❦ | fate unfolded | ᵐ!ᶜˡᵉᵐᵉⁿᵗⁱⁿᵉ ˣ ᶠ!ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ | TWDG

1 | pt. 1 : a new day

July 21st, 2003

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A man limped his way to a wooden fence, checking over his shoulder ever other second, casting a frightened expression.

Zombies.

The undead were trudging towards him, uttering nightmarish noises. Picking up his speed, the man grasped onto the fence and hurriedly clambered over, narrowly evading the horde of reanimated corpses.

He landed on the ground roughly but had no time to recognise his pain as he was harshly scurrying backwards in alarm. The man moved as far as he could go away from the fence, dreading the monsters ahead.

As his back hit the porch of a house, he winced at the sudden contact, while the dead had caught up to the wooden barrier that separated them from him.

Loud, piercing gunshots sounded through the scraping and pounding of rotting flesh against wood.

He didn't take another second to compose himself and regain his stance as the dead swayed away from the fence, off towards the commotion. The injured man breathed in deeply and sighed with relief.

Pushing himself off the railings of the porch, he curiously stumbled over to a treehouse, examining the area he was forced into.

"Hello? Anybody?!"

His calling voice echoed through the quiet street, however received only the tinkling of wind chimes. The man hobbled past a swimming pool and eased his way over the steps to the back entrance of the house.

He looked through the glass door and began knocking on it. "Hello? Anybody home? I need a little help.." Frowning, he paused and stepped away from it but reached out to grab its handle. After pulling several times with no apparent success, he started forcing it open with both hands.

"Coming in," he announced, eventually sliding open the door, "Don't shoot, okay?"

The man walked in and closed it behind him, but cursed when his injured leg sent out excruciating pain throughout his body, indicating that his adrenaline had run low.

"Hello? I'm not an intruder.." he declared, breathing heavily. "..Or one of them." The man glanced around at the destructed interior of the house. "These people might need more help than I do."

Keeping his suspicious gaze around, his eyes finally set on the red, flashing light of an answering machine. He ambled towards it, then pressed a button to play a voice message.

"Three new messages," the monotonic, robotic voice spoke, "Message one: left at five-forty-three p.m."

"Hey Sandra," a woman's voice sounded through the speaker, "This is Y/n's mum. We had to take a detour and we're kind of stuck in Macon at the moment. Something has been going on recently that involved the police and they informed everyone to stay within the city perimeter for a few hours. Hopefully this will pass soon. We promise we'll be back before your spring break, so don't you worry. Tell Y/n to call us back soon, please?"

"Message two: left at eleven-nineteen p.m."

"Hi Sandra, it's Diana speaking. I'm apologising for the late call but we'll be stuck for an extra da, down in Savannah! Ed had an incident with some crazy guy at our hotel and he's currently recovering in the ER. Sorry to keep you waiting, but thank you for taking care of Clement and Y/n. We really appreciate it."

"Message three: left at one-thirty-two a.m."

"Oh my god, finally! I don't know if you've tried to reach Diana or I, but all the calls are getting dropped. They're not letting us leave the city, and aren't telling us anything about Atlanta, nor Savannah. Please, please, just leave the city! Take Y/n and Clement with you back to Marietta. I-I've got to try and contact Diana and Ed. Please let me know that you're safe!"