"What do we have?"

I barely registered what Jackson was saying as I stared at the walkers that were shuffling their way out of the Store, there was definitely more than I expected to see, but I knew that I had to be careful, one wrong move and it was the end for me, even if I survived the initial attack.

"Maddie, what do we have?" There was an urgency to his voice and I realised that I hadn't responded to him, listening to the panic that was surging it's way through his body like the adrenaline was through me.

"We have maybe three of them, two are at the door now, move closer to the wall behind us." Ordering him, I risked a glance at our surroundings, taking it all in. We were in a small parking lot, a small waist high wall situated directly behind me, maybe 50ft away from us both, with a vehicular entrance on either side of us. Plenty of room to move if we needed to.

"Can you take them?" Jackson glanced over, his eyes also landing on the decaying corpses. I nodded my head instead of answering him verbally, running my tongue over my teeth before I moved closer, kiting the first walker away from the other two before shoving the knife through it's eye socket, forcing it into the brain and pulling back, letting the disgusting thing drop to the floor.

"We have maybe one or two more coming in from the roadside, you all good there?" Jackson called to me, coming closer as I took out the other two, feeling disgusted when their blood splattered and landed over my trousers and shoes.

"Clear here, want to take the ones out on the street or head inside?" We pondered the choices, both of us attempting to figure out what the best option would be. We could take out the ones on the road, limiting the chances of us being surprised to a minimum, or we could head inside where there was a chance they would join us and surprise us when we let our guard down. Not that we ever should.

"You head on inside, and watch your back, I'll take them out and make it safer for us," We shared a look with each other and he patted my shoulder, moving his hand to cup my cheek before he turned away, jogging to the wall and vaulting it without a problem.

"Show off!"

We both laughed and I made my way towards the Store entrance, glass crunching under my feet as I slowly made my way inside, straining to listen for any unusual sounds, groaning, or scraping that might give away that I wouldn't be alone. I could feel a tremor in my hand, and I took in a deep breath, holding my knife up and ready for when I needed it, attempting to ignore the tremor.

The inside of the store was surprisingly bright, the fluorescent lights were on, some flashing, but it made it a lot less scarier knowing I could see whatever was going on around me. It was however, a complete mess in here, the walkers having the run of the place really brought down the value of it. A flash of a smile crossed my face and I tried to figure out where to start, watching the counter where the cashiers used to be, remembering my old job.

"Can I get any drinks for you both?"

I smiled over to Michael, my step-father, as I helped them settle into their table. It was my first day on the job and I was so nervous, they knew this, so they had come over to help ease whatever anxiety I had.

"Yes, I'd like a coke and Lou-anne, what would you like dear?" Mike glanced over to his wife, my mother, as he spoke. My mother seemed to think on this for a moment before choosing to have the same as him, sitting back in her chair as I pulled out my notepad from the apron pocket and jotted it down along with the table number.

"I shall get those as quick as I can for you," Keeping the smile on my face, I headed off to put the order for the drinks in, trying to keep my heart-rate down so I could keep working properly and focused. "Remember to breathe..." I muttered to myself as I made the drinks, adding in a bit of ice before I walked back to the table and asked for their orders.

It was the best and worst day that I had ever had back then, the fear and panic I had at having to serve others, it all seems so foreign now, especially given the circumstances. Shaking off memory lane, I decided to make my way for the shelves instead.

There wasn't a lot left on the shelves in terms of actual food, this aisle seemed to have been cleared out of any chocolate or junk food that had laid across them. So this wouldn't be very good. I continued my way around, letting my guard down for a moment as I removed the bag from my back and opened it up slightly, shoving in what bits and pieces I could find that would help us out.

"You got anything good?"

Jackson jogged in, his feet crunching against whatever was on the floor, and I rolled my eyes. "Are you trying to scare me?" I joked, shaking my head but let a smile play my lips, eying up the pretty boy that headed towards me.

"Not really, but seriously, you got anything good?"

The smile dropped from my face and I shook my head solemnly, casting my eyes to the floor. "I got maybe a little bit, but there's not a lot in this aisle," I informed him, hoping that the next one would be okay. Sometimes places like this had food, and then toiletries aisle, so hopefully it would be better a bit further up. "Why don't you check out the back two aisles and I'll do the next one."

Agreeing with the plan, Jackson headed off, leaving me to my thoughts again as I moved to the next aisle, seeing more canned food and what seemed to be household items. Nothing that could hurt to look at. "Cat food... Dog food... Bird feed..." I scowled as my eyes searched the shelves, seeing nothing but pet food so far.

Dog food wasn't the best supplement for actual food, but we really needed to have something here, especially if we were gonna run out. My stomach growled as if on queue, and I aimed to ignore it, wanting, not happy with the odds of finding more food that we could actually eat, but I knew it might be hopeless. Food was a lot more scarce now...

"Anything?" I called out to Jackson, hearing this gurgling sound around me, and feeling the atmosphere change. Everything just sounded... off. Worry began to eat at me, and I started to fear the worst, the tremor in my hand getting worse as the silence continued. "J.. Jackson?" I raised my voice, hoping that maybe he just hadn't heard me the first time, but I got nothing back again.

"It's fine.." My voice shook as I tried to verbally calm myself, shoving in a few cans of dog food into my bag and rushing to the household items, hands tracing the packaging of what was there, but I just shook more. "Jackson, you got anything?!" There was more of an urgency to the way I spoke, piling in some deodorant and toothpaste to the bag before I closed it, not seeing anything else here that we needed.

"Jackson!" I turned to head towards the aisles he had been in and yelped when it turned out he was stood behind me. My breathing got faster and I watched him, dropping my bag as I saw him taking me in as well as I tried my hardest not to cry and to calm myself down. "Don't do that!" I hit his chest, feeling anger and hurt.

"I'm sorry but I had to be quiet, there's something going on outside. That's all..."

It hadn't even occurred to me that whatever I had been hearing was coming from outside. I just presumed it was Walkers and kept an eye on how loud it was. My hands shook as I covered my face, dragging them down and sighing, picking up the bag and slinging it onto my shoulders.

"We should go. It's gonna be hard, there's no back door..."

It was a silent consensus between us before we grabbed our weapons, and headed for the front door, deciding we would be better prepared to escape together, especially since there wasn't a backdoor. "We both head to the right, yeah?" I pondered where we were gonna go, trying to figure the best way.

"We could lose whatever it was if we go right and right again, heading down towards the houses?" I tried to come up with a plan, neither of us were very good at this, but I knew both of us were getting the flashbacks from Atlanta way back when.

"Agreed. You ready?" Jackson sighed, and I took his free hand, squeezing it a little.

"As I'll ever be..."

We both took in a shaky breath, trying to get the courage to make our way out the door. After a moment, we both rushed out, trying not to slide on the broken glass, but when we got outside, we were not prepared for what we saw.

A small pack of the undead.

"Oh shit." Jackson let go of my hand and began to hit my arm repeatedly and I suddenly realised I wasn't moving, just staring. Which was even worse. "Oh fuck!" Trying to regain my composure, I immediately headed right, tackling one of the undead out the way before he could grab either one of us and we faltered, realising once again that they had enclosed this side forcing a change of plans.

I changed directions almost immediately, stumbling into him, showing him we were going left instead. "How the hell did they get there?!" I called to him, rushing forwards and reaching out into the thin air to try and feel for his hand. "Jackson?!"

"I have no idea!" His hand had enveloped mine when he grabbed it too and we both just ran, letting our feet guide us, knowing as long as we were connected we couldn't lose each other, we just didn't like that we were heading further into Macon.

We stayed silent now, just running to make sure we put space between us, old businesses going past us until we seemed to approach a park, large open space on the left of us, so feeling confident, we both slowed down and I let go of his hand, keeling over and resting my hands on my knees as I aimed to catch my breath, Jackson doing something similar beside me.

"Where the hell-?"

I cut myself off, my throat hurting as I glanced back the way we came, watching the horde in the distance attempt to follow us but they were much slower. Thank god for the dead's slowness. The silence between us was enough for now, but then we both just started to laugh, our limbs shaking as we just couldn't stop ourselves.

"Guess we're heading further in..." Jackson chuckled, managing to get his laughter under control, at least enough to hold a sentence. Once I had managed to get myself under control, I glanced up at the sky, still breathing a little heavy, but I needed to know approximately what time of day it was.

"We have a good long while ahead of us," I told him, reaching to my backpack to find the compass that was usually attached to the shoulder loop, checking it for what way was north. "Lot's of daylight, maybe we can find a vehicle further in." Jackson wrapped his arm over my shoulder and we began to walk again, walking past the park on our left and further up the 74.

"We might find another estate further up," Jackson spoke up eventually as we walked past a funeral home. Fitting, considering everything behind us was dead, maybe they'd go inside. Rolling my eyes at my own stupidity, we just continued on.

It felt like hours had passed since we had left the Store we had almost been trapped in, we had searched almost every place that seemed like it could have something, and now we had finally come to some kind of a crossroad at the end of 74, and we had a choice to make. "Should we continue down the 74?" I questioned, squatting down as I slung the bag to the front and began to search for some water.

"We'll, it would help us to navigate our way out, going back the way we came in," Jackson sighed, wiping his brow with the sleeve of his shirt to remove any sweat that was running down his face. It was hot out today and we were both struggling.

"Well, let's keep going, looks like it has some houses up ahead, which would be great as we really need to find somewhere to rest." We still had a good few hours of the day left, but where we had been searching nearly every viable place we found, it was time to start thinking where to lay down for the night.

"Let me check the dealership, and you head further on up, I can see a house or two on the left there." Jackson produced his plan and smiled, gesturing to where he was on about, and I nodded my head.

"Okay that sounds like a plan, would be nice to see if there's a vehicle, if there is, we could leave it there and come back to it?" The idea of not having to walk was starting to sound so good to me right now.

"Just be careful okay?" Warning him, I stood back up and rolled my neck, holding my arms out for a hug. "Come here," I dragged him into it before he could refuse and held him close, resting my head on his chest and closing my eyes.

"I love you..." I whispered, feeling his arms enclose around me as well as he pulled me into a small squeeze, comforting me, then I heard him whisper the words back to me. He was a brother to me, we were family, he had been with me almost 2 months after the whole apocalypse began. I trusted him more than anyone, except my own family, and I didn't have any of them left.

We pulled back after a moment and I watched him go, heading for the dealership across the street before I decided to grab my bag and head for the houses further up the road. They weren't far and quite frankly I was happy about that, it was just a shame that the houses we were close by weren't the best ones.

The people with less money lived this far out in these small one floor homes, whereas further into Macon, or any other Town or City, the houses were much better, much nicer, and they went to those with more money. Atlanta was the same. It was terrible, and it really makes you realise how well off you really were...

Not that it means much anymore.

I was standing directly in the middle of the GA-74 road when the sound of a vehicle filled my ears from behind and I smiled, knowing that Jackson must have really worked hard to find something, especially for me, which I absolutely adored from him. Yet when I turned I realised that it wasn't Jackson that had a vehicle, and that it wasn't going to pass me by, it was actually aimed right for me.

My eyes widened and I found myself reacting so suddenly, throwing myself off to the side to avoid the incoming death trap. I hit the floor, just happening to land on the grassy intersection between the two sets of road, led on my stomach in shock, that was until the pain started.

I cried out suddenly, the pain hitting me like a dump truck and I realised that I must have broken something, so being careful, I rolled onto my back, trying to determine where the shooting pains were coming from.

"I told you that wasn't one of the dead you dope!" I heard a voice close by, and with deep breaths, I attempted to check myself, but found I couldn't move my left wrist very well, at least not without a hell of a lot of pain.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck...

I couldn't stop repeating it, I needed to get out of here now. I groaned in pain, tears free-falling down my face as I cradled my wrist to my chest, trying to ignore the severity of the pain just so I could get out of here. Clambering to my feet, I finally noticed the truck that had stopped just a little further where it had almost hit me, and there were two people standing close to it, looking over in my direction.

"You alright there doll?!" One of the men called, his Southern twang very prominent, even if his voice sounded strained. I did not like the fact that there were two of them, even if they looked relatively harmless right now. It could be that there's more of them in the vehicle, or there's more behind making their way here too.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck..." I muttered again, turning to face the dealership as I tried to figure my best course of action right now.

"Come on now, don't be that way," I heard one of them laugh, the same strained voice reaching me as he called over again. I saw the other hit the older man and I just took this opportunity to run, feeling more pain filling me as I ran as fast as I could towards the dealership that Jackson was in.

I heard the vehicle again, its engine roaring into life before the tires squealed and it began to get louder. I was doomed, I knew I was doomed, and there was no way I'd be able to make it to the dealership without being hit, so I veered off towards the grass, aiming for the line of cars that littered the greenery. It wasn't much but between that and the vehicle, I'd take any chance of getting away.

Just as I thought I was going to make it, the truck suddenly swerved in front of me, forcing me to a halt and another panicked look around in order for me to get past them, but before I could even think about moving again, the two men jumped out the truck, coming to stand by the hood of the truck, watching me.

"Well, where do you think you're going sugar-tits?"

I'm so fucked...