A/N: Ch.3 of Walk With The Dead. If you're wondering what the characters look like here is a list of the actors I imagine each character as. Thomas: Dylan O'brien, Tyler: Kyle Gallner, Maria: Victoria Justice, Renea: Nina Dobrev, Nick: Liam Aiken, Ben: Dave Franco, Lena: Anna Kendrick, Doug: Kurtwood Smith, Trisha: Mary Steenburgen. Still working on who I'm gonna use for Blake. Any suggestions are great. If you don't recognize any names google image them.
WEEKS LATER
We had been on the road for weeks, staying out of any metropolitan areas. I surveyed Atlanta from the ridge of a rock quarry just outside the city limits.
"If there is a refugee camp in there it's well hidden." I said as I handed the binoculars to Doug.
"Think it's worth it?" Nick asked.
"I say we hang out up here for a day, make a plan." I answered. I stared at a billow of smoke pouring from the city center. "There seems to have been a seriously large explosion recently. Walkers should've been drawn to it, clearing the edges some."
We set up camp and huddled around a small fire, trying to keep it warm and dim.
"So whats the plan?" Kylie asked.
"We make our way in slowly, if the herds get too thick we turn around." I said.
"What if we enter on the wrong side?" Lena asked.
"The Military is guided to set up rescue centers in the middle of cities. Makes it easier to find." I answered.
"How do you know?" Ben asked.
"Five years in the Marines." I replied. "Basic emergency relief."
"What'd everyone else do before this?" Lena asked the group.
"Retired as can be." Doug said and Trisha smiled. "Before that I was a mailman and Trisha tought science at a middle school."
"Worked at Wal-Mart." Tyler chuckled. "Consumables, which was almost everything in the store."
"Managed a small store." Renea answered.
"Secretary for a dentist." Maria smiled.
"College." Nick said.
"Simpler times." I chuckled lightly.
The next morning we made our way into the city. Not far in we had to abandon the cars and go on foot. It was a scene of heartbreaking destruction. Buldings left abandoned, bodies in the street, cars left, memories littered the ground and spilled out of forgotten suitcases.
"All these people never had a chance." Kylie frowned, looking down at a man with a piece of shattered glass buried in his eye.
"Everyone had a chance." I said. "Some people just didn't grab it fast enough."
We wandered through the streets, taking out a few walkers here and there.
"It seems so empty, so forgotten, like hundreds have years have passed already." Trisha said solemnly.
"Yeah, hard to imagine that just two or three months ago this was a bustling city. That guy was probably on his way to Starbucks." Ben pointed to a body hanging out of a jewelry store window.
"Or McDonald's." Nick added.
We rounded walked straight through an intersection and came to a dead stop. On our left was the largest sea of walkers you could imagine. Hundreds of them began slowly turning and noticing us one by one.
"Go!" I yelled and we all took off running.
"In there!" Blake pointed to an open door. We all ran inside and slammed the door shut.
"Cookie Bear!" Emma screeched.
"Shit!" Maria exclaimed. "She lost Cookie Bear."
"Whats that?" Lena asked.
"A teddy bear her dad gave her before he died." She answered.
"Is it light brown with dark spots?" I asked.
"Yeah, looks like a chocolate chip cookie." She nodded.
"Fuck." I sighed. I saw it laying in the street being trampled by the walkers following us. "Close the door." I said as I opened it and bolted outside. I shot a walker between the eyes and kicked another to the ground. I shot two more before I got to the bear. I grabbed it off the ground and turned around just in time to have a walker grab my leg and make me fall. I shot it in the face and scrambled to get up, walkers now surrounded me on all sides except for one. I jumped over the hood of a cop car and ran down an alley. I dropped a walker and hopped over a fence onto a basketball court. Walkers began piling against the fence as I took off across the court.
"Don't fucking move!" A voice yelled from behind me. I stopped running and turned around to find a man and a woman. The man was pointing a gun at me. "Give me your bag."
"Seriously?" I asked as I heard the fence from the basketball court crash over. "In about one minute we're going to be overrun by walkers. You can either shoot me and take my bag or you can run."
"Hand it over." He cocked the gun.
"Why not get everything you need at the survivor's center?" I questioned.
"Survivor's center?" He chuckled. "You must be new to town. There is no center. Was one at the CDC but it went down a few weeks ago. Even if it as still ther the damn CDC blew up yesterday. Now give me the fucking bag."
"Alan?" The woman said shakily and he turned to shoot a walker. As soon as he turned I took off running.
"Hey motherfucker!" He exclaimed and they both began chasing me. I dove in an alley and hid behind a propane tank. I heard their feet scuffle past.
"Fucking Idiots." I breathed. I heard walkers drawing closer and I hopped another fence.
Once I found my way back to the group I handed Maria the bear.
"In hindsight, remind me not to risk my life for a toy again."
"Thank you so much." Maria hugged me. "She may not remember much about him but she knows what this bear means."
"As someone who just lost my Dad, I would do anything to hold on to the last piece I have of him." I smiled.
"So what do we do?" Blake asked.
"Crash here tonight, let the walkers clear, get the hell outta dodge."
"What about the center."
"Isn't one, I ran into some not so friendly characters during my marathon with the dead. They said it fell weeks ago, probably while we were in Indiana still."
"What now then?" Ben asked.
"I'm not sure." I shook my head.
"East?" Doug asked. "Coastline, maybe a small island?"
"As good a plan as any." I nodded.
"Why not south?" Tyler asked. "We're closer to the southern coast."
"East has decent farmland." Doug said. "If we want somewhere long term it makes the most sense to me."
"He's right, the further south we go the swampier the terrain gets." I added.
"Alright. Sounds good to me." Tyler nodded.
I walked into the bathroom and turned on the water, Pleasantly surprised that it worked. I splashed water on my face and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair was disheveled and I had grown a slight beard. I felt as tired as I looked. I had lost track of time and couldn't even remember how long it'd been since it all went down. All I knew was it was starting to get cold so it had been a few months.
The bathroom door opened and Renea slipped inside before locking it behind her.
"I just wanted to thank you for getting her bear back."
"No problem." I said. "I was just trying to hel..." I was cut off by her kissing me. We had a brief make-out session before she pulled away.
"We're lucky to have a leader like you." She smiled. She unlocked the door and slipped back outside.
It took 3 days longer than expected for the walkers to clear up enough but we were finally. On the road. We made it back to our vehicles and Ben climbed on top of the fuel truck.
"We got enough to fill each truck two more times, maybe three." He said after examining the amount of fuel remaining.
"Well, we're on E now." Nick said.
"Fill us up, we'll go until it's dry. Then we'll find another source of food, Or shelter, whichever comes first." I said.
"We should just find somewhere to stay." Tyler piped up.
"We get as far away from here as we can, then we worry about that." I replied.
"Why?" He asked. "Why not just go to a nice, solid building and settle down?"
"Because there are thousands if not millions of walkers in this city and eventually they are going to run out of people to eat and start flooding out in every direction. I intend to have us as far east as possible by then. Unless you want to take the lead of the group." I retorted. I gave him a few seconds to respond and he didn't. "That's what I thought. Fuel up and let's go."
A/N: Decent time jump coming next chapter! Please review people! Seriously, anything you have to say is fine just review.