Daryl's Angel (Book One in the Apocalypse Angel Trilogy)

Chapter 3: Abandonment

I wait inside with the others while Morales and Rick bring in a dead walker. Everyone is wearing rubber gloves and lab coats. Rick prepares to hack the walker open with an axe when he pauses.

"We should acknowledge his life," he says.

We wait as he leans down, taking a wallet from the walker's coat. He flips it open.

"Wayne Dunlap. Georgia license. Born in 1979. He had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when he died, and a picture of a pretty girl." He turns a picture over, reading some writing on it. "With love, from Rachel. He used to be like us, worrying about bills, rent, the Super Bowl. He had a life. If I ever find my family again, I'm going to tell them about Wayne."

Rick puts the wallet back, taking the axe in his hands.

"Wait." I put my hand up to stop him. Everyone stares at me. I take a deep breath. "I want to go with Rick and Glenn."

Surprised looks cross everyone's faces.

"Are you crazy?" Andrea exclaims.

"I want to go. I need to help." I cross my arms, determined.

"No offence, but you aren't exactly experienced," T-dog says.

"Try me," I challenge. "I can do this."

Rick shrugs, and everyone nods. He puts on a protective mask and proceeds to hack the walker apart, earning retches and groans from the whole group.

He hands the axe to Morales, who does some more chopping.

"Oh god. This is bad. So not good..." Glenn moans, holding his stomach.

"Everyone got gloves? Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes," Rick warns.

We bend down, reaching our hands into the walker's gut and smearing the blood onto Glenn, Rick, and my bodies.

"This is so bad. Ugh..." Glenn moans again. "I'm gonna hurl."

"Think of something else. Puppies and kittens," Rick says.

"Dead puppies and kittens," T-dog grumbles.

Glenn gulps one more time before emptying the contents of his stomach onto the floor.

"What is wrong with you? That's sick," Andrea scolds, draping an intestine over my shoulder.

"Sorry bro," T-dog says.

"Alright," Rick says once we're fully covered. "Let's go."

I gag, covering my nose, and Glenn does the same.

"Do we smell dead?" I ask quietly.

Andrea sniffs the air near us. "Oh yeah."

"Come on. The sooner the better," Morales urges.

"Rick? Maybe you should un-handcuff Merle from the roof, or at least give someone the key so they can do it," I whisper.

Rick nods, pulling a key from his pocket and tossing it to T-dog, who catches it easily. I turn to the door, my heartbeat quickening.

Glenn touches my shoulder gently. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

I nod. I'm ready to see what the world has become.

Together, we walk into the alley and creep towards the main road.

The first thing I notice is the almost deafening silence. No cars are making noise, no people. Only the moans of walkers and the shuffling of undead feet can be heard throughout the whole city. I try to remember what cars sounded like, but the sound is already leaving my memories.

Walkers stumble by us, sniffing the air. They leave us alone, and I try to make myself less tense.

Rick motions for us to duck, and we crawl on our stomachs underneath a large truck. Once out from beneath it, we gets back up, starting to shuffle among the crowd. Our disguises work, and we go unnoticed. I try not to breathe. I'm terrified.

I look at Rick. He looks confident, calm, although his hands tremor slightly. Glenn on the other hand, looks nervous and sick. I feel like any wrong movement will cost me my life, so I probably look more like Glenn right now.

I try to calm myself down. We only have a little of a ways to go.

I feel a drop of water land on my forehead. As it starts to rain, I look to Rick and Glenn, horrified. Our disguises are being washed away.

I mouth urgently, "We have to run."

Rick nods. We look at Glenn. He nods too.

A walker to Rick's right sniffs the air, then turns to us.

It lunges.

Rick, with lightning speed, whips out his axe and wedges it into the walker's brain. It slumps to the ground and I try not to puke while muffling a scream of terror at the same time.

The three of us start running. I pull ahead of the two men, climbing the chain link fence leading into the construction site. Glenn is close behind me, and Rick brings up the rear, firing at any walkers that get too close. The walkers push against the fence, and it starts to give way. Glenn swiftly locates the keys to the van, tossing them to Rick.

I run to the van and hop in the back while Rick swings into the driver's seat. Glenn is already seated in the passenger side.

The van starts and races down the road, heading away from the department store.

"What are you doing?!" I shout. "We've got to go get the others!"

"Glenn, radio the group. Tell them we're coming back," Rick orders. "We need a distraction to get the walkers away from the store."

Rick stops the van. Glenn and him run over to a red Dodge Challenger sports car, where Rick smashes the window and sets off the car alarm. Glenn jumps in and starts racing back to the heart of Atlanta, alarm blaring all the way.

"Come on!" I shout to Rick as he gets back into the van.

He revs the engine and speeds back to the department store, smashing into walkers as we go. It feels like I'm in some twisted video game.

The van backs up at the store, allowing the rest of the group to throw their bags into the back and pile in as soon as they lift up the giant metal door.

I hear the sound of the second set of doors shattering, allowing the walkers to enter the store. No one says anything as we drive away.

We all look at T-dog, who looks guilt-ridden beyond relief.

"Merle?" Andrea asks.

"I dropped the damn key," T-dog says.

Everyone falls back into silence, and I stare out the back window at Atlanta, the home I'm leaving behind.