Chapter 1: China Plates are for the Dead-Ones
The streets were empty, but never before so crowded. Atlanta wasn't a place of the lively and living; no, my quaint city belonged to the dead now. After the military was overrun and all means of safety began to fail, Atlanta was trapped in an ever growing downwards spiral and all security was forever lost. Lola and I were what seemed like the only two that didn't seek safety in the heart of the city for we had been able to foresee what was to come; all the devastation that followed.
I sat on the balcony of our still standing apartment and looked out to the deadly and diseased streets. Lola and I lived on the sixth floor so the living dead weren't much of a problem. Once people had started to escape the building and the city, we checked that the apartment complex was empty and barricaded it so Lola and I could be safe from whatever those things out there were. There wasn't much going on today, not like there ever was. We never had any living visitors, nor did we ever have to deal with any dead ones. The most fun that we ever saw from the balcony was one of those things eating a live bird and devouring it, and even that isn't very exciting. We did have an incident not too long ago where we could've sworn we heard a horse, a helicopter and multiple gun-shots, but it could have quite easily been the hunger settling in.
"Anything new out?" called Lola from the kitchen.
"The usual" I replied in monotone "same old, same old"
"Everything's so goddamn boring now" she huffed, folding her arms over her chest as she walked out to me and took a seat opposite me on the balcony "and lonely"
"It's been like this for about a month, we'll get used to it"
"What if I don't want to get used it?" sighed Lola, raising her voice a little.
"What exactly are you implying?" I hissed.
She just gave me an odd look before muttering something unintelligent under her breath and stalking away.
It was still around midday so we had quite a while before darkness was to fall, meaning we still had enough time to go out and get supplies. Lola and I did these runs together for if we went alone we would surely be killed. We've had a few near misses in the pass and Lola seemed to be more frightened of the things than I was, so I would always take the lead in our supply runs.
"How are we going with food?" I called out to her from the balcony, the raised volume of my voice drawing the attention of a couple of dead-ones outside. Yeah, we didn't know what to call them so we thought dead-ones was fair enough.
"We're running low, probably only enough for two to three days if we manage it sustainably" said Lola "The street looks alright for now so maybe now would be a good time to go and get some shit"
"Agreed"
"SHANE BEHIND YOU!" the cries of a man rang out across the street and I instantly bolted to my feet, the plastic chair which I sat upon falling carelessly behind me. I leant over the balcony to see if I could catch a glimpse of whom the voice belonged to. Our lack in visitors made this occasion a big deal. Gun shots began to echo around the city, catching the attention of Lola and the dead-ones.
"Hold that thought!" I called back to Lola.
"HOLY FUCK MAN, MOVE IT! GO GO GO!" screamed another voice.
The futile and hungry moans of the dead-ones grew louder as they became a herd and seemingly chased the men I couldn't exactly pinpoint. Finally I located them holding onto a rusty old ladder that only went half way up a goddamn building, holding on helplessly and staring down at an imminent death that awaited them.
"What the fuck is all this?" yelled Lola as she stormed onto the balcony, looking out at the dead-ones that surrounded the supermarket across the road from us "aw man look at that! The supermarket is fucking surrounded now, how the fuck are we going to get into there?"
"Looks like we ain't gonna" I replied "should we help?"
"And how exactly are we going to do that without getting ourselves killed?" smirked Lola as she played with the ends of her hair.
I sat there and thought for a few brief seconds for an ingenious idea crossed my mind.
"Bingo" I smiled as I envisioned how our rescue mission would play out in my mind "Lola, get some of the china plates from the cupboard?"
"And what are you going to do with them?"
"Just do it!" I yelled, sprinting from the balcony and into the kitchen, pulling open the cupboards and finding the crappiest china plates I could as Lola did the same.
I then ran back to the balcony and set them down on the table so I wouldn't accidently drop one onto my foot and so that the plates were organised and grab-able. I snatched one plate from the table and tossed it at the crowd of dead-ones that clawed at the still and silent men which continued to cling onto the ladder for dear life. The sound the china made when it broke on the concrete ground was awfully loud but attracted a fair amount of dead-ones that appeared to be getting bored of the men.
"What the fuck are you doing?!" screamed Lola as she watched me tossing our plates out into the street, creating a china path to our apartment.
"Helping" I huffed as I heaved another plate out onto the street before running back inside and opening the fridge hurriedly, withdrawing a couple of dead pigeons I had managed to shoot from the rooftop of the apartment. They were originally going to be made into a soup for Lola and I, but there were two humans' lives in danger here and I couldn't help but put myself into their shoes. If I was in trouble like this, I'd want someone to help me.
I ran back onto the balcony and tossed the freshly killed pigeons out and over, the dead-ones becoming bored with the two men and feeding on the pigeons instead. I know how big a waste it was, but I believed it to be worth it.
"You've gone insane" cried Lola "that's our food!"
"And those are two grown, young men that are going to become their food in a second if we don't help"
I watched the two guys look around to try and find their saviours, the couple finally spotting Lola and I on the balcony.
"RUN!" I screamed at them, waving my arms up and over my head "RUN WHILE YOU STILL FUCKING CAN! GET THE FUCK OUT OF ATLANTA! THE CITY ISN'T SAFE!"
The men looked at each other before jumping down from the ladder and making a run for it. Before long they were gone and out of sight.
After around half an hour after the rescue had taken place, the dead-ones had begun to move away from the apartment, realising that there was no more food to be going around, and spread out once more across the city to do what they did every single day: nothing. Lola and I assumed that there must be a few dead ones around the base of the building as the barricade we had created creaked and shuddered.
"Are you gonna take care of that?" sneered Lola, obviously still upset over our food loss and pissed off at me.
"Looks like nobody else is going to if I don't" I sighed, getting up from the couch I was strewn across and grabbed my gun from my bedside table, also making sure that the knife in my pocket was still there. I left the apartment room and headed down the stairs that seemed to wind down forever. Finally I had arrived at the bottom and so no signs of any dead-ones.
"Hmm, must've just been a little rattle" I mumbled to myself before spinning around on my heel and seeing a man right in my face.
I screamed and pointed my gun at the man's chest with my finger on the trigger, ready to shoot. He was a man though, not a dead-one, but Lola and I didn't trust human beings either. We wanted to live alone and live in peace, not having to deal with intruders or robbers.
"Woah, honey, calm down!" breathed the man as another man, paler than the one I currently had my gun pointed at came through the open window. I normally had that window closed but it looks like Lola must have done a run and forgotten to close it. Seeing as we had barricaded the actual building, the only way for Lola and I to get in and out was to go through the window.
"Don't you dare tell me to calm down, I will shoot you" I said fearlessly, jabbing the gun into his chest as my finger twitched on the trigger.
"Well, if you want to shoot me I'm afraid you'll have to turn the safety off" he chuckled, reaching out and turning the safety off for me "okay, now you can shoot me"
I lowered my gun and turned the safety back on, stuffing it back in my pocket and placing my hands on my hips.
"Who are you?" I hissed at them, the man that had just come in through the window speaking first.
"My name is Rick Grimes and this man here that you were about to shoot is Shane Walsh, we don't want any trouble" said the man now to be identified as Rick "and thank you for saving us earlier"
"It's no trouble"
Rick was a man of slight build, not as bulky as his muscle-man friend. He had light stubble that caressed the lower part of his face and medium brown hair. He was dressed in a cop uniform and looked very professional. He didn't look like a bad guy, nor did he appear to be a threat to my group. He was quite attractive, but I couldn't say he matched the looks of his partner, Shane. Shane was of a reasonably stocky build, tanned and with dark brown hair which matched his hazel eyes. Shane wore some beige coloured pants which were held up by a black belt with a blue button up three-quarter rolled sleeved shirt.
"you guys don't seem so bad" I huffed "my name's Zelda"
"Is there anyone else in here? Humans? Walkers?" said Shane as he looked around.
"Walkers? Is that what you call them?" I asked.
"Why? What do you call them?" replied Rick.
"Dead-ones, I know, not as creative" I said "but in any case, there are none of those and I live with my friend Lola"
"That's it? You've been living like that for this whole time?" pushed Rick.
"Living? Surviving is more like it" I sneered .