Fight, Love, Live.

IV

It took longer than five hours. 

I had barely pulled onto I-16 outside of Savannah when I had to pull over onto the side of the road because it was too dark to drive. It had taken me almost five hours to drive the normal hour drive, because I had to keep making detours off of the interstate because there were so many cars blocking up the road, just deserted. 

It was very disheartening, and I was incredibly worried about Lori, Carl, Rick and Shane. Maybe this was why they were unable to make it to the house by day four? Maybe they were on the way and I was too impatient. Maybe I should have waited. But it was too late now, so after my morning routine of throwing up my breakfast, I ate a can of pineapple, fed Bailey and began driving again, praying that I could make it to Atlanta that day. 

The trip should have only taken about three and a half hours, but after several detours because of deserted cars that had taken over the road, I didn't make it to Atlanta until sundown, so I decided to park my car on the side of the interstate where there weren't a lot of cars, and spend the night there, and then try and see if Shane and Lori had followed through and left me a sign of where they were. If they hadn't I would go into Atlanta and see if I could make it to Grady Memorial Hospital where Rick was probably evacuated to. 

It was a long night. Bailey and I laid in the back across the seats with the doors locked, and I had to keep the windows closed. It was hot, and I could hear the dead people walking by all night long, and I was constantly having to silence Bailey because she kept trying to bark at them. 

When the sun finally came up I sat up slowly so that I could peek out the windows and see if there were any dead people outside the car. Thankfully, there were none, so I got out of the car to throw up in the grass, let Bailey out so she could use the bathroom and so I could do my business, and then we were driving down the interstate again. I did not see any signs, and pretty quickly we had made it into the city. 

I drove slowly, cautious because I didn't know what had happened here, but it seemed deserted. That is until I heard gunshots and I immediately started driving in that direction. When I arrived I couldn't hold in my scream, and Bailey started barking loudly drawing all attention to us. 

There was a crowd of the dead things, and right in front of the car they were chowing down on what looked like a horse. I could see a man run towards a tank, crawl under, and disappear all while being chased by the dead. I couldn't do anything so I tried to reverse, but the crowd had moved behind my car, and were banging on the window. I froze. I needed to do something, anything, because right now? I was getting further and further up shit's creek, and if I didn't do something, I would die. Bailey would die. And my baby would never see the light of day. 

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After sitting there for a few moments, taking an inventory of all of my weapons, putting on my backpack full of clothes, and the bag of ammo, and staring over at Bailey who was getting a crowd outside her window due to her barking, I heard a loud explosion. The dead near me and in front of the car started moving towards the sound, and I saw my chance. I grabbed Bailey's leash with one hand, choking up so I was near her collar so she wouldn't be able to move far from me, and pulled my gun with my right hand. I shoved the door open, pulled both of us out, and began sprinting away from the car through the cracks that the dead were making. I killed two before I glanced to my right and saw the man who had been running towards the tank, shooting one. He yelled for me, and gestured in front of him where an alley was. I immediately diverted my path and began running towards the alley. 

Bailey seemed to have gotten the memo because she wasn't barking, and was instead standing very close to me and purposefully tripping up some of the dead who got too close to me. As I turned into the alley I raised my gun to shoot the dead person in front of me but he put his hands up and yelled. 

"Not dead! Not dead!" I gasped in surprise at the asian man's face and jerked my gun back down. I pulled Bailey in with me as I ran past him, and he hurried to shut the gate behind me, but it didn't seem to be working as dead things were pushing up against the fence. He turned back to me and looked frantically behind me. 

"Up the ladder, go, go, go!" I spun around and saw the back of a the tank man. He was wearing a hat, that looked suspiciously like a sheriff's hat, but more importantly he was climbing up a ladder. I followed, lifting Bailey up across my shoulders, and began climbing up behind him. I flinched when the man behind me started yelling at us to go faster. The man above me began to speed up, I matched his speed, and thankfully we seemed to have sped up just in time as the dead broke through the gate and just missed the asian man's feet as they reached up for him. When we finally made it up to the roof I was huffing in my exhaustion. I kneeled down to let Bailey off my shoulders and when I did she practically flopped down onto the ground. it was a lot hotter down here than up in Maine and she hadn't adjusted yet so that little sprint through the walkers had tired her out. She was a lot heavier than she used to be though and I was exhausted too. We used to do that carry a lot when I was in college. I liked to hike then, and whenever I had to climb up a cliff face, I would put her on and it seemed easy then. Not so easy now, even though it has only been about four years. 

When I turned up to thank the two men for saving me, I was met with the shock of my life. 

Rick. 

Btw, this is what I think of when I think of the shoulder carry. 

**Edited Feb. 1, 2020**