My head swung to the left as the muffled sounds of the dead were overtaken by the roars of a powerful engine. Thankfully, the car finally came into sight, which finally gave me the kick into reality that I needed. My body became functional again, and my feet began advancing towards the illuminated red car.
"HEY! OVER HERE!" I screamed, waving my hands in a blur of movement. The tyres screeched and the car came to a halt. Without warning, a head popped out of the driver's window. "Are you gonna stand there all day or do you wanna get torn to pieces!?" He rolled the car towards me and pushed open the door. Without questioning it, I jumped straight in. As I gained my composure I acknowledged that the herd were no more than ten metres away. That's how close I was to death.
Tension was still high, but I knew I was a lot safer now, that's for sure. I looked over to my right, sat beside me was a young Asian guy, around the same age as me. He wore a baseball cap that didn't suit him, along with a baggy shirt and slim fitting dark t-shirt underneath. His jeans were slightly discoloured and the knees were worn out. We quickly exchanged glances before he spun the car around, and headed out of Atlanta.
We sat in silence for a few moments, trying to unravel from the shock I suppose. "Thanks man, I was dead back there for sure", I said, breaking the awkward silence. He shot me a look, as if he were analysing me, checking to see if I were trouble or not. Although it seemed rude, I fully respected it. "No problem, name's Glenn," he assured me. "Nice to meet you Glenn, I'm Chris."
Over the journey back to his camp he explained a lot of important things to me. How the promise of Atlanta was a lie. How he'd come into the city on a, gone wrong, supply mission. His group of people were set up in a camp just off the highway, an old oil drilling district. "Look, if you've got nowhere else to go, you can come with us, at least for a couple days."
The way to his camp was approximately half an hour, on the way we passed a few walkers and the rest of his group. We drove around the right hand side of their van, making it more difficult for me to see inside it, though I swear the driver reminded me of an old friend. I chuckled to myself in the memories causing a feeling of confusion to appear on Glenn's face.
Finally, we pulled up to his camp. His people were already watching, disgruntled looks on their faces. Glenn stepped out first, and on came the entourage. From the moment his car door clicked open he was bombarded with questions. There was a young woman, questioning about her sister, then an older man, in his 60's or thereabouts I would imagine, who told him off for driving such a loud vehicle up hear. None of them even seemed to notice I was there.
Then his voice came out, and I knew he was there. "Glenn, what the hell d'you think you're doing drivin' this walking dinner bell up hear man, could have drove every damn walker in the area to us". He walked over to Glenn, looking him down, asserting his authority as he does so well. A hint of joy crept on to my face, and I clicked my car door open. Everyone jumped, even Glenn for a moment, and there attention was on me. Slowly, I rose from the car, and Shane's face changed with a whirlwind of pure shock.
"Hey big bro," I joked as I moved round to him. I realized I still had my shotgun in my arms and gently propped it against the car. He was still in shock, so was I, last I knew he'd gone to the hospital to get Rick, I'd seen the state of that place so I just thought the worst of it. We embraced for a short moment, until deciding to keep our masculinity was a better option.
"I thought I'd lost you man," he claimed. I couldn't help but smile, because without Glenn, I was lost. "Well, without your loud friend over here I was a gonner, there was loads of them down in Atlanta bro, must have been thousands in the whole city." His expressions returned to normal as I mentioned the walkers, that made me feel even worse about them, to know that they bothered my brother unnerved me even more.
In the distance I saw Lori and Carl walking down towards us. Lori spotted me straight away, and a cheerful smile broke away on her face. Soon after Carl noticed and came charging towards me. "CHRIS! YOU MADE IT!" I picked him up in my arms and swung him around, causing a fit of giggles all over. "Hey little man", I responded. I put him down and walked to Lori, "Ma'am, permission to hug," I teased. She gave me an emphatic hug, filled with pleasure and sorrow at the same time. As I broke away from her I realized I'd seen all the family except for one, "Hey, where's Rick off to then?"
I scanned several faces; Shane's troubled expression said it all. He didn't make it out of the hospital with Rick. I turned back to Lori who just stood and stared at the ground, "God Lori I am so sor-" Before I could finish my sentence, the van we passed on the highway rolled up.
Lori ushered Carl back to her and I moved next to Shane. The girl who'd previously been questioning Glenn ran down only to be greeted by her significantly older sibling, Andrea. Another few came from the back of the van, and another from the passenger seat, who was also welcomed by family. "How did you guys get outta there anyway?" Shane asked. Glenn turned to face him, "New guy got us out". The slightly larger than average Latino man lifted his two daughters in his arms and replied, "He's a cop, like you, hey helicopter boy, get out here" Seconds passed; you wouldn't believe who it was.