"Trust no one, for even your shadow abandons you in the dark." –Bob Marley
As Glenn and I quietly entered the city limits I bit my lip. There were Walkers everywhere. "Sam maybe we should-" But I ignored him and tried to drive around them, but it was like trying to drive through a pack of cattle. Then one of them must have figured out we were alive because they started to limp towards us. I had to turn around and race back outside the city before they got to us. When we had gotten far enough away I finally stopped and threw my helmet to the ground.
"God dammit!" I cursed. "How in the Hell are we supposed to get through them?" I was furious. I was so close to my family yet so far. That whole damn town was just crawling with Walkers. I was more worried for them than ever.
"Sam, you and I know this city. We can maybe cut through stores, rooftops, places they can't get in."
"Or we could find a car." I suggested. "I love B.W., but she can't protect us like a car can."
"Cars are too loud. And it wasn't the bike that gave us away it was our scent; they can smell that we're not dead."
"I'm not rolling around in zombie guts." I said simply. I let out a long sigh. "Let's try the rooftops."
"Alright, and no guns. If we attract a horde in there we're in a world of hurt." I sighed and pulled out my gun, showing Glenn that I was tucking it inside my backpack with the safety on.
"Let's go, before it gets dark." I suggested. I grabbed the keys to Black Widow to make sure no one would steal her, putting them in my pocket for safe keeping as Glenn and I crept to the city limits. I saw about four Walkers and slowly pulled out my machete.
"Sam, wait-" But I had already sliced the first ones head in half before he could speak. I crept up behind the next one and lobbed off its head. I stabbed the third through the back of his skull and when the fourth turned around to see what was going on I slashed his head in half. I felt a shiver creep up my spine as I recognized one of the Walkers as my family's mailman.
"Don't look at the faces, they're not who you remember anymore." Glenn said as he walked up behind me. "We better keep moving." I followed behind him as we got to a fire escape and climbed up as slowly as possible. Luckily all the windows were shut and the Walkers inside the building couldn't get to us. Glenn got to the roof first and helped me up. We walked to the edge of the building and I felt my heart drop. My families shop looked like it was a million miles away, and the ground was spotted red like blood with Walkers. Glenn felt as disheartened as I did I was sure.
"Glenn, where's your family? Maybe they're closer-"
"My family's in Atlanta." He said simply. I remembered me snapping at him for wanting to go to Atlanta. But from what I'd heard before the media blackout it was almost as bad as Savannah.
"Then why did you come back?" I asked.
"I knew there was no way I'd get to Atlanta on foot, I came back for my car. Should make things a lot easier."
"Where's your car?"
"My house, right there." He pointed to a spot halfway between us and my family's shop.
"Perfect, we can pick up your car, drive to the shop, and then drive out of here."
"Well, except that it's out of gas."
"Shit."
"I was trying to siphon some from that car I was stranded on when the Walkers found me." I sighed. Looked like we were on for getting to the shop and then Glenn's car. Then I felt a cold realization hit me.
"How many people does your car hold?" I asked. He looked at the ground. "Glenn?"
"Four, five at the absolute most." I felt so defeated. If my entire family [i]was[/i] still alive, we might not be able to get them all out. We don't have any cars at the shop, we build bikes, which aren't very useful in a thicket of Walkers like this. "That's why I didn't tell you." He said quietly.
"We'll figure it out if we can get to the shop. We have gas there I'm sure."
"Unless it's been looted." Glenn said quietly.
"Well, it's better than sitting here waiting to die. Now how do we get there?"
"Staying on the rooftops is the safest bet," He looked back at me. "I hope you can jump pretty far." He said after a long pause.
"We'll find out." I said quietly. "Let's go." We walked to the edge of this rooftop and saw it was only a three foot drop down to the next one, easy enough. As we continued we saw the next roof would be a bit of a challenge. It was six feet up. "Give me a boost and I'll pull you up." I said. He nodded and helped me grab the ledge and I pulled myself up. I looked up to see six Walkers coming towards me.
"Sam?"
"Hold on Glenn!" I said as I ran at them, slicing and hacking as quietly as I could. But one swiped at me and I fell back to keep him from getting killed. He was about to strike again when I shoved my machete through his face. He dropped on top of me and I leapt up, barely pulling my knife out of his head before the next Walker lunged, but I managed to rip it out and slice the last one in the face just in time.
I reached down and offered Glenn my hand, helping him up. He saw the Walker and whistled. "Definitely a good idea to keep you around." He said smiling. But his smile dropped when he turned to me.
"What?" I asked. He grabbed my sweatshirt and lifted it up, that's when I saw the blood. But the look on his face was one of relief.
"It's theirs." He promised. I looked at my stomach and was relieved to see that there were no bites or scratches.
"Thank God." I said. We walked over to the edge of the roof and the fear came back. There was a good six foot gap between them and a five story drop to the street below.
"Well, I guess we're finding a way around-" But I was already getting a running start and I pushed off the building. I felt like I was flying through the air as I sailed between the rooftops. Way around my ass. I landed rolling like how I saw in the movies and stood up, smiling at Glenn. He just shook his head. "You've really got to stop doing that." He said.
"Just jump." I teased. He went back and got a running start like I had, but he pushed off too early and tripped. Instinct kicked in and I reached out and grabbed his hands out of the air as he hit the side of the building with a loud smack.
"Owww." He moaned. I dug my feet into the ground and pulled him up. It took a while, and some climbing on his part, but I finally gave one last pulled and he landed on top of me. We both were breathing heavily, but then Glenn realized where he was and turned bright red, jumping up and apologizing and I couldn't help but smile. He helped me to my feet as we walked over to the edge of this roof.
"Are you okay? It sounds like you hit that wall pretty hard."
"I'm fine." He promised. We continued to leap from roof to roof and my shop was looking within reach. When we were as close as the rooftops cod take us I took in a sharp breath. The shop was surrounded by Walkers and the ground was the only way over there. I sat down in defeat.
Now what?
Glenn and I scanned everywhere around the shop until I saw it. "Glenn, over there." I pointed to a car across the street from us.
"So?" He asked.
"If we break that glass the alarm will go off, the noise might be enough of a distraction for us to get over there." We looked around for something to break the glass with, finally Glenn found a few bricks.
"You didn't play softball by chance, did you?" He asked.
"Nope." I admitted.
"Well, then let's just hope we're both good shots." He said. We took aim and let the bricks fly. I hit the hood of the car, but Glenn smashed in the windshield and the alarm went off. The Walkers crawled over immediately as we made our way down a fire escape. I waited to drop down until all of them were over there and then booked it to the shop, Glenn right behind me.
I grabbed my keys and hastily unlocked the door and shoved it open without much trouble. We stumbled inside and shut the door, locking it behind us. I smiled. We made it.
I spun around to see my house. It was empty and all the lights were off, but maybe they were just hiding. "Mom? Dad? Simon? Jason?" I called out their names, but there was nothing. "Guys?" I felt like my stomach had turned to lead as I ran up the stairs. I threw open the door to Jason and Simon's room, empty; same with mine. I felt like time itself had stopped as I walked to my parents room. "Mom? Dad?" I slowly opened the door and flipped on the light. My heart stopped.
They were dead.
My eyes began to fill up with tears. This couldn't be happening, I had been coming here to save them, I had to save them. I managed to stumble over to the bed and looked at them. They'd been dead for a while and there was an empty pill case next to the bed. My legs gave out from under me as I stared, frozen. I think Glenn might have said something, but I couldn't hear him. They were both clutching something, I somehow managed to make myself grab it from them. I unfolded it to see a photo of Jason, Simon and I from when we were little. On the back there was writing:
Sam,
We tried to wait for you, but we just couldn't wait any longer. Jason and Simon heard that there were survivors in Atlanta and went there to find you, but we just couldn't keep going. We've fought long enough Sam. Remember that we love you, we always have and we always will. Please don't cry for us, we'll all be together again someday. We love you.
I crumpled to the floor, tears streaming down my face as I clung to my mother's hand. This couldn't be happening. If I could have been here they would still be alive. We could have gotten through this together. I felt an arm on my shoulder and turned and clutched Glenn to me, crying into his shoulder. He just held me as I cried for what felt like an eternity. Finally I was able to choke back my tears and wiped them from my face.
"Sam, I'm so sorry." Glenn whispered. I just shook my head and shakily stood.
"Can we bury them?" I asked.
"Probably not." He admitted. I sighed and settled for pulling the blanket over their faces. It would have to do until I could come back and give them a proper burial.
"I have to find my brothers," I looked at my parents again. "I owe them that much. And then we can find your family too."
"Alright." He said simply. "We should stay here tonight though and head out in the morning, it's already getting dark."
I simply nodded. "We'll sleep in Jason and Simon's room." I walked out of my parent's room behind Glenn looking at them one last time before turning off the light and locking the door. I led Glenn to Jason and Simon's room and we set down our things. "I don't think we have any hot water left, but it should still be running if you want to wash up." I offered.
"Thanks." He said quietly. He was about to walk out when he turned back to me. "Sam."
"Yes?"
"We'll find your brothers."
"I hope so." I said simply. I slipped off my jacket and crawled under the covers of Simon's bed and eventually fell into a restless sleep.
I ran as fast as I could into the bank and slammed the safe shut. We had rigged the inside so that it was now the only place you could open it from. It just seemed safer that way. I thought it was ironic that we would burn the money inside the safe to stay warm at night, it was useless now. The only currencies were sex, blood, and weapons. The first was pretty much out for me and the other two women in our group for obvious reasons, we didn't feel like dying and we had no weapons. But they did. That's why I was hiding from them. I listened as the others ran up to me and started to bang on the safe door.
"Sam! Let us in!"
"Jesus, they set the place on fire, we have to go now!"
"We'll be fine, the safe is fireproof, right Sam? Now let us in!" I crawled away from the door. "Sam it's us! Let us in!" They were getting angry now, pounding on the door.
"Why isn't she opening the safe?"
"Fucking coward! Open the damn door!" I could tell they were furious as I crawled further and further back into the safe and hugged my knees to my chest, shaking from head to toe. I could feel the warmth of the fire outside, then I heard their voices, pleading, begging me to help them as the gunfire crept closer and closer…
I sat up covered in a thin layer of sweat. It took me a second to realize where I was. I looked over to see Glenn sitting by the window, watching. "More bad dreams?" He asked, not turning to look at me.
"You could say that." I muttered. "I can take the watch now."
"We don't really need to take watch, this place is reinforced with steel everywhere I've looked, and the Walkers set off another car alarm, so they're down the street having fun with that."
"Then why are you up?" I asked. He turned and looked at me.
"I figured that we don't want you screaming in your sleep, figured if it got too bad I could wake you up."
"Thanks." I said.
"What was it about?"
"Huh?"
"Your nightmare, what was it about?" I remembered them screaming.
"Savannah." I said quietly.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked quietly.
"No." He just nodded and looked back out the window. We were both quiet for a long time before Glenn spoke.
"Come 'ere for a second." He said finally. I crawled out of bed and slid over to where he was and looked out the window at the giant full moon, shining brilliantly in the sky as the stars glittered around it. "That's where your parents are now Sam." He said pointing to the stars. "It's better up there for them." I felt a small smile spread across my face.
"You're right." I whispered. Glenn turned around and looked at me.
"Thank you, for saving me, twice now." He said, chuckling. "I don't know how I'll ever repay you."
"Well, if I ever get trapped on the roof of a car or fall off the edge of a building, it'll be your time to shine." I teased.
"Very funny. That was a long jump."
"It was six feet." We both chuckled as we sat in the moonlight. And for the first time in a long time I felt happy. I felt like I did before everyone started killing each other. It was like life was back to normal again, sitting there with Glenn. And I found I couldn't wipe my smile off my face.
But then I remembered my parents, dead in the other room. But I wouldn't give up. I may have lost them, but Jason and Simon were still out there,
and I had to save them.