The next few days went by uneventful, besides coming across a ''Welcome to Georgia' sign. She had heard from a couple she had met in her travels that the CDC in Atlanta was still open, but she had heard a lot of things in the weeks following the epidemic. As more and more time went by, the less people she encountered. The man she shot in the gas station was the first living person she had seen in a month.
And as much as she wanted to stay away from towns and buildings, she knew she was almost out of food, and needed to find some more soon. So against her better judgment, she headed into a small town on the outskirts of Atlanta.
She took down a few biters in a diner, but found no food or supplies. She continued on to the police station, hoping to find guns or ammo. She found a pistol taped under one of the desks and a couple boxes of ammo. And even though it didn't seem like much, she saw it as a goldmine. She walked out of the brick building but she heard two voices coming towards her.
She ran into the alleyway between an old movie theater and an old ice cream parlor, and hid behind some overgrown bushes. The voices got louder and louder, it sounded like they were talking about a little girl or something, but she wasn't paying close attention to their conversation, she was focused on getting out of there alive.
"Hey! Rick! I think's something in this bush over here!" A man yelled. Crap. "Probably some animal, Daryl… I'm going in the police station; they may have a gun or two." A guy answered back. She could hear one walking away, which she guessed was 'Rick'. But the other man, 'Daryl', stayed, and she could hear him pulling out some sort of weapon.
No way am I going out like this, She thought to herself. She jumped out of the bush and tackled the man. He tried to grab his weapon, which turned out to be a crossbow, but she kicked it away from his reach. "What the hell!?" He shouted. She put her elbow on his neck and held down one of his hands with her own.
"I don't want any trouble," she said to him. "I don't want no trouble either," He answered, his voice cracking under the pressure of her elbow. But before she could do anything, the man she thought she had pinned down, twisted her arm and flipped over, now pinning her to the ground. "Let go of me!" She shouted. "Why'd ya' do that!" He shouted back at her. "I didn't know who you were. And I heard you loading your crossbow. I thought you were going to shoot me!"
"Well… I thought you were a possum or somethin'. Is anyone else with you?" He asked loudly. She shook her head quickly, praying he would let her go. "You're all alone?" He asked, sounding surprised. She nodded. "Please," She whispered, hoping to get his sympathy. He opened his mouth to say something, when she heard feet shuffling behind them. "Shit," He said jumping to his feet.
She turned around and saw 7 biters limping their way towards them. She crawled over to the bush and grabbed her own crossbow. Daryl shot one right between the eyes and it fell instantly. She grabbed one of her arrows and shot another, watching it fall to the ground. He kept shooting as she pulled out her knife that was strapped to her thigh and ran towards the remaining biters, stabbing them in the skull. Soon they were all dead and he was out of arrows. He was about to collect them when another biter stumbled up behind him.
"Hey!" She shouted towards him. Daryl turned and just as the zombie was about to bite, she shot one of her arrows at it, hitting in directly in its right eye. It nearly fell on top of him. "Damn…" He said looking at her with that surprised look on his face, "Good aim." "Daryl! I heard shouting, you okay?" A man wearing a sheriff uniform shouted, running around the corner, a rifle slung across his back.
She quickly grabbed her backpack and began walking away, knowing there was nothing left to say or do. "Wait…" Daryl said. She stopped and turned around. "You just saved my life." "It was nothing," She said as she adjusted her grip on the backpack. "It wasn't just nothing." Rick looked at Daryl before pitching in, "We have a camp a couple miles east of here. Why don't you come back with us, and we can have someone look at your leg." He added, stepping towards her.
She looked down and saw her leg had a fresh, deep cut that was about 4 inches long. She hadn't even noticed it until right now. "I don't want to impose," She said quietly. "You won't be," Daryl replied quickly. She shrugged and nodded, not knowing if she was walking into a trap or not, but they seemed like decent people. But you never knew these days.
They got to their green Hyundai and Rick put her bag in the trunk, and he went to grab her crossbow, but she pulled away instinctively. "I'd rather keep it for right now. I still don't know you people… You can understand that, right?" He nodded, "I understand."