#i have GOT to rip those dvds to the computer so i can lend them to you. i haven't forgotten!!!

[thewalkingdeadfanfictions]

Dawn of Corr Kendrick Chapter 3 - Keep Living On

Day fifteen of the global outbreak

           The vibrations of my phone on the tile floor woke me up after I don’t know how long. Rubbing my eyes as I sit up, I then open them to see that sometime during the night Ana and Luis decided to sleep together as they were now sleeping naked, half covered by one of the two blankets we had, on the opposite side of the room, their discarded clothes in random spots around them. But how they managed to do it without waking me I’ll never know. With a shake of my head I then look at my phone to see I’d gotten a call and voicemail from an unknown number. Confused I slowly unplug it from the charger, pick it up, bring the voicemail up, press play, and bring it to my ear to listen to it: “I hope you get this Corr. When we were trying to convince Grandma and Grandpa this thing was real King County started to get really bad. Then they broke in and in our hurry we forgot the phone charger and it took a while to find someone who did and would lend their phone to us. Grandma and Grandpa are gone but your mom and I are currently in Alabama with a group heading to somewhere that claims that it’s safe there. But we don’t want you or your friends to follow until we know for sure so we’re not telling you where we’re going or want you to tell your friends about this. Stay safe and we’ll come and find you when we know for sure. We love you.” My father’s voice tells me causing tears of relief and sadness to start falling from my eyes. They were still alive…at least for now. But I had a sickening feeling that this was actually a cryptic goodbye message telling me they were leaving but they didn’t want me to give up. They wanted me to keep fighting and live…for them. So with a deep breath I plug my phone back into the charger, which I’d remembered to plug into the wall outlet yesterday before we settled in after watching the movie and cleaning up the blood from the room. Laying back down, I pull the blanket I had around me and try to go back to sleep.

****Time Skip****

           “Do you think we should check out the lockers and collect the useful stuff in them and the rest of the food in the store before we leave?” Ana questions as we were packing up the blankets and things we’d taken out of our bags, getting ready to leave, causing Luis to pause and say “We’re not thieves. I left cash for the stuff we ate last night and it was different when it came to the guy’s stuff. They are our friends and won’t care that we took their things when this thing ends.” “When this ends? This thing is all over the world Luis. Do you really think that who took what to possibly help them survive will matter when it does?” Ana questions in a mildly annoyed and angry tone so to try and avoid a full blown argument between the two I offer “How about we only take enough to give us a few days? We lost a lot when…you know. Then we can put the rest in the lockers so the only thing that can get it is the living and if those things break in they won’t destroy or contaminate it.”

           He’s quite then as he looks at me with a hard stare causing me to look down at my feet whispering “It was just a suggestion.” “Luis stop that! She’s right.” Ana angrily snaps then causing him to sigh heavily before saying “You’re right…I’m sorry…It’s just you mentioned yesterday like it was any other day. Not one where we lost six of our friends. Hell, you almost got killed too.” This is when Ana quickly walks towards him, grabs his arm, and starts dragging him out of the room with a “We’re going to collect the stuff in the store. Corr you stay here and start going through the lockers.”

           They’re both out of the room before I can form any sort of response so I sigh and look towards the lockers. With a deep breath I pull out my phone to look up a video on how to pick locks just in case none of the keys I had worked on them. I feel bad for feeling relieved at having no new messages for a second before starting to do what I was told. From the moment I entered our freshman dorm room Ana has always seemed be understand me and know exactly what I was feeling. And being friends was just kind of there the whole time. Which evolved into being friends with people she made friends with. Then Dove and Clark started dating and the rest of the guys were just added into our group…But now…

           Shaking my head of that depressing thought I unzip the small duffel bag in the bottom of the locker I was currently in to find that it was whoever’s gym bag, with a pair of newer tennis shoes sitting on top. They would probably be better for Ana to wear, instead of her flats, so I check to see if they’re her size, which I only know because she’s had me order some for her the last time there was an online sale of some brand I didn’t bother to remember. Not that it matters what brands someone wore anymore…well…it never really did in my book. Luckily they were so I take them out and set them on the bench, next to the other useful stuff I found, just as the two come back in, with the remaining food in their arms.

           “Find anything good?” Ana questions as she just drops the stuff in her arms into Luis’s, earning an “Really?” as half of it falls to the floor. He immediately gets a hard glare from her as she tells him “Separate it and find a place for the rest.” In her “I’m still mad at you.” Voice. He sighs heavily as he starts to do as told so I give Ana my own “Really?” look. I only get a smirk in return that totally meant “He’s doing it isn’t he?” so I explain “Found a few granola bars, an empty water bottle, and a pair of tennis shoes that are in your size. Oh and I found the window paint. I thought it would be a good idea to cover the windows of the shop once we get there.” While pointing at said items sitting on the bench. “Good idea. We only use the markers at the shop so we wouldn’t have enough to cover the windows fully. And thank god! My feet are killing me after running in these.” She exclaims motioning to her red flats before she gets one of those scarily happy smiles on her face as she adds “I found something too.” While she reaches a hand behind her. “Okay?” I question giving her a worried look, knowing that look could mean she either found something good or embarrassing…to me. Figuring that we were in the situation that we were in and the place we were it was probably the latter.

“I know we’ll probably never be able to enjoy it again but it couldn’t hurt to take it with us.” She tells me then, emphasizing the word enjoy, while she brings a movie case from behind her back causing me to raise an eyebrow at her and question “What is it?” “This!” she exclaims happily finally showing me the front of the case, revealing the face of Gerard Butler as Cable in the movie Gamer, before she shoves it into my hands. I instantly start laughing with her doing the same. Gamer was one of the movies that we watched repeatedly from the moment it came out on DVD. I liked the story, despite the bad reviews, and the soundtrack while Ana liked watching the, in her words, “ripped” actors. I even used a few of the songs in my game.

“We don’t know if we’ll survive the day and we’re taking a movie.” Louis mutters then causing Ana to snap “Like I said, it couldn’t hurt!” To which he just sighs but thankfully drops it as he continues to fight with balancing most of the food in the locker, the rest sat in a pile next to his and Ana’s bags. “That’s what I thought.” Ana huffs practically kicking off her flats as she sat down on the bench, to put on the shoes instead, so I turn to my bag, leaning against the wall next to the plug. Going over to it I unzip the bigger area, move the blanket and clothes over, and slip the movie in the computer case with my computer, that I couldn’t bring myself to leave behind even though it may become a paperweight if this thing continues, which was next to my books, that I couldn’t bring myself to leave behind even though they take up space and add added weight. The two bottles of water, jar of peanut butter, two packets of chicken flavored ramen, couple of granola bars, baggie of Cheez-Its, a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Puffs, and couple of bags of the Cheez-It and Chips Deluxe Gripz where stored in the smaller area, and the rest of my things were still stored in my satchel bag.

“What are we going to do once we get there? Wait it out there or what?” Ana questions, having gone over to her bag and started shoving half of the snacks into it, causing Luis says “It’s going to depend on how safe we can make it. Then if we can find some camping things and a survival book or something we can think about going to that quarry. I mean it’s not like any of us have gone camping before or anything like that.” in a tone that probably meant it should be obvious, while doing the same as her. Of course Ana gives him a quick glare as she zips up her bag before pulling it over her shoulders with a “No need to be a dick about it.” So I, take her cue, and pull on my bags, as he taunts “You asked.” While doing the same after zipping his up, earning a snapped “And I said no need to be a dick about it!” from her as she stormed back over to the bench and picked up the plastic store bag which I had emptied of a change of clothes and put the paint in.

           With that she turned, held it out to Luis, and added “You can carry it. You are the only one with a one handed weapon.” “Only because I’m actually trained in bladed combat.” He says stepping forward and taking the bag causing her to scoff out “Bladed combat? You fenced.” “It still counts.” He snaps which just causes her to say “Let’s hope so and let’s go.” As she pats him on the shoulder before she picks up her crowbar, which was leaning on the wall with my bat near the door, picks up the keys from the floor next to it, and heads out the door. With a sigh he motions for me to come on so I nod and quickly collect my bat and follow him out the door.

           We join Ana at the door before she motions for us to listen and presses her ear against the door. We do the same and after a few moments of hearing nothing she takes her ear off the door and whispers “Shouldn’t we still hear gunshots and stuff?” “Maybe it’s calmed down.” Luis offers, earning an eye roll and a “Really?” from her before she mutters “Whatever. If it’s really calmed down we should go now.” And slowly unlocks the door. Louis and I step back as she slowly opens the door and looks around outside.

           “It’s clear.” She says stepping and holding the door for us. So we join her outside and look around as she lets the door close behind us. It was quiet and empty, which was unnerving, as we start to make our way to the department store, occasionally having to step over or around things or even bodies, which we were careful not to touch in case they were like the former employee of the video store.

****Time Skip****

           “This is really weird.” Ana breathes out as she opens the back door to the department store, her workplace, after our surprisingly uneventful journey. “Yeah, where is everyone or any of those things?” Luis questions as we step into the storage room that was so full of shelves and boxes that the large delivery door was pretty much unusable. “Maybe they’re being drawn to the refugee center?” I offer remembering how sound seemed to draw them, figuring that the refugee center would probably be making a lot of noise, causing Luis to offer “Or it’s actually ending.” “It’s entirely possible.” Ana says closing the back door behind us before adding “But if they’re all being drawn to the refugee center we should stay as far away from there as possible. And if it is ending, and I’m not saying that it is, we should stay here until someone comes and gets us.” “Agreed.” Luis says as I nod in agreement causing Ana to say “Let’s get this place secured then.”

Day sixteen of the global outbreak      

The three of us decided that we should start to go through the stuff in the store, including the Lost and Found box and sort of pick up and sort the merchandise and decorations we’d emptied out of or taken off of some of the different stuff we used for barriers at the doors. Figuring that we should do so before we got too comfortable, if we ever did, since the most we had done was set up in the manager’s office, which just entailed laying out our blankets, storing our bags, and plugging in my laptop, my phone, and Ana’s phone. All with the plan that if the things broke in we’d barricade ourselves in there, which we did mainly because there was apparently no way to lock the door to the roof, get into the neighboring store as their door to the roof actually locked, or barricade the door to the small employee room that contained the small metal staircase to the roof. And because we did find that Ana’s manager had been hording junk food and snacks in a drawer of their desk, had a mini fridge with some water bottles, and had a microwave as well. Thus, the three of us wouldn’t have to worry about starvation or dehydration for probably another week with that plus what we had in our bags.

However, we had no idea exactly what’s going on outside with most of what was being posted on the site being just more of the same; with stuff starting to go bad or even bad to worse, rumors of safe places, people sharing what’s happened to them, and the like, and how we couldn’t even tell what time it was now unless we looked at the clock due to how we covered the windows and door with the window paint and barricaded them. Though, in the grand scheme of things that’s probably a good thing as if we couldn’t see out, they couldn’t see in.

****Time Skip****

           The three of us were currently eating our sad dinner, of a noodle cup and bag of chips, as we attempted to watch the news on the small rabbit eared TV we had found in a box labeled Emergency, basically hidden in the corner of one of the shelfs in the storage room, with the, tag less and somewhat dirty, small pink neopets snowbunny plush, surprisingly and happily discovered in the bottom of the Lost and Found box, currently sitting in the small space between Ana and I, as if it was a real bunny. We couldn’t get the sound to work, figure out how to get the captions on, or get the image to have no static. But it was better than nothing as the radio that was there didn’t work at all. How the manager stayed the manager without keeping the stuff needed for emergencies working or updated was a mystery.

           Luis had just gotten up to smack it again as the screen filled with static when we heard what sounded like helicopters. Ana and I quickly stand up our heads snapping up to look at the ceiling as Luis questions “You two hear that?” “Yeah.” I respond nodding before Ana announces “Let’s go look.” While grabbing my hand and starting to pull her with her.

“Maybe this is a bad idea.” Luis says as we step out on the roof and look up at the sky, searching for the source of the sound. “Too late now.” Ana says before releasing me and exclaiming “Look! There they are!” as she pointed into the semi-dark sky. “Thank god.” Luis breathes out as we all watch some helicopters fly overhead and wave at them causing Ana to sigh out “It’s really over.” relieved. But that’s when some flares are released from them causing Luis to say “I don’t think so.” His tone worried. “What’s happening?” Ana questions, in a scared tone, as another set of helicopters fly overhead causing Luis to shout “We need to go back inside!” We turn to go back inside but there’s an explosion and flash of light from in front of us causing us to freeze and look up as a fire ball rises a little over the tops of the buildings.

“They’re bombing us!” Ana cries out as there are more following after it getting closer and I breathe out “We’re going to die.” That’s when Luis grabs our hands and quickly pulls us into the building with him just before it shakes with the force of one that is closer. He forces us into the corner as the building shakes again and things could be heard falling from downstairs. We stay huddled in the corner listening to the explosions as they got further away until they eventually stopped causing us all to breathe out in relief.

“We’re alive.” Ana whispers so Luis says “We’re alone.” “What?” both Ana and I question looking at him in surprise causing him to look at the ground and say “We’ve been abandoned. The bombs are the last ditch effort after the military and National Guard fail or are told to retreat.” “But we’re alive! They can’t just leave us!” Ana cries causing Luis to yell back “They can! And they did! You were right! This thing isn’t going to end! We’re alone and we’re going to die!” “No!” I cry then feeling my eyes start to water so I close them and shake my head as I continue “We can’t die! We can’t!” “Corr.” Ana whispers then pulling me into a hug as she continues “We’re not going to. We have each other and that’s never going to change.”

Day seventeen of the global outbreak

           We now could hear at least one of those things groaning when we were near the front door and windows. That plus the events of yesterday we didn’t really feel like continuing our sort of the clothes, shoes, and accessories in the store and just picked up the rest of it and piled it in a pile in the, now empty, middle of the store and simply just shoving the stuff that fell in the storage room back on the shelves. We also posted about what happened on the site to get out that there was still uninfected people here in the city since we never know who might reach out to us with a safe way to get out of the city or a safer place within the city. We also were watching the posts from the site to see if anything similar had happened in other cities. And we, well Ana and I, also placed the snowbunny on top of said pile, our own little copping bunny pile.

We were both used to seeing my own snowbunny on the top shelf of my bookcase along with the limited edition silver lupe neopets plush Ana managed to get her hands on last year, the Mattel Masters of the Universe Samurai Battle Cat action figure I’d gotten from my father, the couple Pokémon figures I had and decided to put on display (a few Eevee, a couple Togepi, a couple Mew, Poochyena), my Pooky Beanie Buddie, the two Beanie Babies I’d gotten from my grandparents Hoot and Sniffer, and the Basket Beanie Hippie I’d gotten from my mother one Easter. And it was at this point that I wished I had packed at least one of them and the small Kero plush from Cardcaptors/Cardcapter Sakura.

I’d gotten that Kero for my eleventh birthday and I still slept with it, it had practically been clued to me for a few years after all. It was also one of the things I had gotten from one of my dad’s army buddies over the years. Usually I got things like GI Joes, comics, or action figures, things that tough military guys wouldn’t be embarrassed to get so finding the small orange winged cat plush in the simple boxes, they were notorious to put them in, with a new Lady Jane figure was a surprise. My mom always said she’d pay to see him picking it up and going to the cash register with it, the other guys agreed, and his brother claimed it was hilarious. Maybe we can go back to our apartment and I can get them once we have to leave here. That is, if our apartment isn’t damaged from the bombs and everything.

I wonder if they’re all alright but none of them answered when I tried. Though Dan “Campbell’s” Campbell and Jorge “Red” McCallister were still deployed, Jed “Jedi” Martin had moved back home to Michigan to help his sister out with his three nieces when her husband just up and left a few years ago, and this was around the time that the Eckert brothers, Nicolas “Nicky” and Mathew “Mattie”, visited their mother in Florida, so who knows.

Day eighteen of the global outbreak

Ana and I were currently walking around the roof getting some much needed air and checking the ground for how many of those things were actually around us. Luckily there were only two of them around the front of the store, one behind it, and none on either of the other two sides.

“I think we should clear the back door.” Ana says suddenly causing me to stop and say “I don’t know. I think our plan of holing up in the office is pretty safe. There’s no windows so those things won’t be able to see us and they’ll eventually leave.” “I know…It’s just what if it isn’t those things that break in?” She replies slowly stopping as well causing me to ask “Not those things?” “Other people.” She says before turning and looking at me and continuing “The world wasn’t very nice before this.” With a weird look on her face. “Ana?” I question concerned causing her to give me a small smile before she looks up at the sky saying “Never mind.”

I follow her gaze up at the sky and watching as a cloud slowly moved across the sky, as if it wasn’t probably the end of life as we knew it, and slowly disappeared into another one.

Day nineteen of the global outbreak

           I was busy trying to clean myself in the small bathroom, using one of the clean shirts as a washcloth, as we had started to stink, trying to sleep was harder having to smell it, and well…Lady Red decided it’d be a good idea to visit me last night. That and the fact that Ana still wanted to clear the back door while Luis still wanted to keep it barricaded, had “quietly” argued about it all night, and were still arguing about it within the office didn’t help any of our moods. At least with the door closed they were muffled and I could barely hear them in the store and couldn’t hear them within the bathroom.

****Time Skip****

           Ana and I were now moving the stuff barricading the backdoor, her having won and Luis keeping watch of the back door on the roof. “He should just accept that I will always win.” She huffs as we set the final bench back where we found it so I nod saying “Yeah.”

Day twenty of the global outbreak

           “What the hell is wrong with this thing now?” Luis groans smacking the T.V. filled with only static after he turned it on for us to check the news as we ate our “breakfast” of the last of the pop-tarts from the drawer, having decided to eat that stuff before the things from our bags. “See if it’s the same on the other channels.” Ana says so Luis starts pressing the channel button and changing the channel, each one showing static, causing him to state “It’s all the same.” “Maybe it’s gone.” I suggest causing them to look at me with an ‘Oh god’ look.

Day twenty-one of the global outbreak

           “Ana we need to ration our food.” Luis scolded as Ana opened another bag of chips only causing her to snap “Are you calling me fat?” and me to decide to fish my Mp3 from my satchel bag. “Did I say that?!” He questions angrily, as I find it and place it on the ground next to me and start searching for the headphones, only for her to say “Well I don’t know mister sleep with other girls.” “I thought we were over that!” He exclaims, as I find the headphones and connect them to the Mp3, causing her to question “Why? Because we didn’t talk about it because the world went to shit?” “Yes! The world did go to shit! Who I did or didn’t sleep with isn’t important anymore!” He exclaims, as I place the buds into my ears, earning an “It is important! You’re supposed to love me and only me!” from her before I press play and let the voice of Sia flood my ears while I watch them continue to argue…yet again.

#fanfic #the walking dead #daryl dixon #daryl x oc #original character