Sugar and Spice

Chapter 1

"Well I'll hold you to that, nurse..." This time it was his turn to hint at me for a name, I continued to smile at him at least I'd managed to cheer him up the slightest bit.

"Samuel Shelby," I told him as I slowly started to walk out when I reached the door I turned back to him finding him staring at me as I went. "But never Samuel always Sam." I joked a little before fully leaving to go to my other patient hearing him chuckle as I left the room.

I finished my last two patients rounds as I looked at the time 2:47 pm I got off in only thirteen minutes if nothing serious were to happen. I started to make my way towards the staff room for to catch up with some of the staff members before leaving I started to notice things, people were rushing around and I could here a lot of commotion from different areas of the hospital. Everything happened slowly one of the new nurses were walking past the one of the doors that lead to the hallway her name was Amber she had just graduated from nursing school the doors to the hallway suddenly slammed open by someone or something as she was tackled to the ground. The thing that tackled her to the ground looked human, but they were grey and their actions erratic as they sunk their teeth into Amber's shoulder. I stood frozen as her screams filled the air as the human like creature devoured her people running around me caught my attention as more of these things started to appear, thinking quickly I started to run as I saw other colleagues, patients and their families meeting the same fate as Amber at the hands of these creatures. When I was running I noticed a lot of these creatures coming in through the exit I had hoped to let out through, one looked up from a body they were devouring and met my bright blue eyes with their cold lifeless ones. Quickly, I turned sprinting back to the entrance I'd came through this morning going straight to my truck so I could start the long journey back to mine and Daryl's home. Ignoring the creatures that now hobbled around the streets as well as the speed limits hoping and praying that he would meet up with Daryl in time.

Everything was a blur one minute I was driving full speed to my house there was more of these freaks, people were lying on the ground being devoured as well as corpses laying in the street. I got there as fast as possible despite the distance between us not even pulling into the drive way or turning the engine off I ran into the house.

"DARYL!" I called out while searching the living room before moving into the kitchen, taking notice of the open cupboards and cabinets with items scattered around. "MERLE!" I shouted out hoping and praying that they were here somewhere after searching the whole house there was no sign of them what so ever and that's what broke my heart, but I couldn't dwell on that right now. I grabbed a duffel bag shoving clothes, food and water as well as an axe for protection from the shed noticing Daryl's crossbow missing also Merle's shot gun, when I was back in the house I took one of the most important things to me a picture of me and Daryl and shoving it into my bag. I made my way out to the truck bag slung over my shoulder with my axe at the ready encase anything happened. Despite these things looking like humans it didn't take a genius to work out they were far from it, glancing around there wasn't any in the streets so either they haven't reached this area or they are too occupied to notice me however I did see people just like me packing up and leaving. Getting back into my truck I threw my bag next to me and taking off down the road not knowing where I was going turning on the radio to try and calm my nerves, but it didn't help all the radio stations were about the 'epidemic' as they were calling it advising people to head to Atlanta for safety. Instantly I knew where I was going Daryl was stubborn at the best of times always refusing help but in this situation even he would accept it so I made my way to there as fast as I could burning through half my gas taking short cuts to avoid as much traffic as possible. The days passed by quickly and the closer I got the more of those things I encountered wandering at the side of the road what kept me going was the hope of seeing Daryl again waiting for me at the safe zone, but those dreams were crushed the moment I entered the city.

It was completely over run there was signs of a safe zone once being there like military vehicles dotted around the street as well as turned soldiers, the place looked like it fell quickly it had only been about a week and a half since this all started. I managed to get away as quickly as possible from the place and just drove not knowing where to go or where was really safe to go.

That was more than a month ago now and I was still driving managing to get by with taking food from abandoned houses that I found on my journey and siphoning gas from cars a long the road. I'd encountered some of them now around ten and ended up putting all of them down at first it was difficult but once I worked it out there was nothing to it. Every so often as I made my way down the road I glanced at the picture of me and Daryl I'd taken when I made a stop at the house it was currently pinned to my front mirror for a clear view.

However, there was something in the road a head it looked to be a traffic jam but I knew it was impossible I made my way closer till I was a few metres behind the mass of cars. This place looked more like a scrap yard then a road with rusted and damaged cars everywhere it was clear these had been here since the beginning. A path had been cleared by whoever was last here so I followed the path, but I quickly ran into a problem as the car came to a halt.

"No no no no no," I muttered to myself as I tried to restart the car again and again but it wasn't working checking the gas I realised the problem, I was out. "Damn it!" I shouted slamming my hands against the steering wheel I knew this would happen I'd been running on fumes for the last few hours so it was inevitable. The sun was setting outside and I really didn't want to risk making my way out and wandering in the dark so I decided to set up camp in my car for the night. Locking all the doors and moving myself into the back with my bag my axe still on hand, I covered my self in a blanket I had stolen from a house I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the seat.