Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead.
Lost Hope: The Beginning
Chapter Three
I felt something shaking me. I quickly sat up and held my knife out ready to defend myself from whatever it was.
"Whoa!" Glenn said stumbling back. "I was just trying to wake you up so we can get our supplies together to go back to your apartment."
"Oh, I'm sorry. You just startled me." I said standing up.
"It's alright. Come on, let's go get the stuff." He told me. I grabbed my bag and followed him, carefully stepping over everyone else who was still sleeping. He led me to a room with nothing in it but a table with the supplies on it. We grabbed what we thought we needed and put it in our backpacks.
"Now where is your apartment again?" Glenn asked me as we continued to pack stuff.
"It's a block away. I will show you when we are outside." I answered.
"Okay, let's go then."
We grabbed our stuff and went up the stairs to the roof.
"My apartment is there." I said pointing at the building.
"Oh I know that place; I used to deliver pizzas there every Fri-"
"Friday night." I finished for him. "Yeah that was my place. I knew I recognized you."
"Now that I think about it, I do remember seeing you sometimes on Fridays."
"Yup, that was me." I said smiling a little.
"Okay we can probably slip through that alley way down there and go about unnoticed if we are quiet." Glenn said pointing down an alley way that lead to a back door of the apartment building.
"Alright."
We climbed down the ladder to the ground and ran quietly through the alley way, careful not to attract any unwanted company. Soon we reached the back door to the apartment building. I reached out and grabbed the handle.
"Wait! Walkers can be behind that door." Glenn whispered stopping me.
"Do you have a knife or something?" I asked him.
"Yeah, in my bag." He pulled out his knife and got ready to attack anything that would exit the door.
"On three?" I asked.
Glenn nodded and I counted down to three and turned the door handle.
"Dang, it's locked." I told him. "We have to go around to the front."
"To the front, are you kidding me? There're walkers everywhere in the streets." Glenn told me.
"Well I guess we can try the fire escape." I said.
"Yeah, that would probably be safer." He replied.
I led him to the fire escape and he lifted me up onto it and then himself.
"What floor do you live on again?"
"Forty-five."
"Alright."
We continued climbing up the fire escape until we reached my floor. Glenn broke the window and we climbed into the building. I opened the door to my apartment and slowly walked inside.
"Uncle Sam?" I called out quietly. "Are you in here?"
The room looked the same as how I left it. I went into his bedroom.
"Uncle Same?"
Still no sign of him. I checked my room as well, but there was no one.
"Well I guess he isn't here." Glenn said. "I'm sorry."
"There still might be a chance he's alive. I mean he could've barricaded himself in a safe room at the hospital and I just didn't see. We need to go back there."
"The hospital is like a whole mile away! The walkers would catch us."
"No they won't. I made it there safely the first time and didn't see any zombies on the way there."
"But haven't you realized that there's a lot more out there now?"
"I know, but we will be alright. Come on please? I know that the chance of my uncle being alive is slim, but if there is any chance that he is alive I need to find out. After the hospital we can go back." I pleaded with him.
"Alright fine, but the hospital is the last place we are stopping." He told me.
"Thanks!" I said smiling.
"We need to stick to the alley ways as much as possible though, to avoid being seen." Glenn pulled out a walkie-talkie that he packed in his bag. "It's Glenn; Erin's uncle wasn't at the apartment. We are going to take another look in the hospital."
"Alright, but be careful." Morales voice spoke back.
We climbed down the stairs instead of going back down the fire escape. We reached the bottom and unlocked the back door and went out that way. We walked quickly toward the hospital, trying are best not to attract any walkers. We were doing pretty good at not being seen until we ran into two walkers in one of the alleys. Glenn took his knife and stabbed one in the head. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me along quickly to get away from the other, but the nose the walkers had made seem to have attracted all the other ones in the street.
"What are we going to do?" I asked Glenn as we ran.
"We may have to make a small detour." He told me pulling me into the back of the ice cream shop that my uncle would sometimes take me to. He locked the back door, which was fortunately made of metal. We could hear the walkers pound on it from the outside. It didn't take long for the walkers from the front to realize we were here too and they came crashing through the glass doors.
"Quick in here!" Glenn shouted with the freezer door open. I ran inside and he locked the door from the inside. The walkers began pounding on the freezer door as well. I stood there shaking from what just happened.
"Are you okay?" Glenn asked sounding like he was trying to calm down from what just happened as well.
"Yeah, I'm alright, you?"
"I'm fine, but I knew we should've just gone back. Now we're trapped in here."
"I'm sorry, but it's not like they can wait there forever. They will probably be gone by the morning."
"I guess that's true. They will forget all about us in here after awhile." Glenn said sitting down on the freezer ground. "We'll leave in the morning and head to the hospital from here." He pulled his walkie-talkie from the bag and told the others that we were going to be delayed a bit because of what happened.
"Alright, what are we going to do in here for the time being?" I asked he was finished talking.
"Eat ice cream." Glenn said grabbing one of the tubs of ice cream that was in the freezer.
"You're kidding, right?" I asked unsure if he was actually serious about eating ice cream.
"Not really." He said opening the lid of tub and using his finger to scoop out a small bit of vanilla ice cream.
I stood there staring at him.
"Well, don't you want any?" he asked.
"I'm not really hungry." I said glancing away from him and taking a seat on the freezer floor.
"Suit yourself." He said continuing to eat the ice cream.
"Is this really happening?" I asked after several moments of silence.
Glenn stopped eating ice cream and looked up at me. Then he answered. "Unfortunately, yeah. This is really happening." He placed the lid back on the ice cream.
"So, it's real? Not just a bad dream?" I asked.
"It's real." He answers sadly.
"It's all happening so fast. Just two nights ago I was with my uncle watching a movie and now my uncle, is missing and presumed dead." I said.
"I'm sorry." Glenn said sadly.
"It's not your fault. Will the group be worried if we are gone all night?" I asked.
"Yeah, but there isn't much we can do about it now." Glenn told me. "Besides, I did tell them what happened and that we are safe for now."
"Yeah." I answered looking down at the ground.
(Back with the Atlanta group. Carl's Pov.)
"Carl? Carl where are you?" My mom called me sounding worried.
"I'm just over here, mom." I answered. I was sitting on a rock behind some trees playing with strands of grass. I had been thinking about my dad and how I was probably not going to ever be able to see him again. It made it feel like someone was ripping at my chest.
"Carl, you have to always stay within my sight. You can't keep running off to where I can't see you anymore. You had me worried." She said sitting down beside me and putting a hand on my arm.
"Sorry." I said simply.
"What are you doing over here anyway?" she asked me.
"Thinking about Dad." I answered. I felt my eyes begin to water up, so I turned away hoping that my mom wouldn't notice. I was trying to be strong for her and not cry anymore, but it was still very hard.
My mom stood up and pulled me into a hug. "It will be alright." She said trying to comfort me. "I know it hurts now, but soon it won't be as hard. We will get through this."
I couldn't hold it in anymore. Tears began to fall from my eyes and I started crying.
"Shhh. It's okay, love." My mom said rubbing my back. After a few minutes, I stopped crying. My mom wiped the remaining tears from my face and kissed my forehead.
"Are you ready to go back to the rest of the group?" she asked me.
I nodded and we began to walk back to the others.
(Back in the freezer, the next morning. Erin's Pov.)
"Glenn, wake up." I was shaking Glenn to wake him up.
"Huh…what?" he asked groggily.
"I think its morning, we need to get moving."I said already ready to go.
"Right." He said getting up.
I handed him his back pack. He took it and walked up to the freezer door and put his ear close to it to listen if any walkers were right outside. He put his finger to his lips warning me to be quiet. I nodded and he slowly opened the freezer door and stepped outside. Luckily, there were no walkers outside the freezer door. We walked to the back door we came in from and walked out into the alley.
We began to make are way to the hospital. When we made it, it looked the same as when I left it. Nothing had changed. We went inside and began to look around a little. The hospital smelt worse than the last time I was there. It reeked of decaying flesh. The smell made my eyes water.
I turned a corner and then I saw him; my uncle. He was lying lifeless on the floor with part of his guts spilling out. I stood there paralyzed in shock of what I saw.
"Erin?" Glenn called for me as he rounded the corner. I snapped out of shock when he said my name and ran to my uncle.
"Uncle Sam? It's me, Erin. Can you hear me?" I asked even though deep inside me I knew he was gone. I shakily felt his neck for a pulse and of course there was nothing.
"Oh my...Is that….?" Glenn kneels down beside me and put a hand on my back.
I started crying and I put my hand on what was left of my uncle's chest. It was moving.
"Uncle Sam?" I said to him. He opened his eyes and stared at me, but his eyes were not like they use to be. Suddenly he reached out and grabbed my arm and I screamed. Glenn yanked my arm away from his grip and pulled me back.
"It's not your uncle any more. He's one of them." Glenn told me holding me back.
The walker got up slowly and began coming at us. We ran out of the hospital and out of sight of the walker and stopped to catch our breath. We were both shaking out of fright.
"That was too close." Glenn said still shaking. "Are you alright." He asked me gently.
After a few moments I said, "Yeah, I'm alright, but we can't just leave him here like this."
"What are you suggesting?" Glenn asked me.
"We need to put him down, for good." I said.
"Well, I guess I can go and there and take care_" Glenn started to say
"No, he is my uncle. I will do it." I said firmly.
"Are…..are you sure?" Glenn asked me.
I replied with a nod and slowly walked towards the building with Glenn following close behind. I stopped before entering the building.
"How do I kill him?" I asked. "How do I kill a walker?"
"You got to take them out by the head." Glenn answered quietly.
"Alright." I replied. "I'm going to shoot him."
"Okay." Glenn stayed outside and I pulled out my gun from my bag and went to where my uncle was. He began to come towards me again but this time I aimed my gun and shot him in the head. His body fell lifeless to the floor. I walked over to his body and got one last look at him before walking back out to Glenn.
"That gunshot will probably attract more walkers so we need to hurry." Glenn told me.
"Okay let's go." I replied and we began to jog our way back to the others. We used the alley ways, like we did to get to the hospital, to avoid walkers. There were a lot more in the streets than there were yesterday.
"Okay we need to stop for a bit." Glenn said out of breath. We were almost back anyway so wouldn't be a big deal if we stopped. "Let's take a rest in that building." He told me pointing at an old abandoned building.
"Alright." I agreed and we went inside the building. Luckily there weren't any walkers inside, so we didn't have to be too concerned at the moment. We climbed to the top floor to get a better view of the streets. They were swarmed with walkers. We saw an army tank a few blocks down the street from the building.
"They took out the army too." I said surprised.
"Yeah, freaky."Glenn replied as we stared at the surroundings in awe.
"Wait, what's that?" I asked pointing at the other end of the street. There was something that didn't look like walkers coming towards out direction.
"I….don't know." Glenn replied. "It kind of looks like a horse."
"Your right….and there is a man on it."
Glenn nodded then looked to the direction the person was heading.
"Where does he think he's going? There is nothing left in the city."I said.
"I have no idea, but he is heading towards a huge group of walkers." Glenn told me.
"Do you think we should do something?" I asked.
Glenn didn't answer me and continued to watch the man head down the street towards the tank. The man seemed to have noticed the big group of walkers and turned his horse the opposite direction and began galloping away, but didn't take long before he realized there was even more walkers on the street he was intending to get away on. He was trapped.
"Well?" I asked Glenn, waiting for a response.
"We need to get to the roof." Glenn replied. We got on the roof and we saw that some of the walkers had taken down the horse. The man, however, was still alive and began going trigger-happy on the others.
"What does this guy think he's doing?" I asked quietly.
"Surviving." Glenn replied. "Well….attempting. Either that, or playing Rambo."
The man crawled under the tank with the walkers following close behind him.
"Oh no, he's trapped now." I said sadly looking away.
"Wait no! He made it in the tank!" Glenn shouted.
"What? How?" I asked looking back.
"He crawled in through the bottom!" Glenn said excitedly.
The walkers that were not already feeding on the horse were now banging on the side of the tank.
"He should close the top before the walkers notice it's open." I said.
Then we heard another gunshot. A few seconds later he must have realized the hatch was open and closed it just as the walkers were beginning to climb on top of it.
"Well now what is he going to do, now that he is trapped in a tank surrounded by walkers?"
"I have an idea." Glenn said heading back down off the rood. I followed him to see what his idea was. He climbed down the stairs to the bottom floor of the building and grabbed his walkie-talkie out of his bag.
"Don't tanks usually have radio transmitters in them, or like intercoms?" Glenn asked me.
"Yeah, I think so." I replied.
"Good." He said. He made a few adjustments to the walkie-talkie and then started speaking through it. "Hey, you? Yeah you in the tank. Feeling cozy in there?"