"Fuck!" John yelled, as he jumped back from the flames racing under the door. He turned his head towards the jars of alcohol on the table. "Oh shit," he whispered, his throat suddenly dry. John ran towards the window, fumbling with the handle as he struggled to open it. "Fuck sake! Come the fuck on you fucker!" He said through gritted teeth. The window popped open, a wave of relief washing over him as he squeezed through the small opening. He dropped to the ground, ready to run round the side of the building when he's thrown into the school fence, heat hitting him like a punch in the back.
John lied on the broken school fence, blood dripping down his temple. His eyes flickered open then suddenly widened as a searing heat ripped through his arm. John looked down at his left arm, his eyes wide as he wafted it around wildly, batting it against the grass in an attempt to put out the flames engulfing him. Thinking quickly, he rolled over, suffocating the flames, his teeth gritted as he writhed on the ground.
John grabbed at his arm, quickly pulling his hand away as he lets out a deep growl at the white hot pain throbbing there. "Fuck!" He sat up, wiping at his temple and coming back with a bloody hand.
Ringing filled his ears, so much so, that he failed to hear the dead surrounding the school. A rotten hand clawed at his shoulder. John jumped forward, falling onto his burnt arm. "Fuck!" He screamed, his face red as he rolls onto his back. John kicked his boot up into the dead thing's chest, knocking it on it's ass.
Rising to his feet, he grabbed the knife from his belt, kneeling down and plunging it through the dead thing's skull. He quickly took out another stumbling towards him, his breath heavy as he wiped his knife over his pants.
They're everywhere, the dead coming from all directions like flies on shit.
As he ran towards the gates, now knowing that Negan had been lying to him and then some, he's blocked by the dead. John quickly headed the other way around the school, grunting as he shoulder barged through the dead. Aside from the pain emanating through his arm, he had only one thought. Negan.
As he finally made his way to the front gates, his face dropped. The trucks were gone. He wanted more than anything to just drop to the ground, but with the dead slowly but surely surrounding him, he stumbled on.
"Holy crap!" Kurt swerved the car, avoiding a group of the dead. He stomped his foot down on the gas, speeding up to avoid the turning heads of a herd. "You see that?"
"Yeah," Amy frowned. "Looks like a school, or at least it was. I wonder what happened?"
"Who knows, not our problem though."
They drove on a few more miles, Amy's eyes widening as she saw something at the side of the road.
"Stop the car," she said.
"What? Are you crazy? You just saw that herd."
"I said stop the car," she said more firmly.
Kurt rolled his eyes, bringing the car to a stop. Amy stepped out, walking to the side of the road. She leant down, instinctively pulling her knife out. "I think he's alive."
"Can't risk it, what if he's bit?"
"Doesn't look bit to me, help me get him in the car," she said.
"No way," Kurt shook his head.
"Kurt, stop being an asshole, and help me get him in the car."
"Fine," he huffed, making his way over.
They continued on a few more miles, finding a house with boarded up windows, the smell of dust and decay filling their nostrils.
Amy and Kurt had taken the man upstairs, and he lay unconscious on a dirty mattress. She'd tended to the burns on his arm, using what little bandages they had.
They both sat a table in the kitchen, eating cocktail fruit from a can.
"You know that was a waste right? That guy's gonna need more bandages, and we don't have any," Kurt said.
"We'll find more."
"How? I'm not going out there, not for a stranger," Kurt frowned.
"I'll go out myself then."
Kurt opened his mouth and quickly closed it again.
"I'm gonna go check on him, then i'm gonna head out, see what i can find," she said, getting up from her seat.
Amy didn't get back till long after dark, and Kurt had spent that time feeling like the biggest asshole ever. He hadn't meant to come across as heartless, but this guy was a stranger, he could be a bad guy for all they knew.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the front door opening, walking over to her and offering an apologetic hug. She accepted it on the understanding that he'd go out on a run next if needed.
Amy made her way up the stairs, checking on her new patient. It felt good to be doing something, to be useful. She'd been a nurse before, so taking care of people was second nature to her. What she'd always wanted was to train as a doctor, but she'd never had the chance, the world ending like it did.
She placed a hand against his forehead, the only light a flickering candle on the bedside table. He's cute, she thought. As she began to wonder what colour his eyes might be, he opened them, startling her a little. Amy took a step back, lifting her hand from his head.
He opened his mouth, coughing lightly. Amy grabbed a bottle of water, bringing it to his lips. "Drink slowly. You must've been out in the heat a while when we found you."
"We?" He croaked, taking another sip of water as she lifted it to his mouth.
"Me and my friend, his name's Kurt. I'm Amy. We found you a few miles from a school. Did you come from there?" He nodded. "I figured you might have, what with your arm being the way it is. What's your name?"
"John, and thanks, you didn't have to take care of me like this, i'm just a stranger to you."
"Kurt said that," she smiled.
"Well Kurt's right."
"You needed help, that's enough for me."
"Is it just the two of you?" John asked.
Amy nodded, leaning over to grab something from her bag. She held out her hand to him, two small white pills resting against her palm. "Painkillers, for your arm."
"Thanks," he smiled, taking them from her gratefully and practically tossing them down his throat. John sat himself up, wincing as he did. Amy leaned over, adjusting his pillows. "Thank you. I really appreciate this."
"You're welcome," she said, pulling out a chair and sitting beside him.
"Did.. did you see anyone else?" He asked.
"Where you with other people?" She frowned.
"Yeah, a lot of other people. We were all staying at the school."
"I'm sorry," she shook her head. "I didn't see anyone else. What happened there?"
"A madman burned the place down, i was lucky i got out."
She stared at him wide eyed. "You're kidding? Why would someone do that?"
"There's a lot of really bad fucking people out there, but him? He's fucking crazy. I'm worried for my people, if he got out, then he's still leading them."
"Is that your way of saying you want out of here soon as possible?" She smiled.
"Pretty fucking much," he dropped his head, running a hand over his beard. "Sorry, i must sound really fucking ungrateful."
"No, you sound like a leader who's worried about his people, that's a good thing. But, i'd advise that you get some rest. That burn on your arm will heal nicely, but only if we take proper care of it. You don't look after it properly, it'll get infected."
John nodded. "Are you a doctor?"
"Nurse, or i was, i wanted to be a doctor, but it never happened."
"Well you sure as shit seem like a doctor to me," he smiled. "So how long will this take to heal?"
Amy chewed on her lip. "Three weeks? But that's just a guess. I'd suggest we stay here for a week at least, after that you should be able to take care of it on the road, it's not advisable, but i can see you're worried about your people."
"Well, they're not actually my people."
"Seem like your people to me," she said.
They'd waited two weeks, but not before John had taken the car out a week after him being with them. He'd driven almost fifty miles before realising Amy was right, he wasn't going to find them waiting on the side of the road for him. If he was going to find them, it was better that he heal as much as he could first.
So they had stayed at the house, John getting to know Kurt, and liking him in spite of his apparent reluctance to take John in in the first place.
They'd found more bandages, and as promised, his arm was healing nicely. He guessed it would be another two weeks before it healed properly, but he'd stopped with the painkillers, so that was something.
On the second week, a herd of the dead had ripped through the small town they were residing in. Though Kurt had suggested they hide it out, John had pointed out that if so much as one of the dead found their whereabouts, they wouldn't stand a chance of getting out, so they'd taken the car and left.
Kurt had died just over two hours later.
They'd been driving down the road, barely two hours after leaving the house, when Amy had swerved the car to avoid a handful of dead. She'd crashed into a tree at the side of the road, the three of them getting out unharmed. But as they'd ran off into the woods, Kurt had felt a hand grab at his shoulder, and one of the dead had taken a chunk out of it.
"Kurt!" Amy screamed, running over to him.
John ran over, his face dropping at the bite on Kurt's shoulder. He ran over to the dead thing, taking it out with his knife, while Amy applied pressure to Kurt's shoulder with her shirt.
"Shit! This is really not the way i wanted to go," Kurt shook his head, a weak smile on his face.
John kneeled down beside them. "I'm sorry. Maybe if we hadn't left-"
"Don't, you were right. I guess it's just my time," Kurt said, swallowing thickly. "Fuck it hurts," he winced. "Do me a favour."
John leaned into him. "Of course, anything," he said, holding Kurt's hand.
"Take my gun from my backpack, i don't wanna wait."
"No," Amy sobbed.
Kurt laughed weakly, taking her hand in his. "Can you stop bossing me around, just for once?"
"Sorry, i can't watch," Amy said, getting up and turning away.
John took the gun from Kurt's backpack. "You sure?" Kurt nodded, squeezing John's hand. John placed the gun against Kurt's temple. "I'm sorry," he said, before he pulled the trigger, a flock of birds flying off as the sound echoed through the woods. John stood up, placing the gun in the backpack. "I'll go find us something to bury him with."
After burying him, they'd found a barn out in the woods, spending the night there before packing up in the morning.
Amy had died four hours later, not long after they'd shared a can of peaches.
She'd gotten up to relieve herself, and after zipping her jeans back up, she'd stepped backwards into what look like a few bushes, unaware that there was a 100ft drop behind them.
John had shot up from where he was and ran over, almost meeting the same fate himself. He'd turned around and vomited, the rank smell of peaches putting him off them for life.
John set up camp in a car at the side of the road. He'd struggled to sleep, the image of Amy lying with her skull smashed against the rocks haunting him. They'd still be here if it weren't for you. Funny how everyone dies when you're around, he thought. But then he'd thought of Katie. He'd managed to keep her safe. He had to find her, if that was the last thing he did, he had to know that she was okay. She wasn't safe with Negan. John knew it was only a matter of time before Negan reverted back to his old ways, he was showing signs of it back at the school.
Sleep hadn't taken him that night, so he'd left the car just before sun up. He'd found a derelict gas station, taking the time to check his arm. It was healing nicely, just as Amy had promised, most likely he'd be left with a faint pink mark over time. He bandaged it back up and grabbed what he could find, which wasn't much.
He'd spent a month alone, not coming across a single person on his travels. The only thing there had been in abundance was the dead.
John made his way through a field, his beard long and his hair a matted mess on top of his head. He stood, arms on hips, looking down at a town below. As he was about to turn around he heard a gunshot. "The fuck?" John turned once again to the town below, a factory standing tall in the distance.
John figured the best place to start would be the factory, since that's the first place he'd check out if he were looking for somewhere safe.
His eyes widened as he watched from a distance. "Katie," he smiled. She was safe, and that was all he'd thought about for the last month or so. His expression changed in a heartbeat as he watched his brother wrap his arms around her. Fucking fucker!
Author's note
The next chapter should be the final one, thanks for reading and the awesome comments. X
