signal | the walking dead

1 • don't go outside

| the TV says we're out of time |

Was it really the right decision to go to an airport, full of people, right at the beginning of the outbreak spreading to Atlanta?

The answer was no.

But Bea and her best friend's family who she had been staying with during the summer didn't know that it was the wrong answer to think yes. It had been a struggle enough to convince her mom and dad that she could do it, that she could stay in a different city, a different state for a couple of months and she would be okay.

Right now she wished she hadn't tried so hard to go against them. Of course, she couldn't deny how happy she felt, meeting up with Sara again after she had moved away a year ago. At the time it broke her heart, her best friend since kindergarten moving away due to financial issues that the family were having. But that part of her had healed as soon as she saw her again. They had time to catch up, gossip about people they went to school with, go down by the lake near the cabin Sara lives in. Just do teenager things without a worry in the world.

That was until they watched the news broadcast that changed everything.

"The horrific outbreak that has now made it's way to the states. Soon it will be time to go into hibernation. Don't go outside, if you can help it."

"Shit, guess I'm not going home then," Bea mumbled to herself, eyes blinking in disbelief.

"Pa, what's going on?" Sara turned to her father, fear in her eyes as she looked for some reassurance that everything would be okay. But Pete Atkins could not offer that for his wife, his daughter and her best friend, who he considered one of his own after all these years.

"It's not safe out there anymore, darlin'. We need, we need to think about what we're going to do next, get Bea back to her family," he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Pete you can't seriously be thinking that we send her out there? You wouldn't do the same for Sara, we can't make Bea go through that," Ruth spoke up, shocked at the very idea that had just come out of his mouth.

"It's okay," Bea spoke up after thinking about what she wanted to do, "I want to get back to my family, I need to."

And that was what settled it. Although it was a bad move, a stupid move to head out into a dying world, if Bea wanted to get back they would do that for her.

It was Pete who noblely drove her to the airport, not allowing Ruth and Sara to join. It had been a tearful goodbye between the girls, but they had hope they would see each other once again and they could have another summer full of fun memories.

If only.

"You look after yourself sweetheart, alright? I want you to call me as soon as you're home, no excuses," the man almost felt guilty, a tremble in his voice as he swallowed down his doubts about if this would even work.

"I promise. Thank you for having me this summer, I'll see you the next one I'm sure," Bea nodded with a smile, hand wrapped around the handle of her suitcase.

"Be safe, Bea."

And that was the last thing said between the two as the man drove away home, leaving Bea to enter the airport.

It had all been going so well, she had checked in and had her bag searched, she was ready to go home and see her family once again. But then, it happened.

There was a smash as the glass in the boarding area was broken. A groaning sound echoed before a gut wrenching scream was heard. Bea stood up from her seat, terrified of what was about to happen next. And there, stumbling out of the booth opposite her, were two grotesque creatures, bloodied up, making their way right towards her. Their yellow lidded eyes were alert with hunger, something that should be unfamiliar in the human eye, to the human eye.

The girl couldn't tell if the tremor in her hands was from her condition or the fact she had seen someone get ripped apart right in front of her.

"Girl! What are you doing! Run-" a man who looked in his fourties tried to warn her before a chunk was taken out of his neck.

Bea screamed, her vocal chords felt as if they were scraping together as she ran for her life, back to the entrance of the building. As she did so, she grabbed her phone from her pocket, trying to call her friend for help but there was no signal. Shoving it back in her pocket in exasperation, she kept running til she made it outside.

She saw cars fleeing from where they had been stationed, waving her arms to get someone to help her, tears in her eyes.

Nobody stopped.

It was a pitiful sight, but the inhabitants of those cars could not bring it to themselves to play the hero. They had to think about them, and not some girl who was probably about to get mauled to death.

What they didn't know was that she was a fighter, and she would not let herself get killed now. She didn't want to be the guts on the floor, the blood that had sprayed her converse. She needed to find Sara, Ruth, Pete, anybody.

Anyone that could tell her it would be okay. Because she had been betting on that for too long and she was worried things would never be the same again.