Interstate 85

Highway 85 is the primary route used by Rick Grimes to reach the city of Atlanta in Georgia.

After receiving care from Morgan Jones and his son Duane back in Cynthiana, Kentucky, Rick takes a police cruiser from the King County Sheriff Department and leaves the undead town, heading for Atlanta.

While driving along the highway, Rick is low on gasoline. He stops at the Highway 85 and Palmetto Highway traffic intersection, where a couple of abandoned vehicles, some overturned and burned, lay in ruins. Descending down a hill, Rick reaches a makeshift camp consisting of tents and a hundred of cars. Children's toys, clothes, lawn chairs, luggage and other supplies litter the campground, along with a couple of decaying motorists in their vehicles.

Making his way through the maze of cars, Rick reaches the gas station, only to find a sign labeled "NO GAS". He hears a shuffling noise and watches from under a car a child pick up a teddy bear. Thinking he has found a survivor, he rushes out and calls out to the blonde girl in a robe, identifying himself. The girl stops walking and turns around to reveal a partially eaten face and bloodstained chest. She lunges at Rick, leaving him no choice to shoot the undead girl.

After completely running out of fuel on the road, he takes out a gas can and looks for more gasoline. He reaches a house along the road. He shouts out to the house, asking for gas. With no response, he peers in the windows to find a murder-suicide scenario: the farmer had shot his wife with a shot gun, wrote "GOD FORGIVE US" on the wall in blood, before committing suicide himself. Disturbed, Rick retreats, but finds a horse nearby on the pasture. Saddling up on the horse, they ride towards the city of Atlanta.