I sat in the passenger seat of the police car as my one companion pulled to the side of the road next to a turned over rig. The car was low on gas and once we'd found the closest station he pulled over as close to it as he could. He popped the trunk and we got out of the car, him in his uniform and me in my jeans and red low cut tank. My black hair was pulled back in a high ponytail so it stayed out of my storm gray eyes. He grabbed the lone gas can from the trunk and we quietly walked to the gas station staring at the clothes and cars around us. Nothing I could see was something we needed so we would leave it all behind once we got what we needed. I looked inside some of the cars and saw the rotting dead with flies buzzing around and couldn't decide if they were the lucky ones or not. We walked to the station only to see a sign 'NO GAS'. He sighed and turned to look at the cars piled around us.

"I'll see if anything we need is here, you go siphon some gas." I told him before heading to the station to see if there was any food or medical supplies that hadn't already been taken. I stopped and looked behind me at the sound of shuffling footsteps. I turned and watched him kneel down and look under one of the cars before jumping back up. After a short time I saw a little blonde girl walking away from us holding onto her teddy bear.

"Little girl?" he called to her moving to follow her as she walked. "I'm a policeman. Little girl." She stopped walking and just stood with her back to us. "Don't be afraid, okay? Little girl." She turned and we saw she was missing most of her right cheek and jaw showing us her green braces and her green eyes were rimmed in red and an injury on her left shoulder. She started shuffling towards him and I quickly pulled out my knife and she started to move quicker. He pulled out his gun and shot her in the head and she fell back. I sighed and put my knife away.

"You're getting quicker." I told him.

"She was just a kid." He said shocked.

"Doesn't matter. She was a Walker. She was already dead."

"We'll be back in a few weeks. Take care of each other and if anything happens…" my dad started saying.

"Go to the bunker, we know." I laughed at him. My dad was a survival nut and told my mom, brother and I the same thing every time he left the farm even though he'd trained both my brother and I how to survive if anything happened. This was the first time my brother was going with him and he was excited.

"You're just going to the farmers markets. Nothing's going to happen, now go." My mom told him giving him a kiss before giving my brother a hug. I hugged my dad tightly.

"Take care of your mother Jackie." He told me quietly. While he knew we were ready for the end of days my mother wasn't fully ready I suppose. Sure she supported him but she never thought that the human race was going to go anywhere.

"I know dad. Take care of James." I paused a moment before voicing my concern about him leaving. "Don't go all the way to Atlanta this time. I've got a bad feeling."

"Don't worry baby girl, James and I will be fine. You'll see." He told me as they got into his truck. "Bye Mel." He said.

"Bye Jack." My mom and I waved to them we they left before going back to work, not knowing we wouldn't see them again.

I was gathering food for the group of three I was part of when I heard a gunshot ring out. I immediately got up and ran to where they were to see them leaning over someone who'd been knocked out.

"Who is it?" I asked looking at the scruffy man lying on the ground.

"I don't know, but he's injured. Let's get him to a house for the night." Morgan said and we made our way to an empty house and set everything up for our protection including tying the man up to the sole bed in the house. I pulled some of the medical supplies I'd picked up and changed the bandages on him trying to inspect the wound at the same time. The wound didn't look like a bite, but we couldn't be certain anymore. Once I was done I checked on his nose.

"It's not broken, just some busted capillaries." I said.

"Good. We don't need to waste meds." He said as I finished my work and went to the bowl of water he'd set up on a dresser for me. I heard movement on the bed and turned to see the man awake and looking at Duane who was holding a baseball bat.

"I changed your bandage for you." I said, drawing his eyes to me.

"It was pretty rank." Morgan told him. "What was it? The wound?"

"Gunshot." The man told us and I breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Gunshot. What else? Anything?" Morgan asked him.

"Gunshot ain't enough?" he asked us.

"Not anymore it ain't." I told him.

"Look, I ask and you answer. It's common courtesy, right? Did you get bit?" Morgan asked leaning close to the man's face.

"Bit?" he asked confused making me give him a confused look. How could he not know?

"Bit. Chewed. Maybe scratch? Anything like that." Morgan explained.

"No, I got shot." He repeated.

"Just shot?" Morgan asked him.

"As far as I know." The man told us. Morgan sat on the side of the bed next to him and tried to feel his forehead but the man just leaned back away from him.

"Hey… Just let me…" Morgan started saying before he felt for the fever. "Feels cooler now. Fever would have killed you by now."

"I don't think I have one." The man told us.

"Trust me you'd know if you had this one." I told him.

"Be hard to miss." Morgan told him before he pulled out a knife and showed it to the man. "Take a moment, eh? Look how sharp it is. You try anything… I will kill you with it, and don't you think I won't." the man stayed still as Morgan cut him free. "Come on up when you're able. Come on." Morgan, Duane and I left the room to start supper.

Once supper was ready Morgan served it out of the can it was in and into three bowls as the man walked towards us. He moved into an adjoining room and looked around momentarily.

"This place… It's Fred and Cindy Drake's." he told us.

"Never met them." Morgan said putting his hands in his pockets.

"I've been here. This is their place." He said.

"It was empty when we got here." Morgan told him as the man moved to peel the blankets on the window back. "Don't do that. They'll see the light. There's more of them out there than usual. I never should have fired that gun today. The sound draws them, now they're all over the street. Stupid… using a gun… It all happened so fast… I didn't think." Morgan said as the three of us sat at the table.

"You panicked. It happens." I told him.

"You shot that man today." The man said walking to us.

"Man?" Morgan asked him.

"It weren't no man." Duane told him.

"What the hell was that out of your mouth just now?" Morgan asked his son.

"It wasn't a man." Duane corrected himself.

"You shot him. In this street, out front, a man." The man said.

"Friend, you need glasses. It was a Walker." Morgan corrected him. The man looked at us confused. "Come on. Sit down, before you fall down. Here. Eat." Morgan said as I filled another bowl with supper. The man sat next to me and was about to dig in when Duane stopped him.

"Daddy… Blessing…" he said.

"Yeah." Morgan said as the three of us joined hands. We looked at the newest member of our group and Morgan and I held our hands out for him to take. "Father, we thank thee for this food… Thy blessings… We ask you to watch over us in these crazy days. Amen."

"Amen." Duane repeated. They knew I wouldn't say anything and they never said anything to me.

"Hey, mister, do you even know what is going on?" Morgan asked after a moment of silent eating.

"I woke up today. In a hospital. Came home, that's all I know." He told us.

"But you know about the dead people, right?" Morgan asked him.

"Yeah, I saw a lot of that. Out on the loading dock, hauling trucks." He said and held back a laugh at his answer. Those weren't the dead we had to worry about.

"No… Not the ones they put down… The one's they didn't. The Walkers. Like the one I shot today. Cause he would have ripped into you. Try to eat you, take him some flesh at least. But I guess if this is the first you're hearing, I know how it must sound…" Morgan explained to him.

"They're out there now, in the street?" he asked us.

"Yeah. They're even more active after dark sometimes. Maybe it's the cool air or… Hell, maybe it's just me firing up that gun today. But we'll be fine long as we stay quiet. Probably wander off by morning." Morgan told him.

"It's the gun that brought them in." I said ignoring all the eyes on me.

"Well, listen… One thing I do know… Don't you get bit! We saw your bandage and that's why we were afraid of. Bites kill you. The fever… burns you out. But then after a while… You come back." Morgan warned and I paused in my eating.

"Seen it happen…" Duane told him after a moment.

"Almost twice." I chimed in before we all continued our meal in silence.

"My name's Rick." He introduced finally.

"I'm Morgan. This is my son, Duane."

"Jackie."

"The three of you are family?" Rick asked us.

"My mom was bit and I don't know where my dad and brother are. They left shortly before all this shit happened." I told him.

After supper, Duane was sleeping next to his Morgan as Rick and I laid on our own beds.

"Carl… He your son? Well you… you said his name today…" Morgan told him.

"He's a little younger than your boy." Rick told him.

"And he's with his mother?" Morgan asked.

"I hope so." Rick said.

"Dad?" Duane said waking up slightly.

"Yeah?" Morgan asked him.

"Did you ask him?" Duane asked and Morgan chuckled slightly.

"Your gunshot… We got a little bet going. My boy says you're a… bank robber…" Morgan told him.

"Yeah… That's me. Deadly as Dillinger. Kapow." Rick chuckled. "Sheriff's deputy."

"Uh-huh." Morgan said staring at him for a moment. Suddenly a car alarm from outside started going off. Duane jumped up in a panic and Morgan stopped him from going too far. "Hey, it's ok, daddy's here. It's nothing. One of them must've bumped a car." Morgan explained to Rick.

"You sure?" Rick asked us.

"Happened once before. Went off a few minutes." Rick got up and started going to the window with me close behind him. "Get the light, Dwayne." We dimmed the lights so we could look outside to see several of them walking around outside. "It's the blue one, down the street. Same one as last time. I think we're ok."

"That noise… Will it bring more of them?" Rick asked.

"Yeah but there's nothing we can do about it now. We can only wait them out till morning." I told him. We watched them and I took a deep breath as she crossed our line of vision.

"She's here." Duane said.

"Don't look. Get away from the windows. I said go! Come on!" Morgan told him. Duane went to their bed and began to cry with Morgan following him to comfort him. "Come on, quiet. Shh, shh…" Rick followed her towards the door and looked out the peephole. "It's ok, here. Cry into the pillow. Do you remember? Shh." I sat on my bed as the doorknob started to turn only to be followed by Rick did the same slowly and quietly. "She, uh… She died in the other room, on that bed… Nothin' I can do about it here… That fever, man… Her skin gave off heat like a furnace… Should have put her down, I should have put her down, I know that, but… You know what… I just didn't have it in me… She's the mother of my child." Morgan mourned as we watched the doorknob as it continued to turn left and right.

The next morning, Rick, Morgan, Duane and I were slow to leave the house after we found Rick some clothes watchful of the Walkers.

"Are we sure… they're dead?" Rick asked us. "I have to ask, just one more time."

"They're dead. Except for something in the brain. That's why it's gotta be the head." Morgan told him as we walked closer to the one who was lying up against the fence post. He started to get up and walked to Rick once he smelt we were nearby. Rick smashed it in the head several times with a baseball bat before he fell to the ground. "Y'all all alright?" Morgan asked him as we watched him.

"Need a moment." He told us. We gave him a moment before we walked with him to his house.

"They're alive. My wife and son. At least they were when they left." Rick told us as we walked in.

"How can you know? By the look of this place…" Morgan told him. The house was ransacked a long time ago.

"I found empty drawers in the bedroom. They packed some clothes. Not a lot. But enough to travel." Rick told us.

"We've gone into houses and stole clothes before." I told him, proving just how easy it was now and days.

"Rick: You see the framed photos on the walls?" we looked around at Rick's question and I shook my head. "Neither do I. Some random thief took those too, you think? My photo albums, family pictures, all gone." Morgan started to laugh lightly.

"Photo albums… My wife… Same thing… Here I am, packing survival gear, she's grabbing photo alb…" he stopped and tried to control his pain.

"They're in Atlanta, I'll bet." Duane told him.

"That's right." Morgan agreed.

"Why there?" Rick asked us.

"Refugee settle. Huge, when they said it, before the broadcast stopped. Military protection, food, shelter… They told people to go there. Said to be safest." Morgan explained.

"Plus they got that disease place." Duane said.

"Center for Disease Control. Said they were working on how to solve this thing." Morgan told him.

"That's where my dad and brother were headed before the world ended. That's where they'll be after." I said. Rick moved quickly and grabbed a set of keys and we were off again.

We all entered the sheriff's office and walked to the locker room where Rick turned on the shower.

"Gas and light have been down for maybe a month." Morgan told him as Rick waited for the water to go from cold to hot.

"Station got its own propane system. Pilot's still on." He told us. I instantly put my hand in the water and smiled. We had hot water. There was a section still connected yet curtained off so I grabbed clean clothes and my shower supplies from my bag and went to the curtained area and started the shower. I watched in bliss as the water went from murky to clear as I cleaned my body and hair.

"Oh, my Lord." Morgan said.

"Hot water!" Duane cried out in happiness and I laughed at them.

"Ah! That feels good, right?" Morgan asked.

"Feels like heaven." I called to them.

"Bring it around, bring it, bring it around, bring it, bring it bring it around, uh uh!" Duane sang making me laugh. "Yea. I'm wet. Take that. What? Whoo!"

After our showers we all dried off and got dressed. I had to wait for the men to finish since I was in a small section of the same room and I really didn't want to see anything.

"Duane… Dressing rooms back there." Rick told the boy.

"What you say, Duane?" Morgan asked him.

"Thank you." Duane said before I heard his footsteps echo away from the three of us.

"Mhm." Morgan said.

"Atlanta sounds like a good deal. Safer anyway. People…" Rick said to us.

"That's where we were heading. Things got crazy. Man, you won't believe. The panic… Streets won't fit to be on, and then when we got out to the country we found Jackie and her mother gathering food and going down to their bunker. They let us in and helped us out. When the food became harder and harder to access we decided it was time to move on. A week later Melinda, her mother, was bit. We waited the fever out and Jackie put her down with her knife before we moved on again. We made it here when well… My wife… couldn't travel. No, not with our hurt, so we had to find a place to lay low. And then, after she died… We just stayed hunkered down. I guess Duane and I just froze in place dragging Jackie down with us.

"Plan to move on?" Rick asked him.

"Haven't worked up to it yet." Morgan told him.

"If you're going to Atlanta, I'm going with you." I told Rick and both men were silenced for a moment.

"Know how to shoot?" he asked me.

"My dad was one of those end of the world nuts. Taught my brother and I had to do whatever we needed to do to survive." I told him.

"Okay then." Rick said.

We opened the gun area and looked at all the weapons now at our disposal.

"A lot of its gone missing." Rick told us as he sorted through what was left.

"Dad, can I learn to shoot?" Duane asked Morgan as we started going through the guns. "I'm old enough."

"Hell yes you're going to learn. But we gotta do it carefully, teach you to respect the weapon." Morgan told him.

"That's right. It's not a toy. You pull the trigger, you have to mean it. Always remember that, Duane." Rick told him.

"Yes, sir." Duane said.

"Here. Go load up." Morgan told his son.

"Take that one. Nothing fancy. Scope's accurate." Rick told Morgan as we separated the weapons and ammo.

Once we were outside Rick unlocked a police car for the two of us to take with us since we only had a few working vehicles.

"Conserve your ammo. Goes faster than you think. Especially at target practice." Rick told them.

"Duane." Morgan called.

"Yeah?"

"Take this to the car." Morgan gave Duane the guns for the two of them and Duane took them to the car.

"You sure you won't come along?" I asked Morgan. We'd been through so much together: My mother's death, his wife's death, and being on the road for a length of time taking care of one another no matter what.

"A few more days… By the end, Duane will know how to shoot and I won't be so rusty." Morgan said. Rick went to the car and pulled out a walkie-talkie and gave it to Morgan.

"You got one battery. I'll turn mine on, a few minutes every day at dawn. You get up there, that's how you find us." Rick told him.

"You thinking ahead." Morgan sad.

"Can't afford not to. Not anymore." I reminded him.

"Look, just one thing. They may not seem like much one at a time… but in a group all round up and hungry… You two better watch your asses." Morgan told us and I smiled at him.

"You too." Rick told him.

"You a good man, Rick. I hope you'll find your wife and son. Jackie, I hope you find your family." Morgan told us.

"Thanks Morgan." I said before I hugged him.

"Be seeing you, Duane. Take care of your old man." Rick told him as they shook hands.

"Yes, sir." Duane said before I hugged him tightly. Before we could leave, I noticed Morgan looking over our shoulders and I turned to see a Walker.

"Leon Basset? Didn't think much of him. Careless and dumb, but he doesn't deserve this." Rick said watching the Walker.

"You know they'll hear the shot." Morgan told him.

"Let's not be here when they'll show up." Rick said going to the Walker.

"Let's go, son. Come on." They both climbed into their vehicle as I got into the police car. I watched Rick pull out his Colt Python and shoot him in the head, killing him. He jogged back to me and climbed in the car before following Morgan out of the small parking area we were in. As they drove on way Morgan honked lightly three times and as we went the other Rick bleeped the siren twice. Goodbye. We didn't drive long before Rick pulled over.

"What are we doing here?" I asked him.

"There's something I have to do." He told me. I followed him out of the car and into a park area when I noticed a trail of depressed grass. We followed it only to see a legless Walker trying to crawl. She spotted us as Rick kneeled next to her and she tried to reach us. "I'm sorry this happened to you." He told her before he pulled out his Python and put the legless woman down.

"You can't apologize to every Walker you put down. You'd be apologizing so damn much you won't be able to kill them." I said before walking away. I might have been harsh but he was still like a baby in this world and I'd been living in it since day one.

Later, as Rick drove down the road he thought it would be best to broadcast on the radio over an emergency channel to try and reach someone.

"Broadcasting on emergency channel. We'll be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85. Anybody reads, please respond. Hello. Hello. Can anybody hear my voice? Anybody out there? Anybody hears me, please respond. Hello, can you hear my voice?" Rick said into the radio only to receive static each time.

Meanwhile, in a camp not far from Atlanta their C.B. started going off and everyone who was there gathered around.

"Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear my voice?" Rick called over the channel, his voice slightly distorted. A young blond woman rushed to the radio and picked up the microphone and called out to him.

"Hey? Hello?"

"Can you hear my voice?" Rick asked once more.

"Yes, I can hear you. You're coming through. Over." She told him.

"Anybody who reads, please respond. Broadcasting on emergency channel. We'll be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85. Anybody reads, please respond." He said, not having heard the young woman's response.

"We're just outside the city. Damnit. Hello? Hello? He couldn't hear me. I couldn't warn him." She told the people around her.

"Try to raise him again." One of the elderly men in the camp told her before seeing their current leader walk towards them. "Come on, son. You know best how to work this thing." The young man swung the ax he'd been holding down on the stop the radio was on and took the microphone from the young woman.

"Hello, hello, is the person who calls still on the air? This is officer Shane Walsh, broadcasting a person unknown, please respond." Shane waited a moment before dropping his head in defeat. "He's gone."

"There are others. It's not just us." A brunette mother said looking to their leader.

"Yeah, We knew there would be, right, that's why we let the CB on." Shane reminded her.

"Lots of good it's been doing. And I've been saying for a week, we ought to put signs up on 85 to warn people away from the city." She reminded him.

"Folks got no idea what they're getting into." The young blonde said.

"We don't have enough time." Shane told both women.

"I think we need to make time." The mother told him.

"Yeah, that, uh… That's a luxury we can't afford. We are surviving here. We are day to day." Shane said, not really needing to remind anyone of that fact.

"Wnd who the hell would you propose to send?" the elderly gentlemen asked the mother.

"I'll go. Give me a vehicle." She said.

"I'd go with her." A young man offered with his father standing next to him.

"Nobody goes anywhere without someone who can work a gun or arrows, you know that." Shane reminded them. The mother stormed past him as the father denied his son the chance to go.

"Yes, sir." The mother said angrily as her son started to follow her, but Shane held him back.

"Hey, hey, hey, come on, take a sit, buddy. You're alright, go on, you're alright." Shane then took off after the boy's mother as he sat on a log.

"I told you not to get involved with their argument." The father of the young man who offered to go with the mother reminded his son, his storm gray eyes flashing with worry for him.

"I just want to help dad." The boy told his father.

"The way you can help, James, is by taking watch and keeping the camp safe from Walkers." His father told him.

"I wanna do more." James told his father.

"Then help the women with the laundry." His father told him and James gave him a look. "Then don't complain. Come help me and Shane get firewood." Both James and his father went back to the woods and started collecting what they could get.

"Do you think mom and Jackie are alive?" James asked. The moment he and his father found out about the Walkers on their way to one of the markets he couldn't help but have the women in his family on his mind.

"You know your sister, she's a survivor and she wouldn't let anything happen to your mom if she could help it. We'll see them again." Jake told his son as they continued their job.

In the police car, Rick pulled out a photograph of his family off of the visor. They all seemed so happy and he could only hope that Lori and Carl were safe wherever they were. He placed the photo in his shirt pocket before we got out of the car. We hadn't managed to get any gas at the station earlier so now the car was running on fumes and we had no way to fill her up. Rick grabbed the gas can and we made our way down the road to find a way to fill up the car so we could continue our journey. A couple miles down we came by a quiet house.

"Hello? Police officer out here. Can I borrow some gas?" Rick called to them.

"First of all, stop hollering, you'll attract any and all Walkers nearby. Second, stop introducing yourself as a police officer, you'll make people think they law still exists in a lawless world." I told him as we walked up to the house.

"Why do you get to tell me what to do again?" he asked me as he knocked on the door. "Hello? Anybody home?"

"Cause I've lived in this world longer than you have." I reminded him.

"I thought I was older." He said as we moved to a window to see two dead bodies with flies buzzing all around them.

"Physically yes, you are. But with where we live now, you just woke into this world." I told him as we walked over to the truck that was sitting in the driveway. We looked inside hoping for some good luck, but there were no keys. Frustrated, we started to walk back when we noticed a horse. Rick walked towards it and tried to coax it into coming with us.

"Easy now, easy. I'm not gonna hurt you. Nothing like that. More like a proposal. Atlanta's just down the road ways. It's safe there. Food, shelter, people, other horses too, I bet. How's that sound?" he asked the horse. I watched as he wrapped the harness around the horses neck brought him out of the pen. "There we go. Good boy. Good boy. Now come with me. Come with me." We saddled the horse up and got on him with my in front leading the horse and Rick in back holding the guns. "Let's go easy, ok? I haven't done this for years." He told me.

"Then you better hold on cowboy." I told him before I immediately put the horse into a full gallop in the field with Rick begging me to go easy behind me.

We eventually made our way to the outskirts of Atlanta. One side of the highway was empty while the other side of the highway is packed with several cars that have been wrecked or abandoned leaving he city. Rick and I continued to ride down the empty side of the highway to enter Atlanta, but I didn't like the look of this and I made my feelings known to Rick.

"It should be fine." He told me.

"Then why was everyone driving away from the city not to the city?" I asked him and he answered with silence. We rode into the city and along the streets keeping my guard up for Walkers. The streets were abandoned and there was trash everywhere. I led the horse down the street where there were helicopters, cars, and even a tank wrecked along the road. We rode past a bus and some of the Walkers saw us. They got up and started to walk toward him. I tensed but Rick put his hands on my shoulders to try and calm me, not panicked.

"Steady. It's just a few. Nothing we can't outrun." He told me. We rode past them and continued down the street and I pulled the reins to stop the horse from continuing any further. We looked up on the tank and saw a dead body that was being pecked at by crows. We rode past the tank and looked up in the air as a noise flew above us. We saw the reflection of a helicopter flying past us and I ushered the horse in that direction, but when I turned the corner I saw a herd of Walkers. All of them started to shuffle after us as we rode back down the street we came from. We then came across another herd and we struggled to get away while still on the horse. Rick and I fell off the horse and started to crawl away from it as some of the Walkers began to eat the horse. I followed Rick as he crawled underneath the tank while Walkers were still trying to catch us. I pulled out my blade and stabbed their head and tried cutting off hands that were trying to reach me as Rick shot at others.

"Lori, Carl, I'm sorry." I heard him say. I saw him prepare to use the gun on himself before crawling up. I quickly followed only to have a Walker grab my foot. I screamed and Rick quickly pulled me up enough for him to use my blade to cut off its hand before we hurriedly shut the hatch. We sat down and started to breathe heavily. I saw him take a dead soldier's gun only for it to turn its head to him and growl. Rick put his gun to the Walker's head and my eyes widened.

"Rick no!" but it was too late. He used the last bullet in his Python to shoot the Walker through the head. The sound of the bullet in the enclosed space hurt our ears and it took us a minute to get our hearing back. He started to crawl up to the top hatch and looked outside for a moment before he quickly shut the hatch before they could get us. Rick and I sat in the tank and I sighed and leaned my head back on the wall of the tank. Suddenly, the radio in the tank started to make static sounds and a voice on the other end started talking.

"Hey, you two, dumbasses. Hey, you two in the tank. Cozy in there?" We weren't alone in this city after all.