NOVEL WEB S1E37 – International
[Narrator POV]
As the group pulls out, A figure begins to emerge from the CDC. Doctor Jenner. He looks out at the group as they pull away, and sees the walkers shambling towards the building. He looks out, completely defeated. Thankfully, the window was up high, and walkers aren’t exactly known for their ability to climb. He slowly walks back to the elevator and takes it down. As it dings, he walks out and heads to the cafeteria, hoping to at least have a drink before his fate. He walks in, and finds the place to be completely gutted. Save for one bottle placed in the center of one of the round tables.
He takes the half-empty bottle of wine, and makes his way back to the big room. He climbs over the bent door, and goes to take a seat. He starts to drink the bottle, and waits for the timer to count down.
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[Penny POV]
We drove for another thirty minutes before stopping. We all step outside, and face towards Atlanta and the CDC. After another five minutes or so, we see the building suddenly go up in flames. A shockwave begins to wake its way towards us. In a few seconds, we’re all rocked by it,
*BANG!*
After the initial explosion, a low rumble is all that can be heard as the flames slowly consume the building in its entirety. Damn… I should’ve killed Jenner. Those points would’ve been a great help. No, I shouldn’t think like that. Before we get back into our vehicles, I spot something on the side of the road. It’s a red truck… But it’s fucking huge. Like, probably about the size of the RV. And it’s even taller than it. I speak to the group,
“Hey, gimme a second, I wanna see if that truck is working.”
Walking up to said truck, I find a walker in the driver's seat, slapping at the glass in an attempt to get to me. I get up to the door and open it, causing the walker to fall flat onto the concrete. Of course, this doesn’t kill the thing, but a quick stomp to the skull does.
[Walkers: 10/100]
[510p]
On the floorboard, I find the keys. On the keychain is the key to the truck, and a set of house keys. I decide to throw out the house keys because they will never serve any purpose at all. Putting the keys in the ignition, and giving them a turn, I hear the roar of the engine. Glen, Shane, and Daryl all come over to look at her. Glen smiles as he hears the engine roar. He speaks,
“Hah! That thing is a beast!”
I nod my head and say,
“Indeed she is! ALright, someone else can take the box truck! I’m gonna be rolling in this baby!”
I close the door and drive over onto the road with the group, watching as Amy and Andrea get out of the RV and into the box truck. I walk over to the box truck and speak to Clem,
“Alright, Clem, get your stuff! We got a cool new ride!”
She nods her head and grabs her little backpack and a bottle of water she had before getting out. As she goes to get into the new truck, I take a look at the front. It’s pretty wide. It reminds me a bit of a hummer mixed with one of those heavy duty industrial trucks. On the front I see a car company I’ve never heard of.
“International?”
On the side of the doors are the letters MXT. I hop in by Clem, and see her almost melting into the seats. Yeah, this thing is much more comfy than those awful seats in that box truck. Amy, Andrea, you have my condolences.
After that brief stop, we continue on our way for a little while before we stop at what used to be a family restaurant. The only other building around it is a house about half a mile away with a long driveway. Probably the owners. We decided to stop there and plan out our next idea.
We pull in and deal with the small amount of walkers outside, but find none inside.
[Walkers: 12/100]
[530p]
[STR +1]
Nice. Been a while since I got a stat point. We all sit around one of the tables in the center of the store, as Dale pulls out a big map surrounding Atlanta. Shane is the first to speak up,
“Alright. Since the CDC was a bust, I say our next goal should be fort Benning. At the very least, there will be walls to defend ourselves if the military isn’t there.”
I shake my head,
“No. If the military couldn’t defend the fort, there’s no way a group as small as ours could. But, I do like your idea of finding a place with walls. I’ve actually got my own ideas about a place we could go to. It’s safe, walled in, and likely to be pretty empty after everything that’s happened. Should have a nice, safe, open space to grow stuff as well.”
The group looks at me with confusion clear on their faces. I continue on, leading them a little bit,
“I thought about a lot of places we could use. A farmstead… That would be a no. We’ve all seen how the walkers tend to move in groups with one another. A few of us have seen how big these groups can get. Basically becoming herds. A single herd going through a farmstead would separate us as the best and kill all of us at the worst. But, it’s off the beaten path and we wouldn’t really have to worry all that much about people.”
I motion towards the map, pointing at all the different backroads,
“Another downside is actually its remoteness. Yes we could eventually get a garden going, but trying to keep fields protected from being trampled by walkers is basically impossible for now. We would need a lot more people to build a wall big enough, and even then the house wouldn’t be a good enough size for it.”
I point towards the ocean,
“By far the best place we could go would be an oil rig. We’d be completely safe from walkers, and any humans who wanna get on it would be spotted miles away. We’d be able to fish, and most oil rigs have desalination plants on them already meaning we’d have a near unlimited supply of water so long as we could keep it going. However, I dunno about you, but I have no earthly idea where an oil rig would be.”
I then motion back towards land.
“Now, what’s a place that has walls, beds, bathrooms, and a good open space for growing things?”
Everyone raises an eyebrow as I point towards something,
“West Georgia Correctional Facility.”
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End of Season 1
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I'll be taking a week off to build up more of a stockpile of chapters. When I come back, the upload schedule will be every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
