Well here's the next chapter and it's pretty long so I hope you enjoy it and please follow, favorite, review or PM me :D Thanks :)

Chapter 9: Heart Of The City


Not even five minutes ago I was just rolling up into Atlanta in my car passing sky high skyscrapers and inching my way down a main road that was utterly vacant besides for abandoned buses, cars, shops, buildings, tanks and helicopters. There were also strikingly orange and white striped traffic cones and gates littering about the place along with trash and papers and miscellaneous items that were strewn across the sun baked pavement. The city looked like a ghost town and I doubted any possibility of there being a refugee here. But maybe I just had to keep searching.

As far as I could see there were a few dead corpses here and there being pecked and picked at by crows that kept fighting over chunks of rotted flesh and they would screech out and flap their wings. I grimaced at the scavengers and at the decayed mangled bodies. Most of them looked like they were wearing army uniforms and occasionally I would notice what looked like to be a city folk or civilian being torn apart by the crows' sharp beaks.

And as I was passing another tank with another dead corpse slumped across the front with half of its face torn off showing its set of gums and teeth and red muscles tissue underneath I couldn't help but bite at the inside of my cheek in a nervous manner. I was starting to get an eerie feeling and quite frankly I wanted to turn around and head out of the city but I was already in the heart of it; and I needed food…and maybe an extra set of clothes. I was covered from head to toe in blood and black matter and gooey gummy like chunks of flesh or brain matter. I wasn't sure which of the two but either way I was covered in repulsive matter and I was pretty positive I wasn't looking to well either. I hadn't had a chance to officially look at the damage the men caused when they beat the piss out of me back in the woods but I was pretty sure I looked pretty awful.

I could feel it in my body and bones. My ribs ached and my face was sore and my arms and legs were also tender. There were bruises in the shape of fingerprints embedded in my smooth skin on my arms and large bruises from when the men hit and kicked me on my legs. I hadn't looked at my ribcage yet but I was pretty sure it was as well covered in offensive bruises. It all seemed to remind me of when my father and I would get in pointless arguments over something so stupid and meaningless and he decided to take his anger out on me. It didn't happen all the time since he only did it when he was downright drunk and usually I just stood there red faced ready to burst out and when he was sober he just ignored me and pretended I didn't even exist and once I got older I started to grow a backbone and we'd get into it a few times until we would both be bone tired and exhausted and pretty soon I just left the house all together. And to think that had only been a few short years ago. Shaking my head and snapping out of my thoughts I started easing my way around a huge skyscraper when all of a sudden my heart nearly stopped beating.

I stomped on the brakes but it was too late. In front of me was a massive herd of those flesh eating monsters and they heard my car screech to a stop on the hot pavement. It was like a chain reaction; once one turned its ugly head towards me and my car all of them did. And they were hungry. I could see them snarling and start reaching out towards me with their decayed and rotted arms and hands. There were hundreds of them and I had to act now or I wasn't making it out of Atlanta alive.

Panic shocked my body into action and I quickly fumbled over into the backseats nearly dragging myself over; leaving the keys in the ignition and the engine rumbling. Quickly I grabbed my duffel bag slinging it over my sore shoulder. I didn't have time to grab my fuel can and hunting pack which were both empty since all of a sudden the freaks started dog piling on top of my car and I saw more coming.

Quickly I burst through the back door and two freaks came charging at me with their grotesque arms and I heard them snarling and groaning—ready to tear the flesh from my bones. Without thinking I pulled my Grand Puissance handgun out of my waistband and shot them both in the head; in which darkish red and black blood sprayed out and splattered all over my face and neck where my sweaty collarbone was. That only seemed to rile up the herd even more and hundreds of them came charging at me and just mere inches one of them missed my hair. That would have been bad if that freak would have snagged my hair and pulled me down. It would have been a 'dinner's ready' for sure and that herd would have ripped me open and feasted on my organs, entrails, and flesh. I merely though and gulped back down the lump rising in my throat as I sprinted back from where I came from and tried to think of where to go. Those freaks were right on my heel and I couldn't outrun all of them. There were hundreds of them for crying out loud!

I chanced a glance over my shoulder and noticed the whole herd was following me trying to catch up to me and that only frightened me more to the bone. Sweat rolled down my forehead and down my neck and chest. I could practically feel my heart beating in my ears; thumping profusely in my sudden panic. I didn't know where to go…perhaps I could run down one of these alley ways and find a back door to a building. With that I immediately veered to my right and sprinted down the alley and kept going; trying to find a door. And praise the lord I saw the glint of a handle on one of the buildings and essentially I threw myself in and slammed it shut behind me hard.

Not even a minute later I heard bodies hitting and slamming against the other side of the door and I nearly jumped right out of my own skin. What the hell can I do? I thought to myself in a fear. The metal door was thick and heavy but I wasn't sure if it could withstand hundreds of walkers scratching and banging on the door slamming up against it.

I whipped my head around taking in my surroundings and observed. I was in some kind of automotive shop with shelves that held various items of car parts and stuff like that. I swallowed hard and snuck my way up to the front of the building where the front doors were and my heart sank. There were just so many of those things everywhere all riled up and looking for their missing food that just got away—for the moment.; and I knew I was probably dead meat and I was more than likely done for. This was probably my last moment of life and I was going to die by the hands of these ugly things being eaten alive and not a soul was around to neither hear, see nor help…unless I…opted out.

I contemplated for a moment staring down at my handgun and wondered if it would be better to just take my own life before those flesh eating freaks did. At least it would be quick, I reasoned to myself. And it probably wouldn't hurt as much either. I couldn't imagine my flesh being ripped and my muscles being torn from my body. Shuddering I frowned and in that moment a large group of the monsters came crashing up against the plexiglass window snarling in their usual ways. The window vibrated from the impact and shook which brought goose bumps to my skin and a new found terror. One of them had a chunk of flesh ripped right out of its shoulder and one had some rotten flesh hanging from its mouth.

I closed my eyes and reopened them while tears started flowing down my round flushed cheeks and I could feel my lip trembling. The plexiglass cracked and I tensed and quickly brought my handgun to my temple and decided. Tightening my grip on the handle I heard another crack from the plexiglass and louder moaning and snarling and then the sound of the plexiglass shattering and I pulled the trigger.

To my dismay there was nothing and I didn't feel anything. My eyes flew open and I pulled the trigger again but all I heard was a clicking sound. The gun was empty. In my startled moment I forgot that the freaks had broken through the windows and were coming at me scuffing the ground with their heavy dead feet. Though when I looked up they weren't scuffling over to me, but instead found a new interest and were leaving, completely forgetting about me. I wondered momentarily what distracted them, but then I was pulled out of my curiosity when I heard something—the sound of whooshing and a thump-thump. It sounded a lot like a helicopter up in the sky. Could that be? Could there still be survivors out there? I wondered, thinking back to Hannah's two little kids—Billy and Jamie when they were taken in the helicopter, off to some refugee here in Atlanta. But as far as I've seen this place was vacant and full of dead corpses. Maybe I'm just hallucinating… I thought wearily thinking of when the last time I actually ate something sufficient.

Shaking my head, I knew I wasn't the last person on the earth but from the look of this city one would think otherwise. Civilization was pretty much destroyed and the human race was practically wiped out. I let out a huff of air and took a second to gather my bearings. I was still pretty shaken up considering I just about blew a hole in my brain and I was even more shaken up that I had actually almost done it. If my gun wouldn't have run out of ammo I'd be dead. I didn't know whether I was disappointed in the fact that my gun hadn't gone off or whether I was disappointed that I had actually tried to just kill myself. Sighing I pushed some sweaty wisps of hair out of my face and rummaged through my duffel bag and found the right bullets I was looking for and I reloaded my Grand Puissance.

Zipping the bag back up I slung it back over my sore shoulder and cautiously made my way over to the front doors and windows which were shattered open. The plexiglass crunched beneath my sports running shoes and warily I peeked outside and saw that the whole herd had dispersed back to the street they had come from and I was thankful of that; though when I took one step outside out of the automotive parts building something grabbed a hold of my bloodied and dirty white tank top from behind and pulled me backwards. I fell hard to the ground while slivers and shards of the glass dug into my back and in bare arms and legs. Wearing only a tank top and nighttime shorts definitely had its disadvantages. I was more vulnerable and prone to getting scratched or bit or cut on something but it did help with the heat from the Georgian sun that beat down unforgivably each and every day and if I would have known about the apocalypse happening I would have worn something different or had at least brought some extra clothes.

But as I was in the moment startled I felt something stinging on my forearm and the feeling of blood oozing out and leaking down my arm. For a moment I wondered if I had really just might've gotten bit but when my eyes finally focused I noticed the wound on my forearm was a jagged cut from just below my elbow to my wrist. I was surprised at how long the cut was and how much blood was spurting out and covering my whole hand and arm in bright red blood. I swallowed back a lump forming in my throat and I saw the flesh eating corpse that just yanked me down starting to lean down towards my neck ready to tear flesh. Immediately I snapped out of my daze and kicked the corpse in the kneecap and I heard a crunching sound; bones snapping and breaking and the corpse fell right on top of me despite my effort in trying to kick it away. I noticed that it was wearing some kind of uniform and I guessed that this freak used to work here in this automotive parts store; and for being a dead corpse I noted how large it was. I needed to get this thing off from me though before it sunk its nasty rotted teeth into me; I was already starting to feel light-headed, like I was going to faint from the amount of blood-loss from my forearm.

Mustering up whatever energy and strength I had reserved I attempted to shove the nasty corpse off from me but it wasn't budging. I was now urgently trying to keep it from ripping me open with its decomposed hands and I tried keeping its snapping teeth away from my face which, at the moment, was just inches away. I could practically 'taste' the stench radiating off from it and I could see rotted flesh still clinging to its gross teeth from its last meal and I could see its lifeless glazed over hungry eyes boring into my own petrified ones. I grunted with anger and frustration as the thing kept pushing down on me still trying to bite my face off.

A few more minutes of sheer struggle went by until the corpse gave one last final push and leaned further down, baring its teeth, ready for the final kill bite and I quickly ran my hand and wounded arm along the glass covered floor searching for something, anything that could help, and I snatched a large long and sharp chunk of glass that seemed fit and squeezing it tight, feeling the sharp edges break the skin of my palm, I plunged the shard right into the corpses eye socket. The corpse went limp, officially dead forever and I let out a small strangled cry as relief washed over.

I was breathing in ragged breaths and I could feel my pulse hammering in my body and I realized how close again I just came to death again. Way too damn close for comfort…I thought in bewilderment. I realized I was also still clenching the sharp shard of glass that was still cutting deeper and deeper into my palm witch each passing second. Letting go of it I heaved myself up off the ground and I became acutely aware of the stinging and burning sensation in my back. Some shards must have lodged their way in when I fell. I winced when I went to pat my back as I felt a particularly large shard jutting out. Other than that there were just tiny shards.

I grimaced in pain as I bent over and the same burning sensation riveted throughout my body and I tried my best to ignore it and I reached down to snag up my gun bag. I slung it over my shoulder but all of a sudden I was nearing the floor. I hit pretty hard and groaned out in agony. My body was giving me the signals that I needed to stop and rest, that my body was slowly shutting down. I've lost way too much blood and I hadn't had a proper meal in a while and I was putting too much strain and stress on it, but I couldn't just give up. Not now. So grinding my teeth together I forced myself to get up and stand. My knees were wobbly and shaky but my mind was set firm on getting out of the city.

But firstly I needed to bind my wound and bandage it. I didn't have the time though to dig through the bag for the roll of gauze or medical tape and carefully bind everything and pour peroxide on the wound so I pulled my bloodied and dirtied white tank top off from my sweaty body and now only exposed in my bra and soffe shorts I wrapped and tied my tank top tightly around my forearm to help stop the flow of blood. With newfound willpower I slung the duffel bag back around my extremely aching and raw shoulder and I cautiously made my way out of the building looking around to make sure none of the few dead corpses saw me and I crept away silently and veered off into a different alley way, out of the main street. My only task was to find my way out of the heart of this dangerous city and get far away.

FADE OUT


The horse that Rick was currently on was trotting down what once used to be a main road in Atlanta—its hooves clunking against the hard pavement making the same clunk clunk clunk clunk noise. Rick was wearing his police uniform along with his brown Sheriff hat and he was sporting a freshly shaved face. The sun was beating down on him though without shame and it was quite sweltering hot outside and a gleam of sweat was glistening on his eyebrow and his forehead. The summers in Georgia were very unforgiving.

As Rick sighed looking at his surroundings he noticed crumpled up newspapers being tossed along the pavement by the slight warm breeze and there were orange and white striped traffic comes scattered everywhere, some knocked over. The place was completely vacant and not a soul to be seen.

As the horse continued to trot down the road Rick also noticed a green helicopter resting as he went buy and then there were a bunch of cars blackened and burnt and a community bus burnt into nothing, paint chipped off onto the ground. Rick noticed a few of those dead corpses sitting inside in the booths motionless as he passed the shattered windows. For a moment he wondered what the hell went down here—it looked like a complete disaster. He couldn't have imagined the panic that must have went down.

Grimacing Rick looked away but then all of a sudden he heard snarling and metal creaking and the horse he was on whinnied loudly in distress and took a few unstable side steps, jostling Rick around on the saddle.

"Whoa…!" Rick exclaimed anxiously, tightening his grip on the roped reins not wanting to be bucked off and looked back to the scorched bus and saw two dead corpses lumbering their way off the bus slowly.

The horse whinnied again loudly in a fuss and Rick spoke gently to try and calm the upset horse, "Steady…just a few…nothing we can't handle and outrun."

The horse continued trotting quickly leaving the two mangled corpses behind in the dust and Rick had to hold onto the reins more tightly, his bag of guns bouncing and hitting his back with a little bit of force.

"Okay, whoa whoa," Rick spoke out trying to get the horse to slow down and indeed the horse settled down enough to return to a slow trot.

Looking around again Rick saw a few more upturned abandoned cars and light poles uprooted from the soil and his clear blue eyes rested upon a light tan tank as he was passing by. There was a slumped military guy with two large black crows pecking at the torn fabric on the dead mans back and gobbling up the rotted flesh. Inching closer Rick noticed that half of the man's face was torn off showing the red muscle and sinew underneath and the man's gums and teeth were also showing. The birds started squawking nosily and fighting over a chunk of decayed flesh and Rick clenched and unclenched his jaw his muscles rippling underneath his baby smooth jaw—completely and utterly disgusted by what he saw and feeling a sense of sympathy. He casted his eyes down looking away from the disturbing scene and pulled on the reins; the horse continued on moving away from the military tank with Rick swaying a bit back and forth on the saddle.

Rick didn't make it too far because out of nowhere he heard a slightly familiar sound; a whooshing sound with a thump thump thump thump coming from somewhere up in the bright blue sky. Rick whipped his head around still seated on the horse and eagerly looked around trying to pinpoint the noise. A few more flicks of his head around the surrounding area and Rick's eyes suddenly caught a massively tall and wide skyscraper that was made completely out of glass and he saw the reflection of a helicopter moving across the glass skyscraper. Sitting still in the saddle watching the reflection for a moment Rick in a rush makes an outburst, "HYAHH!" and whips the roped reins in his large palms signaling for the horse to take off.

The horse whinnies out loud and takes off galloping while a crow that was on the ground desperately jumps and flaps out of way from the horse's large hooves. Rick holds onto the reins securely and as he starts to swerve onto a different street the horse abruptly skids to a stop alarmed and frightened and Rick notices the gigantic herd of walkers in front of him, filling every inch of the street and sidewalks and bumbling around uselessly; that is until they hear the horse whinny out noisily and see Rick on top the horse—fresh meat. The dead corpses set their glazed over eyes on the restless "food" and reach their grubby hands and arms out and start after Rick and the horse avidly and hungrily groaning and growling wildly like feral animals.

Rick only had a moment to comprehend the situation and shake off the sudden fear spouting in his gut and throughout his body until he forcefully pulled on the reins and steered the horse away and without out even giving a command or saying anything the horse took off like a lightning bolt and broke out in a full sprint back the other way. What the hell?! Rick thought shockingly to himself as his he wondered where all those corpses came from. He only saw a few earlier and a few fully dead ones on the pavement, but he was not expecting to see so many of them. It certainly was a surprise to say the least.

And with surprises the horse suddenly skids to another stop and whinnies out a disturbing cry. Rick notices the corpses blocking them and mumbles a curse under his warm breathe and sneaks a worried peek behind him. He sees the whole herd is coming right for him. As he whips his head back around he sees the corpses that blocked him and the horse off were now reaching up and clawing at the horse trying to pull Rick down and the horse so they could feast.

Rick lets out a few hopeless and desperate cries of despair, "No! No! No!"

By this point the horse was whinnying and naying out loud and freaking out, clearly in distress and not having a way to run away as the abundance of corpses was now getting larger and were pulling at the horse with unbelievable great force for being dead. Rick could feel a few grimy hands greedily pulling at his police uniform and by the second Rick was getting more and more anxious and panicked, looking around trying to decipher a way out.

Before he could come up with anything though the horse's knees buckle and Rick drops to the hot pavement hard while his bag of guns goes toppling to the other side along with his brown sheriff hat, out of reach. The horse lets out a strained cry and Rick can see the monsters starting to rip and tear at the horse's flesh, entrails spewing out along with other various organs and it's a downright bloodbath. The corpses all pile on top and pack and squeeze next to each all trying to get a handful of warm and wet flesh and any other bodily parts. Rick could see them stuffing their faces like turkey on Thanksgiving Day; it was sickening.

As Rick was still momentarily shocked at the sight one corpse spots him and comes traveling over, getting quite dangerously close to Rick and he quickly snaps out of his thoughts and brings his large boot up and kicks it right off of him as it had started leaning over. He leans up and is about to hurry and swipe back up his bag of guns but then another corpse blocks him off and then another and another until a whole pack who isn't munching on the horse meat come shambling over to him snarling their rotted teeth.

"Shit…" Rick stammers with wide eyes and he quickly drags himself under the tank that's right next to him and continues pulling himself underneath the tank's carriage. He looks back and sees that the corpses are still coming and are lowering themselves to crawl after Rick underneath the tank and he can feel his heartbeat pump up a notch. He all of a sudden senses a pair of cold fingers grab his ankle and with as much force as he can muster Rick slams his foot into the corpses face and he can hear bone and cartilage cracking from the sheer vigor.

On his stomach Rick is still pulling himself further on, still underneath the tank and is abruptly hit with dread as he notices more corpses are starting to pull themselves underneath the tank's undercarriage in front of him and behind him. He was trapped. Sweat beads rolled down his forehead and his breath was hot and heavy with unease. He took an unsteady ragged breath and stuttered out, "Oh god, oh god, oh god…"and he fumbles out his python from his belt holster and aims and shoots one corpse getting too close. He shoots another, blood splattering everywhere and then three more. This only riled up more of them and Rick could hear them groan and snarl louder with hunger and more of them dropped to the ground and started dragging themselves over to Rick underneath the tank.

Rick realizes he's a goner and that he had failed to reach his wife and only son. He couldn't make it too them, he was a failure and now he was going to be torn apart by hungry monsters. So hastily Rick puts the barrel of his gun up to his sweaty and slick temple and mumbles out with grief filled in his despaired voice, "Lori, Carl…I'm sorry."

But before his finger twitches on the trigger his eyes snap above him and he is presented with an escape. Without a thought he pulls the gun away from his temple promptly and yanks himself up the open hatch that was underneath the tank and once he has hauled himself up inside of the vacant tank he wastes no time in slamming the hatch door shut and locking it tight in his adrenaline spurt. With shallow unsteady breaths Rick drags himself backwards and rests his back and shoulders up against the metal interior of the tanks clearly in indisputable shock and sees his isn't as alone as he thought.

Right next to him is a lifeless and motionless body in a military uniform from head shoulders down. The dead man's face is sunken in and extremely ashen and pallid. Rick, still breathing hard manages to mutter out a simple, "Oh—god…" before he finally catches his breath and, avoiding looking at the dead military man, Rick leans slightly over to grab the dead military man's black standard issued handgun, a Beretta. He grasps the firm handle and tugs it out of the holster on the military man's hip but all of a sudden the "dead" man slowly turns it's decayed head and neck, partly bloody on its cheek and faces Rick right in the eye. Gasping, clearly taken aback, Rick immediately aims his own silver python handgun underneath the corpse's ashen chin and pulls the trigger. A bullet is released and shoots straight through the corpse's soft skull while dark red blood splatters on the metal wall behind.

The ear-deafening shot rings throughout the small enclosed space in the tank and reverberates off the interior causing Rick to keel over in pain grabbing at his ringing ear, groaning in obvious pain. He makes his way up off the linoleum floor and stumbling forward, he takes a moment to shake his sweaty glistening head as if he can shake the ear-splitting pain away but he only falls back to the floor of the tank again and this time he looks around the space and sees an extremely bright light above. There was another hatch.

Once again dragging himself up to his feet with some effort Rick steps up on a foot step and climbs his way up to the hatch up above and still momentarily in a haze with his ear still ringing he suddenly pops out of the hatch and is presented with fresh warm air. Glancing around him, Rick notices his sheriff bag of guns and sheriff hat lying hopelessly on the cracked pavement among the dead corpses shuffling around; and as Rick is observing the scene in front of him some corpses spot his appearance up on top of the tan tank and start scaling the tank, yearning for a fresh meal and erupting with nasty snarls.

Wasting no more time, Rick climbs back down into the tank, pulling the hatch's door down with him while rotted grimy hands land down on the hatch's tan metal surface from the outside and scratch, claw, and bang at it, wanting their meal. With the hatch now closed, Rick tumbles down to the metal flooring of the tank and can't help but wonder to him how the hell he got himself into this mess. There was no way out and the dead corpses surrounded the tank like die-hard fans do around a celebrity.

Clearly stressed out, Rick brings his large calloused palm up to his gleaming forehead and flitting blue eyes and rubbing his forehead in a stressed manner, Rick sighs in defeat. He was truly done for it.

Though after a few more stressful and emotional moments Rick suddenly snaps out of his stupor and swipes up the Beretta handgun, pulling the clip out and observing the ammo. It was a full clip so Rick easily shoved the clip back in its spot and proceeded to cock it back—now locked and loaded, ready to go. He knew that if necessary he would you use it to put himself down before he starved to death in the tank. He didn't want to die a slow painful death. He still couldn't believe he had gotten himself in this predicament in the first place. He didn't know there was going to be a herd of that size; and now he was reaping his actions from earlier. He should have been more considerate—thought things through before just trotting right on in Atlanta strapped to a horse.

Slowly he lent his forehead up against the barrel of the Beretta handgun and closed his clear blue eyes, sighing out loud all the while. A large bead of sweat managed to roll of the tip of the Rick's nose as well and all he could really thing about was Lori and Carl and how he really missed the two of them. He would give anything to be with the two people he cherished the most in the world, to hold Lori in his arms Carl, even just once more if he could.

Sighing once more in frustration he was slowly pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a familiar crackling static nose. Lifting his head up he looked around and spotted a little CB radio in the corner, just waiting to be used. Out of nowhere a seemingly amused voice spoke out, "Dumb-ass—" and then there was a brief pause while Rick, dumbfounded, thought he was now hearing things until the slightly amused voice spoke once more, "Ya you in the tank. Cozy in there?" Again Rick is utterly surprised, frozen in his spot only staring at the small CB radio with disbelief.

Not too long after—after Rick had followed the stranger man's plan and finally emerged unscathed and coming out of alive, using up the Beretta's full clip, running down an alley way with the stranger who Rick noticed to be Asian and then proceeding to climb up an extremely tall set of neon yellow metal stairs on the side of a brick building—Rick finally got the young man's name; Glenn. He looked to be in his young twenties with dark hair slicked back with his sweat and an Asian complexion dressed in a baseball cap and over button shirt and plain dark blue denim jeans.

Glenn lead Rick over a series of obstacles, walking across a few rooftops until he spoke into his walkie talkie to some person Rick didn't know, all in a quick voice, "I'm back, got a guest—plus four geeks in the alley."

The two sprinted on and then finally down a flight of metal stairs and the Asian kid came to an abrupt halt at the last few steps, staring uneasily at a few measly grumbling geeks that were stumbling about the small black alleyway. All of a sudden Rick saw a heavy metal door swing open and two men in some form of get up with riot-like headgear came dashing out with bats in gripped in their hands and they suddenly started bashing in the corpses' heads and brains.

Glenn, seeing this as their cue, yelled out to Rick in a rushed tone, "Let's go!"

So doing so, Rick followed after Glenn into the building while the other two men in the getup soon followed after, slamming the door shut with a loud clank. As soon as the door clicked shut and all of the men were in safe Rick was swiftly pushed back up against a stack of cardboard boxes with a gun—still with the safety on—being pointed right at his head by an angry raging blond woman with a pissed off look plastered on her face. She sneered at him and raved out, "Son of a bitch—I should kill you!"

Rick only stared down the barrel of the silver gun being pointed at his face and then he heard a voice speak out to the obviously pissed of blonde, "Just chill out Andrea—back off."

Then another voice chimed in, coming from a dark woman standing off to the side with a worried look on her face, "Come on—ease up."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because it only further angered the blonde woman named Andrea and fueled her on and she bursted out in disbelief, "Ease up?! You're kidding me right? We're dead because of this stupid asshole!"

Andrea didn't waver, not even for a moment until the man from earlier that consoled in the blond to back off came up to her shoulder and in a stern voice spoke, "Andrea—I said back the hell off."

Glenn watched the whole sour situation unfold in front of him and darted his eyes back and forth from the adamant man and to Rick and back again wondering how the situation as going to be settled. Rick and Andrea remained staring at each, both with hard stares and strong eye contact until the adamant added, nonchalantly, "Or pull the trigger…" and shrugged.

Andrea grimaced and retracted, pulling the gun down and turned around-emotional and nerves running thing and then turned back around towards Rick with a look of despair and spoke, her voice weak and cracking, "We're dead—all of us—because of you." And Rick could see the pure disdain etched into her piercing eyes and finding their way into Rick's own piercing firm eyes.

He felt slightly guilty but didn't know what for. He didn't know what he had done except for fire a few shots into the street trying to save his life, and now this blonde was pissed at him? He didn't understand. And why we're they all dead? He looked around at all the face and noticed how worried they all looked and that only confused him more and he spoke out questioning, "I don't understand…"

The adamant man from earlier suddenly grabbed Rick's elbow and lead him away, the rest of the group trailing hot on the two mens' heals and the man leading Rick informed him. "Look—we came to the city to gather supplies. You know the key to scavenging things is—surviving. You know the key to surviving—sneaking in and out. Not shootin' up the streets."

Rick is finally led into a main area—which he noticed to be a large department store and a different man's voice added, "Every damn geek from miles round heard ya poppin' off rounds."

Rick looked back at the African-American man that just spoke and then all around the department area until his eyes rested upon the main doors. He now saw why all the people were so worked up. At the front were hundreds of corpses banging on the glass—threatening to break in. Rick was suddenly hit with a sudden feel of being a total idiot. He was snapped out of his thoughts when Andrea butted in, "You just rang the dinner bell."

Rick hung his head slightly and the adamant man concluded, asking Rick, "Get the picture now?"

And indeed Rick did get the picture, quite clearly. Hundreds of geeks, that are what these people called them, were banging hard on the front entrance and Rick knew this group and himself were in danger if the glass gave out; and already though some spots were starting to crack and spider out while the sounds of smearing wet hands glided roughly over the glass windows and the sound of hungry moans drifted into the large department area, invading everyone's hearing senses. It gave everyone goose bumps and caused the hairs on everyone's necks to rise.

The whole group noticed the glass cracking even more and they all consciously took a few steps back as if it would make a difference. They were still trapped in the building with now immediate way out.

Andrea unexpectedly looked over to Rick, in a calm voice now and honestly curious asked, "The hell were you doing out there anyway?"

Rick swallowed and answered confidently, "Tryin' to flag a helicopter."

The African American man in the white shirt and black hat suddenly butted in with a little bit of disbelief, skepticism, and amusement, "A helicopter? Crap man ain't no damn helicopter." The dark man shook his head at Rick while the equally dark woman with short cropped black hair broke in with a calm gentle voice, reasoning what Rick informed the group, "You were just hallucination—imagining—it happens."

Rick instantaneously frowned and furrowed his brows and with firm blue eyes and a resolute ascertain voice exclaimed, "I saw it."

The adamant man from earlier spoke briefly, addressing the African American man, "Hey T-Dog, try that CB."

T-Dog fumbled with the CB talkie and the other man questioned, "Can you contract the others?"

This suddenly grabbed Rick's attention—sparking a keen interest and hope in his heart as the sound of there being "others" out there. Lori and Carl could be with this group. Rick looked over at the man that just spoke of others and asked, "Others? The refugee center…"

The gentle African-American woman looked to Rick with sarcasm dripping off her tongue, "Yeeah…the refugee center—they got biscuits waitin' in the oven for us."

T-Dog, still messing with a dial on the CB talkie, with his voice wavering slightly announced to everyone, "Got no signal," and then looked up at everyone's fallen faces and added hopefully, "Maybe the roof."

As soon as the words left T-Dog's mouth there was a series of gunshots that echoed off from the rooftop of the department building. Everyone looked up at the ceiling and Andrea finally groaned out, "Oh no, was that Dixon?"

A few more gunshot rang out and someone eventually stammered out, "Come on, let's go!"

Rick was quite curious now, wondering who this strange Dixon man was spewing out bullets up on top of the roof. Was the man in trouble? Rick wondered momentarily, but that didn't seem to fit right with the tone of Andrea's groaning. Rick could sense this man was trouble, but followed Glenn and the other group members anyway up a few twirling flight of stairs winding up to one metal door and to the roof. All the while more loud gunshots echoed out making a loud ruckus.

The adamant man from earlier was the first to break through the door and to step out onto the roof and speak, with anger and worry etched into his exasperated voice, "Hey Dixon?! You crazy?!"

The gun wielding man on the roof laughed out loud and continued shooting while the others all finally filed out onto the roof, Rick the last one. All members beside the crazed man were cringing with each loud and obnoxious gunshot that was surely drawing in every geek throughout the large city.

Andrea mumbled under her breath disapprovingly while the crazy Dixon man, clad in a dark pair of cargo pants, dark tank top and a black leather vest and a leather wristband with a rifle in his other turned around and spoke out in a rough raspy deep southern accent, "Hey hey hey—you ought to be more polite to a man with a gun!" He shifted the gun his grasp and rasped out again while jumping off the ledge to the concrete ground, "huh? Only common sense." As he landed on his large feet he smirked devilishly at the other people.

T-Dog, obviously having enough of Dixon's behavior and fed up, came rushing towards the large haughty man and spoke up angrily, "Man you wastin' bullets we ain't even got man!"

The Dixon man chuckled a deep throaty chuckle and T-Dog only continued on his rampant, "And you bringin' geeks on our asses—man just chill!"

The largely built rough man finally replied, edging closer and closer to T-Dog, "Hey! Bad enough I got this Taco bender on my ass all day," her motioned towards he adamant man Rick spoke to earlier and continued, "now I'mma take orders from you?" There was a small pause as tensions rose and Dixon went on, "I don't think so bro—that'll be that day…"

T-Dog shifted in his spot and asked curiously, "That'll be the day?" and getting more worked up exclaimed, "You got somethin' you want to tell me?!" He gestured to himself, staring at the Dixon man astounded, sensing the man was hinting at a deeper meaning.

The man Dixon referred to as the Taco bender sighed and spoke, trying to get T-Dog to back down knowing full well Dixon was just trying to start something that wasn't worth getting into, "T-Dog just leave it."

T-Dog raised his hand not looking away from the rugged man in front of him to silence "Taco bender" and bellowed out, "Noo!"

But the man continued, trying to get T-Dog to just drop it, "It ain't worth it."

Dixon gave a sly grin to "Taco bender" but kept his mouth shut nonetheless and the man added, "Now Merle—just relax okay?"

Everyone knew though that Merle Dixon was not a man to just drop a situation and relax—he was the one that kept pushing at it and egging people on just to get a rise out of them, thinking it was all funny. Rick watched this tense scene in front of him and gave a quick questioning glance over to Glenn who had his arms crossed and a grimace. Glenn just shook his head and the "Taco bender" man finished, "We got enough trouble as is."

Merle let the man's words go in one ear and out the other, ignoring him and flexed his jaw while staring hard at T-Dog and he finally spoke up tauntingly, "You wanna know the day?"

T-Dog rolled his shoulders and replied matter of factly, "Yeah."

So Merle pressed on, "I'll tell you the day— —it's the day I take orders from a nigger."

T-Dog immediately erupted in rage at the racists remark and lunged forward swinging at Merle but he swatted the man's hand away and used the butt of his gun to hit T-Dog right square in the face, who abruptly flew to the ground with blood gushing out of his nose while "Taco Bender" bellowed out, "Come on brother that's enough!"

Rick seeing the commotion suddenly break out let his "cop" instinct kick in and jumped forward away from Glenn's side and was about to pull Dixon back but the man saw Rick coming and threw a well-placed punch right to the side of Rick's face and he hit the ground hard. By this time T-Dog had gotten back on his feet, but not for long for Merle quickly kicked T-Dog in the groin and T-Dog bent over in pain and Merle started assaulting T-Dog's face again with another blow of his rock hard fist and then Merle shoved T-Dog backwards. He lost his footing and hit face-first on a metal pipe, blood smearing on it and T-Dog was now lying on the scorched cement, blood on his face.

In the background everyone was screaming out loud at Merle to stop it with horrified shocked faces, not knowing how to actually stop the enraged-ox-like man. The only person that could get through the man's thick dense head was his baby brother, Daryl; who was still back at camp.

Andrea could be heard yelling again as Merle started kicking T-Dog in the ribcage with his steel-toed boots, "Dixon get off him—you're hurting him!"

Good, Merle thought ignoring the blonde and everyone else screaming down his neck at him and he kept laying it in to the man at his feet and then finally, Merle seized his attacks momentarily and kneeled down over T-Dog casting a huge shadow just to start pounding in his face to a pulp. Rick slowly got to his feet; a little more than dazed, but mostly pissed the hell off at this obnoxious and dangerous man feeling something bitter simmer in him.

"Taco bender," realizing nobody was as so much as moving a muscle or blinking decided to take action. He couldn't stand to watch his friend get beaten like this just because Merle Dixon was a racist pig and didn't like playing nice. So coming up behind Merle he went to pull Dixon off but was rewarded with a sharp jab of Merle's elbow stabbing into his gut. "Taco bender" bent down in pain and staggered backwards. Merle, having had enough shit for one day, finally pulled out his handgun and pushed it in T-Dog's bruised and battered face and Andrea cried out hysterically, pleading, "No-no-no, please—please!"

T-Dog coughed a few times and groaned out in obvious pain as Merle stared down at T-Dog with disgust as plain as day in his cold blue eyes and finally, much to everyone's relief, he retracted his gun a little but instead hacked up a huge wad of spit and spat on T-Dog's white shirt and rubbed it on. T-Dog grimaced and Mere finally spoke while standing up with a little bit of excitement, "Yeeeah! Alright! We're going to have ourselves a powwow—huh?"

By this time Merle was finally to his full height and was looking at the other frightened members of the group and he internally laughed, finding it funny that these people were scared out of their minds, shit he'd done worse before. Beat the shit out of plenty of men worse than he had just done to T-Dog; hell he was just getting warmed up. Merle smirked slightly and thundered out, "Talk about—who's in charge. I vote me! Anybody else?" Merle scanned the group members who were finally dragging T-Dog away from himself and continued, rasping out, "heh—democracy time y'all!"

Merle raised his hand up and added, "Show of hands—huh—all in favor…come on!"

He was shifting on his feet and watching the group's disapproving disgusted eyes, but nevertheless continued, "Let's see them."

"Taco bender" having had enough and who just wanted to get back to camp to see his wife and kids again decided to give in to the violent redneck, hesitantly raising his arm a little and Andrea huffed, looking at the man in disbelief and muttered more to herself than anyone, "Come on…" while Merle went on still half-cocked up like he was the man, "All in favor…" and smirked spitefully while the African-American woman tending to T-Dog raised her hand but lifted her middle finger up, flipping Dixon the bird and giving him an equally cold stare. Merle just chuckled under his breath finding it pretty darn funny.

Finally Andrea reluctantly raised her own hand in defeat just wanting this day to be over and if that meant giving in to Merle's stupid demands then so be it. Shane would say something to him no matter what since Shane was pretty much the leader of the group.

Merle, liking what he saw as the whole group had their arms raised smugly rasped out, "Yeeeah—that means I'm the boss—right? Yeah…anybody else? Hmm…anybody?"

And out of the blue Rick huffed out, "Yeah."

Merle twisted around facing the officer just in time as Rick brought the butt of Dixon's own rifle up and slammed it right in his mug. Mere fell to the ground, his shirt shifting and getting jumbled up on his chest and Rick quickly kneeled down on Dixon's face, grabbed up his large calloused hand and brought his metal clinking cuffs out and ultimately cuffed Merle Dixon to the same metal pipe that T-Dog fell on when Merle shoved him down.

The veins in Rick's arms were protruding slightly and strained as he roughly grabbed the thin fabric of Merle's leather vest and shirt underneath and hauled him up into a sitting position and Merle finally grunted, giving Rick an icy glare but wondered, "Who the hell are you man?"

Rick leaned in closer to Merle's face, noses of each man almost touching and Rick spoke vehemently, "Officer Friendly," and turned around briefly to swipe Merle's fallen handgun off the cement and Rick popped the clip out to observe the amount of ammo left and continued on, "Look here Merle, things are different now. There are no 'niggers' anymore—no dumb less shit inbred white trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat—that's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together-not apart."

Merle sneered at Rick, his voice raspier than before, "Screw you man," and Rick with a hint of amusement playing out on his features observed, "I can see you have the habit of missing the point," and Rick stared sternly into Merle's cold stare until the Dixon chuckled, "Yeah—well screw you twice."

The amusement on Rick's face was immediately wiped off and was replaced with anger while Rick shoved the clip back into Merle's handgun and then shoved the barrel into Dixon's temple and mocked, "You ought to be polite with a man with a gun—only common sense," throwing Merle's own words form earlier back into his face.

The groups tending to T-Dog were all watching the scene with shock clearly plastered on their faces. Apparently this officer had more guts than anybody expected him to have—taking on Mere Dixon; the utterly violent, massive, unreasonable sexist, racist, druggie redneck with the worst temper in the world besides his own baby brother.

Merle scrunched his face up at Rick and spoke surely, "You wouldn't—you're a cop."

Rick removed the handgun from Dixon's temple and spoke matter of factly in a deep gruff tone, "All I am any more is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody gets in the way of that is going to lose…I'll give you a moment to think about that."

With that Rick patted down Merle's vest pockets and then dug down into one pocket coming across a small vile of something. Rick pulled it out and held it up to his face, rolling it around in his fingers and noticed it was some type of drug. Rick looked over to Merle and pushed his face up and observed the man's nose and concluded, "Got some on your nose there…" and Rick tauntingly flicked Dixon's nose purposefully.

Merle half shrugged, "What're you going to do—arrest me?" and he chuckled out loud, smiling and showing off a set of straight teeth.

Rick stood up abruptly and walked over to the roofs edge and without a second thought he tossed the vile of drugs of the roof and Merle bursted out angrily, "Hey! Man what're you doing with my stuff! Hey! If I get loose you better pray! Gahhh, you hear me you pig?! You hear me?!"

Rick simply shrugged his shoulders at the pitiful insult and nonchalantly replied, "Yeah—you're voice carries," and he walked up to the others side of the roof closing in on the edge and rubbed his closed fist.

It served the man right, Rick thought. He didn't need to be up here on this roof high off his own damn rocker causing trouble and putting these people in any more danger than Rick himself had already had. He had merely shot for the sake of saving his life while this dumb piece of shit was poppin' off rounds just for the hell of it because he was as high as a kite and clearly a dumb-ass; didn't make too much damn sense Rick thought to himself while leaning his elbows up on the roofs edge.

A few more seconds went by with Merle yelling and grunting in the background until "Taco bender" came up behind Rick and lent his elbows up against the edge like Rick was doing. He noticed the Officer was in deep thought with a frown and he snapped him out of his thoughts with a statement and question, "You're not Atlanta P.D. Where you from?"

Rick snapped out and shifted on his feet before he replied, "Up the road a ways…"

"Taco bender" nodded slightly and continued, "Well Officer Friendly, from up the road a ways, welcome to the big city."

Looking down, the two men observed the numerous amount of geeks milling around the sidewalks and all over the main street, moaning and waiting for a meal to come their way so they could sink their own rotted decayed teeth in and the sky suddenly gave its own rumble with dark clouds looming about signaling a thunderstorm was on its way.

FADE OUT


I heard a bunch of loud gunshots echo off in the distance as I traveled alley way after alley way trying my best to evade as many dead corpses as possible and I finally found myself in another shop—a small convenient store with shelves of severely picked over boxes, packages, and cans of food wondering why somebody was popping off rounds. Maybe they're in trouble, ran into a herd…I reasoned. That was the only reason I could come up with in fact and I wondered momentarily if I should go investigate after I raided this little store. Maybe they're nice…maybe they're not. Who knew, but would it hurt if I checked it out? Possibly…possibly not. I would only ever know if I did investigate. So I made a deal with myself I would go and check out the ruckus once I was done as discreet as I could and if I didn't find anything then I didn't find anything, that was it.

So focusing back on the task at hand, I noticed over in some other corner there was a small rack of simple clothes; not much. This place had been picked over good it seemed. Though I could still scavenge a new set of clothes even if I did just wear them to bed and the two cans of beans were something rather than nothing, but at the moment I was feeling pretty low on energy. Blood had already seeped through my white tank top completely that was wrapped around my jagged wound and I needed to make this quick.

So snagging the two cans of beans I then waltzed over to the scanty supply of clothes and picked through, finding a baby pink flimsy tank top that looked like it might fit and surprisingly a pair of jeans that looked like they might do. They were light-wash and they were boot-cut, low rise and most importantly they had pockets. That would come in handy. The bowie knife I was carrying kept digging into my side as I just kept it stuffed in my waistband along with my handgun, so it would be nice to not have that annoying sensation.

I stuffed the clothing pieces into my already pretty full duffel bag and rifled through some more clothes until I came across a package of grey ankle socks and then a pack of brightly colored underwear. Not what I would normally wear but hey I couldn't be choosy. You get what you get and you better be grateful because something is better than nothing. So stuffing the other two items into my duffel bag I moved on and checked out the medical/aid aisle. I ended up finding a few packs of Band-Aids, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, bag of fluffy white cotton balls and a roll of gauze that would do.

I needed to clean up my wound and at least do something with it before it got infected. I couldn't stitch it up or cauterize it at the moment due to the fact I hadn't any needle or thread or a lighter and piece of metal that would fare well. So setting my duffel bag down I unraveled my bloodied and dirty white tank from off of my wounded arm and noticed that the blood was already getting sticky and coagulating. That was certainly a good sign…clotting was good, meant that I might not bleed to death if infection didn't come right after and kill me.

The actual wound was red though around the edges, irritated and overall the wound was pretty gnarly looking. Blood coated my sliced palm and my whole forearm that was sliced as well. Sighing I tossed my tank top on the tiled floor of the dark convenient store and undid the cap of the peroxide and bit hard down on my tongue and without taking a second thought and deliberating I poured a generous amount of the disinfectant on my palm and forearm wincing and letting out a squeal of pain as well as the peroxide stung my wounds. Afterwards I quickly grabbed the roll of gauze and went to work at wrapping some from elbow down to my palm firmly, but not enough to cut off my circulation.

Once I was finished and tidied up, or as tidied up as I could get myself I added the medical supplies into my stuffed full duffel bag and went around to the little pharmacy. There wasn't much for pickings, jut a lot of cold relievers and stuff like that but eventually I found a small bottle of off-brand ibuprofen and ripping off the seal, I popped open the lid and swallowed two of the tiny red tablets that tasted horrible on my tongue and screwed the cap back on and put it in my bag. Hopefully two was enough to get the pain to ease in my arm, there was a prominent aching throb that just kept throbbing and causing pain and making me uncomfortable and more or less agitated.

So once I was finished in the store I swiped back up my white tank top and threw it on and I snuck around to the back door where I first came in and opening it, I slipped my sweaty head outside and peeked around each way of the alley way, left and right twice making sure the coast was clear—which was thankfully, so with my heavy duffel bag and my smelly sweat stained and blood-dirt stained tank top back on I snuck out quietly and moved on down and heard a rumbling from the sky. It sounded like an angry thunderstorm was on its way. Thank goodness, I could use for a refresher. Georgia was broiling hot and it felt like I couldn't get a break from the suffocating heat. I've been sweating all day and I could use for some cool liquid splashing down on me. I smiled the tiniest of smiles despite my currently irritated, tired, weary and hungry/thirsty state just in the mere thought of blissful rain and kept down the alley way heading towards the direction I thought the echoes of the bullets came from.

Okay, I know I said that Scarlet was going to meet the others in this chapter but that will have to be in the next one, cross my heart and hope to die! This chapter is pretty lengthy and it would just be absolutely long if I had her meet up with the group and I would feel like it would be too rushed. So Scarlet meeting with the group is going to be a whole chapter itself next chapter and quite honestly I didn't want to leave you guys hanging any longer than necessary :) So I hope you guys liked this chapter, review, follow, favorite or PM me but just let me know how you guys think this story is going and if you like it! I would really love to know what you guys think! I don't know if you guys are enjoying this story as much I want you to, but I'm not going to abandon this story.

Anyway, I want to personally thank jeanf who has reviewed my story numerous times, almost every chapter and I absolutely love your comments and your insights! It really makes my day to see a review and to just see what people are thinking about the story and about my writing. Again thank you jeanf for reviewing and I promise, next chapter we're going to see the group :D Hope you're as excited as I am!

Anyhow, chapter 10 is being worked on :D