Chapter 4: Guts
I stared after Shane as he slid through the open window on the ground level on the apartment building. I still had no clue what their plan was so watching Rick helping Shane haul over a few dead-ones kind of scared me. I stared at the things in disgust.
“Don’t worry, they’re dead.” chuckled Shane as he climbed back in through the window.
“Pardon the pun,” I smirked as I pinched my nose due to the god awful smell “poor bugger’s been killed twice already.”
“Yeah, what exactly do you plan to do with these?” frowned Lola as she observed the two corpses.
“Exactly what we did a week ago when we were in the city,” smiled Rick “we’re gonna become Walkers.”
I was horrified. I had no idea what they meant, meaning I was quick to judge.
“You’re going to kill us?!” I yelped as my hand reached for the knife that remained in my pocket.
The smile on Rick and Shane’s faces grew until they looked like their heads were about to explode. The two of them burst out into laughter at this obvious misunderstanding.
“What?” hissed Lola “what’s so funny?”
“We’re not planning on killing you,” laughed Rick “but you might want to do it yourself once this is over.”
“He’s kidding, of course.” Grinned Shane.
I couldn’t wipe the frown from my face. What they said wasn’t funny by any means and my understanding of their previous speech wasn’t exactly hilarious either. They said that we would become Walkers, what else was I meant to think?
“Nope, you’re in for one hell of a ride my friend.” Chortled Rick.
“You ready to get your hands dirty?” asked Shane as he took a couple of axes out from the weapon bag, handing me one.
I took it firmly in my hands as Shane continued to stare at me with an amused expression on his face “follow my lead.”
Shane gripped the axe tightly before bringing it down onto the dead-one’s body, brown blood splattering all over the place and onto my clothing. He wrenched the axe out of the dead one as the blade had gotten caught between a couple of its brittle bones, before lifting it up and down again into the dead-one.
“Are you gonna help or not?” asked Shane as he smashed the axe into the dead-one repeatedly.
I didn’t say anything, I just nodded quickly before positioning myself at the legs of the dead-one.
“Woah, we don’t need the legs,” said Shane as he heaved a sigh “It’s the guts we’re looking for.”
“Oh no, don’t tell me…” I said, dazed by what was coming. I knew what this was. I knew exactly what we were about to do. We were, just like they said, going to become dead-ones. We would dress up as them, their guts are our disguise. They can smell the difference between them and a live human being, and so can we. We would blend in by smell.
“Fuck, I don’t want to do this.” I groaned as I dropped my axe on the ground.
“Why not?” asked Shane.
“I’m not draping someone’s fucking intestine around my neck!” I exclaimed.
“Look sweetheart, we don’t have all day,” said Shane in annoyance “we either do this and go or you two can stay and die here.”
“Shane!” yelled Rick “choose your words more carefully!”
Shane rolled his eyes at Rick before bringing the axe into the dead-one once more. I knew what Shane was thinking at this point; he thought we couldn’t handle it. Shane thought we were just some pussies afraid of gore. Well, I was about to prove him wrong.
I pushed gently past Shane and kneeled at the dead-ones side before reaching into its open and bleeding stomach and ripping out what I could. I smeared the blood all over my clothing, taking in the smell of death. The reddish-brown liquid stained my clothing as I lathered it over me, Lola, Rick and Shane watching me as though I was mad. I wrestled with the dead-ones intestine for a moment before taking it and adorning my neck with it, continuing on to lather as much of the things guts as I could onto me.
As soon as I was done, I looked over at Shane whom had an impressed look on his face.
“Come on sweetheart, we don’t have all day.” I leered, mocking him, before turned around and getting up onto the table that was still parked in front of the open window.
Shane, Rick and Lola did the same as me, Lola getting creative and forming a limp bow around her neck out of the second dead-one’s intestine, something I found totally sick. I on the other hand simply hung it around my neck without much fuss. All we needed to do is to smell like them and act like them; if we did that we’d sneak past them perfectly.
As soon as we were all bloody, covered in guts and smelt puke-worthy, we all headed out onto the streets of Atlanta for what would be the last time. I let Rick and Shane walk faster ahead as I walked backwards from the apartment, wanting to catch a couple of last glances at our home. Lola held my hand tightly. When I looked at her beside me, I caught her trying not to cry.
“It’s for the better.” I said with a nod as she looked over at me.
“What if it’s not,” she said with a sad look upon her blood-spattered face “what if this is all just one big, fat mistake.”
“It’s not going to be,” I sighed as I turned away from the apartment, attempting to pull her along behind me “I promise.”
“Don’t keep promises you can’t keep.” She growled as she let go of my hand and walked up ahead of me, her blood stained blonde hair swishing gracefully down her back as she caught up to both Rick and Shane. I decided I would lag behind and try and get into character.
Finally, it was time to make the big moves down the main road of Atlanta that lead to outside the city. It was crowded with dead-ones as they all moaned and snarled, making throaty noises as they limped across the street. It was a frightening experience if I do say so myself. I couldn’t brave this alone and I needed someone beside me.
I jogged quietly up to Shane as we all peered around the corner of the alleyway we were in and into our very overcrowded exit route.
“We should go in pairs,” I whispered “you know, in case something happens.”
“I agree.” Said Shane before telling Rick my idea.
“Good plan,” said Rick quietly before explaining to us how this whole escape from Atlanta would play out. There was a supposed car parked just outside the metal fencing of Atlanta that they had used to drive into the city yesterday and that all we had to do was act like a dead-one and climb into the car with Rick driving us back to the group.
“I’ll take Zelda,” said Shane as we were the first to walk out onto the street “stay close, and don’t make any sudden moves.”
I nodded and off we went into the heavily congested exit street of Atlanta.
Shane and I walked slowly through the city, a limp in our step as we did so in an attempt to move like the living dead. I walked as close to him as I could, afraid of straying a mere centimetre away. I felt weaker with Shane alongside me, but I also felt safer. I felt like the damsel in distress clinging to her only hope, but that wasn’t like me at all. I could kick anyone’s ass if they provoked me enough to, doesn’t matter if they’re dead or alive.
The hungry moans of the dead-ones echoed through the street as the creatures observed us, giving us a few looks and growling a bit before walking off and leaving us be. I glanced behind me to see a petrified look on Lola’s face as she walked beside Rick, her pale and blood covered arms pressing up against Ricks arm.
After twenty minutes or so, we had walked half the distance. The reason it was taking so damn long was due to the fact that we had to be slow, for if we moved quickly we surely be noticed and get killed. I didn’t fancy on being discovered whilst within a herd of dead-ones. Unfortunately, there was only so much we could control over our fate. We could do everything in our power to disguise ourselves amongst the dead-ones, but that didn’t mean that the weather had to cooperate. I felt one wet drop fall from the sky and splash directly onto my nose before another one landed on my cheek.
“Shane.” I hissed as I motioned up at the sky.
“Fuck it, we can’t do anything about it,” whispered Shane “just keep moving.”
I took a glimpse of Rick and Lola catching up to Shane and I, the both of them looking equally as terrified now that the rain was beginning to pour.
“Shane, we’ve got to get underneath the shelter.” I murmured as quietly as I could.
“No, it’ll take longer that way.” Argued Shane.
“Shane please, the blood will wash off.” I begged.
“You can go, but I’m doing what I feel comfortable doing,” snarled Shane “understand?”
“Fuck this.” I said as I stayed put, letting Shane walk out ahead of me as I stayed back to wait for Lola and Rick to catch up.
“C’mon Lola, we’re getting underneath shelter before it starts pissing down.” I growled, grabbing Lola by the wrist and tugging her lightly along with me, still trying to blend in with the crowd.
“Where the hell are you two going? Stay with us!” groaned Rick as he picked up the pace to walk up nearer to Shane.
“What are you doing?” asked Lola, her eyes showing that she was upset with me yet again.
“It’s about to start raining and I’m not staying around to wait for our disguises to wash off.” I said quietly as we made a beeline for the verandas that the shops along the street had to offer.
She nodded as though she understood what I was saying and played along, obviously realising the severity of the situation.
Before long, we still had just under a quarter of the way left to go and by now the rain was bucketing down. I could see Rick and Shane walking side by side in the not-so-distant-distance, but something was wrong and I think I knew exactly what was up. The dead-ones around them lifted their heads to get a better look at the two men before one of the dead could smell them. It lunged at them but Shane was too quick, grabbing the gun from his pocket and sending a bullet flying through the dead-one’s head. This of course caught the attention of all surrounding dead-one’s and shortly, it seemed like the whole of Atlanta was biting at their feet.
“Rick!” yelled Shane as he covered for Rick, letting him run up ahead as Shane fired at the dead-one’s.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I muttered as I picked up my pace, limping as quickly as I could to where Shane was. My speed was too fast to be a dead-one’s speed, causing the dead-ones to notice my odd behaviour before setting upon my tail as well.
“Run!” I screamed to Lola who was about half a metre behind me. She followed my instructions and ran as fast as she could through the crowd, dodging the surrounding dead-ones as they reached out to grab her. I kept up with her pace, pushing away dead-ones as they ran after me and thrusting my knife into the skulls of dead-ones that were too close for comfort.
Suddenly, I heard a blood-curdling cry arise from Lola’s throat as I witnessed a dead-one grabbing onto her long blonde hair and yanking her towards itself.
“NO!” I screamed as I ran at the dead-one, but I was too late to rescue her.
The sound of a gunshot nearby boomed and I saw the dead-one that was attacking Lola fall lifelessly to the ground in a heap.
“Are you alright?” I yelled as I sprinted up to Lola “were you bit?”
“No! Now let’s go!” she screamed as she grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd of dead-ones.
I saw Rick and Shane running not too far up ahead of us before realising that there was still a fence that separated the cleared out exit of Atlanta from us, trapped here with hundreds of dead-ones chasing us.
Rick jumped up at the unstable gate before hauling himself over, Shane staying there and waiting for Lola and I to come closer. Meanwhile, Shane eradicated the dead-ones that converged on him with his shotgun.
“GO! MOVE IT!” she shouted as he gave Lola a quick boost up and over the fence seeing as she was shorter than most of us.
“Do you need a lift?” he asked me, and I nodded. He boosted me up the same as Lola.
“Give me the gun!” I yelled at him as he shoot a few more dead-ones on his side of the fence.
“Why?!” he bellowed, continuing to shoot.
“Do it! I’ll cover you as you get over!” I shouted.
Shane passed me the gun and I shot the dead-ones through the fence, allowing Shane time to escape from them. I looked over at Rick and Lola that stood by a bright red Ferrari, both of them getting in with Rick in the driver’s seat and Lola directly next to him in the passenger seat.
Shane grabbed a hold of my hand as we hurried over to the car, getting in the back seats.
As soon as we had gotten in, Rick stepped on the gas pedal and we were off, the dead-ones trying to chase us from behind.
We were all exhausted after the pursuit when I realized something. Everybody seemed to have their allocated bags of our stuff…. Except for Rick.