PHOSPHENES¹ [the walking dead]

A - I

GUTS

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the world as we knew it had ended.

the dead rose to attack the living.

one bite, one scratch was enough for you to turn into one of them.

horrible creatures, cursed, to wander the earth with not a destination in mind. but only with hunger and thirst for anything that moved or made sounds.

those who survived the outbreak of this virus stayed together. those unfortunate enough to find themselves alone wished to be a part of one of these groups.

camps and safe heavens were created in the hopes of escaping God's wrath. for there was safety in numbers.

on the outskirts of atlanta, stood one of these camps.

it was surrounded by only trees. in the centre of it stood a camper where two men were working on a faulty hose.

"boy, that hose isn't long for this world, is it?" dale, who owned the camper, was talking to Jim, another one of the survivors.

Dale was a man in his sixties. he, by far, was the oldest in the group. with his age came wisdom. often, members of the group would walk up to the man for advice.

jim was younger, in his forties. in his previous life, life before the dead started walking, he was a car mechanic. joined with dale he was given the task to fix the old camper.

"no, sir, " jim replied.

"where the hell are we going to find a replacement?" dale sighed, placing his hands on his hips.

behind them, closer to the woods, sat a young blond girl. a few days prior, her older sister had left the group to venture into the city of atlanta. and as expected in this new world, she was worried about her older sister.

"it's late. they should be back by now, " she confided to another survivor, beatrix.

"Don't worry, amy. they'll be fine." beatrix laid her hand on the girl's shoulder.

beatrix had long brown hair which had been placed in the same half up-do for the last three years or so. her outfit consisted of a pair of black cargo pants and a black tight top. on top of that, she wore a black zip-up sweater to keep her warm, though she did not need it in the weather they had been experiencing these days. it was the same outfit she had worn when shit hit the fan.

when she lost her mother.

a few feet away from them sat a radio on the ground. the group had been trying to contact anybody and everybody. trying to warn them about the dangers in the city.

unfortunately, they haven't had much luck with the thing.

suddenly, noise started to come out of it, making dale get up and make his way over.

"hello? hello?" he spoke into it. "reception's bad on this end. repeat. repeat."

over the radio, the voice of t-dog could be heard, barely.

t-dog was together with amy's sister and some others of their group in the city of atlanta, looking for supplies to help them survive.

the others, standing around, made their way closer to dale now too, interested in what was going on.

"we're in some deep shit. we're trapped in the department store." came over the radio.

shane, a police officer, spoke up next. "he says they're trapped?"

shane walsh was the leader of this small group. before the end of the world, he was a police officer and so most of the survivors placed their trust in his hands. that made him the unspoken leader, apparently.

t-dog continued to speak over the radio. "there are geeks all over the place. hundreds of 'em. we're surrounded."

that's when the radio cut out. the group was left in an eerie silence, looking at one another trying to come up with ideas to help their fellow group members out. one of the ideas was to go to atlanta and fetch them themselves.

"no way. we do not go after them. we do not risk the rest of the group. y'all know that." shane quickly shut it down.

those who were close to the people stuck in atlanta immediately retaliated against him.

"what the fuck, dude? no!" beatrix shouted out, pointing her finger in his general direction.

amy stood up right next to beatrix "andrea, she volunteered to go and help the rest of us."

"i know, and she knew the risks, right?" shane argued back, bending slightly through his knees to look at the girls. beatrix rolled her eyes at his behaviour while turning away from the cop.

"see, if she's trapped, she's gone. so we just have to deal with that. there's nothing we can do." shane bluntly told the blonde.

"she's my sister, you son of a bitch." amy left after that, rightfully so. beatrix just gave him the side-eye and followed the girl to comfort her.

in the city, the rest of the survivors made it out.

well most of them anyway. all but one.

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30/08/21
edited