Pretending to be Dead

“It spread.” Addie told Daryl. “I was hoping it had all been contained… but now this. This whole town, it’s been destroyed. There’s no dead, no living.”

“It ate everything.” Daryl said. “Behind the motel, there’s a walker ripped apart.”

“So it can eat rotted flesh… no doubt living flesh.” Addie assumed, “However, I believe if we get infected by that… there will be no saving us.”

“Right. That’s why we’re gettin’ the hell outta dodge.” Daryl said motioning for her to get in the car. “The hospital’s only a few blocks away we can check out your chopper, but if it ain’t gonna work we’re getting the hell out!”

“That’s fine Daryl. Just… get us there quick. I don’t want to find more of those things.” Addie was quickly reminded of Alex’s face. One that she had so easily forgotten while with Daryl, but now she couldn’t help but wonder if this was her fault. She had brought Alex here while he was infected, it only could’ve come from him.

She realized her breathing was unsteady, she was scared, not just for her, but for Daryl as well. Daryl threw the motel door shut after grabbing the food he’d left inside. He threw his crossbow in the backseat and then jumped in the drivers seat. He casually touched Addie’s hand, as he could see the obvious fear that was all over her face.

“It’s not your fault.” He told her. “Just how things go.”

“We need to figure this out.” She said.

“I know.” He said while beginning to drive down the street. “That’s why we left ain’t it? We’ll find that doctor guy, we’ll figure it all out.”

“How can you know that?” she asked. “Nothing’s ever worked out before.”

“Well you were smart enough to save my life. That worked. Smart enough to kill walkers, gather food, deliver Lori’s baby. I have a feeling you can figure just about everything out.”

Addie realized that she had done a lot since she’d met Daryl. She had never thought that much about herself until she was put in the position where she was forced to survive, and forced to protect the people she loved. She guessed that if she was forced to do the same, only on a vast scale… she could succeed. The odds may not be in her favor, but she still had a chance, and she had Daryl.

The drive across town was quick. It was easy to see the chopper from the heli-pad at their distance, and both of them had chills due to how silent the town was. Almost like a ghost town, yet there were cars, toys, and personal things just lying around in the streets. The one this that was visibly making them slightly sick was the spray of blood they’d find on the occasional wall. They prey had been caught there, eaten there, died there. But there were no bodies.

When Daryl pulled the car around the corner so that they could visibly see the hospital, Addie could now tell why the military had chosen to come here. The hospital was massive. For a town this small, it was more than adequate. But perhaps the town had been planning on expanding, or perhaps the military had funded it’s construction due to easy accessibility.

There were massive amounts of sandbags; enough that Daryl couldn’t drive the car very far into the lot. From here on out, they’d have to walk. Addie began to strap on her backpack and then throw another bag over her shoulder. She was strong, but carrying all their supplies by hand made everything quite heavy, and she like to keep as much as she could off of Daryl’s back so he could use his crossbow effectively.

Daryl began to pick up several military issued weapons that for some god-forsaken reason were lying on the ground, unattended, and unused.

She could see that Daryl was completely concentrated on his surroundings, he had been since they day they’d met. He was a hunter, he always would be, but it was a skill that Addie was grateful he had. It had saved their lives on many occasions.

Both Addie and Daryl wanted to be extra cautious because the lack of activity in this town, almost as if they expected something, anything really, to come after them, it was all just too easy.

Addie reached the helicopter in time before the sack slipped out from her finger tips. She flung it in the back before climbing inside and shedding the other two bags on her shoulders. She first checked the coveys for any supplies; half hoping she wouldn’t find anything gruesome. But the only thing she found while checking the helicopter was lack of fuel. ’shit.’ she thought.

She looked up at Daryl who was scanning everywhere around them, he wasn’t going to like what she had to say.

“It’s low on fuel.”

“How much do we need? Are we even sure where it is we’re going?”

“No. I don’t know, but this will get us places faster, and we can avoid cluttered highways, walkers, towns, …others.” She added.

Daryl pulled a stack of papers out of his satchel.

“There’s nothing in here that tells us where to go?” he asked.

“No.” she said. “Just who to look for. But my bet… is on the hospital.”

“What about it?” he asked.

“I think if the military took such an interest in this place, it had to be for a reason, maybe we can find his name again, and… we need to get to the storage centers anyway… we’ll need as much fuel as we can get.”

“Storage, like the basement of the hospital? The place that is most likely to house a couple hundred walkers, if not those god damned super walkers!”

“Yes. That place. But perhaps it’s empty, like the town, maybe they’ve all moved on. Looking for food elsewhere.”

Daryl gave her one unappreciated look, “you better hope your right.” He paused before telling her to, “get the guns.”