Author's Note: I hope you thought that last chapter was exciting. Next chapter to come out hopefully this weekend. The Governor is my least favorite character, but he's so essential to plot, it just ugh. Making connections here.

I slept a dreamless sleep. Today I decided it was time I at least give strangers a chance. I habitually looked for the rope that secured me to a tree for the last half year. I then remembered that the Governor's minion took it. I jumped down from the tree walking towards the road. This time, however, I didn't spot any stragglers. I walked for what seemed to be at least half an hour. Abandoned cars and houses began to appear more often. When trees finally stopped lining the road, except for a few residential oak trees, a large wall came into view. It was of last-minute aesthetic. Various things composed the wall. Stacks of tires and big sheets of corrugated metal fortified it. Directly in front of me, two corrugated metal sheets made the doors. At the top were three people. One with a bow and arrow, the other with a pistol, and the last one with a moderately large-sized machine gun. I ducked behind a house. I could hear the moaning of teds in the far background. I peeked over the edge to see what the group was doing. They were talking indistinctly to each other. A ted came into their view. The female in the group noticed it and immediately shot it with an arrow. She then jumped down to retrieve the arrow, the other two men going down to open the gates. They came back up. I walked back further into the neighborhood away from their sight. I kept walking along with the wall until I came to an open area in the back of the town. I could see floodlights and a ring, which I was guessing was the source of last night's commotion. I stayed at the edge of the treeline.

"Hey! What are you doing out there? This area ?" said someone behind me.

He led me into the city through the the buildings by the ring. The corridors were dark, long, and sharp. We finally came to a two story home overlooking an pedestrian-filled avenue. The sentry sat me down on a chair then left. I contemplated running out, but I didn't want to make a scene. Plus, the two henchmen from yester morning's affair were sitting right on top of the wall just a few yards from here. God what did you get yourself into now Ryan. A grandfather clock ticked deeply in the background. I finally thought I should hide somewhere in the room, but I rejected that one too.

"What do think you-" He stopped right when I looked at him, both of us in shock. "Well, well would you looky here."

I glared him in his singular eye.

"You know, you didn't have to run." Déjà vu. Round three. "I just needed to know if you've seen this ... woman." He said with a certain disgust in his voice. He walked around then pulled out a piece of paper from a stack of papers. He slapped down an artist's rendition of who I was guessing must have been the "Michonne" he was talking about back at the porch.

"Michonne?" I said, raspy.

"Yes."

I cleared my throat. "Is she the one that did that to your eye?"

"Why yes. Not only that, but she killed my daughter."

"Oh. I-, I'm so sorry. If there's anything I can do to he-"

"No, no you're okay. I see me and my men have completely missed you," he said looking up and down my arms. Him bringing up yesterday's ordeal began to chill me. I tried my best to appear to be calm, despite my rising heart rate.

"Ah, you don't have to worry. Now that you're here, you're one of us. Feel free to dine in the fruit of our work. Here, have a drink." He poured himself and me a glass of rum colored liquid.

"Don't worry it's not poisoned," he said, looking me in the eye.

He took a sip. I decided to take a sip.

"So what brought you here?"

"Well, ever since this thing started, I've been trying to hide from teds up in trees, weaponless. I was looting from that part of the city, but I nearly got killed by yet another lone ranger, then he got killed, I ran off, came back, you found me, and you know the rest from there. I decided it was best if I left the city and went for a new one. I heard lots of screaming the other night. What was that all about? Sure love to attract the teds eh?"

"Wait, first let me just say something. Teds?"

"Yeah, the guy who tried to kill me did the same thing. I don't know I just like to call 'em teds. Short for resurrected."

"Creative."

"Your turn."

"Oh right, yeah that event going there last night, it's just a weekend event we have to keep the masses entertained. I still consider this to be a city. Not enough electricity to run a theater."

"Makes sense. I'd love to see it. Only entertainment I've had were some newspapers I found back at the grocery store. That's where I got this dandy bag."

He nodded. "How do you like the tea?"

"Best thing I've had for the last five months after I ran out of non-perishable beverages. Water. Yeah. Him and I are like best friends now."

He laughed, even though friendly it still sent chills down my spine. "Well, if you'd like," he said walking towards a window, me following," you can lodge in those apartments over there. No fee as long as you're the first one there, then it's auctioned off."

"Awesome," I said, completely forgetting about trying to sound a little more mature.

The Governor laughed again. He then sent me out of his apartment and went to check in across the avenue. The thought of a warm bed and not having to twist my ankle getting up into a tree every night got me all psyched up. I put on a smile as wide as Texas. Everybody was staring at me like I was mentally ill. It could either be because I actually was, because I was new, or because I might have been the first person to leave that building either smiling or at all after seeing that temper of his back in the city.

"One room please."

"C3"

I climbed up three flights of stairs because this building was elevatorless without a sufficient amount of electricity. Went I got to my room, I started laughing hysterically for now I finally had a nice, safe, warm, and comfy room to lodge in. There was a moderately large cathode ray in the corner complete with DVD case stocked with DVDs, a sofa at one end, a bed holy shit, and in the back a shower with a working toilet oh my god, I think I'm going to cry. Attached to the shower curtain was a piece of copy paper saying, "Go easy on the hot water. PLEASE."

"Hot water?" I said out loud, despite no one around to hear me.

I walked around to another section of the apartment. The kitchen lay in front of me, all stocked with gems like Hamburger Helper, macaroni, and, I had to pinch myself, cookies and cake.

"God where do these people get all these things?" I thought, digging through the cake. It was slightly stale, but who fucking cares it's cake! After eating at least two relatively large slices of cake, I had to stop myself before I make myself sick. I scurried into the bathroom, stripped off my clothes, and turned on the shower. I shivered at the cold water, but as it eventually grew warmer, my smile grew. Free soap, free food, free entertainment, holy shit tell me I'm not dead! I soaped down and washed off my hair. Eugh, only God knows what's been living in there for the past six months.

I dried off my hair. I walked to the living area in just a towel. I sat down on a couch. The cloth felt so soft. I turned on the TV to see what was in the DVD player. It was just an average romance movie, but it felt awkward being in just a towel. I didn't feel cold since there was absolutely no AC, which was fine with me because everywhere I've been before the apocalypse started kept their thermostats down to 60.

I never really paid much attention to the movie since I kept flashing back to the start of this whole ordeal.

I remembered when the tornado sirens went off on the clear day back at an airport back in Texas. Yes, I was originally all the way in Texas. I was boarding my plane when they went off halfway between the bridge. The security guard told me to hurry up. I ran into the plane, took my seat then I was off to Georgia. The droning of the jet engines drowned out the sirens. After two hours, the plane touched down in Atlanta. The pilot hadn't told us shit about what happened at the airport. We had to inflate the slide to get down since there weren't any bridges to get into the airport. I still hadn't known what the hell was going on.

I decided to venture into the airport to get my bags, but the glass doors were locked. Someone was standing in front of the doors, standing motionlessly. I knocked on the door for the person to know I was there. God when it turned around, its front side was completely torn out. Then teds started piling up on the doors. I stumbled back, completely shocked.

No, this can't be.

My parents were already into their seventies and they were trapped in the middle of Atlanta in a luxury condo. I ran away from the plane group and into the city, despite them telling me it was stupid and hopeless. I knew there was no hope. I still kept running. When I reached the large Atlanta streets, teds as dense as mosh pits at metal concerts were packed between skyscrapers.

You should have listened to them.

They spotted me. Their reaction was relatively slow. First they looked in my direction, then stumbled, then they began to walk. But only I could run. I passed a few teds on the way back to the airport. When I arrived at the airport, there were multiple herds of teds everywhere; they had broken through the glass. The plane group was gone. I left Atlanta before any teds could catch on.

I hid in the forests.

I didn't eat normally for days.

I didn't cry.

I snapped back into Woodbury. The movie plus credits were finished. I tucked my legs in closer, resting my head in between my knees. It's all over. There's no hope.