Authors note
hey everyone so sorry for the long delay especially to those of you who followed me from TerryTerry4. this was a long wait for this and all I can honestly say is my bad hopefully I'll be able to go back to one upload a week from now on hope you enjoy and continue reading
As the two groups aimed their weapons at each other Corporal Some Dude dropped his rifle letting it fall against his chest followed moments later by the other guardsmen, standing rigidly at attention. Looking down the line I see a flash of silver and find myself looking at a middle aged man near the center with a gold bar on the collar of his dirty uniform. Seeing as the weapons remained unfired now that the odds were heavily in their favor.
Slowly lowering my rifle motioning for the others to do the same I look at the Guardsmen still at attention "Friend of yours Corporal?" I asked
Out of the corner of my eye I see the man salute back and nod letting the salute fall both groups of guardsmen relaxed slightly lowering their weapons and falling into Parade rest. Able to reply now some dude gave the introductions Sheriff Grimes, this is first Lieutenant Harry Grey we served together in Afghanistan and Iraq before all this happened. He's a good man." Dude finished before going the other way with the introductions "Lieutenant, this is Sheriff's Deputy Rick Grimes the leader of a survivor group we haven't known each other very long but from what the others in his group say, as well as what ive seen so far. He is an excellent leader and forward thinker."
The officer took a moment to give me and then the rest of my team a good once over stepped out from his men and held out his hand "Nice to meet you Deputy." reaching out and taking his hard calloused hand "pleasure is mine Lieutenant, it's nice to see more people."
Over the next hour Grey told us how everything had fallen apart his battalion had been ordered to ensure security at and from the East regional med center to the armory. It had been going fine for several days helicopters and planes would take off from the airport heading to fort Benning or Robins AFB… at least until robins got overrun. Finally ending with his platoon unwilling to abandon nearly a hundred civilians running low on ammo and men falling here and there they had sealed the Depos Armory.
Philip looked over the half-starved civilians and equally gaunt guardsmen saying first to the lieutenant "we have plenty of extra food we can give your people." before a reply could come he got on the radio "Hey Jim, can you hear me?"
"Hey Rick, Yeah I can hear you loud and clear. What's the news inside." Jim replied
"We have thirty national guardsmen and another seventy or eighty civilians all look half-starved bring a pickup of food inside along with some ammo. Looks like they just about shot themselves dry, before locking themselves in the armory." I quickly briefed him.
"Sure" came the immediate reply "me and Shane will be there as soon as we can."
Shane? oh I guess they were able rejoin us finally
it only took a few minutes to have both trucks driven inside and unloaded the cries of happiness as the people saw mountains of food, drinks, and ammo being off-loaded seemed to last a hour but in reality was only a few short minutes as men and women saw to the children eating first before diving into their own food. The guardsmen relived ate slowly as they began loading a huge pile of empty magazines from the green tins of packaged 5.56mm we had grabbed from Humvees and checkpoints everywhere the group had passed.
As the Sun set the three leaders met to decide what to do going forward. The civilian leader who turned out to be a member Griffin's board of commissioners introduced herself as Jacklyn Godfrey. the depos guardsmen commanding officer Lieutenant Grey and myself.
As they sat in the depos commanding officers office drinking soda or energy drinks snacking on chips or jerky.
LT. Grey "first I'd like to thank you Sheriff for assisting us in securing the depo, donating food, and bullets to my men and civilian's."
Jacklyn "yes if you hadn't come along when you did we would of surly all died inside that armory building. You have mine as well as whatever may be left of the people of Georgia's thanks."
Rick "Hey it's no problem seriously the big issue is what you are going to do now? id like for you all to join us safety in numbers and all but im sure your all worried about friends and family elsewhere. so I want to know what you all are thinking."
The LT and commissioner both nodded.
LT. Grey "with everything going on im going to be blunt there is no time to waste on beating around the bush." the commissioner nodded as well before the man continued "You may not of noticed but we have over two dozen Civil Air Patrol and civilian pilots and crew from the airport as well as the CAP airbase down the road. And they told me about missions moving over thirty yachts and ten old Vietnam gunboats to the Cole reservoir about twenty miles from here some of the last news we heard before everything went silent was Governor Sonny Perdue his family along with the LT. Governor Casey Cagle his family and almost a thousand more had been transported and bunkered down there."
This shocked Philip behind Rick's poker face this sounds great but before he could even ask if they could join them the commissioner spoke up "before you ask we would have to ask permission for you and your group to join us. And to be frank I don't know if our words witch we will sing the highest praise for you and your people for saving us and sharing the surplus supplies you have. So here is a compromise with my authority, Corporal?"
Corporal Some dude who had been waiting outside came in and came to attention "Yes Ma'am" he replied.
"Corporal, under my Authority as an elected member of the great state of Georgia. Your squads orders are to accompany Deputy Grimes until such a time as you are called to testify on their trustworthiness and quality of character." the commissioner said in what was probably her most commanding and authoritarian voice.
With a smart salute the corporal said "Yes, Ma'am" and turned to leave. We all waited until the door had shut before continuing.
"What's your plan moving forward?" Grey asked
So for the next twenty minutes Philip told them the plan of going to the West Georgia Correctional Facility. The huge gates would be able to protect them from the walkers. When they brought up the prisoners and staff I reminded them to look around that if the military, police, and an armed society had fallen there was no way the unarmed prisoners had survived chances are the guards locked the place down and went to find their families. They both nodded mentioning before they lost contact there were rumors and reports of entire companies going AWOL.
With the future plans shared both ways and nothing else to discuss they all went their separate ways to sleep or prepare to move in the morning.
As he sun rose the next day an incredible sight greeted the world. the largest group of known survivors a hundred and fifty strong waved their good byes as the hundred walked out of the depo and into the airport where pilots and crew had been working fueling and doing maintained the seven helicopters that would be carrying them three aged chinooks, a trio of Blackhawks, and the lone Apache Longbow gunship.
Within ten minutes the aircraft were loaded and gone leaving the group to pick over the remains of the depo almost no ammo or food was found almost no gas either the only worthwhile salvage was a map showing the deployment orders for the guard and a Bradley APC and another Humvee.
Fueling the entire convoy and with nothing else to do they continued on down the deserted road stopping occasionally to clear the road and salvage military checkpoints. they made good time to the front gates of the prison by nightfall lining the vehicles up toward the closed gates and using the CD player to lure walkers to the gate to be stabbed, While also keeping a close eye on the surrounding area to kill any outside walkers that were drawn by the music.
Daybreak cast sunlight upon a wall of bodies pressed up to the fence waist high and no walkers moving in the yard. Opening the gates everyone drove in parking comfortable along the road through the gate. After sealing the gate behind them the group did it again to the courtyard brimming with walkers wearing inmate jumpsuits, guard uniforms, and civilian clothes. As the radio played and the wall of walker corpses got too tall to get more walkers. Philip had a idea "OK everyone we can't get any more from here so we will move around the inner fence killing as we go." looking around at everyone "I want Shane, T and the Dixon Brothers with me. Everyone else when you don't see any more walkers open the gate and after making sure they are really dead pull the bodies out of the way so we can do this a few times before going in. everyone looked relived to not have to go into the dark spaces to fight a unknown number of walkers. they moved to another gate and begin the process over again.
Those not picked to actively clear wait until the coast was clear before opening the gate and dragging the walker corpses out to be burned with the yard walkers clearing this gate for another musical stabbing. The walkers that didn't have definite killing head piercings were stabbed again before they were moved.
This is working much better than before Hershel won't have his leg bit bullets won't be wasted and this is much easier than going into the dark prison to fight zombies Philip thought as him, Shane, Dayrl, Merle, and T drove back to the main gate since the second fence was now waist high with bodies and walkers couldn't get close enough.
The Active fighters got out of their Humvee surprised to see two piles of bodies and the gate clear already "hopefully we can do this a few times before going in." I said to the others who agreed
