Chapter Text
5pm
In one swift silent move, you hit the walker's skull in front of you. His decomposed body drops on the ground with a faint noise. Already out of breath, you keep running, trying to ignore the shooting pain in your right knee. Aware of the noise you're making, you start slowing down, limping now, your black knife in one hand, the baton in the other one. A freezing wind is blowing leaves in your face and you start to miss summertime already.
Leaning forward, one hand on the tree next to you, you come to a stop and start checking your surroundings between heavy breaths. You finally stand back up, the adrenaline slowly fading away, letting the pain settle. You drop the baton and scroll the leg of your trousers up before glancing down at your knee. You gotta be kidding me ! Even though the pain you're feeling is bringing tears to your eyes, making you curse silently, there is nothing visible. No cuts, no bruises, not even a scratch ! Annoyed, you bite on your dry bottom lip and let out a shaky sigh. Well, good news..right ?
After being separated from your group a few days ago, you had found shelter in a small convenience store just by the road. It might not have been the perfect shelter, being so exposed and close to the road for everybody, the dead or alive, to find but..to be honest, it was the best you could manage at the moment. After all, it was the first time you ended up truly alone since the world fell apart. Anyway, that was before a herd of walkers decided to show up and forced you to flee your ''home''.
You let the leg of your trousers fall back down on your ankle before looking around you again. That's when it hits you. Fear. Of course, being scared is a daily matter nowadays, but this time it's different. You didn't realise that you hadn't processed the events of the past few days yet. You definitely do now. You close your eyes and lower your head slightly, taking a deep breath. It didn't hit you, that you were in fact all alone now. Nobody to watch your back. Nobody to lean on when everything seemed so hopeless. You knew you were skilled enough to defend yourself against walkers and fend for yourself, but you were not stupid either. A sudden gush of wind lifts your hood up and your hair brushes against your cheeks, covering your eyes. The trees wave their branches around you and you squeeze your eyes and lips tighter. You know the kind of people there is out here. Hell, you've even met some...
'It's ok,' you whisper to yourself in a shaky voice before opening your eyes again. You can do this.
You glance up and your throat tightens when you notice the dark and threatening clouds above your head. The sun is setting. Great.
You quickly shake your backpack off your shoulders and drop one knee on the crunching carpet of leaves, almost ripping the zipper of the bag in a panicky move. You feel a tear rolling down your cheek and you wipe it silently, while checking the content of your bag. Luckily, you have some valuable supplies in it : Water, a bit of food, an extra pair of trousers, a flashlight and three lighters. You bite on your lip again almost piercing through the fragile flesh and let out a choked sob. Your chest is tightening up so much, you feel like you're about to suffocate. Trying to ignore your emotional state, you get back up and rapidly position the handles back on your shoulders. Taking a break or deciding to sit there and completely fall apart is not an option right now. You have to keep going.
And then, you hear it. Although it shouldn't, the noise lights a spark of hope in your chest. An engine. It sounds so loud, suddenly your body freezes but your mind is going crazy. After evaluating your options in a matter of seconds, you rush towards the road, out of the woods.
'Hey !' You hear a male voice shout.
You immediately drop on your belly behind a big stump, as you're about to reach the edge of the forest. With a twist in your stomach, you press your face to the ground and you could swear your heartbeats are echoing through the trees. You wait.
'Don't push it, Davey,' the loud voice continues.
You hear a laugh and other voices talking but can't make out what they're saying. Your body slowly relaxes and you let out a silent breath you didn't know you were holding. Carefully this time, you take a quick peek from behind the dead tree. You can see two massive grey trucks on the other side of the road, one with the engine still running. A tall middle-aged man with an unnecessary big moustache and a receding hairline is standing by the passenger door, both his hands resting on his hips and his eyes scanning the sky above. Three other men are leaning against both vehicles, visibly on a break. You notice the rifles, propped against the truck, but your eyes almost instantly lock onto the sandwich one of the men is holding. It's got at least three layers of toppings in there ! Not fair... You seriously hope they can't hear your stomach growling from where they're standing.
'M'gonna take a piss, one sec.' You hear another voice stating over the noise of the engine.
You hide your head behind the stump and slowly rub your temples, both elbows digging in the dirty ground. When you heard the engine, you were hoping to run into a group of friendly survivors, like you had in the past. Well, you didn't have a lot of hope to come across someone friendly, but... Actually, you have no idea what you expected to find. Not them, anyway. They just seem like bad news to you and your gut feeling rarely fails you. The doors are slammed shut and you hear a truck driving away. The growing noise of heavy boots stepping on the concrete road towards your hiding spot suddenly startles you. No, no, no. Shit. You literally don't have the time to think of anything and you instinctively bury your face down into the ground and lay there, seemingly lifeless. Your clothes are old and dirty and you've got some dead leaves stuck in your wind-blown hair. Please let him think you're dead...
You feel like you're about to have a heart attack when you hear the footsteps stopping right by your frozen body. You hold your breath and you're on edge right now, your mind is all over the place. Your legs are begging you to get up and get the hell away from here as fast as you can, but your brain is forcing your body to stay still.
'What the...' the voice above you starts and you feel a sudden pain in your waist.
Without hesitation, you grab the stranger's ankle, that just started to flip your body over, and pull it upwards as hard as your muscles allow it. You hear the guy curse and fall loudly on the ground, but you are already on your feet, darting back towards the woods. You hear some angry masculine voices behind you, but you don't even try to take a look, you keep running. A few minutes later, you end up tripping on a large tree root popping out of the ground. You land on both knees and hands and let out a painful groan. Ready to see the group of men close behind you, you are surprised to see...well, nothing.
You crawl to a large tree on your right and rest your back against it as quietly as possible. Panting and wheezing, you grab your knees with shaky hands, and you notice some blood seeping through the fabric of your trousers, but it's the least of your concern. Where are they ? You try to calm down while reaching for the knife in your boots before holding onto it so tight the palm of your hand starts hurting. Not that it's gonna be of any use against guns...
You wait for several minutes, but you can't hear a noise, except for the trees and the occasional birds tweeting above you. You wipe your dirty and runny nose and get your hair off your face. You freeze suddenly and stop halfway, bringing your hand to your mouth. You can't mistaken the sudden crunching noise echoing not that far behind the tree where you're hidden. Your heart skips a beat and you put your hood on, like it's going to protect you somehow. You don't even dare taking a quick look behind the tree, holding the knife tighter. Maybe, they are friendly..maybe... You hold onto that thought and slowly raise your hand with the knife to the man who just appeared next to you. The truth is, you're so scared, you're actually staring at his trousers and you can't even look at his face. You don't miss to notice the handgun he's holding nonetheless.
As soon as he sees you, he lowers his gun and you hear a deep sigh, followed by a laugh.
'I got ice cream back in the truck, all you have to do is follow me !'
You can hear the smile in his voice. Yeah, so funny, asshole..
'My...' the stranger pauses before letting out a long and clear whistle.
You lift your head to finally meet his eyes and you recognise the man with the moustache from earlier. You don't move a muscle but narrow your eyes when you see the wide grin across his face. You feel like a trapped animal when he comes closer to you and leans forward to get a better look at your face.
'Look I...' you start with a shaky voice, before attempting to swallow the big lump forming in your throat, 'I'm sorry. I-I don't want any...trouble, you know.'
The man raises his eyebrows and strokes his moustache, still displaying the same irritating grin.
'It is you,' he says next, emphasizing the word, while nodding his head.
You open your mouth and close it again, not sure what he means by that. You hold his gaze, one hand on the handle of your backpack, the other one still holding the knife towards him. He tilts his head to the side, furrowing his brows, the smile slowly disappearing from his face.
'Angel..' he says in a low voice, slowly reaching for your hood, 'Almost didn't recognise you with all that shit on your face !'
You wince when he gets the hood off your head and you look up at him, confused. Huh ?
'Wha-...'
'Don't remember me, do you ?' the stranger interrupts you, reading your facial expression.
Before you have the chance to say anything, he stands back up and lifts his dark grey shirt to reveal his lower belly. What in the holy shit is going on ?! Why do you always attract the creepy ones... You lower your arm holding the knife and notice the scar he's showing you. Bullet wound. You nervously wipe your nose with the back of your hand.
'You did that !' he announces, pointing at you with his gun, smiling again, 'And I know a certain someone who would kill to see your pretty face again...'
Wait.. what ?
'I-I don't get...' you stutter shaking your head and trying to let the words out of your mouth, 'I..don't understand what...'
Before you get to finish your sentence, you hear a loud explosion in the distance, that makes your heart jump up in your chest. The man lets out an angry ''fuck'' and lets go of his shirt, looking back towards the woods before giving you a quick glance. He points a threatening finger at you and starts walking backwards, still looking at you with a stern face and raised eyebrows.
'Don't you go anywhere !' he orders finally, before pacing back to where he came from.
In utter confusion, you slowly get back on your feet, still shaking. What just happened ? In a matter of seconds, you're alone again, alert. And it's getting dark. Not that you had any intention on sticking around and wait for the man, anyway. With one last look behind your back, you leave the spot where you had the weird encounter and decide to look for shelter. Fast. In a few moments, you won't even be able to see in front of you.
After ten minutes of light jogging, you finally reach the other edge of the woods and end up on a small concrete road. In the distance, you can see a few grey scruffy buildings. You're not exactly thrilled to have to clear a house or shop at this time and spend the night there, as you tend to avoid areas like this one, but you're definitely running out of choices.
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1am
You wipe the tears with the back of your sleeve and swallow a mouthful of water before putting the lid back on the small bottle. You let the sound of the heavy rain outside lull you and your head rests against the dirty wall right under the window. You've spent the whole evening looking out for any signs of vehicles or roamers, but nothing have caught your attention since you've entered the building, though you still feel on edge and you can't keep the tears from rolling messily along your cheeks and neck, getting lost in the collar of your sweater. Sniffling and sobbing, you start banging lightly the back of your head against the hard and cold wall and squeeze your swollen eyes shut.
You keep hitting the walker in front of you with all the strength you have left, but you hear so many growls around you, you panic and start backing up. There are everywhere. You spot Keith and Hanna on the other side of the road, waving and shouting words you don't understand. You want to join them. You want to run away with them. Though you know it's too late, you can't reach them anymore. You beg them to leave and run. So they do. And so do you, only you have to run off the opposite direction...
You open your glassy eyes and try to chase the vivid memory away from your mind. When the infection started spreading, after losing your family and friends, you ended up with a small group of people and made plans to try and find some help. You quickly realised, everything was gone and the dead had already taken over, so you all stuck together. It was tough, but together you were stronger, you had hope, somehow, for the future. Hanna and Keith were the closest people you had in the group and though you only knew them for less than a year at the time, you all felt like family. No such thing as an apocalypse to create strong bonds... A few days before you lost them, your group found these railroad tracks leading to a place called 'Terminus' and by mutual agreement you decided to head to this place. You never made it though and couldn't even find the damn place now if you wanted to. You only hoped they all reached the destination safely...
You sigh deeply and stand back up, your legs shaking with exhaustion and pain. Ugh. Your whole body aches and you lean on the window side, leaving dark and dusty stains on the palms of your hands. You gasp when you see a RV sitting right in the middle of the road, lights off. You took shelter on the second floor of a completely empty building, so nobody would see you from the vehicle but you still duck instinctively. The rain is falling so heavily, you haven't even heard the damn vehicle and you really wish you could just turn it off for a few seconds, so you could actually hear what's going on outside. You decide to take another look and this time you see two people, a man and a woman, outside of the RV, apparently in a middle of a heated conversation.
'Their vehicle must have broken down,' you whisper to yourself.
Next thing you see is the door of the vehicle being slammed open and a tall man makes his exit, followed by another one. They both got a rifle in their hands and you curse them mentally. Ugh, everybody's got guns... Did you miss a free handout or something !?
Annoyance is quickly replaced by fear once you realise they're heading towards your building.
'Am I a trouble magnet or what ?' you let out in frustration.
You quickly reach for your baton and limp to the other side of the room before crouching painfully, waiting. No point in trying to hide, there's no furniture, nothing. And even if you could go back out without being noticed, which is clearly impossible, you're not going back out in the middle of the night. No way. They might not even bother coming upstairs when they notice the place is totally empty. Your hope is instantly crushed by a loud banging and the heavy door flies open. A ginger guy steps in and aims directly at you, the other one entering the room with a few worried steps.
'I-I ain't got nothing,' you plead straight away, holding up both arms and giving them your fake terrified look.
The man aiming at you eyes you for a minute in complete silence and you wonder if he's actually considering shooting you right there and then. He glances at your backpack and your coat lying on the floor, your bed for the night, and locks his eyes back on you.
'Be quiet, alright,' he warns, before giving a small headshake towards the door.
You let your arms fall instantly, with a quick nod as you see a man carrying a distressed looking woman staggering in the room before settling in the other corner. She looks nauseous, very weak and you spot the drops of sweat forming all around her pale face. You count another three people coming in quietly, settling on the floor. The bearded guy who was carrying her, now faces your corner and crouches in front of you.
'What's your name ?' he asks in a low husky voice.
'Lana,' I answer quietly, letting the baton rest on the floor. Yep, today you're Lana.
'Name's Rick.' The man nods his head a few times. 'We won't bother you, if you do the same.'
'Sounds fair,' you let out in a low voice before getting up and walking back to your backpack, by the window.
The rest of the night flies away, you actually end up talking to a few of these people and, to you, they seem genuine. You surprisingly get a good 4 hour straight sleep next to that group of seven strangers. That makes total sense...
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6am
Luckily, the next morning their RV is up and running again and they head to their vehicle, while you're adjusting your backpack, walking slowly along the road. Thankfully, the rain has stopped a few hours ago and you might not end up wet at the end of the day. Well...except for the shoes. You can feel your socks getting soaked already and it seriously pisses you off, as you had managed to keep dry socks for a reasonable amount of time now.
'Lana !' You hear a voice call after you and you turn on your heels, still walking backwards before stopping completely.
Rick catches up with you and rests a hand on his hip, looking away in the distance before letting a deep sigh escape his lips. His piercing blue eyes come back to yours and his features seem to soften a bit.
'You can tag along if you want,' he starts while tilting his head to the side, 'The Hilltop. They could use you.'
You sigh deeply as well and shift awkwardly on your feet, staring into space, while considering your options. Is it a good idea ? Maybe not. They could be trouble. Do you really want to be alone, though ? Safety in numbers and all this crap...
'Ok then.' You shrug your shoulders with a shy smile, unknowingly sealing your fate.