(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, Code Lyoko, or any of the names or brands that appear in this story. But I do own all OCs featured here unless stated otherwise.)
The five Lyoko Warriors were safe and sound following their experience on the overpass. They had come close to death again, and have prevailed once more...
The teens were crammed into the police car off Officer Rick Grimes, their savior, the man who was lucky enough to wake from a coma and survive this new world...
Yumi took the front passenger seat, while Ulrich and Odd took the left-hand and middle sections of the backseats. Since there was only one seat left in the car, Aelita had no choice but to sit on Jeremie's lap for the trip.
Both she and Jeremie were blushing a matching crimson because of this tight closeness... and also because of how Jeremie had wrapped his hands around his girl and was holding her close to him. Likewise, Aelita was holding her hands atop of his, relishing the contact just as he was.
For once their friends didn't decide to tease them about them getting close. After the overpass and how Aelita nearly gotten bit by one of the creatures, they knew that the two were just enjoying each other's closeness. They could very easily have lost their lives had anything happened differently...
Rick drove the car down the highway and kept a watchful eye out for obstacles, whether they be abandoned/wrecked cars or more of the dead.
"'Yumi', right?" Rick asked his passenger without looking away from the road.
Yumi nodded. "Yeah, that's my name..."
"Can you open the glove box? Should be a map in there..." Rick requested, "We need to find a gas station... gonna run out soon if we don't..."
The deputy glanced at his dash again, letting out a sigh as he did so. "We're about to be runnin' on fumes..." he murmured. He hadn't found much gas sources ever since he left King County... if they couldn't find one soon, then they'd be walking the rest of the way to the city. And that was dangerous these days.
Yumi nodded before she opened up the glove box and pulled out a piece of folded paper. Upon unfolding it, Yumi was greeted with the sight of the State of Georgia.
From what she could tell, Yumi surmised that they were still quite a ways from Atlanta. And she didn't see many gas stations labelled on the area of the map they were in...
As he drove, Rick took a moment to glance away from the road and into his rear-view mirror to see the kids in the backseat.
"Soooo... what's your story?" Rick inquired, trying to make a little small-talk for the drive to Atlanta.
"Our 'story'?" Aelita blinked at the question.
Rick nodded, his gaze already back on the road. He made sure to swerve around obstacles like stray walkers or abandoned cars.
"Yeah, your story..." Rick repeated his words with a casual shrug, "I'd like to know if that's okay with you. If not, then I understand..."
"You want us to tell you our story when we don't even know yours?" Aelita countered, though not with any malice.
The deputy in the driver's seat nodded at that, as if realizing his honest mistake.
With a simple shrug, Rick decided that it was probably best to let the kids in on 'his story', so to speak... as wild as even he himself thought it was.
"A few weeks ago... at least I think it's been that long... I was shot," Rick told the teens. "we stopped a car chase and the guys in the suspect vehicle got out and opened fire on us. I got hit by a third guy that we didn't know was in the car..."
Rick continued. "All I know was that I fell into a coma after that. Woke up only a day or two ago..." he explained, "a man named Morgan and his son Duane saved my life. Helped me get caught up on everything that happened. After that we armed ourselves at my police station and we went our separate ways... then I found you kids."
The shooting... the coma... how Rick woke up and how he managed to run into the teens on the overpass... The Lyoko Warriors were awed by Rick's tale, and they were very thankful that he found them since they knew they would've died back there on the overpass if not for him.
"There's not much to say on our end..." Ulrich said on behalf of the group. "All of us came here from Paris for a Spring Break trip around the country... Our school came here earlier with some others from the Paris area. It was a program for students of the city's schools to go out and explore the world a bit..."
The deputy in the driver's seat nodded at that. He remembered hearing about that on the morning news before he went to work... well, his final shift at work, it seems like. The one which he got shot on before the whole world suddenly collapsed...
"We were on one of the highways east of here when everything began." Ulrich continued with a sudden haunted expression. "The military dropped napalm on the walkers and on a lot of people who were still alive... it was awful..."
"So much fire and death..." Aelita said. She tightly shut her eyes as she did so. She couldn't forget the horror.
Rick sympathetically nodded at that. These poor kids have been through too much already...
"We managed to escape and make our way toward Atlanta, but we lost a friend of ours yesterday..." Yumi further explained, "we watched him die... he was ripped apart by those things..."
"I've already seen walkers which looked torn to shreds... I'm so sorry you had to see it happen to someone you care for..." Rick told her.
Yumi nodded, though she didn't reply. Neither did any of the other teens. William and Kiwi's deaths still hit them hard...
The group continued to drive for a bit longer before another question finally popped into Rick's mind. One which should've been obvious to ask since he first rescued them...
"Your parents come with you guys?" Rick inquired.
Rick thought it an innocent enough question... though he instantly regretted asking it once he saw the looks on the teens faces turn downcast.
"... they're all still back in France." Jeremie murmured after a long moment. "We don't know if they're okay or not... if they're alive or not..."
"I can't even imagine..." Rick told them with genuine sorrow. He couldn't fathom what that must feel like for these poor kids...
Jeremie nodded at that, then sniffled and wiped a fresh tear out of one of his eyes. He felt Aelita take one of his hands into hers after that, and he greatly appreciated the gentle squeeze of comfort which she gave it.
"We've got friends in Atlanta..." Jeremie further explained to the officer, "my cousin is also there, along with Yumi's little brother and Aelita's two older brothers..."
"I'm sure they're all safe and sound..." Rick assured the the group of teens. "Until we get there though, it might be best that we stick together..."
From what Morgan had told him, Atlanta was where all the survivors in this region were taken to for their own protection. The National Guard was hopefully still there, along with supplies and shelter and, God willing - safety.
Like the teens, Rick shared a similar goal in getting to the city, as he was hoping that his wife and son were there...
Atlanta... they had to make it there. They had to make it.
As the group settled into silence for now, Rick continued to focus on the road while the teens took stock of themselves. They had gone through so much in such a short time, but they were still alive and still reasonably okay. At least physically...
... mentally, however... well, that was another answer altogether.
"It'll be okay, kids..." Rick assured the teens all after some time. He had sensed their discomfort. "We'll find the people we're looking for... I promise."
The five Lyoko Warriors in the car could only hope that he was correct...
Their friends had to be okay... they just had to be...
More time passed, and yet the group was still far from Atlanta.
Rick and the teens drove off of the highway due to a blockage of wrecked cars and they found themselves on a quiet road. The police car was more or less running on fumes by this point, and the group was desperate to find any source of gasoline...
They finally did catch glimpse of a gas station off in the distance... but when they got there and exited the car, they found that the stop wasn't worth it.
The gas pumps were empty. Signs hanging on them said as much.
"God damn it, not again!" Rick cursed. He was so frustrated that he even kicked the gas pump. Six gas stations ever since leaving King County and all were empty!
The teens all exchanged glances of worry. If they didn't get gas soon, distant Atlanta might as well become even more distant...
With nothing here for them, the group - including a fuming Rick - returned to the police car. As they settled in, they caught the unfortunate sight of a woman's corpse through the ajar door of a car near their own. The poor woman looked like she had been ripped apart by the dead before she could save herself...
The group was silent. Soon enough, they headed back onto the road leading west toward the city...
There has to be some gas somewhere along the way...
The group continued their search for a gas station. Desperation had turned to... well, if there was a word which topped "desperate", they didn't know it.
Rick drove the police car toward where Yumi pointed out another gas station should be. But when they got there, well... it wasn't what they hoped for.
The deputy and the teens could only feel dejected when they finally found the gas station, as there was very little left of the place to begin with. The entire station seemed to have burnt to the ground at some point. The blackened, collapsed building and a bunch of burnt-out cars stood in defiance of the group's hopes for gasoline...
Most importantly, the gas pumps all looked damaged or totally destroyed...
Another gut-punch for them to deal with.
"Fuck..." Rick murmured, shaking his head in annoyance before he drove the car away again.
The teens silently seconded Rick's words.
Some time later, with very little gas left in the car, Rick drove off of their current route and toward the outskirts of another town where the map said a few gas stations were. It was more of an act of desperation at this point...
Rick drove down one of the local roads and both he and the teens kept an eye out. They eventually found what they were looking for.
The car down a long road until they came to an intersection where they saw a gas station. One which was surrounded by abandoned and wrecked cars. In fact, there was so many of them that Rick was forced to park a short distance from the station, resorting to use a small handheld gas can instead of parking the car next to a pump.
Cautiously, Rick and the five teens exited the car and examined their surroundings. The intersection was surrounded by trees, so the group was on-edge. Who knew if there was any walkers hiding in the forests around them...
Before they all headed toward the gas station together, Rick stopped Jeremie and handed him something he pulled from the duffle bag he had stored in the car's trunk. To the surprise of the supergenius, it was a small chrome .38 Colt revolver with a dark wooden grip - a replacement weapon for the pistol which he had lost on the overpass.
Jeremie took a moment to examine the loaded revolver, then nodded in thanks to Rick before stuffing the weapon into his empty holster. At least this one didn't have the battle flag on it like his last weapon did...
They and the others then resumed their trek toward the gas station, with everyone being extremely careful to avoid any surprises. There easily could be walkers hiding behind the cars or possibly under them...
As the group walked, Ulrich glanced at Odd who was walking next to him.
"Hey..." Ulrich murmured low so the others couldn't hear him, "you doing okay...?"
"Not really..." Odd murmured in the same low tone. His free hand went to touch the dog collar wrapped around his other wrist at that.
Ulrich's face fell at the answer, but Odd sighed and nodded to his best friend.
"I'm surviving, Ulrich..." Odd corrected himself, if only for his friend's sake. "Kiwi and William are gone... there's absolutely nothing that I can do about that," he said. "The only thing I can still do is just try to keep going..."
"If you need anything... even just to talk-"
"I know..." Odd interrupted with a nod. Ulrich could see a small tired smile on the boy's face. "And you'll never know how much I appreciate that, Ulrich..."
Relieved at the answer, Ulrich smiled back to Odd as they resumed walking.
The gas station they were approaching had clearly once been the site of a survivor camp or a rest station of some sort. The group could see old trash everywhere around and in-between the cars. The group also saw that there was many tents - some still standing and others not - with more than a few old campfires and folding chairs all set up or crumpled here and there.
But alas, there wasn't any signs of life left which they could see... and they already assumed the worst for all who had been here.
And unfortunately, some were still here.
"God..." Ulrich cringed as he caught sight of some dead people still sitting in some of the cars here and there. Whether they were truly dead or 'alive' was anyone's guess.
"No one get too close to them..." Rick cautioned the teens as he carefully made his way. The teens didn't dare do otherwise.
As they continued to walk, Aelita glanced into the window of the driver's side of an old car. She cringed deeply as she saw a woman's decomposing corpse with flies buzzing all around it, then wisely kept moving before feeling the urge to lose her lunch... well, what little of it there was in her stomach at least.
The group finally approached the gas pumps. But they then caught sight of what became yet another disappointment for them all. On one of the gas pumps was a hanging metal sign which someone wrote "NO GAS." The sign swayed slightly in the breeze, causing gentle taps against the pump... almost in a mocking way.
... another dead end. Another damn dead end ...
How on earth were they going to make it to Atlanta if this keeps up...?
Suddenly, everyone heard a few soft footsteps close by. Wordlessly, Rick went down onto his belly to look under the wrecked cars. Aelita and Ulrich did the same.
The three saw a pair of legs with fuzzy slippers walk for as moment. Then whoever it was stopped and gently reached down to pick up a fallen teddy bear...
Rick, Aelita, and Ulrich all hurriedly stood up and ran to meet the mysterious person, and the others followed. To their shock, it turned out to be a child... a little girl.
"Little girl!" Aelita called to the child whose back faced toward her. The pinkette forced herself to restrain the urge to run toward the girl. She didn't want to panic the child.
"Aelita, careful!" Odd urged his friend.
Aelita ignored him. "Little girl!" she again called out to her, though she made sure to keep her voice low. Who knew if any walkers were around right now...
"Little girl, it's okay... I'm a policeman..." Rick added his own gentle voice toward the child to try and ease her. "These kids here are my friends... Don't be afraid, okay...?"
The little girl with the teddy bear finally stopped walking, though she still had her back facing the group.
Then, a moment later, the little girl turned to face the group... only for them to discover that she wasn't a little girl anymore.
The girl was a walker. She had bloody wounds on her shoulder and her face. She clearly had been dead for a number of days already...
Rick's eyes widened. So did Aelita's and Ulrich's, and so did Odd's, Jeremie's, and Yumi's.
The walker and the group stood and silently stared at each other for a long moment. The walker's eyes, mostly milky-white by now but still holding a small hint of their old lustrous blue from when she was alive, stared into their souls. It chilled all of them to their bones...
Without warning, the walker then began to stumble toward the group. Then it picked up speed. Soon it was practically sprinting right toward them...
Rick unholstered his revolver and aimed, but a loud bang next to him signaled that he was slightly slower than someone else.
Having already unholstered her pistol and fired, Aelita could only watch as the walker stumbled for a moment. She had aimed for the head but missed and accidentally shot the creature in its throat, causing blackened bile and blood to pour out from the wound onto the asphalt below her. The sight horrified Aelita to the core...
A second shot from Rick's now-unholstered revolver was what finally pacified the child-turned-walker. The creature fell backwards and collapsed onto the ground, where it would thankfully never be a threat toward human life ever again...
The deputy looked on in shock at what had just happened, what he had just done...
Rick knew that these creatures weren't human anymore... but this one was at one point a little girl... and he had just shot her in the head...
The Lyoko Warriors were just as shocked. Just as horrified. They weren't able to take their eyes off of the walker corpse as it laid motionless on the ground...
... all save one.
Aelita, unable to face the corpse of the walker child she had helped pacify, felt her foot brush against something metallic as she turned away from the horrible sight which she had helped create.
She looked down, realizing that her foot had brushed against an old metal pipe. It was about as long and thick as a baseball bat...
The pinkette felt her fists suddenly begin to ball up as she looked down at the pipe, and as she felt her emotions begin to rise within her...
Death. So much death.
Suffering. So much suffering.
When will it end...?
When in God's name will it end...?
When in God's name will it fucking end...?
Slowly, silently, Aelita leaned down to take the pipe into her trembling hands. As she picked it up, she gripped the steel so tightly that her knuckles turned white...
Aelita saw a blue-colored sedan nearby with no corpses inside of it, dead or 'alive'... It'll do.
With a sudden dark frown appearing on her face, Aelita slowly began making her way to the abandoned car with pipe in hand...
The group continued staring down at the corpse of the walker child until they suddenly heard the sounds of metal smashing against metal and windows shattering. When they turned in alarm at the sounds, they discovered it was Aelita viciously hitting the car with a pipe over and over again.
Everyone was stunned, but they all wisely kept their distance as they watched Aelita go to work on the car. Even Jeremie stayed away...
All the while, Aelita kept pressing her attack on the car... everyone saw tears rolling down her face...
"WHY?!... WHY?!... WHY?!..." Aelita exclaimed as she bashed the pipe against the car, denting its metal frame and breaking its windows and mirrors and lights.
As Rick simply stared at the pinkette's outburst, the rest of the teens simply looked on in awe and shock. They had never seen Aelita react like this... not ever...
Shooting that little girl - even if she had become a walker - clearly was Aelita's breaking point after everything she and her friends have gone through...
Not caring whatsoever if anyone was watching, Aelita continued bashing the pipe against the car as if her life depended on it. She ignored the sweat pouring down her face and the aching of her muscles growing with every last hit.
She was too angry to stop. And even as she hit the car with her pipe, the events of previous days and her own worries made their way back to the forefront of her mind...
The napalm strikes on the highway. The undead walking around and eating people everywhere. The woman mauled to death in the campsite. William and Kiwi...
Not knowing if her mom and dad were still alive. Not knowing if her brothers Dylan and Chase were still alive. Not knowing if her Uncle David was still alive. Not knowing if any of her friends and teachers from Kadic Academy were still alive. Not knowing if most of the human race was still alive.
Living every second of the last couple of days in fear, anxiety, sleeplessness, hunger, and thirst. Living with the threat of a horrifying, slow, and painful death constantly hanging over her and all those still alive who she cares for. Living with a bunch of brand-new traumatic memories which she'd give nearly anything to be rid of.
Stranded an ocean away from her home. Stranded in an unfamiliar country probably for the rest of her (likely short) life.
And, perhaps worst of all... not knowing if XANA truly caused all of this to happen... not knowing if she and her stupidity partially helped cause the end of the world...
So, Aelita continued to bash the pipe against the car over and over and over again. The stress and pressure had finally gotten to the pinkette, and for her own sake she just had to let it all out this way. No one tried stopping her... no one dared...
After the last intact car window shattered under her swing, Aelita let the pipe fall out of her hand before she herself fell to her knees. Then, she began sobbing uncontrollably to herself. She cut the skin on her knees against the shattered glass on the asphalt below her as she fell, but she didn't care.
Aelita eventually collected herself... but then she took a deep breath, tightly shut her eyes, balled her fists, and then looked up to the sky and unleashed a scream louder than any she had ever made before in her life.
It was a scream of despair from the young pinkette. A scream of frustration. A scream of bitterness.
... a scream of rage. Pure, unbridled rage.
Maybe Aelita was screaming to God. Maybe she was screaming to XANA. Or maybe she was just screaming to anyone and anything that was bothering to listen ...
Whoever or whatever Aelita was screaming to, it simply didn't matter to her... any that heard her just needed to fucking listen, and listen good...
After a long moment, Aelita finally went silent aside from the sounds of her heavy breathing. She had screamed so loud that her throat felt strained and painful...
... for the first time in her life, Aelita truly wished that Jeremie never turned that supercomputer on, found her, and inadvertently began what became the group's conflict with XANA. Better that she was left to rot in Lyoko for the rest of eternity than for the whole world to die...
Wordlessly, Jeremie approached Aelita from behind and gently set his hand on her shoulder. The pinkette didn't react to it. She simply just shut her eyes tight and lowered her gaze toward the ground, the tears falling down the sides of her face once again.
"... I know." was all Jeremie told her, his voice sympathetic and sad, but still holding warmth. "... I know ..."
Aelita didn't answer... though the gesture was as welcomed as it was needed. She soon broke down again.
The pinkette sobbed to herself for another few moments before she finally forced herself to bury her feelings for now. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, then accepted her boyfriend's hand to help her back up to her feet.
Bury it all. Focus on survival and finding your friends and your brothers...
Mourn and rage and cry later. Keep it together...
Keep. It. Together...
Jeremie stayed by Aelita's side and held her as he helped her walk back toward the police car. He already could see a few walkers beginning to stumble their way out of the trees around them, so the group had to get out of here while they still could.
The two teens silently walked past Rick and the other teens. Rick looked at the pinkette with sympathy, whereas the other Lyoko Warriors exchanged glances full of concern for their pink-haired friend...
The walkers began to close in, but they were slow and stupid. Still plenty of time to avoid the things...
So without another word, the group headed back to the car together... and soon enough, they were back on the road.
The occupants of the police car were silent as Rick continued their drive, albeit with less and less fuel per mile. They were close to running out completely.
Aelita didn't sit on Jeremie's lap this time. She went to take the passenger seat before Yumi could sit there, as it was the closest Aelita could get to having her own space for a little while. It was something she needed, Yumi understood that, so she went to sit on Ulrich's lap without complaint.
The pinkette leaned her head against the passenger window and simply watched the scenery go by. She felt so mentally exhausted and it showed to all others in the car. Her tired eyes - normally colored a shining emerald but now simply a dulled green - only stared at all which their car sped past.
This nightmare wasn't going to end for a long time... if ever...
She and her friends were trapped in it forever...
The rest of the Lyoko Warriors as well as Rick were very worried for Aelita. All of them were dealing with their own demons with the pandemic, such as the loss of families and friends and literally everything else in their lives. It was almost too much to bear sometimes...
All the Lyoko Warriors were struggling with their new reality, and it took great effort simply to keep themselves collected. Yumi especially, as the thought of her little brother was driving her almost insane with worry...
... but Aelita was different. Yumi at least had Hiroki in her life for as long as he's been alive... she had years with him...
Aelita, in contrast, after having been trapped for ten years in Lyoko, after all the effort which she and her friends went through together to reunite her family, ultimately got so little time to actually enjoy being a family with them again before the pandemic began ...
Aelita was robbed in her childhood when her mother was kidnapped right in front of her by the Men in Black. She was robbed for a second time when her father took her into Lyoko for shelter from the Men in Black, taking away her freedom and her humanity. And there she stayed in Lyoko until meeting Jeremie and eventually being freed by his efforts... though XANA's virus certainly made the effort take longer than it needed to...
And now she's been robbed for a third time. The end of the world had ended her reunited family and forever erased all the time which she could've had with them in years to come...
This wasn't simply a 'new reality' for young Aelita Schaeffer... this was hell itself...
As the teens silently contemplated things in regards to this awful new world, Rick gave them all the space which they needed. It seemed like the nice thing to do in his mind...
He might've just met them, but Rick promised to himself that he'll keep them safe until they can make it to safety in Atlanta.
The deputy kept driving as he reached down to turn on his police radio. It had a transmission range of about 40 to 50 miles, so if there was other survivors out somewhere in the Atlanta area then hopefully they'll be contactable.
The radio came to life with a short crackling sound as Rick picked up the speaker and brought it up to his lips all as he kept his eyes on the road.
Someone had to be out there... someone...
"Hello? Can anyone hear my voice...?" Rick asked into the speaker.
No answer...
"Anybody out there? Anybody hear me, please respond..."
Silence...
"Hello? Hello, can anybody hear my voice...?"
Many miles away from Rick and the teens, a group of a few dozen survivors were camped out by an old quarry just outside of Atlanta. For the last few weeks this is where they have been, as they simply had nowhere else they could go for the time being...
Some women were washing clothes in troughs. Some kids were playing tag. Some of the men were going through the camp's supplies and trying to see what they needed.
One person, however, was standing on the roof of an RV and keeping an eye out...
Young Rebecca Townley - one of the Lyoko Warriors - stood and kept watch with her binoculars aimed toward the skyline of Atlanta off in the distance. She couldn't hide her worry too well. Not while she was waiting for him to come back to the camp safe and sound...
Rebecca aimed the binoculars directly at a building in the downtown area. She couldn't see it well, but that was where her boyfrie-
"Y'know, you standing up there and watching the skyline isn't gonna help get him back sooner, 'England'."
Rebecca moved the binoculars away from her eyes and glanced at her friend, deadpanning with annoyance at her.
"Miri, I'm not in the bloody mood right now..." Rebecca frowned, deliberately putting some more venom in her London-accented voice than she should have.
Miranda Esparza, Rebecca's (currently very annoying) friend and fellow Lyoko Warrior, could only let out a chuckle at such a response.
To Rebecca's annoyance, Miranda decided this was a good opportunity to climb up the ladder on the back of the RV and join her up on the roof. Miranda went to stand next to Rebecca and gaze out to the Atlanta skyline.
"Dylan will be fine..." Miranda assured, this time speaking in all-seriousness. "Chase too. So will Jenny. So will everyone else who went with them..." she added. "Worrying endlessly about them while they do a supply run isn't going to help them get home any quicker than not worrying about them will..."
"Atlanta's full of the undead, Miranda..." Rebecca deadpanned. "I wouldn't even send my worst enemies into that awful place let alone Dylan... it's just too dangerous."
"Dylan, Chase, and Jenny are all smart and resourceful." Miranda stated. "If anyone can get in and out of there without any problems, it's them. Plus the supply group's got Glenn, and by now that guy probably knows the streets of that place about as well as he knows every detail of his own cock!"
Rebecca cringed at hearing such lewdness. Definitely a bit T.M.I., even with the end of the world...
"Is that some sort of weird disgusting American euphemism I'm not aware of?" Rebecca asked before looking through the binoculars again.
"Made it up." Miranda shrugged with an amused look on her face. "If you want a smart euphemism, you'll have to swim across the Atlantic and speak to Aelita and Jeremie."
The English girl's face fell at the mention of their two other friends. Those two, along with Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and William, were still back in France. All of them were probably dead by now...
She missed them. Her and all the other Lyoko Warriors stranded here in Atlanta did...
"I'd give anything to see them again..." Rebecca sighed, lowering the binoculars for the moment.
"I know... I feel the same way..." Miranda said, reaching up to gently place a supportive hand on her friend's shoulder. The gesture was welcomed.
Miranda continued. "Maybe they're all still alive..." she suggested, "For all we know, things might even be better in Europe than here right now..."
Rebecca shook her head in doubt. "You heard the reports on the radio before the signals cut out... all of us did..."
Last they heard, Paris had completely fallen to the dead. All of Europe had fallen as well. Countless millions of walkers were stumbling their way around that continent just like how countless millions of walkers were stumbling around this one. Every continent except for Antarctica...
Their five fellow Lyoko Warriors who stayed in Paris were most likely dead. And even if by some miracle they were somehow still alive, they'll still never get to see them again. There was no way for the Lyoko Warriors stranded in the Atlanta area to return to Europe, and no way for their friends in Paris to come here...
As much as Rebecca hated to think it... five of her closest friends were gone no matter what.
The girls suddenly heard another person climbing up the ladder. They turned, seeing another Lyoko Warrior - their Russian friend Alexandr Andreyev, who looked upon the two girls with curiosity.
"What're you guys doing up here?" Alex wondered as he climbed up to the RV roof.
"Trying to see if I can get 'England' to come down and stop worrying about her boyfriend for an hour." Miranda shrugged as she returned to playfulness.
"Stop calling me 'England.'" Rebecca deadpanned, her voice taking on annoyance again.
Miranda grinned, "now why would I do that when you look so cute when you're annoyed, 'England'?" she said, flirtatiously licking her lips at Rebecca afterwards.
The English girl wasn't amused. "... were you dropped on your head as an infant or something?" she wondered, figurately and perhaps even a bit literally.
"Nah, I just act this way whenever I'm near a work of art..." Miranda retorted with an even-flirtier wink.
... okay that line actually made Rebecca blush a little, though she'd never dare admit it to Miranda. Or her boyfriend for that matter.
Without any comment, Rebecca simply turned herself back toward the city skyline and raised the binoculars up to her eyes again while she focused on trying to rid herself of the flush on her cheeks. Miranda, likewise, patted herself on the back. Alex, likewise, looked genuinely impressed by such a retort.
"... I'm going to pretend the last twenty seconds never happened." Rebecca murmured, not looking away from the binoculars.
Miranda shrugged. "Fair enough," she said, "I can torment you some more sometime late-"
"Hello?" the trio suddenly heard a staticky male voice say from the distance. "Hello? Can anybody hear my voice?"
Instantly the trio went silent and turned toward the old CB radio the camp had put on a tree stump near the center of camp. Them, along with practically everyone else who was in said camp...
With just those seven words, the few dozen people spread out across the camp instantly dropped what they were doing and, after a moment where they were all simply too stunned to move, hurried straight for the radio.
Rebecca, Miranda, and Alex did likewise. Though Rebecca wisely chose to use the ladder, Miranda simply jumped off the roof and hit the ground with a skilled tuck and roll. She dirtied her clothes and she hurt her knees slightly, though she didn't care about either.
Alex... well, he went for the ladder, only to accidentally trip and fall right off the RV's roof.
"FUUUUUUCK!!!" Alex cursed at the top of his lungs after landing face-first onto the ground.
Miranda sweatdropped at the sight of her friend's now-bloody face. "Ohhhhh shit..." she murmured to herself before hurrying to help him up.
Soon, nearly the entire camp had gathered close to the radio. Whoever this guy on the other end was, he was their first true indication that someone else was out there... someone who wasn't dead! They already suspected as much, but there really was other survivors that were out there!
A teenage boy then crouched next to the radio and grabbed its speaker, wide eyed in excitement and surprise.
"Hello?!" the boy, Charles Leggett - another Lyoko Warrior - almost exclaimed in his Aussie-accented voice.
"Мое чертово лицо! (My fucking face!)" everyone heard Alex exclaim in his native Russian as Miranda tended to his bloody nose, but he was ignored in the moment.
"Can you hear my voice?" replied the stranger on the radio, though he was barely audible. He must've been broadcasting from somewhere far away from the camp.
"Yes, yes we can!" Charles replied with growing excitement.
Unfortunately, the stranger on the radio didn't seem to have heard him. He continued to speak as if he had heard only silence on his end.
"If anybody reads, please respond." the stranger spoke again.
The stranger's messages were being received by the camp's CB with heavy static. Alas, their own messages simply just weren't getting through to his end at all it seemed.
Whoever this man was, the camp needed to try and figure out a way to communicate with him. Maybe figure out how to lead him to where they were so he could be safe.
"Broadcasting on emergency channel..." the stranger spoke again. "Will be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85... If anybody reads, please respond."
"Oh god..." another teen standing close by - a girl with violet-colored eyes - murmured under her breath. The man heading for Atlanta only meant trouble for him...
"Hello?!" Charles again exclaimed into the radio, desperate to warn the poor bloke of the danger he was heading into...
Alas, the man didn't respond. Clearly there was some sort of signal interference...
Charles pressed on in spite of this. "Listen, sir, we're just outside of Atlanta." he tried, "Is there any way you can find the quarry near Interstate-"
Suddenly, the signal died in a loud burst of static. Whoever the man was, they had lost him before they could warn him...
"Dammit... Hello? Hello...?!" Charles desperately tried to raise him again. But it was to no avail...
The Aussie teen felt a comforting hand suddenly go to his shoulder. It was that of his best friend Kyra Kensley, also another of the Warriors.
The Canadian teen smiled at him. "Easy, Charlie..." she urged, "he'll hear us soon enough, I'm sure..."
"He couldn't hear a thing I said!" Charles said to her and everyone else who was listening. "I couldn't even warn him about Atlanta!"
"Try to raise him again!" another person, an old man named Dale, told the teen.
When Charles couldn't do it, Dale glanced at another adult who was near and watching them.
"Come on, son, you know how best to work this thing." Dale told the man.
Charles stepped away from the radio so that the man - a police officer - could give contacting the stranger on the radio a shot. Approaching with him was a mother and her son, who, from what Charles had heard, had lost their husband and father shortly before the outbreak began.
The man approached with a large axe in his hand since he had been busy cutting firewood for the camp. When he got to the scene, he thrust the blade down into the old tree trunk and accepted the radio being held out by Charles.
That man was none other than Deputy Shane Walsh - Rick Grimes' best friend. With him at the camp was Rick's wife Lori and their son Carl, both of whom he kept safe ever since they left King County together. All three were under the impression that Rick had lost his life in the hospital when society collapsed...
If only any of them knew who was on the other end of the radio... and if only the Lyoko Warriors here at the camp knew exactly who was with him...
"Hello, hello," said Shane after bringing the radio up to his lips, "is the person who called still on the air?"
Silence...
"This is Officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown. Please respond..." Shane tried once again.
Unfortunately the only thing the group continued to hear was the soft crackling of the radio. Whoever was on the other end of the line was now gone...
Shane sighed and set the speaker back down on the stump before he lowered his head, simply giving a resigned nod before he looked back up at the others.
"... He's gone ..." Shane pointed out the obvious to the others.
"There are others. It's not just us..." Lori stated as she crossed his arms.
"We knew there would be other survivors somewhere out there, right? That's why we left the CB on this whole time..." Kyra shrugged.
"A lot of sodding good it's been doing..." Rebecca sighed and shook her head. "We've been here for days and until now we haven't heard anything from anyone."
The others still couldn't believe what they had just heard a man on that radio... There was definitely others alive out there still, thank God. But whoever was on the other end of the radio was heading straight towards Atlanta, which was incredibly dangerous...
The city was full of the dead now. If that stranger dared go into Atlanta, he most likely wouldn't come out alive...
"And I've been saying for a week that we 'ought to put signs on eighty-five and warn people away from the city." Lori stated. That highway led straight into the city.
"Folks got no idea what they're getting into..." a blonde girl, Amy Harrison, sighed as she crossed her arms.
The group all knew that Amy was right, as much as it pained them to admit... Atlanta was hell on earth at the moment. For all they knew there wasn't a single person alive in the city at all, aside from a small team which the group had sent to the city earlier that day to get supplies. Among them was three Lyoko Warriors, even.
However, Shane truly believed that they couldn't risk sending anyone out to put up those signs. Walkers were everywhere...
"Well, we haven't had time..." Shane retorted. In his mind, it wasn't worth risking lives from this group to put up signs.
"I think we need to make time..." Lori retorted right back.
Another teenage girl nodded in agreement. The girl - who had violet-colored eyes and dark black hair - was Verity Clinton, another of the Warriors.
"She's right." Verity agreed with the mother. "People's lives are at risk and we can save them if we just show a little bit of effort..."
"Yeah, that- that's a luxury we can't afford." Shane replied with a sigh, trying his hardest to show the others his point of view on the situation. "We are surviving here. We are day to day..." he added. In his mind it just didn't make sense to risk themselves when they're already struggling.
"And who the hell would you propose to send?" Dale wondered aloud.
"I'll go." Lori sternly replied. By now, her tone of voice had turned icy. "Give me a vehicle..."
Shane firmly shook his head in denial. "Nobody goes anywhere alone. You know that..." he reminded her.
Lori was very angered at hearing Shane's words. So was some others, though they didn't dare voice it.
People were dying with every single attempt at entering the city of Atlanta... Lori knew that the group had to at least try to warn some of them, if only for the sake of keeping more humans alive during a time like this. But no, Shane would rather just hide in the camp... it was infuriating...
If her husband Rick was still alive then he probably would've tried without a second thought. But, much to her sadness... he wasn't...
Whatever the case, Lori simply rolled her eyes and turned her back to Shane as she began to walk back to her tent. If he wanted to sit while people die, so be it...
"... yes sir ..." Lori frowned, her voice dripping with sarcasm and annoyance.
Carl tried to follow his mother back to their tent but Shane got him to stop.
"Hey hey hey..." Shane slowed the boy down, then gestured at a log near the campfire. "Go on, take a seat, bud. You're all right... Go on, you're all right..."
The boy did as he said and plopped his butt down on the log. Shane clearly needed a moment alone with Lori...
Soon enough, most of the camp had returned to their chores or whatever else they had been doing before they were caught up in the excitement brought by the stranger on the CB radio. Among them was Rebecca, who climbed back up to the top of the RV with the binoculars.
"Hey, 'Becca!" she heard a voice suddenly call.
Rebecca turned and looked downwards, finding Verity as well as a boy standing down below her.
The boy was another Lyoko Warrior - Patrick Hartnell, born and raised in Baltimore just like his girlfriend, Verity. He had a grin on his face as he suddenly threw a scoped rifle up to the English teen, who caught it despite her sudden surprise.
"If you're gonna be up there pinin' for Dylan all day, at least keep an eye out for walkers while you're at it!" Patrick grinned at her.
"Sure, sure..." Rebecca shrugged as she set the binoculars down on a small table which was already up there.
The English girl examined the sniper rifle for a moment before bringing the scope up to her eye. The scope gave her more or less the same amount of magnification that the binoculars did, but, to be fair, a pair of binoculars couldn't blow a walker's rotting brains out from 300 yards away.
Rebecca kept up her watch for a while, but soon her attention went back to the camp.
As she glanced back, Rebecca saw all of her fellow Warriors in the camp - aside from the three who went to Atlanta at least. There was Verity and Patrick resting by one of the campfires with Charlie and Kyra... there was Alex, who was still having his face tended to by Miranda.
There was sixteen Lyoko Warriors in total... Seven here in the camp. Three with the supply team at that store in Atlanta. And six back in France...
In Rebecca's mind, it was like a separated family...
As Rebecca went back to guard duty with her rifle, Shane closely followed behind Lori. She didn't bother to look at him.
"What, are you pissed at me?" Shane challenged.
He received no answer even as Lori went into her tent. Shane's feelings of annoyance only grew as a result. "You can be pissed at me all you want. It's not gonna change anything..." he stated to her as he approached the tent.
A moment later, Shane entered the tent and found Lori still keeping her back toward him.
"I'm not putting you in danger, okay? I'm not doing it for anything." Shane told her without bothering to try and make her face him. "That make you feel like sometimes you want to slap me upside the head – tell you what, girl – you feel that need, you go right ahead. I'm right here. Go on..."
Lori finally turned to face Shane once again. She was exasperated, and, truth be told... his offer did have some appeal to it. Though she didn't dare admit it.
Now that he had her full attention and could see her face, Shane pressed forward withe the point he wanted to make.
"You cannot walk off like that, all half-cocked..." Shane stated to her. He couldn't risk anything happening to Lori... she was all Carl had left now.
When Lori didn't respond, he continued again.
"Look, you not want to do it for my sake or your sake, that's fine. You do it for him..." Shane asked, his voice as resolute as it was pleading. "That boy's been through too much and he's not losing his mother too, okay...? Okay?"
Lori's voice came out as a guilty whisper. She hadn't considered how her son would feel if she drove off and risked her life to warn strangers about the city...
"... I'm a good mom."
The sternness in Shane's face instantly fell when he heard this.
"You tell me 'okay'..." he said, his voice gentle... and loving.
Lori looked Shane in the eye for a moment, then she finally gave a soft nod to him.
Shane chuckled softly at this, causing Lori to chuckle a little bit too.
"Hmm? It's not hard..." Shane joked, flashing her a sly grin before he glanced out the tent windows to check if anyone was around... there wasn't...
... he and Lori had grown closer ever since leaving King County with Carl together. With all the shit that they've been through during the trip, and with the belief that Rick was dead and gone forever, the two had inadvertently fallen for each other. Then, with one night of passion on a grassy embankment near one of the crowded highways while Carl slept in their car, the man and woman consummated their affections for one another.
Soon, Shane leaned in toward Lori, and the mother and would-be-widow did not resist him...
A moment later, the two met in a deep kiss. One which comforted each other far more than any mere words ever could...
It had only just started to become more passionate for the two when they suddenly heard something which made them instantly break apart.
"Mom?" they heard the familiar voice of Carl ask. Of course...
Shane flashed a flustered Lori a wink before he went to leave the tent. When he opened the flap, he saw Carl making his way toward him in curiosity.
"What's up, bud?" Shane grinned down at the boy, then gestured over at the tent. "She's in there... go on..." he said with encouragement.
The deputy was fine with this interruption. He and Lori would have some 'fun' later on when no one was looking... wouldn't be the first time anyway...
When Carl came to the entrance of the tent, Lori went to her knees and took her worried child into her arms.
"Hey..." Lori told him as she looked him in the eyes. "I don't want you to worry... your mama's not going anywhere, okay? Yeah...?"
Carl was reassured by this, and he nodded after a moment. He was even smiling in that awfully-adorable way that Lori loved. He's always had such a cute smile...
The mother beamed. The less Carl was worried or stressed, the better.
"Go finish your chores..." Lori then instructed.
"Okay..." a now far-less-worried Carl nodded, then hurried off back to the center of camp.
As Carl hurried away, Lori watched him for a long moment before her gaze was cast downwards. She still couldn't believe she didn't even think of her son when she decided she wanted to go try and warn people coming toward Atlanta...
She had to be more careful in the future... Carl needed at least one parent still...
... God, if only Rick was still here ...
"Well that's just perfect... just perfect!"
Yumi grumbled to herself as she and the others all stood outside the police car, which was now parked in the middle of a road who knew where in rural Georgia.
About five minutes earlier they had finally run out of gas, and now the car was useless to them. A quick search of a couple of nearby buildings by the group turned up no gas or any other cars they could use instead. Nothing.
It was official - unless they found another mode of transport, they were walking the rest of the way to Atlanta. And no one liked the idea.
"Make sure we don't leave anything." Rick instructed the teens with a sigh of annoyance. "We probably won't be making a trip back here..."
"Yeah..." Ulrich said, his voice holding that same hint of annoyance that the deputy's did. He was not looking forward for what comes next...
Aelita only looked at the car in a silent gloominess. She knew that without a car, the rest of their journey had now become far more dangerous than it already was...
It took only a few minutes for the Lyoko Warriors to gather their belongings. Or, rather, what they still had on them that they hadn't been forced to abandon at the overpass. It might honestly have been for the best since the teens wouldn't have been able to carry all of those bags with them for however many miles it would take to get to the city...
Rick likewise picked up a duffle bag if his acquired firearms while Ulrich grabbed the other one. The two heaved the heavy bags up, and they steeled themselves.
Resigning themselves to a walk which would probably take many miles, the group simply could do nothing but get through it as best they could. Rick also grabbed the red gas canister out of the trunk, just in case they found some more gas and could return to the car. It was a hope silently shared by the teens as well...
"Let's get going." Rick told the teens. Before walking, however, he stopped to take a photo of his wife and son from the inside of the car.
With nods or murmurs, the Lyoko Warriors agreed and began to follow the deputy down the road, abandoning the police car behind them...