Curative
By Kaimaler
Hey there, I'm updating like a crazy motherfucker. Probably 'cause I'm so sick everything hurts. x.x
Ah well, win some lose some. I'm enjoying writing this story, I never really wanted it to be anything but enjoyable to both me and my readers. I have enough deathly serious stories which chapters take hours to write. Like, literally, seven hours for a 9k+ chapter.
It's so tiring. :O
Regardless, all Review Replies will be posted up at the top here. Ask whatever you want whenever you want, suggest things, hint at things, be overall weird. I love getting reviews and seeing favorites/alerts on my stories.
So far I only have one review on this story, but that's alright, I'm very grateful to the few people who have been reading this and to those who have added this story to favorites, alerts, and the one person who has reviewed.
My thanks, dearest readers. :3
We get to really see the beginning of Season 1 in this chapter! That's right, we're finally joining the Atlanta group. :D
Days flew by and she still hadn't a bite of food, there was a moldy bag of hostess snacks, soggy chips. Everything was inedible, she didn't know if she could get sick, but if she ate bad food it would certainly make her want to be sick.
Instead of trying to find food now, she wanted to search the city for any signs of life.
As she dug through buildings, searched abandoned stores, and rummaged in piles of junk, she found no more signs of human intervention. Glenn and the blonde woman were the last humans she'd seen and that wasn't exactly disappointing to her.
She was relieved when building she searched yielded no signs of life, it was depressing and yet she was also glad that there was no one here.
There was a part of her that yearned for human interaction and another part of her that told her she clearly had learned nothing, the people she'd seen in the past were hostile and violent.
Except for Glenn and that woman. They weren't hateful, they didn't try to hurt her, Glenn even tried to offer her a place in their group. She figured it was a trap of some level, but as she looks back on that day she realized that was highly unlikely.
Just that look on his face told her she was just thinking the worst about everyone because she had a few bad experiences.
The bleak city was left dead like the bodies that littered its streets. She found no one, nothing even relative to human life. As time passed her by, she felt a little regretful for not joining the two survivors to meet their group. There was a distinct possibility that they were just as hostile and lacked morality as the last few humans she has come across.
But she still felt like she wanted to go to them, find them somehow, take a leap of faith and hope to God that when she hit the bottom that it didn't hurt.
She had grown used to her leg brace, walking with it like it wasn't even there anymore. She could move faster now then she could before, when the brace was alien to her.
After a little while, she wanted new clothes and took it upon herself to go shopping.
She now wore jeans, the left pant leg torn off at the hip so her brace wouldn't catch and pull on the material. She had a strong blue shirt on and donned a black hoodie, the hood was large enough to cover half her face so any survivors she came across wouldn't be able to see her undead features. Her dead eyes, her blue-tinted lips, nor her gaunt face. She wore a scarf underneath the hoodie, it covered her mouth and nose, hiding even more of her strange appearance.
So instead of nearly being killed when people looked at her, she would be able to keep her appearance under wraps for a little while.
Aside from her unnatural and dead appearance, she took note of the damages done to her body in the last few weeks.
Bruises on her hips, breasts, neck, face, and arms. She was vaguely aware of a cut on the back of her forearm, but was unaware of its' origins. She tore off the sleeves of a shirt in one of the department stores and wrapped it up, there was barely any blood due to her low heart rate and dreadful blood pressure. Her wrists were raw, rope burn and cuts evident.
She healed so slowly, it annoyed her to no ends. Using a few more thin material strips of clothing, she wrapped up her wrists and part of her hands. She found a gun store and while it had mostly been scavenged bare, she was able to find a few bullets that her gun could use and a holster for it.
With new clothing, a secured place in the apocalypse, and the undead as her allies, she felt empowered.
As quickly as this new found confidence came, it was torn from her.
BANG. A gun went off, a few shots were fired after the first one and she watched as the undead around her turned and headed in the direction of the shots.
She moved fast, a human, at least one, was out there in the city. It was too dangerous for them, they couldn't survive here. The dwindling amount of supplies in the city... or just flat out lack thereof should've forced them to move on, but there was obviously another one in the city. Perhaps it was Glenn and his group? When she first met him and the blond woman it was because they fired off a few rounds.
Hurrying to the sounds of gunfire, she saw a horde of undead converging on a tank, climbing on it, under it, and just banging themselves against the metal shell of the tank.
She saw a man rise from the hatch atop the tank, he was alive. He shut the hatch and took shelter within the tank, he was trapped inside the small metal space.
The horde of undead were mostly distracted by something else, there was a feeding frenzy to the right side of the tank, she didn't know what they were eating as the amount of undead digging in and the size of the meal was clearly not human.
They ate animals too, so she just assumed it some kind of animal.
She didn't know what to do for this human, he had locked himself in a tank and the horde around him wanted him so badly. They beat themselves bloody as they tried to force their way in. It was useless of course, a metal shell like that wouldn't even be scratched no matter how many of them tried to break it open.
He was safe for now, but he couldn't live in there.
She had to formulate a plan, some way to get him out without getting herself killed or him getting bit. She wasn't very good at this, but she wanted to try hard, to help, and maybe she'd find good people while she was at it, help someone who was good and kind.
That would be most satisfactory to her, she wanted to help, she hated the idea of people being eaten alive. It just wasn't a pretty thought.
She was drawing a blank though, she could stop and hinder undead, but she couldn't control them. They wanted to eat, they chased their food, whatever was in between them and their meal was of little importance to them. This meant her. They'd trample her if it meant getting to their food.
If she wasn't careful, she'd end up getting herself injured and him killed or worse.
The undead began piling off the tank and joined the others in eating whatever large animal they had been eating on the ground, less and less of the undead paid attention to the tank until finally, there was only a few sticking by it.
Then, the hatch up top popped open, the man pulled himself out, cut down one of the undead and made a run for it. He jumped from the tank and met the ground harshly before running down the street. He fired a few more shots at undead who got too close.
She was close by and, when he turned around and pointed a gun at someone, all she heard was a familiar voice, "Whoa! Not dead! Come on!" As the two ducked into the alley.
She saw him again, it was Glenn, he was there. This man was part of their group? He wasn't very intelligent if he managed to alert a horde (or two) and trap himself in a tank in the middle of the horde.
It was her chance, to see if what he said was true. That his group was made of good people, friendly people, who only wanted to help others and survive together. It was a wishful thought, but she hoped he was telling the truth. She still had her gun if he wasn't.
"G-G-Glenn." She spoke up, alarming the young man and his friend.
"Oh, hey. Hey!" He grinned nervously, "It's you-" The undead groaned behind her, they were approaching fast. "Sorry, can't talk! Come on, we gotta' go!"
She nodded and followed them, praying that they were good people. That they wouldn't hurt her or lie to her, again, she had her gun in the event that they were hostile.
Glenn went first, then the other man and she followed suit, climbing the ladder up to an elevated metal platform. Once up, they all looked down and saw how close they were to being eaten.
The undead horde were growling and groaning at the foot of the ladder they climbed, the two took a breather, trying to get their heads on straight and calm down before making their next move.
They were both panting heavily as she watched the undead down below.
The ladder shook, the undead were trying to figure out how to get to them by pulling themselves up the ladder. One made it a few bars before slipping, this made both the stranger in the sheriff's outfit and Glenn panic.
Glenn looked to the sheriff, "Nice moves there Clint Eastwood. You the new sheriff?" He didn't know this man, he was a stranger to both her and Glenn, but Glenn didn't seem worried about him. "Riding in to clean up the town."
"Wasn't my intention." The man had a steady southern drawl, he was just as concerned about the undead below as Glenn was.
"Yeah, whatever, yeehaw." He glanced back to the man, "You're still a dumbass."
The stranger stood straight and faced Glenn, "Rick, and thanks." He held his hand out, Glenn looked at it oddly for a moment. "Glenn, you're welcome."
Their panting made the whole exchange moderately amusing, if they hadn't just cheated death. Rick, the sheriff, pulled out his gun and opened the backpack Glenn was wearing, he nestled the gun in safely before Glenn's caught sight of the undead making their way up the ladder.
"Oh no."
The two looked up, the ladder went sky high and had no more platforms between them and the roof. "Bright side?" Glenn looked at Rick, "It'll be the fall that kills us." He shrugged, "I'm a glass half-full kinda' guy."
She smirked, watching them as they began the ascent to the roof of the building. It was a long climb, but it was possible.
Once they were on the roof, Glenn led them away from that building and used various connections between buildings to safely cross over streets. The undead couldn't reach them up here, so they relaxed a little.
"Hey." Glenn caught her attention, "Changed your mind?" He was still tired from their escaping the undead, but he still managed to smile at her.
She shrugged a little, "Jus-s-st thought I-I'd give you a ch-ch-chance."
He nodded, "So, what's your name?"
"L-Laura." She answered, the two men smiled at her. "Well, I hope you'll like staying with the group. You can leave whenever you want or stay as long as you want, we don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to do."
She only now realized her voice must be muffled by the scarf around her mouth, so she pulled it down and smiled back at him. "T-t-thank you."
"I thought you two knew each other." The sheriff spoke up, looked to them both. They were familiar with each other, but Glenn just greeted her like he had done with him. They were strangers too.
"Kind of, I met her in the city a few days ago." Glenn answered, "I was out with another member of our group when a ton of geeks came by, we didn't notice them and she came up to us and slowed them down until we could get out." He looked back to her, "I still don't know how you did that, it was like you weren't even there!"
She shook her head slightly, shrugging as if to say she didn't know either. He just passed it off, he was thankful she did it, he or his friend could've gotten bit if they were too slow to react.
Rick and Glenn stepped onto a small bridge between buildings and Rick looked down.
"Are you the one who barricaded the alley?" He watched the undead shuffle about idly.
"Somebody did," He jumped over the building edge, Rick followed and then Laura did. "I guess when the city got overrun. Whatever somebody was thinking, not many geeks get through."
The progressed to a jog, hurrying over the rooftop to reach a hatch in the roof. Glenn pulled it open and Rick helped, "Back at the tank, why did you stick your neck out for me?"
Glenn pulled the bag off his shoulders and dropped it down the hatch, "Call it foolish, naive hope that if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me." He started to climb into the hatch, but stopped and looked back up to Rick. "Guess I'm an even bigger dumbass then you."
Rick seemed to think on this as he gestured for Laura to climb down, which she did. The dark engulfing her, Glenn, and Rick as the sheriff closed the hatch behind them. It was hard getting her braced leg down, but she was able to just hop her right foot from bar to bar and made it down without incident.
Glenn hit the floor first, grabbed the bag and swung it back on his shoulders. Laura was right behind him, watching as he scanned the floor for the undead. The room looked unfinished, like it was still being set up and Glenn just led them both through the room and to the furthest door.
He shoved the door open and they all rushed down the stairs, Laura lagged behind a little due to her brace. She could run and walk fine with it, but stairs always proved quite tricky.
They noticed this and while it made her feel rather pathetic, Rick came back and picked her up by her waist before carrying her down the stairs twice as fast as she had been going. It was a little embarrassing to be carried because of her crippled leg, but she didn't mind being lazy for the few seconds it took for Rick to carry her down
Tense, but willing to let him carry her, she held onto him for dear life. She'd never been carried down stairs before, it was unnerving, she felt like he was about to drop her every step he took.
He had to put his hand right on one of her large bruises, which made her wince as every bump of the stair case forced more pressure on it. She gripped his shoulder tighter, her nails digging into him like a small form of retaliation.
She heard Glenn talking on a radio, all she heard was that he had guests and something about geeks in the alley.
Pausing at the last few steps, they caught the attention of two undead who began to rush them. Rick wasn't letting her down yet, but he had taken a step back just in case.
Then, behind the two undead, a door slammed open and two people clad in black and wielding baseball bats came sprinting out and proceeded to beat the undead into the ground.
With those two undead out of the way, Rick had set her down on the ground and they both followed Glenn into the door the two people had run out of. She heard them coming up behind her, "Alright let's go!"
Once inside she moved out of the way of the door to let the two people behind her get in.
For a split second, they were able to breathe, then, something completely different happened.
A woman, the same woman she'd seen with Glenn a few days ago shoved Rick against a stack of boxes and pulled a gun on him. Her eyes went wide, Rick hadn't done anything to warrant this kind of a reaction.
"You son of a bitch! I should kill you." She growled, for some reason she was extremely volatile. Rick instantly leaned back with his hands up and staring at the gun in his face.
In swift response to this, Laura pulled out her own gun and aimed it at the woman, she cocked it and they all froze.
One of the people with a baseball bat had taken off his helmet and shook his head at the blond woman. "Just chill out Andrea, back off." He wasn't affected by Laura pulling a gun on Andrea, the blond haired woman.
In fact, he looked like he was dealing with children.
Another woman behind Andrea was trying to stop Andrea, "Come on, ease up."
Andrea huffed, "Ease up? You're kidding me right?" She spared a split second glance to the woman behind her, "We're dead because of this stupid asshole."
Rick sent Laura a look that told her he wanted her to put the gun down, but she refused. Rick seemed like a decent man so far, she'd be damned if she'd let this ignorant woman kill him. "Laura, put the gun down." He tried to urge her, but only succeeded in making her take a step closer so the gun was only a few inches from Andrea's head.
A man stepped up to the woman, "Andrea," He looked to Rick, "I said back the hell off."
She held the gun on him for a little longer, the people in the room doubted she'd actually fire it, but people who were desperate were always hard to read. She could pull the trigger on accident or because she is panicking.
Glenn stood near the wall, he just saved this man and there was Andrea pointing a gun at him with Laura aiming her's at Andrea.
None of them knew if Laura would shoot, but they didn't want to risk it either.
He came back, still removing the heavy guards he had worn when he went out to kill the two undead in the alley. "Or pull the trigger." He dared, but Andrea gave in and the gun lowered.
Laura holstered her gun as Andrea looked about ready to cry.
She took a few steps back, "We're dead, all of us, because of you." She was shaking her head, tears in her eyes.
Rick just took a look around the room, taking note of the people there. "I don't understand..."
The man who had spoken against Andrea, who told her to pull the trigger, took hold of Rick's arm. "Come on." He began to drag Rick out of the room, "We came to the city to gather supplies," He shoved Rick ahead of them, the entire group headed out of the small room. "You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving. You know what the key to surviving is? Sneaking. Tip toeing in and out, not shooting up the streets like it's the OK corral."
They arrived in a main room, a clothing store. Rick paused and stared out the doors.
Another man approached Rick. "Every geek for miles around heard you poppin' off rounds."
Andrea stood beside Rick, "You just rang the dinner bell."
"Get the picture now?"
There were countless undead scratching at the doors, all pressed up against the glass doors as they tried to claw their way in. The glass had began to crack in various places, one of the undead even had a large rock and was trying to smash its way in. Unfortunately for them, it was working.
Rick could barely believe it, there were so many that he couldn't tell where one started and another ended.
They all backed away when they heard more glass cracking under the stress. Andrea looked to Rick, "What the hell were you doing out there, anyway?"
"Trying to find the helicopter." He said like it was nothing, Laura didn't remember any helicopter, but, then again, she hadn't been with them long. It must've come by before she met up with them.
One man scoffed, "Helicopter? Man, ain't no damn helicopter."
A tall thin woman spoke up, "You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. It happens."
Rick insisted, "I saw it."
One of the men faced the other, "Hey T-Dog, try that CB. Can you contact the others?"
"Others?" Rick was surprised to see people in general, but he even more so to hear that there were more. "At the refugee center?"
The other woman looked at him incredulously, "Yeah, refugee center. They got biscuits in the oven waiting for us." She replied sarcastically, Laura knew there was virtually no one else in the city, maybe one or two others, but definitely no refugee centers.
T-Dog appeared disappointed, "Got no signal." He looked up, "Maybe the roof?"
BAM. A gunshot went off, making them all jump, startled by the sudden loud sound, fearing it would attract more of the undead.
Andrea groaned, "Oh man, is that Dixon?" Glenn just waved Laura and Rick along, "Come on, let's go!" He was worried about the shot, but neither of them knew exactly why.
They all turned to rush out of the room and into a tall stair well, she didn't know how many floors there were, but she still had the same problem.
Like before, Rick had taken notice while the others ran up the stairs. "Come here." He put an arm across her shoulders and swooped down to the back of her knees, lifting her easily.
"H-h-heav-v-y?" She croaked out as he climbed the stairs while carrying her bridal style.
He shook his head, "Nah, you're very light." She figured it was probably due to her low blood and water content, also because she hadn't eating a damn thing in a very long time. She had no fat on her, no meat.
Once they reached the roof, he began to set her down. "You good?" He asked, checking to see if she could stand. She nodded firmly, "Y-y-es, thank y-you."
They both approached the group infighting cautiously, the man from before, the one who appeared in charge of this group, stomped up to the man firing on the roof. "Hey Dixon, are you crazy?!"
The man laughed almost disturbingly, fired off another shot before turning around to face them. "Hey, you outta' be more polite to a man with a gun." He jumped down from the ledge. "Only common sense." He had a big smile plastered on his face.
That is, just before T-Dog stepped up to him. "Man, you're wastin' bullets we ain't even got!" He was pissed off with this Dixon character, "Bringin' 'em all down here on our ass, man just chill!"
Rick held his arm in front of Laura, stopping her from approaching the fight. He was concerned about this man, he seemed unstable and very angry. T-Dog was right though, they had enough of the undead coming after them, they didn't need more.
He laughed at T-Dog and Laura's eyes widened as he spat out multiple racist remarks, first to the man behind T-Dog, then a vague one to T-Dog.
Rick looked pointedly at Glenn, almost asking if he should intervene. Glenn shook his hand and put his hands up, telling him no to get involved. Something about this Dixon character made Glenn terrified of him.
Then Dixon spat out a particularly harsh racist slur, one Laura reeled in shock from and T-Dog jumped Dixon, throwing his fist at the man.
But Dixon was faster, he stopped T-Dog's punch and hit him with the butt of his rifle, everyone leaped into action then. Rick went for Dixon but was cut off by the pissed off man turning and clocking him in the jaw, which knocked him over the large pipes.
They tried to reach T-Dog, but Dixon was already on him, kicking the man while he was down.
Laura didn't want to sit here and watch, she pulled out her gun, knowing shooting it would be a bad idea, she just spun it in her hand and tried to hit Dixon over the head with it, hard enough and he'd be knocked out, not hard enough and... well, bad news for her.
She didn't even make it to the man before he grabbed the hand she held her gun in, twisted her arm and punched her. She fell pretty fast, holding her eye. It was going to be pitch black by the end of the day.
Dixon returned to assaulting T-Dog, but she wasn't able to fight the large man. She heard the cries of the people trying to get Dixon to stop, they were all too scared of him to jump in.
He got down and began beating T-Dog, but the other man tried to grab Dixon who just elbowed him in the stomach. Rick was recovering from the blow to the face and he was just getting up right as Dixon pulled a gun on T-Dog.
"No, no, no. Please, please!" Andrea begged and Dixon just continued to hold the gun on the beaten man.
Dixon looked up then spit on T-Dog. "Yeah, alright, we're gonna' have ourselves a little pow-wow, huh. Talk about... who's in charge." He got up from T-Dog, who pulled himself to the group who grabbed him and dragged him away from Dixon. "I vote me, anybody else? Huh? Democracy time ya'll, show a' hands. All in favor? Huh? Come on, let's see 'em."
Andrea and the other woman used an old shirt to begin cleaning the blood from T-Dog as Dixon aimed the pistol towards them.
One of the men raised his hand, knowing that Dixon would fire on them. Andrea rolled her eyes, "Oh come on."
Reluctantly, each person raised their hands, except T-Dog who laid on the floor in pain.
"Yeah, that means I'm the boss, right." Dixon overlooked the group. "Anybody else? Hmm? Anybody?"
Laura saw Rick approaching Dixon quietly with the rifle Dixon had dropped earlier. "Yeah." He whacked the man with the rifle like it was a bat and Dixon fell. She was thankful Rick was able to get the drop on him, she hated to think what Dixon would've done had he continued to hold a gun over their heads.
Rick put a knee on Dixon's head and slapped cuffs on his right hand and the other side of the cuff on a strong bar connected to the pipes he had fallen over earlier.
He dragged Dixon up by his vest, who groaned in protest. "Who the hell are you man?!"
"Officer Friendly." He turned around, grabbing the pistol Dixon had threatened the group with earlier. "Look here Merle, things are different now." Rick was pissed off. She didn't think anyone could ever get so angry.
"There are no niggers anymore, no dumb as shit inbred white trash fools either." Rick had taken apart the gun now, satisfied that Merle couldn't use it to his advantage anymore. "Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart."
After his speech, Laura expected Merle to accept defeat, but he relented. "Screw you man."
Rick just sighed, "I can see you make a habit of missing the point."
"Yeah, well screw you twice." Merle growled, Rick just pointed his own revolver at him, the barrel pressed firmly against the violent man's head. "I would be polite to the man with the gun, only common sense."
She grinned at that, Rick definitely had quick wit.
"You wouldn't," Merle snarled at Rick, "Yer a cop."
Rick lowered the gun, "All I am anymore is a man lookin' for his wife and son, anybody who gets in the way of that is gonna' lose." The two glared at each other, "I'll give you a moment to think about that."
After a few tense seconds, Rick searched Merle's pockets before pulling out a small bag that Laura hadn't a clue what it was. "Got some on your nose there." Rick flicked him and stood up.
"Whadda' gonna' do? Arrest me?" He laughed before watching Rick throw the small bag of white powder off the roof. He was cut short, "Hey, whadda' doin' man, that's my stuff! If I get loose you better pray, you hear me, you pig, you hear me?!"
Rick left Merle alone to struggle in the cuffs.
"Yeah, your voice carries." Rick paid little attention to Merle's complaints and insults. Laura was still on the ground holding a hand over her eye, but she could see Rick grab his hand as he leaned on the edge of the building.
The man she still didn't know the name of approached him. "You're not Atlanta PD. Where you from?"
Rick just tried to calm his adrenalin rush. "Up the road a ways."
"Well Officer Friendly from up the road a ways," He nodded to Rick, "Welcome to the big city."