Chapter 16: 194
As promised, Shane allowed me to drive the car back to the base where we were currently situated. The place where we were stuck was certainly not a permanent solution, and I personally wouldn’t even call it a temporary solution as we’d be out of there and moving as soon as we got back. Shane had managed to find another abandoned cube van at the gas station and taken the hose from it. I was able to get my hands on some duct tape too, so that if we needed to jerry-rig it, we could. There wasn’t much duct tape, so it would probably only be enough to fix it up once or maybe not even that.
The ride back was smooth and quiet, as Shane and I’s drives usually were. My hands were placed firmly on the wheel, and for only having started driving three years ago, I had to say I was doing a mighty fine job. I managed to drive around a dead-one gone astray without hitting it, the snarling monstrosity sticking its hands out to grab the car but the vehicle was much too quick for the dead creature.
“Good with a gun and a steering wheel?” smirked Shane, “you’re a hard core chick, I tell ya what.”
I giggled at his compliment and continued to drive until we had reached our destination. As soon as we arrived, the entirety of the group was huddled around in a circle directly out front of the RV. I parked at the back of our queue of cars and then hopped out with Shane, the two of us jogging over to our fellow pack of survivors.
“What seems to be the problem?” I asked, lifting my hand to my eyes to block the suns harsh rays burning my eyeballs.
“Not sure what to do with Jim.” Replied Lola as she leaned her arm on Andrea’s shoulder.
“He ain’t doing too well, aye?” I sniffled, placing my hands on my hips.
Rick shook his head vigorously before replying to my query, “Lola and I had a bit of a… chat with Jim and Jim doesn’t think he’s going to make it.”
Everybody was silent, Rick then continuing on with his predicament, “Jim says he wants us to leave him here. That this is how he wants to go.”
“And he’s lucid?” asked Carol, holding her frightened daughter Sophia closer to her.
“He seems to be,” said Rick, “I would say yes.”
“Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shot me down…” started Dale, “… you misunderstood! I would never go along with callously killing a man. But I was just going to suggest that we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer.”
“We just leave him here? We take off?” huffed Shane, “Man, I’m not sure I would live with that.”
“It’s not your call.” Butted in Lori, placing her hands sternly on her hips, “either one of you.”
Shane shook his head in defeat and let out a long sigh, before Rick motioned for Shane to enter the RV with him.
I stayed behind, not wanting to get tangled up in what I knew to be a delicate procedure. A few moments later, Jim was being hauled out of the caravan by Rick and Shane, Shane’s muscles bulging with the heavy lifting. They carefully and gently towed Jim along to a big and very tall tree by the edge of the forest with a view of the road, and set him down very cautiously, not wanting to make any sudden movements and hurt the dying man.
Jim groaned with what I thought to be a mixture of both pain and relief as the two men set him down.
“Hey, another damn tree!” said Jim with a weak and throaty laugh.
I could see that Shane was trying to keep himself together as he spoke to Jim, “hey Jim. I mean, you know it dun’ need to be this.
“No.” breathed Jim, his fragile chest pumping up and down as he talked, “It’s good. The breeze feels nice.”
Shane squeezed his eyes tightly shut for a moment before giving Jim a gentle pat on the leg, “Okay. Alright.”
Shane wiped the sweat from his upper lip and was then replaced by Jacqui who walked up to Jim with teary eyes. Jacqui kneeled by his side and gave him a one-sided smile before beginning to speak, “Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don’t fight.” Jacqui then leaned in and gave Jim a kiss on the cheek. This proved to be too much for Jacqui to handle as she walked off with a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks.
Rick walked up next to pay his respect for the fallen man who was close to the sanctuary of death by now, “Jim…” started Rick as he pulled out a small handgun from his pocket and held it out to Jim, “do you want this?”
“No.” replied Jim, his voice weaker by the minute, “you’ll need it. I’m okay.”
Rick nodded and then traded places with Dale who strolled up to Jim solemnly, taking his treasured bucket hat off and holding to his chest as he spoke, “Thanks for uh… thanks for fighting for us.”
“Okay.” Nodded Jim, trying his hardest to smile but barely managing.
Nobody else could manage to say a word, as most of us were sad and scared shitless for the broken man. Glenn just gave Jim an appreciative nod, Daryl doing the same before all of us walked off. I walked hand in hand with Shane over to the car, the two of getting in one after the other.
“Are you okay to drive?” I asked Shane, placing my hand on one of his buff shoulders.
“Yeah, I’m good.” He said back to me, nodding and wiping his forehead with his arm to eradicate the sweat that formed in beads at his hairline, “we should get moving.”
As we drove slowly along the road, I kept my eyes focused on Jim who was currently staring up at the tree above, his eyes closing as he did so. I wondered if I was witnessing his death or simply a moment of relaxation, both options very much alike.
Today was the one hundredth and ninety fourth day since the outbreak had been declared. This means that one hundred and ninety four days ago was the day when Lola and I stumbled upon the dead-one in the street. At first I thought it was just a dead body and another murder had occurred around the school. People had been murdered around the area before, why not again? Then I thought it was a crazy old man with rabies having an epileptic seizure. But soon, I realised that whatever was in front of me was neither of the above, but it was indeed, what some called a zombie and what I liked to refer to them as, a dead-one.
~
It was getting dark by now and all of us were still on the road. It got a little chilly in the evenings, but my backpack which had my jacket in it was in the RV and there wasn’t much of a way for me to get it without having to stop all the cars. I refused to do this as it would purely be a waste of time, and at this point of the day, we had zero time to spare.
“How much longer, Shane?” I asked him, wrapping my arms around myself in an attempt to stay warm.
“I don’t know baby, I don’t know.” He answered honestly, “you cold?”
“A little.” I admitted, a shiver running down my spine as he mentioned it.
“My uniform jacket is just underneath your seat if you wanna swivel around and grab it.”
I nodded and reached beneath the seat as he had said so. I rattled my hand around for a few brief moments before yanking the jacket out from underneath and hurriedly pulling it on.
“Aren’t you cold?” I asked Shane, zipping his cop jacket on over my black tank top.
“I am my own personal heater,” chuckled Shane, “I don’t get cold easily.”
“Lucky bitch.” I sighed.
We approached the seemingly abandoned part of Atlanta and followed the other vehicles lead towards a big and oddly shaped dark grey building with a very large glass window at the front. It was of reasonable height, standing at four storeys tall, but I knew for sure there had to be some sort of underground working area to it as well. I had been to the CDC once with my school back in year nine where we all learnt about our blood types and got tested for what type we were. The CDC had a garden out the front of it too, and from what I could tell, it would have been a beautiful one if it weren’t for the apocalypse.
But this wasn’t all that this particular part of Atlanta had to it. No, there were tanks set up everywhere but none of them were in operation, meaning we knew that the military was definitely overrun. There were also sandbags piled up high on each other, probably having something to do with guns and their bullets being fired. This wasn’t like the part of Atlanta that I was from , and I it didn’t feel familiar at all. I had even preferred the camp base outdoors with a view of Atlanta, but this just looked eerie and sad. My hometown was a graveyard. There were dead corpses of both humans and dead-ones lying around all over the place, the smell of the decomposing bodies infiltrating my nose and setting it alight; or at least that’s how it felt.
Shane parked the car on the side of the road and the two of us got out, Shane passing me an AMT Automag IV pistol. I nodded in thank you to him and waited for Shane to grab a weapon for himself too and join me.
“Stay close, okay?” he whispered, trying not to wake the living dead, “I know you’re smart and you can defend yourself, but just fucking look at this place.”
“Same goes for you too.” I replied, “I’ll cover your ass, you cover mine.”
The rotting smell of the dead-ones was starting to get me. I lifted my arm up to my mouth and coughed as quietly as I could into it, but the more I tried to hold in my loud coughs, the more I needed to do them. I felt Shane rub me on the back in circular motions.
“Try to hold it, I know it’s hard, but just try.” He said as he moved me gently along with him.
“All right, everybody, keep moving.” Called Rick in a hushed voice, “go on. Stay quiet. Let’s go.”
I stepped over corpses as I walked alongside Shane, holding in my coughs for his sake.
The sound of flies buzzing was ridiculously loud, as the flies swarmed around the bodies, feeding on the exposed dead flesh. The dead-ones weren’t all exactly intact, most of them having their bodies ripped open and exposed. This is what was attracting all of the flies. I could feel the coughs building up in my lungs, but I didn’t dare let them out. The others were all coughing too, trying to expel the disgusting scent from their lungs.
“Ohh…. Ohh!” groaned Glenn as he pinched his nose with all his might, his face twisted and distorted due to the putrid smell.
“You okay there bud?” I asked as Shane and I walked up to Glenn.
“I think I’m going to puke.” He moaned, rolling his eyes.
“Keep moving. Stay together.” Said Rick as we neared the building.
“Keep moving everybody. Come on.” Chimed in Shane as he gestured with his arm for everybody to pick up the pace.
“Careful.” Lori warned Carl as he nearly tripped over one of the dead-ones that had its guts spilt out across the floor, the blood not even red anymore, but a sickening black colour.
“Oh, god!” cried Jacqui as tears started to well up in her eyes at the sight of the hundreds of dead bodies strewn across the site.
“Shh,” I hushed her, giving her a pat on the back, “we’ve got to keep moving.”
She nodded and went on, almost at the front of the building now, maybe ten metres away.
I felt Shane’s hand twitch beside me before it held onto mine, giving it a squeeze as he looked at me with sad dark brown eyes.
“I don’t think anybody is here.” He said with a frown.
“Never know.” I replied, lifting his hand up to my mouth and giving it a small kiss of encouragement.
He smiled sadly and pulled me a little closer to him, the both of us walking hand in hand with a firearm in our spare.
“We’re almost there, baby. Almost there.” Mumbled Rick to Lori as we approached the doors of the CDC.
Finally, we reached them, Rick and Shane right onto figuring out how to open the garage-door-like shutters that were closed over the all the entries to the building. Rick played with a switch next to the shutters for a bit before giving up.
“Nothing?” asked Shane as he tried to lift up the shutters like you would a garage door, starting from the bottom and lifting them upwards. Unfortunately this didn’t work either.
I walked up to the shutters and banged on them as hard as I could, Shane helping me make some noise to alert whoever was inside.
“There’s nobody here.” Said T-Dog, desperate to get out of this place.
“Then why are these shutters down?” snarled Rick.
I turned around to see if the noise had startled any of the living dead.
“Walkers!” I yelled, my eyes widening at the sight of the many of them getting up from their peaceful positions on the ground and creeping closer to us and our group. Carl began to cry into Lori’s hip as Sophia did the same to her mother, Carol.
“Shit, shit, shit!” hissed Shane.
Daryl turned around and shot one with his crossbow, the arrow piercing the centre of his forehead and damaging his already dead brain.
“You led us into a graveyard!” yelled Daryl.
“He made a call.” I growled.
“Well you know what princess? It was the wrong damn call!” he shouted, walking angrily over to where I was standing next to Rick.
Shane’s face burned up in anger as he marched over to Daryl, pushing him roughly backwards by the chest, “You! Shut-up! Just Shut the fuck up!” he bellowed before turning around and walking back to Rick and I, “Rick, this is a dead end.”
“Where are we going to go?” sobbed Carol, holding Sophia close to her and stroking her sandy blonde hair.
“Do you hear me Rick? No blame.” Continued Shane.
“Carol’s right!” murmured Lori, “we can’t be this close to the city after dark!”
Shane grabbed a hold of my hand yet again and clutched it tightly, using it as a bit of a stress ball to hide his nervousness from the others, “Fort Benning. Still an option.”
“On what?” scowled Lola, trying to hold back her tears, “No food, no fuel. It’s a hundred miles for crying out loud!”
“One hundred and twenty five.” Chimed in Glenn, “I checked the map.”
“We need answers tonight dammit!” screeched Lola as her and Andrea hugged each other.
“We’ll think of something.” Breathed Rick.
“Let’s go!” shouted Shane, tugging me along by the wrist, “everybody, let’s go! We’ve got to get out of here.”
I pulled my wrist away from his grasp as the others began to run for the RV. He gave me a hurt look before shaking his head at me.
“Oh no, don’t do this to me baby.” He huffed, “we have to get back to the cars.”
“No.” I said, “there has to be a way in, there has to be.”
“I’m not leaving without you.”
“Well then we won’t be going anywhere any time soon.” I said stubbornly, jogging back to Rick and joining him at his side.
“I’ll help.” I said to him. He gave me an appreciative smile as we looked at the shutters, trying to think of some way to get inside the building. I glanced up at the camera and saw it sway to the side, observing us as a group.
“The camera!” I yelled, “it moved!”
“You imagined it.” Replied Dale.
“No, it moved.” I said again, “goddammit, I know what I saw!”
“Zelda, please, it’s dead, baby.” He pleaded, “it’s an automated device. It’s gears, they’re just winding down. Come on!”
Rick backed away as though he had lost hope, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to do that. Shane tried to pull me away as gently as he could as though trying not hurt me, but I was stubborn and wasn’t about to give up that easily.
“Baby please, just look around this place. It’s dead, okay? You need to let it go. Rick has and it was his idea, so you need to too.”
I thrust my arm away from his touch and ran at the shutters at full speed, crashing into them as tears began to pour from eyes and down my cheeks.
“Zelda there ain’t nobody here!”
“I know you’re in there and I know that you can hear me.” I sobbed, smashing the shutters with my fist again. “You have to help us, please, I’m begging you. We’re desperate.”
I heard Shane shouting at the others in the background, telling them to move out to the cars whilst Rick stood there and watched me helplessly.
“Please help us, please! We have kids here, we have women, we have men, we have families!” I cried, the tears I was producing becoming more prominent as they ran down my face. “We’ve got no food and enough gas to last us a quarter of a mile at most. We have nowhere else to go!”
“Zelda, stop this!” cried Shane, tearing up himself, “stop this right now!”
“If you don’t let us in, our blood is on your hands. You’re killing us man, you’re slaughtering our families!” I sobbed, rattling the shutters once more, now beginning to kick them in frustration “PLEASE!”
“I’m getting you out of here.” Snarled Shane, now tugging me away more harshly than before in desperation to keep me alive. “Let’s go!”
“You’re killing us!” I wailed, my eyes now stingy from crying, “you’re killing us!”
“Zelda, stop!” screamed Shane, “it’s useless!”
“You’re killing us!” I howled.
Suddenly, the shutters behind us lifted and Shane’s hold on my arm loosened. A burning bright white light streamed from behind the glass, opening up to us. Everybody stopped in their tracks and turned around to look. I heard Shane breathing heavily beside me as he looked at the open the shutters, his jaw hanging open.
I couldn’t believe it, “oh my god.”