Chapter Two
NOTES:
After a quick Google, I found out Ricks's home before the outbreak was in Cynthiana, Kentucky, so I’m assuming he had basically a full tank of gas to get him as close to Atlanta as possible before he found the horse. Possibly even a bit to refuel at one point.
I’m going with this belief anyway so the car will run out of gas close enough that he can still get there without having to walk for days.
I'm bad at grammar and spelling so any mistakes are my own.
DISCLAIMER:
A lot of this further on is taken directly from the show, anything you recognize is owned by the creators of The Walking Dead. No money is made off this work. It is for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter Two
The following day was sunny and bright, but just as hot as all the other days Harry had been in America.
The street was tranquil come morning; it was a break from the reminder of the horror the world had become.
Morgan had explained to them what was happening to the best of his knowledge.
The virus kills after being transmitted by a bite or a scratch resulting in a high fever that cannot be stopped, but sometime after people die from it, they come back, start walking around, running on pure animal instinct, searching for more people to bite or anything living to eat.
Morgan explained that the only sure way to stop them that he had found was to damage the head, basically hurt the brain beyond repair.
Rick knew that he needed to get to the station now, not only to look for other survivors but to also get what guns and ammo he could so that he was as prepared as he could be for his search for his wife and son.
Morgan informed them of safe zones that were made up by the military in Atlanta and that pretty much everyone went there for shelter.
Rick wanted to get on the road as soon as possible so they loaded up what they could gather for supplies before heading off to the station.
There was no one there at the station, it had been locked up tight with no sign anyone else had even attempted to take refuge. It was on its own power source and had its own limited water supply, so it was a pretty good place for people to stay.
It seemed like anyone who stuck around thought were bit and turned. There were plenty of the dead walking the streets, probably what made it less appealing.
Morgan and Duane were so relieved to be able to shower with hot water and wash all the grime and sweat off. Rick also had another shower as well, Harry had refused, not wanting to take his clothes off around the others, causing them to worry more for the young boy.
With everything Harry had said about his life so far, it wasn’t leaving a good impression for the two adults.
Rick thought it might just be from shyness for a bit however and said he could shower when the rest were done and had left the room.
It made Harry feel more comfortable, true to their word the others let Harry shower in peace. Rick was thankful that Harry was pretty self-sufficient for such a young kid.
He had kept himself alive at the hospital as well as Rick and had been very aware and observant since, it was sad to see such instincts in someone so young.
Rick’s police training was telling him the boy had had a grim childhood and was a little sick with himself for being thankful his relatives were dead now.
While Harry had showered, Rick had made sure he got a duffle bag to put the guns in, he even put two smaller handguns in Harry’s backpack as well as ammo for safekeeping.
Morgan accepted the gun that Rick gave him with thanks, giving some of his scavenged cans of food in exchange before they were all back outside making sure the car was packed with everything, they would need for the seven-hour-long car ride.
Harry was sitting in the car while Rick said his goodbyes to the Jones family, he was not looking forward to being confined in a car on a scorching hot day.
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Traveling to Atlanta was harder than Rick thought it would be.
There were a lot of roads that were blocked at points with abandoned cars, meaning that they had to drive around, using up the gas a lot quicker than Rick anticipated.
Before they had left, they had a full tank and half a canister to refuel, but by the time they were a few miles out of Jasper, they were all out of gas.
Away up the road, there was a gas station, Rick could only just make out that there were several abandoned cars around it, but he wanted to check it out anyway.
Rick got Harry to follow, not wanting to leave the kid alone in the car in case the dead were waiting around to attack.
Making sure to take their stuff as an extra precaution in case they couldn’t get back to the car and had to abandon it.
“Come on kid let’s see if it’s got any gas left, we might be lucky enough hopefully,” Rick said quietly.
They approached the gas station with care, Rick having one hand on his holstered gun as they walked.
The place was quiet, eerily so, especially for how many cars there were.
It felt like the place should have been buzzing with activity. The silence that stretched on was very disheartening.
Once at the pumps, Rick checked to see if any of them worked.
“Looks like we are all out of luck kid”.
Rick was looking around pitifully,
He checked most of the surrounding cars, but they were all empty as well, there was nothing to do but keep on going, maybe they would find an abandoned car that actually worked and had gas, it was wishful thinking on Ricks's part but he also knew that any car that would still be working and gassed up meant the owner had met a grizzly end, the officer didn’t want to wish that on anyone.
It would take longer on foot, they may even have to camp for the night, it wasn’t something Rick was looking forward to as there weren’t many safe places around.
Before they began their journey on, Rick could hear the shuffling of feet on the other side of a truck.
Thinking it might be another survivor, he cautiously made his way around the vehicle to investigate, signaling to Harry to stay behind him.
Walking between the cars was a child, she was dirty, and it looked like she might be injured, and was in her sleepwear, holding a dirty white teddy in one hand.
“Hay little girl, I’m a police officer, I’m here to help,”
Rick was slow as he moved, the girl was facing away from him, making it hard to tell if she was one of the dead.
At the noise she had stopped and very slowly turned around.
Harry gasped in shock when he saw her, Rick could hardly believe what he was seeing, this was the first time he had seen a child with the disease.
The dead girl began to snarl and advance, she was slow but then she quickly picked up speed, just before she was about to lunge Rick pulled his gun out and fired at her, the bullet hit her right in the middle of her head, she fell to the ground motionless.
Behind him Rick could hear Harry crying, the boy was frightened by the dead girl as well as the loud noise, Rick felt bad he had to witness something so horrible. The boy was younger than his son and Rick knew if Carl was here, he would have protected him from seeing.
He had to make sure Harry was more protected, from harm as well as the visual horror that was just as traumatizing to the small boy.
Rick knelt so he could be as close to eye level with the young child.
“It’s okay Harry, I’m sorry you saw that, but we have to keep going, we need to find somewhere else to bunk down for the night.”
The quiet spoken words had Harry looking at Rick, his green eyes were blurred with tears.
Nodding his head in agreement, Harry took hold of Ricks's outstretched hand before they headed off down the road, hopefully, they could find somewhere to stay the night.
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Walking for so long in the hot Georgian sun was making Harry grumpy, he had shrugged Rick off once when he was asking about his life back home, and when the man was being too persistent Harry had growled at him to mind his own business.
It was the first time he could remember ever being rude to an adult and he was expecting Rick to lash out and punish him for his behaviour. Years at the Dursleys made Harry weary and good at dodging and running when he needed to, so he had prepared himself to run away from a swinging fist if it came to it.
He was not expecting Rick to apologize for being pushy, it was shocking to Harry that not all adults were like his relatives. In the end, it took Harry a few hours to relax around Rick again and let him within arm’s length of him.
They traveled the same road heading to Atlanta for a further two hours before Rick led them down a dirt drive.
The house at the end was a white farmhouse. The place was just as quiet as everywhere else they had been.
Rick instructed Harry to stay outside while he cleared it if there were any dead in the house, he didn’t want Harry to have to see any more than he already had.
There were no walking-dead people in the house, but Rick did find a family that had made the hard choice to not fight for survival.
Rick shut the door to the room they were in before ushering Harry in.
After a dinner of cold canned soup, shared between them, they decided to sleep in the lounge room, Harry insisted he was okay on the floor and Rick should take the couch.
“Alright, I’ll take it this time but next time you get the couch.” Rick compromised, after a good ten minutes of back and forth with the young boy.
Harry didn’t much care, he had been sleeping on the floor for weeks now and had gotten used to it, it wasn’t like he had a real bed before the trip to America anyway, so he was accustomed to not having the comfort of a soft place to sleep. It was always cooler on the floor anyway.
When the next day rolled around Harry was awake first, years of conditioning to rise and get breakfast started for his relatives meant that he was always an early riser. Breakfast was another can of soup.
Once he had eaten, Harry walked around the house for a bit, the kitchen wasn’t well stocked but there were more cans of food there that Harry put into his backpack, while he was doing this, he found the two guns Rick had put into his bag, knowing they were dangerous, Harry made sure not to touch them without Ricks says so.
Along with the cans Harry also grabbed some utensils for eating with, as well as making sure he had packed the can opener.
At the back of the house, Harry found a bedroom that was pretty tidy.
It looked like it used to be used by a teen or adult woman, she didn’t have a lot of knick-knacks like Aunt Petunia did, but she seemed to like horses quite a lot, judging by the pictures covering the walls.
There were also some trophies and ribbons for horse-related shows and sports events that were lining one wall.
It looked like she was into doing jumps with the horses going off the pictures.
On the trophies, it said Ashley and Chester on all of them.
She looked like she had led a fun life.
There wasn’t anything worth taking in the room, so Harry made his way back to the lounge to see if Rick was up yet.
After Rick had eaten his bowl of soup and made sure everything was packed up and ready to go, they headed out to continue their journey to Atlanta.
Harry was tired from the previous day of walking, he was used to having busy days at the Dursleys, but the heat was making it very hard for him.
As they were heading down the drive, he heard a sound he hadn’t ever heard before.
In a paddock just up ahead was a horse that Harry recognized from the pictures he had seen that morning.
“Chester!” He gasped excitedly.
And before Rick could stop him, he had taken off towards the large stallion.
“Harry- wait,” the officer called, but Harry was too fast and had made it to the horse before he had even registered what was happening.
The creature was tall with a slender build, it was multicolored of browns and white, someone had already saddled it and it was already to go.
“How do you know that’s its name?” Rick asked as he stood holding the reins, Harry was looking at the animal in excited wonder, it was the first real-life horse he had ever seen.
“The house has pictures and trophies in one room, it said Ashley and Chester on them, it was a girl’s room, and this is a boy horse, so I made the guess” Harry replied happily petting the docile creature.
“Alright then, I’ve only ridden a hose twice before, but he seems the friendly kind, it would be a hell of a lot quicker to Atlanta if he gave us a lift” Rick mused.
“Really? We can ride him ?” Harry asked, this was probably the most excited he had ever been for anything, it even beat when he found out he wasn’t being left behind for once and got to go on the family trip.
“The saddle is in good condition and you're small enough he should be able to handle us and the bags- yeah we’ll ride him to the city,” Rick said as he checked the buckles to ensure they were secured.
He lifted Harry up who was giddy with anticipation, before pulling himself up onto the saddle.
The horse was very calm and was easy to lead, they made good time getting to Atlanta and had no trouble from the dead on the last leg of the journey into the city.
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The city of Atlanta was nothing like it looked when Harry was first there. Buildings were destroyed with smashed windows and there was litter and glass all over the place, lots of cars and buses were abandoned all over the roads and Harry could see a few of the dead.
When they passed a bus, Chester was spooked by a few of the dead getting up and following them, they were slow, so Rick didn’t bother with them before he took off further into the city.
Shortly after they passed an area that looked like the military had set up a blockade with large guns and military vehicles around including a tank, there was a body of an officer dead on the front of the large military vehicle, being pecked at by crows.
Rick whispered to Harry to not look before he went to move around it.
A few paces on Rick stopped, there was a sound in the distance that he was trying to pinpoint, it was a helicopter, more survivors.
When Rick saw its direction in the windows of a high rise, he got Chester to take off.
At a fast speed, they went around the corner only to run into a massive group of dead.
Harry yelled in fright, there were lots of women and men in the group all growling and hissing. As soon as they had seen them, the dead began to advance.
Turing sound Rick got Chester into a fast sprint to get away only to have the way blocked by lots more of the dead, they were trapped by the advancing diseased.
Chester reared in fright making both Rick and Harry topple to the ground, the dead began to swarm the poor creature.
“NO-!” Harry screamed but there was nothing he could do for the animal.
Trying to hold back his tears due to the dire situation he got as close to Rick as he could as the dead came after them as well. It was looking like the city had fallen to the deceased ones and there was no escape.
Rick grabbed Harry in a death grip and pulled him till they could both crawl under the Tank, only to curse when the dead followed them and continued to snap their teeth and reach for them.
With no other choice, Rick pulled out his gun and began to shoot, it felt like there was no hope, the dead were everywhere and coming from both ends, Harry had begun to hyperventilate in fear.
Suddenly there was a noise above his head and a hatch burst open, quick as lightning Rick grabbed Harry and threw him up before pulling himself too safely.
Panting hard Rick slammed the hatch closed, not even stopping for a second to question how it opened by itself as the tank was occupied by only one dead soldier who wasn’t moving.
Sitting down next to the dead man Rick stopped to catch his breath.
Harry was all out sobbing, there had been so many dead people trying to get them and they had gotten Chester. He had wished so hard for somewhere safe and when Rick got them into the tank it was like a prayer had been answered. Harry was feeling so weak now, but he was still terrified, they were trapped, with no way out.
Suddenly Rick shot his gun again and intense pain shot through his skull worse than when Aunt Petunia had hit him with the frying pan one time.
His ears were ringing something fierce, looking at Rick he could see he wasn’t in any better of a state. Looks like the soldier wasn’t dead- dead after all.
It took a few moments for his head to clear; Harry was beyond terrified at the situation they found themselves in, this was way worse than the time Aunt Marge’s dog Ripper chased him all over the street when he was five and he ended up a tree for hours.
Rick had popped up to the open hole above them and a few moments later he was slamming it closed as well.
“God how the hell we getting out of this kid” Rick mumbled dejectedly, Harry had no clue, so he didn’t even bother to answer, he just continued to try to get his breath back and settle enough to stop crying.
The sound of static broke the silence, Rick turned to look and saw a radio that was still on.
“Hay you?- dumb ass. Yeah, you in the tank, cozy in there?” A voice said, Rick was shocked, this was real, it wasn't a figment of his imagination.
“Hay, are you alive in there?”
Rushing forward Rick launched himself across the tank, smacking his head in the process.
Quickly grabbing the radio Rick responded.
“Hello, hello?”
“There you are you had me wondering”.
“Where are you, are you outside? Can you see us right now” Rick asked,
“Yeah, I can see you, you're surrounded by walkers, that’s the bad news,” the voice said.
“There’s good news?” Was Rick's question. If this person had eyes on the outside their chances of survival just went up a bit.
“No” the voice replied sadly.
“Look whoever you are I don’t mind telling you that I’m a little concerned for us in here”.
“Oh man- you should see it from over here, you would be having a major freak out”.
Reaching forward Harry grabbed the radio from Rick while the man stopped to process that.
“We already are freaking out mister, how do we get out?” Harry pleaded before Rick took the radio back from him.
“Holy shit you got a kid in there?”
“Got any advice for us?” Rick asked the man.
“Um- yeah, I’d say make a run for it.”
Rick took a second to process that, it sounded suicidal, the place was crawling with the dead, or walkers as the voice called them before.
“My way isn’t as dumb as it sounds, remember you have eyes out here. There is one Geek still on the tank, but the others have all joined the feeding frenzy with the horse, are you with me so far?” The voice said sounding more hurried or exasperated the longer he was talking.
“So far” Rick replied, if the dead were distracted maybe, it would make it easier to run.
“The street on the other side of the tank is less crowded, if you move now while they are distracted you stand a better chance, you got ammo?” The voice explained quickly.
Rick checked his gun to see what he had left.
“A bit but more in that duffle bag I dropped out there, more guns and ammo, can I get to it?”
“Forget the bag, it’s not an option anymore, what do you have on you?” The man asked.
“Just a sec.”
Rick cursed, looks like they were up shits creek without a paddle.
“Rick” Harry’s call of his name had the officer turning to the young boy.
Harry had pulled his bag off his back and had pulled out the two guns Rick had put in there yesterday morning.
Rick couldn’t believe he had forgotten about them.
“Thanks, kid,” Rick said giving Harry a big smile as he gently took the guns from his tiny hands.
They were loaded and with the safety on, but Rick couldn’t believe he didn’t warn Harry about them.
What if the kid had played with them when he found them and had accidentally shot himself or someone else? Rick needed to stop being so careless.
Rick quickly continued to search the tank; the soldier didn’t have anything else on him, but Rick spied a grenade sitting on top of a box next to the dead man’s body.
Pocketing the explosive, Rick went back to the radio.
“I got a Baretta, one clip, fifteen rounds,” Rick said earning him a weird look from Harry.
“Make them count, jump off the right side of the tank, and keep going, there is an ally about fifty yards- be there.” The man said.
“Hay, what’s your name?” Rick asked.
“Have you been listening you are running out of time.” Without further prompting, Rick got Harry to put his bag back on and put the two guns away.
“Why did you say you only have one gun when there are three?” Harry asked, he was very confused as to why Rick had hidden the fact, that they had a few more guns to protect themselves with.
“We don’t know this person, yes they are helping us, but they still might be a bad person, we won’t know till we meet them,” Rick told the young boy.
It made sense to Harry, so he didn’t bother Rick about it anymore as they got ready to leave the tank.
“Stay as close to me as possible, okay” Harry nodded his head in agreement, there was no way he was getting left behind.
After grabbing a short shovel Rick got them on the move.
Making their way out of the tank was difficult for the two of them. After Rick jumped off and fell to the ground Harry was scared to follow.
Once Rick was on his feet again, he shot a few of the dead as they were the closest before motioning for Harry to jump to him.
With a flinch, Harry followed jumping down and into Rick’s awaiting arms and being eased into the ground gently, before they raced off to the mentioned ally, with the dead closing in on their heels.
They ran down the street, Rick shooting the dead that were in the way or too close for comfort, adrenaline rushing, Rick kept his gun up as they came round the corner of the alley.
“Whoa, not dead,” an Asian man said with his hands raised.
Pulling the gate shut behind them only for it not to have a latch, they all continued to move further down the ally.
The man with the red baseball hat let them further down the alley to a ladder, yelling at them to go faster and to hurry up, the dead were closing in.
“Come on what are you waiting for?” The Asian man yelled.
After making sure Harry was up high enough Rick began to follow.
They rushed up the ladder quickly and stopped on a grated landing to catch their breaths.
“Nice going there Clint Eastwood, you the new sheriff, come riding in to clean up the town?” The Asian man said.
“That wasn’t my intention” Rick responded panting; Harry had given the other man a dirty look for what he said to Rick. How were they supposed to know about the massive amounts of disease?
“Yeah whatever, yeeha you’re still a dumb ass.”
“Names Rick, this is Harry, thanks for the save,” Rick said extending his hand to the other young man.
“Glenn, you're welcome,” the young Asian man, Glenn replied shaking Ricks's hand.
With the Barretta now empty, Rick decided to put it into Harry’s bag and swap it for another, before Glenn’s words of astonishment had him following where the young man was looking, to see that the dead had somehow worked out to pull themselves up the ladder.
Turing to continue to climb Glenn paused before he made the ascent.
“On the bright side, it will be the fall that kills us, I’m a kind of glass half full kinda guy.”
With those words the three of them began to climb, Harry had to stop for a bit halfway up to rest, Rick always made sure he had a good grip on the ladder though.
It took a while, but they eventually made it to the top and onto the roof of the building.
“Did you barricade the alley?” Rick asked once they were well away from the immediate danger.
“Someone did, after the city was lost to the geeks, I bet somebody was thinking, not many Geeks would get through” Glenn replied, and he guided them to a hatch door on the building.
“Back at the tank, why did you stick your neck out for me, I mean you hadn’t even seen Harry, to you I was just some dumb guy,” Rick asked the man; he was getting the feeling that Glenn was a decent guy, but Rick still wanted to know what the other man’s motives were.
“ Call it foolish naive, hope that if I’m ever that far up shit creek someone might do the same for me, guess I’m an even bigger dumb ass than you,” Glenn replied before he began to make his way down a ladder into the darkness of the building.
Harry and Rick shared a look before the officer motioned Harry to follow with Rick taking up the rear.
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NOTES:
Okay another chapter, please don’t expect updates this close together all the time, I’m not usually like this with writing.
The Walking Dead is a new series for me and after I began it the plot bunnies just came out in force.
I got a hint of accidental magic in here; Harry obviously won’t go to Hogwarts and as he is underage for training, he still has bouts of accidental magic that will flare up.
The next chapter will have Rick and Harry join the gang. Harry being there will have things changing more.
Please leave feedback for me, it always spurs me on with writing.
Stay tuned xx