"People forget that when civilization ends, it ends fast." -Tobias, Fear the Walking Dead
The engine sputtered for a moment before stopping, the car slowly coming to a halt. The Georgia sun was shining brightly and heatedly on the disastrous landscape below. Thankfully, it was a little after midday, so Tiana wasn't in too much of a bad place, but it didn't help that the only form of transportation she had just died.
A sigh came from the backseat. "We should've checked for gas when we were on that highway," Céline, a friend of Tiana's, mumbled. Céline Mallory and Tiana Perez had been in the same group of survivors just two weeks prior - Tiana, who had been on her own at the time, was having a little difficulty taking down a small horde of dead brains, Céline had saved her life. Unfortunately, Tiana would only be with the group for a total of five days before a horde of dead brains - bigger than anything Tiana's ever faced - had been passing through their campsite and nearly devoured everyone there. Tiana tried saving as many people as she could, but Céline had grabbed her hand and forced her to run before she could get herself killed. The "dead brains" were the reanimated, the living dead. Those killing machines, granted they were slow as hell, were persistent in their hunger for the living. Tiana lost track of how much time had gone by since everything went downhill - in the beginning of the outbreak, reports were saying an "unknown virus" was going global, infecting millions in an instant. Then after getting the virus, there had been reports of "cannibalization," and then came the topic of "zombies." It all went to shit from there.
"There were too many dead brains for me to check," Tiana said, her voice clipped. "Even with two of us, we wouldn't have been able to take them."
Céline leaned forward, resting her chin on the shoulder of the driver's side seat. Her dirty blonde hair had been pulled back into a ponytail, her green eyes tired and irritated. "What're we supposed to do now?" she asked.
"Walk."
"Where?"
"Anywhere."
Sighing, Céline gave Tiana a dry look. "How are we going to find a place before nightfall?" she grumbled.
"By not arguing in a dead car," Tiana exclaimed.
Without another word, Céline and Tiana climbed out of the car, grabbed their backpacks, and slung them over their shoulders. They had spent a decent amount of time on the road, jumping from place to place, trying to find as many supplies as possible. At the moment, their food was tight and water wasn't looking too good either, especially with the Georgian heat making their throats dry almost immediately.
"There should be a town a couple miles from here," Tiana said.
"We're pretty exposed." Céline looked around; they were walking down a relatively big dirt road, woods on either side of them. "We should walk in the wooded area."
Thinking it over, Tiana nodded wordlessly. If they could follow the road from the woods, then they wouldn't be so easily detected from others - that is, if no one else was in the woods with them. As they walked over, Tiana took out her machete while Céline took out her knife.
The shade felt nice, but didn't ease the heat up too much.
Keeping her machete raised slightly in case of an attack, Tiana kept a close eye on her surroundings. If she and Céline were going to make it to the next town alive, they needed to have a sharp eye on everything.
In the back of her mind, Tiana knew that if she had been told two years ago that she'd be surviving the end of the world, she would've laughed. There's no way in hell something like that could actually happen! You're insane. Tiana could imagine herself saying something like that. The end of the world was always something people read in books, played in video games, or watched in movies or cheesy TV shows. Especially if it involved zombies. Zombies had been pretty popular. All those movies and shows and video games gave people a false sense of hope that if the zombie apocalypse did happen, they'd know what to do and what not to do.
Turns out no one has a single clue on how to survive the apocalypse.
—Under Pressure—
Tiana was sitting on the edge of her seat, her hands clasped in front of her mouth as she watched the news in silent horror. Reports of cannibalization were starting to rise - anyone who'd been infected with the virus, at least in the later stages, would attack other people and eat them. The worst part? Those who were attacking looked almost dead.
A sharp knock on Tiana's locked front door snapped her out of her horror.
Grabbing her handgun, Tiana quietly rushed over to the door before looking out the peephole. She let out a sigh of relief. Opening her door, she was greeted with the horrified face of her friend (and roommate), Miley.
Quickly letting Miley in before closing and locking the door, the two women embraced.
"You had me worried sick!" Tiana exclaimed, looking at her friend anxiously. "What took you so long?"
Miley looked as pale as a ghost, her eyes wide and glazed over. "It is. . . .I don't even know," she stammered. "People are going crazy. They're hitting the stores first, the pharmacies - people are literally rioting out there."
Tiana could faintly hear the commotion from the streets below from her apartment, but she didn't dare go look. Miley had volunteered to go to the store and pick out whatever nonperishables she could get, despite Tiana telling her not to.
"You're making me nervous with that gun, Tia," Miley mumbled.
She silently put the handgun down. "What did you get?" Tiana asked.
"I got some soup, some canned beans, and one thing of canned corn." Miley laid what she got on Tiana's kitchen counter. It wasn't much, but it added to their growing collection. When news of the virus started getting really bad, that was when everyone started stocking up on the essentials - medicine, canned foods, any cleaning supplies they could get their hands on. Miley stocked up on the nonperishables, Tiana had gotten the medicine (or as much of it as she could afford).
"When is this going to blow over?" Tiana mumbled.
Miley shook her head.
It can't get any worse than this, can it? Tiana thought, unconsciously biting her bottom lip.
Author's Note:
I know it took a while for this chapter to be posted, but here it is. Let me know what you think of it. Was it good? Was it bad? Was it meh?
Do I own TWD? No. No I don't.
In case there was any confusion on the first chapter: Tiana and Celine are friends; Céline saved Tiana from some walkers, then brought Tiana back to her group; Céline's and Tiana's group is dead after a big herd devoured them; Miley was Tiana's old roommate and friend from before the outbreak. I'll be sure to add more information on Tiana as the story goes on.
Leave a review on how I can improve.
Sully