Chapter Four: Wake Me Up When It's All Over

Kylie-Jane Creek

"Jesus, what the hell is that dumbass doing?"

Daryl rolled his eyes as he watched Merle veer Abby's car across the lanes to purposely hit the 'walkers' on the road. I was dreading getting into town, if the back roads were this bad already. Daryl had suggested taking back roads all the way around the town into Atlanta, but I was adamant on getting to Lori and Carl. There were blood-thirsty dead people roaming the streets and eating people. I had to keep my family close. I told Daryl to step on it as we passed the High School, not particularly wanting to get overrun by a bunch of teenage kids trying to rip my face off.

Maybe it hadn't really hit me yet. My neighbor looked like freaking lasagna, my boyfriend's brother was splattering dead bodies over the hood of his car, and I was pretty sure I just saw my old principal being shredded by someone. Yet I wasn't going psycho yet. I was still pretty much running on adrenaline, my leg shaking up and down at a mile a minute.

"You can watch me walk, if you want to, want to-"

I scrambled for my phone and picked it up, clicking the answer button with shaky hands.

"Hello? Lori? Shane?"

"It's me." I let out a long breath.

"Lori! Oh my god, are you okay? Carl?"

"Yeah, we're fine. Listen are you near the interstate? We're about to get on, but I told Shane to wait for you. Who's with you?"

"We'll be comin' up on you in the next few minutes. I've got Daryl, Merle, and Abby."

"Do you have supplies?"

"Plenty."

"Good, we're going to need them." As she spoke, as if on cue, I suddenly realized how hungry I was. "I see you!" Lori exclaimed as Daryl pulled around the corner. "Thank god, I see you."

"See you in a sec."

I hung up the phone and told Daryl to park next to Lori and Shane. He waved down Merle and we all pulled into a little gas station right before the entrance to the interstate. I hopped out of the car and landed hard on my leg, forgetting I'd broken it. Damn it that hurt.

"Aunty Kylie!" Carl threw me into a hug, and I held tightly onto my step-nephew.

"Hey, kiddo, I'm here," I told him.

"Good." He said, pulling back.

I looked up to Shane. "What's the plan?" I asked.

"We're getting Rick before we do anything else," Lori said, voice shaky.

"What about the med-evac?" I asked.

Shane shook his head, "Yeah, that never happened."

"Hey," Abby called from her Mini Cooper, "Radio says there's a refugee camp in Atlanta, we should get goin'."

"We are not leaving without my husband." Lori crossed her arms.

Shane sighed, "Alright, I'll get him from the hospital, okay?" He looked to Daryl and Merle, "Can you two hold to fort til then?"

Merle looked up from loading his shotgun. "Psh, yeah."

Shane nodded and he and Lori exchanged a look before he climbed into his jeep and sped off. I turned to my step-sister, and she pulled me into a hug.

"Oh, God, Lori.." I whispered. "What the hell is going on?"

She shook her head. "I don't know, Kylie. I- I wish I did."

I wiped a tear from my cheek. "I saw my neighbor.. He got up and walked." My voice squeaked.

She nodded, "I saw people.. Getting attacked in the streets, torn ap-" She paused and took a breath to calm herself. "But, important thing is, we found you.. And Abby, and.. Your family." She looked over my shoulder at Merle and had a kind of irritated look on her face. "Now, all we have to do is wait for Shane to get back with Rick, and then... We'll be fine. We'll head to the refugee center."

I nodded, "Okay, okay. It's just.. God, Lori, I'm terrified."

She pulled me into another hug. "I know, sis. I know."

We pulled back just as Abby let out a cry of anguish. I spun around to see her standing in front of her car, her head in her hands. I ran to her.

"Abby!" I put a hand on her shoulder. "Abby, what's wrong?"

She looked up at me. "Look. At. My. Car!"

I looked over, the front of her Mini completely splattered with blood and… chunks.

I frowned. "That's horrible…" I covered one hand with my mouth. "Tell Merle he's an asshole."

"Don't worry, I will." Abby said angrily.

I walked away from the stench that was coming off Abby's car and over to where Carl was sitting on the metal railing that guarded cars from dropping off down the hill. I took a seat next to him, straddling the metal and planting my combat boots in the gravel on either side.

"Hey, kiddo."

"Hey, Kylie."

"You doin' okay, bud?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm just scared."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be okay, man. There's a refugee center in Atlanta. This'll all get taken care of and we'll be back at home before you know it."

He nodded. "I guess you're right."

I hugged him to me. "Don't be scared, Carl. You've got all us B-A rednecks looking out for you."

I got him to laugh at that, and I was satisfied. I ruffled his hair and he went off to sit with his momma, and I stayed straddling the metal guard, resting my leg. Daryl came up beside me, slinging his crossbow over onto his back.

"Hey," he said.

I looked up at him. "Hey. You okay?"

He nodded. "'S whatever."

I looked out over the loaded highway. He was definitely still pissed off at me. "Yeah. Whatever." He gave a heavy sigh, and put his hand on my shoulder, really awkwardly. I arched a brow up at him. "Did you need something? Or did you just come over here to make caveman grunts and stare into space?"

He gave a snort and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Kyles." He turned and walked back towards the cars.

I sighed heavily. "Oh my freaking god."

I hated when he did that. If I knew why he was mad then maybe I could fix it, or help, or whatever. But if he didn't tell me, then we were going to go on being snarky with each other for no goddamn reason and I hate when we get like that. We're both southern and have short tempers so of course it goes on for weeks at a time when we get in a fight. For the past almost twenty years it's been like this - off and on of course.

I met Daryl when I was a sophomore in high school, and he was a senior. I'd just moved to Georgia from Tennessee, and the first friend I made was Abby Marks. She was seeing this way older guy from her group of stoner redneck friends, Merle Dixon, and I kind of put up with it because whenever we went out, Merle would drag along his baby brother Daryl, who was pretty cool. After a ton of sexual tension I finally took him home with me on my senior prom night.

A week after I graduated, I left everything and went and joined the Navy, and soon after became a corpsman and got attached to a unit of marines. We went through two tours in Iraq together, and when I got back from the second tour at age 29, Daryl was waiting on my doorstep. We'd been together since then, living in a little southern house - wraparound porch and all - with Merle and Abby. I'd gotten a job working at a local hospital as a trauma surgeon, Abby worked as a waitress, and the Dixon brothers picked up random jobs here and there - not always legal, of course, but it payed the bills. Occasionally the four of us would go out hunting, and camp out in the woods for a week at a time.

That's how life was for us, up until today. Up until our neighbour was slaughtered on our front lawn, and then reanimated and tried to chew on my face. I didn't want to think about what was going to happen to us. Knowing that the marines were called in made it worse. So the National Guard was already gone? We were that far into this? It was all so close to home and I was terrified.