][=][   Zhen Bryant's POV   ][=][

There isn't much left here... but at least we each got a couple of new sets of clothes, me from the boy's dresser and Zuri from what seemed to be the mother's. Other than the clothes, there were a bunch of useless keys to me since I didn't know what they unlocked and nothing else. Thankfully, it sheltered us after our community a few miles away got overrun.

I stood in the kitchen, searching through the cupboards and pantry to see if there was anything else we could use.

"Z-Zhen... wat-ter... please," my sister mumbled from the living room.

I swung my backpack off my shoulder and unzipped it, unveiling the minuscule amount of supplies inside. I grabbed one of the water bottles and went to the couch where she lay. I poured a little bit of the water on a small cloth I had found in the kitchen and placed it on her forehead, then drizzled some more water into her mouth through her partially open lips.

"Thanks, Z," she muttered quietly as she closed her eyes, "d-did you find... any meds?"

"No... this place has been pretty cleared out of everything."

"Damn."

I stared at her paling face, worry and fear flooding my head as I looked at her.

"Zuri, you need meds. There's only one place I can think of that might still have some," I stated firmly as I gripped her hand tightly. "I'm going to the hospital. It's not far, and it's our only hope."

"N-no... you can't," she said as she squeezed my hand back weakly, "t-too dangerous."

"Well, I can't let the stupid flu kill you in the middle of the end of the world. Then I'd be all alone, and you know I can't stand being alone."

She rolled her eyes at me and then squeezed my hand again.

"B-be... careful."

"I promise I will. I'll be back in a few hours."

She nodded slowly and then released my hand. I swung my backpack back over my shoulders and then went to the door, grabbing my axe off the coat hanger that I had hung it on, and then ran out the door, shutting it securely behind me and making my way down the road leading to Harrison Memorial Hospital.

][=][ Time Skip ][=][

"Hey, soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do tonight," I sang quietly to myself, coming to the end of my favorite song for the fifteenth time during this trip to the hospital.

I was close to the hospital now. Thankfully, I had only run into a few bodies so far and easily taken them down. As I approached the building, I found myself in an abandoned military site with helicopters and military jeeps. I looked around for a moment when something caught my eye. Someone wearing a hospital gown stumbled out of the stairwell. I instantly dropped to the ground and watched as the man tried to get his bearings and looked around at the hundreds of covered corpses surrounding him.

"Who the hell are you?"

I crawled under one of the jeeps and watched as the man crested the top of the hill where the military site sat. He looked around in confusion and walked through the site, heading in the direction I had come from. Once he had left my line of sight, I ran through the field of corpses and to the stairwell the man had come from. I reached into my backpack and withdrew a long flashlight, then clicked it on as I walked up the stairs to the next level and entered the hospital. The place was a disaster. I slowly made my way down the hallway, entering each room as I went and looking for anything to help Zuri recover as quickly as possible.

][=][ Time Skip ][=][

That was the last room on this floor... no luck anywhere. This place was thoroughly cleaned out after the collapse.

"I'm not gonna find anything," I said bitterly as I kicked an empty bottle across the hall.

I went back to the staircase to head down to get back to Zuri. Whether I've got the meds or not, I need to be there for her. Soon, I made it to the exit door in the staircase and headed back to the house we had taken shelter in. It was almost dark by the time I reached the community.

"Holy," I said as I turned onto a street that was entirely overtaken by bodies. "Where did they all come from?!"

I made my way as quickly and quietly as possible to the house. When I arrived, the door was wide open.

"No! Zuri?!"

I ran in with my axe hefted in front of me and found a note on the couch where my sister had been.

Zhen,
My name is Rick Grimes. You and your sister had taken up refuge in my house. I found her when I got back here from the hospital. We are now both with a man named Morgan and his son Duane. She is perfectly safe. Morgan had medicine that he gave her, and she is already doing better. She woke up and asked me to leave a  note for you so you'd know she's ok. We will be back in the morning to get you. I left some food and water on the kitchen counter.
Rick Grimes

I stared at the note, rereading it several times before I wadded it up and tossed it away from me, then went into the kitchen. Sure enough, there was a bowl of refried beans sitting on one of the counters with a bottle of water next to it. I felt the bowl, and it still felt warm.

"Zuri... if any of them hurt you... I swear I'll kill all of them."

][=][ Time Skip ][=][

I sat on the couch staring at the door with my axe placed on my lap, just like I had sat all night long. I was about to get up and run around the community searching for Zuri when the door was pushed open, and there she stood. I threw the axe down and ran over to her, engulfing her in a bear hug.

"Woah!" She shouted as she nearly fell backward, only saved by a younger boy behind her putting his arms out in front of him to stop us from falling into him. "Z! I'm here, I'm ok. Relax."

After several minutes more, I released her and stepped back. Three people were behind her on the porch: a middle-aged black man, a young black boy, and a middle-aged white man.

Everyone entered, my sister, standing next to me as the other three followed behind her.

"Son," the black man said as he nodded at me and put his hand out for me to shake, "my name's Morgan."

I nodded silently and shook his hand.

"This here is my son, Duane," he continued as he gestured to the boy who had prevented my sister and me from toppling out the door, who nodded at me and smiled. "And this is Rick."

"I... I saw you leave the hospital yesterday," I said as I recognized the man I had watched from the military site. "I had gone to get medicine for Zuri and saw you run out."

"Yeah, that'd be me. I was in a coma, had been since before... whatever this is, started."

"No wonder you looked so confused the whole time I watched you," I muttered with a chuckle.

The man chuckled back and then put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze before walking farther into the house.

"Zuri mentioned that y'all lived a few miles away in another community that got too dangerous," Rick said as he looked around the living room. "This is my house... my family's house."

"I'm sorry, we didn't know it was anyone's anymore," I said as I watched the man.

He shook his head and waved my statement off.

"No, no. It's no problem. I'm glad it was able to keep y'all safe," he stated before looking at all of us. "They're alive... my wife and son. Or at least they were when they left."

Rick began walking through the house, with all of us following behind.

"How could you know that?" Morgan asked. "By the look of this place, it hasn't been lived in since these kids got here."

"I found empty drawers in the bedrooms. They packed clothes... not a lot, but enough to travel."

"Hate to say it... but anyone could've taken your family's clothes, Rick," I stated as I gestured at the clothes my sister and I were wearing. "I mean, my sister and I did when we got here, so what would've stopped others from doing the same?"

"You see any photos on the walls?" Rick responded, gesturing around us at the empty walls.

"Well-" I started to say before the man continued.

"Neither do I," he stated matter-of-factly. "Did 'just anyone' take those too, you think?"

Before I could reply, the man opened a cabinet and gestured at the empty interior. At this point, the man was on a roll, and we just needed to let him say his piece.

"Our photo albums, family pictures... all gone."

Morgan sat down laughing and muttered 'photo albums' under his breath before looking back up at Rick.

"My wife... same thing. There I am, packing survival gear, and she's grabbing... photo albums," he said as his voice started to crack from sadness.

"They're in Atlanta, I bet," Duane said as he moved forward to comfort his mourning father.

"That would make sense," Zuri said as she nodded and gestured towards the boy. "It's all we heard about at home until the news and radio stations finally stopped running when the power died out."

"Why Atlanta?" Rick questioned as he looked between all of us."

"Refugee center," Morgan said, "a huge one, they said, before the broadcasts stopped. As Zuri said, it's all that would play on anything still running."

I nodded along with what he said, then continued the statement, "military protection, food, shelter, just about anything you can think of that you'd need to be safe and survive this thing. They told everyone to evacuate there. They said that would be safest for everyone."

"Yeah, that and they got that disease place," Duane stated.

"The Center for Disease Control," Morgan elaborated when Rick gave the boy an odd expression. "Said they were working out how to solve this thing."

After a moment of silence to allow Rick to absorb everything we had just said, the man turned around and went to the cabinet where I had seen all the useless keys and grabbed a set of them.

"Come on," he said as he headed towards the door. "Let's go get some gear."

][=][ Time Skip ][=][

"I hadn't realized how much I missed showers," I said as I dried myself off after taking a nice hot shower in the locker room of the police station. "But I seriously, seriously missed them."

"Here, kid," Rick said as he handed me the clothes I had been wearing, now cleaned thanks to the station having laundry machines in the locker rooms as well.

"Aren't... aren't these your son's clothes, though, Rick?"

"They are, but right now, you need them," he responded as he gently squeezed my shoulder. "So they're yours."

He pointed to a dressing area so I could get changed into the clean clothes. Once I was clean and in fresh clothes, I felt a million times better than I had this morning. I turned to head back to where the others were sitting and ran into Duane as he came to change into his clean clothes.

"Oh, sorry," I said as I helped him pick up the clothes he dropped when I ran into him. "So what're you and your dad gonna do after we finish here?"

"I don't know, really... I don't think he's ready to move on yet because of my mom," he responded as he looked down sadly. "I think he needs to work up the courage to... yanno... take care of her, before he's ready to move on, then we'll probably head to Atlanta."

I nodded in acknowledgment and gave him a gentle hug as I saw his eyes tearing up from thinking about his mom.

"Hey, you've got your dad, and at least you know what happened to your mom... me and Zuri haven't heard from ours. They had gone into Atlanta to help our grandparents because our uncle couldn't get them to do anything to help themselves survive through this."

He nodded quietly as he wiped his eyes, clearly hoping I hadn't really noticed all the tears, "yeah... I'm thankful that I've still got him... just wish I had my mom too, yanno," he said before pulling away from the hug and looking at me. "I'm sure you'll find your family when you go to Atlanta... I assume that you're planning to go look for them?"

"Yeah, that's our plan. It has been since this whole thing really started, and we lost contact with them, but when Zuri got sick, we couldn't keep moving," I stated as I nodded. "We're hoping that our family is in the refugee center."

"I... I wish Dad would just head to Atlanta. I'm scared of being out here... scared of the walkers... scared of what happened to my mom happening to me," he said as he looked down at the ground awkwardly, "I don't want to feel so scared anymore."

"Maybe we can convince him? All go to Atlanta together instead of splitting up likely seems to be the plan since Rick is headed to the city, and Zuri and I are planning to do the same."

"I'd like that... but I don't think he'll go for it, even if we all tried. He's just so stubborn."

"It won't hurt to try," I said as I hugged him and gestured to the changing rooms. "Go change. I'll talk to Rick and Zuri and see if I can get them on board with talking to him."

He nodded and went past me into the changing room. I returned to where Rick and Zuri were sitting, waiting for the rest of us to be finished getting showered, shaved, changed, and all the other hygiene-related things we were doing.

"Your sister said y'all have family in the city. Since I'm headed that way, we can all go together," Rick stated as I approached. "It'll be safer that way."

I nodded in agreement, "Yeah, that would be great... I was just talking with Duane, and he said he wants to go too but doesn't think his dad will want to leave yet."

"Morgan says he needs to stay... I spoke with him about coming with us already, and he won't go for it... he won't leave without finding his wife."

"Can we try again? Duane really doesn't want to be out here anymore."

"Z, it's not our place. I know we've gotten to know Duane and Morgan, but it's not our business to convince that man to leave without doing what he needs to do," my sister said as she frowned and shook her head.

"But... that's just not fair," I complained quietly as I crouched in front of the bench that the two of them were sitting on.

"Zhen, we can't. Believe me, I don't want to leave them out here either, but I have to find my wife and son, and if Morgan doesn't want to leave yet, then we can't make him."

I was about to respond when Morgan and Duane approached from the changing rooms, and Rick put his hand up in a gesture to get me to stop speaking. I sighed and looked over at Duane, and shook my head sadly. He looked down at the ground in defeat.

"Ok, if we're all ready, we can go to the gun locker and stock up," Rick said as he led the way, pulling the keys out as he went.

"A lot of it's gone missing," the sheriff stated as he looked around the gun locker.

"Daddy, can I learn to shoot?" Duane asked as he looked up at his father. "I'm old enough."

"Hell yes, you're gonna learn," the man responded as he put his hand on his son's shoulder. "But we've got to do it carefully, teach you to respect the weapon."

"That's right. It's not a toy." Rick stated in agreement, continuing the father's point. "You pull the trigger. You have to mean it. Always remember that, Duane."

"Yes, sir," the boy responded respectfully.

"Either of y'all know how to shoot?" Rick asked as he looked over at me and Zuri.

"We both can," I stated as Zuri nodded in agreement. "Our dad started teaching us when we turned ten."

"And how old are y'all now?"

"I'm twenty. Zhen is fourteen."

The sheriff nodded, then grabbed two handguns and gave one to each of us, along with a box of ammo each.

"Here, load up," Morgan said as he gave a bag to Duane.

"You kids, too," Rick said as he gestured at mine and Zuri's backpacks. "Pack everything that's not nailed down."

Rick then pulled a large rifle off the wall and handed it to Morgan as Duane, Zuri, and I started packing all the remaining ammo into our bags. Morgan began admiring the rifle as Rick started to grab every weapon he could find and put them all in a large bag. When the locker was cleared out, we left the building.

"Conserve your ammo," Rick instructed as he led the way out of the building. "It goes faster than you think, especially at target practice.

"Duane," Morgan said as he looked over at his son. "Take these to the car."

The man handed his bag to the boy and unlocked the car with his keys. On an impulse, I followed him while Zuri, Rick, and Morgan talked.

"Hey, I'm sorry I couldn't get them to talk to your dad," I said as I reached the car next to Duane. "I know you don't want to be out here."

"It's ok," he said as he smiled at me. "I'll be ok. Dad'll do what he's gotta do, and then we'll come join y'all in Atlanta."

I sighed sadly and nodded. I didn't feel right about leaving them out here at all, but Zuri was right. It's not really my business what Morgan decides is the right path for them.

"Zhen, it's time to go," Zuri said as Morgan walked over to his car, and Rick approached a walker pressed against the fence in a police uniform. The front and back passenger side doors of the nearest police car were both open, and Zuri was standing at the front.

I walked towards the car and then stopped, looking back at Duane and Morgan as Rick held his revolver up to the walker's head.

"No, I... I don't feel right about leaving, Zuri," I said as I looked at my sister sadly, "I want to stay with Morgan and Duane."

"Z... we have to go find our family."

"Then go find them, but I'm staying... I have to."

Morgan and Rick exchanged looks, then glanced over at Zuri.

"I'll keep him safe, Zuri. If he feels this is what he needs to do, then we'll be happy to have him with us," Morgan said as he nodded at Rick. "Once we're able to, we'll join y'all in Atlanta. I have the radio Rick gave me, so we'll be able to find you."

Zuri frowned, then put her stuff in the police car and ran up to me, wrapping me in a bear hug, which looked hilarious since I was about a foot taller than her.

"I love you, Z," she said as tears welled up in her eyes. "Make sure that you get to Atlanta."

"I love you too," I said as I hugged her as tightly as possible. "I will, I promise."

She stood on her toes and kissed my cheek before pulling away and heading back to the police car. Rick turned back to the walker in front of him, and I climbed into the back seat of the Jones' car next to Duane.

"You... you really wanna stay with us?" Duane asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I really do. I want to make sure y'all make it to Atlanta."

Morgan climbed into the driver's seat and looked back at us with a smile.

"You're sure about this, Zhen?"

I nodded in response.

"Ok, then let's go," the man responded as he started the car.

We heard a gunshot as Rick killed the walker that was on the fence. I turned and watched the cop car as Rick got in it and drove. We went in one direction, and the cop car went in the opposite direction.

][=][ Time Skip ][=][

We had arrived back at the house that Morgan and Duane had made into their home base. Morgan had gone upstairs a while ago and locked himself in one of the bedrooms. Duane was starting to freak out about it.

"Why'd he lock himself up there, Z?"

"Duane, I'm sure he's ok. I don't know why he would have done th-" I started to say as I put my hand on his shoulder and made him look at me before a loud gunshot sounded from above us, cutting me off.

I instantly looked at the stairs and ran up them to the door that Morgan had locked and started banging. Shot after shot fired as I knocked and banged on the door, trying to get the man's attention.

"Zhen! Walkers are at the door trying to get in!"

I ran down the stairs and grabbed my axe, holding it in my right hand and drawing my handgun in my left. I saw the front door starting to crack under the pressure of all the walkers on the other side trying to enter. 

"Duane, follow me!" I shouted as I held my gun up towards the door. "We have to leave! Right now!"

He came over to me but looked up at the stairs.

"We can't leave him!"

"Duane, if you don't want to die, we have to leave now!" I shouted as the door buckled and walkers flooded in.

The boy was behind me, backing into the kitchen as I fired, taking walker after walker down. No matter how many I killed, more entered. I turned around and pushed him all the way into the kitchen, then slammed the door closed behind me and locked it.

"Help me push this table in front of the door, Duane!"

We worked together and got the small dining table in front of the door. I reloaded my weapon and holstered it, holding my axe with both hands.

"Duane, we have to leave. I'm sorry about your dad, but we can't stay here," I insisted as I looked into his fear-filled, teary eyes.

He was about to say something, but I stopped him.

"I'm not going to argue with you. We are leaving, Duane."

He closed his mouth and started to cry but nodded in agreement. I looked around as walkers smashed against the kitchen door, cracks already forming throughout the weak wood. I saw a window over the sink and swung my axe as hard as I could at the glass, shattering it.

"Go!" I said as I gestured to the new opening. "I'm right behind you."

Duane nodded and started to climb up onto the counter and through the broken window. The door buckled in, snapping in half where the table was pushed in front of it. I swung my axe and connected with the head of the first walker who tried to climb over the table, killing her instantly and yanking the blade free for the next one.

"I'm out!" Duane shouted from behind me.

I killed more walkers, their bodies beginning to pile up and make a new barrier keeping more from coming. Once I deemed it safe enough for me to turn my back, I passed Duane the axe and climbed through the opening. When I was through, he gave me the weapon back, and we ran off together, leaving the house behind. Gunshots still firing from upstairs.

"He's still alive, Z. We could have fought our way up to him and helped!" Duane shouted as we ran.

"We would have died while waiting for him to open that door for us!" I shouted insistently. "Right now, we are safe. After things have cleared up some, we can look for him, but for now, we have to find a safe place to wait out this craziness."

Duane sighed in defeat and followed as I searched for a safe spot for us to lay low.

][=][ Zuri Bryant's POV ][=][

We had left the Jones family and my brother behind about an hour ago. Before we had properly left the town, Rick had insisted on making a pit stop to take care of something, which I agreed to because if he needed to do this, then it must've been important to him. Now, we were well on our way to the city though.

"Broadcasting on emergency channel," Rick said into his car's police radio as he drove. "We will be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85. Anybody reads, please respond."

There was nothing but static in response.

"Hello. Hello. Can anybody hear my voice? Anybody out there? Anybody heard me, please respond," he said, trying once again to raise someone on the radio. "Hello. Hello. Can anybody hear my voice?"

Once again, there was no response. He handed the radio over to me.

"Keep trying to raise someone. I need to stop and try to siphon some gas," he said as he stopped the car near a small pileup.

"Hello. Can you hear my voice? My name is Zuri Bryant. If you can hear me, please respond."

I was answered by more crackling.

][=][ Mai Bryant's POV ][=][

"Oh my god!" I shouted as I heard the name come over the radio. "Did I hear that right?

I jumped up from my seat and ran for the radio, meeting Amy and Dale there.

"Hello. Is there anybody out there? Can you hear my voice? If you are there, please respond. We will be approaching Atlanta from Highway 85. If you're out there, please respond."

"That's her!" I shouted as tears welled up in my eyes. "That's my daughter!"

Dale put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it as he looked at me with concern, "you can't possibly know for sure. What she said wasn't coming through clearly, Mai."

"Yes, I can hear you. You're coming through." Amy said as she looked with concern towards me as well. "Over."

"If anybody reads, please respond. Broadcasting on emergency channel. We will be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85. If anybody reads, please respond."

"Why can't she hear us, Dale?!" I asked frantically as tears began falling from my eyes.

"We're just outside the city!" Amy said into the device on our end, only followed by more static. "Damn it. Hello? Hello?"

"She couldn't hear me. I couldn't warn her," Amy said as she looked between me and Dale.

"Try to raise her again," Dale instructed as he glanced between me and the radio. "Come on, son, you know best how to work this thing."

Lori, Shane, and Joshua had all joined us at the radio now. Lori put her hand on my shoulders and squeezed gently while Shane slammed his axe into the tree stump and crouched down, taking the radio microphone from Amy as he did so.

"Hello, hello. Is the person who called still on the air?" Shane asked sternly and clearly. "This is Officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown. Please respond."

He was met with crackling and static.

"She's gone."

"No! You can't give up, Shane. I swear that's my daughter that was speaking!"

"Mai, she cannot hear us. Whether it's your daughter or not is irrelevant because we cannot raise her."

I sat there and stared at the man, hurt by his words but knowing he was right.

"There are others. It's not just us," Lori stated as she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a gentle, supportive hug.

"We knew there would be, right?" Shane asked as he looked at the woman behind me. "That's why we left the C. B. on."

"A lot of good it's been doing," the woman replied stubbornly as she stepped away from me.

"Ok," Shane said in frustration.

"And I've been saying for a week we oughtta put signs up on 85 to warn people away from the city."

"Folks got no idea what they're getting into," Amy said supportively as she glanced between me and Lori.

"Shane, if that's my daughter... and my daughter dies because we didn't pu-" I started to say before the officer interrupted me.

"Well, we haven't had time," he stated, attempting to silence all three of us simultaneously.

"I think we need to make time," Lori insisted.

"Yeah, that, uh... that's a luxury we can't afford," Shane replied. "We are surviving here. We are day to day."

"And who would you propose we send?" Dale chimed in.

"I'll go. Give me a vehicle," Lori said stubbornly as she looked between the two men.

"Nobody goes anywhere alone," Shane responded disappointedly. "You know that."

"Then let me go with her," I stated as I stood up and firmly next to the woman.

"No," Shane insisted as he glared at me and then back at Lori. "It's just not safe."

I scoffed, ready to fight more.

"Yes sir," Lori said as she shook her head in disappointment and then walked away angrily. Her son Carl tried to run after her.

"Hey, hey, hey. Go on, take a seat, bud," Shane said as he stopped the boy in his tracks. "You're alright, you're alright. Stay over there with Ryan and Sophia, ok?"

The young boy nodded, then sat with the other kids as Shane marched off after Lori. I glared at his back as he went.

"I know he's just trying to keep us safe, but sometimes I swear that man thinks this is a dictatorship," I stated as I turned away and looked at the silent C. B. radio.

"Mai, it might not have been her... I know you been hoping for your kids to show up since Glenn led y'all here, but-" Amy started to say before I put my hand up to stop her.

"I know. I know. The chances it was her are slim to none," I said sadly. "But that doesn't mean I can't hope."

][=][ Zuri Bryant's POV ][=][

"Is that your wife and son?" I asked as Rick pulled a picture off of the sun-shield in front of him.

"Wha- oh yeah, yeah, that's them. Lori and Carl," he said as he showed me the family photo before putting it in his jacket pocket.

"Your wife is beautiful, and your kid looks sweet," I said as we exited the car, which had now entirely run out of gas. "Looks like y'all have a great family."

"Heh. Thanks, Zuri," he said as we walked down the road, him carrying the empty gas can and me carrying the bag of weapons and my backpack. "Yeah, they're... they're great."

I could hear the worry in his voice and decided not to push the matter anymore right now. We walked in silence for a while until we came upon a small farmhouse.

"Hello!" Rick shouted as he approached the building, gesturing for me to stay back. "Police officer out here! Can I borrow some gas?"

I watched him from the road while he knocked on the door and looked through the windows, shouting to the people he hoped were inside as he did so. When I saw him recoil after looking through one of the windows, I knew something was wrong. I approached, and he turned and shook his head as he left the house alone and sat at a small stone table. I joined him there.

"What'd you see?"

"Bodies... probably an older man and woman... they've been dead a while."

I nodded in response, then looked over to the left, where I saw a truck. I immediately got up and headed for it, Rick following behind me. We checked inside for the keys, but they were nowhere to be found. We slammed the doors shut, and that's when we heard the sound of a horse neighing in the distance. We both turned and looked at a small barn with a large fenced-in area, where a brown horse stood in the middle of the field.

"Well, that will have to do," Rick said as he walked towards the fenced-in field.

I watched as Rick spoke quietly to the horse while he held a rope. Soon, he was leading the horse toward me.

"Will it be able to carry us both?" I asked as he approached with the animal.

"I think so," he responded as he looked at the horse and then nodded at me.

We found a large saddle in the barn, which Rick strapped on the horse and then helped me get up on its back before climbing on himself. I wrapped my arms around his chest as the horse started to trot away from the field, eventually turning into a full gallop toward Atlanta.

][=][ Time Skip ][=][

The ride to Atlanta felt very quick. Soon, we were headed up the highway to the city, which we could see in the distance. The horse had slowed down to a trot as we made the final approach.

"This place seems really quiet for there being a refugee center here," I stated as we traveled through the empty and abandoned streets.

"Yes. It's... unnaturally quiet," Rick said as we passed a decrepit bus that several walkers appeared from, scaring the horse. "Woah, woah, woah. Steady now. It's just a few of them, nothing we can't outrun."

We trotted away from the walkers and found a tank with a body lying on top of it, crows eating the rotting flesh. That's when we heard a bizarre sound. A helicopter was passing overhead.

"Follow that helicopter!" I shouted as Rick spurred the horse forward, following the direction that the helicopter had started to go.

That was a big mistake, which we discovered as we turned a corner and found ourselves in a street entirely overrun by walkers, all of whom noticed us right away. The horse was terrified and reared up, nearly throwing me from the back of the saddle. Luckily, I managed to keep hold of Rick's chest long enough for the horse to be on all four legs and galloping quickly in the direction we had come from, back towards the tank. As we approached the large military vehicle, more walkers appeared from the buildings and side roads leading into this street, completely surrounding us.

"Oh shit!" Rick said as the horse began tearing around, which tossed me from the saddle. Thankfully for me, the horse was making much more noise, which was attracting the attention of the walkers away from me.

I saw Rick get thrown off next, dropping his hat and the gun bag as he fell. The horse's bloodcurdling screams and whinnies were distracting the walkers from the two of us as I ran to him and helped him stand up. Walkers were all around us now, and they were starting to notice us. We dropped to the street and crawled under the tank, hoping that maybe they wouldn't see us. They unfortunately did, and they started to attempt to follow us. Rick and I both began shooting them, killing many, but more kept coming.

"Rick, look!" I shouted as I pointed to an opened hatch leading into the tank. He immediately climbed inside, and I followed, slamming the hatch closed behind me. We both crawled to the wall of the vehicle and listened to the hundreds of hands slamming on it from what sounded like all sides.

"Well, this has been an eventful trip, Rick," I said in disbelief that we were even alive. "Remind me to never go on vacation with you if this is how things end up."

I started to chuckle because I had no idea how to react to the horrible situation we found ourselves in. I looked around and saw that there was a military corpse next to Rick, which I pointed out to him. He looked at it and drew the pistol from the holster on the corpse's belt, waking up what apparently was yet another walker. Rick gasped and aimed his revolver at its head, then fired. I had never heard such a loud sound in my life. My ears were ringing horribly, and I felt suddenly disoriented. I fell to my side and watched as Rick clambered up a short ladder, leading to the top hatch of the vehicle. He stayed up there for a moment before coming back inside and pulling the hatch shut.

"So, scale of one to ten, how royally fucked are we, Rick?" I asked as I looked at his stunned, pale face.

"Oh, we've broken the scale," he responded as he leaned back against the wall.

"Well, if we're gonna die anyway, why not go out with a bang?" I asked as I pointed out the grenade I had noticed on the soldier's corpse.

Before he could respond, we heard a radio start to crackle.

"Hey, you, dumbass. Yeah, you're in the tank. Are you cozy in there?"

Rick and I both stared at the radio in shock.

][=][ Author's Note ][=][

Well, there's chapter 2 done!

I hope y'all enjoyed it. I know we didn't really see any of the Goldman family in this chapter. Still, I wanted to introduce several of the other significant OCs that will play parts in this story as it goes on, those characters being Zhen, Zuri, and Mai Bryant. I hope you found them intriguing new additions to the More Than Blood Universe.

As you noticed, I changed around Morgan and Duane's story a bit. This will not have any significant effects on Morgan's future because he believes that both Duane and Zhen were killed in the swarm that attacked the house after he started shooting. Likewise, Duane thinks that his father is dead. This is something I wanted to do as my first change because I had always thought Duane didn't get enough screen time. While I know his death was a major event that led to Morgan becoming the character he became, I feel like I want to do at least a little more with his character before his time comes. Plus, it will allow me to develop Zhen's character more as well, which is another nice bonus. Other than that, a lot of the show's first episode has remained the same except for the obvious thing, which is we now have Zuri trapped in the tank with Rick. Have no fear, all of our characters will be interconnecting with each other soon as we proceed with the MTB rewrite. I hope you're all as excited for more as I am.

Let's hop right into the questions for this chapter, then, shall we?

1. What do you think of Zhen?

2. What do you think of Zuri?

3. Were you expecting Zhen to stay with Duane and Morgan?

4. What do you think will happen now that Duane and Zhen are off on their own?

5. I know we didn't see much of her yet, but what do you think of Mai?

6. Overall, how do you feel about the story so far?

Ok, that's all I've got for y'all for now. I'm gonna start working on the next chapter right away and should be posting it within a week or so as long as everything goes well.

][=][ THANKS FOR READING ][=][