Hello everyone, it's been a while. The good news is I recently got a new job, the bad news is this job has left me very little time to get any actual writingdone. I'm hoping to get myself back into it through this collection of short stories. In celebration of the Halloween season, I am publishing this series of short stories focussing on my two favorite zombie series; The Walking Dead and Highschool of the Dead. With all the explanations out of the way, onto the story.
The first thing that It took away were connections. Friends, families, and loved ones were all taken away. Ripped from each other by It. Not just by the living dead but by distance. With the collapse of society came the death of communication. Some poor souls lived and died without ever knowing what happened to the people they used to know. However, humans are social animals by nature. In spite of the losses, new connections are formed from shared trauma and a need to survive.
Atlanta was supposed to be safe. That's what everyone said: the military, the emergency radio, even his fellow travelers on the road. They were told that there would be food, shelter, and maybe even answers to what caused this disease that was spreading all across the country. Unfortunately, the only thing there was more of the same. The dead.
They came at night. Dante, along with a collection of fellow travelers, stopped for the night only a few miles away from the city, deciding to arrive bright and early the following morning. He wasn't completely sure what lured them to their collection of cars; maybe they ran out of food in the city, maybe they saw the lights from their cars, Dante wasn't sure.
What he does remember is the screaming and then chaos. People rush out of their cars, trying to get away from encroaching walking corpses. Most of them were coming from the front and the right side, giving those like Dante, who was situated on the left, a little more time to escape. He was stumbling out of his van, ready to follow the others into the woods, when he heard another scream close behind him. He turned to see a woman boxed inside her car, a group of walkers surrounding her on two sides while her son could only watch from a few feet away, a horrified look plastered on his face.
I should run. The walkers were distracted right now, if he kept going he would be able to get a good headstart on them. With how slow they were they would never catch up. Especially since most of them will be too busy eating. A cold, calculated part of his brain whispered.
The walkers still hadn't found a way into the car, but more of them were being drawn there by the noise. Worse, the kid was getting desperate, Dante watched as the small boy, with a tear-streaked face picked up a rock the size of his fist and wound his arm back like a pitcher. His mother was watching from the window. Dante could see her noiselessly trying desperately to convince the boy to run to get away and forget about her.
It is not my problem. People were dying everywhere, it wasn't his responsibility to save everyone in the entire world. He had a knuckle-white grip on the tire iron in his hands. His legs moved on their own as he warred with himself. The kid had his arme curled back, ready to throw his rock with everything he had.
I'm an idiot. His tire iron came down hard, caving in the skull of the nearest walker. The final death of their compatriot alerted the horde to a less protected pair of targets. They turned away from the car and shuffled towards them, their decaying hands reaching out to pull them into their rotting teeth. Dante turned to the boy, making sure to keep one eye on the oncoming threat.
"Get to the tree line. Don't look back, don't stop running no matter what you hear. I will get your mom, but you need to run." The child gave a shaky nod before taking off for the woods. Dante buried his weapon in the next walker that came close to him before jumping left using the surrounding cars to slow them down.
He felt like a fox being hunted by a gang of hounds as he bobbed and weaved around the vehicles, confusing the corpses with their rotten brains. Eventually, he was able to make it to the trapped woman, bashing in the heads of the remaining two walkers lingering close by before helping her out of the car.
"Stay close to me," Dante shouted as they sprinted away from the mass of corpses. The two ran for the trees as hard and fast as they could. They only stopped long enough for the woman to give her son a brief hug before continuing. Together the trio ran deeper into the forest going as fast as their legs could carry them. Eventually, their legs gave out on them and they stopped. The moment they did, the woman pulled him into a hug.
"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you so much for saving my son." Dante returned the hug hesitantly, awkwardly patting her on the back in comfort. Feeling something wrap around his leg, he looked down to see the boy joining in on the hug. After another minute, the pair finally let go and the trio was left standing there in awkward silence.
"My name is Dante," he eventually said. "Dante Hughes."
"I'm Lori Grimes," she returned before turning to the boy. "This is my son Carl."
"Now remember you need to aim a little higher than what you see because of the reflection of the water. Otherwise, you'll miss."
"Got it," Carl said. He raised the crudely sharpened stick above his head and took aim. Seeing his moment, the pointed end of his stick struck the water and came out with a fish flopping around on the end of it. Dante watched proudly as the boy easily took the fish off the end of his spear, grabbed it by the tail, and slammed it against the side of their boat, killing it instantly. He then threw the dead fish to the center of the boat, adding it to their haul.
"I think we have enough food for everyone tonight. Let's get back before your mom starts to get worried." Carl nodded as Dante grabbed the paddles and took them back to shore.
After their escape into the forest, Dante, Lori, and Carl, along with the other survivors, gathered together and built a place for themselves in Atlanta's state park. It took some time for the group of strangers to begin trusting each other, but after a while, they became a stable working community. Every so often, a group of them would go into the city to scavenge for supplies while also surviving on the resources the park provided.
As Dante and Carl arrived at the campsite the group had made into their home, the two held up a net containing their haul triumphantly.
"Nice catch," Amy praised as Dante dropped the net in front of her. Her sister, Andrea and Carol walked over to help her start cleaning the fish. With his work done, Carl walked off to go play with Carol's daughter, Sophia. Looking around, Dante noticed that Lori was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm heading out, Dale," he called out to the oldest member of the group, who was camped out on top of his van with Glen keeping watch. The old man nodded as he went back to scoping the area with his binoculars.
Dante trudged into the woods, his eyes tracking the cross-shaped marks dug into the nearby trees. He then caught a flash of red-orange in the corner of his eye. Crouching down, he inspected the mushroom. Is this edible? Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him down to the ground before a weight settled into his lap.
"You know, if you were anyone else, you would have a broken arm by now," he said, smirking up at his 'assailant'.
"Then it is a good thing that I'm not just anyone," Lori said, smirking down at him before she pulled him into a kiss that he happily returned.
His relationship with Lori hadn't been romantic at first. It started as a simple friendship; he would watch Carl for her while she was busy, she would patch up clothes for him when she noticed a hole in them, and he offered a comforting ear when she needed to vent. Dante never judged Lori when she eventually told him about cheating on her husband with his best friend. Shane had died during their escape to Atlanta, she was forced to abandon her husband in the hospital when they left their hometown before that.
"One thing that Shane and Rick would both have agreed on is that you need to survive, Lori," Dante said as she cried on his shoulder. "Not just for yourself, but for Carl, too. You're stronger than you think, Lori. You're a survivor." That was the first time Lori had kissed him.
"How long do we have until someone notices we're gone?" He asked as he switched their positions, with him looming over her.
"Enough," Lori answered as she started to unbuckle his pants while he threw off his shirt. Dante lifted her shirt just below her breasts, revealing her flat stomach. She moaned as he licked up her stomach, paying extra attention to the butterfly tattoo near her hip. She loved the way he traced the smallest detail.
Once he was done worshiping her stomach, Dante quickly made short work of Lori's shirt and jeans, leaving them in a pile along with his own clothes. Giving him a sultry look, she spread her legs wide, revealing how wet she was. "Do it."
Not needing any further incentive, Dante slammed himself inside her eager depths. Lori buried herself her face in his shoulder as he slid in and out of the tight entrance. She loved how full she felt whenever he was inside her. All of her worries faded away whenever they were together. Nothing else mattered, not their struggle to survive this new world, not her guilt over Rick, not her shame over Shane. The only thing she was focused on was the pleasure he was causing her to feel.
"Don't stop," Lori begged as she rolled her hips in time with his thrust, causing a new wave of pleasure to run through her. Dante groaned at the way she moved against him. At this rate, he was going to hit his limit soon, and based on her frantic movements, she was too. Before they reached that inevitable conclusion, there was one more thing he wanted to do.
Lori let out a frustrated growl as he pulled out of her. However, any protests died on her lips when she saw the heat smoldering in his gaze. Without a word, he roughly flipped her face down before pulling her up onto her hands and knees.
Dante felt Lori's drenched depths welcome his cock eagerly when he thrust back inside her. He was pleased to discover that this position led to an entirely different, but still enjoyable experience for the both of them. He was especially enjoying the way his hips slammed into her from behind, as well as the fantastic things it did to her body. When she turned her head back to look at him, he could see that she was biting her lip to muffle her moans.
"You better not even think about stopping before either you finish, or I do," Lori warned, Dante didn't even want to think about the 'or else' unsaid in that threat. Lori's head dropped when his thrusts continued with renewed vigor. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. With one final thrust, he buried his rod as deep inside her as he could before filling it with his seed. At the same time, she painted his tool with her fluids.
Dante took a few deep breaths to calm his racing heart before falling backward onto their bed of clothing. Lori followed quickly after him, snuggling into his chest. The pair took the next few moments to revel in the afterglow of their shared union, their shared body heat working wonders to keep them comfortable.
"Is something on your mind?" he asked when he noticed how quiet she was. Lori moved her head to look up at him, resting her chin on his head. For a moment, it seemed like she was going to wave off his concern, but instead, she just sighed.
"Do you really think we're going to make it? Winter is on the way, and each time we go into the city, we come back with fewer supplies. I can't help but worry that-" Dante silenced her with a kiss before wrapping his arms around her.
"I can't promise that things are going to be easy. Things are going to get worse before they get better. But, I will promise that we will get through it. I will promise that as long as I'm alive nothing is going to happen to you or Carl. We're going to make it Lori." She buried herself back into her lover's shoulder. Dante ran his fingers through her hair with renewed determination. It didn't matter what this new world threw at them. He would make sure that his family survived.
And that ends the first chapter. Let me know what you think. I will be updating again next week. Until then, follow, favorite, and review.
