During the time I spent waiting for Merle to return, I believe the first day was the most difficult. I walked up and down the house's large hallways singing songs that I'd remembered from a lifetime ago. My fingers ran up and down the walls as I walked; my voice echoed down to the home's second upstairs bathroom and shot back towards me. I'd opened up one of the smaller bedrooms and walked in. It was a baby's room. The stale smell that enveloped the small room nearly knocked me off my feet. I opened the window on the other side of the room to remove the smell.

Although the crib no longer held an infant, part of me felt its presence. I rested my hand on the safety bar of the crib and stared down into the pink mess of blankets. I could feel it staring back at me. In reality, I knew there was nothing there, but when I closed my eyes, I swore I could hear it giggle and cry. I took a step back from the small bed when I realized what I'd been imagining.

"I need to get out of this house!"

I looked down at the lipstick that was still stuck underneath my finger-nails.

"Merle told you not to leave!"

My voice and my inner monologue argued back and forth like this for the remainder of the day. I'm still not sure if it was the drugs from the day before, or if cabin fever was starting to take its toll on me.

I continued to cook the horse meat that Merle had me set aside. I was rather grateful at this point. He had set everything up for me before he left. He knew he was going to leave my side at one point or another.

As I chewed on a piece of the cooked horse, I stared between the boards nailed to the windows onto the moonlight covered lawn. A few walkers still busied themselves with the horse's carcass, but most of them moved on. I guess they aren't quite as brainless as I thought they were.

Later on in the evening, I found myself restless for the second night in a row. I lay in the California king sized bed in the master bedroom staring at the ceiling. Next to me, I felt the emptiness that should have been Merle's warm and comforting body. I rolled over and stared at the empty space; I saw him stare and smile back at me. I shook my head in disbelief and opened my eyes when I was ready to face my fears. He had disappeared from my sight. I knew he had never been there in the first place, but it was comforting to see his bulldog grin.

I grasped the pillow from his side of the bed and embraced it. It smelled like him; for a moment, it made me smile. Until I realized how alone I really was.

"I hope you're okay," I whispered into nothing.

I sat up in the bed and wiped stray drops from my eyes. An idea sprang into my head. I picked out a green hoodie from the closet with San Francisco imprinted on the front and pulled it on over my head. I walked down the hallway and pushed the baby room's window open further. My arms quivered, and my wrist ached as I pushed myself up to the window sill and threw a leg over. Once on the roof top, I was looking down at the lawn and the walkers roaming about in the cool night. I climbed up as high as I could to get the best look; off in the distance, I could see the tops of some of the buildings in Atlanta. I sat up on the roof the entire night; on watch for Merle's return.

Upon sunrise, I lowered myself back down to the open window and went back inside the house for a bathroom break. After I fulfilled my needs for the bathroom and refreshments, I got right back on top of the roof. This time, I brought my bow with me. Since my wrist was on its way to being healed, I figured it wouldn't hurt to pick off some of the dead in the front yard so I wouldn't get rusty. My wrist twitched and quivered a bit as I pulled the bow back for the first time in days. The arrow launched towards a geek's head and missed by inches. It slowly turned around to see what had come so close to its head; I sat on the roof and pouted. I loaded another arrow to the bow and tried again. This time, the arrow struck it through its right temple.

"Yes!"

I excitedly picked up another arrow and pulled back the bow. Just as I was getting ready to fire, a loud explosion erupted behind me and startled me into missing the shot. I quickly turned behind me and saw a large, black cloud rising up from the city. I stood up straight on the roof and steadied myself on the chimney.

As I watched the smoke and fire rise to the blue sky, I thought of Merle's body cooking in the fire.

"Oh, God!"

I hurriedly slid down the roof and back inside the house. I got dressed and packed faster than lightening could strike the earth. With my bow wrapped around my torso, my pistol strapped to my hip, and my knife snug in my boot, I set out into the woods towards Atlanta; retrieving my arrows on the way.

The source of the explosion was easy to follow through the trees; although I fretted at the idea of going back into the walker-dusted city, I was eager to find out whether or not Merle had been blown up.

The forest was remarkably quiet. I heard no walkers, no birds, and no squirrels. It was as if they too had heard the explosion and made a run for it. That may very well have been true in the animal's case, but eventually I'd come across the dead walking towards the explosion. The noise had attracted them.

"Shit! I have to get there before they do!"

I walked behind the geeks so I could get around them. The army of the dead seemed to go on for an eternity as I tried to find a way around them. Finally, I had come across one of the main roads leading into the city. Against my better judgment, I made my way down the road rather than walking through the trees.

By this time, the sun and heat worked together in full swing. I stopped on the side of the road to pull the green hoodie up over my head and toss it aside. Since I had counted on finding Merle or the ATV, I hadn't brought any water with me. As I rested my palms on my knees, I wished that I had.

I straightened my back and continued towards my destination to the city on fire. When I was almost halfway there, a noise caught my attention from the trees on the side of the road. There was a tiny amount of movement underneath one of the large oak trees in the forest. I pulled my bow over my head and approached cautiously. My heart and stomach dropped when I saw what was lying underneath: it was Jim. He was covered in sweat and his skin looked nearly blue.

"Jim?" I cooed. "Jim…are you okay?"

I got closer to him and kneeled. I looked around before attempting to communicate with him again.

"Jim?" I barely whispered.

Suddenly, a burst of breath erupted from this lungs; his large dark eyes stared back at me. I quickly pulled my bow back and readied myself for him to attack me.

"Chris…"

I could barely make out what he'd said.

"Jim...are you alright?"

I small grin turned up on one side of his face.

"I know you ain't blind."

I nodded and tried my hardest to hold back my emotions. Jim was such a sweet man; it was difficult to see him deteriorate in front of my eyes.

"The others?"

He coughed and wheezed as he inhaled. "I told them to leave me here. I would have been a danger to the group."

I placed my hand on his.

"I'm so sorry, Jim."

"Everything happens for a reason. I wasn't meant to go on with the others. Don't be sorry for me….I can see my wife and son now…..don't be…sorry."

He started to close his eyes and drift off to sleep.

I reached up and tapped his cheek.

"Jim, don't go now! Please?"

His eyes shot back open; his slow gaze met my eyes.

"They huuuuh went into Atlanta. To the CDC. Go there. You need Daryl. He huuh was worried about you two."

"You didn't happen to see Merle come by here, did you?"

He slowly lifted up his arm and pointed. "He's behind you."

I turned back quickly; excited to see him. There was nothing there. The smile that had erupted on my face dropped again.

"Jim…you're seeing things. He's not here with us."

"Could…have sworn…"

I held his hand and looked at his face.

"Do you want me to stay here with you?"

He shook his head. "I can't be responsible…."

I gripped his hand tighter. As I looked over his exhausted body, I heard a vehicle coming down the road. I stood up and turned to see the same large truck that Merle and I had ran away from days earlier.

"Get out of here," Jim whispered.

I looked toward him once again before darting into the woods and hiding up inside one of the trees. I watched the truck stop where I'd just been standing. A man got out of the passenger's side and looked down at Jim. I couldn't make out his features; I could barely hear what he said to Jim. I was, however, able to hear the gunshot that ended Jim's life ring through the trees. I covered my mouth after I gasped out. The man stepped around Jim's slumped body and surveyed the area.

"He looks kind of like someone I know."

As a mess of jumbled thoughts danced around my head, the man of average height stepped further into the forest and stopped a few feet away from where I was hiding. I tightened my grip on the nearest branch and held my breath. He looked back and forth, and then retreated back to the truck. I sucked the air back into my sore lungs and hopped out of the tree.

I walked back towards the road and peeked behind the trees as the truck disappeared into the distance. Jim's body was slumped forward; there was a bullet hole smack dab in the middle of this forehead. Thank goodness his eyes were closed. I would have had even more trouble trying to get that image out of my head.

My journey continued in the ditch of the road just in case I had to make a hasty retreat back into the woods if the truck came back towards me.

It was near the end of the day when I finally reached the point of the explosion. The fire was still roaring when I arrived; the dead were running in and out of the flames. I walked closer towards the fire and stopped when the heat became too unbearable. I saw the burnt bodies of uniformed soldiers and civilians. Towards the edge of the fire, I saw a walker with a bolt sticking out of its forehead.

"They were here!"

I looked around me, trying to decide whether or not they had made it out alive.

"All of their vehicles are gone. They must have made it out."

I'd also noticed that the ATV was not in the area. I sighed in relief and stayed at the site for a bit, hoping that the explosion would have coaxed Merle to come this way. When I saw the walkers from the forest coming up the street, I got out of there. I ran a couple of blocks away from the explosion and found an abandoned car with a body inside. After I was sure it wasn't going to come back and bite me, I pulled it out of the driver's seat and set it down on the pavement. The steering wheel was heated from the sun; I pulled away from the curb as soon as it cooled.

I wasn't very familiar with the layout of Atlanta, since I had recently lived in only one section. The streets were littered with bodies and the occasional herd that I would speed away from in the opposite direction. I drove around the city looking for any sign of Merle and the rest of the group.

Frustrated and tired, I stopped on the side of the road and got out of the car. I crossed my arms above the door and set my chin on top. The wind blew dust across the road that seemed to disappear as soon as it saw the other side.

"Where could he be?"

As I looked around the area, I noticed a billboard above me advertising an army surplus store. I dropped my arms from the car and walked closer to the advert.

It had a busty lady in a red, white, and blue bikini holding an assault rifle and winking. The obnoxious shade of red that her lips used to be was faded out from the sun constantly beating down on her face. Even her long brown hair seemed faded to a sickly greyish yellow.

"That has Merle Dixon written all over it."

I studied the faded directions on the board and jumped back into the car.