Cause I'm Havin' a Bad Day

Jayr POV - Earth, Georgia, Highway Interstate 85 - 2010

After traveling for around 2 hours without any other stop or major issue, excluding a brief mandatory stop to refill the cargo truck's tank, we finally are very close to the city of Atlanta so much that it can already be seen in the distance, together with the extremely long, jam-packed line of inherit vehicles on the other side of the highway that the people fleeing from the city left behind.

As soon as the city of Atlanta is in sight, I don't hesitate to stop the cargo truck in the middle of the road more than a few kilometers away from the city.

The reason for that is that after thinking for a long time, I decided that it is better to search for the location of the Atlanta's survivor camp than rushing into the city to reunite with Rick.

What made me choose the Atlanta's survivor camp over Rick is the fact that if everything goes as intended then Rick, at the moment, should be somewhere in that city full of walkers searching for Marle Dixon, Daryl Dixon's older brother.

More importantly, a city that I know nothing about ignoring what I saw in the TV show, and without my Cosmic Awareness, searching for him is like looking for a specific needle in a huge haystack full of needles, a waste of time.

In addition to that, I also remembered that in the TV show, the survivor camp was attacked by walkers the night Rick and his group went searching for Merle and that attack caused quite a bit of victims, and those victims are people that can be saved if I'm there to take care of the walkers and keep them safe.

Another point in favor of going directily to the Altanta's survivor camp is that if we arrive there early enough we will arrive just in time to encounter Rick and his group as they head out to rescue Merle and in that case, I can give him some tips to make their search and rescue mission a bit easier, or at the very least make him take fewer detours.

After all from what I remember of the TV show, Merle amputated his hand to escape, stopped the bleeding by burning his bloody stump on a stove, cauterized the wound, escaped the building on his legs, and left the city by stealing a vehicle before being saved by the governor which means that he fleed in Woodbury's direction which I remember reading that is located 93 kilometers south of Atlanta.

I can even tell Rick the safer trick of cutting off a walker's arms and mouth to render it innocuous and use a couple of them to mask one's smell and presence to safely traverse difficult parts, as long as they are quiet.

Moreover, even if we are late, if everything goes as intented, Rick and his group will still safely return back to the camp, after all, Rick, Glenn, and Daryl are some of the most resourceful people in this universe. 

Seeing me stop the cargo truck, Morgan turns his head and looks at me before he asks, "What's going on? Why did you stop?"

I keep my eyes focused on the city in the distance and simply state, "I don't think it is a good idea to rush into the city without any information like this." before I glance at both Morgan and Duane and see the confusion on their faces making me ask, "You have seen how many walkers there were in a small town like King County, right?"

Seeing them nod, I then continue, "Well, what do you think the state of a huge metropolis like Atlanta would be like?"

At this point, while Duane tilts his head in confusion, Morgan immediately understands what I mean and his face quickly loses all his color as he asks, "You mean that...?"

I nod and gravely say, "From what I know before all this happened there were more than 400.000 people living in Atlanta and from what I have seen in my travels, the walkers are much more numerous of the living. While I don't have the exact percentage of how many people got turned into walkers, if I use what I saw and think of the worst case scenario, then we can expect to face at the very least over 300.000 walkers if we rush into the city and I'm not sure on how reliable is that news about the refugee settle is. I don't want to throw our lives away for a mere chance."

Hearing that, Duane inhales a sharp breath while a shocked Morgan mutters, "300.000... my God..." before he looks at me and asks, "Then what are we going to do? If there are really more than 300.000 walkers in that city there is no way I'm going to walk into that death trap!"

I calmly nod and say, "I agree with you. That's why we are going to gather some information about it. To do that, we are going to search for a survivor camp outside the city... do you guys know of a place that people could use as a safe area nearby the city outskirts?"

Duane shakes his head while Morgan thinks about it for a few seconds before he says, "If I remember well, there is a nature park area nearby... The state of Georgia allowed campers and hikers to use that area as a public recreational park for activities such as hiking, camping, fishing, and rock climbing. Before all this started, Jenny... Jenny and I wanted to bring Duane there to spend some time in the nature. From the photo I saw on the internet, it looks like a good place to hide if the city truly isn't safe..."

Hearing that I nod as what Morgan just described sounds a lot like the place where Shane and the others built the survivor camp and that was shown in the TV show, so I look at him and ask, "Do you know where is it and how to reach it?"

Morgan again falls silent before he nods and says, "I think I do." before he looks at his son and comments, "This is good. It is a lot better to be safe than sorry, in fact, even if we do not find anyone there, we can still use the place ourselves as a temporany camp as we gather information about the city's situation."

After that, I start the engine and start to drive the cargo truck following both Morgan's direction and the few useful road signs. 

Rick POV - Earth, Georgia, Atlanta's Survivor Camp - 2010 

After the best sleep I ever had in a long time, I wake up and quickly look around and see that I'm in an unfamiliar tent before my mind catches up with everything that happened yesterday and I quckly look around searching for the figures of my wife and my son but I realize that both Lori and Carl aren't in the tent.

Then I notice some clean clothes lying on the bed in front of me, a white T-shirt, jeans, and comfortable gym shoes, and seeing them I get up from the bed and start to dress up as I think about what happened yesterday, 'For sure that was a very eventful day...' 

After I separated from Doctor Jayr, Morgan, and Duane, I drove the police car with Atlanta as my destination but on the way there, the car ran out of fuel, so I abandoned the car on the highway and headed out on foot. 

While walking toward Atlanta, I found a farmhouse and approached it, once there I peeked inside and made the grisly discovery that a couple had committed suicide with a shotgun, 'I still clearly remember their decaying bodies picked off by insects.' 

After that, I tried to locate the keys to the pick-up truck parked in their driveway, but instead, I found a horse on their property. 

Without any choice, I saddled up and rode the rest of the way to Atlanta with the bag of guns slung across my shoulder.

When I arrived in Atlanta, I discovered that there was no safe zone like Morgan and Duane described. 

The entire city was abandoned with the streets littered with dead bodies and abandoned military vehicles, in addition, several of those walkers took notice of my presence and proceeded to follow me.

While exploring the city I suddenly caught the reflection of a helicopter passing by through a skyscraper and without any hesitation, I speeded up the horse to try and follow it but ended up running into a large herd of those walkers.

At this point, I feel my heart beating very fast as I remember that dreadful scene and the events that followed quickly after as I tried to escape but found myself surrounded, then I toppled off the horse and crawled away as the walkers started to devour the horse alive until I scrambled underneath an abandoned tank. 

But that was just the start as several walkers noticed me and began to reach out at me from underneath the tank making me shoot several of them in desperation, but I found myself quickly outnumbered by the walkers. 

With no other option, I almost shot myself in the head but stopped when I noticed an open hatch underneath the tank and quickly climbed into it to escape the walkers.

I managed to hide inside a tank, but soon I realized that I was not alone, there was an apprarently dead soldier inside the tank. 

As I rested inside the tank, I took the gun from the apparent dead soldier, but the soldier suddenly woke up making me realize that he was a walker. 

In a panicked state, I quickly shot the already dead soldier in the head but was then disoriented by the loud gunshot reverberating inside the tank. 

As I tried to recollect myself, I noticed my bag of guns on the street so I opened a hatch on the top of the tank, but was quickly noticed by several walkers, who began climbing on top attempting to get inside making me shut the hatch.

At that point, I realized that I was completely surrounded by walkers, and unsure of what to do next, I decided to attempt suicide again by placing my gun to my forehead.

But before I could do it, I was interrupted by a young man's voice that broke over the CB radio in the tank. 

With a newfound hope, I asked the young man over the radio what was the situation outside and what I should do to survive. 

The young man informed me that I was surrounded by walkers and advised me to make a run for it while they were distracted and busy eating the horse

I also asked if he could see the bag of guns, but he told me that it wasn't an option. 

After that, I collected a grenade from the dead soldier and a shovel from the floor of the tank popped through the top hatch, dispatched a walker with the shovel, jumped off of the tank, and ran down a nearby sidewalk toward an alleyway, the one the voice told me about. 

During the escape, I forgot about Doctor Jayr and Morgan's warning and in my panicked state I shooted as many walkers along the way as possible empying the gun. 

As I turned around the corner I was surprised by an Asian young man, who revealed himself to be the one talking to me earlier over the tank radio. 

We race up a ladder to the roof, stopping to catch our breath on a platform halfway up and the young man introduced himself as Glenn as I thanked him for saving my life.

After that, we walked down a staircase into an alley that was occupied by two walkers and Glenn contacted his group, prompting two people wearing riot gear and brandishing baseball bats to emerge from the building and beat down the walkers as we rushed into the building, followed by the people in riot gear.

Inside the store, shortly after we rushed inside, a blonde woman, whose name I learned was Andrea, pointed a gun in my face, furious at my reckless behavior, especially the fact that I shot in the middle of the city. 

At first, I was confused by that quick succession of events, at least until a Hispanic man named Morales informed me that my gunshots had attracted the horde of walkers to the doors of the store. 

At that point, I noticed the huge horde of walkers gathered at the doors and windows of the store, furiously pounding at the glass in an attempt to gain entry.

After that, the group questioned me about what I was doing roaming around the streets of Atlanta aimlessly and I tried to explain that I was trying to flag down the helicopter I saw. 

In response, the group said that they didn't hear a helicopter, and an African American woman named Jacqui suggested that it was just a hallucination. 

At the same time, an African American man named T-Dog tried to make radio contact with another unknown group but failed to get a signal, and suddenly, we heard gunshots from the roof, and we all rushed to the roof to investigate.

On the rooftop, we found a caucasican man named Merle firing at walkers in the street with a scoped rifle. 

Morales and T-Dog chastised Merle for wasting bullets and attracting more walkers but Merle scoffed at them and proceeded to racially insult Morales and T-Dog, before punching T-Dog to the floor. 

At that point, Merle then declared himself the new leader of the group and stated that if there were any objections in a mocking manner.

Seeing that, I used my experience as Sheriff to analyze and react to the situation, and without any hesitation, I rushed toward Merle and hit him in the face with the butt of his rifle and then handcuffed him to a pipe on the roof before I searched Merle's body for weapons, but instead, I found a bag of drugs, which I tossed over the side of the roof much to Merle's anger.

After dealing with that situation, Morales informed me that there is no safe zone in Atlanta, but they are part of a larger group taking shelter on the outskirts of the city. 

Learning of that my first tought was to warn Morgan and Jayr but without the walkie-talkie that I left in the bag, I was unable to do it, so I focused on getting out of this situation.

As the group was disccussing about what to do to get out but with the streets unsafe to pass due to the walkers no one was able to come up with anything, at least until Jacqui suggested that we travel underground to escape, as the building has access to the sewers. 

Hearing that, the group traveled downstairs, but T-Dog stayed behind to keep watch on Merle.

We reached the basement and Glenn, Andrea, Morales, Jacqui, and I stood at the top of a ladder that led into the sewer where I and Andrea volunteered to stay in the store while Morales, Glenn, and Jacqui went into the sewer to find a possible exit.

After that, I and Andrea went back to the store where Andrea spotted a mermaid necklace and said her sister would love it as it would be her birthday soon. 

Hearing that, I encouraged her to take it, stating that shoplifting rules no longer apply in this world before Glenn, Morales, and Jacqui returned and stated that the sewers were unsafe to travel through.

Discouraged we ventured back up to the roof and I started to look around taking advantage of the height of the building to scout the surrounding area and spotted a cube van at a nearby construction site a few blocks away and informed the group we started to plan how to proceed. 

When discussing plans to bypass the walkers on the streets, Andrea stated that the walkers smell dead while we don't, giving me an idea that could work especially when I remembered what Doctor Jayr said about them, that they have an enhanced sense of smell and hearing but are basically blind. 

Without wasting any time, I took one of the bodies of the walkers Morales and T-Dog dispatched earlier in the alley, and after bringing it in front of the group I repeated what Doctor Jayr said that the walkers lost all humanity and were simply moving corpses. 

After the group shared a solemn moment of reflection, I began to hack the dead body to pieces with a fire axe I found in the building after that, Glenn and I then smeared the guts onto ourselves, disgusting everyone and I was about to the point of puking but it was something we had to do to survive. 

Before leaving, I made sure to toss to T-Dog the key to Merle's handcuffs and then I went outside with Glenn.

Once outside, I and Glenn crawled under the bus blocking the alley, and shortly after we started to shuffle into the streets, mixing in to the crowd of walkers unnoticed by them.

The whole experience was very stressful, especially when the walker got a little too close.

Despite that, we kept making our way through the crowd of walkers but suddenly, rain began to fall rather heavily, and started to wash the guts smell off our bodies. 

Because of that a nearby walker detected us as humans, and started to growls at me, and in response to that, I didn't hesitate to dispatch it with the axe in my hands. 

Shortly after that, all walkers nearby started to come after us forcing us to fight the walkers while continuing to run to the construction site where the cube van was as the group on the rooftop likely watched over us. 

We were able to make it over the fence uninjured and I started to shoot at the walkers from behind the fence while Glenn located the keys. 

Just as he found the keys, the crowd of walkers knocked down the fence and charged at us, but we speeded away in the van just in time. 

As we were escaping in the van, I ordered Glenn to radio the group to get ready for pick-up and mentioned that we would need a way to lure the walkers away from the department store, before I noticed a red Dodge Challenger sports car which immediately gave me an idea. 

Without any hesitation, I smashed the driver's side window to gain entry, causing the car's alarm to blare loudly before I gave way for Glenn to enter the vehicle.

Then with the walkers lured away by Glenn's car alarm, I brought the van outside the loading bay at the back entrance of the store allowing the group to pile in, catching their breath as I drove away from the city. 

At that point, I notice that they look around at one another and suddenly a guilt-ridden T-Dog admits to the others he dropped the key, leaving Merle trapped on the roof, still handcuffed to a pipe making a tense silence fall that got broken when Andrea asked where Glenn was.

Right at that moment, Glenn drove the red Dodge Challenger with its blaring alarms and speeds out of Atlanta while screaming in celebration. 

On the road, while I was driving toward their camp, Morales advised me to not dwell on Merle's abandonment, claiming that nobody will miss him, except for his brother, Daryl but not knowing the true dynamics of the group I could only listen in silence while focusing on driving while following Glenn's red Dodge Challenger. 

After some time we finally arrived near their campsite and Glenn's red Dodge Challenger, which was still blaring its alarm that now echoes all around the area, blaze ahead leaving us behind. 

I continued to follow the trail until I arrived at their camp and as soon as I parked the cube van I also notice that the Dodge Challenger's allarm got shut down.

At the same time, Andrea rushed out of van and tearfully reunited with a young woman with long blonde hair, which made me realize that she likely was the sister she talked about before. 

Morales does the same as he reunites with his wife, son and daughter, while T-Dog starts to talk with a cacausican old man and another tall man. 

As everyone tearfully reunite, I took a moment to look more closely at the area they chose as campsite and saw that it is a nature park area that consists of dense forests, mountain cliffs which not only made it more difficult to find but also helped form a quarry, and a body of water in the form of a river. 

The kind of area where numerous animals such as squirrels, birds, deer, and fish inhabit, feeding off of the vegetation which in turn makes it a lot easier for people to survive by feeding off them.

Once I was done with checking the area and gathering my bearing, it was time to get out of the van and meet everybody and I'm not ashamed to say that I was pretty apprehensive about it, even more so for I tired I felt that seemed the longest day of my life.

I slowly emerged from the van and after looking at all the people around for a few seconds, I recognized the figure of my best friend Shane. 

We traded a stunned glance until I spot the figure of my son Carl as he ran toward me while calling me.

At that point, I was breathless almost felt like all my energies left me while feeling an enormous relief seeing that both my son and my wife were safe, even more so when Carl ran into my arms and I held him very close to me afraid that all that was just a dream and he could disappear at any moment, then my wife Lori joins us as we all tearfully reunite.

Later in the night, around a campfire, I narrated and described to everyone the disorientation I felt waking up alone in the hospital before Lori explained that she was told that I would be brought over to Atlanta, but that obviously it never happened. 

Then Carl said that Shane told him that I died and I stated that Shane had every reason to believe I did before I once again genuely thank my brother Shane for looking after my family. 

While that was happening, I also noticed some disturbance happening nearby caused by a man who stoked his family's fire with a fresh log making Shane intervene, instructing the man named Ed to take the log out so we won't be seen from a distance. 

In response, Ed told him to mind his own business, but concede under Shane's forceful command and instruct his meek wife to pull the log from the fire and then Ed glared as Shane bid the wife whose name is Carol and their daughter Sophia good evening.

At the same time, I heard Dale ask what they should tell Daryl about his brother making Andrea reason that Merle was out of control, but Dale reason back that they can't tell that to Daryl. 

At that point, I volunteered to deliver the news, as it does T-Dog, still filled with guilt for dropping the key as he told the group that he stopped to chain the stairwell door before he ran for the van. 

After that, I went back to Lori and Carl's tent, said goodnight to my son and talked with Lori in the bed while holding her close to me. 

I told her that I knew she and Carl were alive because their photo albums were gone when I returned to our house making Lori smile and pull one open. 

Then we reflected on our past mistakes and told her that I was grateful for the second chance that we have been given and she too agree, before she gave me my wedding ring, which had been removed when I was in the hospital, and then I spend the night making love with Lori forgetting about all the problem we had before I was shot and all these crazy things happened feeling content and happy.