Chapter Eleven: Serendipity
Serendipity: the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
Day 60
After a short stop to end the potential misery of the walker that had managed to become inflicted with a hemicorporectomy, Rick and Daisy were on their way out of King County and towards Atlanta. Daisy was feeling somewhat excited to be going back to where it had all began for her apocalyptic experience, excited that there was a chance that she would reunite with her lost friends, Nina and Kat.
But, until then, she was stuck in the passenger seat of Rick's police car, drumming her fingers on her arm with boredom. Daisy pursed her lips and glanced over at Rick, who continued to stare out at the road, which disappeared under the car as they slowly made their way across the country. Outside the window, Daisy saw a flash of lightning illuminate the gloomy clouds that hung low in the sky, bleeding into dusky clear blue sky. She sighed and Rick gave her a quick glance, then he picked up the police radio and reiterated the broadcast he had been giving throughout their trip.
"Broadcasting on emergency channel. We'll be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85." The lightning flashed again, Daisy's eyes darting towards the somewhat ominous background, "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? Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear my voice?" Rick paused and gave a defeated sigh, continuing with no response, "Anybody who reads, please respond. Broadcasting on emergency channel. We'll be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85. If anybody reads, please respond."
The radio gave a few more futile crackles and Daisy looked to Rick whose hands were nervously clasping the steering wheel.
"Hey, maybe they don't have a radio? Or, we just can't get through?" Daisy suggested with a comforting smile directed at Rick, who gave a short, doubtful nod of his head. "We'll see when we get to Atlanta…you'll find your family, I'll find my friends." Daisy said with only partially false certainty.
A while later they came to a stop by the side of the road, the limited gas in the car having run out. Daisy gathered the backpack at her feet and opened the creaking door, stepping out onto the road with a skip. She closed the door and leant against it as she waited for Rick, who she saw was flipping down the visor to take the photo that hung there. Rick reached down and pulled the lever to pop the trunk, opened his own door and exited with the duffel bag of guns in hand, putting on his deputy's hat.
"Reckon we might find a gas station nearby?" Rick asked in his drawling voice, getting a gas canister out from the open trunk.
"Worth a try." Daisy said with a shrug, beginning to walk away from the car and down the road to Atlanta. She looked around as they walked, grateful for the peace and quiet, for the sounds of wind rustling through the tall grass and birds twittering in the nearby trees. After a somewhat intolerable period of this quietness, they came upon a short drive that lead to a lone white house. Rick led them towards it and called for the attention of any occupants.
"Hello?" He dropped his bags down a few paces from the front steps and nudging his hat upwards, "Police officer out here."
"Rick, there's probably no one here…just go in." Daisy prompted him, getting a glance back from Rick as he continued forward.
"Can I borrow some gas?" He dropped the canister a few feet further, took off his hat and skipped up the front steps to the door of the house. "Hello?"
Daisy ran a hand through her hair and made to follow Rick, jumping over the duffels in her way. Her feet thudded against the wood of the steps and she came to a stop beside Rick who was glancing through the window in the door. He gave a quiet knock.
"Hello?" Rick repeated. "Anybody home?" He moved along the patio to look in the window to the left, then backtracked to look in the next window. Rick was quiet for a moment, looking around the room inside.
"What is it?" Daisy asked quietly with a furrowed brow. He continued in his silence, backing away from the window with a bowed head, going back down the stairs. Daisy's brow furrowed further and she stepped forward to look through the window. She startled as she saw what was inside, a man and a woman were inside. The woman lie dead on the floor, and the man sat up in a chair, half of his head missing. Flies buzzed and circled around the two, neither of them stirring at the disturbance. "Shit…" She mumbled, blinking her eyes firmly and following Rick away from the house.
He was sitting on a garden bench off to the left, so she stood next to him.
"Alright?" She asked him, almost rhetorically at the sight of him. His hand came up to wipe at his forehead and his head shook minutely, Rick looked up at her with concerned eyes.
"You alright?" He asked, concerned that she was, as no person should be completely alright after a spectacle like that.
"Course not!" Daisy said with a wry smile, backing up to where Rick had placed the duffels and the canister, picking them up and beckoning the still seated Rick to follow her. Her eyes caught sight of a faded red and yellow pickup, she turned to move towards it.
The car door opened with no resistance, so Daisy threw the duffels onto the ground and leaned over to check if the keys were in ignition, they weren't. She checked the visor, they weren't there either, no such luck with this one.
"No keys." Daisy called over to Rick. She meandered away from the car towards Rick, who had turned and seemed to be experiencing an epiphany. "What?" Daisy asked with suspicious eyes at his growing smile. He nodded in the direction of the fenced field that was to the right of the house, Daisy looked and saw a horse by the fence, chewing on some grass.
"Don't need a car." Rick said amusedly. Daisy just scrunched her nose up and hit the heel of her hand against her head, muttering a quiet curse to herself. "Don't like horses?" He asked, her reply being an obvious expression and a shake of her head. Daisy sighed in resignation and walked over to the fence, Rick going over to get some rope to wrangle the beast.
Later, upon reaching Atlanta
One turbulent and regrettable horse ride later, Rick and Daisy were plodding along Highway 85, the city of Atlanta rising tall before them. They had passed the packed side of the highway that Daisy had exited the city on, there had been a layer of ashy dust that had covered the traffic, presumably settling after the bombs had dropped a month and a half previous.
Now they were entering the city, sky scrapers rose on either side. The once common sounds of the bustling city were absent, it was an ever present thought that they were alone, that no one would be there to greet them. Still, they continued to trot slowly along on the horse. Ambling through crossroads and turning from road to road, they passed an idle military helicopter much like the ones stationed outside of Harrison Memorial.
Daisy's toes wiggled in her swinging boots as she looked around the scene. Cars were strewn haphazardly along the streets, road blocks were set up with no one to guard them, glass and litter blew softly in the wind. The only sounds was the wind soft in her ears and the clopping of the horse shoes on the ground.
They passed a stopped bus, the outside blackened and burnt with windows missing, inside a few walkers were seated, heads rising minutely before falling again as if in sleep. One of the walkers rose and started to groan, startling the horse and causing Daisy to tighten her hand on Rick's shoulder.
"Whoa." Rick tried to calm the horse. The bus creaked as the others began to amble along the aisle and out of the open doors. "Steady. It's just a few, nothin' we can't outrun." Rick aimed his calming at both the horse and the tense Daisy, her hand loosened. They sped up, both Rick and Daisy being thrown up and down by the movement of the horse, Daisy's eyes rolled in frustration as the duffel of guns bounced on her bag. "Whoa, whoa, whoa."
"This goddamn horse needs to calm his shit." Daisy mumbled half-heartedly, not exactly in favour of anymore fast speeds in this particular mode of transportation. Rick gave a huff of a laugh and the horse began to calm and go at a steady speed. "Holy crap!" Daisy exclaimed quietly as they came across an army tank, one which she had obviously never seen in reality. The turret was aimed upwards and Daisy couldn't help but admire the possible fire power.
Upon further inspection, she could see a dead man strewn across the front of the tank, ominously crowing birds pecking at the dead flesh. Daisy swallowed around a dry throat and they passed the tank and the dead man.
Suddenly, a thrumming sound could be heard through the air and both Rick and Daisy swivelled their heads to follow the sound.
"You hear—?" Rick started, Daisy just nodded her head with wide eyes in reply. Looking around, Daisy couldn't see the helicopter amongst the high rises, nor could she exactly determine which direction it was likely in. Rick's head turned forwards just in time to catch a slowly moving shadow along the mirrored windows of a building.
"Hyah!" The horse started to run and Daisy gripped the sides of the saddle as they rushed towards where Rick had seen the reflection. Their canter stopped at the next intersection, where they immediately realised that they were in trouble.
Hundreds upon hundreds of walkers were gathered in the adjoining street, ambling around in circles amongst each other. Daisy could now hear the low hum of their moans, and she could hear her own heart beating soundly in her ears. The horse whinnied in fear as it came to a complete stop and reared back away from the dead.
"Fuck!" Daisy cried at both the amount of walkers and the fact that she had just barely held on to the bucking horse. Quickly, Rick turned the reigns and the horse followed his lead, rushing back from where they had come, away from the crowd of walkers faster than they had gone before.
Now back next to the tank, their situation got worse as more walkers began to spew from the other streets, all headed towards Rick, Daisy and the panicking horse. The horse reared again and this time Daisy couldn't find purchase, she fell hard onto her backside with a pained yell, the duffel falling off of her back.
Walkers were approaching fast, she backed away from the heavy steps of the horse, and away from the hordes of walkers. Her back bumped against the heavy tread of the tank and she looked up panicked at Rick who was still turning on the horse. The dead began to pull at his legs and the horse, Rick fell as the horse tipped with a panicked scream.
"Rick!" Daisy cried, urging him to come to her with a gesturing arm. She quickly looked around, backing further away from the approaching dead. Seeing her only option, she ducked under the bottom of the tank and rolled to the middle.
There were disgusting squelches as the walkers began to eat the still screaming horse, rabidly biting at its stomach until it screamed no more. Rick kicked at a walker that tried to get at him and crawled closer to where she lay under the tank. Pale hands grabbed at him, Rick kicked them away and finally he made it under next to Daisy.
The walkers began to crawl after them, Daisy's eyes darted around the ground, trying to find some opening where they could escape from under the tank, but found nothing but walkers. She lay on her back, breath shuttering from her lips, heart beating fast in panic at their obvious doom.
"Oh god, oh god." Rick muttered beside her, there were two loud bangs that ringed in her ears, she couldn't hear herself think. The two panicked people shared a terrified glance, and Daisy looked up at the tank above her. Her brow furrowed at what she saw, then her eyes widened as she realised that it was an open hatch.
Quickly she pulled herself through, and Rick soon followed her example. He shut the hatch behind them and Daisy fell against the side of the tank with a relieved sigh as her heart calmed. Though they weren't out of the woods yet, she felt a certain sense of relief. Rick backed up, scrambling past her and landing beside the dead body of a soldier. He sighed as she had, head softly falling back against the grate behind him, the two breathed heavily after the adrenaline left them.
Daisy closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. In the dark of her mind she heard a panicked gasp, so she opened her eyes to see the soldier reanimated in death and Rick pointing a gun under its chin.
"Wh—?" Daisy was cut off by a deafening shot as Rick pulled the trigger, both of their ears rung and they held their heads to quiet it. Daisy tightened her eyes closed again, gripping her hair with her hands. Seconds passed, and above her she could see Rick had moved to stand on a chair and look out of the open top hatch of the tank. She heard thuds as the walkers presumably climbed the tank, and Rick ducked back down, closing the hatch and falling back down onto his side with a heavy thump.
"The guns." He muttered quietly, looking across at Daisy.
"Shit, I dropped the bag." Daisy lamented, hand holding her forehead in despair. They looked at each other with misery for a short while, glancing up as the thuds continued to sound.
Suddenly, a radio started to crackle, they both looked towards it. The static gave way to reveal a man's voice.
"Hey, you! You dumbasses! Yeah, you two in the tank. Cosy in there?"