Authoress Note: Here's the second chapter, hot and ready! Woo. Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Annie, Reggie and Emily.
Chapter Two
It'd been maybe two weeks since I found Annie. In that time, we laid low in some small suburbs, taking what we could where we could. When the time came to move on, I decided the safest route for us to take was back towards Atlanta. Last I heard from the emergency broadcast before the grid went black was to head there for a refugee center. It sounded like our best bet. My hatchback had been refueled and we made our way down the abandoned highway. Annie sat up front with me while Reggie sat calmly in the back.
"How much farther, Emmy?" asked the little girl with exasperation apparent in her voice.
"We should be nearing the city any minute. Have patience, kid." I kept my eyes on the road but smirked anyway.
The hatchback sputtered and lurched before the entire engine began to smoke. I cursed and pulled over to the side of the road.
"Friggin' Georgia! Why did the end of the world happen in hot, humid Georgia?" I groaned, getting out of the car to inspect the damage. Annie and Reggie followed me. I popped open the hood and waved a hand to clear the smoke.
"Are we stuck?" Annie asked, looking up at me with her big doe eyes.
I sighed and put my hands on my hips. "Looks like." I glanced at her as her blue eyes began to water. I nervously put my hands up. "But we'll be okay, no need to cry!" One thing I learned about Annie is that once she starts crying, she doesn't stop. Not for nothing.
"I don't want to be stuck!" she blubbered.
I knelt down beside her and took her in my arms. "Hey, come on now, we'll be okay. We're still together, aren't we?"
"Until you leave! Like Mom and Dad!" she cried.
I knelt there, stunned. I rubbed her arms and shook my head. "No, no sweetie. I promise I won't leave you."
She opened her eyes and squinted up at me with a beet-red face. "Pinky swear?" she raised her tiny hand and lifted her pinky in my face.
I smiled and nodded, doing the same. "Pinky swear."
Annie giggled as I stood up. I faced the front of the car again, this time wondering how I'd pull off a miracle to get this thing going. I braced my hands on each side of the hood, dipping my head to assess the situation, leaving Annie to her own devices.
The little girl and Reggie wandered off a few paces, looking around curiously. The sound of shuffling feet and a low growl made her turn around and scream. She collided with the back of my legs, causing me to hit my head on the car hood.
"Ow! Annie what's wr-" I lost my voice as I saw what had scared her and Reggie. The dog took his place between us and the undead creature and snarled menacingly. I immediately shoved Annie behind me and took hold of the baseball bat.
"Reggie, stay." My voice was even and calm, despite my mounting fear. The dog did as he was told. I took a few bracing breaths before lunging at the clawing monster. The bat collided with his head and I heard his skull crunch. He fell to the ground, motionless. I had little time to celebrate, because the racket attracted more of them.
Before I knew what was happening, I was surrounded. Knowing I couldn't fight them all off by myself, even if there were only 5 of them, I hauled Annie up by her arm and held her to my chest so she was straddling my hip.
"Reggie, come!" I yelled, hell-bent on fleeing. Reggie, however, wanted to fight. He stood his ground and barked fearlessly.
Annie screamed, hiding her face in the crook of my neck. I glanced around, not willing to leave my dog. Shit, shit, shit, shit... the mantra filled my mind as I hurried over to a nearby pickup truck.
"Stay here and hide. Do not come out, no matter what. Take this. Do you understand?" I whispered harshly, handing her the metal bat. She quickly nodded and took it. I pulled my rifle from over my shoulder and came to Reggie's rescue.
"Reginald, get back!" I commanded sternly, quickly grabbing him by his collar before he could take a juicy bite out of the leg of one of them. Who knew what might happen if he made contact with their diseased flesh.
I raised my rifle and took aim. A deafening crack echoed as I pulled the trigger. I heard Annie scream at the noise. One fell down in a heap. The loud sound seemed to excite them and the next four rushed towards me with renewed vigor.
"Shit!" I stumbled backwards, cocking the gun. I lifted it again and shot another between the eyes. Three left.
My feet moved of their own accord, frequently nudging Reggie further back. The dog's ears were flattened and his teeth were bared angrily. I couldn't risk him getting infected, too.
"Annie, call Reggie!" I shouted, cocking the rifle again.
"Reggie! Reggie!" I heard the girl obediently cry. Reggie's ears perked and his head swivelled around towards Annie's hiding spot. He stood a moment, unsure what to do. As I took aim for the next one, Reggie made up his mind and sprinted towards Annie. I breathed a sigh of relief and shot, but not after one of them surprised me at my side. They were flanking now? I tripped and fell into the open door of a compact car. I hastily slammed the door shut as the two left began beating at the window furiously.
I had precious little time to reload my weapon. I did with shaky hands, glancing up with terrified eyes to see how far they've broken the glass. It cracked flimsily. Abruptly, I turned around and reached for the passenger side door, which was dented from an accident caused by this mayhem. The car that had dented the door was still there, like the driver just got out and ran away after T-boning the side. It was jammed shut.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I whispered, grabbing my gun by its nose and smashing open the passenger window with the butt. I crawled out, narrowly avoiding being grabbed by a dead hand that crashed through the other window. Shattered glass scraped my upper thigh as I slid out, making me yell out in pain as it dug deep into my skin and ripped. I fell to the ground, holding my bleeding leg with both hands. My rifle fell beside me.
Feral growling reawakened my survival instincts, and despite the pain I grabbed the rifle and took aim. My arms shook and I felt faint from bloodloss. I swore and pulled the trigger, hitting one square in the cheek. It fell. One left.
It attacked and tackled me to the ground. I shrieked and dropped the gun. I instinctively raised my hands up to grab its neck so it wouldn't bite me. It's arms flailed a moment as I shoved him away from my body, trying to scratch me.
"Emily!" Annie ran up behind the corpse and hit it in the back of the head with the bat. Her aim was poor and her arms too weak to do any real damage. Instead, it just redirected its attention to her instead of me. It stumbled off of me and after her.
"Annie, no!" I tried to stand, only to find that my injured leg would not support my weight. I collapsed back down with a cry. Thinking fast, I looked for my rifle. I picked it up and took aim. Before I could pull the trigger, an arrow whizzed from out of our line of sight and straight into its head. The corpse fell, dead. Annie screamed and ran over to me, Reggie following. I looked up and saw three men walking out from the tree line across the road. The hair on the back of my neck prickled. My thoughts raced worriedly. I've met my share of looters and all around bad people since the world went down the crapper and I sure as hell would not let Annie experience anything like that. I struggled to stand, and with Annie's help, I held up my gun threateningly.
One dark haired man raised his hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa now. Take it easy, we're not gonna hurt ya. I'm Sheriff's Deputy Shane Walsh. This here's Daryl and Dale." My eyes shifted between them, lingering on the one with the crossbow maybe a bit longer than necessary, before lowering my weapon.
"We heard gunshots," said the older one, Dale. "Are you hurt? You're bleeding."
"Wasn't bit," I shot back, in case they got any ideas to shoot me in the head next. "Got trapped in that Saturn and crawled my way out the window. Glass caught my leg is all."
The one with the crossbow, Daryl, looked around as he stood a bit off from the other two. He made a mental count of the walkers. "You took down five geeks by yourself?" he asked, looking at the carnage.
I shrugged and nodded. "Didn't wanna die." I paused. "What did you call them? Geeks?"
"Got a better name?" he retorted, his steely blue eyes on me. I quickly looked away as Annie peeked out from behind my legs and tightly gripped my shirt with an iron grasp.
"Oh, who's this now?" asked Dale kindly, bending down with a friendly smile.
Still wary of them, I put a hand on Annie's shoulder and pushed her back behind me. Reggie watched beside her.
"Oh come on now, we won't bite. Daryl did just save you, after all." Dale glanced at the redneck with the crossbow. He stood there mutely.
"A-Annie," she said in half a whisper.
"And you?" Shane asked me.
I sighed, feeling lightheaded and leaned back on the car I'd recently crawled out of. "Emily. This is Reggie. Thanks for saving us. I guess."
"Hey, us living folk gotta look out for one another, right?" said Shane. "Now, look. We got a camp up by the quarry couple miles away. Why don't you come with us? You need your leg bandaged up."
I immediately refused. "No. We can take care of ourselves, thanks."
"But Emily..." Annie tugged at my shirt, giving me that big-eyed look that I secretly began to detest, "We haven't seen anyone else living before."
"We have food, water, shelter, women and other kids for you to play with, Annie." Dale smiled.
I debated for a moment before Annie's pleading gaze sent my resolve packing. "Oh, fine. If it means that much to you. Grab the pack from the car, first."
"Yes!" cheered Annie, "Come on, Reggie!" She took the dog by his collar and led him towards the broken down car.
"Here, I gotcha." Shane offered me a helping arm. Reluctantly, I took it and hobbled back to their camp.
Authoress Note: That's Chapter Two! Please be kind if you want to leave feedback or comments. As always, constructive criticism is always welcomed.