Chapter 2: Chasing The Sun
Casey and Dale rigged up the radiator hose in the RV with the duck tape. Rick went to check on Jim, an injured man in the RV. Charlie and Casey stood by their car waiting for everyone to be ready to leave. Glenn walked over to them and leaned against the hood of the car by Charlie. "So you were a writer before all this?" he asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah." she answered. "Still am. I have a few notebooks in the car. Just not fiction anymore."
"So you were like an Author then. Hm." Glenn smiled.
"What of it?" Charlie asked and nudged his arm with her elbow.
He shook his head. "I just had you pegged as a journalist or something." he stated.
Charlie laughed. "You're funny." she said. "So not to wreck the mood, but what happened to the guy in the RV?"
Glenn's smile fell in to a frown. " The night before last our camp was overrun." he explained. " We lost about half of our group. Jim was bit during the chaos."
Charlie put her hand on his arm. "I am so sorry." she told him.
Glenn rubbed the back of his neck. "That's why we're going to the CDC. See if they have a cure and maybe some answers to how all this started and what's really going on."
Rick came out of the RV and everyone gathered around. Charlie and Casey stayed back a bit not to intrude. "Jim is getting worse." he told the group. "He want's us to leave him here. It's what he says he wants."
"Is he lucid?" Carol questioned.
Rick fiddled with his hat. "He seems to be." he replied.
"Back at the camp when I said Daryl was right and you shot me down, you misunderstood." Dale said. "I would never go along with callously killing a man. I was just going to suggest that we ask Jim what he wanted. And now it looks like we've got our answer."
Shane turned his head towards Rick. "So we just leave him here. Take off?" he shook his head. " I don't think I could live with that."
Lori stepped forward. "It's not your call." she told him. "Either of you." She looked to her husband.
A few minutes later Shane and Rick helped Jim out of the RV and sat him down at the base of a tree. "Hey," Jim said sounding a bit out of breath. "Another damn tree." He let out a small laugh.
Shane knelt in front of the injured man. "Hey Jim. It doesn't have to be like this." he told him.
"It's good." Jim said in a raspy voice full of pain. "The breeze feels nice."
"Okay." Shane said. He patted Jim's shoulder, nodded, and stood straight. "Alright."
Everyone took turns saying their goodbyes to Jim. Charlie and Casey were last. Even though they hadn't really known the man, it was still difficult for the sisters to see the man in so much pain. "Hi Jim." Charlie said as she knelt next to him. "I'm Charlie and this is my sister Casey."
"Hi Jim." Casey waved at him. Not getting to close. He nodded at them.
Charlie put her hand on his. "I have some muscle relaxers I could give you to ease the pain." she offered. She took a pill bottle out of the front pocket of her messenger bag. He looked unsure. She took a few pills out of the bottle and put them in his hand. "Here I'll just leave you with some and if you want to take them later, you'll be able to. Alright?"
Jim nodded. "Thank you." he said.
Charlie smiled at him. "Goodbye Jim." she said.
Casey nodded at him and they returned to their car. Glenn was back leaning against the hood. "Hey can I ride with you guys." he asked.
Charlie nodded. "I'm driving." she called.
The caravan was back on the road heading to the CDC. Charlie was driving with Glenn in the passenger seat and Casey in the back. The three were playing 20 questions to pass the time.
"Does it have horns or antlers?" Casey asked Glenn. She was leaning over the front seats.
He nodded. "Sometimes." he answered.
It was Charlie's turn to ask. The writer thought for a moment. "Ummmm…" she let out as she tapped her thumbs on the steering wheel. "Does it live in the woods?" she finally asked.
"Yup it can." he said looking out the window.
Casey's face brightened. "Is it a deer?" she asked.
Glenn smiled. "Good guess, but no." he teased.
The three gone quiet as they pulled up near the CDC. The place looked like a war zone. There were tanks, barricades, and road blocks. There were also hundreds of dead bodies littering the ground between the group and the facility. They all got out of their vehicles and started towards the building.
Shane, Rick, Glenn, Andrea, Dale, and T-Dog all wielded guns. Daryl had his crossbow at the ready in one hand and a shotgun in the other. Lori and Carol held their children close shielding them from the horrific scene. Jacqui had a pocket knife ready in her hand. Charlie and Casey had their machetes in one had and a pocket knife in the other, both of them on one side of Carol and Lori.
"Alright. Everyone keep moving." Shane directed. "Just keep quiet and let's go."
Many of the group started to cough and block their noses from the horrible stench coming from the decaying bodies they were passing. "Okay y'all stay together." Rick told them.
"Keep moving, come on." Shane added as they passed a truck with bodies surrounding it. "Keep it together. Almost there."
They got to the building and they saw that shutters covered the doors and windows. The building was all locked up tight. Rick tried a key code panel on outside wall and nothing happened. "Nothing." Rick muttered.
Shane leaned against one of the shutters and tried to push it open with no success. He then banged on it. "There's nobody here." he said.
"Then why are the shutters down?" Rick reasoned.
"Walker." Daryl shouted out. Sure enough when everyone turned there was a walker walking in their direction. He downed it with his crossbow. "You led us to a graveyard." he advanced on Rick.
"He made a call." Dale defended. Shane interceded Daryl.
"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl shouted and Shane pushed him back.
"Shut up!" Shane yelled and pointed his finger in Daryl's face. "Shut the hell up!" He turned back to Rick. "This is a dead end."
"Where are we going to go?" Carol shrieked.
"Do you hear me!" Shane yelled. "A dead end!"
"She's right." Lori said hugging Carl to her side. "We can't be this close to the city after dark."
"Fort Benning, it's still an option." Shane suggested.
"On what." Andrea pointed out. "No food, no fuel. It's a hundred miles."
"125" Glenn corrected. "I checked the map.
"Forget Fort Benning." Lori said. "We need answers tonight." Carl started to sob.
Rick put his hand in the air. "We'll think of something." he said. The group started to make their way back to the cars. Rick was still looking at the CDC as he backed away. Then the camera moved.
"The camera." Rick stated. "It moved."
The group stopped. "You imagined it." Dale reasoned.
"It moved." Rick said getting closer to the building. "It moved."
"Rick." Shane said as he came up next to him. "Even if it did, it's an automated device man. Come on." Shane grabbed his arm to pull him away. "Come on man. Rick, everyone in this place is dead."
Rick fought him off and pushed him away. He banged on the shutters. "Rick there is nobody there." Charlie call out to him. Shane tried to pull him away once more.
"I know you're in there." Rick said to the camera. "I know you can hear me. Please we're desperate. Please help us! We have women and children. No food."
Lori passed Carl over to Casey. She went to her husband as Rick continued to plead with the camera. "We've got barely any gas left."
Lori was in front of him. "There's nobody in there." she told him as he was trying to get to the building.
They had gotten the attention of a few more walkers. Glenn fired on one and it fell to the ground. "Keep your eyes open." Shane told the rest of the group. "Keep alert."
Rick went at the shutters again. "If you don't let us in, you're killing us!" he yelled. "You're killing us."
Charlie put her pocket knife though a walker's temple and slashed at another with her machete. Both of them went down. She looked around to find where Casey was and felt a hand wrap around her arm. She turned towards the walker just in time to see an arrow pierce its head. She nodded at Daryl in thanks and Daryl returned the gesture. Then they were flooded in a bright light.