wildest dreams ━ rick grimes × male!oc

chapter four:

ƇӇƛƤƬЄƦ ƑƠƲƦ: i make (no) promises, make same mistakes again (for you)

Somewhere on the road from King Country to Atlanta, Rick's patrol car runs out of gas. To be fair, it's been a long ride and he'd expected it to happen, but not whilst he was still out in the open. He's an easy target like this, all alone and still injured.

He grabs an empty petrol can from the back of his car and starts walking up the bare road. Rick's hoping to find a car left behind with some gas he can syphon, or maybe even a station to take from.

It's not too long before he does find a gas station, but the sign at the front reads a clear, NO GAS. Sighing, Rick eyes the few cars parked haphazardly around him. There's a dead body in one of them, rotting with flies buzzing around it. Another car has all its windows smashed and whatever belongings were once inside are long gone now. Rick starts syphoning the cars one by one, finding himself lucky when he gets almost a gallon of gas. It's not much, but it'll get him a few more miles closer to Atlanta.

Searching the area for anything else that might be useful to him, Rick starts checking underneath cars and inside the trunks. He finds a packet of sealed gummy bears, spearmint gum and not much else. Rick pockets both the gummy bears and the gum for later, he'll give them to his pup when he finds him.

Giving the area around him one more glance, Rick turns to leave only to come into contact with a little girl. She's blonde and almost green-skinned. Her pale blue eyes are dotted with red marks and the area around her mouth has rotted, showing off the bright, cherry red blood underneath it. The little girl doesn't pay attention to him first, merely lowers herself to the ground to pick up her dirty stuffed toy. After she has it settled in her arms, she raises her head to look at Rick and opens her bloody mouth to growl at him.

Rick grabs his petrol can and gets away from the gas station as fast as he can. He's not in the mood to kill a child walker.

It's not long before he's back out on the road, driving towards Atlanta. A road sign ahead tells him he's close, so Rick picks up the patrol walkie and turns it on in hopes of getting into contact with someone. It buzzes to life and Rick speaks into it. "Broadcasting on emergency channel. Will be approaching Atlanta on highway eighty-five. Anybody reads, please respond."

He waits a few seconds and when he gets no response, Rick tries again. After the third unsuccessful attempt at reaching someone, Rick turns the walkie off.

He glances at his metre and sighs when he finds it blinking red at him. Slowing to a stop, Rick spots an old farmhouse just up ahead. Deciding to give it a chance for some gas, Rick grabs his things. He even takes the family photo he has tucked into the sun visor above the steering wheel. For a moment, he gazes at Lori's smiling face and then he tears her out of the picture and throws her somewhere behind him.

He tucks the picture of him and his pup into the inside breast pocket of his jacket and walks towards the farmhouse.

"Hello!" He calls out, dropping his bags to the ground. "Police officer out here," he says, walking towards the door, "can I borrow some gas?"

There's no answer to his question. Rick scents the air. It's acid-like and smells foul. He wrinkles his nose and looks through one of the windows only to find two dead bodies being eaten by flies and a message painted in blood on the wall; GOD FORGIVE US, it says.

That explains the smell, Rick frowns, moving away from the window and the house altogether. He takes a seat out in the front garden on what used to be an old fountain. Taking his stenson off, Rick runs a hand through his hair and thinks over his options.

Walking the rest of the way to Atlanta is dangerous and foolish. There's also no way Rick will make it there before nightfall, not without a car at least. Sighing, the alpha glances to his right and spots an old, auburn pick up. It's rusty and has seen better days. Rick hurries towards it and checks for keys and gas, only to find neither.