To Atlanta

Rick was resting in the bedroom, Morgan and Duane was preparing a small meal for everyone and I was inspecting the house. Like I thought they were good people, just they had been hardened by the life they now had to live. They'd recently lost a loved one too, I could see in their eyes.

You can see a lot in a person's eyes, which is why I was brought up on all manners of understanding people's unsaid emotions. Despite the pain of their loss I could see that they were strong too. Even with the world collapsing, dead rising and likely the mother dying they hadn't given up yet. It was admirable, but that doesn't always prepare you for the worst.

Every time humans are without rules, the truly evil ones tend to come out ahead. They don't have the same hesitation for doing something immoral. They adapt quicker to these kind of situations. Most people I'm sure are more scared of the walkers, and they should be, but I know the thing they should more worried about is other humans.

The rest of the house was much like the first floor, blankets and sheets covering the closed windows.mattresses and extra blankets had been piled into the living room of the house. They had throughly looted the building and made sure to keep their supplies on the bottom, ready to leave if necessary.

I heard movement from Rick's room and came back down to meet him first. He was just sitting up and turning in the bed to allow his feet to hit the floor, rubbing a hand over his face as he winced.

"Good morning. Or well, I guess it would be good night." I said while standing in the door way. He turned towards me at the sound of my voice and sighed in relief.

"It's good to see you're alright, Adam. How did you get me in here?" He asked, but I heard Morgan approaching.

"We helped him, to say sorry for hitting you with that shovel." He nudged Duane forward, who dipped his head slightly.

"Sorry, mister."

Rick sat there looking from to me and when he saw me nod my head he nodded his own.

"You… you shot that man today." He said in a questioning tone, and I stepped forward.

"It wasn't a man, Rick. It was one of those things like we saw by the bike." I said.

"A walker." Morgan spoke up, before stepping back into the hall and gesturing with his head for us to follow.

"C'mere. I'll show you." He said. Rick looked to me and I nodded seriously and turned to follow Morgan out.

"Duane get the lights." Morgan said turning down a lamp before walking towards a window covered by thick blankets.

"This place… This is Fred and Cindy Drake's." Rick said, but Morgan shrugged as he peeled back the curtain.

"It was empty before we got here." Morgan replied.

"Look. There's more of them out there than usual. Must be because I fired that gun today." He continued before stepping back to let Rick see out.

Rick looked out and I did as well. Morgan had been right there were even more than there were earlier. Wandering aimlessly in the streets. Their sense of smell must not be as good as their sight and hearing. Or maybe they just have normal human senses, just no thought behind them. That's good for us because it means they will be easier to avoid and misdirect as long as they don't get sight of you.

After that we soon sat down to eat what they had been cooking, a can of beans. During some of my training they had fed me little to no food and had me complete tasks. It was to train me to be able to function even when in a weakened state. Such that I could go many days without food as long as I was able to get ahold of water. Though they didn't do this too much as they said my physical growth was more important, and that such training could be done later.

But it made me wonder how other normal people were going to adapt. Some people get irritable just from missing one meal, but being malnourished for days or even weeks at the time can effect even the most durable people.

The meal was a short one spent with Rick explaining our situation and Morgan filling us in on the basics of what we had missed since the outbreak. It didn't take long before we were all piled up in the living room for sleep.

At first light we headed out, starting with Rick's house.

"They're in Atlanta, I bet." Duane said, but I had began exploring the house. The first room I came across had a sign on the door that said 'Carl'. I pushed the door open and took in the room. Clothes, toys, and papers were strewn across the floor and bed. Along the door frame were marks with ages next to them, the last one at just a couple inches shorter than me was 'Carl, Age 12'.

I hadn't asked Rick much about his family, as I didn't want to mess with his mood too much. Our situations were completely different after all. I was glad to be away from Mother and Father, but I knew for a fact there nowhere else he'd rather be than with his family. Wallowing in self pity wouldn't help that goal.

I picked up a picture that had been knocked to the ground, the glass of the frame broken, likely having been knocked down in their hurry to pack. I hope Rick's partner, Shane, was helping them. From what Rick had told me about he seemed like a good guy, a reliable one for their safety at least. I'm not sure I want to see a guy like Rick change. Finding his family dead might just do that if it doesn't cause him to outright kill himself.

I set the photo back down and turned to Rick who was standing in the door way.

"You're a little taller, but some of Carl's clothes should fit you if you want to grab some." I nodded. Who knew how often we'd get to wash our clothes, so grabbing some temporary ones until I found more clothes my size was a good idea.

"Thanks, I'll do that. So, Atlanta?" I asked as I grabbed a backpack that held school supplies in it along with some comic books. I dumped everything but the comics, as admittedly I was interested what else might be different here. Did they have all the same comic characters that I remembered?

"Ya. They said there was a refugee center set up there near the CDC." Rick replied, he smiled when he saw me keeping the comics in the bag, but I pretended not to notice.

"What are you going to do if they're not there?" I asked, zipping up the bag now filled with several changes of clothes. I attempted the shoes, but they were a couple sizes too small for me. Rick hadn't answered my question and when I looked up I saw him shaking his head.

"I can't think about that right now. We'll see what Atlanta is like and go from there." He finally said.

"I see. Well let's get going then." I replied.

"We've got another stop before that. We're gonna check out the police station." He said.

"Lets get going then."

We came back out to Morgan and Duane loading their car with their supplies and that reminded of the supplies I left in the house yesterday. I dashed across the road, paying close attention to the sounds and smells as walkers had been here just last night. Though it seemed most had left the area, and since everything had been shut here, they hadn't entered the house.

I gathered up the things and threw the bag over my shoulder. Our stockpile was beginning to get a little too much for us to carry. Thankfully Morgan had his vehicle. With my new set of loot I fell in line with Rick just as he made it to the house, and he turned to look at me in surprise.

"When did you get that bag?" I gestured to my newly acquired loot.

"Just now. I had left in the house across the street when you got knocked out yesterday." I pointed my thumb over my shoulder. Rick knelt down, placing his hands on my shoulders as he did.

"Look Adam. I know I'm not your dad, but you can't just run off like that without telling me. Especially now that I have a little bit better of an idea what's going on." His sincerity surprised me, and smiled softly as I thanked him.

"Thanks Rick, I'll keep that in mind. Sorry for worrying you. Oh and here's your gun, I stashed it in case they had turned out to be bad people." I said while slipping out his M9 that I had put in my personal bag. He chuckled in a form of exasperation as he took the gun and put it back in the previously empty holster in his hip.

"Ya know when I was a cop I used a revolver." He said as he stood up.

"Did you think you were a cowboy or something? I saw the picture of you in Carl's room with it on." He laughed at this and ruffled my hair. I wasn't sure how to feel about all this touching he was doing. I knew from my training that I couldn't have a negative reaction to touching from people because it would draw their attention. Someone who flinches at contact is likely to have been abused, and even if they hadn't it's still memorable. Most people don't want to cause others discomfort.

"Something like that. Now come on, they're just about ready to head out." Rick said.

The ride over to the station was interesting. Seeing the barren streets, just abandoned cars or even outright wrecked vehicles. There had been a few walkers we passed and I wondered about the noise of the car and whether it would draw more to us. I just had never thought that my first time being out in the real world that everything would be, for lack of a better word, dead…

We pulled into the station, the gate to the back still locked by a padlock. Rick hopped out to unlock and let us through, quickly shutting the gate back as we came through. We followed Rick into the dark building, they all seemed tense but I knew from the sounds and smells that the place was clear. The only smells remaining were stale, stagnant air and old coffee.

We made our way through several sets of doors until we were in a locker room, connected with a bathroom and a line of showers. Rick turned on one of them and after a sputter, water began pouring out.

"Gas lines been down for maybe a month." Morgan said.

"The station's got its own propane system. Pilot's still on." Rick replied getting happy looks from the Morgan and Duane. Soon everyone was enjoying a shower.

A part of my training had been to not have shame in my body, and that was still true now. I just wondered why Rick and Morgan kept looking at my scars. I knew that children typically didn't have as many as I did, I mean most adults didn't have this many either. Neither of these 2 nor Duane had even half as many. I wonder if they think I was abused? I suppose looking at it from their point of view, what I went through could be considered abuse. To me it was just training though.

I ignored their gazes and focused on my shower. It was one of the few things that had little supervision from Mother or Father. Ever so often they would time me or force me to take cold shower, clean myself with a bucket and a rag. But for the most part I was free to enjoy the shower however I liked, and now I had even more freedom. We weren't staying here so I had no reservations about enjoying a nice hot shower.

After the shower we raided the weapon locker. I was genuinely surprised so many weapons along with their ammo were still here. I figured the other officers would have had the exact same idea as us.

"Daddy, can I learn to shoot? I'm old enough." Duane asked.

"Hell yes you're gonna learn. But we gotta do it carefully, teach you to respect the weapon." Morgan said.

"That's right. It's not a toy. If you pull the trigger, you have to mean it. Always remember that Duane." Rick said as he loaded a shotgun into the gun bag, before turning to me.

"That goes for you too, Adam." He said to me.

"I already know how." I said while loading ammo into the bag with Duane.

"Your dad teach you that, too?" Rick asked to which I shook my head.

"No, Mother did. Father was scared of guns." I felt their gazes on me again, but ignored them as I continued loading the bag. I had considered playing the role of a normal 10 year old, but I knew for sure now that such a role would only hinder us. I'm fine with being seen as the strange boy with an equally strange upbringing.

"Are you sure you won't come along?" Rick asked Morgan as I began moving our bags from his car to the police car Rick picked.

"Stay safe, Duane. Next time we meet maybe you can show me how good you've gotten with a gun." I said holding my hand out to him.

"You too, Adam. I wish we didn't have to split up though." He said sadly as he shook my hand.

"Well hopefully it won't be for too long. Until next time." I waved as I carried the last bag to the trunk of the police car.

"Leon Basset?" Rick said questioningly as we all turned to the walker coming up to the fence. It had a police uniform on just like Rick's.

"Didn't think much of him. Careless and dumb but… can't leave him like this." He finished.

"You know they'll hear the shot." Morgan said.

"Lets not be here when they show up." Rick replied as he walked up to the gate.

"Lets go, son. Adam you be safe now, you here." Morgan said and nodded my head as they got to their vehicle. I slipped into the passenger seat of the cop car, rolling down the window the handle. I guess this station hadn't upgraded to electric window yet, which was fine by me.

Rick shot Leon and opened the gate up, before hopping in the driver seat of the car.

"Lets head to Atlanta." Rick said as he cranked the car, following Morgan out the station.