"What?" Callum twisted the dials a little more until the crackling noise dimmed. "Hello? Can you hear us?" They both listened eagerly but only silence responded. "Hello?" He repeated before frantically examining the radio for a second and then flicked a switch on the side. "Hello? Can you hear me?" For a moment there was nothing and then the voice returned.
"Please, help me!" It was a young voice, soft and child-like, frightened. Callum didn't know whether he could be heard at the other end, but he responded anyway.
"This is Callum Valentine; I'm here with Amber Redfield… We're at an estate in Athens, Georgia. The Hawthorns." He paused for a second but after not getting a reply; he continued desperately hoping his message was being heard. "Who is this? Where are you?" Realising his questions weren't getting through; Callum slumped back from the radio and sighed. Placing a one hand on Callum's shoulder and the other to her mouth she mumbled.
"What now? We can't just leave them out there…" She asked as emotions built inside her, a tear formed in the corner of her eye.
"I don't know. We can't just go roaming the streets in hope that we'll find a child wandering about. We don't even know where they a-" As if the child at the other end had now heard him, it replied.
"I'm scared! I'm at the Sherriff's office in Athens-Clarke! 325 East Washington Street! Please, help me!" Callum bolted up right and a smile beamed over Amber's face. Quickly they turned and routed through the draws and cabinets around the house. Finding a map of the city their excitement distracted them from their fear from what was roaming outside. Dashing to the dining table, they spread the map and searched for signs of where they were. As Callum's eyes darted across the page trying not to miss a giveaway off where the Hawthorns was.
"East Washington!" Amber squealed with happiness as she pointed their destination out to Callum.
"Right, so if we came in from the West, we turned up here… and then…" Between yesterday's shocks and tiredness he couldn't remember which route they'd taken but at least now he had a rough idea of where they should be. "Got it!" Straight down Hawthorne Avenue down a private road laid The Hawthorns. "So, if we go to the end here, down Prince Ave, continue to North Jackson Street then turn right, it's the…" He counted the squares on the map. "Second building on the left." He stepped back and studied his planned route. Amber nodded and began to roll up her sleeves ready for the adventure. Noticing her energy lifting, Callum turned to her. "No!"
"What?" She asked, slightly taken aback by his sudden outburst. He looked at her and said in a stern voice.
"You can't come!" Disobedience flickered in her eyes; she hated being told 'no'. "It's dangerous out there! I can't risk you getting hurt." His eyes however were filled with love for his friend, when Amber saw this she backed down and nodded.
"I guess you'll need the extra space on your bike for the kid anyway…" She said folding the map up and putting it into his pocket. "Besides, you'll need someone to let you back in when you get back!" She didn't even contemplate the possibility that he might not make it back. She knew he was tough enough to hold his own, but he was also smart enough to know when to retreat. He always played the role of the Hero, but if things got too risky, he wouldn't just hand himself over to death and leave Amber to fend for herself. Callum smiled and kissed her on the forehead.
"Stay here; look out on the balcony, when I return just run down and let me in. Do not open that door for anybody other than me!" The tone in his voice became a lot darker; she knew that he was serious. After a quick hug, Callum turned and headed for his motorcycle.
"Be careful!" Amber called to him as the door to the apartment closed behind him. Feeling a sudden sense of loneliness, she looked around the empty room and tugged at the sleeves of her favourite jumper. Stepping out onto the balcony, she squinted in the midday sun as she watched Callum speed off on his rescue mission.
In the Sheriff's office, Kaira Edwards had locked herself in the bathroom with nothing but the Sheriff's handheld transceiver.
Kaira was the twelve year old daughter of Sheriff James Edwards. She was of average height, her blonde hair tied in pigtails and her piercing blue eyes glistened under the fluorescent bulbs in her charming surroundings. Dressed in a blue and white check patterned school dress, she sat atop the closed lid of her glamorous throne with the transceiver held tightly to her chest and tears streaming down her pale cheeks. Frilly white socks and black ballet slippers dressed the ends of her long, skinny legs. Being the Sheriff's daughter, Kaira was brought up well; she'd been well educated and taught to respect others always being told "treat others how you expect to be treated." She was friendly, polite and had always been 'daddy's little princess'.
She had been in an American History class at school the day before when her father had entered the classroom with a sorrowful look on his face and after a few hushed words with the teacher, Kaira was dismissed from class. Outside the classroom, James had told his daughter that her mother and two brothers had been in an accident. After an emotional embrace, he comforted his daughter to the car outside. James knew what was going on, his wife and children hadn't been in an accident, they'd been attacked and had become infected with the virus but he wasn't about to enforce that harsh image onto his daughter. It wasn't long before Kaira was subjected to comparable images. As they slowed into the back a traffic jam, the Sheriff became uncharacteristically agitated, honking the car horn and shouting at the drivers ahead as if that would cause the traffic to suddenly be free to move. That's when it began, people screamed as they left their vehicles and ran back past Kaira and her father, terrified expressions blurring by the window sent fear shivering down the young girls spine.
"Daddy?" She croaked as she gripped onto his hand. James looked through the screeching stampede and saw that the 'accident' that had killed half of his family was heading their way. Between the abandoned cars, Walkers were stumbling through, knocking into each other, bumping into open doors, breaking off wing mirrors and sinking their teeth into any unfortunate soul who wasn't fast enough to escape.
"Hold on tight sweetheart!" James shifted gears, checked his mirrors and slammed his foot down. Reversing away from the horde of murderous cannibals, he spun the car around as Kaira clung to her seat, her eyes catching a glimpse of the Walkers heading her way. As James flicked the gears, he spun the wheel and they raced around the corners.
Pulling up to the Sheriff station, James slung open his door, grabbed his shotgun and rushed to help his daughter from the car. As they entered the office, they barricaded the doors with a big wooden desk and as James stayed with his eyes glued on the doors and windows, he instructed his daughter on how to work his transceiver and call for help. By the time the sun had set, they'd still heard nothing from the speaker as they flicked through various channels. Kaira was beginning to get tired and so she'd decided to take a nap in the overnight holding cell, after failing to stay asleep for more than half an hour she decided to get up and check on her father. As she walked back into the office, she noticed James had fallen asleep at his desk, shotgun resting by his leg and radio still held in his hand. Smiling at the sight of her father's peaceful slumber, she decided she'd get a glass of water and head back to the bed. Making her way over to the water fountain she held her glass beneath the tap and watched as the water arched into her glass.
A second later, the glass was shattered on the ground accompanied by a chilling scream which startled James to his feet. As she lifted her head from the fountain, Kaira had looked to the window, two glowing grey eyes stared back at her. Blood soaked teeth snarled as the Walker spotted the young girl on the other side of the glass. With the scream, more passing Walkers had been attracted to the building and within sixty seconds, the office was surrounded by a large horde of hungry stomachs.
"Kaira, come here…" Her father ordered quietly, his eyes fixed on the windows once more as the shotgun found its way into his hold once more. He aimed the barrel of his gun at the window and froze. If he shot now, the window would smash and the Walkers would be in, he needed to be smart. Using his brain, he quickly created a plan. If he could make it out of the front doors, he could try and draw the zombies away from the building insuring his daughters safety, he could lose the feeders as he ran round the block and get back inside to safety.
"Daddy!" Kaira whispered as she clung to her father's side, Walkers banging against the windows. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and lowered the gun. Crouching down to her height, he took her by the shoulders and looked directly to her eyes.
"Kaira, daddy's going to go on an errand okay?" She knew from the tone in his voice that he was leaving her, her eyes began to well up with tears. "Take this and go hide!" He passed her the transceiver from the desk. "Keep calling for help, tell them where we are! Tell them they need to come and help us!" As he spoke he was scribbling down the office address on a post-it note. "Whatever you do, whatever you see or hear, do NOT leave this place until somebody comes to help you! Understand?" Kaira nodded as she wiped tears from her cheek. James gave her a loving embrace and kissed her head as he pulled her close. His emotions began to show as he realised the danger in his plan, but if he didn't get these Walkers away from here, they could both be dead soon. Wiping a single tear from his eye, he kissed her forehead once more and rose to his feet, giving her a gentle push he grabbed his shotgun. "Go!" As she ran into the bathroom, he called out to her. "Kaira, I love you!" Breath shuddered from his lungs as he heard her lock the door. Looking around at the gang of flesh thirsty eyes glaring at him through the office windows, he tried to shake away his fear and carefully pulled the desk away from the door, just enough for him to squeeze through.
"If you're hungry you're going to have to work for your food!" He shouted as he got to the street. The Walkers hearing the noise and smelling the fresh smell of meat turned on him instantly and within seconds, the chase was on. James Edwards watched as one by one the Walkers clumsily stepped towards him. Making sure they were all giving him their attention and not the office he'd left his daughter in, he closed his eyes for a second in prayer and then sprinted off down the road with the Walkers in tow.
As the sun rose the next day, Kaira lifted her head from the cold tiled wall and yawned. As her eyes came into focus, so did the memories of last night. Carefully she made her way to the bathroom door and slowly turned the lock. Poking her head around the door, she searched the room but her father wasn't there. At first she was drenched with worry but after a second her heart relaxed as hope suggested he just wasn't back yet. Swinging the door fully open she yelped. A Walker stood aimlessly looking around the room; it must've forced its way through the small gap in the door her father had left as he exited. As it noticed Kaira, its eyes flickered with some form of life and with a groan it reached out its arms and headed straight for the young girl. Grabbing the door handle, Kaira pulled it closed as she backed into the bathroom, instantly turning the lock again. Fumbling with the handle and the lock, she dropped the transceiver on the hard, cold floor. As the Walker banged against the door violently, trying to get at its next meal, Kaira moved backwards. As fear began to overcome her, she grabbed for the hand held radio and sitting back on the toilet seat she followed her father's instructions and called out for help. Over and over she begged for someone to come to help her, reciting the address she'd memorised from the post-it.
"Help me…!" She pleaded again and again. Due to the panic in her heartbeat and lack of a clock, she hadn't noticed that she'd been sat in there for over three hours. She'd even missed the fact her butt was starting to ache against the cold, plastic seat of the toilet she was sitting on. As if on auto-pilot she just kept repeating the same phrases into the transceiver. It was only when the scratching and banging on the door stopped that she broke out of her self-inflicted trance. She listened as a heavy thud hit the floor outside the door and then silence.
"Hello?" A voice on the other side made Kaira's eyes widen and a smile tried to force itself onto her lips. "Is somebody in there?" It was a man's voice, not her father's, but it was kind and gentle, not there to hurt her, and if he wasn't going to hurt her, he was there to help. She leapt from the toilet seat and charged to open the locked door. Pushing the handle she found that she still couldn't get out. "Oh! Hold up a second..." The man outside pushed the slumped corpse out from the way of the door and opened it to the sight of Kaira beaming at him. She ran over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist as happiness, relief and a new sense of safety made her smile from ear to ear.
Callum was stood there with his wrench gripped tightly, blood splatter across his overalls, some dried and some still quite fresh. He placed his other hand on the young girls head, trying to comfort her; he hadn't had much experience with children. After a minute had passed they parted their hug and looked at each other.
"You okay kid?" He asked as her dazzling blue eyes grinned back at him. She nodded then forgetting how informal their situation was, she remembered the manners that she'd been taught. Holding out her hand, she introduced herself.
"I'm Kaira. Kaira Edwards. Pleased to meet you, sir." She said as her smile continued. Callum was slightly taken aback by her politeness but under the current circumstances, it was quite refreshing to meet someone so gracious and so he shook her hand and introduced himself too. After a brief story of what had happened, Callum sighed, he knew that if Kaira's father was not back yet, he probably wasn't going to be alive, but to spare the child's feelings, Cal decided that they'd leave him a note to say where they'd gone, just in case.
"Is this what you used to call us?" He asked Kaira as he noticed the hand held she was holding. Nodding again she passed it to him.
"But I think it's broken!" She said disappointedly. "I dropped it and now there's no sound coming from the speaker." She explained. Callum looked it over, tested it and then decided he'd still take it with them, it may have its uses yet. After scribbling a message, including The Hawthorns' address on a large sheet of paper and pinning it to the wall next to a map of the city, Callum took hold of Kaira's hand and headed to the door. Then he stopped in his tracks as he spotted something, something that could come in very useful. Being the Sheriff's office, it had a small collection of weapons; pistols, shotguns, boxes of ammunition, knives, pepper spray and TASERs displayed neatly in a glass cabinet. Obviously, the arsenal was only for the use of the Sheriff and his officers, but Callum was sure that they wouldn't mind in this case. He loaded as much as he could into a nearby black bag and continued out of the door without a word. Lifting Kaira onto the back on his bike, he warned her to wrap her arms around him and hold on tight before they set off on their way back to The Hawthorns.
That evening, as the sun set, introductions and stories had finished and they'd each had a cold shower, Amber and Kaira sat on the sofa of number 98 and allowed each other braid their hair, forgetting the world outside once more. Callum sat at the dining table with his tool box, the Sheriff's broken transceiver and the old fashioned radio they'd brought down from the apartment upstairs. He figured that since one had a working speaker and the other worked to send messages that if he could link them somehow they'd be able to broadcast properly and receive replies of any other survivors out there. Being a mechanic, he usually worked on vehicles and larger home appliances but he had fixed the odd radio or games console for friends and so he seemed to know what he was doing. As he got stuck in, a plan for the future began to form in his head. A plan to rebuild lives, a plan to survive.
"Yes!" He cheered triumphantly as he got the radio to switch back on. He'd linked the two together with wires and cables going from one to the other. Amber and Kaira jumped up from their seats and moved over to the chairs around the table, waiting excitedly to see if it would work both ways. He twisted the dials on the front of the old radio and set it at the frequency of '500 kHz" he then lifted the hand-held, turn the dials on the top and then pressed down the button on the side. Taking a deep breath he began to talk.
"This is Callum Valentine broadcasting on the emergency frequency. Is anybody out there? We've found a sanctuary, untouched by the infection, safe. There's still food, running water, soft beds… enough room for many more survivors. We're located at The Hawthorns, just off Hawthorne Avenue in Athens-Clarke, Georgia… If you're out there, we will help you, there is hope…"