___
No, I'm not afraid to disappear
The billboard said, "The end is near"
I turned around, there was nothing there
Yeah, I guess the end is here
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The sun beams down on the abandoned Atlanta streets. Elaina is inside a black car. She's laying down on the back seats. She just woke up from the first decent sleep she's had in weeks.
She got left behind by her coworker when the world went to shit. They were working in the office down the road. They'd been hearing the reports and watching the news, but nobody thought it would escalate this far.
People eating people. How did they get here?
She takes a deep breath.
Mandy, her coworker was the only other worker still in the building that day. Everyone else called home sick. They, however, stayed and worked.
A few days into the reports the door jingled signaling that someone has entered. They looked up to see a man wearing a hood. He had a gun in his hand.
They held their hands up, glancing at each other nervously.
"Give me everything you have." He spoke.
Elaina emptied her purse and Mandy followed suit. After he got what he needed, he ran outside.
The two women watched in horror as another man grabbed him by the arm, biting a chunk of flesh out of him. Mandy quickly stood up and locked the door.
"Oh my god. What do we do?" Elaina asks quietly.
Mandy shrugs. "I don't know."
They spent five whole days in that building. There were people on the streets running around. Those things wandering after them. The windows of their building were dark so nobody could see inside.
On the sixth day, after only running off of coffee and chips ahoy cookies, Mandy broke. "I can't do this anymore." She said with exasperation.
She unlocked the door and ran outside. Elaina tried to follow her but spotted a decaying body following her friend. She had no other choice but to slam the door shut. She locked it, watching as her friend got torn apart in the street.
On the seventh day, the streets looked relatively clear. She packed a small bag with a few knives from the communal kitchen in the break room. She shoved some other things she deemed necessities into the bag.
She searched through all of her former coworker's desks, hoping somebody would be crazy enough to have a gun in the office.
There was.
Her least favorite coworker, Brent, had a small caliber pistol in his bottom drawer. It had a couple rounds inside. She shook her head, shoving it into the waistband of her pants.
Her outfit wasn't very fitting for the end of the world. Because she worked in an office, the attire she was required to wear was strict. She wore a dark floral blouse, black pants, and slightly platformed boots.
Since it had only been a few days into the apocalypse, and due to the fact that she hadn't stepped outside of her office building, she hadn't had a chance to find more appropriate clothes.
She took a deep breath, opening the door to the building and peering out. There was one walker near the alley.
She decided to call them walkers because they look dead, but they are walking. Almost a play on words.
She didn't really know what to do. Should she kill it? Is it even still alive? How would she kill it?
All she knows is that the last thing she heard before the radio went static was "Aim for the head."
She slowly crept away from the walker in the alley and made her way down the empty road. She found a pharmacy. The windows were broken, and the inside was dark.
She stepped through the broken window and cringed when her shoe crushed a piece of glass. She paused. No noise.
She continued her way into the store. Thankfully it was empty. She grabbed some much-needed materials. The next place she went to was the grocery store. It was right across the road.
This time she opened the door. The bell didn't go off. She glanced around each aisle checking for other signs of life. Nothing.
She made her way to the canned section. It wasn't completely bare. She grabbed a couple cans and some water.
She slowly made her way back to the building and entered her office. She locked the door and set her bag down. She walked over to one of the desks and nearly fell over when she saw a walker staring right at her. It must've pushed its way inside when the door was unlocked.
She reached for her gun. She had never shot one before. 32 years of life and experience and yet she had never fired a gun. She aimed it at the creature, but it swung its arm at her.
She jumped back and pulled the trigger. It didn't go off.
"Fuck!" She cursed.
She realized the safety was on, so she switched it off and aimed back at the head, remembering the radio voice.
She felt tears in her eyes as the gun shook in her hand. She shut her eyes and fired.
She heard a thump and a shattering noise. She slowly opened her eyes and found the walker, dead on the floor.
She took a sigh of relief, but her relief turned to horror when she realized that the bullet also broke through the window of her building.
She cursed again, grabbing her supplies and running out the door, the walkers making their way towards the sound.
That was two and a half weeks ago. She's been on the run ever since.
She can't go home because her house is an hour commute every day by train, and the last time she checked, all the trains were down.
She hasn't run into another person. There's always the occasional gunshot but by the time the walkers are cleared from the area, the people are long gone.
This black car has been her sanctuary for the past three days. She covers the windows at night with a blanket that she found in a nearby store. She manually locks the doors and makes herself as least visible as she can.
She sighs and sits up. She doesn't know what time it is, but the sun is in the sky now. She peeks out the window and sees nothing. She takes out her water bottle. It's down to a few sips. She sighs and takes a gulp.
Suddenly she hears trotting. Not human. Not dead. Something else. It gets closer and closer. She peeks out again and sees him.
A man.
On a horse.
___
YOU ARE READING
Sheriff's Lover ||| Rick Grimes
Fanfiction"Are you trying to get me drunk, officer?" "What if I am?" Thirty-two-year-old office worker, Elaina Heart was all alone on the streets of Atlanta when a man in a sheriff's uniform trots down the road on a horse. She decides to join him on his miss...
