The walking Dead: Guardian Angel

Chapter 3: Fort Benning

Disclaimer: I own nothing I don't create.

"Oh… fuck!" Charlotte said, the graveness of the situation causing her to forget there was a child present, as they neared Fort Benning, they ran into a huge traffic snarl, they couldn't even get close to the base… unless it was on foot & she couldn't see beyond the base's stone retaining wall, no telling if it was safe or not.

"Sophia, I don't think that your group's here." Charlotte said, through her binoculars, she could see smoke billowing from behind the wall, she had a terrible feeling Fort Benning was lost, her gaze shifted to the road, walkers could be seen slowly making their way around the wrecked vehicles as the putrid smell of decaying, burnt flesh & napalm reached her nostrils. "I'm sorry baby, but we have to get out of here. This place is a bust, there's no one here." She said as she slid back into the truck & put it in reverse, just as she did, two large, black SUV's blocked her.

"Stay in the car & duck down, Sophia." Charlotte hissed as she grabbed her rifle from the back seat. "Can I help you?" she said, she was unable to hide her horrified expression from Sophia as she recognized these men. "Well, look who it is, son of a bitch, I thought you were dead!" One of them said, his voice heavy with a New England accent. "I wish I could say that you look good… but I can't." "No thanks to you, you son of a bitch." Charlotte replied, her rifle unwavering.

"Hey come on, you still don't blame me for that, do you? It's not like you gave me a choice." One of them said, unannounced to them, a small herd of walkers was closing in on them from behind, she smirked. "I wish I could stay for a chat boys, but it seems you already have dinner plans." She said as with lightning reflexes, she shot the kneecaps out on both men.

"Stay down!" Charlotte said as she jammed the truck into reverse & pushed the first SUV out of the way through a barrage of gunfire from the other half of their group. Sophia cowered on the floorboard of the passenger side, sobbing as bullets pinged off the truck's frame. Suddenly, they stopped & screams could be heard, 'Don't take em' long anymore.' Charlotte thought to herself, she didn't even need to look back to know what had become of the men.

"Where are we going now?" Sophia asked in a small voice. "I don't know, darling, I just don't know. I just hope your group turned around before they got here."

"If you want to survive, you've gotta fight!" The whole group gathered around for Shane's speech as he began passing out guns, Rick yelled at him to stop, Hershel just stood, his walker in hand, dumbfounded as Shane put them down. "Shane… STOP!" Rick bellowed but it was like his friend didn't even hear him, he began beating the lock until it broke & threw open the barn doors.

Walkers poured out & they put them down in rapid succession… until one lone figure emerged, wearing capris & a rainbow T shirt that looked painfully like Sophia's, everything seemed to slow down, Daryl caught Carol as she tried to rush to what once was her daughter, Shane gave Rick a dejected look that was somewhere between 'I told you so' & horror at the discovery, Rick stepped forward & with tears in his eyes, put her down.

"How is she?" Lori said. "Same, we need Hershel, but no one can find him," Andrea said, Maggie's expression darkened. "I know where he went.

"Boys." Hershel greeted Glenn & Rick as they entered. "Hershel, we're here to bring you home, your baby daughter's very sick & she needs you." Rick said. "Oh… I think I've done enough, making them think their momma was sick or something… that she might get better when in reality I was feeding her rotting corpse. They lost their mother all over again today, if I had listened to what the others were telling me, instead I chose to ignore it." Hershel said expressionlessly.

"Drinking yourself to death isn't the answer either; your daughters need you now more than ever!" Rick protested. "I'm no good to them, Rick. I don't know how to operate in this new world, we are taught in the bible that one day the lord will resurrect the dead… I just didn't think it would be like this." "You can't help your wife or your friends, but you can help your daughter from suffering the same fate." Rick said, Hershel looked at him for a moment before turning his glass upside down & standing. "Let's go." He said.

Suddenly, the sound of an engine could be heard & two men stepped inside the bar, one short & stocky, the other quite obese despite the new world they lived in. "I'm sorry, we were just leaving." "Where to?" the strange men asked, Hershel, Rick & Glenn looked at each other. "We just stopped in for a drink." "Same here!" Whata you say, lawman, how's about setting us up with a round? I'm Dave by the way, that's Tony." The shorter man said, gesturing to his heavy set friend who had just finished pissing in the corner like an animal, Glenn tried to hide his grimace as Rick served them drinks.

Sophia looked nervously at Charlotte as they approached the small town, outside of the bar a vehicle was parked, Sophia's eyes lit up. "That's my mom's car!" she exclaimed, suddenly, a huge, black truck careened around the corner as they heard a barrage of gunfire from inside the bar. Charlotte took a hard right & parked the truck out of view in an alley between the pharmacy & a small café.

They watched as a group of men piled out & fanned out, it was too dark to see exactly how many. One was barking orders at the others they scoured the area before stopping at the bar, apparently there was someone in there. "Stay here, Sophia." "Wait… where are you going?" The girl said as she gripped Charlotte's arm painfully. "I think there's folks held up in that bar, those bastards have them surrounded, I have to help them, but I … can't I can't take the shot from here… my eye…" she trailed off. Just stay here, lock the doors, stay low & keep quiet!" She said as she quietly shut the door.

The men were saying something to the people in side, she ducked down as more shots rang out & two of the men dropped, yelling in pain. She raised her rifle & aimed as best she could, it was times like this she wished those bastards had taken her left eye, her right was her shooting eye & she could no longer use a scope without it, she cursed as the shot went wide, hitting the man in the shoulder instead of his head.

He fell all the same riving in agony, she noticed a man on the roof of the adjoining building & aimed again, the shot missed him but in his surprise of being shot at, he lost his balance & fell, impaling himself on the fence. "Come on! There's some psycho mother fucker somewhere with a fucking gun! Let's get the fuck outta here!" the man driving the truck said as his lone standing comrade jumped in & they sped off.

"Cautiously, Charlotte crept forward. "Stop right there!" she heard a voice right behind her, she put her hands, one still holding her rifle over her head & turned around to face him, the small Asian man almost lowered his weapon in shock at her face, like many people did. "Uh… hey." She said, forcing a smile. "I saw all that go down & thought you might need some help." She said as two other men joined the man nemed Glenn. Glenn looked at the younger of the two, who nodded to him & he lowered his weapon. "My name is Charlotte, I wish we could meet on better terms, but that seems impossible these days." She said in attempt at lightening the situation.

"Mr. Grimes?" they turned sharply at the small voice, the lawman & the others almost dropped their guns in shock. "Sophia?!" Glenn said as the cop rushed forward & embraced her. "I gather she belongs to you." Charlotte said with a smile, the tall cop extended his hand, she noticed that his gaze darted to her patched eye momentarily, but he didn't react to it like most people did. "My name is Rick Grimes, this is Hershel & you've already met Glenn." The cop named Rick said.

"Come on, I think its best we get back while we still can, all this gunfire is going to be bringing walkers for miles." Hershel said. As if on cue, the telltale dragging gate & hungry moans could be heard, they also heard shouting, it was the man Charlotte had missed her shot on. "Can we help him?" Rick said as walkers closed in, Hershel shook his head, Rick ran his hand through his hair frustratingly & looked down at Sophia & then to the others as the injured man screamed for them to help him. His screams were drawing more walkers, they would soon be surrounded if they didn't leave quick. "I'm sorry." He said as Charlotte put her gun to the man's head & pulled the trigger.

Author's note: Yes I decided not to do the whole Randal thing, I just thought it was stupid & took up a lot of time & whatever, hope you guys like it, Yes there will be eventual Daryl/OC, I was originally going to have them meet when he falls off the horse & gets injured but that was such a good scene like it was, so I decided to do it this way to omit Randal.