Freedom of Imprisonment
Jamie watched as Rick cleared the opening in the tank and immediately sprang up after him, muttering a prayer to anyone or anything that might be listening to her. She felt sick with the amount of adrenaline pumping through her system at the moment, her arms shaking and her legs tensed up. She pulled herself out of the tank in one fluid motion, looking over to where Rick was jumping off the tank. He hit the ground and rolled, crying out at the shock of pain from the collision. Holding onto her hunting knife tightly, Jamie pulled herself up onto the roof of the tank, freeing her legs from the opening, and leapt after Rick as he pulled himself up.
A walker blocked her path off the tank, causing her to tense in annoyance. Bastard, she thought in rage. All of her pent of anger, annoyance and fear coiled up into her muscles as she took hold of the edge of the tank and swung her leg around to plant the toe of her steel toed boot into the side of the walker's head. A sickening snap sounded, accompanied by the disgusting tearing of flesh as the walkers head was torn from its neck, only a strip of skin holding it on the body. She didn't stop to marvel at the disgusting surprise of it and leapt over the motionless body to the ground.
Three walkers stepped into her path before she could chance running after Rick as he started down the street.
"Rick!" She screamed, but didn't move after him, looking to her left, she saw an opened in the walkers and took it, pulling her gun from her shoulder and taking hold of the trigger. She used the end of the gun to push walkers out of her way so she didn't use all of her ammo, her feet thundering on the ground as she bolted toward the alley across the street that the kid at told them to move to.
"Run, Jamie!" Rick's voice yelled from somewhere to her right. "I'll find you! I promise! I'll find you!"
She didn't need to be told in the first place, let alone twice, and let her feet carry her as quickly as she could from the street. She pulled the strap of the gun onto her shoulder once she was in the alley, the amount of walkers diminishing to only a handful. She dug her knife into the eye of one that was in her way, ripping it back out and resuming her run. The speed that she was able to reach would have put Olympic track stars to shame.
A fire escape in a deserted alley soon became her safe haven and she jumped to reach the ladder, using her arm muscles to pull herself up a couple of rungs until her feet could hook onto the bottom one and she was able to climb the remainder of the way. None of the windows were open along the escape, so she didn't worry about any walkers sneaking up on her from above.
The metal was cold and reassuring on her skin as she pressed herself against one of the railings, trying to disappear. The walkers would probably all have resumed their search for Rick and the kid, but she wouldn't be moving from her place for a long time, of that she was certain. You couldn't have bribed her off that fire escape with the promise of a fresh steak dinner with potatoes, butter and beer.
She could still hear gunshots in the distance that were close enough to be Rick's, before things went quiet again. Looking above herself, she noticed that the fire escape went all the way up to the roof of the building. A roof was better than a grated metal fire escape where walkers could see her. Making sure that there weren't any that had followed her into the alley and give away her position, some of the dead citizens walking passed the alley but not looking at her, she carefully began to make her way up.
The knife never left her hand, her gun never left her shoulder and her set shoulders never relaxed. She worked her way up the escape level by level, wishing that she had gotten a better sleep the night before, or had taken up Rick's advice and slept in the car. Lifting herself onto another level she took a moment to pause and glance back down at the alley that sat stories below her. There was one walker wandering its way toward the street, toward the commotion of the other dead people.
She remained still and silent until it had left, leaving everything deserted again. She leaned against the brick of the building and felt her eyes burn, fighting tears. She tried to take deep breaths to keep calm, but everything that had happened up until then was so much that she felt like she was going to explode at any moment. She didn't know what she was going to do, if she tried to run she could run into more hordes of those things, if she stayed she'd die eventually. Rick didn't even know where she was.
I'll come for you!
No one had said that to her since the beginning of all this crap. She had never once heard someone promise to put their life on the line to save someone that they hadn't even known more than two days. She wished she had the chance to meet the kid that had saved them in the tank. She imagined he'd have been an awesome guy. Most of the time she had always been told 'you get lost, and I'm leaving your ass behind' or 'fuck this, you're on your own'; she really hoped that Rick kept his promise.
More gunshots began to sound, causing her to jump. These ones sounded different, though. They weren't from Rick's Beretta, that was for certain.
Moving quickly up the fire escape to the roof, she took the time to scan the span of the rooftop for any sign of a walker before pulling her body up and over the ledge, ducking down and taking a moment to try and calm her raging heart. More shots began to sound and she looked over in the general direction that they were coming from. Pulling the gun from off her shoulder she raised the scope to her eye and looked over the tops of the buildings.
It seemed whoever had been popping off shots had already ducked back down for cover. But the damage was already done, that would have drawn all the more walkers toward that one building. She slipped along the side of the building she was on, she wasn't even sure what it was, and moved over to the ledge that looked down on the street. The walkers were all crowding around one general building, most likely the one that Rick had been led to.
"And here I thought I was the one going down shit creek with no paddle," She mumbled to herself, watching as they beat against the doors. A distant rumble of thunder made her look up toward the darkening skies, the moisture of an impending storm already thickening the air. She raised the sniper to look through the scope again, looking up to the top of the building that all of the walkers were surrounding.
One, two, three.
Three people that she could see, one of them was Rick. She was guessing that there had to be more of them. She took a moment to look over the kid that was standing, she would guess that—fitting voice to face—he had been the one that spoke with her and Rick over the radio. Should she fire a shot and let him know she's there? Would that draw walkers toward her? If she had so much confidence, she'd try and throw something but she knew her arm wasn't that good and she might just hit a walker and piss it off.
Rick and one of the guys began to walk toward the corner of the rooftop, looking off. They were talking, but she wasn't able to tell what it was that they were saying. Pulling the scope away from her eye, she took a steadying breath and looked down at the street again. More walkers had appeared around the block, more than likely from the gunshots that had been going off before. More thunder rumbled overhead, causing her to pause. What if she timed the shot perfectly?
Rick looked out of the city from a new point of view, unable to wrap his mind around what was going on. He tried to scan the streets for any sign that Jamie had been caught while running off, but nothing seemed amiss among the walkers. They were either wandering around brainlessly or trying to find a way into the department store. The rest of the group that he had joined up with were doing their own, the man he came to know as T-Dog trying to get a signal on the radio.
A loud rumble of thunder echoed over the city, covering all sound for a moment. A distant crack was faintly heard before a small chunk of the stone on the ledge a few feet from Rick blew off. The group jumped and looked around, even Merle looked momentarily at a loss.
"What the fuck?" T-Dog yelled as he looked around. Rick spun around to face the buildings surrounding them, examining the rooftops. There was only one other person he knew of in the city that had a sniper rifle. Rushing over to the gun that he had taken from Merle, he quickly adjusted the scope before beginning to scan over the roofs of the buildings. Abound a block down from where they were, sitting on the top of a twelve story shopping center, was Jamie.
"She's alive," Rick breathed in relief, getting looks from the others.
"The woman that was with you in the tank?" Glenn asked immediately, pushing away from where he had been leaning to look where Rick had just been aiming the gun. Rick held the scope up to his eye again to looked toward Jamie. She was holding her gun with one hand and tapping the side of her jaw with the other. Rick adjusted his gun to one hand and made a cut throat motion with the other. He hadn't been bitten. He watched as she pointed to herself before repeating his action. She hadn't either.
"What's going on?" Glenn asked, watching the motion that Rick had made.
"She wanted to know if I'd been bitten," Rick translated, lowering the gun to speak with him. "She's on one of the other roofs, the walkers didn't get to her."
"I'm not surprised, I watched her run. I've never seen someone move that fast in my life," Glenn said, his voice showing that he was telling the truth. "But if I was running for my life from a horde of geeks I suppose I'd run fast, too."
"Whoa, there's someone else?" The blonde woman demanded in exasperation. "How many other people came here with you?"
"It's just me and her, no one else. We split up from the rest of our group to come here," Rick explained, rising the scope up to look over to Jamie again. He felt his heart constrict in his chest when he saw that she had leaned over to lay her head on the metal ledge of the building she was on, her head on her folder hands. He didn't know whether she was praying or crying, but he knew that she looked broken.
"How's that signal?"
"Like Dixon's brain," T-Dog answered tiredly, looking over to the bald man in question, "Weak." Dixon simply flipped off the other male nonchalantly.
"Let me see," Glenn said as he held his hands out for the gun, "I've looked this place through from top to bottom, I might know a way for us to help her." Rick took one last look through the scope himself, seeing that she had straightening up and was loading a new bullet into her gun after firing off the last to get their attention. He handed the rifle over to Glenn and look over to the others, stepping up to the ledge and looking down at the street that was surrounded by walkers.
"Tell me, Chinese, is she hot?" Merle leered from his place on the dirt covered roof, causing Rick to glare over his shoulder. Glenn watched as she looked over in their direction, placing the gun back around her shoulder. Blood was smeared on her face, mostly on the right side, but none of it looked like it was from her. Her right hand was equally as messy. Geek blood. He couldn't deny, she was hot.
Not that he'd tell Merle that.
He watched her fall to sit down against the metal surrounding the roof, disappearing from sight. She wanted to give up, but she wanted to live at the same time. Glenn lowered the gun and placed it back down on the ground, leaning against the stone wall. Rick and promised her that he'd come, but how could he be sure that he'd ever get the chance? From where she was, she might have a chance of getting away on her own, but it would take perfect timing and careful technique.
Jamie sat against the corner of the roof, trying to think of some way to connect with Rick again. She knew that he would find some way to get him and the rest of the people that had been with the guy who saved them away from the walkers and that building, she just didn't know how he can do that and save her as well. If he left, she wouldn't be able to stay in the city by herself, it would be far too dangerous.
She didn't know how long she was sitting on the roof of the building before she felt cold pelts of water begin to fall on the back of her neck, shoulders and arms. She lifted her head up toward the sky, squinting her eyes as water began to fall down and wash her face clean of blood and sweat. A full downpour was soon covering the city in water, drenching anything outside. Jamie pulled her gun under the small ledge that the water didn't touch, keeping it dry.
She didn't feel like she had the energy to rise when she heard the sound of an engine start, the rain stopped as abruptly as it had started. Rain had once cleansed the earth, but now, the disease and decay remained just as it had been before. Now it was just soggy.
She was jolted from her stupor only when she heard the sharp sound of a car alarm approaching, pulling herself up onto her feet and looked down at the street. A red car ripped around the corner or the street, drawing the attention of walkers away from the loading dock of the store that Rick and the others were in.
"They're getting out of the city," She mumbled to herself.
She could do nothing but watch as the car led the walkers away from the doors, only a moment before a white truck sped up to the doors, parking there. Rick. She watched the truck sit still for only a moment, enough time to load passengers into the back, before it took off, lurching forward and away from the store loading dock. She fell to her knees in grief as she watched Rick disappear down the street.
I'm on a roll with these chapters! I hope that everyone else is enjoying the updates as much as I am enjoying the reviews that I'm getting. The episode last night has lit a fire under my ass so there should be quite a few updates in the next couple of days. It's March Break at school, so I've got a whole week free(aside from a few assignments) and I'm dedicating it too my stories!
Chapter 6 – Beat of the Thunder
"She saved my life," Ricks said softly, "She was with the group that I first met when I woke up. We…we got separated in the city, I know that she's alive, but I wasn't able to stop and get her as we were rushing out of the city. When we got separated, I promised her that I would come back for her."
"Did she get hurt?" Dale asked, the meaning behind his words easy to understand. The fire made the shadows on his face dance, his eyes looking into Rick's with sympathy and seriousness.
"I doubt it," Glenn threw in. "You should have seen her! She kicked the head off a walker; clean off!" Glenn's grin was unmatchable, lighting his features in the ring of firelight. "She probably took down about ten of them before they locked themselves in the tank as well. That was walker blood on her face, right?" Glen asked as he looked over at Rick, who nodded.
"Yea, you were kind of making her freak out inside the tank."
"Yea, I got that when she called me a little…" Glenn trailed off as he looked down at Carl, who didn't even seem to be paying attention, but everyone else understood what he meant without the young man actually having to finish his sentence. Rick smiled to himself slightly as he remembered the attitude—the defiance—that had shined through during their moment of panic and fear inside the tank. She'd be alright, he knew she would.
Angel.