A/N: Thank you for the follows and the favorites.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Walking Dead.

Chapter 6

Atlanta was too dangerous. It always had been but the risk was too great now that the CDC was gone and they had nowhere to take refuge in the city. After their near escape from a fiery death, all they wanted to do was leave the cursed place behind. So now they were heading to Fort Benning but Marianne didn't get her hopes up. A trip that used to take a couple of hours now had the potential to stretch into days. And then, when they finally arrived, what would be waiting for them? More death or a sanctuary?

They stopped in the city's outskirts to regroup.

"Okay, so it's decided. We're leaving behind the jeep, the truck, and the van. Daryl, T-Dog. You two can siphon the gas outta them. Everyone else, we've got some rearranging to do. Let's get this over with as fast as possible."

The group broke apart to get started on their tasks. Marianne headed to their truck.

"Hey Marianne." She stopped and turned to look at Rick. "Let's go talk." He motioned her over and she confusedly followed him out of hearing distance of the group. Daryl gave her a questioning look and she shrugged her shoulders in response. She didn't have a clue what this was about.

Rick put his hands on his hips and squinted as a ray of light filtered through the trees and landed on his face. "I wanted to say thank you to you and Daryl for grabbing the food and that I'm sorry for not hearin' you out back there. It could've saved us a whole lotta trouble."

"That's an understatement. You nearly got us killed. Next time maybe you'll listen. That's when I'll know you're sorry."

"Fair enough, I can accept that." Rick nodded.

"Is that all?"

"I guess it is."

She walked away but he spoke again. "I'm glad you and Daryl are sticking around." Marianne briefly stopped before resuming her course not knowing what to think about this revelation.

Daryl was almost finished siphoning the gas out of their truck when she got there.

"What'd he want?"

"He apologized," she said sounding a little mystified, "for not listening to me."

"Good."

"He also says thank you for the food. Not just to me, but to you." Daryl didn't say anything to that.

Marianne moved their stuff and helped Daryl take Merle's motorcycle down, which he would be using from here on out while she was stuck in the RV. At least she wasn't crammed into Carol's car with the kids. Although, she would trade the both of them for Shane any day. The man wasn't one for small talk so they could thankfully ignore one another.

It didn't take them long to pack up and move out. Daryl was in the lead, followed by the RV and the Cherokee.

For awhile she lounged on one of the single beds in the back reading one of Dale's books while T-Dog sat on the other looking out the window. The ride was a little bumpy but it sure beat sitting next to Shane and Andrea so she made do. Her attention eventually wandered away from the book and she walked to the front of the RV and stood behind Glenn, whose brow was furrowed as he studied a map.

"We making good time?"

"As long as we don't hit any traffic snarls and we find enough fuel we should be there by the end of the day," Dale said.

Minutes later he slowed the RV as they came up on a chaotic car pileup that stretched beyond what their eyes could see. Cars had veered off the road into the grass, doors were flung open and a semi had fallen onto its side sprawled across the highway right in front of them. Glenn sighed, upset at their newest obstacle and looked down at the map again. "Maybe I spoke too soon," Dale said.

Daryl doubled back and drove up to the RV's driver side window.

"See a way through?" Dale asked. Daryl nodded and motioned with his head for them to follow.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back," Glenn said. Marianne looked over his shoulder at the map. "There's an interstate bypass—"

"We can't spare the fuel." Dale said, ruling the idea out immediately.

They were crawling their way through the maze of cars when the RV made a very loud, hissing noise before it stopped working. When Daryl noticed they weren't following him anymore he turned his motorcycle around.

Dale cursed. "It's that radiator hose. It wasn't a perfect match."

How many times was this thing going to break down before they gave up on it? It was dangerous to be stranded on the road over and over. Their luck would run out soon and they'd be in real trouble.

Dale slammed the door open and they filed out of the RV. "I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked, already looking around and keeping an eye out for danger.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of—" Dale stopped and looked at the mess they were in the middle of. Daryl and Marianne were already rummaging through the back of a station wagon. "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Shane said.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl grabbed a green duffel from the back of the car he was looking through, dumped it, and put a few items he'd already found into the now empty bag.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start," T-Dog added.

"This is a graveyard," Lori said, dampening the group's plan on searching for food and water. Everyone looked around at the others' reaction to the melodramatic statement. "I don't know how I feel about this."

"This is survival. You either deal or you die," Marianne said.

There was a pause. Everyone seemed to agree with her, probably not in those exact words, and implicitly decided to ignore Lori's feelings.

Daryl and Marianne continued searching through the station wagon.

"Come on, y'all. Look around, gather what you can," Shane said unnecessarily as most of them had already started to do just that.

Daryl handed her the mostly empty duffle and went to help T-Dog collect more gas.

Glenn was roped into helping Dale fix the RV. Rick took out the gun bag and selected a rifle for himself. Marianne eyed it and wished she had one but it'd only get in the way when looking for supplies.

She walked in front of Carol, Lori, and the kids, and scrunched her nose when she passed by the truly dead body of a woman sitting in one the cars and wondered if she opted out or was murdered. Most of the people that had fled these cars were probably dead or walkers by now, walkers that had hopefully shuffled very far away from there.

Marianne came to a stop next to an old Buick with a bunch of stuff piled on the back seat. The doors were closed but thankfully, whoever owned the car didn't take the time to lock them. She opened the driver side door to pop the trunk and that's when she spotted it. On the passenger side floor, half hidden under the seat was a semi automatic pistol.

She climbed into the car and grabbed it, making sure the safety was on. Marianne opened the glove box and just as she had predicted she found the box of bullets. She had lost track of her own gun in Atlanta and had an inkling of whose hands it had ended up in. For now, she was going to hide this find. She didn't need Rick or Shane taking it away from her, like the handgun Rick had temporarily given her for the long walk back to camp.

Rifling through bags in the back and finding a homemade first aid kit and a couple of shirts Daryl might like, Marianne heard a man's hushed voice frantically telling them to get down. Right when she looked up somebody grabbed her arm and jerked her to the ground. It was Rick. He practically rolled her underneath a car and she scooted out of the way so he could get under too. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were hiding from.

"Walkers," he mouthed to her. She nodded and then wondered if her breathing had always been this loud.

She couldn't decide what was worse, the sound of dragging feet on the asphalt or the distinct, eerily soft groaning that walkers made while mindlessly ambling through the world. On second thought, the groaning. Definitely the groaning.

The march of death seemed to go on forever. She hadn't seen how many were coming so she couldn't even estimate when this nightmarish situation would be over. This was the first time she wasn't grateful that walkers were slow.

After an eternity, no more walkers came but they all stayed under the vehicles waiting for them to get to a safe distance away from the group. Rick was breathing heavily beside her and preoccupied with looking at his son.

All of a sudden she heard Sophia cry out and the groaning of not one but two straggling walkers getting excited for their next meal. Rick grabbed his rifle and began scooting out from under the car. Marianne followed right behind him as fast as she could crawl out of the confined space. By the time she stood up Rick had already taken off.

She sprinted after Rick and Sophia. Why? She couldn't tell you what compelled her to take action while everyone else that saw what was happening just stood there and watched the girl disappear into the tree line. Maybe because it was more than one walker and Rick needed help. She didn't think he had a weapon on him other than his gun. Idiot. He should always have something else on him. She gripped her knife tightly as she vaulted over the metal railing. Marianne would tell him off later, after Sophia was safe.

She followed them the best she could but they had a good head start. Marianne kept losing Rick in between the trees and the overgrown bushes but didn't dare call out to him. He didn't need the distraction.

She heard a small scream and changed direction, running as fast as she could and trusting in herself that she wouldn't fall over something. Next she heard a splash and slightly altered her course. Soon she came upon a creek and heard Rick's low voice. Marianne carefully eased her way into the water.

"This is how we both survive, you understand?"

"Rick," she whispered as she walked towards them.

"What are you doing here?" He sounded displeased and relieved at the same time.

"Helping. I'll take care of Sophia."

"Take her back to the highway. Keep the sun on your left shoulder," he told her and Sophia.

"I know how to get back. Now go." Marianne entered the small cave made by erosion and tree roots. She held Sophia close to her. The two walkers had finally made it to the creek and Rick baited them.

"Come on!" He splashed water towards the walkers. "You ugly son of a bitch. Come on!"

One of the walkers fell into the creek bed and Marianne felt Sophia grab onto her shirt. Rick took off and the walkers followed. She waited a little while longer before exiting the cave first and looked around. The coast was clear and she motioned for Sophia to come out.

"Okay, we're gonna make our way back to your mom. How's that sound?" Sophia nodded, too frightened to speak. Marianne climbed out of the creek first and then pulled Sophia up out of the water.

She grabbed Sophia's arm and started running back to the highway as fast the girl could go. Without warning a walker stumbled out of the woods and into their path, quickly spotting them. Sophia screamed. Marianne had to let go of her to dispatch the walker. When she finished she turned around to grab Sophia again but saw her running back towards where they had come from.

"Sophia! Stop!" She ran after the girl and caught up to her at the creek.

"You can't just run away like that. Now come on," she said trying to keep the anger out of her voice.

But before they could start running again, two more walkers appeared. She could only assume all of these walkers had broken away from the others.

"Shit. I need you get out of the way but stay where I can see you." Sophia stood there clutching her doll, frozen with fear.

"Go!" Sophia flinched but moved further away from danger. She didn't like yelling at the poor girl. Her daddy did enough of that when he was alive.

Marianne gave the walkers her full attention. Walking through the dense undergrowth made them slow. Their groaning intensified as they got closer and the noise made her heart beat faster in anticipation.

The first one reached her and she didn't hesitate to plunge the knife into its eye socket. Marianne pulled the knife out, ready to take on the next one, but the dead walker had other plans. It fell towards her and she took a step backwards only to catch her heel on a tree root and fall straight onto her back. A jolt went through her head as it hit a rock and she cried out. Dazed and in pain she desperately wriggled her way out from under the large dead walker as the other one closed in on her.

There was no time to stand up. Marianne tripped the walker by kicking its ankle and it crashed face first next to her. Still determined to eat her it reached out and tightly grabbed her hair. It was on her left side, which was fortunate. Marianne swung her right arm around her, aiming the knife at the walker's head. Fading fast, she missed her mark. Marianne growled. This was not how she was going to die. She refused to leave Daryl behind.

She lifted her arm and took aim again. With all the strength she had left she stabbed the walker's head. The grip on her hair loosened. Marianne saw black speckles and knew she couldn't fight it. Wishing and hoping that someone would find her before any other walker decided to have a picnic, she slipped into darkness.

A/N: Season 2 is finally here and I hope I didn't disappoint. And I promise Marianne hitting her head won't become a recurring thing. She just had some bad luck.