Chapter 4: Atlanta

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Rick talks into the radio in the car, "anybody out there? Anybody please respond" he pleads. I look out the window knowing how hopeless it is, having been trapped for weeks with no help. "Can anybody here my voice?" He asks. He keeps this up for a few more minutes before putting the radio back and keeping his white knuckles on the wheel, keeping on towards Atlanta.

He pulls down the visor and takes a picture out, looking down at it occasionally as we drive. The car eventually runs out of gas and we are walking from were we left off. We slowly come across a farm house, seemingly quiet around the area. He shouts out who he is as we get closer to the front door and I wander off to a swing hanging from a tree, letting him take care of talking to people and getting what we need. "Rick, would a horse do?" I call out to him as he sits with his head down on some steps, no one coming to answer the door. He looks up to me and I turn my head to show him where the horse is standing, unbothered. He makes his way towards the stall the horse is in and starts to talk to it sweetly "taking that thing out on a date?" I call out to him in mockery. He ignores me and continues to try and engage with the horse. It doesn't take long before the horse is wrangled and he's pulling him out towards me. He helps me on the horse and asks if I've ever ridden before, "nope" I say back, uneasy about the whole thing.

"Alright. I'll drive" he smirks and moves the horse towards a stump to get a lift up for himself. "Hold on, Sadie." He says to me, "go easy, okay? I haven't done this for years" he adds on, taking me a moment to understand he was talking to the horse then and not to me. He kicks the horse on the side softly and it begins to trot forward as we bounce uncomfortably trying to get used to the new form of transportation.

We make our way into the city, trash and debris fill the streets but it's ultimately quiet and dead. The good kind of dead. Barricades are broken through and cars litter the streets but there are no people to be found. We trot slowly pass a bus and the horse gets startled as dead beings begin to come out from it, "wow" I say startled by its sudden jerk and sound around me.

 We trot slowly pass a bus and the horse gets startled as dead beings begin to come out from it, "wow" I say startled by its sudden jerk and sound around me

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"Wow. Wow." He encourages the horse to calm down, "it's just a few, nothing we can't handle" Rick says to it, or to me. He kicks the horse forward. As we continue our way through the city a sound is heard in the sky.

We both look up to find the source and I notice the reflection of a helicopter on a building, "over there" I point and Rick gallops the horse towards it, wanting to get its attention.

As we go forward he tries to turn the horse down a street but we are met with a cities worth of the living dead compiled together. The horse stops and jumps back, and I fall off of it as it does, "go, go!" I shout to Rick holding my head, knowing I can't get back on without them getting to us both. I stand up quickly, looking at all my options and decide to run towards an ally way with what looks like a clear path out, "I'll catch up with you" I shout out to him as I quickly move my feet away from the crowd.

"Sadie!" I hear him call after me but I don't turn around to see him. To afraid to see what's following me to look back. I get into the ally and there's a fence blocking my way through. I hear them getting closer and I look around hoping for a shattered window or open door to go through. Luck has it and there's an open window on the second floor, reachable by the fire escape. I run towards it quickly, with momentum for the jump and get a hold of it. I take a step upwards and just as I do one reaches the steps. I keep my feet moving and make my way into the window. Inside is an apartment kitchen. I step into the sink and onto the floor, crashing dishes down along with me, "damn it!" I say annoyed at the commotion it made. I hear gunshots in the distance, and I hope it's Rick making his way to somewhere safe. My thoughts are quickly interrupted as a walker bursts into the room. His hair matted with blood and a gauge of teeth marks in its arm. It lunges at me wanting to eat and I grab the first thing closest to me. My stomach wrenches at the idea of killing it but I smash the bowl against its head and it stumbles backwards. I push it once, twice, three times back into the room it came from and shut the door quickly, blocking it with a chair from escaping. I stumble back into the kitchen and fall against the floor, breathing heavily and shaking.

I don't have time to stay though as the door that's protecting me from dying is being pushed against. Although everything in me doesn't want me to, I grab the biggest knife I can find and hold it tightly in my right hand with no intention to kill with it. I move through the place, looking for the main doorway and find it quickly. I open the door slightly and glance into the hall way. I don't see anybody and put myself quickly away from that apartment and into another. I search the 2 bed 1 bathroom apartment and find no one living or dead inside. Although it has been ransacked through I don't want anything but a place to sit at the moment and gather my thoughts.

I wake up on the floor against a wall to the sound of a car alarm! My body freezes in fear at the sound, knowing how many of those things it could draw out. I stay frozen in my spot, my breath barely audible as I closely listen to it get closer and then farther and farther away. When I can no longer here it anymore I take a huge sigh of relief and let my tears spill out of my eyes. I cry for a long time, I cry myself to sleep on the hard wood floor. When I wake up again, I can barely see anything, only the moonlight giving off enough to see what's right in front of me. Too afraid to move, I stay where I am not wanting to draw any attention in case they really do come out more at night like Morgan said. Another hour or two pass by before the sun begins to rise giving me more light to move around. I use the tub to relieve myself and happily pack the toilet paper left on the roll easily forgotten through the rummage. I know I need to get out of here and find somewhere more obvious to be found by Rick. Except, I only know the way I came from so I decide to backtrack my way to the other apartment. When I go back inside I look to the bedroom door instantly. It's still on the hinges, the dead person behind it still trying to get through losing its steam through the night. I creep past the door and into kitchen, careful to step over the broken glass and other dishes scattered around. I look down the fire escape and see a few of them still lingering around, too many for me to get past. I sigh, feeling defeated and look around me to come up with another plan. I look up and the fire escape goes all the way to the roof. I place the knife I got last night in the back of my belt that I'm sporting and begin my climb upwards. I reach the top of the roof and look down, the dead's attention back on me, their sound bringing more towards them. I walk to the front of the building to get a view of what's below me. I gasp as I look at the scene below. There's walkers everywhere, spread out across the streets of Atlanta. The huddled city of people is now blocking everything. Among the blood and bodies I spot where Rick and I were ambushed and see the bag of guns we got from his precinct on the ground. Although it could be a bad thing, I try and think of it as a positive thing. There's no blood or body surrounding it, meaning he must have got away. I retreat away from the edge and find somewhere to sit in the shade, trying to come up with another plan.

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