(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 as well as Rick continued their trek down the road together, all making sure to keep an eye out for any of the dead. They were all tired and hungry, but they pressed on in a desire to make as much distance as possible today.
They figured that if they moved fast enough, they might be able to get to within twenty miles of the city before nightfall. The thought of reuniting with their loved ones within the next day or two was what kept them going even in spite of how tired and hungry they felt.
The last days had been hell for all of them. But Rick's wife and son, and the Lyoko Warriors' family and friends, were all waiting for them in Atlanta.
The group had come across one or two of the walkers since abandoning their car, but they were all dealt with pretty easily. By this point, most of the earlier reluctance which the teens had felt toward shooting the walkers had evaporated, and they have come to understand that pacifying the creatures meant more time alive for themselves. Though that didn't mean they enjoyed having to shoot anything...
As if on cue, walker had suddenly appeared out of a treeline near the road and began limping towards the group, causing Rick and the others to raise their weapons at it.
Ulrich stepped forward toward the walker, making all of the others stop and lower their weapons.
"I've got it..." Ulrich told them as he unsheathed his sword and made his approach. The others stood and watched.
The German teen slowly inched closer to the walker with his sword held high, drawing the creature's attention. It turned and stumbled toward Ulrich, and when it got close, the teen raised his sword and slashed it straight through its head, sending the corpse straight to the ground.
Although unnerved at the sight of the undead corpse collapsing to the ground, the group was glad that he took care of it. It was one less to deal with. One less in the world that wanted to kill them and eat them.
Another long hour of walking went by before the group noticed a building in the distance. A small farmhouse, it looked like.
The building instantly aroused the interest of all of the group.
"You guys think there could be some supplies in there?" Yumi asked the others.
"I'd say its worth checking out for some gas at least..." Rick told her.
Odd nodded. "Make sure to keep an eye out for walkers though..." the teen reminded him and everyone else.
The others appreciated the reminder, even if it was unnecessary. They had already burnt it into their minds over the last couple of days...
Together, the group approached the farmhouse and looked around as they did so. They saw a brown truck sitting out in the driveway, but they couldn't see any signs of the person or people who lived here.
"Hello...?" Rick called out when the group got close, then added: "Police officer out here!"
The group didn't hear anyone make a noise inside of the farmhouse...
Cautiously the group walked further toward the house while they also readied their weapons once more, hoping not to have to use them...
"If anyone is in there, can we borrow some gasoline...?" Jeremie called out to the house. "Our car ran out and we really need to get to Atlanta!"
"We aren't here to hurt or rob you, we just need some gasoline!" Aelita added.
Once more, the group was greeted by only silence. It was unnerving to them all...
The group all spread out and began trying to look through the windows on all sides of the house, trying to see if anyone was inside. Rick and Yumi walked up the steps to the front porch together as they wanted to simply try knocking on the front door. Seemed like the most polite and reasonable thing to do.
Rick knocked on the door and looked through the window on it to try and see if anyone was inside.
"Hello...? Anyone home...?" Rick asked, but saw no one come to the door. What he did notice, though, was insects hitting against the glass...
Both the deputy and Yumi were soon drawn over to a window that gave a clear view of the home's living room, and when they looked inside they got their answer on if anyone was home, much to their mutual horror.
Inside they could see thousands of flies and other little bugs swarming over the corpses of what may have been a husband and wife. The man - what was left of him - had a double-barreled shotgun laying in his lap. His corpse was sitting on a couch. Next to him was the corpse of a woman laying on the ground below him.
The man's head as well as that of the woman were completely blown off, with bits of their skulls, brains and blood covering much of the wall behind them. On a separate wall they could see the words: "God Forgive Us" written with their own blood...
The husband must've shot his wife, wrote that message, then shot himself...
Yumi immediately felt bile rising up her throat from the horror and disgust at what she saw through the window. It didn't take long for her to run over to the railing of the porch, where she proceeded to vomit right over the side.
Yumi's knees buckled as she struggled to stay standing upright as she puked straight down into a small garden of flowers.
"Yumi?!" she heard Ulrich exclaim, though she didn't look up to face him as he ran to her. She felt his hand go to her back and an arm to support her.
After she finished emptying the contents of her stomach onto the ground below, Yumi wiped her mouth with her sleeve before giving an involuntary shudder at the thought of what she and Rick had seen in the house.
That image of the mutual suicide in the home would be burned in her memory forever... but what else was new nowadays?
"I- I'm fine, I'm fine..." Yumi assured as she took deep breaths, trying her hardest to keep her stomach from churning once more.
Aelita, Jeremie, and Odd all came from the sides of the house to meet back up with their friends. The three like Ulrich felt concern when they saw Yumi leaning against the railing, a disturbed expression on her face and a small pool of vomit on the ground in front of the porch.
"You okay, Yumi...?" Jeremie asked with caution.
Yumi didn't answer for a moment. "Just... Just don't look inside the house..." she eventually murmured.
As Yumi went through all of that, Rick just simply backed away from the window with a sick feeling in his stomach from what he had seen inside the house. He then turned and headed off the porch, needing to step away. None of the teens protested.
The deputy walked off the porch to sit down on a small stone bench in the front yard in order to think on things. To distract himself for a necessary moment, he went to try out the pickup truck in the driveway. He couldn't even do that since he didn't find a key in the truck, and he wasn't going inside that house to find it unless he absolutely needed to...
Rick shut the truck door and began walking back to the farmhouse when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. When he turned to see what it was, he knew the answers to his and the teens' current dilemma had finally been answered...
Nearby, the teens still tended to Yumi.
"Are you sure you're okay, Yumes...?" Ulrich asked out of concern as he gently rubbed her back up and down with his hand, trying to comfort her as best he could.
Yumi took one more deep breath and cleared her throat before she nodded at his question. Truth be told she was going to have a lot of trouble getting the image of that dead couple out of her mind, but at least she was regaining her composure.
In spite of Yumi's warning not to do so, Odd couldn't resist the urge to walk over and glance inside of the living room window. When he saw what Yumi and Rick had seen, he nearly lost what little was in his stomach just like Yumi did. He wished he didn't look in there...
Given Odd's reaction, as well as that of Yumi and Rick, the teens could guess pretty accurately what they all must have seen inside...
A sudden sound from nearby caused all the teens to look up. A short distance away they could see Rick approaching a horse behind a gate...
To the surprise of the teens, they all saw that there was two more horses behind the gate too. Aside from the one Rick was approaching, the others looked frightened...
After a moment, the teens gathered themselves and walked out to join Rick out by the fence line. The deputy saw the teens, smiled, and gestured at the horses.
"I think I found our rides to Atlanta..." Rick pointed out to the teens.
"You're joking, right?" Jeremie gawked as he stared at the horses.
Rick chuckled at the response. "What's the matter?" he slyly grinned, "you guys have never rode a horse before...?"
The Lyoko Warriors all shook their heads in response. They did actually have one member of their group who was an expert horse rider - Jennifer Mason, a girl who grew up on her family's cattle ranch deep in the redbed country in western Texas before she was sent to Kadic Academy by her parents for a top-of-the-line education. Life on a cattle ranch simply required the skill of horsemanship, among other things.
But unfortunately for the five at the moment, there was never many cattle ranches in urban Paris where they lived - none, actually - so the teens needing to learn the finer art of horsemanship was... well, let's say it was "not necessary" until now.
Jennifer did promise to teach the five and also all of the others in their group how to ride. It was a promise which the Texan had honestly intended to keep for her friends, but alas, the opportunity to actually do so never came before the world ended...
After seeing the teens shake their heads, Rick simply nodded in acceptance. He wasn't surprised.
"It's a lot easier than you think..." he eased, "don't worry, I'll show you the basics before we head out for Atlanta."
The five Lyoko Warriors all exchanged glances at this. Whether they were convinced that it was going to be as easy as Rick said it would be was anyone's guess...
Rick and the teens headed away from the horses and to a nearby barn in the hopes they would find saddles and bridles and saddle blankets and whatever else they needed to actually ride the horses. They did find them, and they also found a couple of hatchets on a table. Those were taken as well, as these days there was simply no such thing as "too many weapons."
After gathering what they needed, Rick and the teens went back out to the horses, and the deputy began to run the teens through the ropes.
"The key is to get them calm..." Rick instructed as he opened the fence gate. "Horses aren't dumb... they can sense your emotions, they can tell if you're feeling calm or agitated. And if you're agitated, it doesn't take much for them to get agitated too..."
Rick approached one of the horses, which immediately began to take a step or two back. But the deputy soon got close enough to place his hands on the creature's side.
Soon enough, after a few long moments of rubbing coupled with some soft soothes from Rick, the horse began to grow more at ease. Then, it was completely calm.
"See?" Rick asked after turning back to the teens. "Piece of cake..."
The five Lyoko Warriors glanced over to the remaining two horses. Best to get this over with...
It was decided that Odd would ride with Rick, so Yumi and Ulrich would get one of the horses while Jeremie and Aelita would get the other.
When it came time to calm the horses and saddle them up, the two couples each approached their horses while Rick and Odd worked on saddling up their own horse.
Yumi and Ulrich looked at their horse - a beautiful horse with a red chestnut coat with a small patch of white on its forehead - then they looked at each other. By the looks on their faces, they each instantly knew what the other was thinking: "what the hell are we doing?"
With reluctance, Ulrich approached the creature and opened his mouth to say something to it... only for the horse to suddenly sneeze some snot right in his face and mouth.
The teen stumbled back a step or two while gagging, a new disgusted look instantly forming on his face all as Yumi began to howl from laughter at such a sight.
Nearby, Aelita and Jeremie watched their horse - a brown and white coat which reminded the two of a cow's - and they carefully approached it. After seeing from a distance what just happened with Ulrich, neither of the two wanted to take any chances.
"Easy... easy... I'm a friend..." Aelita soothed as she carefully stepped forth. "My friends and I aren't going to hurt you or your friends either..."
Jeremie tried to approach the horse as well, only for Aelita to hold up a hand to silently signal him to stay back for now. The horse was already feeling frightened enough by one person coming toward her, so who knew how she'd react with two...
As Jeremie did as Aelita signaled, the pinkette continued cautiously moving forward. A brief-yet-awkward glance downward told her that the horse was a girl.
"Nice to meet you, girl..." Aelita smiled as she approached the horse. "My name is Aelita, and over here is Jeremie, my boyfriend... did your owners give you a name?" she didn't expect an answer for obvious reasons but she still wanted to try and be as friendly as possible to the creature.
The horse, although frightened and cautious, watched Aelita as she approached her. She flinched slightly when the pinkette reached out to touch her, but she didn't run.
"I sure could use your help if you're interested..." Aelita gently told the creature as she affectionately brushed its mane. "My friends and I are all trying to get to Atlanta, to find some people we care for..." she said, "We don't know if they're okay or not, so we want to check..."
Jeremie watched his girlfriend as she spoke to the horse, and he noticed that what she was doing seemed to be working. The horse really was calming down.
"Have you ever been to Atlanta?" Aelita asked the horse as she gave a gentle pat to her skin. "It's really not that far... at least not for you."
Aelita walked back to the front of the horse so she could look the creature in the eye. The horse curiously tilted its head at a slight angle.
"There could be other horses in Atlanta, y'know... could even be a cute boy horse for you to meet and have a bunch of foals with..." Aelita joked, "would you like that...?"
The horse happily neighed before leaning forward to nibble at Aelita's cheek. The pinkette giggled to herself at the sensation it caused.
"Okay, okay!" Aelita snickered as she pulled herself away from the 'nibble onslaught'. The horse seemed to really like doing that.
After a moment, Aelita realized that if she was going to ride this thing to the city... she couldn't just call it 'horse' or 'girl' the whole time. She needed a name... and as quickly as she realized this, she had also thought of a good one.
"... 'Bisous'." Aelita smiled warmly at the horse... her new companion. "That's a good name for you, I think... do you agree?"
The horse, now known to Aelita and Jeremie as 'Bisous', which means "kisses" in French, simply sputtered her lips in delight. Aelita beamed because of that.
Jeremie smiled as he saw how delighted his girlfriend appeared. It was the first time he had seen her like this since before the firebombing on the highway. He silently hoped that the delight would be even greater when they make it to Atlanta and find their friends...
With a renewed cheerfulness emanating from herself, Aelita patted Bisous on her side. She was rewarded with another 'nibble onslaught' against her cheek, causing her to let out another giggle from how it tickled.
"Wonderful." Aelita cheerfully said as she pulled away. She looked very satisfied to have met the creature. "You can bring me and Jeremie to Atlanta while your friends can take the rest of us, and after that we'll all be safe in the city together... deal?"
Bisous simply sputtered her lips again. Aelita and Jeremie took that to mean 'yes.'
As Bisous's attention was suddenly diverted to a butterfly which started to fly around her face, Jeremie couldn't hide his grin as he glanced over at the pinkette.
"You're a natural with her, Aelita... I'm very impressed." the supergenius praised. He never realized how talented his girlfriend was with animals until now...
Aelita simply smiled and nodded at him in gratitude. Then she and Jeremie went to work on trying to get the saddle on their new horse.
Nearby, Ulrich and Yumi had mostly calmed their horse down and they were in the same situation that Jeremie and Aelita were in right now. Rick had to come over to give them guidance on what to do next, illustrating to them step-by-step how he put his saddle on his and Odd's horse.
Yumi and Ulrich managed attaching the saddle well for beginners, Rick believed. Though admittedly, he was kind of throwing stones in glass houses by thinking that since he hadn't been on a horse himself for quite a few years.
Soon enough, the time came for the couple to mount their horse. Ulrich had decided to name him "Kaiser" since he and Yumi both thought that their horse had a bit of a "regal presence", as they put it. Rick didn't see it himself, but hey, to each their own he supposed.
Likewise, Odd had taken the liberty of naming his and Rick's horse "Francesca." Apparently it was the name of his very first girlfriend from back when he lived in Italy, or, as Odd himself put it - "my first true conquest of 'pure sweet Oddlicious love.'"
Naturally, such a... 'unique'... sentence from Odd made Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aelita elicit groans. Even Rick couldn't hide a grimace. Kid wasn't much of a flirter...
With the deputy's guidance, Yumi and Ulrich put the saddle on their horse. When Ulrich tried his shot at mounting the horse, however, the creature instantly let out a loud neigh and flung Ulrich right off of him, causing the boy to land painfully on the dirt below.
... in contrast, when Yumi tried to mount Kaiser, the horse gave her absolutely no trouble at all. It even happily trotted in place after she settled in on the saddle.
"... you're kidding me." Ulrich deadpanned with annoyance at what he had seen.
"Guess he doesn't like you very much." Yumi teased before offering him a hand. Ulrich accepted it, and thankfully Kaiser didn't object when Yumi helped him up to the saddle with her, though the horse did let out an annoyed grunt.
Nearby, Aelita and Jeremie had saddled their horse. Together they mounted Bisous, with Aelita serving as the rider and Jeremie settling in behind her. The two teens couldn't hide the reddening of their faces when Jeremie reached his arms around Aelita and held himself against her to support himself. Aelita secretly relished the closeness.
A sudden cat call from Odd made both of the supergeniuses turn to glare at him. The cone-haired boy could only grin in response.
Rick mounted his horse, and he helped Odd up to join him. Rick gave another few instructions to Yumi and Aelita on how to actually make their horses go forward or stop with the reins. As they didn't find any spurs in the barn, the reins were all they had to work with. Thankfully the two girls got the gist of it all pretty quickly.
A couple of practice runs by Yumi and Aelita around the interior of the horse pen was enough to show Rick they were ready. At least he hoped so, 'cause there was no way in hell he and these kids were gonna walk the rest of the way to Atlanta when they had these creatures to help them.
Soon after, Rick, Yumi, and Aelita maneuvered Bisous, Kaiser, and Francesca out of their horse pen and out onto an open field nearby. Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie all held onto their riders tight as they did so. Time to ride...
"Just go easy, okay...?" Rick said to his horse. "I haven't done this for years..."
Without warning, Francesca instantly took off at a fast canter. Rick barely managed to keep ahold of his reins, while Odd barely managed to hold on.
"Woah, woah, woah - easy!" Rick tried to calm his horse while Odd screamed. If she wasn't careful she'd wear herself out long before getting to Atlanta.
Yumi, Aelita, Ulrich, and Jeremie all would have laughed at the sight of Rick and Odd riding off like that...
They would have. But alas for them, Bisous and Kaiser decided that they'd take after Francesca's lead. It didn't take long for the four to end up in the exact same situation which was plaguing Odd and Rick...
Soon enough, the field was full of screams and desperate pleas for the horses to slow down...
The group eventually managed to calm down the horses, though naturally they were all still a little shaken by the experience. Some of that was fear, but, to be perfectly honest... a lot of it was because riding runaway horses was actually kind of fun.
The three horses trotted down a highway lane with their six riders on top of them. They were free for the first time in days and they enjoyed the chance of getting to stretch their legs and ride some nice humans to wherever they wanted to go. Likewise, the group enjoyed the opportunity of riding these wonderful creatures the rest of the way to Atlanta. It was a good arrangement for all...
As they rode, the group had some time to think to themselves... a lot of their thoughts weren't positive, let alone happy. Not after all that's happened...
"... you guys wanna talk about the happiest day of our lives?" Odd suddenly suggested to the others.
"Huh?" Yumi blinked from her and Ulrich's horse. The others looked a little surprised too.
Odd shrugged. "Just trying to find a way for us all to pass the time... maybe take our minds off of some stuff, y'know?"
They knew. They all knew just too well what Odd was talking about...
"... alright then," Rick told him, then he cleared his throat to speak. "mine would be when my son Carl was born..."
The teens all glanced at Rick with a new interest. The deputy smiled softly at the teens before he continued.
"I had just gone into work that morning." Rick said, "I was sitting at the station drinking my second cup of coffee for the day. Deputy Gilroy was telling me about the drunk they had brought in the night before... and then the call came."
"Your wife?" Jeremie guessed.
Rick nodded. "Yep." he confirmed, "her water broke not ten minutes after I left. I grabbed my coat and ran home to get her... told Gilroy to tell the chief for me so I wouldn't get in trouble for leaving early, and I also told him to call the hospital for me too. I got Lori there without a hitch - and it was one of the only times I got to use the sirens on my car..."
The deputy paused for a moment, but soon continued. "I held Lori's hand the entire time... but there was some complications," Rick explained with a slight grimace to the memory. "She ended up needing a cesarean... I was really worried, but everything went okay, thank God... and when I finally held Carl in my hands for the first time, I..."
The teens noticed how Rick trailed off. Then they saw that pained look on his face... talking about his son clearly stirred up his emotions, his worries about finding his family...
"... mine involves a birth too... my little brother's." Yumi said after a moment of contemplation.
She looked a little sad as she thought back to when Hiroki was born nearly ten years ago, as the the current hardships she and the others suffered with made such good memories of the past a little painful to think about, though even so she still had a slight smile on her face as she did. Yumi missed her brother... even if he was a brat much of the time.
Yumi continued. "My dad picked me up early from school and he told me that my baby brother was finally on the way..." she told the others, "dad was scared since mom had gone into labor earlier than she was expected to, but he put on a convincing brave face..."
A silent moment went by before Yumi spoke again. "when I first met Hiroki in my mom's arms... I almost instantly felt a sense of protectiveness toward him..." she explained. "I felt that I was his big sister and that, for better or worse, he was going to rely on me for a long time... and I... I..."
"... I failed." Yumi finished her sentence only in her mind.
Trailing off from speaking, Yumi felt tears well in her eyes before they rolled down her face. A choked sob was all that escaped her lips from then on, causing Ulrich to place a comforting hand on her shoulder from behind her.
Though saddened by the turmoil her friend was clearly suffering through right now, Aelita decided that she might as well speak up next.
"My parents, my brothers, and all of my friends gathered together at my house to celebrate my birthday last year... everyone I cared for and loved..." Aelita spoke up next as she thought back to that wonderful day. "It was the first time in my life that we all did that together..."
"Why...?" Rick wondered, intrigued by such a statement.
Aelita sighed. "I was... 'away from home'... for a long time..." she cryptically said so as to not tell Rick anything about Lyoko or her experiences there. "Eventually I managed to come back after I met Jeremie, but my family was separated. It took a lot of time and effort by me and my friends to reunite us..."
Rick narrowed his eyes in confusion. "Were you kidnapped as a baby or something...?"
"... not me." Aelita murmured. The mental image of her mother being taken by the Men in Black all those years ago still haunted her even after they finally reunited again...
Naturally, Rick was curious about such a statement, though he didn't ask for further detail. If Aelita wanted him to know anything else then she'd tell him herself.
Aelita continued. "My birthday last year was the first one I had where my whole family was with me again... but now I'm sure that it was also the only one I'll ever get to have with all of them..." she surmised, sadness in her eyes. Most of the people she had known and loved were probably dead now...
Like Yumi and Rick, Aelita couldn't find the will to continue. She felt Jeremie give her a hug from behind on the saddle.
Ulrich and Jeremie exchanged glances for a moment, though neither spoke. After the things Yumi, Rick, and Aelita had said, they were too bummed out to keep the conversation going with stories of their own best days...
Odd felt the same way. He sweatdropped as he looked between the sobbing Yumi, the saddened Aelita, and the unhappy Rick.
"... you know, on second thought," Odd murmured, "talking about the good times makes all of this seem so much worse..."
Atlanta... they finally made it...
Some hours after leaving the farm, the group trotted down the abandoned Highway 85 while gazing at the skyline of downtown Atlanta, now only a short distance away. The lane they were on was completely clear of vehicles of all sorts. The opposite side - which had once served as an evacuation route out of the city - was completely jammed with abandoned ones.
As their horses slowly trotted down the asphalt, no one in the group had seen any signs of life whatsoever. They hoped that this would change upon entering the city...
The refugee center had to be in there somewhere... their friends, their families had to be waiting for them...
Somewhere in the city... somewhere... they just had to find the place...
With renewed determination to find their people, the group pressed on and rode further toward the city. As they did so, Yumi stared at the skyscrapers with a determined look on her face.
"I'm almost there, Hiroki..." Yumi thought to herself, "just hold on..."
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong...
When the group crossed into the city, they expected to find walls, barbed wire, soldiers all over the place, guard towers, survivors - things which made a refugee center or a military base just that. The group expected to find people in Atlanta. They expected to find them just as soon as they reached the city itself...
But that was the thing. The group didn't find any of that. Not a single living soul... not even any walkers...
Instead of soldiers and barbed wire, they found abandoned military vehicles and abandoned weapons. Instead of thick concrete walls and FEMA tents, they found ravaged army roadblocks and burnt-out store fronts.
They saw no signs of a refugee center or a military presence. All they saw was a city empty of both the living and the dead...
They hadn't rode into a safe zone at all... they had rode into a ghost town.
Yumi looked around with a growing uncertainty, and a great worry within her was becoming worse and worse with each passing minute. Her excitement to finally reunite with her little brother had completely disappeared in the face of the reality she and the others were looking at...
The teen was very worried. If her little brother Hiroki wasn't here in Atlanta... then where on earth could he be?
"I don't like the look of this..." Ulrich said to the others as they rode up a divided highway which led directly toward downtown. All the outbound lanes were full of cars.
"Me neither..." Odd replied, already making sure that he had easy access to his holster.
The group likewise made sure they had easy access to their weapons. It was better to be safe instead of sorry...
Wary of the emptiness all around them, the group walked their horses across a small bridge and they made it into downtown Atlanta. As they entered downtown and found themselves surrounded by the city's skyscrapers, they still had not found any signs of the refugee center which Rick heard of from Morgan and Duane.
The streets, they noticed, were littered with trash, wrecked cars, abandoned cars, some old military positions - and even a military helicopter.
Where were the soldiers? Where was any people whatsoever...?
As they continued to ride, the group soon got their answer... though it was not one they liked. They saw some dead bodies sitting in a burnt-out bus they rode past but they also soon saw that the bodies were starting to rouse. Walkers...
The walkers inside the bus began to stand. There was only a few, but the horses began to get a bit spooked by the sudden threat...
"Easy, girl..." Aelita soothed her horse with a gentle brush of the mane. "There's only a few of them... not a problem for any of us, okay?"
"Yeah... nothing we can't outrun." Rick agreed as he patted the side of Francesca.
Bisous and Rick's horse both seemed to calm down at this. So did Kaiser when Ulrich and Yumi calmed him. The horses all trusted their new riders...
Though now with a few walkers following them from a good distance, the group continued their ride through downtown Atlanta. The sight of the city being a ghost town was unnerving enough, but now that they had come across their first walkers here... it was enough to make all of them feel on-edge.
By now, most were doubting that there was actually a refugee center still here - or that if there ever was one, it was long gone now. The group did, however, hope to at least find where it stood and to find any trace of where their people might have gone to. Hopefully the army just relocated out of the city once things got really bad and they took all of the survivors with them to a safer place...
The group turned down another street, coming across another abandoned roadblock. There, they saw an abandoned tank with a dead soldier on top of its gun barrel. A group of crows were scavenging their food off of the corpse, much to the group's disgust. They decided to just ride on past the sight.
... a distant sound suddenly grabbed everyone's attention. Shocked at hearing something so unexpected, everyone turned their gazes upwards and tried to find its source.
Finally, reflected off of the mirrored glass of a nearby skyscraper, the group caught sight of the distant helicopter in the sky...
A helicopter... was it military? Civilian? Where did it come from and where was it going?
Whatever it was, it was something the group needed to find out... it might very well be their only remaining lead to finding their people.
With thwacks on the horse reins and cries of "Hya!" by Rick, Ulrich, and Aelita, the group's horses ran down the street together in the direction of where the group thought the helicopter was flying. They had to somehow get out in the open and they had to somehow get its attention...
The group turned to go down another street... but they instantly froze in horror.
Dozens of walkers. Hundreds of walkers. Maybe more. There was a sea of the dead filling the entire street ahead of them. The group could only stare in a shocked horror.
The walkers noticed the group and many began to stumble right toward them. The horses all began to panic at the sight of the hostile creatures.
"We need to get out of here!" a terrified Odd pointed out the obvious while Rick in front of him struggled to control their horse.
"We can't!" Yumi shouted, tightly grabbing her horse's reins with one hand while pointing back toward the way the group just came with the other.
Back behind the group, more walkers were pouring in to the street from nearby buildings and alleyways. They realized that now it was too late for them - the group was already surrounded on all sides by the walkers.
Aelita gasped as the walkers got close enough to the horses to grab at them.
"Oh god, no!" Aelita exclaimed as some of the undead grabbed at her leg, at Bisous' reins, at Jeremie's arm.
"They're everywhere!" Yumi was heard to exclaim. She was viciously kicking at the walkers as they grabbed at her, Ulrich, and Kaiser.
"Guys!" Jeremie exclaimed in alarm as he raised his revolver and fired some shots at a couple of walkers grabbing at him.
A dual cry from Odd and Rick drew the attention of everyone else. They saw that the two had been pulled off of Francesca and were now fighting for their lives on the street.
Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita all couldn't help them. Moments later, all four of them were pulled from their own horses as well...
The fearful screams of Kaiser and Bisous followed only a moment or two later. As they punched and pushed and kicked against all the walkers they could, the desperate teens could only watch as their horses were being ripped apart by the hordes of the dead...
For a moment, the eyes of Bisous met Aelita's. The pinkette felt tears well in her eyes as the horse was swallowed up by the horde...
Cries of unimaginable agony from Bisous, Kaiser, and Francesca followed. The horses kicked and fought against the walkers as hard as they could to survive, but soon enough their struggles ceased... and then they each went silent forever, one after another...
Rages and overwhelming sadness coursed through Aelita as she watched. She couldn't hold her words back. Not even when she was trapped in a situation as bad as this.
"YOU MONSTERS!!!" a tearful Aelita loudly raged at the countless walkers who were eating the horses. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
The pinkette's outburst immediately drew the attention of some walkers... then several... then a lot more than several. She instantly felt her anger be replaced by terror.
"Aelita!"
Aelita's eyes now turned away from the doomed horse to Jeremie, who likewise vanished after only a moment. She couldn't tell if the walkers had got him or she and him had simply gotten separated by all of the dead pouring in...
The pinkette quickly got back to her feet and unholstered her pistol, taking a desperate look around for Rick or any of her friends. She didn't see anyone. She was alone...
As the walkers moved in for her, Aelita fired off a few shots in a panic - hitting one walker in the face and killing it, hitting another walker in the neck which didn't really do much to help her, and the third shot missed another walker entirely.
Somewhere else, Aelita could hear some more gunfire rage.
"Oh god! Oh god!!!" Aelita could hear Odd scream in terror from wherever he had ended up.
"Aelita?! Aelita, where are you?!" she also heard Jeremie scream in desperation. She couldn't see him either.
"Ulrich, get back!" she then heard Yumi exclaim. Her voice was full of fear.
Aelita screamed for her friends in some desperate attempt to find them and fight her way over to them, but if they heard her she couldn't tell. It was hard to make sense of any sounds over that of walker snarls and gunfire.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed Aelita by her arm and pulled her. She raised her gun since she thought it was a walker, but in reality it was Rick. He wasn't dead. Though he was missing his deputy's hat and the dufflebag full of guns he had been carrying... he must've lost them when his horse went down.
"Come on!" Rick urged the teen before firing off another round from his revolver. The shot hit a nearby walker in the eye.
"But the others!" Aelita told him, alarm in her voice, "we can't just leave them out-"
"I said 'come on'!" Rick again urged, this time much more firmly. He pulled her arm again so hard that he practically threw Aelita in the direction of the tank.
Aelita lost her footing and slammed against the side armor and tracks of the tank. She fell to her hands and knees for a moment, only to suddenly be force herself back up to her feet when she saw the walkers were getting dangerously close to her and Rick. Though they soon saw a way out which might work...
In sheer desperation to survive, Rick and Aelita were forced to get on their stomachs and crawl underneath the tank. They hoped to crawl out through the other side, run, and then find a safe spot where the walkers couldn't get them... but they were wrong.
They crawled halfway under the tank when the walkers began to come in from the other side. The two were trapped.
"Oh god, oh god! Please, no!" Aelita exclaimed in terror. She felt like a cornered animal, forced to watch as predators approached with hunger in their eyes...
Rick took one look at the walkers coming in from front and back and he knew he and Aelita were screwed. There wasn't any getting out of this...
The deputy fired off a few shots from his revolver and killed a few walkers, but soon he only had one bullet left.
He took a breath, then raised the gun and pressed the barrel against the side of his head. Aelita only looked on in shock and horror.
"Lori, Carl..." Rick murmured as he moved his finger to the trigger, "... I'm sorry ..."
"RICK, WAIT!!!"
The pinkette grabbed the barrel of the revolver and lowered it before Rick could fire. The deputy was about to tell her off but he saw she was pointing upwards. When he looked up, he suddenly realized they were saved.
Above the two was an escape hatch of some sort - for the crew of the tank if it was destroyed in combat or something. The two didn't care, they just hurried as quickly as they could up into the hatch and got inside of the tank, saving their lives from the walkers that had clawed at their shoes...
*SLAM!*
Aelita and Rick slammed the escape hatch shut and scampered to the back wall of the tank, both gasping for breath as they felt their adrenaline start to wear off. After a quick check of themselves, they saw they had luckily avoided getting bitten or scratched by the dead.
They still had one problem though - they were trapped here.
With them inside the tank was a corpse, but it wasn't moving. Rick saw that the corpse still had its service pistol in its chest holster while Aelita noticed a frag grenade sitting on a shelf next to it. The two grabbed the weapons, and Aelita stored her grenade in her backpack for the time being, as it might prove useful eventually...
As they took the moment to catch their breaths, Aelita and Rick shared a glance which was a mix of astonishment and worry. Somehow they had survived what had happened out there...
They were still alive, but what about the others? Could they have escaped somewh-
... *SNARLS.*
It was only now that the two saw that the 'corpse' in the tank with them was now raising its head and looking at them. It was a walker...
In a split-second decision caused purely by fear, Rick gasped and pressed the barrel of his revolver against the bottom of the creature's jaw and he pulled the trigger.
The gunshot would've been loud outside the tank. But here? In such an enclosed space? The concussive noise was enough to make both Aelita and Rick's eardrums ring with pain, and it also sent them into a sudden daze. It felt like their heads had suddenly been put inside of a vice to be crushed. Or maybe a hammer hitting their skulls over and over again.
Rick and Aelita found themselves hunched over on their sides as they struggled to collect themselves. It took considerable effort for them. Neither could stop groaning...
Though still slightly dazed, Rick saw an open hatch on the top of the tank. He decided to climb it to see what he and Aelita were dealing with outside...
The deputy stood upright and, with his eardrums still ringing a little from that gunshot, took a look around at the surroundings of the tank.
Rick could immediately see his and Odd's horse was laying dead and was being ripped apart by the walkers, and so was Aelita and Jeremie's just a short distance away. He didn't see any trace of Ulrich and Yumi's horse, but whether it got away or just got killed somewhere down the street was something he couldn't tell.
As upset as Rick was by the deaths of the horses, he felt relief when he couldn't find the bodies of any of the other teens. Maybe they made it out of here somehow...
Near his dead horse was the bag of guns he picked up from the King County P.D., but there was dozens of walkers all around it. No chance of grabbing it and running. Or just running anywhere, for that matter. The situation he and Aelita were in looked grim...
A walker noticed Rick, and soon one became a few dozen. Rick was forced to retreat and slam shut the upper hatch as many walkers began to swam the tank.
The two could hear the undead pounding away at the metal exterior. But they knew they were safe... at least for the moment.
"Did you see any of the others...?" Aelita asked him, not even bothering to disguise how worried she sounded.
"No..." Rick sighed and shook his head. "Didn't see their bodies either though... they could've made it out of there, maybe found a good spot to hide for the moment..."
The thought helped Aelita, but not by much. She saw just as Rick did how many walkers were out there... As much as she wished it was otherwise, the odds just weren't good for Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremie's survival...
God, she hoped the others were okay... she couldn't lose them too. They were all she had left now in this awful new world...
Aelita tightly shut her eyes, her mind racing. If her friends were dead... if Jeremie was dead... oh god...
Wordlessly, the pinkette unholstered her pistol and she stared down at it, trailing a finger over the cold steel. Her eyes held little life or color in them at this point... What had been hope for safety and reunions in Atlanta had vanished, replaced by despair and even more loss...
... if her friends out there were dead... if she had indeed ended up all alone, just as she's feared ever since this whole nightmare began...
Aelita tightened her hold. A single tear ran down her face and fell onto the metal frame of the pistol.
... if she was all alone now, then she didn't want to keep going in this new world ... she'd end it ... she'd end it here and now, just like Rick was about to do to himself when they were back underneath the tank ...
... that was simply all there was to say about that for now.
With no other option, the two settled in for the time being. Aelita re-holstered her gun for now, then she hugged her knees to her chest and tried to think of a way for her and Rick to escape their predicament and find the others.
Rick likewise took the time to unload magazine from the pistol he found so he could check how much ammo it still had. Fully loaded, thank God. At least they had some extra firepower, for whatever it was worth when trapped inside a tank.
The pounding from the walkers was the only sounds heard from within the tank. They both hated that sound... the whole interior smelled like their sweat. Death too, thanks to the fact that there was a corpse in here with them. Unfortunately they couldn't do a thing about that either. Just more nonsense they had to suffer through...
Aelita shut her eyes as she thought back to how Bisous died. That awful look of terror in her eyes as she was ripped apart right in front of her...
That poor horse trusted her... trusted her and paid the price for it...
The pinkette thought herself as stupid... She just couldn't forgive herself for what happened to her hors-
Suddenly, the two heard the sound of a radio crackle. As a feeling of wild disbelief overtook them, they found themselves slowly turning their heads to look at the military radio sitting on the other side of the turret's interior...
"... hey, dumbasses." they heard an unknown man's voice say, "Yeah, you two in the tank... Are you guys cozy in there?"
Rick and Aelita exchanged a glance, then looked back at the radio as if they couldn't believe it...