The Dead Walk the Earth

Chapter 1: When the Dead Rise

"Charlotte! Come on, we gotta get out of here!" a voice yelled. It was muffled and echoed like it was far off and in a cave. Charlotte looked up to the person with the voice. Lori looked back into her eyes, worry and panic on her face. She shook her "Charlotte, we have to go!" she seemed to yell, but it was still muffled. There was ringing in her ears and she finally realized that it wasn't ringing, it was screaming. Everything came back into focus and her hearing returned. Lori saw that she was back to earth "Honey, we have to go." she said. Charlie stood unresponsive with eyes wide at the sight she had just witnessed: a person being eaten alive by a person who was previously shot and killed. "Charlotte!" she yelled and snapped her fingers in the girl's face. "We have to go!" she yelled again. Charlie finally nodded and started to shuffle her feet to the car where Shane and Carl waited with the car running. Carl hadn't seen, but he was spooked. She wasn't sure he understood what was going on and she was happy he didn't. He didn't need to, not if this was solved quickly. As Charlie shuffled for the car, she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Rick." was all she whispered. Lori looked at her, a look of I-knew-this-was-coming. Lori knew she'd go after him, no matter what. What if Rick became poor Mrs.Waters, the neighbor they'd just seen eaten alive? The thought made Charlie's stomach do backflips and she felt sick instantly.

"We'll stop on the way to Atlanta," Lori suggested. Charlie shook her head, the hospital was in the opposite direction of Atlanta. She moved her foot and kicked something, her attention grabbed sheathed blade at her feet. She strapped on the holster and gripped the handle; It was the perfect weight for her right arm, her dominant arm. Lori saw the look of determination that Charlie got when her mind set on something because she pulled the girl into a tight hug. "Come find us in Atlanta, on the outskirts first, then the city. Be safe honey." she said, her voice breaking on 'honey'. Lori pulled away and kissed Charlotte's forehead and she nodded.

"Be safe, take care of Carl," Charlie told her aunt before she headed in the direction of the hospital. She had a feeling she'd need the blade, but how to kill those things was another story. She thought it through as she walked cautiously. The first one to rise was shot in the chest around the heart and that obviously didn't kill them. People wasted bullets shooting the same spot hoping to have a different effect with each bullet. They did nothing. Slowed them down a bit, but didn't stop them. Some of the ones that were no longer advancing had head shots. As a teenager, the joke of a 'zombie apocalypse' was made often. Charlotte remembered a book she had read about how to survive and it said something about reanimation happened in the brain which made sense since that's where all motion and thoughts come from. Aim for the head? She thought to herself as she walked. Charlotte looked around and noticed there weren't many left and the ones that remained were occupied with other living people. She began to pick up the pace as she neared the hospital. When she spotted the parking lot and front entrance, she broke out into a sprint.

The glass doors slid open which meant power was still on. '

"That's reassuring," she muttered to herself as she headed to Rick's room. She found it quickly, having visited so many times, and jogged in to find Rick, still bruised and bandaged, unconscious. She figured he would be, but she had hoped he wouldn't be. She looked around frantically for something to barricade the door with. Could these things still open doors? She could have screamed when she realized the human race knew nothing about these things. She had to get to Atlanta, to the CDC where she had an internship. She needed to study them, learn their ways. She was almost hysterical with how that sounded like they were aliens from another planet. No, this was a disease and all diseases had cures, someone just needed to find it. But how? From what she'd seen, she didn't want to get anywhere near them. Noises out in the hallway brought her attention back to the present, she went over to the door and peeked her head out to see the National Guard. She smiled, maybe they could help her move Rick. Gunshots rang out from the room they had disappeared into and the smile vanished. She quickly closed the door and locked it and hoped they would just pass it. Rushed footfalls passed without stopping and Charlie released the breath she'd been holding. She walked over to the bed where Rick slept and shook him lightly at first.

"Rick," she repeated over and over. She started shaking him harder "Rick!" she began to shout. She checked for the pulse that she knew was already faintly there. She released a sigh and looked around for something to write on. She found his chart with a pen attached to the clipboard. Rick! Go to Atlanta. Carl, Lori, Shane, and I will be there! Love, Charlotte she wrote in large letters. She looked at him with sad eyes and hoped he'd wake up soon and find them. She decided suddenly to go check on her family, then she'd come back to see if he was awake. Whether he was or wasn't, she'd go to Atlanta to meet up with Lori and the rest. She cautiously unlocked the door and looked around; The hall was clear. She exited the room and spotted a can of spray paint that looked to already be used to, from her observation, mark the room doors. Rick! she wrote in large letters and drew an arrow in the way she planned on going, leaving an arrow on every wall. Before she walked on, she signed it so he'd know it was from her. -Charlie she wrote and walked on cautiously. She made it out safely and ran for the main road to head towards her house where she hoped she'd find her mom and dad.

She arrived in front of the brick house and stopped. There were things outside the house in front of the walkway to the door. She walked cautiously towards the pile of dead and stopped to observe them. None of them looked familiar but she took a step back as she saw one move. It was under another one and it was, in fact, a corpse. She took a step closer to see if she knew them and gasped. She knew them alright, that scar on its eyebrow and upper cheek was put there by it's, his sister. It was an accident obviously, she didn't mean to cut him but it was in the heat of the tickle fight. Her big brother, her Jackson, reached for her, gargling. His eyes were milky white, glazed over like something had possessed him. His leg was bleeding from a bite mark, he must have been fighting them off so they didn't get to the house and was dragged down, there were so many bodies. She fought a scream, afraid one of those things would hear if they even could hear. She covered her mouth as tears cascaded down her cheeks and fell to her knees in defeat. She knew what she had to do, put him out of agony and stop him from hurting others. She had to kill her favorite person in the whole world. What would she do without him? He was the one who made her strong, toughened her up. She was sure she'd never survive this without him now! She cried for a bit and finally was reduced to sniffles. She got to her feet, sucked in a breath and walked towards him. She knelt down next to him and stroked his dirty blonde hair, crying again. He didn't even recognize her, he just snapped his teeth. She sniffled and held her knife above her head, just to drop it in a moment of weakness. She sighed and looked into the stollen eyes that were once her older brother's. This thing wasn't her brother, it was a monster who took him. This thing was the walking corpse of my bother, nothing but a... a... walker. She kissed Jackson's stollen forehead and did it. She heard the noise it made and cringed in sadness, sickness, and agony. She just killed her brother. He wasn't due to be home for another two weeks. What brought him back? Maybe this sickness isn't just in Georgia, maybe nowhere was safe from this disease.