Chapter Text
Shauna walks slowly through the woods, her feet light on the ground to prevent any unnecessary noise. Jackie trails a couple steps behind her, dragging her feet as she hobbles along. She grunts every few seconds. Shauna tugs on the rope tied around Jackie’s waist, signalling for her to speed up. “Come on, Jax. I think I can hear some people a bit farther up ahead.” Jackie trips herself up on a root and falls forward into the snow.
“Aw, shit.” There’s a certain frustration in Shauna’s voice, like this is the 100th time that Jackie’s fallen over like this. She’s used to having to help her though. Really, she doesn’t mind at all. Even if she’s flat on her face, at least Jackie’s still here.
Shauna stumbles as she bends over to help Jackie back up. Jackie lifts her head up to look in Shauna’s eyes and thanks her wordlessly. She can’t help herself much anymore. As they both get back on their feet, they hear the sounds of footsteps approaching in the snow. The two of them freeze up, Shauna instinctively grasping onto Jackie’s rigid left arm. “Shh.”
Whoever the feet belong to steps into view. It’s a woman, her hair dark brown aside from the bleach blonde that remains at the ends. She’s carrying a gun.
“Hey.” Her voice is tough, clearly hardened from the time spent surviving. She moves her head to get a closer look at Jackie and notices her discoloured skin, the translucent film over her eyes, and of course the rope tied tightly around her waist. Shauna now holds a vice grip onto her. Jackie, scared and confused by the stranger, moves in closer to Shauna.
“Is that what I think it is?” The woman calls out. She raises her gun and gestures at Jackie. ’Oh fuck,’ Shauna tries not to panic internally. “Yeah, but she’s not an it.” She can’t hide the anger in her voice.
“Oh, uh, sure. So, do you keep her around for protection, or what?” The woman is trying to lighten the conversation, Shauna can tell. She smirks, proud of her own ability to frighten others. “No, not primarily. She’s not like an attack dog. She’s uncontrollable,” Shauna trails off, stopping to look over at Jackie. She’s staring at the stranger with an unreadable look on her face, the same look that’s on the faces of all the undead things. There’s a glimmer of humanness still there, though. “She was my…best friend. Before all of this. Then she got bit.” Shauna’s expression becomes bitter as she reminisces on a time she’d rather forget. The stranger picks up on this and chooses not to press further. She understands what it’s like to decide the fate of a loved one.
“I’m sorry,” She gives Shauna a moment to recollect herself, “Why’re you all the way out here?” The woman moves her gun down to rest by her side. Shauna lets out an agitated sigh.
“Our food supply is running low so I thought I should go out and look for some more,” Jackie coughs hoarsely, “It’s not like she has to eat much, though. Before this, I thought zombies needed brains to keep surviving, but it’s like they hardly eat at all.” Shauna stops herself before she accidentally reveals too much information to this person she’s never met before. Suddenly, she’s very aware of the loaded gun. “Who’re you?”
The stranger takes a few steps closer, just arm's length away from where Shauna is. “I’m Natalie,” she puts out her hand for Shauna to shake it, and she accepts, “I’m only out here because my friends overheard something in the woods and sent me out to look for it. I guess that was you two.”
Shauna nods. “Yeah, probably. I’m Shauna,” she points to the girl beside her with her chin, “This is Jackie.” Jackie focuses her glazed over eyes back on Natalie, like she’s trying to say ‘hello’. A small smile forms on Nat’s face.
“Can she…talk?”
“She can say some stuff, but it’s gotten hard for her to because of the whole rotting-corpse thing. We can communicate in other ways, though.” Jackie groans, letting her know she can still understand what they’re saying. Nat nods understandingly.
“I know you have no reason to trust me, but there’s food back at my camp. Other people are there too, so I’d have to go a bit ahead of you to warn them about your zomb-…Jackie.” Nat looks at them with a kind expression on her face.
Shauna considers the offer for a moment. Sure, Nat seems to be cool with Jackie’s predicament, but how can she know that the others will accept it too? Is it worth exposing her situation just for some food that’ll only postpone the inevitable starvation? Jackie grunts next to her and leans her head against her shoulder, her cold lips grazing Shauna’s skin.
“Go.” She says it quietly, a whisper so low that it’s almost inaudible. But Shauna hears it and perks up. If Jackie is telling her that it’s worth it, then it must be.
“Alright. Just leave a clear path and we’ll follow you after a few minutes.”
“Okay, sounds good. There’s a fucked up looking tree with some markings on it that you should pass by. It’s close to the camp, so when you reach it stop there and I’ll come get you when I get the seal of approval.” She gestures behind her, where she came from. She hoists the rifle up to carry it properly and turns, leaving without another word.
Shauna straightens her posture and adjusts her hold on Jackie’s leash. “Well, Jax. We’re finally going to meet some new people.” She says this sarcastically and Jackie makes a noise similar to a laugh. Shauna’s heart skips a beat when she hears it. She remembers a time before now, when they’d have sleepovers every weekend and Jackie’s infectious laughter would fill Shauna’s bedroom, reverberating off the attic walls.
The memory is gone just as quick as it arrived. Shauna frowns and starts walking, Jackie limping along behind her.
-
The two of them finally reach the fucked up tree that Natalie mentioned, so Shauna stops walking. “Okay, we’re here,” She looks around, her eyes scanning for any potential zombies or humans waiting to ambush them. She finds nothing so she settles her gaze on Jackie. She’s leaning slightly against the tree, her chest heaving as she takes shallow breaths. This is another thing that confused Shauna when Jackie got infected; she still breathes. She supposes that maybe the zombies aren’t actually dead, just extremely sick. Maybe Jackie just has a really strong immune system and her body has been able to fight the disease off.
“Are you okay?” Shauna looks at her with concern. Since becoming Jackie’s caretaker, her senses are finetuned to know if something is wrong with her.
Another grunt is given as response, this time the tone is distinguishable as almost sweet. Shauna didn’t think it was possible for a grunt to sound so cute. Her face softens. Jackie tries to smile, her face muscles moving at a snail's pace. Shauna walks over to stand directly next to her. She looks over at her with her arms crossed over her chest, the rope still laced between her fingers.
“This group better be trustworthy…or I’ll have to sic you on ‘em.” She smirks. Jackie puts her hand on Shauna’s arm and squeezes. There's a slight mischievous look on her face that says “Just give me the signal”.
It’s quiet moments like these that stop Shauna from thinking about mercy-killing Jackie. She’s far from comatose, she can still walk and smile (sort of) and breathe. No, killing her is out of the question.
They stood there waiting for Nat for what feels like a half hour when she finally shows up, gun still in hand, and with somebody following behind her. When she spots the two of them she turns to gesture to the woman behind her.
“Hey, they’re over here. Like I told you.”
Shauna steps away from the tree and greets Nat and the redhead standing next to her. “Hey. Who’s that?” She points to the other woman, the second stranger they’ve met in one day.
“I’m Van.” The redhead, now Van, reaches out her hand for Shauna to shake, like Natalie did when they first met earlier. “Nat already told me your names, so…” She seems distracted by Jackie, who is clinging to Shauna once again. She clearly dislikes having to meet new people.
“We should definitely head back now, it’s getting colder. It’s going to snow again tonight.” It seems like Van is trying her best to avoid any awkward questions. She’s picked up on Shauna’s protectiveness already.
Shauna nods and looks at Jackie, waiting for her to communicate that she’s ready to go. Jackie nods back at her and lets go of her arm. “Yes.” She replies, voice still creaky and quiet as a church mouse, but it revitalizes Shauna once again.
She looks up at the two women standing in front of her. “Okay. Take me to your leader.” Shauna says the last part with humour in her tone. A zombie apocalypse will not stop her from joking.
-
The trip to the camp is silent save for everyone’s heavy breathing and the crunch of snow and twigs beneath their feet. The walk there gives Shauna more time to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of invasive questions she’d surely be forced to answer. Van certainly seemed like she had plenty of questions to ask and was only waiting for them to get back to the base to ask them. At least she had the courtesy to be patient and wait.
Shauna is acutely aware of how fucked up her situation with Jackie is, that’s precisely why she’s completely avoided all human contact up until this point. Usually she’s more careful, but this time she let her stress overtake her attentiveness.
They reach the camp not long after they left the fucked-up tree, and the murmur of conversation fills her ears. It must be safe over here if they’re okay with communing outdoors.
There’s two women sitting by a fire, bundled up in makeshift blankets. Another one is by the fire too, pushing around the logs with a makeshift firepoker. Shauna begins to feel a bit safer. The one playing with fire sees them enter the camp and calls out. “Guys, they’re back!” She jumps off her seat, still holding the blanket tightly around her.
The two other women raise their heads at her voice. Van walks over to the fire and hugs the one who was just engaged in conversation. Jackie gets apprehensive again and tries to hide herself behind Shauna. She lets out a warning noise and Shauna takes notice. She turns to face Jackie so she can attempt to reassure her.
“It’s okay.” Shauna whispers it close to Jackie’s ear, her breath briefly warming up her frigid skin. “I’m here.” Jackie’s hand searches slowly for Shauna’s. When they meet, she clasps them together as tightly as she can. “Remember, you don’t need to talk.”
Van watches the two of them from where she stands by the fire, her arm still around the girl she was just hugging. “I think I know why she can’t just let her pet die.” She doesn’t say it with malice, it’s simply an observation. The other girl nods in agreement.
Once Jackie seems alright, Shauna turns back around to see the group of women standing in a row, Natalie and Van next to each other.
“I figure we do introductions now so you don’t get confused later on.” Van explains. She seems to be the talker of this group. She steps away from her spot and starts to go down the line of girls.
“So, you’ve met me and Nat, of course. This is Tai,” she points to the girl she was hugging, “Lottie,” the girl who was talking to Tai earlier, “And Mari.” Mari is the one who was poking the fire. They all look back at Shauna expectantly.
“Oh, um, hey. I’m Shauna, and this is Jackie,” Jackie waves to the best of her ability, “She can’t talk, so any questions you have, ask me.” She tries to sound a bit aggressive. She’s here for food, not new friends.
The women nod and there's an awkward moment where nobody knows what to do or say. The dense air and snow doesn’t allow for any background noise at all, so the silence is deafening.
“Nat said you have food.” Shauna states bluntly.
“Oh, yes. Mari can show you where we keep our supply.” Nat gestures warmly towards the dark haired girl wrapped in a blanket, Mari. She has a suspicious look on her face as Shauna meets her eyes.
“Um, okay. I guess I’ll do that.” This girl seems perpetually annoyed with everybody. Shauna resonates with that. She tugs Jackie forward gently and goes where Mari is leading them.