All That's Left (The Walking Dead FanFiction)

Chapter 39

I wake up in a haze.

My vision is clouded by smoke. There's a thirty pound weight on my lungs. Sam shoves his face in mine. His blue eyes are wide as he grabs a fistful of my hair. "Macy, up! Macy, wake up!" he coos.

I sit up, situating Sam so he's on my lap. Debris is all around us. There's holes in the walls of the prison. Dead bodies lay around me.

Shit.

I lurch to my feet. If the dead around me haven't turned, I can't have been out for that long. I try to put the pieces together. I remember a tank. I remember flying through the air. How am I alive? How is Sam alive?

I look around. I don't see anyone living. It's just me and Sam. The buses are gone. The tanks that are on the other side of the fence have no one in them. The snow that surrounds me is covered in blood.

How did no one notice us lying here? Sam must have gotten knocked out too, otherwise someone would've heard his deafening cries. Then it hits me.

We're alone.

Everyone left. There's not a single living soul in the prison anymore. The bodies around me could turn into the walking dead at any moment. Clutching Sam tightly to my chest, I start running. My back screams in pain; my spine must have broken our fall. I grab a few guns off the ground as I go. I don't know where I'm going. I don't know where there is to go.

Daryl.

Daryl's not here. I don't know if he's alive. I don't know if he made it. I'm alone. With a two year old. I can't breathe. I have no one. I gasp for air. There's nothing left. I can't take care of Sam. I can't protect him.

"Rick!" I scream. "Daryl! Anyone, please help me!" I know I shouldn't be shouting. But panic is sweeping over me. I can't do this alone.

"No crying," Sam says as he wipes a tear from my eye with his thumb. His cheeks are red from the cold. I need to get him inside.

I don't know where to go. I don't know if the sounds of the gunshots have drawn walkers in this direction. The forests can't be safe. I could stick to the main roads but I'm more likely to run into other survivors there. I don't know which I fear more: the dead or the living.

I decide to stick to the main roads. I have to find a house for me and Sam. I don't know how long we've been out here. I honestly don't even know how we survived the impact of the tank or how a walker didn't find us and kill us. None of it makes any sense.

I have no supplies. No food. No shelter. I hold another person's life in my hands. I keep crying. I look at Sam and I wonder if I should kill him. If I should kill us both. We can't survive out here. I know I can't keep us alive. It's only a matter of time before we die. I haven't felt this scared in a long time. I feel like I'm back in the train car, waiting to be eaten by my own kind.

I walk for a while in the snow. My feet go numb. Sam cries because he's cold. I shrug off my jacket and wrap it around him. The cold consumes me. My life feels like a death sentence. I know my time is up. I can feel it approaching. I feel my death on the tip of my tongue. So close I can taste it.

I find a large, deserted neighborhood. The houses are small and covered in snow. I choose the second house on the right because it reminds me of the one Daryl and I stayed in that belonged to Carrie's parents. The door is unlocked and I hold a gun in my free hand, listening for any walkers inside. All I hear is silence.