Chapter Three: Forsaken

Forsaken: completely deserted or helpless; abandoned.

Day 10

Daisy was leaning against the closed door as she waited for her friends to ready themselves for their journey out of the overrun Atlanta. Her fingers tightly gripped the bat she held in her hands, found behind the front desk of the hostel, and she stood in aggravation. The only reason that they had delayed this trip was to maintain preparedness, and yet Jess and Kat still found cause to delay.

"Come on, guys." She said, finally. They looked up from the floor where they were packing their bags, and stared with fearful eyes. Daisy felt bad for being abrupt with them, they were visibly the most affected of the group when it came to the whole undead situation. "Look, let's just, get this over with. The sooner we leave, the sooner we'll be safe."

This seemed to help Jess and Kat, with Nina also looking more calm and determined. The two girls stood with the rest of the group, and they set off out of the room and out of the hostel.

The group didn't encounter any of the dead until they reached the street. As soon as they opened the front door of the hostel, Daisy could see a group of the dead loitering at the end of the street and one leaning over a long-dead person, having what looked like an enthusiastic snack of his innards.

"Oh, God." She could hear one of the girls whisper behind her, thankfully having the sense to remain quiet if not silent. Glenn stepped out ahead, with the metal pipe that he had found a few days previous raised in caution, the rest followed behind him. They made their way across the street where Nina had pointed out Daisy's car to Glenn.

None of the dead noticed them, or if they did they didn't care to make their way towards them. Daisy went to the driver's side door and pressed the unlock button on the keys. Without fail, the doors unlocked and everyone piled into the car. Kat, Nina and Jess huddled in the back seat, while Glenn joined Daisy up front. She placed the key into the ignition and turned, the engine spluttering to life.

Ahead she saw some of the dead turn their heads in interest, beginning to slowly come for the only noise in the quiet.

Slowly, the car pulled out and Daisy manoeuvred her way around the dead, who clawed at the windows as they passed, causing Kat to squeak in fear. Daisy let out a sigh of relief as they passed safely, and made her way down the street towards the corner store a few hundred metres down the road.

After a minute of the car crawling along, they reached the store and Daisy parked right in front.

"We need weapons." She said decisively. Beside her, Glenn nodded in agreement. "Look, there's a hardware store across the road. How 'bout Jess and I go in while you, Kat and Nina find some food?"

"Okay, everyone good with that?" Glenn called softly into the back seat. The girls nodded meekly, more concerned with the few dead that could be seen roaming around outside.

Daisy grabbed her bat from where it was in front of her and opened the car door, exiting. She nodded towards Glenn over the car and grabbed Jess' arm to lead her towards the hardware store across the road. Any of the dead that were scattered along the street were uninterested in what they were doing, continuing to cannibalise whatever they had found. As they reached the door, Daisy pushed it open, lamenting the quiet jingle of the bell, and motioned for Jess to go ahead of her. Daisy looked, the dead were still uninterested despite the bell.

Across the road, Daisy could see Glenn, Kat and Nina making their way to a grocery store on the nearby corner of the next road. She entered the store after Jess.

"What—uh, what should we be looking for?" Jess muttered distractedly.

"Anything…sharp or, heavy and blunt? You know, anything that'll bash in the head of those dead people." Jess nodded faintly, going to look in a far aisle. Daisy sighed, not quite sympathetic to her friend who was evidently having difficulty with this apocalyptic scenario. She raised her hands and gathered her hair, snapping a hair tie in place. Daisy's hands came down and rubbed at her arms as she browsed through the aisles.

Just as she saw a locked case of axes that looked particularly promising, Daisy heard Jess call out for her. Her eyes widened and she picked up her pace, rushing towards where she had heard Jess. Daisy came upon her friend sitting in the back corner of the store, arms hugged around her legs and tears running from her reddened eyes.

Inwardly, Daisy sighed yet again, but outwardly she sat beside her friend and put a comforting arm around her.

"Jess…what's wrong?" She was answered by narrowed eyes and a disbelieving stare. "Okay, okay. I know what's wrong. But, do you have to…" Daisy didn't want to sound insensitive, "do you have to do this now..." She was unsuccessful.

"Jesus Christ, Daze, not everyone can be as unaffected as you!" Daisy's head jerked back indignantly.

"Wha—? I'm not unaffected, Jess! It's just, we're currently in a life or death situation, so I thought, maybe I'll hold off on any mental breakdowns!" Jess bowed her head and her eyes scrunched up as if in pain. "Okay, I'm sorry, Jess. Let's just…get as many weapons as we can, and then we'll be outta here." Daisy tried to placate her.

Jess took a deep breath and nodded, standing with Daisy. She was hunched over, making her way down another aisle, resigned. Daisy breathed a sigh of relief and resumed her own inspection of the axes. She came back to the red-barred cage, and fingered the heavy silver lock that hung from the bars.

Daisy had come to the conclusion that she should look for a key behind the counter or in the back room, when she heard a shout from outside. Her head snapped up, and she rushed towards the glass front of the shop, Jess not far behind her. Suddenly, she could see out the dirty, barred window, panicking when all she could see was the dead. Where there had been only a few, there were now hundreds. Hundreds upon hundreds. Her arm snapped out to catch Jess and her hand held tightly onto her shirt, pulling her down sharply as Daisy crouched.

They were not that lucky, some of the dead had seen them and were now ambling their way into the store. A few had gotten in when they heard it, the tires screeching as they pulled away and veered down the street. Their friends had left them. Though Daisy understood why they had done so, it was hard not to feel bitter as she stared down the bloodshot, yellow eyes of a dead man. She was grateful, however, that the noise had caused all but five of the dead to backtrack and try to follow the noise.

Daisy quickly dodged the dead, using her bat to push the one closest to her into the others that crowded the store. She heard a sharp scream from Jess, and Daisy quickly darted behind them as they stumbled towards the now silent Jess who was running towards the back of the store, while Daisy dead-bolted the front door of the store in case any more of the dead joined them.

The few who were in the store turned towards Daisy after Jess had slammed the back door. Daisy steeled herself, and raised her bat up behind her, posed to smash some dead heads in. There was a loud crack as the bat splintered into pieces over the nearest one's head, her eyes widened and she panicked, now rushing past them to the back of the store. Daisy slammed into the door from her momentum and rattled the doorknob, almost screaming when it did not open. She bashed her hand against the door.

"Jess! Open this fucking door, right now!" She said emphatically. Daisy heard Jess moving behind the door, tried the doorknob again and she heard a metallic click. Much to her relief, the door now freely open and she rushed in, slamming the door behind her. Finally, she clicked the lock back into place and sank down with her back against the door. Daisy looked up at Jess with tired eyes.

"What the—" Daisy was interrupted by a loud bang and a sudden jolt when the dead reached the door and were slamming themselves up against it. "Fucking hell." She said bluntly, somewhat exasperated at each constant challenge this new world seemed to present.

Daisy stood up and pushed against the door and against the ramming dead. Each time she was jolted, her eyes rolled back into her head with annoyance. Daisy looked around the room and her eyes landed on a heavy-looking metal cabinet.

"Jess, get that cabinet." She prompted Jess, who looked quite afraid of the jolting door. "Get the fucking cabinet, Jess!" Daisy then yelled, which startled Jess out of her stupor. Jess moved towards the cabinet and pulled it, the metal screeching as it dragged across the floor. Daisy and Jess both cringed at the noise, and Daisy helped to pull it in her place when it was close enough.

Daisy sighed in relief and Jess collapsed to the ground. It was then in the resigned quiet that Daisy saw how pale she was, and that there was a large, bloody chunk missing from the back of her shoulder. Blood gushed down Jess' side, staining her white shirt almost completely red.

"Jesus shit, Jess! Were you bit? My mom said that's what turns you into one of them!" Daisy exclaimed abruptly.

"Whu—?" Jess muttered incoherently. Daisy caught her as she slumped to the side, faint from blood loss.

"Oh, God."

"Why…are you so pale, Daze?" Jess mumbled as she looked up from where she was lying in Daisy's arms. Blood ran over her legs and arms as she exhaled at Jess' remark.

"I'm…pretty sure you're the pale one in this situation, Jess-arino." Daisy said with wide eyes and disbelief at her friend's impending fate.

"What the—don't call me that, dipshit." Jess managed to speak, just barely.

"Don't call me dipshit, dipshit." Daisy retorted faintly.

"How long did it…take to come up with that one…dipshit." Jess smiled softly, becoming paler and stiller.

"What—Jess?" Daisy prompted when she saw that Jess had become too still. "Jess?" She was beginning to feel faint, and knew that her face must be as pale as Jess' own cold face before her. Daisy's head ducked to Jess' chest and she moaned.

"Fuck."

Elsewhere

"Fuck." Glenn exclaimed as he tried to stop the bleeding. As they had ran for the car, she had gotten scratched by one of the dead things. Blood continued to run down into the car as he pressed even harder. "Do you have a med-kit? Or something…?" He yelled at Kat, who looked stricken.

"What?"

"A medical kit of medical supplies?"

"Uh…"

"Go look!" Glenn managed to shout as he tried to comfort Nina who was looking terrified at where Glenn was holding her bloody, purple bruised arm.

Kat ran around the car got the keys from the ignition, using them to unlock the trunk. She lifted it up and saw the blessed white container with the red cross that Daisy's mother had insisted they pack. Kat cried out in relief and she picked it up, brandishing it in the air triumphantly.

"Kat, for Christ's sake, Nina is bleeding out." Glenn called. "Shit, no. I mean…you're not bleeding out, you'll be fine. It's fine. Oh, God." Kat startled and ran back to the back seat where Nina was laying, getting bacterial wipes and bandages from the kit when Glenn asked her for them.

Nina moaned as Glenn wiped the wound, then quickly bounded the stark white bandages around the scratch. As soon as the bandages were secured, he released Nina's arm and it was brought up to her side and cradled. Glenn sat back in his seat and sighed in relief, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Thank God that's over." He asserted. Kit sat herself down in the backseat near Nina's head and across from Glenn.

"Great. Now we'll go back and get Daisy and Jess!" Glenn looked at her, stricken.

"No…" He called softly, dragging out the sound as his head dropped into his hands. Glenn saw Kat looking at him sternly in the corner of his eyes and rethought his words. "I mean…yes!"