A big fire rages in LA as a riot goes down, a young boy runs through the crowd, walkers are taking chunks out of police, and rioters are causing anarchy, the boy is on the search for his family, he cannot seem to find them, his heart is beating loudly as he can't seem to hear his own cries for help, a man in a hood lunges at him, the man appears to be really sick, the boy screams and runs, he goes around people, he passes Salazar's barber shop, he passes by a white truck sitting around, he keeps running like he never has before. After a little while of running the boy comes across a gas station as it explodes, it sends him flying back and he passes out as he smacks into the concrete.
3 years later:
A horse trots slowly down an open road as a mysterious man wearing a hood and a mask sits there tiredly. He is searching for a place to finally rest, he had been on the road for a whole night, on the run from something big. He pets the horse a little bit and reaches into his bag to grab a few chopped up carrots out, he proceeds to feed the horse a little bit. He looks around and sees an old trade shop along the road, he pulls into it and gets off the horse. He tells the horse to stay as he grabs his machete out of it's spot on the horse, he walks around the corner slowly and he looks through the window on the garage, he sees a few corpses and 2 walkers.
He goes back to the front of the garage and looks for a way in, the front door was blocked off, he leads the horse to a small post and ties it to the post and gives it some water. The man sees an old, rusty ladder on the side and pulls a dumpster up to it, he climbs up to the roof of the building, and sees a big hole. He walks to it and looks down and sees a big metal shelf. He slowly climbs down and lands on the shelf, he then climbs off of the shelf while looking around for any danger. He walks over to the cash register and sees something on the ground, he leaves it and goes to the garage door. He takes a deep breath before opening the door, he finally does.
He enters it and shines his flashlight, he sees a walker come at him and he stabs it in the chest, he takes his knife to go for the head but the other walker grabs him. He struggles with two walkers, both on opposite ends of him, he then proceeds to knife one in the head, and as he falls, he pulls the machete out of the dead walker, mid air and the other walkers head lands on the blade. He sits for a bit to catch his breath, he then gathers his weapons and puts them away. He then goes to open the garage door, he gets the horse and then leads it into the garage. He pets it and closes the door slowly, he gives the horse some carrots and water and is startled when he hears a rattling sound in the other room.
He goes into the other room to investigate and sees nothing, he walks by the cash register and a walker grabs his foot, he struggles until a mysterious woman kills the walker and turns the series of connected lanterns on that act as lights. He holds his hands up, "Please don't shoot, I'm not here to hurt you, just looking for a place to stay... My name is... Well I prefer not to use it but you can call me Dex, it's a codename my friends used to give me for some reason..." The woman looks at him and notices how harmless he seems, she puts her gun down slowly, he puts his hands down, "The name's Sarah... Look I don't know who you are but you'll have to find another place to bunk tonight, I'm on a mission." Dex notices the saddened but worried look on her face, as if she was looking for someone. "What exactly are you looking for? I.. I can tell you're on the search for someone close, I know the look." She fights the growing tears and can't fight it back, she looks down at the cash register and puts her hands on the counter, she then looks at Dex and says, "It all started and ended fast, we were together... My brother and I and I lost him in the herd... Our home, it was a big community... It was attacked by some very bad people and... They're all gone and he was the only family left... I gotta find him before..." Dex sympathises with Sarah and replies after a moment of silence, "Look, I understand the pain and struggle... I lost my family when all this shit went down, I had to live with that after about 4 years of searching, it only gets worse at that stage... Your brother may be out there somewhere... but you gotta face the other possibilities."
Sarah looks at the ground and then says that she won't ever give up, Dex offers to help find him, she was debating on whether or not to allow him but then something happened and the horse was spooked. They looked outside the window to see some men outside, they were with the people who attacked Sarah's community. They look in the windows as Sarah cuts the lights, Dex looks at the horse and calls Sarah over, she sees what he sees and knows that the horse is the only way out of their situation. They go over to the horse slowly and Sarah stops them and opens the back garage door, Dex gets on the horse, Sarah climbs on the back, they have their bags and weapons, Dex rides out. They go slowly through the woods and are spotted quickly and are shot at by arrows. Dex takes off, Sarah holds on tight as they go through rough terrain.
The Road:
They are going super fast, the horse crushes a walker's skull and knocks another one down, they ride without looking back. They eventually leave the woods and go down the road for a bit longer and eventually Dex sees the big cloud of smoke off in the distance, Sarah looks at it, "That's it" Dex looks at it as well, "I'm sorry for what happened, I'll help you find your brother." Sarah jokingly says, "Well I mean we both are targets now and are stuck together for now at least..." They ride a bit down the road, they slowly ride, the sun gets lower and lower as they ride non stop, they pass an old mile marker with spray paint all over it, Sarah tells him to pull over to the side of the road, they stop by some trees. "They will be searching everything they come by as they search, as long as we stay quiet and hidden we should be able to sleep through the night. And search for him in the morning." Dex nods his heads and mentions that they could set up camp in a nearby town, there is a small church there that they could stay the night in. They ride slowly and as night rises they grow even more tired, and weaker, they eventually make it into town, Dex takes his flashlight and straps it to his bag and lets it light the way to safety.
They ride down the main road for a bit and eventually find the church, they park the horse just outside, they give it food, water and close the barn door and head into the church. Sarah begins to make a fire, Dex grabs some old cans of food he had, "Want some expired... Whatever the hell this is?" Sarah smiles a bit at that joke and takes a can, they begin to eat their food. Sarah hesitates a bit while she messes with her food a bit, "Ya know I was going to blow your head off back there at the old hideout... I'm glad I ended up sparing you... You seem like you truly care, hard to come across people like you these days." Dex looks at her and replies with, "Not gonna lie, I think I would have died if I never ran into you back there, those assholes woulda caught up with me and probably killed me..." Sarah smiles a tiny bit, this is the first time in a couple of days she truly was a bit happier, she has a small glimmer of hope at the moment. Dex yawns and stands up, "Don't know 'bout you but I'm tired as hell right now, goodnight..." Sarah looks down and then puts the fire out, she sits back and pulls an old family photo out of her pocket and looks at it, "I'll find you... just hang in there..." She puts it away and lies down right there and slowly closes her eyes...
Morning:
Sarah opens her eyes slowly to the voice of people outside, they don't sound too friendly since they were discussing how they were going to kill her and Dex. She gets up fast and packs her things and then packs Dex's bag and runs to him, she tosses it on him, "Come on Dex, we need to go now, they're here." Dex hears this and gets his bag on, they see them taking the horse, realizing that they can't retrieve the horse, they run on foot. They sneak out the back door and make a quiet run for it, they make it to an old cafe and enter it quickly, they jump through the broken window. They get down low behind the counter as a few people enter, "I cannot wait to teach these punks a lesson", another person replying, "Keep your cool, we have orders to kill 'em quick or take them alive, I'd rather take them alive so they can die slower back home." One person agreeing to that statement, Dex then says quietly to Sarah, "Gee they really are bad." Sarah then replies saying, "Yeah they are pretty bad people."
Dex sees a beer bottle and takes it, he hands it to Sarah who then rolls it at a wall, the people go to investigate. Dex and Sarah go around to get the jump on them, they use their knives to kill them quickly. Dex takes the key on one of them and mentions that the key could be useful, they leave the cafe quickly. They go to the back of the cafe and climb up the small hill and leave the place quickly. They keep running through the woods, they don't really give themselves the time to stop at all, they keep going non stop, they eventually pass a sign that leads into Georgia. They begin to slow down a bit, they keep moving for a bit longer until they reach a bunch of empty fields, they notice a farm off in the distance, or at least a sign that points to farmland, they figure that food could be waiting for them there. They walk for a few hours, non stop, they encounter a few walkers during their journey, eventually they come across a farm, it looks like a war passed through years prior.
The Farm:
They walk a little bit passed the broken fence, they see corpses, old ones everywhere they look, there's an old rv parked by the burnt down barn, it looks bad. They go past a tree with some graves by them, the crosses are very old so it's hard to make out who they were. The pair walk a bit and make it to the farm house, they pass by a small table on the inside, they keep walking for a bit longer, they see how there used to be a decent sized group there once, there was a small, broken, run down camp just outside. They walk into the kitchen and something catches Sarah's eye, she runs over and calls Dex over, "Oh my god..." she looks shocked and curious, Dex wonders what it was, she turns to him saying, "He's been here, my brother was here, this cloth was the exact same one I gave him so he wouldn't be hurt from the smoke... This is a one of a kind, it has his initials written on it..." Dex looks happy that they are on the right track, Sarah notices that it's been there for a while but they once again have hope that he is out there.
END