Survival Guide: To Surviving the Living Dead 101

Rule #4

Strength in Numbers

If you want to survive, then you should find yourself a group of people. There is strength in numbers. Sure in some cases it's better to be alone. But in situations like this, it's better to be in a group. In a group you have people to watch your back and fight alongside you. One person can't take on a group of walkers by themselves, it might seem fine when it's five or six but when you get a group of ten or more it can start to become overwhelming. It's hard to trust in this world, hell it was hard to trust in the old world too. But this is about staying alive as long as possible. There is no more government. No more military. No more police or fire department. No more calling nine-one-one when you need help. It's up to you to keep yourself alive and do whatever you need to to achieve that.

We had started to make piles. We had a small fire going off to the side for walkers to be burned. Then off to the other side we were lying out our dead and wrapping them in a sheet. Apparently Jim had started digging holes yesterday. Shane had to tie him to a tree because he had become delusional from the heat. He said he had a dream of walkers coming into camp and that's why he started digging.

It turned out Ed was one of those who were attacked last night. He was pretty much gone being the first one to be attacked. Earlier that day Shane had beat the fuck out of him for putting his hands on Carol. Daryl was getting ready to use the pickaxe through Ed's head when Carol stopped. She wanted to do it herself. I was standing beside Daryl when he handed her the pickaxe. I was taking my green long sleeve button up I had on over my gray tee shirt off when she lifted it and brought it down on his head. I tied my shirt around my waist as Carol let out a cry and brought the pickaxe down a few more times before handing it back to Daryl. She walked off after that. "Wow. I wish I could do that to my ex," I said. Daryl looked at me and snorted, "never know. Maybe ya will," he said. I laughed and we got back to work.

There was some argument about Amy and needing to make sure she didn't come back. Daryl suggested just going over and putting a bullet in her head. Lori piped up and told everyone to leave her alone before she sat down. That's all she has done today. She hasn't helped clean up the bodies. We all flinched a little when we heard a gunshot. Andrea had shot Amy. Then we found out Jim was bitten. Daryl wanted to kill him on the spot but Rick and Shane stopped him. Rick took him in the RV then we had a talk about leaving the quarry.

"The CDC? No way, Rick. The city was overrun. That means the CDC is gone," I said. "They would protect the CDC at all cost," he argued. "I say we head to Fort Benning," Shane said. Eventually it was decided we would go to the CDC first thing tomorrow. Daryl drove the truck up to the hill with the bodies of our people and we buried them. When we got back down to the camp Shane and Rick announced that we would be going to the CDC first thing tomorrow morning. Rick doesn't understand that there is no cure for this. That the CDC isn't going to be able to help us. To help Jim.

But we started packing things up after we all took a break and ate what we had to make for dinner. I didn't sleep that night and neither did Daryl. We both decided we would take watch for the night. The next morning we finished packing everything up. Radios were handed out and instructions given on what to do in case someone needed to stop. The Morales family decided they would go their separate way and try to look for their family. Rick gave them some ammo and a gun. They said their goodbyes and everyone got in their cars. I decided to ride with Daryl in his truck. It was that or ride with Shane and I did not want to ride with Shane.

I looked out the window, watching the trees and Fields fly by. I watched the abandoned houses with their untamed lawns go by in a blur. The world was quiet with no planes flying high in the clouds. The sky's were clear and the air was hot. It didn't smell as bad out here in the open where there wasn't a soul in sight. In the city you can smell the trash and the rotting corpses of the dead. We were heading that way. The CDC was right outside the city. I had no doubt about what we would find when we got there.

There was no way the military that was protecting the CDC were alive. They were too close to the city. Things went south fast. They didn't take the time to think about the fact of letting anyone who was infected into the camps. One person with a bit could bring down everything. And that's exactly what happened. Some were lucky enough to get out. Some weren't. Some were at ground zero for the bombs.

The caravan came to a stop and I groaned. "What do you want to bet the RV broke down?" I asked Daryl. He scoffed and we got out of the truck. Sure enough it was the RV. Shane and T-Dog headed up the road about a mile to find what it needed to get it back up and running. While they were gone Jim made the request to be left behind. His condition was getting worse. "It's his choice not ours. We can't keep him with us. He will die and he will turn, Rick. The CDC will not have a cure." Rick didn't like hearing it. He still has all this hope just like everyone else that this would all blow over and everything would go back to normal. I didn't have that hope. I didn't believe that everything would go back to the way it was. It was already out of hand.

We left Him on the hill sitting against a tree and made our way to the CDC. What we saw when we got there wasn't much of a surprise to me. Soldiers and civilians lay all over the place. The smell of rotting dead bodies floated in the air, flies swarmed around them. This was already a bad sign but Rick still insisted we walk to the front doors. The shutters were down, it was getting dark, no one was answering, and walkers were starting to approach us. Daryl, Glenn, T-Dog, and I all started getting rid of any walkers that got too close. Rick was going on about how he saw the camera move. The kids were crying, Shane was trying to pull Rick away from the doors while he yelled at the camera. As we were about to walk away the doors opened and a blinding white light met us.