The Gas Station

“Let’s check out the gas station.” I said, eyeing the smoke that hung in the air. “Maybe we can find something that’ll explain what happened…”

Daryl nodded and swung his crossbow over his shoulder.

“Alright, Andrea and I will take the building then.” Rick turned his back and he and Andrea made their way into it. Daryl and I faced the burning gas station. I took a deep breath and started forward, but he held me back.

“We shouldn’t get too close. We have no idea if it’ll explode again. Let’s just take a look around the place.”

I gave a half smile, thankful that he was looking out for both of us. We began to walk the perimeter of the burning building. The gas tanks were burning strong, giving a hefty smell of not only gasoline, but rotting flesh. Did that mean that walkers had been around here the time it exploded?

The corner store that connected to the gas station had also caught fire. It had been burning for so long, I could see through the walls. Everything in the store was black with ash, obviously not any good to go in and salvage anything. As we surveyed the scene in front of us, I noticed a couple of cars surrounding the gas station. They, too had been on fire, but they had all burned out. I walked up to what was once a blue Cadillac and peered in.

Everything was charred and black; there wasn’t any sign that there had been living people in here when the explosion happened. I examined the other cars that I could; each held nothing but blackened rubble and some roasted car seats. I ruled out that anyone in the cars had started the fire. I was really beginning to think that there were people in the building across from this. It was the only thing that made sense.

Daryl and I continued our walk around the place, the only sound being the crackling of the fire. But then… a faint moaning from behind the store caught our attention. We slowly and carefully peered around the edge of the building and horror struck us.

“Found ‘em.” I muttered.

Walkers crowded behind the store stumbling around each other. I figured this was definitely where all the undead that attacked the house had come to. Daryl and I tried to back away from the scene without being noticed ,but it was too late. One of them had spotted us and caught the attention of the walkers behind them. Soon, the whole crowd had noticed there was fresh meat for them and they all came charging after us.

“Run!!!” Daryl shouted the obvious and we dashed from the gas station up to the building across the street.

The walkers were now coming from in between the buildings and behind the gas station.

“Hurry, in here!!!” Daryl ripped open the door to the office building Andrea and Rick had gone into and pushed me inside.

He threw himself in after me and pulled the door shut right as the first of the undead slammed up against it. He noticed the lock next to it and twisted it.

“Shit!” he cursed as they continued throwing themselves against the door, desperately trying to get in.

I quickly looked around us; we were in a huge lobby. Couches and chairs lined the walls around the room and a desk sat in the middle of it all. Of course, it was empty, but I supposed since Andrea and Rick had gone in here that if there were any walkers they had taken care of them. I noticed a bank of elevators behind some of the couches and next to them was a door that led to the stairs.

“C’mon! Let’s go upstairs to the roof. Maybe Andrea and Rick made it up there!” I pulled Daryl from the door and we raced to the stairs entry way.

The stairwell was dark and cold. I looked up and saw that there were at least fifteen floors until the roof. I groaned, but knew that it was either rush up the stairs and be uncomfortable for a few minutes; or stay down here and get eaten by the undead. I chose the more intelligent decision.

Daryl and I ran up the stairs two at time. We were around the twelfth floor when we heard the door to the lobby slam open and the sound of growls and hissing filled up the corridor.

Daryl cursed again and we began to skip three stairs at a time as fast as we could. The walkers weren’t walking anymore; they were bounding up the stairs and tripping over each other. The roof was close now… we’d get there in only a matter of seconds...

“Daryl! Lin! Come on!!!” I heard Rick shout from the top.

I glanced up and saw him and Andrea with the door to the roof open. Daryl and I got closer and closer, the walkers only a few floors below us. Then finally, we burst out onto the roof and Rick slammed the metal door shut. He quickly padlocked it. As soon as he locked it the walkers hurled themselves into it. They beat and pounded on the door, opening it only enough to get their rotting fingers through.

“Holy—shit. That—was—close…” I said between heavy breaths.

Daryl had his hands on his knees and was breathing heavily as well.

“Well, I guess we found out why the town seemed so deserted.” Andrea said.

“We got up here a couple of minutes before you did; it wasn't securely locked. All we had to do was push hard enough and it broke open. This was blocking it.” Rick pointed to a pile of rubble; some metal tubing and pieces of wood.

“That means somebody’s up here…” Andrea added.

“Damn straight somebody’s up here.” We heard a rough southern accent approach us through the loud bangs and growls.

We all turned to see who it was. A tall man stood there, but he looked badly beat up. His face was dirty and scruffy, his clothes ripped and muddy, but the first thing I really noticed was that he was missing his right hand.

“M—Merle?” Daryl said in disbelief.

“Good to see yah, Daryl.” Merle laughed gruffly, “Happy to see your big brother?”

Continued...