"Every person, all the events of your life,

Are there because you have drawn them there.

What you choose to do with them is up to you."

-Richard Bach


Chapter Six - FUBAR


"Hey, are you still alive in there?"

I couldn't believe it. There was somebody still here, and listening. I gaped at the radio, almost in disbelief. After the day we had just had, we could have hallucinated the voice, trying to fool ourselves into hoping again. It wasn't that far-fetched. People under extreme stress sometimes see or hear things that aren't there, like stress-induced paranoia and hallucinations. It happens.

Suddenly, Rick jolted forward, hitting his head hard in his desperation to get to the radio. I stayed where I was for the moment, waiting for Rick to prove that we were either saved or that we really had gone crazy in our final moments. For the time being, I was leaning towards the latter.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick spoke into the microphone, and a sigh of relief came through.

"There you are. You had me wondering. The lady with you still?"

"Yeah. Where are you? Outside? Can you see me right now?" Rick questioned, as I slowly made my way to his side, wanting to hear the kid more clearly. After all, my ears were still suffering from Rick's trigger happy finger.

"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news."

"There's good news?" Rick asked, even though I'm certain he knew that this situation would not churn out good news. Even with the kid on the radio, we were Fucked. Capital completely warranted.

"No."

I snatched the mike from his hand, and pressed down on the receiver.

"Look, whoever you are, I don't really need to tell you that we're a little concerned in here." I just stopped myself from hissing my words down the mike, letting my frustration and my desperation get the better of me.

"Oh, man. You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major freak-out."

"Yeah, well I'm having a real ball in here. I need you to tell me where there's an opening outside, if there's an opening outside. Anything you see, I wanna know about it, you got that?" I instructed, knowing that he could help us, especially since wherever he was had a good enough view of the street.

"I'd say you could make a run for it. You've got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank, but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horses went down. You with me so far?" The Good Samaritan questioned, and Rick took the mike back from me, taking back control of the conversation. I just shrugged and took the opportunity to check my ammo and my knife. I had only used one bullet, so I could be fine for a while, and the knife was still sharp so any that got too close would find it would easily slice into their heads.

"We're with you so far." Rick replied, though he glanced at me, as though he was unsure of how successful this plan would be. It was risky, sure, but it could work since we had an outside guy.

"Okay, the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now, you stand a chance. You got ammo?"

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there, and guns. Can I get to it?" Rick asked, and I knew that we could really use those weapons.

"Forget the bag, okay? It's not an option. What do you have on you?" The guy answered, dashing our hopes for the extra firepower. Rick dropped the mike, as he scrambled to pick up the gun he had left behind him, and I picked it up.

"I got two magazines, only one bullet down. That's twenty nine rounds," I informed him, looking over at Rick to see that he had a full magazine, but had skittered back to check the soldier for more ammo. I arched an eyebrow when I saw that he had pocketed a hand grenade, but shook it off. "And he's got a Beretta with one clip. That's fifteen rounds."

"Make 'em count. Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe fifty yards. Be there."

I nodded, forgetting that he couldn't actually see into the tank, and moved towards the hatch. Seeing a small hand shovel, I took it and passed it to Rick, who climbed up first, opening the hatch into the hot zone. I heard the growling of the walkers immediately, and heard Rick grunt as he struck the walker still on top of the tank.

As soon as his legs were gone, I lifted myself out of the hatch, blinking at the sun, before I followed Rick, who had practically thrown himself off the tank and landed heavily on the ground. I jumped down, albeit with a little more grace than my best friend, being used to jumping off tanks and AV's onto hard ground, and withdrew one Glock and my magic knife. It never misses.

Rick had already started shooting walkers when I caught him up, and I quickly followed suit, taking out the ones he missed as we rushed towards the alley the radio guy had told us to head to. I had gone through half of my clip when a metal fence swung out and Rick almost shot our savior in the face.

"Whoa! Not dead! Come on! Come on!" He urged us, as we all ran down the alley, Rick and I twisting round as we round to try and take out some of the walkers who were following. "Faster! Come on! Come on!"

The guy, who looked Asian and couldn't be any older than his mid-twenties, then turned and started climbing up a ladder. Rick pushed me up next, still firing at the walkers who were getting ever closer. I made sure to climb that ladder as fast as I could so Rick could start climbing.

I paused a moment and saw Rick still on the ground, and cursed under my breath.

"What the hell are you doing? Get your ass up here, Grimes! Come on!" I yelled at him, my heart thumping as I saw how close the walkers were, but then he started to climb and he was just out of reach when the walkers got to the ladder.

As I got to the top, a hand waited to help me, so I took it, already having trusted this complete stranger with our lives anyway. The guy helped me up and then I turned and did the same for Rick.

For a moment, all three of us stood on the metal walkway, leaning against the railing, panting as we tried to catch our breath. I glanced at Rick and the new guy, both looking completely exhausted. Normally, I wouldn't be this winded by such a brisk run and climb, but I guess I hadn't been training as rigorously the past three months as I usually do.

"Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town, dragging your girlfriend along for the ride?" The new guy mocked us, and I grinned, just glad to be alive that I barely noticed that Rick didn't correct him.

"It wasn't my intention."

"Yeah, whatever. Yee-haw. You're still a dumbass, and she's probably even more of a dumbass, since she had a chance to ride off into the sunset and didn't take it."

Rick's eyes connected with mine, and I saw the confusion there.

"Before they pulled us down, I had an opening. There weren't that many walkers near me, I could have gotten past and outta the city, but…that meant leaving you," And not even certain death was going to make me do that again were the words that I left unsaid. No need to let him know just how crazy I was about him, not when we were still searching for his 'ex-wife' and son. I turned to the Asian dude, and held out my hand. "Sergeant Thea Winters. Officer Friendly goes by Rick. Thank you."

"Glenn. You're welcome," Glenn shook my hand, and I smiled at him, as Rick tucked his spare gun into Glenn's bag. He looked down and his face blanched. "Oh, no."

Rick and I followed his gaze, and saw that there was a walker who had started a slow climb up the ladder, its hungry eyes watching the three of us as we hesitated on climbing the next ladder. It was a long climb. Like a 'fall to your death and your face will be unrecognizable' long climb. Glenn moved to climb first, still leading us, but turned to us first.

"The bright side? It'll be the fall that kills us. I'm a glass half-full kind of guy."


Surprisingly, no one fell from the incredibly long climb, and we all survived to start walking the rooftops, like some sort of backwards vigilante group. Picture Batman, Robin and Batgirl, but during the day. We mostly walked in silence, focusing on not falling to our deaths, until Rick decided to start asking questions. Probably to satisfy the cop half of him that needed all the details.

"You the one that barricaded the alley?"

"Somebody did," Glenn replied, hopping over a small wall that led to another rooftop. Rick climbed over next and then helped me over, not that I needed it, but sometimes it's nice to know chivalry isn't yet dead. "I guess when the city got overrun. Whoever did it was thinking not many geeks would get through."

Glenn half-ran, half-jogged over to a small roof access hatch, Rick and I adopting the same speed to keep up with him.

"Back at the tank, why did you stick your neck out for us?" Rick questioned, as he lifted the hatch up the full way as Glenn ripped off his backpack and dropped it down the hole, gesturing for me to do the same. I did, reluctantly I might add, and hoped that nothing inside would break.

"Call it foolish, naïve hope, that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me," He answered, lowering himself onto the first rung that led down the hatch. "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass than you two."

Rick gestured for me to go next, so I dropped myself into the hatch, grabbing the rungs to stop myself from falling, and quickly clambered down, the light cutting out halfway as Rick closed the hatch. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I was bending down to grab my backpack, swinging it back onto my shoulders. Rick was suddenly at my side, and we both raced after Glenn, who had pulled out a walkie-talkie, and was rambling into it as he hurtled himself out of the building we were in and down a new flight of stairs.

"I'm back. Got two guests plus four geeks in the alley." Glenn informed the other unknown person, and despite the fact he had just saved our bacon, my back went up at the fact he had other people. We barely knew him, and we certainly did not know how many people he had with him, or what they were like. It could be even more dangerous than the walkers.

We paused at the two walkers who stood between us and the door we needed to get to, but just as I was about to push forward and take care of it, two guys covered in heavy padding and wearing helmets burst out the door with baseball bats and began to beat the crap out of the walkers. Glenn tugged at my arm, pulling me along behind him as he pegged it to the door, Rick following close behind.

As soon as we were through the door, a blonde civvie had Rick pushed back against some storage shelves, with a gun pointed at him. I immediately drew my own and aimed it at her, taking the safety off.

"Son of a bitch. We ought to kill you." She hissed at him, waving the gun in his face, and my grip on my Glock tightened in response.

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off." One of the other two guys ordered, but she didn't.

"You should do as he says, Andrea. I've had a real bad day, and you need to back off."

Another woman, a slim, dark-skinned woman with cropped black hair, appeared next to the blonde, and I glanced at her to see if she would be a threat, but her words convinced me that the blonde was the only one I had to worry about. She seemed to be the only one with real fire-power and a short fuse.

"Come on, ease up." She instructed Andrea, but the other woman simply shook her head and scoffed.

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right? We're dead because of these stupid assholes."

"You will be unless you step away now. You'd better listen to your friends, because out of the two of us, I'm guessing I'm the only one with who's actually pulled the trigger before. Pull the trigger, don't pull the trigger. Two die, or none die. That's your choice, Andrea. Make it quickly." I suggested, chambering a round in my gun, putting the pressure on her.

Her blue eyes turned to me, and she must've seen something in my expression, or in my eyes, that made her decision for her; maybe it was determination, maybe it was the fear, I don't know. All I know is she lowered her gun, tears in her eyes, and backed away slowly.

"We're dead, all of us, because of you two." Andrea stated, choking up with emotion that I didn't really understand. I placed my gun back into its holster, and looked back at Glenn, silently asking him what she was talking about. He just shrugged in return, so I waited for someone to explain.

"I don't understand." Rick said, and a big guy with dark hair and eyes, and a light tan to his skin, grabbed Rick by the arm, making me tense up all over again. People had better stop manhandling my friend, or I was going to lose it. He pushed him forward, with the heavy set black guy and the two women following behind him. Glenn came up behind me, and gently nudged me forward. I looked at him, and his expression asked me to trust him. So I did. I walked at his side as we followed the others, listening to the clear leader as he explained everything and lead us through the building.

"Look, we came into the city to scavenge supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving. You know the key to surviving? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing," The guy snapped, leading us into a store front, which had wide, glass doors, and I started to see what he was talking about. Walkers stretched along the doors, thumping their fists against the outer doors, trying to break through. "Not shooting up the streets like it's the OK Corral."

"Every geek for miles heard you popping off rounds." The other guy, whose name was still unknown to us, stated, and I felt guilty for a moment. Only a moment because I realized that without shooting those walkers, we would have died. It was a matter of survival, and I refused to apologize for the fact I was still alive.

"You just rang the dinner bell." Andrea added.

"Get the picture now?" The leader questioned, and I felt my hand twitching towards my Glock in its holster when I saw a walker smashing the glass in the outer door with a large piece of broken concrete. The rest of them skittered backwards, Rick pulling me back along with him, when the glass cracked slightly. I knew it was only a matter of time before they got past the first set of doors, and that we needed a plan, quickly, but apparently, they wanted all the unnecessary details first.

"What the hell were you doing out there anyway?" Andrea asked, looking to Rick for answers.

"Trying to flag the helicopter." Rick informed them, and even I was giving him an incredulous look. What chopper? I hadn't heard slash seen a helicopter?

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap. Ain't no damn helicopter."

"It was just a hallucination. You were imaging things. It happens." The dark-skinned woman suggested, and I saw the defensive look on Rick's face, and knew that he was certain that he had seen a helicopter.

"He saw it." I defended, even though I agreed with her. Rick shot me a grateful look, and I replied with a small smile.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that CB," The leader instructed the other guy, and I felt better, being able to put another name to another face. "Can you contact the others?"

"Others? The refugee center?" Rick questioned, and I saw all the sad, almost bitter looks of the others, confirming what I, and even Rick deep down, had already suspected. There was no refugee center. At least, not anymore.

"Yeah, the refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us." The other woman said sarcastically and I frowned at her.

"I sent his family to the refugee center. His wife and son. How about we try a little sensitivity, a little civility, huh? Or did those things end along with the rest of the world?" She opened her mouth to retaliate, but T-Dog cut her off, his eyes on the CB radio in his hands.

"Got no signal. Maybe the roof." He said, a gunshot from above punctuating his sentence. There were more of them?

"Oh, no. Is that Dixon?" Andrea asked, almost sounding both exasperated and terrified, as they all turned and raced towards the source of the noise. This Dixon person sounded like they were going to be a handful, especially since the words 'maniac' and 'crazy asshole' were thrown into the mix.

Glenn urged us to follow, his nervous eyes still on the walker covered doors, and I let him pull me along behind him again, sensing he needed something to anchor him so he didn't start freaking out.

Four more rounds were fired before we managed to get out onto the roof, and standing on the edge, laughing almost hysterically as though the whole thing was incredibly amusing to him, was the guy named Dixon, holding the literal smoking gun.

"Hey, Dixon, are you crazy?" The leader demanded, just as another shot was fired.

The guy laughed again, and my hand instinctively moved until it rested on the handle of my Glock, gripping it tightly when he turned around, waving the rifle in the air.

"Hey! You ought to be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh?" Dixon jumped down from the edge, groaning slightly from the impact to his legs, but the almost manic grin stayed. "Only common sense."

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got, man!" T-Dog berated him, jumping across a pipe and moving towards him, their leader following close behind. In hindsight, that was the guy's first mistake. "And you bring 'em all down here on our ass! Just chill!"

"Looks like we're not your only problem." I muttered to Glenn, who I could tell wanted to argue with me, but eventually had to nod, knowing that I was right. Dixon was a problem. A big one.

"Hey, bad enough I've got this taco-bender on my ass all day," Dixon gestured to the other guy standing at T-Dog's side, and I arched an eyebrow at the racial insensitivity of the guy, but having heard much worse in the army, I wasn't surprised at it. "Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day."

This was when T-Dog should have just walked away from the racist, southern redneck, dismissing his racism as petty, small town southern ignorance, but he didn't. That was mistake number two.

"That'll be the day? You got something you want to tell me?" T-Dog demanded, and the Latino leader decided to intervene, knowing that it wouldn't end well if he didn't.

"Hey, T-Dog, just leave it. It ain't worth it," He tried, but T-Dog wasn't having it. That was his third mistake. He told the guy no, but the leader continued to speak, hoping to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand. "Now, Merle, just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble."

"Do you want to know the day?" Dixon asked T-Dog, both of them ignoring the other man's words. Mistake number four.

"Yeah."

"I'll tell you the day, Mr "Yo". It's the day I take orders from a nigger." Merle stated, and I was surprised when T-Dog swung his fists at the guy. Mistake number five. Dixon knocked T-Dog down with the butt of his rifle to the man's face, putting it down to follow it up with his fists.

Rick rushed over to intervene, earning himself a punch to the head, knocking him over the pipe. I rushed towards Rick, helping him up, intending on letting Dixon's group deal with him, but when I heard someone hit the pipe hard, I turned to see Merle kicking T-Dog while he was on the ground, the other four watching almost helplessly until the leader tried to pull Dixon away and got himself a sharp elbow to the stomach, probably winding him.

"You okay?" I asked, gripping his chin so I could see if there was any damage to his face, but other than a small bruise that could potentially form later, he was okay.

"Fine."

"We're gonna have ourselves a little pow-wow, huh? Talk about who's in charge," Merle's voice carried over to us, and I shook my head at him. What an asshole. "I vote me. Anybody else? Huh? Democracy time, y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favour? Huh? Come on. Let's see 'em."

I looked over to see that the others were all raising the hands, as they crowded round T-Dog on the ground, and I gave Rick a meaningful look that basically said 'if there's any time to get in with these people, it's now'. He nodded, grabbing Merle's discarded rifle, and we both headed over to the others.

"Anybody else? Huh? Anybody?" Merle questioned, and Rick raised the butt of the rifle, as soon as he was close enough.

"Yeah." Rick said, grabbing Merle's attention, just before he smacked him round the face with his own weapon, knocking him on his ass. Pressing his knee down onto Dixon's face to keep him in place, he cuffed his arm to the pipe and heaved him into a sitting position, so they could talk face to face.

"Who the hell are you, man?" Dixon hissed, and I moved over to T-Dog, letting Rick handle the Southern asshole. I pulled my backpack off, and rooted through it until I found my field kit. Opening it up, I grabbed a couple of anti-septic wipes, and got to work cleaning up the worst of his cuts, all while listening to Rick and Dixon.

"Officer Friendly. Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers any more. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together not apart."

I smiled at Rick's semi-speech, wiping away the blood and sweat mix from T-Dog's face as I did so, knowing that they were all watching my friend as he educated the maniac they had brought with them into this hell hole.

"Screw you, man." Merle groaned, and I rolled my eyes.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point."

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice."

I heard the tell-tale click of a round being chambered and turned my head briefly to see Rick pressing the barrel of Merle's pistol to the side of the hick's head.

"Ought to be polite to a man with a gun. Only common sense." Rick mocked him, using his own words, and I had to bite my lip to stop laughing despite the complete seriousness of the situation.

"You wouldn't. You're a cop."

"I would." I mumbled, earning a choked back laugh from T-Dog, as I continued to clean up his face, though my eyes would constantly flicker between the task at hand and Rick and Merle's confrontation.

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his son and ex-wife. Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose. I'll give you a moment to think about that," There was a pause as Rick searched Merle's pockets, finding a small vial of white powder. I rolled my eyes when I realized what it was. Like the apocalypse wasn't complicated or bad enough, that asshole had to make it worse by being higher than a fucking kite back when things were normal. "Got some on your nose there."

"What are you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle chuckled, as Rick straightened and walked closer to the edge of the roof, but his laughter was cut off when he saw what Rick was about to do. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Rick ignored him, and chucked the drugs off the side of the building. Still ignoring the guy's threats, Rick walked away, and I finished with T-Dog.

"There. Unless you smush some dirt in it on purpose, you have no chance of infection," I told him, and he nodded at me gratefully. "Don't need any stitches or anything like that, so lucky escape."

"Thanks." T-Dog said, and I just nodded at him, as I packed my field kit back up, and replaced it in my backpack.

"Were you a doctor before?" Andrea questioned, and I shook my head, with a smile at the thought. No, I didn't save lives, I took them in the name of my country. In a war I wasn't really sure we had any business fighting, but still I joined up and I had to follow orders. It's the life I chose.

"Nah, I served in Afghanistan and Iraq before this. First female Ranger in the US Army's 75th Regiment," I said, smiling at her as I slung my backpack onto my back again, and stood up. "One month after returning to American soil and the dead start walking. Can't seem to escape war zones."

"Wow," Andrea said, not expecting that answer, and I shrugged in reply, before walking to the ledge and looking over, seeing the masses of dead below. Andrea joined me, her hands flat against the wall along the edge of the building. "My God, it's like Times Square down there."

"How's that signal?" Morales questioned, and I was glad that I had been half eavesdropping on his and Rick's conversation during my own, as I finally knew his name. Rick came to stand at my side, and I flashed a smile at him as he took my hand and gripped it in his. We'd managed to make a real mess of this whole Atlanta thing, and not just for us.

Jacqui, the quiet, but opinionated, black woman, had dragged T-Dog over to the wall, leaning him up against it just opposite Merle, and the two continued to exchange hateful glances.

"Like Dixon's brain, weak." T-Dog sniped, earning himself a pointed one finger salute from the redneck, who surprisingly didn't say anything in reply.

"Keep trying." Morales instructed, and just as I opened my mouth to ask who could even help, Andrea beat me to the proverbial punch.

"Why? There's nothing they can do. Not a damn thing."

"Got some people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream." Morales informed us, and I think Rick and I both felt our hearts plummet into our shoes. No refugee center? Was there no hope for Lori, Carl and Shane then? Did they arrive here and fall with the survivors' camp? Or did they manage to escape?

"Fuck." I muttered, squeezing my eyes closed and running my free hand over my hair, still plaited from this morning, even with wisps flying about, tugging off my beanie and tucking it into my backpack behind me.

"Then she's right. We're on our own. Up to us to find a way out." Rick said, and I heard the tone of his voice shift. He was in full deputy, take charge and somehow save the day mode now. Rick would come through for these people. We'd gotten them into this mess, so we'd be the ones to get them out.

"Good luck with that," Dixon scoffed, and I turned my eyes onto him, seeing the casual slouch he had moved into, despite still being cuffed to the pipe. "These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain't that right, sugar tits?"

The last sentence was aimed at Andrea, who was kneeling down beside a backpack, her own, I think, and organizing it. She looked up at him, with a very uninterested eye, and he continued.

"Hey, honeybunch. What say you get me out of these cuffs, we go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway." Merle said, not quite managing to convince the blonde with his 'smooth' and clearly overused 'charm'.

"I'd rather." Andrea stated, and I grinned at her response.

"Rug muncher. Figured as much," Merle then noticed me watching the pair, and another wicked grin spread across his chapped lips. "What about you, GI Jane? Wanna spend your last moments with a real man?"

"Sure!" I smirked at his eager expression, as he got what I was implying, but I watched as that eagerness turned into anger at the drop of a hat, as I continued. "Hey, T-Dog, you available?"

T-Dog laughed, as Merle's face turned red, looking as though if he got any angrier, he would do a Bruce Banner on us and Hulk out. My smirk disappeared though, when Morales and Rick started to speak again, this time including me in the conversation.

"'The streets ain't safe'!" Morales mocked Merle's words, almost bitterly. "Now there's an understatement."

"There's got to be a way out of here. A city this size, hell, a building this size, has to have more than one exit." I commented, my eyes on the ground below us, watching the walkers roaming the streets, most of them stumbling around listlessly, some joining the pile-up on the doors to the shop.

"What about under the streets? The sewers?" Rick questioned, and Morales' face dropped, like he hadn't thought of it and was disappointed that they hadn't, or they had thought of it and it was just a no go.

"Oh, man," He mumbled, turning around with a serious expression and setting his eyes on Glenn, who was fiddling with another radio, trying to get a better signal. "Hey, Glenn, check the alley. You see any manhole covers?"

Glenn immediately jumped to his feet, jogged to the other side of the building and took a few moments inspecting the ground for any signs of a way to escape into the sewers. Not the kind of escape route I was hoping for, but beggars can't be choosers, can they? He started back, shaking his head.

"No, must be all out on the street where the geeks are."

"Maybe not," Jacqui mused, and we all looked at her, waiting for her to explain herself. "Old building like this built in the '20s. Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of flooding down in the sub-basements."

"How do you know that?" Glenn asked, and I arched a brow at her. Her answer had been pretty detailed from a pretty narrow field of interest.

"Architect?" I guessed, knowing it was that or some city hall job, or something.

"I worked in the city zoning office." Jacqui corrected, and I nodded.

"Good enough for me. Glenn, wanna take point?" I questioned, pushing myself away from the wall, and walking towards him.

"Point?"

"The lead? God, I'm gonna have to write a dictionary for dummies who don't speak soldier," I lamented, placing a hand on his shoulder and nudging him towards the roof access door, as he looked at me in confusion. "Don't worry, Luke Skywalker, you'll learn the ways of the force. If we live long enough that is."


A/N:


Hello, lovely people!

Here is the sixth chapter of 'Exit Wounds', as promised, and I hope you enjoyed it.

We've officially met some of the Atlanta survivors, and we're now in the thick of what I, and Thea will later in the story, refer to as the 'Atlanta Disaster'. So what did you think of the chapter?

Oh, and any feedback on Thea so far would be great! Do you guys like her? I hope so, because I've written all the way up until the beginning of Season 2 so far, and I've planned the series all the way up until the start of Season 6, and let me tell you, Thea's journey is going to an awesome but rocky one.

Anyway, thank you to all the reviewers for Chapter Five;

sweetkitty, shika93, together24x3, jedi-stark, Guest and sousie.

All your support is very much appreciated, and I hope more people start dropping reviews too. It's nice to read through them and work out what you guys want to see and see if I can incorporate that into the story, and also it's just a big motivator to get chapters out when you know that people actually want to read what you're writing. So thank you guys for reading and following and favouriting and reviewing. I really do love and appreciate all of you.

The next update will be on August 8th, in three weeks as usual. Also to any of my GoT fans reading, I'm putting up another poll on my page about 'She Runs With Wolves and Lions', so please go and check that out and vote.

I guess I'm done here, so thanks again and until the 8th of August!

SophStratt.