✓ | SPITFIRE ¹ ✶ the walking dead

⠀⠀⠀𝒙𝒊𝒙. back to the beginning

⠀⠀⠀He watched as people got out of their cars, running from their cars and trying to make it away from the dead. Cal nearly did the same but paused. He took in a deep breath, allowing the oxygen to reach his brain and let him a second to think. Despite the damage to the front end of his car, Cal was closed off from the dead. The worst they could do was pin him inside or break the glass open, but only if they knew he was inside.

⠀⠀⠀Cal crawled into the backseat, lying on the floor with his knife resting on his stomach. He waited, but nothing happened. Their moans waned, as did the people in the cars. He stayed the night, then in the morning made a last-ditch effort to run for it.

⠀⠀⠀Cal made it halfway through the woods before realizing he had gotten so worked up he forgot his backpack. He had a knife, but if he was going to survive, that backpack had supplies he needed.

⠀⠀⠀Cal turned back, jogging toward the highway again, believing all the dead had gone. However, one seemed to have lingered, ambushing him with a howl and tackling Cal to the ground. Its white, lifeless eyes stared back into Cal's as it tried to claw into his skin. Cal held it back with one hand around its neck while the other used his knife to stab into its chest.

⠀⠀⠀Nothing happened, and Cal began to panic. He tried to kick the abomination off of him, but he didn't know much of these things. He barely got access to his phone, a flip phone with no internet, and his mom had turned off the TV when the news tried to explain what to do when they arrived.

⠀⠀⠀A ring struck the air, and the dead slumped over, falling on Cal's chest. Cal groaned, disgusted as the dead's clotted blood smeared across his face. He shrugged the dead off of him after a second of struggling.

⠀⠀⠀Cal laid back, staring at the sky as he panted. Bright blue without a cloud in sight was his and Bianca's sky. Then, a man engulfed his vision looking eight feet tall above him. He gave Cal a kind smile, one like a father. His face was soft-featured and looked in his mid-forties due to the wrinkles pulling at the sides of his face and forehead.

⠀⠀⠀"You seem to need some help, son," the man commented, holding his hand out to Cal. He pulled him to his feet then retracted his hand as they stared at one another.

⠀⠀⠀"Thank you, I appreciate it," Cal said, looking around nervously. Cal worried he'd gotten mixed up with someone he didn't need to be. "I'll be on my way, now. I'm trying to get to some family in town."

⠀⠀⠀"I wouldn't try that just yet, young man," the man chuckled, his southern drawl making him seem like a Martha Stewart type of kind. The one you just didn't fully trust. "The city's overrun. It'll be a while until you can pass through. But, you can stay with us until it does, then we'll get you on your way."

⠀⠀⠀Cal hesitated, frowning, but he couldn't deny it seemed more of those dead people were popping up.

⠀⠀⠀"Just for the night," Cal said, adjusting the terms for himself.

⠀⠀⠀"Alright, for the night," the man agreed, although he didn't seem to believe Cal wouldn't stay for longer. "What's your name, son?"

⠀⠀⠀"Cal."

⠀⠀⠀"Cal," the man repeated, nodding his head. Cal was glad he didn't search for a last name, not like they needed it. But, he wanted to keep that for himself or ditch it entirely, if he was honest. "I'm Philip. I think we'll get through this crazy thing together just fine."

AUTHOR'S NOTE —

Hee hee hee!!!! Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You know where Cal is. We will FINALLY get to see where's he's been, how he's doing and read his point of view in the next act.

I kind of want to do his and Bianca's POV in a similar style to Rick Riordan in the Heroes of Olympus series or Leigh Bardugo in Six of Crows (I've only read the first book so I'm not sure if she does it in the other Grishaverse books. Yes, I do like it but I suck at reading so I never got past those :/ ). Anyways, the point is that I want to do their POVs back and forth between chapters so one or two are Bianca and then one or two are Cal and so on. But, for Act 3 at least it's a little more all over the place with Woodbury so it'll be a little less structured on whose POV it is.

Lmao okay, that's probably an unnecessary info-dump. I hope you guys are excited and I hope to start posting in two weeks!! As you might have read but I'll say again I got a new job and am getting stretched thin with training and leaving my current job. 

Love you guys, hope to read your comments soon!

SONG: As the World Caves In by Matt Maltese

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment if you'd like. However, this is an all kind of reader safe space. So even if you ghost read or comment every chapter, I hope you know it means the world to me that you've come into this fic ♡ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until the next one.