Chapter 8 To Atlanta
Rick drove, trying to use the radio to contact anyone out there, no one answers back to him. Not knowing that there was someone on the other end trying to answer him. John was looking out of the window; they were now on a road in the middle of nowhere. The car started to sputter and eventually stopped; it seems they have run out of gas.
They get out of the car, John grabs the duffel bag full of guns and ammo, while Rick carries another bag, and a gas can. They start to walk down the road, after 30 minutes of walking they come upon a nice farmhouse, the painting on the roof was very run down. Rick shouts, "Hello, is there anyone here. I'm a police officer, can I borrow some gas?", Rick is me with no response, so he walks toward the front door. John follows and decides to knock on the door, there was still no response from inside. Rick looks in the window and saw an old couple who had committed suicide by shooting themselves in the head with a shot gun. John looks as well and decides to break down the door in order to grab the shot gun, after he garbs it, he walks out. John saw Rick looking at him funny, so he said, "What?", Rick replies, "Was that necessary?", John then says, "It's not like they need it anymore and we don't know what Atlanta is going to be like". Rick says, "Yeah, I guess you are right."
They then start to look around the small ranch, there was a car but there was no key, as they were about to go and search the house, they hear two sets of heavy breathing. Turning towards the noise they see 2 horses, standing there looking at them, they found some saddles in the bran nearby, and put the saddles on the horses in order to ride them the rest of the way to Atlanta. At first the horses were tense but seeing that they were not going to hurt them, the horse calmed down.
With the saddles now in place they climbed on their horses and started to ride. Rick and John were both not used to riding horses, so they rode quite slowly in the beginning, but as they got used to it, they started to ride at full speed to Atlanta. They rode the horses for about 20 miles and were finally at the edge of the city, they could see that the highway going out of the city was completely blocked with cars, hundreds, maybe even thousands of cars. They were also able to see many tall buildings signifying they had finally reached their destination, the only thing left for the to do was find Rick's family. Although John already knew that Lori and Carl were not within the city.
They ride for another 20 minutes before they reach one of the main roads of the city, now surrounded by tall buildings. Oddly enough the entire way they did not see a single walker. Walking down a street they pass a broken helicopter and some badly burned cars, they turn down another street and ride past a burned bus, there were two walkers inside the bus and when the horse saw them, they got spooked. They continue riding although a little faster now being followed by the two walkers, they turn left down another street, passing two military hummers and an overturned car, they even passed by a tank, a freaking tank.
On the tank there was a corpse, two crows were perched there eating it rotting flesh. Rick slightly disturbed looks away, and starts to ride forward, going around the tank, they started to hear a noise in the sky. Looking all around in the sky they were able to see a helicopter's reflection on the windows of a building, Rick speed up and rides down the street quickly, John following closely behind, as they go to turn down one of the streets, they are met by a huge hord of walkers. The horses get spooked, but they manage to control them to turn around and bolt back down the street, but they are cut off when they reach the tank, it seems another horde had snuck up on them.
Quickly being surrounded the horses panic and throw John and Rick off of them, Rick falls to the ground but gets up quickly, while John was able to land on his feet, being careful not to drop the bag of guns he was holding. John quickly pulls out his colt and shoot consecutively 12 times, each hitting the head of the walkers that were closest to them. John quickly releases his magazine and puts it in his pocket, before reloading a clip from his vest, this all being done within 5 seconds, thanks to his training in Eden. Rick was stunned for a second before quickly recovering and climbing into the tank while John covers him, John shoot 12 more walkers emptying his clip before he jumps straight onto the tank. He quickly reloads taking another mag from his vest putting the used one in his pocket, done reloading he jump down the hatch and then closes it. Inside the tank there was a seemingly dead walker wearing a military outfit, before it could move John stabs it in the head with a military shovel, creating a squelching sound.
Looking at the now dead walker, John takes the Beretta, its extra magazine and a grenade, then he hands them to Rick. Ready to fight their way out they are interrupted by the radio making a noise.