Weeping Willows

Lost in the City

"Put your hands above your head, or I'll shoot!"
Grasping the grip of the pistol firmly in my hand, I glared down at the barrel at the silhouette of a male in front of me with their back to me.
I watched carefully as the man tensed and slowly lifted his hands up, his left hand loosely holding out his weapon in surrender.
All that he held in his hand was a small silver knife.
"Put it on the floor," I ordered, my eyes not leaving his form for even a second
"Listen, I don't want to hurt you. I was just looking for supplies, " he spoke shakily, slowly leaning down and placing the knife down on the floor.
Suddenly, the sound of a baby crying made us both turn our heads to the right where a small girl no more than 2-year-old laid in bundle of blankets in between the two of us crying in fear.
Hesitating, I looked back at the man, determining whether I thought he was a threat or not.
"Well, look somewhere else." I sighed, dropping my gun to my hip and placing it in a holster.
Quickly taking a few steps towards the little girl, I scooped her up in my arms carefully.
I quickly began to shush her.
"Hey, it's alright, baby. Dry your tears, " I whispered softly, wiping her tears away with the pads of my thumbs.
She let a few more whimpers before she finally calmed down.
Glancing at the man, I noticed he had turned around and was watching me cautiously.
Getting a better look at his face, I took in his asian features. He had slightly longer black hair tucked back in a red baseball cap. He looked about my age.
"You should get out of here. The more she cries, the more of them come. " I sighed, turning my back on him and focusing on the toddler again.
Using my right hand, I caressed the side of her face gently.
Slowly, the girl's cries slowed, and she fell silent as her eyelids drooped, and she fell asleep.
"Wait, maybe we can help each other," he quickly spoke up, catching my attention as I began to walk away.
Pausing in my step, I hesitated, looking back at him.
"How do you figure?" I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I have a camp. I can take you there!" He explained, "and in return, you can help me find supplies and get out of this city alive. "
Narrowing my eyes at him, I turned my body towards him.
"Why should I trust you? Better yet, why should you trust me?"
He hesitated slightly, shifting his weight from one foot to another.
"Well, for starters, you haven't killed me yet... and no offense, but anyone who would still be alive in all this with a screaming toddler must know how to get around those freaks," he spoke with a small smile on his face.
"What's your name?" I rose an eyebrow at him.
"Glenn Rhee," he dipped his head slightly.
"Well, Glenn Rhee, I'm afraid that you -"
Suddenly banging interrupted me.
We both quickly turned around and stared at the glass doors in front of us. Tensing as we saw a lone walker staring at us through the glass, slamming its hands on the door.
"Whatever we do, we need to make a decision soon," Glenn spoke quickly, his voice shaking slightly.
In seconds, one walker turned into half a dozen and then more. Soon, all that could be seen from out the shop windows was the dead.
"Shit. I told you they'd come. Follow me, " I ordered, strapping the girl into the baby carrier strapped to my chest.
Quickly sliding over the counter, I led Glenn back to the storage room, revealing an abundance of supplies.
Glenn looked around in a state of awe before looking back at me.
"This is a clothing store. Did you collect all of this yourself?" He gaped.
I smirked, somewhat proud of the amount I had gathered in Atlanta all by myself.
"The trick is to be quick and quiet. They're slow, and they're drawn to noise. Nothing firecrackers can't fix, " I explained, reaching into a bag and holding out several of the little red fireworks.
He shot me an impressed look before we both turned our head as the banging from the main floor got louder.
"We don't have a lot of time. We won't be able to grab it all. Grab the absolute essentials and don't pack too heavy. We need to be able to move quickly. " I ordered grabbing a large backpack from the pile.
He nodded, and both both quickly began filling our bags.
I quickly began tossing in all of the medical resources I'd found, first aid kits, bandages, rubbing alcohol and a few random pain killers I'd found. Next, I began grabbing food. In an attempt to keep my pack light, I grabbed all the dry foods my bag could carry.
"Alright, let's get to the roof. We can light these and throw them down into the street. We'll wait for them to wander away from the doors, and that's when we'll make our move. You got a car somewhere?"
He shook his head with a sigh, "No, it ran out of gas about half a mile out of the city."
This time, I was the one to look at him impressed.
"And you made it this deep into the city all by yourself on foot?"
He nodded, "Used to deliver pizzas, okay? I'm fast on my feet."
"Well, you might just survive this world then." I smiled slightly before brushing by him and rushing up the stairs onto the roof.
"I never caught your name?" He spoke up as he followed behind me up the stairs.
I glanced at him suspiciously, still determining whether this guy was gonna be trustworthy or not.
"If I was gonna kill you and take your stuff, I would have done it back when we were downstairs, and you didn't take my knife," he sighed, obviously noticing my hesitancy to trust him.
"I'm sorry. You're not the first person I've run into in the last month. You're just one of the only friendly faces, " I sighed before clasping my hand in his.
"My name is Katrina. Katrina Willows" I smiled tightly before dropping his hand and finishing the last bit of the trek up the stairs and opening the door to the roof.
"What about your daughter? Does she have a name?"
I tensed slightly, looking down at the little girl on my chest.
"Her name is Rosalie. But she's not mine. " My voice came out softer than I'd intended.
Glenn's eyes widened slightly at my sudden change in attitude, glancing down at the baby strapped to my chest.
"Oh, I just thought.... she looks a lot like you.. so I just assumed.. I didn't know. I'm sorry. " he looked away, embarrassed.
"How would you? Only a crazy person would take someone else's kid this far into the end of the world, " I replied dryly and I moved to the edge of the roof, pulling a zipping lighter out my back pocket.
"I don't think you're crazy. I think whoever that little girl belongs to must have meant a whole lot to you, " he argued.
His words made me fall silent, and I was quick to blink away my tears, staring down at the city street below us.
The whole front of the store was crowded with the dead at least 15 deep. The sun had just begun to set. We didn't have long before dark, so we needed to make our move now and at least try to get out of the city before nightfall.
Quickly bringing my lighter to the fuse of the firecrackers.
Bringing my arm back, I threw them as far as I could in the opposite direction of the building we were in. Before they even hit the ground, they had begun to go off.
Following them with my eyes, I watched them land beside a tank that sat in the center of the street a good half a block away from the store we stood on top of.
Trailinging my eyes back to the dead, I watched as they slowly turned and began shuffling away from the doors.
"I'm sure there will be stragglers when we get down there. You'll need to use a knife instead of your gun. One gunshot and everything goes to shit and we're dead, " I explained, turning to him.
Glenn nodded and quickly placed the gun in his back pocket and pulled his knife back out.
"Alright, let's get the hell out of here,"
Quickly pulling a small black tarp and put it over Rosalie and tucked it into the sides of the baby carrier, leaving a small gap at the top so she could breathe.
"What's that for?" Glenn watched me with furrowed eyebrows.
"If things get sticky, the dead get too close, I'm not risking one of those freaks grabbing her or scratching her," I explained.
"We're in Georgia. Won't she got too hot?" He asked worriedly.
"I'd take being hot over being one of those things dinner anyday. Wouldn't you?" I shot back quickly, shutting down his concern.
This made him nod, and he followed me back down the stairs.
When we got to the bottom, I quickly turned to Glenn and brought my hand to my lips, signaling for his to be quiet.
He nodded, and I turned carefully creeping to the floor of the store. Glancing at the doors, I saw two zombies.
"I've got left if you got right, " I whispered back to Glenn.
He nodded, and we both readied our knives.
Holding three fingers up, I slowly brought each one down.
3.....2.....1
Immediately, we both jumped up, opening each door quickly and burying our knives into the skulls of each walker.
Carefully lowering the body to the ground, I yanked my knife a couple of times before it finally slid out from the zombies eye.
Quickly wiping my knife on my jeans, I glanced at the horde just a few feet down the street.
Turning to Glenn, I silently gestured for him to follow me.
We quickly moved down the street, weaving between many of the cars that had been abandoned in the street as well as avoiding the rubble of the different buildings that had been destroyed by the napalm the government had dropped down on the streets.
Suddenly, Glenn grabbed my arm and yanked me into a nearby alley.
Immediately, my body went into panic, and I went to fight him off, but he quickly put his hand over my mouth and peeked his head around the corner.
Furrowing my eyebrows, I pushed his hand away and followed his gaze, peering around.
That's when I saw them. Two tan skinned men were fighting through a horde of walkers.
I tensed watching them for a moment when a different noise caught my attention.
Whipping my head to the right, I saw that the two men had now gained the dead attention, and now that the firecrackers stopped the whole hoard was coming towards them, but more importantly, Glenn and I.
"Son of a bitch" I seethed quickly turning back to the alley, my eyes scanning every inch of it, looking for something that could possibly help us get out of the situation we were about to be in.
My eyes searched for anything until they fell on a nearby fire escape.
"Let's get to the roof." I quickly ushered him towards the fire escape ladder.
He nodded and both rushed over and quickly climbed up.
Once we were on the roof, we had a better vantage point as we planned our escape.
"We need to help them," Glenn exclaimed as we both leaned over the edge of the roof.
I watched them for a moment before shaking my head.
"They're already dead," I sighed, looking away as one of them ran out of ammo and was quickly taken down by several of the dead.
Glenn looked down grimly as the second man was taken down quickly after.
Walking away from the edge, my eyes now scanned the roof.
Looking to the side, I let out a hum as I examined the space between the buildings.
"What are you thinking?"
I sighed walking about a foot or two away from the edge before running back, my heart beating heavily in my chest as I ran as fast as I could and leaped to the other roof of the building.
"Are you insane?!" Was the last thing I heard Glenn say before I landed on the other roof, carefully throwing my hands beneath myself so that I wouldn't land on Rosie.
I groaned as the rough floor scrapped my palms before peeling myself off the ground.
Turning around, I glanced at Glenn, who looked completely stunned.
"What? Haven't you seen like one of those parkour videos? Get a running start and jump, " I encouraged him.
"And what's the plan if I fall?! I'm dead!" He exclaimed.
"5 minutes and your dead anyway," I gestured to the rooftop door that was visibly shaking from the dead hitting behind it.
His eyes widened at the realization, and he hesitated for only a moment before cussing under his breath and walking back to where I had.
"If I fall I'm gonna fucking haunt you" he grumbled.
"Yea, yeah, just get moving, pizza boy," I smirked.
Taking one more step back, he took off and ran for it.
I quickly moved to the side, and he landed on the roof beside me, rolling a couple of times before coming to a stop.
He groaned, rolling flat to his back for a moment.
I quickly offered him my hand.
"Let's go. It'll be night soon, and let me tell you, this city isn't somewhere you wanna be at night, " I warned.
He sighed and nodded before taking my hand.
"As awful as it sounds, those two bought us some time. They're focused on dinner right now. If I can get down on the street level I can hot wire a car and we can get the fuck out of this city" I explained.
"You know how to hotwire a car?" He looked at me skeptically.
I nodded.
"Well then, we have nothing to lose, I guess. I say we take this fire escape down to the alley and make a break for it to that blue sedan. " he gestured to the car across the street.
"Alright. I just need you to watch my back with the stragglers. " I took a deep breath, climbing on the fire escape ladder and begging my descent down.
"Got it,"
He followed me down the ladder, watching me take down a lone walker that had been wandering the alley.
Peering out of the end of the alley, I eyed the street.
"Two up the street a little way. Are you up for this?" I turned to look at Glenn.
He nodded.
"Alright. Let's go. "
I quickly took off, throwing open the sedan door, I set Rosie on the passenger seat and quickly lowered myself to the floor of the driver side and began pulling out the wires.
I could hear Glenn taking down the dead here and there when suddenly I felt hands grabbing at my leg.
"Shit."
Jerking up, I shook my leg violently, trying to throw the hands off of me as I tried to reach the backseat where I'd thrown my knife, not thinking.
"Glenn!" I cried out.
"Hold on! There's more than we thought! They're coming out of the alley!" He called back.
My eyes widened as the walker crawled farther up my leg and reared its head back, seconds from taking a chunk out of my thigh when I quickly switched what I was reaching for.
Yanking my pistol from beneath my shirt, I shot it in the head.
As soon as I shot my gun, Rosie began screaming. I knew she was scared, and if I was being honest, so was I.
Quickly kicking the lifeless corpse of me, I crawled out of the car and put two more bullets into the Walkers Glenn was struggling with.
Glenn turned around shocked, but my eyes were already on the horde that was now coming around the corner towards us.
"Get in the car!" I panicked.
"Did you get it started?" He frowned, rushing to the passenger side of the car.
"Just get in," I demanded.
He quickly swung the door open and carefully picked Rosie up and held her in his lap as he got into the car and shut the door.
I quickly climbed in the door and tried to mess with the wires some more when a dark blue keychain brushed against my hand.
Furrowing my eyebrows, I looked at the side of the steering wheel.
"You've gotta be kidding. The whole time!" I complained quickly, turning the key.
The car stirred for a moment before clicking in defiance.
"C'mon," I muttered, flinching as banging began to be heard from all sides of the car.
"We're dead," Glenn announced.
I sent him I small glare before trying the key again.
And again, the car stirred before clicking.
"So dead," Glenn repeated.
"Would you just shut up?" I snapped before trying the key one last time.
This time, the car roared to life, and a grin broke out onto my face as I smacked the steering wheel triumphantly.
"Not today motherfuckers!" I cheered before slamming on the gas.
Pushing through a couple of Walkers, I did my best to weave around the abandoned cars and rubble in the street before we finally hit a clear path, and I made a straight shot out of Atlanta.
About a mile out of town, we pulled over, and Glenn and I switched seats so I could hold Rosie, and he could get us back to his camp.
Holding Rosie in my arms, I smiled softly, watching as her eyes fluttered slightly and sleep began to overtake her features.
Glancing at Glenn, I smiled again, realizing he might not be that bad after all.
"A teacher"
Suddenly, Glenn looked at me confused.
"What?"
Shifting slightly in my seat, I wrapped Rosie in a blanket before smiling at him.
"Earlier, you said you were a pizza boy before all of this? Well, I was a 1st grade teacher. "