Chapter Text
Boom.
Smoke filled the entire area as the bomb hit all around the direction of the so-called sanctuary killing more than half of the survivors – men, women, old and young.
There were no warnings, only the sound of the air piercing through the wind before all hell went loose.
Before anyone could rationalize what happened it was already too late, screams pierced through the air once again as bombs started dropping one by one killing all people without mercy.
"KYAAA!!!"
"MOM, MO--!!"
"Please no, God please...!"
People died different deaths that time whether they died from the trampling of their own kind, or used as a meat shield of the surging hoards of monsters.
Dante Ramirez was one of the survivors who survived because of his advantage of speed and took off the moment he saw the bomb bay appeared.
He ran.
Gripping all his equipment, no thoughts came as pure survival instinct kicked in and he was right, the moment he looked back, the image would make him forever scarred every time he would close his eyes.
The sanctuary that held many people's hope for survival were lost in just a few minutes. The scent of burning vehicles were painfully clear, with the sound of tearing of flesh accompanied with the sounds of scream and despair froze him at the spot.
Guilt gripped him as he watched, if he had just shouted and warned them maybe – just maybe – it could have saved a lot more civilians.
But no, realistically, it was impossible for one person to convince hundreds of strangers with limited time given.
Huff! Huff! Huff!
He stayed there for a while to recover some of his strength before he turned back.
After walking for a while he encountered some monsters along the way and pushed the dagger to their foreheads to end their misery as a starving animal that preyed on their kind.
He managed to collect some necessities from pockets of the monsters like; cigarettes, lighter, medications, and mini flashlights.
For a moment he stayed crouched down beside a monster, holding its wallet that still had a picture of its daughter.
Until he snapped when he heard a yell coming in his direction.
"Lori! Carl! Where are you?", Hearing a voice he came face to face with a man similarly built like him pointing a gun at him until he realized it was another survivor.
"Whoa, Whoa! Put the gun down man. Put the gun down. I'm just a survivor, I don't mean any harm." Startled by the weapon on his face, Dante held his arm on the air hastily.
"Damn! –Shit, I thought you were one of them," The man lowered his gun swiftly but his body betrayed him—tense and guarded.
Lowering his arm, Dante slowly backing away from the psycho, afraid he would point the gun at him again.
Planning to run at the opposite direction to avoid being "accidentally" shot by a certain aggressive man when he heard a question thrown at him.
"Did you see a woman and a kid walking past this area? Brown hair, little guy's named Carl, she's Lori's –I–I lost 'em."
"Sorry dude but aside from you, I didn't find anyone other than you." Dante felt sorry for the man, already knowing what would happen if you split off with your group, either you die, captured, or eaten by monsters.
The man was clearly in a state of desperation, too busy looking left and right mumbling to himself, " I shouldn't have decided to split off. I should have stayed with them...what would Rick think, I abandoned them"
"Hey, hey–breathe for a moment man," Dante didn't want to participate in this weird 'kind man helping one another situation' like the apocalypse never happened.
He wanted to leave but leaving another man who is currently trying to find his family is also another type of low kind of morality as a human being.
"Where did you last see them? At the Grocery store? At the hardware store? Hey man! Get a fucking grip at yourself!" Dante was slowly losing his patience and the man in question started hyperventilating, "I–I don't know! I don't fucking know alright."
That 's when Dante noticed the breathing pattern of the person right in front started to become faster, the way his chest rose too fast and his left hand twitching then folded into a fist while the other continued to grip the gun in an unhealthy grip.
"I shouldn't have left them, I should have continued staying with them," the sentence poured out of his mouth as he stared unfocused straight at Dante like he was talking to someone else.
Dante knew yelling wouldn't be enough to bring someone back from where their mind had gone.
If he wanted to reach him, he had to get closer — physically, emotionally — without sparking more fear. So he moved slowly, carefully, his body language open, unthreatening. Step by step, he approached the trembling figure.
"Hey, you're hyperventilating, you need to calm down and control you breath." Dante said gently, voice steady. But it was no use, instead it was becoming more faster and he knew he needed to move before the man suffocate himself in front of him.
"Is it okay if I touch you? I'm going to touch you now."
He gave him a moment then proceeded to reach his hand out, placing a firm but careful touch on the man's shoulder.
From there, he let it slide slowly up to his face, grounding him, offering something real to hold onto.
"Stay with me now, It's not your fault. You didn't know this was going to happen, you couldn't know. But we're going to find them." Dante was cautious, he wasn't stupid that he couldn't see the gun resting at the man's hand and just one wrong move and he can say bye-bye to mother earth.
"It's safe for now. You're not alone, I'm here," Dante continued the words of comfort letting his fingers rub the man's face to create some sort of sensation that can bring back the man's senses. "You need to take a deep breath—that's right, Inhale—exhale, good, good. You did a great job."
The man's breathing was still sharp but his irregular heartbeat was slowly starting to calm down while Dante's hands were held by other hands as a sort of lifeline and he let him.
"Breath with me one more time, ok. Inhale—exhale...in...out, you're doing great buddy. Stay with me now," Like a pattern, they continued to stay there doing breathing exercises until finally the man slowly loosened his grip on his arms and looked at him.
"You didn't fail them. I know that's what you're thinking, but you didn't. You're still here. That matters."
He kept his hand steady, his voice soft. No judgment. No rush. Just presence.
"And I'm not leaving. So take your time."
Dante was quite amazed with how many hours they stayed there out in the open, no monster came, not even a shadow or a voice that emphasized that they were there. Waiting, watching, hunting.
As he saw the man come back, Dante slipped his finger out of the man's space and stepped back, warily eyeing the gun that was still out of its holster. But he didn't blame the man, after all in every area they are all there.
"You okay?" Dante asked,
"I'm fine." Is the reply he received.
He watched the man take a grip of himself and exhaled.
"Do you know any other area that is connected to Freedom park? We got separated there when the bomb exploded. We got surrounded by walkers, man and I—I told them to go while I grabbed those monsters' attention but when I looked back, I couldn't see them anymore."
Oh...
Dante now gets why the man was so paranoid, he must also be one of the witnesses who saw the government bombed Atlanta. Adding the problem where he lost his family, it must have been agonizing.
But, "Walkers?" Dante questioned.
"It's what -you know- the monsters. To avoid some discrepancies of acknowledging it as something we can't kill."
Hmmm, the title fits perfectly.
"For the freedom park, the entrance and exit is one-way for visitors but there is a route tucked out of sight where workers bypass the crowds and head straight to their post without any interruption." Dante replied.
"You know!? Can you lead me there?" The man's face was filled with hope again but something seemed to cross his mind as he stepped back and ran his fingers through his hair, "Umm, Can you just describe how to get there and what I need to know before I will go."
The change of words caught Dante off guard, he thought with that desperation he would subconsciously ignore his safety and get on with it. It seems he still has morality left and that made him feel a sort of relief.
"Yeah, I can take you there."
"Thanks, Do you have a map I can bor—What!?" It was amusing when the man comprehended his words and stared at him in disbelief.
"I'll go with you," Dante repeated, "You don't know your way there and you can easily get lost while it's different for me, I was hired months ago at that place so I know it like at the back of my hand."
"Do you even know me? You could get killed for heaven's sake! I'm already enough as it is," The man yelled, "I don't have enough ammo to save you if you get attacked nor have the energy to protect you."
"That's fine, I'm strong. I may not look like it but I can fight." Dante grinned at him as he started his warm up exercise by stretching his arm out.
"From the looks of it, we're close to our destination."
"We!? -- won't you give a little more time to think it through, this is a life and death situation." He seemed glad but worried about some possibilities.
"I already did." Dante responded.
"What? Since when." The man frowned, clearly confused, his mouth parting to argue but Dante cut him off.
" When I held you."
"...!?"
That seemed to make the man remember and he groaned in frustration.
"It was just a damn promise to snap me back to reality—don't need to take responsibility!" Maybe because of anger or shame, his face was beet red.
"I'm not doing this because of some promise," Dante's voice softened, "I will do this because I want to. Your friend's family is out there—surviving, waiting for you to get them and you know damn well, you need more eyes to locate them."
Dante didn't owe the man anything. He could just walk away after he had saved the man from killing himself and told the man the information he needed but the word named Carl, the desperation of the stranger just hit him straight to his gut.
He remembered Atlanta.
He remembered the screams, the bomb, the bodies trampled again and again.
And he remembered running how he ran, bumping shoulders to shoulders. He remembered the realization of what would happen.
He ran,
Fast and alone.
He didn't have the time to warn them as death doomed all the people in the place. Didn't give them a chance to move. The screams haunted him ever since he left the sanctuary.
He remembered someone grabbing his sleeve—some woman with a child screaming for help—but he shook her off. He told himself there was no time. The bombs were coming, and he had to live. So he ran. He never looked back.
And looking at the man in front of him, maybe it was a chance, a fate to do what he got the chance to do. To do what he couldn't back then. Then maybe, he would be set free and be redeemed.
After a brief pause the man spoke, "Shane...Shane Walsh. A deputy sheriff in Georgia and thank you."
"Call me, Dan." Dante didn't want to start the introductions to avoid remembering names if something happens but it would be too weird to just stay unknown when someone offered their names.
"And your welcome," It's also for my sake.
They didn't do handshakes, it's just exchanging names. Whether they come out alive and well will be measured by Lady Luck herself (Amen!), they just need to stay quiet and not alert all the monsters.
Groan! Groan!
And speak of the devil, they shall appear.
"Let's go!" Dante took the lead, Shane right behind him.
Bang!
Dante stiffened, still traumatized by the sound of the bomb. He looked back and saw Shane holding the gun, killing the monster.
"Are you crazy!? The sound will make us the living target of the monster around us!" Dante yelled at Shane, frustrated by the look of confusion plastered on his face.
"Sounds attract them, maybe not just sounds but also smell." He informed, running past some monsters and putting the dagger on their forehead when they got too close. "So, don't use them unless necessary, they're slow but they can be deadly if they form groups."
"How did you know this? Were you able to learn this from the army?" After Dante's words he put the gun on his holster and took his knife out and drove it inside their skull.
"Yeah, imagine my shock when they told me of their experience of how they learned it from their mistakes." Dante replied and heard a sharp inhale on his side and just realized what he said.
"Oh, sorry man." He apologized before swiftly taking a turn to an alley, groans of voice following them at the back—attracted to the gun that echoed minutes ago.
"You're fine, it was my fault in the first place. I didn't observe enough and that made those fuckers find us." Shane replied, replacing his gun to a dagger and burying the weapon straight into the monster's eyes before running past it to avoid being swarmed.
"Fuck, I shouldn't have shot at that monster and now they are all around us. And why are we going to an alley? What if it's a dead end?"
Dante pulled his dagger out and dodged a tackle from the monster before kicking it to the stomach, making it serve as a cushion to slow the monsters behind for a while.
"There's a ladder used for fire escape for people who would be stuck in the building." Dante said and started grinning when he saw the steps.
"Let's go!" Dante being the one who was the closest, took the lead in climbing the ladder.
After enough steps, he took out his gun and proceeded shooting the monsters that were close to Shane, providing him enough time to start climbing.
Upon finishing the last climb, he turned back to stretch out his arm to Shane and grabbed it to haul him up.
Leaving all the monster down there, groaning at the lost of flesh meat.
________To Be Death and Near🧟🌺_____
"Ughh! This is the worst encounter I have ever had." Dante layed there from the floor and Shane sat down beside him, panting.
"Nah, I had the worst encounter with monster surrounding me in all directions. Packing all around me like I'm some rare animal that escaped at the zoo." Surprisingly, Shane retorted back with a smile.
"What the hell man, hahaha," Dante, caught off guard by the joke, laughed together with Shane. Tension melting away after having escaped the jaws of the monsters.
After a few dozen breaths, Dante sat up and rummaged through his bag, taking out a bottle of water and tossing it to Shane and grabbed another to drink it.
He gulped all the liquid, finishing it all up and tossed the empty container into the floor. He turned his head to look at Shane and saw him staring at the water bottle.
"Aren't you going to drink that? It had been a long run from running away from the monsters." Dante raised an eyebrow at him in puzzlement.
"Why would you give this to me? I don't have anything to exchange." Shane looked him dead in the eyes, focusing to find any type of emotion that would make him refuse.
"You don't have to." Dante said, "Also another to give to you can lighten the weight of my bag so you are actually doing me a favor." He continued, giving the canned meat in Shane's direction.
"Besides, in Freedom park, there should still be a lot of food available to be ransacked, so eat and gain strength, I need another manpower to carry all that." He smiled at that thought and started taking out half of his ration then dividing it again for the other man.
All that was left was a pack of cookies, protein bars, MRE's, nuts, jerky, and a few bottled water. After taking half the ration, he felt a lot lighter.
"...Thanks, I owe you one." Shane thanked him before opening the can and started feasting on all the food since he had no bag available and the only way is to eat it all up. Shane had the suspicion that Dante intentionally handed the most heavier cans with calories.
He didn't say anything, but the thought gnawed at him as he shoved the beans into his mouth. It was a kind of kindness that didn't belong in this world anymore—not without a cost.
He glanced up at Dante, who was quietly scanning the horizon, blade in hand, as if expecting trouble.
"You didn't have to give me the good stuff, y'know," Shane muttered between mouthfuls, voice rough but honest.
Dante didn't look back. "I know."
That made it worse somehow. Like the guy wasn't just trying to help—he was trying to make peace with something. Or someone.
"We will look for them first thing in the morning." Dante said, staring at the sun going down.
"Why not now!? I can still move—" Shane asked, panicking at the thought of Loiri and Carl having to stay the night outside, together with those monsters.
He tried to negotiate but he got interrupted by Dante, "--But you can't see in the dark, you have to know these monsters don't need light to see you at all. Just your scent and movements alone can attract all of them immediately. I can feel your desperation but you have to understand that it will not benefit us if we venture at night, especially when we need to conserve energy in the morning."
"They are everywhere Shane, the monsters. And you know that, and because of that it will only make us paranoid on what could appear on the other side of the road at night and we don't know if we accidentally shoot someone and it ends up being them due to fear." Dante explained, holding his hand up to continue,
"She's a mother, Shane. Have some trust she will do anything to survive together with her kid, especially when she survived until now so she will still survive tomorrow."
"I don't know, you don't know that man. They're out there surviving and I'm right here eating and risk-free! I need to go now, I—!" Before Shane could get up, Dante walked towards him, took the spoon filled with food and shoved it into his mouth.
Startled, he staggered backwards and fell flat on his back due to recoil. Shane grabbed the utensil out of his mouth and before he could stand up and yell, a weight fell unto him and straddled him. Knees secured his arm disabling his ability to move.
"What th—" Shane looked pissed, before he could curse the one on top of him, the spoon once again was on his throat.
"Before you go and get yourself killed, eat first and after you finish it all up -- go die. Die screaming in agony as monsters rip out the flesh out of your skin one by one as you get swarmed in all directions, taking a piece and you feel it every single second of your consciousness and remember as you get eaten, the faces of the ones you want to find." Dante stared at Shane with such intensity as he hovered over the man under him.
"Helplessly waiting for you to find them and as days pass by they are found by other survivors, played with, taking turns one by one. The government betrayed us, the law is ruined. This is now the era where people reveal their true faces, their dark depravity and their desires." Dante coldly watched the person under the choking of the food.
"Do you want that Shane? Because of your impulsiveness you caused another death of your friend's loved one." He mocked, sneering at Shane at his helpless figure squirming in his grip. "Look, you can't even escape at my grasp and you still want to find them? Maybe just let them get eaten and hope in the afterlife there is no apocalypse in their next life."
"You fucking bastard!!"
Dante was punched and sent flying to the side, loosening his grip to Shane and soon enough he was hovered by Shane putting the same position he did back then.
"How dare you! How dare you decide their life for that. I did not choose to abandon my brother after I chose his family who had still had the chance to survive and just for them to die in the streets." Shane yelled, holding his collar and dragged him close.
"I know the risk but I can't control myself going out there to find them as soon as possible and see if they are still safe. You feel my desperation but you can't understand what I'm feeling at all right now. It's all jumbled, all I know is that I can sacrifice my life for them or sacrifice another one for their safety but I know if I got attacked, there will be no one to protect them here on out and I don't even know where they are at all, whether they are safe, whether they have eaten, or hell even if they are alive right now!" Dante watched the man breakdown on top of him, his tears falling down on his face and some falling on his lips.
He let the man cry and raised his hands that were unbounded to grab Shane's head and let it lay on his chest.
"I'm sorry...I should have never said that." Date felt guilty of letting his emotion got the better of him and started comforting the man.
"It's okay, It's fine—let it all out. We will find them as soon as the sun rises and after that we will see them safe and sound, and you will get your reunion you deserve." Dante comforted the trembling individual on his chest. "Just sleep for a while and after I wake you up, we will start to move."
"So sleep, and after you wake up, it's another day." Dante ran his hands through Shane's hair and combed it up and down, feeling the man's tension slowly melted away and soon enough he was asleep.
And at midnight, he was the only one left awake.