Episode Title Days Gone Bye:
It was a clear afternoon, the smell of pine trees and singing birds whistled through the forest surrounding the quarry camp. A little girl in a white dressing stumbled through the trees slowly, the small bushes crunching under her feet. she was slowly going to a sound she heard, tracing its echo that had vanished hours ago, yet she still followed on the same path. the little girl hadn't seen her parents in days , maybe even week. Her face gashed to the bone from her left eye socket down to her chin. The blood had dried and the wound left opened. she hadn't felt any pain in a long time, nor was she worried of infection. The dress she her mother had pinned around her that morning many moons ago to attend sixth grade was torn and blood covered. The little white shoes wore to match her dress were scuffed on the left and completely missing on the right, caught in a bush 674m behind her. She was focused on that noise still she trotted along until a branch snapped behind her. A Tall slightly muscular man with curly black hair cradled a black Mossberg 590 , a tactical shot gun. On top his head sat a brown baseball hat that read sheriffs deputy. "little girl" the man asked. quickly she turned and lunged walking faster now, fascinated on the new noise, fresh food. The little girl snarled at the hoping for her next meal. She'd died , turned into a flesh eating monster, ready to attack , to kill. "BLAM" the man fired his shotgun, the pelted entered the little girls head, exploding her brains, knocking her backward off her feet. The man pumped his shot gun , lowered it and fixed his hat, shaking his head. (title music)
The sky was creamy blue , fluffy clouds sparsely moved across the beaming sun. It was a beautiful day in kings county, a Small town with a population of just under 1200, two sheriffs deputies sat in their patrol car eating greasy hamburgers , fries and Frosties. Kings county being a small town these two deputies didn't get to see much of the big action, mostly minor disturbances, domestic violence calls, robberies, drunk n disorderly and drugs ; maybe on a big day the two would get to be apart of a drug bust. But today seemed like a quite day nothing out of the normal, they chit chatted about their lives, people in the town and everything in between, the men were best friends even going back as far grade 1. There was light radio chatter coming over the radio behind their conversation. The man in the driver seat , rick grimes asked his partner " what's the difference between men and women?" Then passes him a napkin. "this a joke ?" Shane asked from the passenger seat. " no serious' rick said as he grabbed French fry and dipped it in some ketchup. Shane doing the same says " never met a woman who could turn off a light, born thinking the switch only goes one way, ON!" The camera moves from focusing on fast food to Shane's face. "you know a strip blind the second they leave a room, I mean every woman I ever let have a key, i swear to god its like, come home, house all lit up, ( chuckles) and my job apparently because , because my chromosomes happen to be different is i then got to walk through that house and turn off every single light this chick left on." Shane complains . " Is that right" Rick says back "yeah baby, oh reverend Shane is preaching to you now boy and then the chick mind you, shell bitch about a .. global warming. See this is when ... reverend Shane wants to quate from the guy gospel and say um ... darling you and every other pair of boobs on this planet, just figure out that the light switch, see goes both ways, maybe we wouldn't have so much global warming." Shane preaches. " you say that?" rick asks with his squinted knowing Shane didn't say that. " In my uh polite version ( laughs) still man that earns me this look loathing you would not believe. And that's when the exorcist voice pops out "you sound just like my damn father" always yelling about the damn power bill telling me to turn off the damn lights" Shane impersonates. "what do you say to that" rick responds. the two men still eating the fries and burgers." I know what i want to say, i wanna say bitch , you mean to tell me you've been hearing this your entire life! And you are still too damn stupid to learn how to turn off a switch" Shane states and the men laugh. "you know i don't actually say that though". "That would be bad" rick laughs. "yeah id go with the uh go with polite version there too. Shane says still laughing. "very wise" rick says as he nods his head. " yes sir" Shane replies and the laugh some more. Shane asks " how's it with Lori man ?" " she's good, she's good at turning off lights, its really good. I'm the one who sometimes forgets." rick responds. " my man" Shane says as he rubs his hands together. A moment of silence between the deputies occurs, paper bags can be hears crushing. Rick has a concerned and stressed look making its way through his mask to cover his feelings. He sighs "we didn't have a great night" rick swallows. "hey look man i may have uh , failed to amuse with my sermon but i did try, at least you could do is speak. Shane points out as he turns to look at his friend. " that's... that's what she always says... speak... speak ... you'd this i was the most closed mouth son of a bitch you ever hear her" rick gets out with a lump in his throat. "Do you express your thoughts... do you share your feelings that kind of stuff." Shane asks trying to help rick. "thing is ..." rick takes a breath "lately whenever in try, everything i say makes her impatient like she didn't want to hear it after all, its likes she's pissed at me all the time and i don't know why" rick says confused. " look man that's just shit couples go through, yeah its a phase" Shane says trying to convince his partner. rick takes another big breath " last thing she said this morning, sometimes i wonder if you even care about us at all, she said that in front of our kid, imagine going to school with that in your head." rick confesses then pauses a moment his mouth dry. "The difference between men and women, i would never say something that cruel to her... certainty not Infront of carl." rick sighs as the police radio beeps " beep beep beep". "High speed pursuit in progress, all units respond, county units request local assistance, vehicle east bound. use extreme caution. Rick starts the sheriff cruiser and slams it in drive. Shane quickly throws all the remining fast food into the paper bag and dunks it into the garbage can next to the car and rick speeds off, screeching the tires , to join the pursuit. There would be some real action for the two small town sheriffs to see today.
One hungry black ravens picked at some road kill on the old paved back road. A rabbit crossing the road not long ago wasn't too lucky, making the raven a nice meal. A sighting of a single raven often symbolized change transformation and potential new beginnings as a spiritual animal. Maybe there was a new beginning, some change headed into the men's lives. Multiple police sirens out of sync welled through the air of the open road. Shane and rick cruised over the highway. Over the radio " two male Caucasians, please be advised one Lyndon county officer is wounded." The police curser flying by the road kill starting the raven to leave the meal. A second sheriffs vehicle can be seen joining Shane and Rick on the highway. The pair of cars moving fastly down the old highway. The car behind the friends pulls over as rick slows his cruiser down, then coming to a screeching hult a few 100 meters in front of the other car. Shane quickly jumps out from the passenger seat running toward the trunk. HE picks up spike strips and begins to lay them with ricks help, across the highway hoping to slow the vehicle in pursuit down. Chatter can still be heard over the radio, " about five minutes outs over". The driver of the second car is speaking into the radio "Dispatch units 1 unit 3 we are 10 97, code 100, highway 18 please advise." Shane and rick quickly jump back into there car, reversing , stopping parallel to the other car. The tires make a whirling sound then they screech when the breaks are applied. There's more chatter over the police radio. The four men quickly put some asphalt under their feet, grabbing their preferred weapon of choice. Shane removes hos sheriffs hat and lays it on top of the car. All men preparing for a gunfight, some are more ready than others. " sounds like they chasing those idoits down every back road we got" Sargent lambert Kendal observed. "Maybe we'll get on one of them video shows you know like worlds craziest police chases what do you think?" officer Leon basset asked while he nervously hold his Glock 19. " what i think Leon , is you need to stay focused, make sure you got a round in the chamber and the safety off ." rick says sternly back to him. Leon quickly pulls the slide back to make sure his gun is loaded and pushes the safety off. Officer Leon was new to the force, he was quirky and nervous, definitely not someone you'd want to be standing beside to have your back with an impending gun fight with some escaped armed criminals now seconds away. The four men stood behind the doors of the cars , the sound of crows cawing in the background quickly fading into sirens. " would be kinda cool to get on one of them shows" Shane chuckled as rick gave him a serious look. The criminals approached at high speed, the driver swerving over the two laned road, the driver trying to regain control. The grass on the side of the highway was long and brown. Two white state police trooper vehicles travelled closely behind the criminals , the lead car trying to attempt a pit manoeuvre. Over the rise in the highway laid the spike strips waiting to bust the tires of the silver muscle car. The whit police cars come to a screeching hult as the muscle car fly's over the spike strips. "blast" the front driver side tire exploded on impact with the strip. " the driver immediately loses control over the vehicle, the rear end gets air and the car begins to flip fast. There was no way the driver could avoid the roll .The criminals roll with the car over a dozen times , its comes to a hult off the road on its roof." holy shit " Shane mutters gripping his black 12 gauge even tighter. The troopers jump out of their cars with shot guns ready to aim at the rolled car. Shane and rick change positions to have a better line of sight. There was almost silence, just the sound of a slight breeze. Rick leading Shane closer to the over turned car, the 357 magnum colt python tightly gripped. The silence breaks , the sound of and crushed car door being open emerges. A man with a small pistol climbs out, trying to get to his feet." gun gun gun" a trooper yells he kneels to rest his arm on his knee. " put it down " rick yells hesitant to fire . " put the g..." all the men begin to fire, multiple shot gun blast and pistol shells erupt. The rugged looking criminal turns to fire in ricks direction. multiple shots are fired in the mans area but miss, blasting off the rolled car. The man fires twice one hitting rick in the vest. The bullet knocking the wind out of him as he falls to ground. Shane fires four shots in rapid succession, the final shot hitting the man in the chest, falling to the ground he takes multiple more shots , ensuring the mans death. The air falls silent again just for a quick moment before the other man pops up from behind the muscle car and fires a shot gun."Balm". the gunfire continues. two shots landing next to Shane, glass exploding around Shane as he turns away for cover. Rick gasps for air, struggling to dump the spent casing from the python, to reload. Shane jumps up to fire three more shots. The man behind the car returning fire, right before catching a shot from a trooper in the chest , his body drops with a thud. The sheriffs depart of kings country never seen this kind of action, with the two men taken out things started to wind down. All the men running on adrenaline. "Rick!" Shane shouts thinking rick was hit bad. " I'm alright " rick wheezes slowing getting to his feet. " i seen you get tagged man scared the hell outta me" Shane says concerned. " me too" rick says still breathing heavy. " that little bitch shot me, you believe that" rick continued " catch you in your vest" Shane asked " yeah " rick said catching his breath. No one sees another man crawling out of the car, someone fucked up, the radio said two men but there was a third , this mistake would change the lives of the best friends forever." Shane you DO NOT TELL LORI about that ever! you understand..." rick said pointing his finger at Shane unable to finish his sentence "blam blam blam" Rick turned as the criminal pulled his gun from the ground firing three shots in rapid succession. one hitting rick in thigh muscle, tearing his femoral artery. The second penetrated under his arm through his arm pit. the third... if the first two weren't the reason Shane lost his best friend that day, if was the third, blasting through his neck, blood squirted out like the faucet was just turned on .Ricks blood covered Shane's face. Without hesitation Shane lifted his shot gun and blasted ricks killer away. Shane dropped his gun and quickly went to ricks side " RICK" he yelled again grabbing his neck, blood oozing through Shane's fingers. " no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no. he's hit! LEON ! You get that AMBALANCE down here NOW , you tell them there's an officer down and you do it NOW!" Shane yells to Leon his face tells the whole story the look of dread, he was going to try to save his friend , but even Shane know there was nothing he could do. Rick laid on what used to be brown grass and dirt , it was just his blood now. Shane still holding his neck, fighting back the urge to cry, he needed to be strong, he needed to convince rick he was going to live." Shh shhh you look at me , you hear me, shh shh okay, I'm right here, you stay with me, that's it stay with me shhhh shhhh, I'm right here stay with me. From over top rick laid on his back, Shane knelled over him, the smell of copper and burnt gunpowder fill the nostrils of the men, the black 12 gauge sat next to Shane. Ricks colt python laid next to his head where he dropped it when he was shot. "Carl" ricks gargled as he used his final breath. The last thing he ever was Shane face, he'll never get to see what the world was about to become. The stillness of Shane's shhhh turned into more sirens as rick laid lifeless, a blank stare on his face. Shane wasn't ready to let him go, a tear escape from his eye and softly fell off his check, splatting on ricks chest. The sirens faded into black.
The sun was bright the sky a baby blue, a beautiful day at the end of the world. A group of people who met by happenstance set up camp around a quarry. Most of them doing different tasks, Dale sat at the top of he's RV, the old man was wearing a bucket hat sat in a lawn chair, a Winchester model 70 sat across his lap; he kept eye on the group, made sure no one or anything could surprise them. A young woman, Amy waited for her sister to return from a scavenge run to the city, while she waited she prepared dales fishing lines to fish when Andrea got back. Carol washed laundry by hand , watched by her husband Ed, edging her to give up her chores and go back to the tent with him , he wanted to fool around. There was no news for days, all media, news and government were silent, at least in the early days the news stations had repeating messages. The CB radio crackled with static, " base camp" could be heard through the static, from the male voice. Anyone in ear shot came running to the CB radio. Shane stuck his ax into a junk of wood and picked up the mouth piece. " hello hello, there's some minor inference but we hear you Glenn" Shane said. " we're stuck in the department store, (crack crack) merle started popping off round. ( blam blam blam)." Glenn replied "there's no way you can get out of there?" Shane asked. The radio started crackling again, no response came through. "Anything?" Dale shouted from atop the RV. " There trapped in the damn department store" Shane shouted back. " you're going after them right " Amy asks Shane." we cant risk anyone else , you know that, they knew the risks when they agreed to go, they're on their own." Shane says sternly. " you cant just leave them there , this is my sister you're talking about!" Amy snaps. " end of discussion" Shane replies firmly. Dale hold Amy back to comfort her." If there's others we should put up signs on 85 to warn them about going into the city, I've been saying this for weeks" Lori points out. " we haven't had time" Shane points out. " I think we need to make time" Lori adds. " That's a luxury we cant afford, were surviving here, we are day to day" Shane points out. "And who the hell do you propose we send? Half the group is in Atlanta." Dale questioned. "I'll go, give me a car" Lori volunteers. "Nobody goes anywhere alone you know that" Shane reminds he , the share a pissy look. Lori walks off and carl tries to follow her. " Yes sir" she says sarcastically, moving toward her tent half cocked. Shane stops carl from following " hey hey hey, go ahead take a seat bud, alright cool". Lori makes it back to her tent and sighs, when Shane walks in he asks 'what , you pissed at me you can be pissed at me all you want not gonna change anything. I'm not putting you in danger ok. I'm not doing it for anything, that make you feel like sometimes you wanna slap me up the side of the head tell you what girl you feel that need, you right ahead. I'M right here. You can not walk off like that half cocked. look you don't want to do it for my sake, for your sake that's fine. Just do it for him. That boys been through too much and he's not going to loose his mother too ok .". Lori nods her head in agreement, still looking pissed her hand on her waist." I'm a good mom " she says silently. " you tell me ok". Shane says. Lori just nods, Shane grins at her " its not hard". loris ticked off look turns into a smile and she leans into kiss the man supporting her in the broken world. The two continue in a gentle kiss, until they are interrupted by a young voice. " Mom?" carl asked approaching the tent where the two lover were kissing and startled. Shane turns to meet the boy in the cloth doorway. " She's in there buddy." Shane says to the boy walking away. Lori wipes her lips gently, longing for Shane's lips to be back on hers. She kneels down to carls level , to meet him eye to eye as she assures him he doesn't have to worry. "Hey i don't want you to worry, your moms not going anywhere, okay, yeah yeah, go finish your chores ok" Lori assured him as they both smiled and nodded at each other. The young boy turned and ran back to his chores, his mother still kneeling holds two wedding rings on a necklace. Rings that once held a sacred bond between her and Rick, something shed broken awhile ago.
Atlanta, once a bustling city full of people, cars , busses , bikes , children , workers, a city full of human life, lay desolate , dead and decaying into ruin, the dead filled the streets. Some budlings standing tall untouched by the mayhem, most budlings however falling from the bombings that took place just weeks ago, an attempt by the government to stop the spread of the wildfire vires. Budlings stood burnt and half crumbled, windows missing , charred from fiery explosions. The sound of motor vehicles that once filled the exhaust filled air fall silent. The remnants of military vehicles littered the streets, rolled cars and burnt out busses sat rusting, bodies covered the streets , some put down others not. Some dead waited to be alerted by sound or the arrival of fresh food to move. A camouflaged tank sat on chaos filled street , a body of an officer laid across the tank , open wounds picked at by ravens. Only the dead and the walking dead left of the onslaught that occurred on the every street of the city are to tell the story. Mounted guns laid empty , shell casings littered the street like cigarette butts of the old world. A massive group of the dead herded up around the corner from the tank just outside of a department store. On the rooftop a rugged muscular man , ex military red neck, he wore an old dirty and faded black t shirt covered by a sleeveless leather jacket. He fired his scoped Winchester model 70 rifle , bullseye every head he targets. The gunfire bring more dead upon the building and the supply runners. The scavenging group consisted of six individuals. Glenn ,the pizza delivery guy, nerdy , quick on his feet , he's the in and out go to town guy. Merle, ex military red neck, has a way with words and tends to be an asshole racist. Andrea the civil rights attorney, her sister Amy waited at the camp for her return. Theodore Douglas, an African American ,referred to mostly as T-Dog, worked with youth at his local church. Morales a Mexican family man , his wife and two kids waited at camp . Jaquie a African American woman, she worked at the cities zoning office before the end of the world. The scavenging group didn't work well together for on main reason, Merle Dixon the racist asshole. T-dog , Andrea, Morales, and Glenn gathered around on the ground floor of the budling trying the get the radio to work again, its been a couple of hours since they got through to base camp. " we should try the roof" T-dog suggested. The group are interrupted by another shot "Blam". "oh no is that Dixon" Andrea states annoyed. They all scurry toward the roof. Merle pulls back the lever to reload and fires again "Blam" He takes multiple shots while the group marches up the stairs. The door to the stairwell swings open , Morales running out first. "Hey you crazy" Morales asks the deranged man. Merle chuckles " hey you better be more polite to the man with a gun , huh, common sense." He jumps off the ledge and waves the rifle around. T-Dog runs toward the man with the gun "Man you're wasting bullets we ain't even got man and you're bringing them all down on our ass , just chill ". Hey! Bad enough i got this taco bender on my ass all day, now I'm going to take orders from a you, i don't think so, that'll be the day." merle says angerly. " that'll be the day ? you got something you wanna tell me " T-Dog snaps back. "T-dog man just leave it, it ain't worth it, Now merle just relax okay. We got enough trouble" Morales ordered." " You wanna know the day ? I'll tell you the day Mr. Yo, its the day i take orders from a Niger." Merle barked with a smirk. This infuriated T-dog , going in for a punch on merle but gets over powered. Merle flips the gun around and gives the butt end to T-dog's face. The power knocking him on his ass. Multiple voices " Merle come on". The two men exchanging blows , Merle clearly with the upper hand. Merle land another right hock , hocking T-dog down again , falling to the roof he bashes his face off a pipe. " Get off him" Andrea pleads. Merle kicks him multiple times in both sides, the man on his back takes more punches to the face from merle. He doesn't let up Merle keeps going and going, Tdog bashing on the roof underneath him. Morales jumps in to save T-dog but takes one to the nose from the aggressor and steps back. Merle pulls out a silver chrome browning high powered pistol in T-dogs face. He pulls the lever back, while Andrea pleads. T-Dog face looks worried , he could loose his life right now." Blam" The white roof turns blood read covered with brain matter. Merle spits on the dead mans chest and stand up " alright, lets have ourself a little pow wow, talk about .. who's in charge, I vote me, anybody else ? Huh, democracy time ya'll , show of hands, huh. All in favor, huh come on lets see um that's good, yeah that means I'm the boss right. Yeah anybody else , anybody?" They just stand there shocked with their hand up in air. " Good , now , lets stop dilly dawdling and get out of this fucking place" Merle shouts. Glenn feeling a little hesitant suggests " The dead they tell us apart from other dead, the biggest difference between us and them has to be that smell. We cover ourselves in their blood and guts, get to that construction yard over there, steal and truck , lead the dead away and then were home free." Merle thinks for a moment " you and the other nigger do it" pointing at Glenn. Downstairs they prepare to cover in the guts of the dead. The outer most door of the store has been cracking form the pressure of the dead pushing on it and collapse under the weight. " HEY ! Sugar tits , you got the only other gun , you watch that door. " Merle orders Andrea. Morales and Glenn open a back door the ally , they stab one walker in the head and drag it inside. " I don't think i can do this " Glenn confesses. " Yes you will China man" Merle says. " I'm Korean " Glenn points out. "whatever" Merle wines. Glenn gets very uneasy "Think of puppies and kittens" Morales suggests. Glenn loses the little food he has in his stomach. " Next time think of crack of babies ass" Jaquie says. The pair Have the blood of the dead from head to toe on a sheet and begin the short trek to the truck. As the walk past the first walker it turns its head for a second and continues on shuffling. The two worried survivors slowly walk across the street. " Its working" Glenn states. The two are just a few meters from the truck when Jaquie looses her footing and trips, her cover blown. The walkers grab her and begin to feed on her flesh. She screams bringing more to her. Glenn reluctantly pushes forward to the truck. The pizza delivery boy pushes his way to the truck and starts the engine. The dead that haven't joined the feeding frenzy where Jaquie went down, start to walk toward the truck. Glenn leads a big portion of the dead away from the store. After a slow journey to the next block, Glenn drives back around to pick up the rest of the crew. Glenn couldn't have gotten back at a better time, the second glass door breaks down Infront of Andrea and merle. They both fire a couple rounds then run toward the exit point. The last three survivors load the truck with three boxes then close the hatch. Glenn floors the gas pedal and speeds down the street. He swerves across the road avoiding the cars and trucks that littler the streets, making their way to the highway. The incoming lane to the city was disserted, not a car in sight, the lane leaving the city however was a parking lot and a graveyard. At the quarry camp Lori and Carol folded clothing, even in the apocalypse someone had to do the laundry. Dale stood on the RV still looking foe threats, Carl played in the dirt near by, having finished his chores. "Sweetheart i want you to stay where dale can see you ok" Lori told her boy. " yes mom" carl replied. " You too don't wander too far." Dale chimed in as Lori headed to pick some berries. The berries would be ripe for picking this time of year, a nice little treat for the survivors in between cutting fire wood for cold nights, washing clothes, look out and protecting each other from the dead. Out in under the thick wooded forest grew small little bushes that carried blue and red berries, some tiny and some larger. The brunette woman knelled, she wore blue washed jeans with large rips and tears, a white tank shirt covered her small torso, she placed berries in a small bucket. The forest was quite still, a branch breaking caught Loris attention. Thoughts of fear ran through the woman's mind, could it be a survivor looking for refuge, someone looking to take their resources, or a walker or multiple walkers. Two birds could also be heard taking flight from the tree above , also startled by the branch breaking. Lori wiped her hand on her leg and stood up beginning to walk back to camp. Her foot steps and the sound of crickets filled the air , she froze more branches braking catches her attention. The look of calm on the woman's face turns into fear, she scans the forest for movement. Nothing catches her eye, she starts to breath quicker , panicking. A masculine hand covers her mouth from behind and throws her to the ground. The mans fand still covering her mouth as she places her eyes on the man, its Shane. he came to surprise her, he places a finger in front of his mouth to mothing her not to scream. Loris panic becomes a playful anger. " you scared the hell outta me" she tells her lover. Shane chuckles, making his lips join with hers , he intimately kisses her slowing making his way to her neck, crossing her collarbone , his hand exploring the rest of her body, coming to a stop at the button on her jeans. She rips his button up shirt open revealing his body, six paired off muscles lines his stomach, a v line pointed toward his pants. They knew each others body's how they reacted to one another, unlike their first time , before the dead started to walk. the couple smiled at the other, putting their clothes back on. " we should probably head back to camp before your moans bring walkers on us " Shane laughed. The two linked hands, Lori holding her bucket of berries in the one hand Shane in the other , Shane carried his shot gun in one hand Lori in the other. Before the walk back into camp they unlink hands and continue into camp. A white box truck sped up the dirt road to the camp. Dust filled the air. " we got company" dale said as he raised his rifle...