Elias had simply found the house, and locked the door. The loot didn’t even interest him as of present – he sat, knees to his chin, in the empty bathtub. Hyperventilation was making his head lighter, but he could hear the lock on the front door break down the hall, and his hands fumbled for his gun.

“Who’s there?” He barked.

Nadine didn’t get it. For some ungodly reason, she could not wrap her head around the fact that she had been caught in yet another turf war. 

There was a whole slew of men that littered the parking lot of an abandoned gun shop. She had crashed in one of the storage closets inside overnight. But at the time, it had been late and Nadine’s flashlight batteries had bit the dust long before the sun disappeared behind the earth so she couldn’t quite jump at the opportunity to stuff her bag full of goodies just yet. Her original plan was to loot the ever living shit out of this rifle shop the second she saw the faintest hint of daylight creep in through the windows. She was practically sitting on top of a gold mine. And for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Nadine was ecstatic. Every single pistol, and grenades was hers for the taking. And not to mention an abundance amount of ammo was also ripe for the pickin’. 

Or so she thought.

Beams of sunlight spilled in through the front window and Nadine managed to snag a sniper rifle and found herself able to get a pretty good scope of the empty lot. She was more than ready and willing to pick them off one by one if any of ‘em showed signs of trouble. She hated this. The idea of a human being pulling a gun on another human. It was sickening and the thought alone sent chills down her spine. But just because Nadine was against it, didn’t mean she was going to holster her weapon and put away the only protection she had. She would never start a gun fight, but she sure as hell would finish one. 

Peering through the scope of her rifle, Nadine noticed a quarrel had broken out between two men. One, huskier and taller man had begun to shout while the other, much shorter one insisted on keeping his mouth shut. Most likely because it was only attracting any walkers in the area to their exact location. Nadine agreed with shorty over there. If she had been in his shoes, she would have probably done everything in her power to calm him down, as well. But alas. They were out there and she was in here. 

Then out of the blue, a gunshot rang in the air 

Nadine hustled up a heap of courage to glance out the window once more. And to her surprise, everyone had vanished. There wasn’t a single human (nor walker) in sight. 

A heavy sigh of relief exited her chest as she pushed herself across the floor until her back touched the wall. 

"Glad that’s-" Nadine had been cut off from her own sentence as a strong hand clamped over mouth. Anxiety rushed through her body and her heart rate skyrocketed. She was being drug outside by the same powerful hand pressing down on her lips. 

Out of pure instinct, Nadine began to thrash her body, hoping to break free of the stranger’s grasp. She kicked her feet and pulled on the foreign hand with all her might. Her strength was all she had. Screaming would do no good. Who would hear her? Who would care enough to come to her rescue? 

Nadine could feel her skin scrape against the concrete. Her eyes grew wide with horror as the men she had seen earlier were now circled around her. 

Finally, her mouth began free once more. She felt like screaming. She felt like cussing the hell outta these men who had the nerve to lay a hand on her. But truth be told, Nadine was scared out of her goddamn mind. Unsure of her next move, she slowly rose to her feet, making sure no sudden movements were made. Yet. 

She felt at least four pairs of eyes locked onto her. Every muscle fiber in her being begged her to run. But she knew if she tried something stupid like attempting to take off, she’d be shot on sight. 

Then just as when one of the men took a step forward, Nadine’s adrenaline finally kicked in. She had some experience in the hand-to-hand combat field and she was about to take full advantage of those skills. Growing up on the streets of Georgia had taught her a thing or two about self defense, 

Without any further hesitation, Nadine knocked the guns out of the hands of two men closest to her before knocking back the one on her left with a heavy kick.

Everything was happening at once, Chaos had broken loose and now she was being shoved from behind by yet another unknown powerful force. Sure it slowed her for a split second and her guard had been let down, but Nadine recovered quickly and came back swingin’.

Wanting to spend some time in the good ol' outdoors, Ronnie had left the prison earlier than usual that morning. Leaving notice with whoever it was that had been watching the fence during the AM shift - some actually cute looking boy with no sense of humor, a sad fact that she'd learned the hard way. She'd spent the morning walking along the road, keeping her eyes open for anyone - or thing - that could possibly make its way out of the woods. 

Eventually she found herself in a town she had yet to come by, and seemed satisfied at the fact that it was a change of scenery. Not that that was much, mind you, as Ronnie noted that their only seemed to be one building in the neighborhood that had more than a third floor. Tomahawk in hand as she walked through the deserted streets, Ronnie had been glad when she'd discovered that no one had taken her favorite weapon from the armory. 

After maybe an hour or so of exploring that led her nowhere, the faint sounds of the undead began to reach her ears. The moans were faint, though the fact that she was even hearing them indicated that she could be heading in the wrong direction. Stopping to see if she could tell which direction the sounds were coming from, Ronnie noted that there was definitely more than one of them, and quickly moved toward one of the abandoned stores that littered main street.

It wasn't long until the dead came into view, but what shocked her more was the person that ran in front of them. Outnumbered four to one, they seemed to be making a dash, and a large smile flitted to Ronnie's face. She hadn't killed a walker in days - not in the fun way, in a way that didn't involve a fence between them, and so she stepped outside, eager to plunge the metal of the tomahawk between one of their skulls. Their attentions were focused on the individual as they moved ahead, and Ronnie took advantage - running towards it, she swiftly kicked at the back of its knee, forcing the corpse to fall to the ground. With her short stature, it was easier to get a shot at their skull this way, and she paused for only a moment before continuing. 

Moving towards the next zombie, she saw out of the corner of her eye that the individual had taken out one of their own. Wanting to get the third, she all but sprinted to it, jamming the metal into it's skull.

Breath heavy, she turned to the only other living individual in the area, stopping only to wipe the blood of the walkers on one of their shirts. "You're welcome, by the way."

Today had been a bad day. True, giving that it was the apocalypse every day was a bad day but today had been especially bad. He had been chased by both walkers and people, his supplies had ran out and he had one hell of a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Adrian gripped his left shoulder with the opposite hand, the palm pressing firmly against the wound as he walked down the street. It was days like this he felt like giving up. What was the point he was either going to be murdered by some nutjob, starve, dehydrate or end up being a walkers lunch.

If Adrian had a gun and ammo he would seriously consider shooting himself in the head. Truth was, there wasn't really a point, nothing would ever be the same again even if he did manage to find a group of people, something bad would happen. It always does. Shaking his head of the thoughts, he continued down the road. Adrian couldn't afford to think like that but after five minutes of blankness in his head, the thoughts came rushing back. He spotted an old diner about a hundred meters away.

Reaching the diner, Adrian leaned against the wall eventually letting himself slide down it and sit on the freezing concrete ground. He jerked slightly as a bang hit the window from behind him, taking a few breaths to calm himself he was thankful the door was blocked off with some chairs and tables, probably from the diner itself. Lifting his hand off the wound and wincing slightly, Adrian sighed and let his head fall back against the wall of the building. He was going bleed out, he let out a humourless laugh, shaking is head in belief. "I'm gonna die from fucking blood loss. Well that's a heroic way go." He muttered to himself.

It was time to move on. Wallace didn't know why, but ever since the dead came walking he'd abandoned his modus operandi of holding onto a sleeping place for as long as possible until some piggy officer made him move. He was pretty sure police officers had abandoned their badges by now, so there were none to kick him off of "private property", so really staying put should have been easier than ever.

Instead Wallace found himself shuffling in the same manner as the dead did, never staying in one place for long. He didn't know why. He'd ask himself but couldn't answer. Maybe it was all just as simple as having something to do, even something as simple as walking. God it was fucking hot today. Then again this was Kuwait, what more did you expect of a fucking desert. He had to find his squad, Captain would be pissed at him for falling behind. Or was he too far ahead? That's right, he was a scout, and he was scouting out the territory ahead. 

A grocery store, or what was left of it, Captain would love this news. Wallace shuffled toward it, in no particular hurry, the only dead around were on the ground and no longer moving. Something about that clicked in the back of his head, it meant someone had been here recently, or still was. His right hand, which was holding a pistol, twitched. He was too hungry to care, and he was sick of eating canned beans. Wallace unceremoniously shot at the last glass window that wasn't completely shattered, even though there were other spots to enter. If there were any dead in the store they'd hear it and stir, best to attracted them and deal with them as soon as possible. 

They didn't frighten Wallace too much. They were slow and easy enough to kill, predictable, and smelled familiar. At first they had taken him off guard completely, who wouldn't be taken aback? Stabbing them in the chest and heart, arteries, it did nothing. But once Wallace had figured out headshots did the trick they'd ceased to arouse any feeling at all from him.

He picked up a lone box of twinkies, surprised to find them. Before the dead came walking Wallace would have to pay for all this shit in here. The box was worse for wear but unopened. He picked up a shopping basket from the floor next to his feet and plopped it in. Mostly the store was ransacked, but there was still stuff here. He found Rubbing alcohol, his head felt sore and he realized he was hurt and need rubbing alcohol, when had that happened? It didn't matter, he plopped it in his basket.

Wallace acknowledged the sound of shuffling behind him but didn't attend to it straight away, he was examining a can of peaches, trying to find an expiration date. When he realized what he was doing he had to laugh, he didn't even know what fucking day it was why did he care about a fucking expiration date?

He sidestepped the walker without turning around, backing up and setting down his basket neatly on a shelf. Wallace allowed the walker to come to him a few steps before lunging in and headbutting it with a resounding crack. The force of it sent the walker to the ground, where Wallace finished it by kicking it's head in. 

It wasn't unlike Nadine to shuffle around from place to place. even before this shit storm of an apocalypse hit. That Elias kid was cool and all, but truth be told, she was better off alone. Her only responsibility being watching her own back. The roads she walked were no doubt lonely, but it was for the best. 

Her arm still ached from undergoing minor surgery to remove that hunk of metal out from beneath her skin, but there was nothing more she could do about it other than to shrug it off. That's all Nadine ever did. Bullet wound? Shrug it off. Deceased acquaintance? Shrug it off. Broken heart? Shrug it off... Other things mattered more. 

And the thing that was at the top of Nadine's priority list now was; food. 

Slinging her duffle bag that carried what was left of her shattered life over her shoulder, Nadine walked along one of the abandoned strip malls that littered the outskirts of Atlanta. Most of them looked as if they had been wiped out long ago, but the pharmacy at the corner of two intersecting streets looked promising. Hell, maybe she could even stock up on some radical pain killers or some shit; anything that could come handy later would be great. 

The more she drew nearer to her destination, the sketchier it seemed. Nadine's keen eye caught sight of a few walkers stumbling through the looted aisles while peering through the display window. 

"Shit." Nadine heaved a heavy sigh as she quickly ducked down under the window pane to stay out of the walker's line of sight. There were supplies she desperately needed in there. Her arm was throbbing and her head was spinning. But it was time to push past her pain and anxiety... 

Because other things mattered more.

Dusk had quickly crept onto the Earth, engulfing the trees and abandoned vehicles into total darkness, causing the noose that had been embedded within the pit of Nadine’s stomach to tighten. Darkness meant her vulnerability was it’s highest peak. Everything automatically became at least ten times more dangerous. She could make a false move, take the wrong step and come in direct contact with a walker without any warning. She could lose her footing, bump into a car, set off it’s security alarm and alert a whole damn horde. The possibilities where endless but the outcome remained the same. Nadine was undoubtedly a risk taker but she wasn’t stupid. She knew when to stay or go and her instincts were telling her to bunker down for the night.

Spotting an abandoned gas station off in the distance, Nadine inhaled a much need breath of air in through her nose and exhaled slowly out of her mouth, releasing a shaky sigh into the cool atmosphere. That’s where she knew she needed to go. So without any further hesitation, Nadine took nothing less than long strides towards the sketchy looking building. But as she drew nearer to the entrance, she silenced her footsteps and pulled the hidden blade out from the mouth of her boot, gripping it’s handle tightly. There may not’ve been a single walker sighting in the area, but you could never be too careful.

Luckily, the moment Nadine had crossed the threshold, there’d been no signs of— well— anything. No walkers and sure as hell no survivors. But— Wait. Nadine’s keen eye caught a glimpse of a movement behind the counter— too fast to be any of the undead. Then all of a sudden gunshots had been fired, causing Nadine to quickly duck and take cover. “Hey,” she called out while loading her own pistol. “I’m not one of ‘em!” But the shots had proceeded to zip past her head. “What the hell are you doing? I said I wasn’t one of them.” She didn’t understand. She was human for cryin’ out loud. Is this what the world’s comin’ to? Pitting human against human? Whoever was firing round after round from underneath the front counter clearly wasn’t letting up any time soon and Nadine wasn’t about to open fire on her kind, she hadn’t stooped that low just yet. The only other option was running. And as soon as Nadine saw her golden window of opportunity, she wasted no time in taking it.

Making a beeline straight for the door, Nadine bolted, pushing her feet as hard and as fast as she could off of the ground. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been quick enough. A stray bullet struck her forearm, invoking a bloodcurdling scream from deep within. It felt as if a million tiny suns had exploded in the minuscule hole buried beneath the layers of flesh. But now wasn’t the time to stop and whine about it. Nadine kept plowing forward until she managed to successfully escape the rogue shooter’s line of sight.

Shit.

Not only had darkness taken over the entirety of the land, but she was now wounded and losing massive amounts of blood. And the more she bled, the more likely she was bound to attract biters. Nadine was walking bait at this point. She needed help. But more importantly, she needed medical attention— and soon. Maneuvering her way through the heavily wooded area, Nadine used her good arm to push past branches and bushes until she finally stumbled upon a clearing and exited the forest that led straight into an open field littered with walkers.