It was early when Shane came to wake me the next day, but I was already awake. Not having slept much that night I was sluggish and drowsy when I met up with Andrea for a modest breakfast containing half a can of cold beans. I ate them slowly while trying not to appear unappreciative. I missed steak and gravy and ice cream and licorice. Gee, was that song a total scam, it did not help one bit to think of all my favorite things. Perhaps if I sang. But, in the fear of it not being much appreciated, I desisted.

"Did you get a good night rest?" Andrea looked as though she too struggled with the can of beans and merely swirled her spoon around and around, probably wishing for something better too.

"No, not much." I said in earnest and she nodded sympathetically.

"Can you believe this is happening?" She sounded as though she had just realized that the world had gone to shit, or that she had denied it up to a point where she could not anymore. She threw her can away and rested her head on her palm. I shook my head, not knowing what to say. In truth I doubted the whole thing myself. Perhaps it was all a mad dream I could not wake up from.

"Perhaps it's just an insane dream." I thought aloud. "Maybe I got hit by a truck on my way to school and this is all just a crazy coma nightmare." She chuckled.

"Now that'd be somthin'."

A loud clunk came from behind us. Shane had been busy making the car ready for our departure. We had all agreed on the large pick-up truck because of the space. It was old and rusty, but it was fast enough to outrun a walker, or so I was told…
There were six guns in the camp and we would take one each, including an axe, a baseball bat and a hunting knife. I called shots on the axe, mostly because I would not be strong enough to kill someone with the blow of a baseball bat and because they did not trust me with a knife, being afraid I might stab myself with it.

"Your family, do they live in Atlanta?"

"No, they're back in Pennsylvania. I haven't talked to them in a while." I fiddled with my spoon while feeling as though someone had punched me in the stomach. "I don't even know if they're alive. They may not be, but I try not to think about that." Andrea gave me a weak, sympathetic smile.

"I know how you feel. Our parents live in Florida and we haven't heard from them since we left for Atlanta four weeks ago. It's been hardest on Amy, she's so young… There's nothing worse than not knowing."

"No, there's not."

Andrea did not look as if she had gotten much sleep that night either because she had dark circles around her eyes and her hair was tangled and frizzy. She was wearing a white t-shirt and a blue blouse and if I had not known any better I would have thought that she was going to a garden party and not a zombie-slaying-spree.

"Hey, what did you do before all this?" I asked curiously as she poked around in the fire with a stick. She laughed and shook her head, as though she could not believe it.

"I was a human rights lawyer, can you believe it? But if I had known about the upcoming apocalypse I might have considered something more useful, you know? Like, maybe, joining the army."

"I've always wanted to be a ninja." I said in earnest and shoved another spoon into my reluctant mouth.

"What did you do?"

"Something that's not even remotely worthwhile."

"Let me guess; you're an accountant."

"No, it's not that bad. I studied art history."

"Yeah, that's pretty useless too."

When Andrea and I had both finished our breakfast Shane came over with our weapons and handed them out to us. I accepted mine looking grim. The last time I had a gun in my hand I did not even have the wits to use it. But I could not really rely on someone coming to my rescue this time, so I pocketed it.

Shane had found a brochure in one of the cars with a map of at Atlanta printed on the back. He kneeled down next to us and pointed at a spot a few centimeters off the map.

"This is the camp, here. Now I thought we'd go through here and down this small road to the left." He looked at me as though waiting for me to approve of this plan.

"That's my school, right there. To get there, we have to take that road and up to the left. There's a way in at the back where we can hopefully get in without drawing too much attention to ourselves." The both nodded. "And if all things fail, there's a road down that way leading out of town."

"Okay, so we're all set?" Shane nodded and gave each of us a stern look.

"Let's go."

It was a fifty minute drive from our camp to the outskirts of the city. No one had said much during this time; we were all hoping and praying that it would go smoothly. We did meet the occasional walker on the road which made me feel uneasy. I was not used to the sight of them, and especially not standing in the middle of a road just a few feet from where we were driving.

Shane stopped the car when we had reached the city. It was dead quiet, and for a moment I doubted that there were still people alive in there.

"Where're we going first?"

"My apartment. We would need the key to get into the basement."

We took off with our senses alert. My eyes were scanning the roads, but there were few dead to be seen. Most of them were probably closer to the city, where they would have more to feed on… It was not until we approached my apartment that several of them started to pay attention to us. The sound of the engine roaring in the silence caused several of them to turn their heads and follow us down the street.

"Damn." Shane adjusted his rare view mirror and cussed under his breath. "They react to sound. The engine will draw walkers for miles."

"You just keep driving; I'll go in through the front entrance and meet you out back. The sound will draw them off."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded vigorously.

"I'll be faster on my own."

I could see my apartment building drawing closer. It was a large brick building with six or seven floors, but luckily I lived on the first floor. The entrance to the building led right out on the street, so I did not have to run far.

When Shane stepped on the breaks I was halfway out of the car, squeezing through a couple of parked cars to get to the door. I ran straight at it with my right shoulder first, hoping to blast through it, but instead I was thrown back like it was made of rubber.

Damn, shit, shit, shit, this is impossible! The door was open when I left which meant that someone had bolted t up from the inside. I looked frantically for another way in. A pair of walkers had just noticed me and started making their way to where I stood, nailed to the spot.

I felt like a cartoon character as I looked left and right for somewhere to go. My eyes fell on a pair of cabbage containers standing next to me, and as my eyes trailed upwards I saw a small window just big enough for me to squeeze through.

I instinctually threw myself on to the large containers and smashed the shaft of my axe into the fragile glass. Walkers were grabbing my legs as I tried to push myself through. The window frame was still spiked with glass and my hands bled heavily as I forced myself through to the other side.

I hit the floor with a thump and a cry. My shoulder stung and my hands were bleeding, but luckily the hallway was empty of walkers. The door I had tried to get through was barred up with both wood and chains and I felt confident that the four walkers moaning on the other side of the wall would not be able to push through it.

I turned on my back as I tried to scrape out the small pieces of glass stuck underneath my skin. Having gotten most of it out, I stood up and started walking determinately in the opposite direction with my axe held high. Even though the sun was shining the hallway was dark and cold, making it difficult to see, but luckily I knew that the staircase was just a few feet away.

The sound of creaking floorboards made me stop dead in my tracks. My eyes widened as I tightened my grip on the small axe, but there was nothing to see. My heart thundered as I moved slowly forwards to where the hall turned a corner. My sixth sense was screaming at me from inside my head to not make that turn, but it was curiosity that had killed the cat after all, not cautiousness.

I was just about to turn the corner when a figure jumped out in front of me, giving me such a fright that my heart stopped beating for full second and a half. Without thinking twice I screamed, probably loud enough to attract the attention of walkers across state boarders. Then I felt someone clasp their hand over my mouth, shushing frantically.

"Shhhhhh! Shhhh! Please, just shut up!"

"Glenn?"