Open up, Survivors Inside

Chapter 1

The first thing Puffer felt as he slowly came to was a throbbing pain in his head, like someone had slammed a bat into his skull. The second, was that he could hear what sounded like talking, a man and young girl. When Puffer opened his eyes, he immediately regretted it as the pain spiked in intensity. "He woke up!" Puffer heard a little girl say, the pitch of her voice causing Puffer to groan in pain as his ears rang, "Oops, sorry."

Forcing his eyes open, he finally saw who was talking. There was a young girl with curly black hair, a yellow dress shirt, and black pants looking at him, and Puffer noticed a baseball cap. A hand reaching out for him to grab startled Puffer and he looked up, seeing a bearded black man with a blue shirt on. Taking the hand, the man helped Puffer sit up. "Where am I...how did I get here?" Puffer asked, and he could feel some cloth wrapped around his head.

"Your car crashed with the cop I was riding with," The man replied, "I managed to get you out and drag you here." It was then that Puffer saw the blood on the man's leg, leading to a gash. "Can you stand up?"

"I can ask you the same thing," Puffer said, slowly standing up with the man's help. His vision swam a bit, but it didn't take long to stabilize. The sound of growling and gurgling got his attention, and he looked around, "What the fuck was that?"

"You swore!" The girl gasped.

"The dead walking...we need to leave," The man stated, "Name's Lee. This here's Clementine."

"Puffer," Puffer replied. As they left, he saw the corpse of some lady, but her eyes were way too cloudy for someone in her stage of decomposition. It didn't help that her head had been smashed in, and the smell. He would have lost his last meal if he wasn't helped out of the house so quickly. Getting a better look at his glasses, he could see that one of the lenses was cracked. Fan-fucking-tastic, how would he find a replacement? If he did, Puffer knew he would have to just stick to reading glasses.

But it was only a crack, so for now, his glasses were okay to wear. Putting them back on, Puffer followed Lee and Clementine to two strangers struggling to push a totaled out of the way. Both were startled, but calmed down when they realized that they weren't the dead walking, "Thought for a second we were going to get the chomp," The black haired guy said.

"What are you doing?" Lee asked while Puffer just observed.

"Trying to get home, this neighborhood is a disaster," The guy replied, "Are you trying to get out of here? Because you should be. Those things are all over the damn place. I haven't seen anything as gnarly as this neighborhood since downtown Atlanta, fifteen miles back."

"That bad?" Puffer asked, to which the guy nodded.

"I'm Shawn, Shawn Green."

"Lee, This is Clementine and Puffer," Lee said.

The other guy crouched down to be on Clementine's eye level before introducing himself, "I'm Chet."

"We shouldn't be out in the open like this," Shawn started as Chet stood up, "If one of you could help us clear the way, we'll take you down to my family's farm. You and your daughter should be safe, and my dad can take a look at your injuries."

"I'm not her dad, I'm...her babysitter. Her parents are out of town," Lee corrected.

"What about you?" Chet asked Puffer.

"Saved me from a crash," Puffer replied.

"Well, let's get going," Shawn said as he looked around, "Staying put for too long is a mistake."

Puffer was about to volunteer when he heard a strange noise. Turning to it, to Puffer's horror, walking corpses could be seen roaming about, the same cloudy white eyes present. Lee wasn't kidding earlier, the dead were walking! "We gotta go!" Chet warned as soon as he saw the group of walkers approaching.

"Puffer, let's go!" Shawn said, and Puffer was quick to run over. Thankfully the tires of the car weren't damaged, so once the two got the car moving, it was easy to push it back. Chet moved to the truck and removed an object stuck in the wheel, allowing it to move again. As soon as the car was out of the way, Shawn, Lee, and Clementine got into the truck while Chet and Puffer hopped into the back, the truck speeding away. The sun was already beginning to set by the time the truck drove off, so it wasn't a surprise that it was dark by the time they made it.

Puffer's head wound was still throbbing, but he let Lee go first as at least his wound was somewhat wrapped up, while Lee's was exposed to open air. Puffer stood nearby while Lee was getting patched up, but mainly ignored the conversation. Once Lee's leg was wrapped up, Shawn's stepfather, Hershel, looked over to Puffer, "You're turn," Puffer sat on the porch bench, with Hershel undoing the wrap, "Well, you had quite an accident."

"That bad?" Puffer asked, then hissed in pain when Hershel pulled out a shard of glass from Puffer's windshield.

"Like your friend said, could be worse, but you got lucky," Hershel said as he began to clean the wound, "So what were you doing on the road?"

"Heading to Florida to meet with my friends, then got into a wreck after a cop car hit mine," Puffer replied, "Then I got dragged out to a house by Lee."

"With a hurt leg too, that's impressive," Hershel said, finishing the would cleaning and beginning the wrapping.

"Hey dad, so I'm thinking, first think tomorrow, we gotta reinforce the fence around the farm," Shawn said, and Puffer could agree to that.

"That doesn't seem necessary," Hershel said, finishing up with the wrapping, allowing Puffer to stand up.

"I don't know what you saw on TV, or heard on the radio, but there's some serious...shit hitting the fan," Shawn argued, "I don't think anyone knows how big it is yet."

"You're son's right," Lee agreed, "You're going to want to fortify this place."

"I didn't believe it at first either, until I saw a whole group," Puffer added, "I don't know how, but the dead are walking around."

Hershel paused for a moment, then sighed, "Well, do what you think you should."

"Lee, Puffer, and those folks in the barn can help in the morning," Shawn stated. So they weren't the first stranger to show up at Hershel's farm. Puffer could figure that out in the morning.

While Shawn headed back in the house to get some rest, Hershel turned to Lee and Puffer, "There's blankets and such in the barn. We'll be seeing you bright and early."