Not the Walking Dead

Atlanta

The horse takes a while to get used to having two people on his back, and he took off galloping like he did with Rick in the show. My bow was on one shoulder, the rifle on the other, and my backpack in front of Rick. We ride for about twenty minutes before we come up on the edge of the city.

I've never been on a horse before, but at least Rick thinks he knows what he's doing.

"Remember, use your best judgment based on where you would go looking for a refugee center," I say only loud enough for Rick to hear me over the horse's canter. He nods in response but doesn't say anything. "And keep your eye out for a tank, my eyes will be on the rooftops looking for the group or anything familiar."

We ride silently through the streets, only noticing small handfuls of walkers, and none are too close that they pose a problem. I finally notice the burnt out bus I recognize in the middle of the street and the turret part of the tank at the end of the block. I pull gently on Rick's elbow, leaning up to get as close to his ear as I can get.

"Be as quiet as possible," I whisper. "There should be an alley up here to the left that should lead us to the others." He nods and pulls the horse in that direction. We have about half a block of one or two walkers to get through, but in my peripheral I notice an alley to the right, a lot closer to us than the alley we need to get to, and about a dozen walkers notice us on the horse and push their way past the gate.

"Hurry Rick." I mumbled and he kicked the horse's side to pick up the pace. This is the first time I've been genuinely worried.

There weren't supposed to be any coming out of that alley!

Rick kicks the horse again and we're able to just barely squeeze through the crowd of walkers, but their growling sounds get louder as we pass, and I spare a brief second to glance forward to the tank, and the walkers from that street are starting to notice us too. We're closer to the alley, nearly on the left sidewalk and I grab Rick's elbow again, this time not so gently.

"Rick, get off the horse. Now!" He jumps off and I quickly join him, and tear open the gate going into the alley. Rick runs ahead of me into the alley and I can hear the sounds of the panicking horse behind me get louder and louder as more walkers gain on us. I make sure the rifle and bow are secure on my shoulders and notice Rick has my backpack around both of his arms.

Looking forward into the alley, there's more in here than I thought there was too. About six between us and the ladder leading up to the rooftop. I grab my bow, but before I can say a word Rick's colt is in his hand and he's let off two shots.

"Goddamit Rick!" My voice is still hushed but not exactly quite.

Not like there's much point anymore.

"What part of quiet didn't you fucking understand?" I admittedly sneer as I pull back my bow and let off an arrow, quickly reaching back to grab another.

I hope Merle or Daryl can at least teach me how to make new ones.

"The hell was I supposed to do?" Rick asked, shooting the second to last walker, one that I will admit got a little closer than I would have liked.

"Well now instead of six there's gonna be about six hundred up our asses!" I yell, completely forgoing the hushed tone as the walkers from the street have already forgotten about the poor horse and have breached the gate to the alley we had only haphazardly closed. "Get your ass up that ladder, now!" I yell and shove him toward the latter he climbed with Glenn the last time. I follow him, narrowly avoiding getting kicked in the face as he climbs the ladder, and we safely get to the second floor, where the rest of the ladder leads all the way to the top.