That’s a lot of Walkers…

Dead. Not just the walking dead, but everything could really only be described as dead. Trash and debris littered the streets. A city that was normally bustling at nearly all hours of the day had been reduced to a ghost town. No sound, just the smell of the dead littering the city. I could make out the smells of alive people that had passed through, but whether they were still alive I wasn't sure.

I had found a crowbar while we were walking, judging by the bent in door it seemed they had used it to break into a locked building. That building having been just a small shop, everything had been taken already.

I didn't like the idea of only being able to rely on my pistols or the knife I had. One made too much noise, while the other required me to be up close and personal. The knife also required a lot of precision, as I couldn't just slam it through the skull. I'd have to find weak points like the base at the back of the head.

Movies made eye sockets seem like a good target, but this blade was too wide to consistently sink in through the eyes. Especially if I began to tire and was surrounded. That's why I figured an object that I could get more leverage behind, as well as having the option for blunt force a penetrating force, would serve me much better.

I was following Rick through streets when I realized I was hearing a rumbling, like the sound of a helicopter.

"Do you hear that?" I spoke lowly. Most people didn't realize that whispering was almost worse than just talking normally. If you didn't want to be heard you needed to keep your voice lower.

"Hear what?" Rick asked, trying to keep his voice down as well.

I began looking up and around but we were surrounded by tall buildings, that acted like a canopy of trees blocking out the majority of the sky.

"It… it sounds like a helicopter." I said. I began walking again, straining my ears but the sound echoed off the many buildings and it was tough to track. Not to mention trying to keep track of all the dead I was smelling.

"I don't hear… wait I do hear something." Rick said as he too was now looking up and around for the helicopter.

"We need to get to a roof. Maybe we can flag them down." He said again, picking up pace as he ran to the closest building.

"Wait, Rick." I called out, trying not to yell as I hurried after him.

When the door he got to first wouldn't open, he rounded the corner to head down the street but he froze in place. I cursed myself. What was the point of having enhanced, sight, hearing and smell if it just got overwhelmed as soon as I get out into the real world.

Rick took a cautious step back, but unfortunately that was onto the leg of a dead body. Thankfully it already had a hole in its head, but regardless this still caused him to trip and fall over.

It seemed like everything got even more quiet than before. I could heard the distant crash of lightning, smell the scent of coming rain mixed with the smell of death. I could see… well my vision was filled with nothing but a sea of dead rotting bodies. All of them turning towards the sound of falling to the ground.

"Rick… Get up." I called but he still seemed stunned. I ran forward, smacking him as I attempted to lift him.

"Rick, get up damn it!" I finally yelled. Being quiet would no longer do anything for us now.

"Oh- oh shit!" Rick managed out as he scrambled up with my help.

I had underestimated the walkers, even at Morgan's warning of what it can be like when a bunch of them get together. Because what had before been a nearly empty street was now gradually filling for walking corpse after walking corpse. We couldn't risk running into another locked door, and prying it open wouldn't do us much good if the walkers could just get in right behind us.

The closest walker got 10 feet away when I finally drew the pistol Rick gave me and killed it. One clean bullet through the head. No going back now. I scanned the surroundings as Rick followed my example, drawing his revolver and loosing a couple rounds as the dead got closer.

I spotted a tank nearby and weighed my options. This tank had the hatch open up top, so it was a guaranteed spot to hide in. A much better place than a shop that may or may not have a way out other than the door we enter through. Not to mention all the breakable windows. They definitely couldn't break through the walls of a tank.

"Rick! The tank!" I called, tugging Rick's shirt as I fired off 2 more rounds dropping 2 more walkers.

"Go, go, go!" Was his response as we began sprinting for the tank.

I made it there first and tossed the crowbar, making it easier to launch myself up onto my feet atop the tank. I instantly turned around a killed the walkers closest to Rick.

"Get in!" He yelled as he scrambled onto the tank a lot less gracefully than I had.

Not needing to be told twice I dropped into the tank after grabbing my crowbar. Once inside I noticed there was a bottom entrance that was opened as well and closed it. With the hatch closed, less of the outside noise was making it in and I realized there was a third set of breathing nearby.

I heard a growl just as I turned, swinging out with my crowbar only for it to get hung up in a metal rack.

"Damn it." I cursed under my breath as I used all my strength pull on the crowbar, sliding my body directly under it. I held it up and aimed it length wise to catch the mouth of the walker, which now bit down fiercely on the bar like it was a bit for the reins of a horse.

I could hear Rick still firing off rounds, but this had all happened so fast that he still hadn't made it inside yet. Though I could see his boot stepping down out of the corner of my eyes, I focused on the walker. Letting go of the bar with my right hand I strained to push back against the walker, while slipping my knife from its sheath. Pointing it straight up I sank it up to the hilt under the chin of the former soldier. It soon went limp and I was left with the full, actually dead, dead weight of the body.

When I managed to roll it off me, and dislodge the crowbar, Rick was finally closing the top hatch.

"Took you long enough." I breathed heavily as I began searching the body. Finding another Beretta M9 like the one I found back at the hospital. Sadly he had no other mags on him.

"Shit, Adam. Are you alright? Did you get bit?" Rick hissed as he slid closer, but I just waved him off.

"I'm fine. Just a little on edge." I replied. Which wasn't a complete lie, just that it wasn't in the way that Rick was probably thinking. He probably thought that I was scared that we almost died, but if anything I felt… alive. I had been in real danger for the first time. An actual life or death scenario and had so far made it out on top. Sure we were currently holed up inside a tank, but I felt more free than I ever had while inside the Lab.

I had the freedom of choice. I could lift open that hatch right now and start stabbing, swinging or shooting my way out of here. But I wasn't going to do that. I had found something maybe more important than that with Rick. I had found a person, that didn't look at me as a test subject, or their favorite prized possession. To Rick, I was just some 10 year old kid that he had found in a hospital at the start of all this. Of course I'm not the average 10 year old and I'm sure he's curious about me, but he hasn't pushed the issue yet.

"Hey you." The radio crackled. Me and Rick looking between each other, both wondering if we had really just heard that.

"Dumbass. Yeah you in the tank. Are you cozy in there?" A voice came through again, the radio crackling and hissing with the struggling connection. I was surprised their radio was coming through at all, but this was a military radio. Even then they would have to be really close if not having direct sight of us because all these buildings would cause a lot of interference with a regular walkie talkie.

"Hey, are you alive in there?" This last time snapped Rick of out his thoughts as he slid past the dead soldier and took hold of the radio.

"Hello? Hello?"

"There you are. You had me wondering." The voice on the other side seemed to sigh.

"Where are you? Outside? Can you see us right now?" Rick asked quickly.

"Yeah, I can see you. Wait, us? There's more than just you?" The voice asked confused.

"Just one more. A kid. He's in here with me." Rick replied. I withheld my wince. We didn't know this person. We didn't know what kind of person he was or if he had more people with him.

"Oh man! Is the kid alright? I didn't see him when you got inside the tank."

"Yes. He's fine. What do you see though? Is there any way for us to get out of here?" Rick asked.

"You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." The voice replied just to get cut off by Rick.

"There's good news?"

"No." He replied and I suppressed the chuckle I had from the reply.

"Got any advice for us?"

"Yeah, I'd say make a run for it."

Rick paused as he waited for the guy to say more before letting out an exasperated breath. Glancing at me briefly.

"That's it? Make a run for it?" Rick asked annoyed.

"It's not as dumb as it sounds… As long as you still have some bullets. You do, don't you?"

Rick looked to me. I brought out the pistol he gave me from the police station, ejecting the mag showing 5 more shots and then the full 15 on the newly acquired beretta. Before finally showing him the one that I had kept hidden since the hospital. He raised an eyebrow but ultimately shook his head, as I passed him the one I had just pulled off the soldier.

"Ya, we do." He finally reported back to the voice on the radio.

There looks to be about 10 geeks still on top of the tank, but the ones that were on the ground have begun to lose interest. You with me so far?"

"So far." Rick grimaced at the news, and I kept picturing the scene outside.

"Okay the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you take out the ones still on the tank and move quickly, you stand a chance. Do you have anything you have anything you can use as a distraction?" He asked.

Me and Rick begins looking around the tank, finding a grenade, a short shovel, a flashbang and a loose pipe. I looked at the grenade, but Rick shook his head at my gaze.

"We might have something." Rick finally responded.

"Alright. There's still a lot on the tank, but if you can cause the distraction behind the tank then you just need to jump off the right side of the tank and keep going in that direction. There's and alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. Be there."

"Hey, what's your name?" Rick asked in reply.

"Have you heard what I've been saying? You're running out of time." He said.

Rick grabbed the pipe and the flash bang, looking up at the top hatch when I stopped him.

"Wait. I can go down the bottom hatch and throw it a lot easier. It may even get the 10 up top to get off." I said.

"No it's too dangerous." Rick shook his head.

"This isn't the time to argue. I'm smaller and can move down there a lot easier than you could. The walkers might hear the struggle of your killing the ones on top or worse you could get scratched or bit while doing it." I replied adamantly.

Rick's thoughts were warring in his mind before he finally relented.

"Fine. But only if there aren't any under the tank." I nodded and held my ear to the floor. The walls of the tank were disrupting what I could hear, only getting bits through the barrel.

Rick waited for my nod and opened the hatch below, he paused and then stuck his head through, looking around the bottom. A moment later he was back up and nodded at me. I moved passed him and dropped down to my stomach. I had enough room to crawl as long as I kept my body low.

I made sure not to let the pipe scrape the asphalt as I made my way to the back of the tank. I set the flashbang down and braced my back against the underside of the tank. Thinking on the fly I slipped out my knife and made a small cut on my forearm and wiped blood across the pipe. Not a lot, just enough that they should be able to smell it. I quickly bandaged the cut and got ready.

I had one hand hold the pipe and the other ready to push the pipe forward with an underhand throw. Aiming between the ambling dead, I timed it, and with as much force as I could muster I sent the pipe flying. It clanked loudly about 30 feet away, and I could see by the feet of the walkers that they were making their way to the noise.

A few of the ones on top of the tank fell to the ground, one falling face first directly in front of me. Of course its face was looking directly at me, but I stayed calm, pulling the pin and releasing the safety level as I threw it. As soon as it left my palm I scurried back to the hatch and into the tank. The bang going off right as my head entered and just as we closed the hatch I saw the hand of the fallen walker grasp under us.

Rick looked at me, but I feigned ignorance as I got ready. Grabbing my crowbar and pistol. Rick grabbed the shovel he found as well as the beretta. He nodded at me before throwing open the hatch. I saw him immediately swing the shovel, and quickly swung it again at the other side.

"Come on!" He yelled. Firing a shot and jumping up on top of the tank. I was instantly up beside him, firing shots towards our planned direction. We leaped down, Rick landing awkwardly falling to the ground. I smashed in the head of a walker with my crowbar and then sunk it into the head of another. Having to let go of it as it wedged into the skull.

We sprinted down the street, taking down walkers as we ran to the alley where we were met with a 20 something year old Asian guy.

"Whoa! Not dead! Come on, come on!" He yelled as we both raised our guns at him. I pulled the metal fence closed only to realize it wouldn't close, since it's supposed to be chained to the nearby pole. Thankfully there was a full dumpster just inside the alley, and while it didn't keep it fully closed it did prevent the mass of them to fill the alley.

"Adam, hurry up!" Rick yelled. I turned to see them at a ladder up the side of the building. I dashed to it, following the Asian guy up the ladder. Rick fired a couple more shots before following us up.