A simple supply hunt for a source of water in the middle of Atlanta turns sour quickly for Erin as she come fist to face with a fuming, handless Merle Dixon.
Alone in the middle of the apocalypse with only a racist guy who doesn't know the differen...
"Character is who you are under pressure, not who you are when everything's fine." - Ritu Ghatourey
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The girl across from him still hadn't woken up as it drew closer to 10pm, and Merle took caution to slow down as they passed a sign that said their goal was only a few miles away now. No doubt there would be a lot more creatures nearer the place than there were on the small country lanes that had served as their surroundings for the ride.
Taking the back roads had almost quadrupled their journey time, meaning a half hour drive had taken near on two hours through the woodlands and fields surrounding Atlanta. He got the feeling it hadn't really been necessary, but for all he knew there could have been hoards of creepers on the main roads so he wasn't going to argue with her judgement; at least, not while she was armed and he only had the baseball bat beside his knee.
As they got within a mile of the CDC, he decided it was a better time than ever to wake her up. He didn't particularly like the idea, but someone had to and he'd checked to make sure no one else was available. Reluctantly and cautiously, he reached out with his good arm, leaning across and shaking her shoulder slightly.
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Erin woke up with a start to someone shaking her gently, thrashing out with her arms at whoever it was.
"Whoa, whoa! Cool it! It's me!" Her eyes shot open to find Merle looking at her incredulously, trying his best to keep more than an arm's length away from her while keeping hold of the steering wheel with the stub of his other arm, "Just thought ya might wanna know we're almost there..."
Breathing faster than she realised from the shock of being woken up, she nodded at his words and smoothed down her clothes and hair which was sticking up at all angles, subsequently making her look like a distressed bird of some sort. She took a glance at the clock on the dashboard, working out that she'd been asleep for about an hour and miraculously Merle had stayed on the road to the right place - perhaps she'd underestimated him too much.
It was much darker now outside than it had been when she'd drifted off, the sky pitch black and starless, hanging above the Earth like a wet coat and blanketing it inside a cocoon of unbearably hot air. She noticed the heat more now that she wasn't moving around as much as usual and as she shuffled in her seat she could feel her vest top sticking to the skin of her torso as though fused to it with sweat.
It was unpleasant to say the least and Merle was in the same situation, causing a horrid stench of both their sweats to linger in the cab. Erin wound the windows down in the hope of diffusing it slightly, only ending up allowing more scorching air to circulate around them.
Merle seemed indifferent, continuing to drive without a complaint as he was probably used to his own odour by now, but she had to sit tight and hold her breath. She scrunched up her nose to limit the amount she could smell until they pulled up down the street from the CDC and he cut the engine.
Scattered all around the building were what seemed to have once been military stations from back when the CDC was being protected by soldiers and army personnel; all of them were now dead, some reanimated and roaming around the grounds and others sprawled on the floor, either completely dead or too injured to stand. There was no sign of any humans.
Erin's heart dropped further as she gazed up at the building itself, a dark shadow in the night sky with no obvious signs of life emitting from it. The carnage around it seemed to illustrate exactly what had happened - they had been overrun...
"I'm not sure they're-" she began to say, cutting herself off when she saw what Merle was staring at.
Ahead of them, parked on one of the other roads leading to the centre, was a line of various vehicles, ranging from an old RV to a beat up blue truck with a Triumph Bonneville motorbike strapped to the bed of it. Their dad had always been something of a motoring buff so learning stuff about bikes had been unavoidable as she grew up.
"And look over there, too," Merle pointed towards a dead stray on the road, dressed in army regulation camouflage. She didn't really understand what was so special about it, until she saw the bolt sticking prominently out of its head, "Daryl's definitely here..."
"But where?" She looked around as though expecting them to jump out from the bushes or something, "The place looks deserted."
"Must've gone inside... Come on." Careful not to attract too much attention, he slipped out of the door and closed it softly behind him, disappearing around the back end of the truck. Erin stared after him in bewilderment - what the heck was he doing? There were strays everywhere!
Knowing the strays would hear her before he did if she shouted, she sighed, seeing she had no choice but to follow him to where he was fiddling with guns from the bed of the truck. He glanced up at her for a fraction of a second as he grabbed a machete before heaving up the crossbow and going to pass it to her. Erin shook her head firmly, backing away from the offer, "No... It's not mine to use..."
"It's the most efficient weapon ya got," Merle pointed out under his breath, tucking a second knife under his belt as he leant the heavy bow on the edge of the tailgate, "Ya might need it."
"I'm not using it." Merle shrugged at her stubbornness, dropping the weapon back where it had lay and getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach about leaving it behind. She instead picked up an axe in one hand and took the bat he offered her in place of the bow, grasping both firmly in her fists as they closed the truck and stepped out to face the strays ahead of them.
Merle came face to face with one almost immediately as he stepped out from behind the truck, barely even flinching as stabbed the knife into its head before retrieving it and continuing walking. It seemed that for every ten metres they gained, another twenty strays came towards them, some slightly more disorientated than others, but all with the intent of making it more difficult to reach the doors to the building.
As they came within ten metres of the locked doors, more and more came forward, appearing seemingly from nowhere, hungry and groaning. Erin gagged as one came within a breath of her face before meeting it's end, death coming swiftly to it via her axe blade; she tried her best to finish them in one blow, feeling bad if she caused them any more agony than was necessary.
Eventually, they reached the front of the building, Merle getting there first and covering her from his slight vantage point, keeping an eye on the strays behind her as she joined him in front of the shutters. He knocked on the metal with his fist while Erin stood behind him, picking off any creatures that came too close for her liking.
"C'mon! Open up!" His voice reverberated back through the metal, the sound travelling further than he'd expected and echoing around them. The constant pounding on the door amplified the sound, attracting strays but Erin could handle them - she just hoped it was loud enough to be heard inside. "C'mon! Daryl! Open the door!"
They received silence in reply. Little did they know, their cries had been heard...
