Come And Get Your Love

Jayr POV - Earth, Georgia, Interstate 85 - 2010

After we've left the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a small part of our group behind very early in the morning, we jumped onto our vehicles and left the city of Atlanta for good by taking the Interstate 85 which served as the main entrance and exit to the city of Atlanta and because of that, most vehicles would use this stretch of road to travel to and from the city.

The group decided to abandon some of the vehicles in our convoy as this was the best way to waste less gasoline and focus on what we had in the few vehicles left. 

Because of that, the convoy is now composed of Dale's RV, which is driven by Dale, and with him there are Glenn, Andrea, Amy, and Shane, Carol Peletier's Cherokee, which is driven by Rick who is together with his wife, Lori, his son Carl, Carol, and her daughter Sophia, Merle Dixon's motorcycle, now driven by his brother, Daryl, Morales' car with his family and the good old and reliable, military cargo truck that is used to carry most of the other people and our supplies. 

At the moment, driving the cargo truck is T-Dog as he cheerfully talks with Morgan about how good it feels to drive such a big, solid truck while Duane is on the cargo bed playing with Ana and Stepan while the other people watch over them talking about some light topics.

Meanwhile, I'm actually using the radio to keep in contact with Dr. Jenner back at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention who is reporting to me the progress on the study of both the latent and active state of the Wildfire Virus and the creation of the virophage that will cure it once and for all and from time to time I give him some directed suggestions that will push and influence the whole process in the right direction avoid some deadends or the more catastrophic results.

At the same time, I also focus my senses a little bit on the other vehicles to learn more about the moods and the mental state of the people in the group. 

The Morales family is mostly okay, the kids are more cheerful and happy to be outside as the atmosphere of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention was too oppresive and closed for them, but Miranda is slightly worried as she felt more safe inside the building and doesn't know if they made the right choice, luckily Morales is able to reassure and convice her that this is truly the best for their family.

On the other hand, the situation in Carol Peletier's Cherokee is much more lighthearted as the drive brings back fond memories for Lori and Rick. 

I hear Lori's voice as she comments out loud, "Just thinking about our trip to the Grand Canyon with Carl." 

After a short pause, Rick starts to cheerfully laugh as Carl says, "I don't remember that." which makes Lori states, "No, you wouldn't. You were just a baby. Besides, we never made it past Fort Worth." followed by Rick who adds, "No, you got sick. I never knew a baby could throw up so much." before both he and Lori start to chuckle.

Hearing that, Carl can't help but exclaim, "Ick." followed by Lori who agrees, "Yeah, ick." before she narrates, "The doctor in Texas said you'd live. Then we turned around and drove home." 

At this point, Carl comments, "That sucks." but Lori then says, "No, it was a good trip." followed by Rick who adds, "The best." 

Then Carl innocently asks, "Can we go see it? The Grand Canyon? I'd like to." followed by Sophia who also meekly asks, "I would too. Can we go?" 

In response, Rick quickly replies, "Sure. We'd never go without you and your mom. That's a promise." 

At the same time, hearing that, I can't help but shudder a little while thinking, 'Damn! This truly smells like a Death Flag... Maybe it is better to raise my alertness and prepare for any kind of deadly incident happening...'

While I'm thinking that, I also focus my senses on Dale's RV and hear the sounds of Shane taking apart his gun and cleaning it with ease, shortly after that, I hear Andrea's voice as she comments, "Looks complicated." 

In response, Shane calmly explains, "The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way." before he says, "I could clean yours, show you how." 

After that, I hear Shane pick up Andrea's gun, look at it, and comment, "Oh yeah. It's a sweet piece." 

Hearing that, Andrea explains in a tone full of emotions as she remembers about her father, "It was a gift from my father. He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves." 

Shane chuckles a little and comments, "Smart man, your father." before he turns serious and starts to explain, "Look, it's a-- it's a limited capacity. See? Only holds seven rounds." 

But his explanation gets interrupted by Dale who exclaims very loudly, "Oh jeez." followed by Glenn who comments, "Aw no." 

At the same time, I realize that the convoy starts to slow down until it definitely stops, and looking around, I immediately notice that we have arrived at a two-lane highway that is part of Interstate 85 and which is now blocked with several abandoned vehicles lying all over the place and can't help but mutter in a low tone, "Fucking death flags..."

Then I see Daryl riding his brother's motorcycle as he passes by Dale's RV and hear Dale ask him, "See a way through?" to which he replies by signing to Dale to follow him using his head before he starts to lead the way by finding a pathway through the vehicles.

Following after Daryl the convoy slowly and nervously crawls through the wreckage while I hear Glenn, who is sitting in the RV as he suggests, "Uh, maybe we should just go back. There's an interstate bypass-." but he is interrupted by Dale who comments, "We can't spare the fuel. Jeez." 

But then the situation suddenly worsens when the RV's engine starts sputtering and smoke starts to come of the hood very likely because the radiator hose broke down once again and obviosly this forces the whole group to stop.

Soon after, everyone gets out of their vehicle and walks to Dale's RV to check on the situation and we all watch as a frustrated Dale complains out loud, "I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." followed by a curious Glenn who asks, "Problem, Dale?" 

In response, Dale comments, "Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-." but stops as he sees Daryl as he begins to salvage a nearby abandoned vehicle and says, "Okay, that was dumb." 

At the same time, as Daryl searches for something useful inside that car he comments, "If you can't find a radiator hose here... There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." while T-Dog starts to look around and says, "I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start. After all, we used quite a bit of our reserves when we powered the C.D.C.'s generators."

Hearing that, Carol also adds, "Maybe some more water would also help as we didn't bring too much with us." followed by Rick who says, "Or more food. The more the better." 

At this point, Lori comments, "This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this. After all, we'll never know when one of those walkers would jump on us."

In response, everyone turns serious as they realize the truth in her words of warning before T-Dog quickly starts to move once more this time with more haste in his steps as he says, "All right, all right, here we go. Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can."

At the same time, as I look at the group beginning to salvage the abandoned vehicles in the hopes of finding a spare radiator hose to use I also remember a very similar scene happening in the TV Show, a scene that came right before the arrival of a walker horde that caused quite a bit of problems, like T-Dog wounding himself like a dumb idiot, Sophia running away in the nearby woods and getting bitten and killed by a walker, and Carl getting shot in a freak hunting accident.

Remembering all that makes my mind move at a speed faster than light as I start to analyze the current situation, 'Wait a freaking moment! I don't know exactly how much time Rick and the others spent in the C.D.C. compared to us but at most our presence in this location should be about one maybe two days later than the "canon" which should mean that the walker horde should have already passed by... but the difference is just too little to be sure of that and considering the overall "luck" and "fate" of the main cast, I can't ignore the possibility of the walker horde approaching us right at this moment... even more so when Rick just raised a Death Flag just a few minutes ago!' 

Realizing that, I don't hesitate to quickly warn everyone before they can walk too far away, "Guys! Don't wander around and be very careful! I have a very bad feeling!" 

Seeing all of them stop and focus on me, I start to give some clear instructions, "Remember Rule #8 to survive the walkers. When in doubt, always know your way out. As you search the abandoned cars make sure to find or create a place where you can quickly find cover or hide in case it is needed. Moreover, all the kids should stay on the cargo bed of the Cargo Tuck together with some of the adults who will watch over and protect them in case something happens!" 

In response to my words, Carol, Miranda, and Lori didn't hesitate to quickly take Carl, Eliza, Louis, and Sophia to the cargo bed where Duane, Ana, and Stepan were already waiting for them under the protection of Morgan, Ruben, Almast, and Sofya.

At the same time, most of the group begins to salvage what they can from the abandoned cars while Glenn helps Dale fix the radiator hose and asks while showing a pair of screwdrivers in his hand, "Which one?" which makes Dale curtly reply, "The flathead. Radiator hose clamp is always a flathead." 

Dale takes the screwdriver from Glenn's hand and starts to work on the radiator hose but after a few moments, he gives the screwdriver back to Glenn and says, "Here, you do it. Learn something." before he walks up to Rick who is taking watch with a rifle behind the RV.

Then Dale takes the binoculars from Rick and climbs to his post on the roof as he starts to carefully look around for any approaching walker.

While this is happening, I walk up to the Cargo Truck and grab my good old Bo Staff, ready to react at any sign of walker while thinking, 'If the walker horde really appears then should I make a move? If I do it I will without any doubt show the group some of my true capabilities. As long as their number is around 100 or so I can easily take care of them while simply looking like an especially skilled human, but I'm not sure if I should do it. However, I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to ensure everyone's safety if I hide way too much of what I can do, and without any doubt, I'm sure I won't be able to forgive myself if someone dies just because I held back.' 

At this point, I hold my Bo Staff tighter as I reach a conclusion, 'In the end, if the walker horde appears, the only thing I can do is act. Not only to protect the group but also because letting a horde advance and grow in number and size is just way too dangerous for the people of this universe for me to ignore, so it is better to cull their numbers as much as possible.' 

While I'm thinking that, I notice Andrea and Amy calmly searching through a few cars as they chat with smiles on their faces but at the same time, I notice that Andrea is a lot more mindful of her surroundings compared to her more careless sister as she follows my advice and make sure to find some safe place to hide every two or three cars. 

At the same time, I also see that Carol and Lori also joined the others as they look through cars further up the highway. 

I see Carol finding and holding up some clean clothes to her chest and smiling to herself but then she notices Lori looking at her, who is obviously still uncomfortable about the idea of searching through these cars, and after an awkward cough, Carol explains, "Ed never let me wear nice things like this." before she picks up a few more clothes and says, "We're gonna need clothes." which makes Lori nod and say, "You are right... but for some reason, I have a bad feeling about this. Even more so, after Jayr warned us."

Then I focus on T-Dog and Daryl who work together to siphon fuel from the abadoned cars while Shane follows a few steps after Glenn who is now searching through the car's hoods for a radiator hose to replace the broken one on Dale's RV before he focus on a truck behind what looks like a delivery van and starts working on it while muttering, "Okay. All right."

Meanwhile, I see that Shane is now focusing on searching the delivery van and within he finds several canisters of fresh which make him ask in a joyful tone, "Glenn. Were we short on water?" before he opens one of them to drink some of the water and let the rest fall on his head to refresh himself.

Seeing that scene, Glenn laughs and exclaims, "Save me some!" which makes Shane comment, "It's like being baptized, man." 

But then, with my very enhanced senses, I pick up the sound of many irregular, slow footsteps approaching our position and with I sign I mutter, "As expected. In the end, the walker horde still made its appearance despite my presence changing a lot of things. The power of Fate and Death Flags must not be underestimated..." before I shout, "Everyone! Take cover! Walker Horde approaching!"

The response to my shout is instantaneous as Dale and Rick start to look around, one using his binoculars while the other using the scope of his rifle, and shortly after Dale mutters, "Damn..." followed by Rick who whispers, "Oh, Christ." before he quickly moves toward Lori and Carol and tells them, "Lori, Carol under the cars."

At the same time, all the others also quickly hid, some under the cars, and others inside them, like Andrea, Amy, T-Dog, and Daryl as they followed my advice and prepared a hiding place beforehand in case things went south.

Of course, the safest ones are the kids and the adults with them who bunkered down in the cargo bed of the Cargo Truck, out of the reach of the walkers.

While everyone is taking cover, I calmly walk toward the approaching horde with the Bo Staff in my hands.

At first, no one took notice of me, but then, I hear Dale's voice as he asks in a subdued tone, "What are you doing, kid!?" 

I continue to advance toward the slowly approaching horde as I calmly reply with a white lie, "Don't worry, I'll lead this horde away from here. Thanks for your concern but nothing will happen to me as long as I'm careful. I already did something like this many times before, so I'm pretty confident."

Shortly after saying that, I focus my attention back to the walker horde which is getting closer and closer and with a quick scan using my eyes, I realize that this horde is made of around 100 walkers, a number tha makes me smirk while thinking, 'Good, this is a small horde, this means that even if I hold back to appear as human as possible, I'll still be able to deal with it in around 20 minutes or so...'

Realizing that the smirk on my face grows bigger as I start to lightly tap the butt of my Bo Staff on the concrete of the highway in a very specific rhythm to generate a dull sound loud enough to make the walkers focus on my presence.

The effect is instantaneous as the walkers immediately focus on me and pick up their pace as they start to move slightly faster now that a "prey" is close by.

Seeing that, I continue to rhythmically tap the concrete of the highway as I calmly start to sing, "♪Hey, what's the matter with your head, yeah. Hey, what's the matter with your mind and your sign and oh. Hey, nothin' the matter with your head.♪"

At the same time, I lightly kick a nearby rock that quickly flies toward the head of the closest walker, caving it in at the moment of the impact, killing the walker in question with a single precise blow as I continue to sing, "♪Baby, find it, come on and find it. Bear with it, baby, 'cause you're fine. And you're mine, and you look so divine.♪" 

This is obviosly the iconic song of the Redbone, Come And Get Your Love, which experienced a resurgence in popularity when it was featured in the Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy as one of the songs on a mixtape made for the protagonist Peter Quill that for some reason is now stuck in my head as I'm about to battle a horde of walkers. 

I advance toward the walker horde with a series of quick steps and once close enough, I start a series of quick thrust with my Bo Staff crushing the heads of five walkers as I sing along, "♪Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love.♪"

Immediately after, I swing the Bo Staff side-by-side, almost like a pendulum, crushing the heads of the walkers approaching from the sides and walking around the corpse of the walkers I have already killed as I continue to cheerfully sing, "♪Hey, what's the matter with you, feel right? Don't you feel right, baby? Hey, all right, get it from the main vine, all right. I said-a find it, find it, go on and love it if you like it, yeah.♪"

Then I notice that the walkers are starting to slowly encircle me, so, I don't hesitate and lightly plant the far end of the Bo Staff on the concrete and use it as a pole to vault on top of a nearby car's roof and then I calmly swing down the Bo Staff many times crushing the heads of the closest walkers like it is a game of whack-a-mole before I jump over landing on the roof of another nearby car as I continue to sing, "♪Hey, it's your business if you want some, take some. Get it together, baby.♪"

As soon as the walkers get close to the car I'm currentily standing on, I repeat the same process as before by slamming the Bo Staff on their heads, crushing them like some rotten watermelons further bringing down their numbers before I once again jump on top of the roof of another nearby car so that the walker horde continues to follow me, bringing it further away from the rest of the group.

At the same time, I also make sure that the distance between one car and the other is not too much for a regular, fit human to cross as I still don't want to appear too "inhuman" to Rick and the other members of the group as I don't want to fully reveal myself yet as it would only complicate things even more as I don't know how they could react to the revelations that my true capabilities and origin would uncover.

Soon, I carefully land on the roof of the next car, which still dents a little under my weight, and continue to sing to attrract the walkers to me, "♪Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love, come and get your love. Come and get your love, now. Come and get your love, come and get your love. Come and get your love, now.♪"

Once the walkers start to surround the car, I again kill as many as "humanly" possible by swinging my Bo Staff before I move on and jump on the next closest car, and unfortunately, there aren't any other cars close enough that I can use to safely pull the walkers away, so, as soon as I land, I don't hesitate and run down the hood of the car and jump down before I start to slowly retreat away from the blocked section of the highway as I face and kill the walkers, obviously, I continue to sing Come And Get Your Love throughout the whole sequence of movements to keep them focused on me, "♪Come and get your love, come and get your love. Come and get your love, now. Come and get your love, come and get your love. Come and get your love, now.♪"

At the same time, I also take a quick look to confirm that all the walkers are still chasing after me and, at the same time, I notice that I have already dealt with a little less than half of them while trying to pull them away from the group.

Soon, I find myself in a clear section of the road, one without any abadoned car around which makes it the perfect area to deal with the remaning walkers.

Realizing that, a confident smile forms on my face as I leap a few more meters away from the blocked section before I stop and take the most basic stance waiting for the walkers to get within my striking range while continuing to sing, "♪Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love.♪"

As soon as the first walker enters my striking range, I don't waste any more time and quickly thrust my Bo Staff toward its head and soon the far end tip of the Bo Staff impacts against the forehead of the walker piercing right through it before I quickly retrive the Bo Staff and without losing momentum, I thrust the Bo Staff forward once again, this time aiming at the walker right next to it who just entered my striking range ending with the exact same result.

I repeat the same simple action a few more times and the corpses of the killed walkers became an obstacle for those behind them which makes them stumble on them, turning the fallen walkers into an even easier target as I stab their heads with the Bo Staff while cheerfully singing the last verses of the song, "♪Hey, what's the matter with you, feel right? Don't you feel right, baby? Hey (hey) all right, get it from the main vine, all right.♪"

As I continue to tirelessly thrust the Bo Staff in my hands at any walker that stumbles into my range, the corpses all around me start to quickly form a wall which makes all this even easier.

Like that the number of walkers walking into their death gets lower and lower as I efficientily thrust the Bo Staff at their heads taking them out with a single precise blow while singing, "♪Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love. Come and get your love.♪"