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...
"After a while, I looked in the mirror and realised... Wow, after all those hurts, scars and bruises, after all of those trials, I really made it through. I did it, I survived that which was supposed to kill me." - Unknown
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Erin spent the next few hours alert and wide awake, her mind not allowing her to sleep as it cycled through all the possibilities of what could happen. If this group didn't come out of the CDC, she would have a pissed off Merle on her hands and nowhere to put him without feeling guilty for leaving him behind. She had no idea what she'd do, but she guessed he'd probably have to tag along with her, though she wasn't sure how long she could stay sane with a racist redneck by her side...
But the real questions came up when she considered the possibility that they would come out...
What if they didn't trust her enough to let her join them? She'd probably be fine with that, as long as they didn't attempt to take her weapons by force. She knew what she would look like to them; a source of knives and ammunition; an easy way to arm themselves and only have to take down one person.
If they did trust her, there was the issue of meeting new people. She'd been alone for a few weeks now since Todd... well, since Todd left her life... and she'd never been too friendly before the dead had begun to walk either.
The image she had in her head of this group was of younger people than her, stronger people than her - Merle didn't fit this ideal, but perhaps his brother was a lot younger, too. Maybe everyone there was in their twenties and they wouldn't be too happy to welcome some random thirty-six year old into their midst.
She didn't voice these things to Merle, though she was aware that would be the best way to put her mind at ease. He would hear the worry in her tone if she tried to ask, hear the weaknesses tumbling from her mouth, and see her differently... see her as a burden, a loose bolt in the machine - then where would she be?
Merle's breathing had slowed to a more even pace, signalling he'd fallen asleep - probably against his own will if the bags beneath his eyes said anything about his sleep patterns. Rest seemed to partially soften him, the hard lines and edges of his face melting away with sleep, bringing youth to his features. Though she'd guessed he was older than her, anyone looking at him now would assume they were of a similar age.
The sight of the building ahead of them was the only thing in her view until around seven the next morning as she knew she couldn't doze off while he was sleeping - if she did that, neither of them would wake up alive. There had been no movement inside throughout the night and she was beginning to think no one was even inside; they could have gone in there and been picked off by strays, or even cannibals, for all they knew.
That would certainly explain the vehicles still parked along the road, the motorcycle glinting at Erin in the early dawn sun. Blanketed by the warm silence around her, she wondered who the bike belonged to - it looked well kept, someone was proud of it, and yet it was strapped to the back of a truck rather than being ridden. It seemed a strange thing to do with such a beautiful mode of transport, but she guessed there was probably a reason behind the choice.
Breaking through her thoughts like an arrow from a bow, a sudden explosion blasted through the air around the CDC. Through the smoke and glass that dropped to the grass in the distance, she watched, her heart racing, as nine figures scrambled through one of the front windows which appeared to have been blown out by the shockwave.
"Merle... Merle!" She slapped the man's chest, her eyes following the group as they all scrambled towards the vehicles. He awoke with a yell of anger, swatting her away in his sleepy disorientation, "Wake up! They're out!"
That certainly woke him up.
"Wha?" He straightened up, pulling a face at the stiffness in his neck from how he'd been sat. His eyes followed her gaze, watching them climb inside their cars and trucks, "Get after 'em, then! What're ya waitin' for?"
Erin looked over the group, seeing one guy in particular run over to the truck she was looking at before, the one with the Bonneville on the back. His clothes were messy and their style gave the impression that he was the sort of guy who would ride a motorbike, but he clambered into the cab nonetheless. "What will it look like if we just charge over there right now, huh? They already look terrified, us rushing up to them won't help matters."
"What d'ya suppose we do, then? Just let 'em leave?"
"No- Wait, there's two more," she pointed through the windscreen just as another two people climbed through the broken window, the others in the trucks yelling something inaudible to them as they legged it across the grounds. The woman hung back for a moment, helping the older man who was struggling to keep up, spurring him to hurry. "I don't understand... What are they running fro-?"
They saw the two duck down behind a roadblock just seconds before another explosion ripped through the air behind them. Erin thought she heard Merle shout something, but it was drowned out by the sheer force of the second blast, flames bursting out of every entrance of the building, seeming to set the atmosphere around it ablaze with heat.
The first floor collapsed amidst a mishmash of yellow and red, shortly followed by the second floor which sent waves of fire rippling out like someone had thrown gasoline of a furnace. The fiery floods surged towards the vehicles as the building disappeared, eviscerating the strays still wandering around and blooming into flowers of heat which she could feel on her face despite the distance between herself and the building.
Amid the chaos, the two figures in the smoke left behind ran the short distance between the block and the RV, tumbling inside it as whoever was driving put the vehicle into gear and made a quick U-turn away from the burning building. Erin only hoped, as she gazed ahead of her into the flames licking at what remained, that no one else was still inside...
"They're leavin'," Merle's barely audible voice pulled her attention back to the trucks and cars that were, indeed, driving quickly away from the carnage they'd so narrowly missed, "Hello? We gonna follow 'em?"
Erin blinked, clearing her mind of the thought of any poor souls trapped inside the wreck of bricks and mortar, "Yeah... yeah, let's follow them. I'm keeping my distance, though..." As she spoke, she started the ignition and pressed down on the accelerator, rolling the truck through the trees at a steady pace to keep away from any strays reared up by the sound of the explosion.
They came to the edge of the trees and she stopped, waiting for the last of their trucks to pass before following after them, remaining a good hundred or so yards behind and keeping the speed steady.
Her breathing and heart rate were anything but. That explosion had shaken her to the core, the sheer sound of it being ten times louder than anything she'd heard since the virus broke out of Florida, and the magnitude serving as a cold reminder of how quickly things could go to hell.
She was pinning all her hopes on the prospect that Merle's group wasn't just another step along that winding road downwards...
