew both these people, or at least knew who they use to be. They were a couple who came to the Finis every Friday night. The man would order a tall glass of beer, and the girl would only ever have water. They were a happy couple.

Once again, Tristan began to think about Mary. He prayed to god that she didn't end up like these two. He feared he might have to put down Mary. Tristan noticed the walkers were getting closer and closer with every second that passed. He pointed the revolver back at them, and shot both in the head.

Tristan walked pass the two deceased bodies towards his truck. He looked at the revolver before entering and tucked it behind his jeans. He entered his car, emptying his pockets to get his keys. He found the picture of Mary again. Tristan began to cry again. He looked at the picture and said "Take me back, take us back." Tristan taped the picture to his windshield. He started the engine, driving down the highway towards the next town that awaits him.