Pretty Much Dead Already

Rick opened his eyes the next morning, surprised to see that he had slept through the night without waking up once. The sun was shining through the cracks in the boarded up windows and as he sat up on the couch, he could feel the heat already beginning to fill the house. After pulling his boots on and using his new strength to stretch his limbs, he went in search of Heather, not sure where she had been the entire night.

He walked around the house quietly, checking the bedrooms for her while grabbing little things that he thought they would need to get to Atlanta. He ended up finding a few plain white tshirts for himself, a box of band aids along with a bottle of rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and some gauze. He grabbed a pocket knife from the largest bedroom and a handful of lighters, never knowing when he would need one. Once he finished wandering the house, he headed to the front door, sure she would be outside where she went the previous night.

He opened the door, taking with him his gun, and made his way outside. It only took him a second to scan his eyes across the yard before he spotted Heather about 20 yards from where he was. She was sprinting back and forth across a stretch of the field, carrying a baseball bat in her hands that she would swing every few feet. He watched her for a few minutes, realizing she was, in so many words, training, before she slowed and saw him.

She stopped running and briskly walked over to where he was, squinting in the sunlight as she smiled up at him. Her hair was pulled into a knotted bun just at the base of her neck and her skin was flushed a light pink either from being in the sun or from the running, Rick wasn't sure which.

"Mornin', sheriff." she greeted him, setting the bat down on the ground as she took a seat on the steps of the porch where he was standing.

"Mornin'." he responded, taking a seat next to her, "You could've woken me up for watch."

Heather twisted her head and looked at him, letting him see the bags under her eyes that proved he was right when he thought she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. He felt guilty about indulging in his sleep while she neglected any just to keep watch for the both of them.

"I tried," she told him, the smile not faltering, "you sleep like a rock. It's ok though, it was a calm night."

"What were you doing over there?" Rick asked her, waving his hand in the direction of the field she had been in.

"Staying in shape." she answered simply, holding her hand above her brow line to block the sun, "It passes the time and if I'm ever in the situation where I need to run, at least I know I can do that."

Rick nodded, smiling lightly to himself. He admitted that was a good idea, something that he should look to doing in the future.

"What are the plans for today?"

He found himself unsure, not even thinking about what steps they would take to get to Atlanta. He wasn't even sure how far away they were to begin with and that put a slight damper on his mood.

"We'll get your guns loaded up with some ammo then start walking, I suppose." he answered, his voice not hiding the tone he automatically took on when he started giving orders. He never meant for his words to come out hard but when he turned back to her, he noticed that she was just nodding, not seeming to mind when he spoke to her like that.

"I've never really had official training on how to use a gun," Heather told him, nodding her head as she thought about Rick's plans, "I mean, I know how to aim and shoot but I've only had to use my guns a few times since I've been on my own."

"That's not something we'll worry about right now. I'll teach you how to use one properly on the way there." she could hear the promise in his voice and she nodded again, "After you learn handguns, you can start carrying around one of my rifles. They're louder but you might be able to control them easier."

"Sounds like a plan then. We should eat breakfast and get going."

Rick agreed and rose to his feet, waiting for her to go inside the house before he followed behind her.

After eating a somewhat decent breakfast of granola bars and a can sliced peaches, and loading up one of the guns Heather had been carrying, her and Rick left the farm house and started walking towards Atlanta. The sun was beating down at them with such force, they had to stop more than a few times within the first two hours they were out. The one thing Heather noticed about Rick that she immediately took a liking to was how understanding and calm he was no matter what the situation. Not being from Georgia, Heather wasn't used to the intense heat that seemed to consume the entire state and because of that, she found it hard to breath through the mugginess.

"I hate this state." she said hoarsly as she sat down under the shade of a tree.

Rick stood in front of her, constantly scanning the fields and beyond in hopes of finding someone or something that would tell them exactly how close they were to their destination.

"How are you still wearing all those layers?" her face was red by this point, the water she had consumed wasn't enough for the searing heat that weakened her bones and drenched her body.

She thought she might have annoyed him but he actually felt quite the opposite. He enjoyed her company and even if he didn't know a thing about her, other than her name, he liked the fact that she was someone to talk to and someone he could rely on. He figured if she wasn't going to stick with him, she would've left while he was asleep. But she was still there when he woke up and she was more than willing to accompany him.

"I'm just used to it, is all." Rick told her, removing his hat as he smiled and sat down in the shade next to her.

She kept quiet, taking a quick sip from her water bottle as she wiped the sweat from her forehead onto the back of her hand. After taking a quick glane at her watch, she slowly stood up and took in a deep breath.

"We should probably get going. It's just after noon and we still have quite a ways to go."

Rick agreed and followed behind her as she began walking again, listening to the song she was humming to herself. She was content in the woods and he noticed that she was looking to the ground, her eyes scanning the grass ahead of her.

"What are you looking for?" Rick asked her, his curiosity getting the better of him.

He heard her laugh softly, "I'm just seeing if there are any tracks from people. I haven't seen any so far."

"What did you do before all of this happened?" Rick found himself asking her, wondering how she learned how to track people.

She hesitated, her left foot pressing into the grass as she tried to find stable footing, then shrugged her shoulders enough for him to see. She didn't like talking about herself, about what she did before she was forced to survive. To her, it didn't matter what happened before, all that mattered was how you handled yourself in the present and how you chose to survive.

"All sorts of things," she started, knowing that she could confide in Rick, if anyone, though it didn't make her comfortable how quickly she realized he was her ally, "I was raised on a farm and my older brother taught me a lot of things that turned out to be pretty useful."

Rick didn't say anything, he just continued following behind her, every now and then stopping to adjust the girl's heavy pack on his shoulders. His silence began to make her uncomfortable.

"Why isn't your family with you?" she asked him quietly, wondering if he would even talk about it. She noticed she wasn't surprised when he started talking to her about the situation.

She didn't speak as he told his story; how he woke up in an abandoned hospital, how he had run all the way home to find his family missing, the neighbors who took him in and took care of him, how he made the decision to go to Atlanta and finally, how he ran into her. He spoke highly of her and how he was glad to have met her, especially in such hard times. She could only smile and nod her head, agreeing with him.

"I really hope you find your family." she told him after he had finished, knowing that reliving everything was hard enough for him.

He nodded his head and tried to smile, "I don't think you ever told me why you were alone."

She tried not to stop, the feeling of dread she had been pushing down into her gut for weeks now began rising. Rick saw her pause before she stepped forward, her limp more noticible as she attempted to speed up. At first he didn't want to press the issue, but after travelling with each other for more than a day and only talking about the weather and their surroundings, Rick thought it would be best if they were to actually get to know each other. She had asked him personal questions and she knew it was only fair that she answered his.

"My brother disappeared. I guess I'm just trying to find him." Heather said quietly.

Rick nodded to himself, taking off his hat as he took in a deep breath.

"How'd he disappear?"

"We were holed up in a gas station outside of Dalton a few weeks after the last broadcast played. We were with a group, maybe 5 or 6 other people. Someone was on watch and they must've gotten distracted because I was asleep one minute and the next my brother was yelling at me to get up. Walkers had showed up and killed pretty much the whole group by the time we got out of that room. I ran one way, he ran the other and I haven't seen him since."

Heather fell silent as she slowed to a stop, pulling the pack off and unzipping the pocket. Rick watched as she took out a bottle of water and took a drink before handing it to him. It wasn't cold but he was glad to have the moisture back in his mouth.

"How do you know he's still alive?" Rick finally asked her as he handed the bottle back to her.

She tilted her head to the side, hoisting the pack onto her, and smiled at him.

"Same reason you know your family is still alive, I guess." she said, "Plus, I hid out in a tree for a day or two and when I went back to the gas station, all of my brother's things were gone but mine was still there. Even had those guns left behind. I think he wants me to find him."

Rick tried to smile at her but the way she spoke of her brother made him slightly uneasy. He had figured in his mind that if her brother wanted to be found, he would've stayed behind to wait for her. He didn't want to mention his doubts to her for the same reason she wouldn't mention hers to him. They were both banking on hope no matter what the cost.

"We have about an hour before the sun goes down." Heather told him, looking up at the sky, "We should find somewhere to crash for the night, right?"

Rick nodded and looked at their surroundings. They were in the middle of the woods now, nothing but trees surrounding them.

"I'm sure if we get out of the woods we can find another house to stay in for the night." Rick suggested, keeping in mind that it was her turn to sleep and his turn to take watch.

Heather agreed and they began to make their way out of the woods.