Hello! Welcome to my story, Follow Your Arrow. I've been playing with the idea of writing this for a while and I'm excited to finally get it on here for you all to read and (hopefully) enjoy! This is my first time writing a story on here, so bear with me as I work out any kinks.
I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did thinking it up. Please review and whatnot if you like it!
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own any characters or situations in The Walking Dead. However, I will claim ownership over my OC, because she's pretty cool.
Her legs were burning in protest as she forced herself to continue running.
Just a bit further, she thought.
She could see the heavenly, sparkling blue water peeking through the trees. Surely those dead things couldn't swim. If they could, at least she would get some relief from the scorching Georgia heat before she died. The thought of the cool water rushing over her warm skin spurred her tired legs forward until she found herself face down in the dirt.
She looked back and silently cursed at the exposed tree root she had tripped over. However, she only had a moment to register the pain radiating from her ankle before the sound of snapping branches and groans reached her ears, effectively causing all her thoughts and feelings to halt, until only one instinct alone remained, survival.
She hastily removed her booted foot from where it was tangled up in the root, gritted her teeth, and pulled herself up and pushed forward. When she managed to burst through the foliage a few moments later, her spilt second of triumph came to a screeching halt. She had found the glistening water but it was a good 50 feet below her and she knew the chances of surviving the drop were slim and that was if it were a clean jump, as it were there were numerous pieces of jutted out rock for her to break her fall or some body parts on.
She let loose a sound of frustration and turned around as the first rotted corpse made its reappearance through the trees. It was the dead, reanimated body of a tall, gangly man. He looked to be in his mid-to-late twenties. He was missing a huge chunk out of both his left arm and right leg. How the one with the bum leg had been the first freak from the group to reach her beat the hell outta her.
When she had first run into the small group of freaks a half-mile back, she had killed the first one that lunged at her and then took off like a bat out of hell. However, the only problem with her idea of out running them she realized as she raced through the brush of the forest, cutting her skin on wild bushes and low hanging branches, was that these undead things, while they couldn't move as fast as her, they didn't get winded. She did. The realization that these flesh-eating, once-human monsters would eventually catch up with her, hit her like a ton of bricks. She was literally feeling the hope draining out of her when she spied the glistening water through the thick trees.
But now with her back to a cliff, her ankle throbbing, and Mr. Tall and Gangly making his way towards her, her whole fight or flight decision changed. She knew the chances of him or one of the others catching her now were too high if she chanced going back into the brush and she sure as hell wasn't going to risk turning her back on them so they could claw and bite at her from behind. No, she was no longer in flight mode. Now, she was all fight.
She quickly removed her knife from it's place on her hip and adjusted her weight like they had taught her in the self-defense class she had taken before the dead starting walking. She brought her injured left foot to rest on the ground in front of her and rested most of her weight on her right foot behind her. She angled her body so that only her left side was visible to the geek and held her left hand up in front of her face to block or push the thing away from her. She readjusted her grip on her knife in her right hand and held it in front of her stomach as she crouched down slightly as the geek stumbled closer to her.
"Hey," She taunted, making a kissing noise. "Come on. Come a little closer."
At the sound of her voice, Mr. Tall and Gangly sped up groaning and reaching for her, the sound of her voice and smell of living flesh almost too much for him. As he reached for her, she ducked under his arm and caught him in the sternum with her left hand pushing him away. As the geek stumbled, she took the opportunity to kick her leg out and curl her right foot around the geeks knee and pull forward, effectively knocking him down onto his back. She then sprang forward and plunged her knife into Mr. Tall and Gangly's head. He let out a noise that sounded like a mix between a gasp and groan before he went completely still. She pulled the blade free from its skull, trying to ignore the fluid coming from the wound and quickly wiped the blade on the now dead dead man's khaki's.
She stood back and let out a breath. It would only be a matter of time before the others found her. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind then she felt herself being pulled back by her long brown hair. She cried in out in pain as the offensive odor of dead, rotten flesh filled her nostrils. She used the ground as momentum and pushed back against the growling geek until the pair slammed into a tree. She reached back blinding following the growls and jammed the knife through what she hoped was its skull.
When the geek stopped moving, she let a rush of air pass through her lips. She tried to moved away but found her ponytail still clutched tightly in its hand. She twirled herself around and began prying the geeks fingers away from her hair, careful not to scratch herself in doing so. When the ponytail fell from the dirty, rotted hands, she straightened herself to look at her assailant. It was the woman. She looked to be in her early forties with short blonde, cropped hair.
A streak of panic went through her as she recalled the two walkers that left. She went to pull her knife free from the geek's temple, only to find part of the blade was lodged in the tree behind it.
"No, no, no, no. Come on," she whispered urgently as she continued to pull at the stuck weapon.
A rustling in the brush ahead of her caught her attention. Her heart rate speed up as she reached into the back of the waistband of her jean shorts and pulled out her pistol. She hated the thought using her gun in case the sound attracted more of the walking dead in the vicinity to her presence. Not to mention she had only one bullet left. However, she hated the thought of being tore apart by those things even more.
She watched the brush for a few moments until a squirrel hurried out and up a nearby tree. She rolled her eyes at herself and went back to trying to dislodge the blade, gun still firmly in one hand. When she heard another, louder rustling sound she placed her right foot against the tree and pulled.
To her relief, the blade came free from both the geek's head as well as the tree behind it. However, the momentum of the knife being pulled free sent her falling backwards and the woman's body landed with a sickening thump on her already injured ankle.
She cried out in a mixture of pain and frustration. And to make matters worse her gun had landed a couple yards away from her in some foliage and alas, Mr. Hulk Freak had just emerged from the bushes.
She pulled herself out from under the body and scooted across the forest floor on her backside trying to put as much distance between Steroidosaurus and herself as possible while trying to get as close to her gun as she could.
The geek groaned and moved for her, excited at the prospect of ripping into her skin. He was a good nine inches taller and had a hundred plus pounds on her. She doubted she could fight her way out of his grasp if he got a hold of her like she did with the female. As the geek got up close and reached for her, she kicked up at him landing one square in his gut. He didn't move back more than an inch and instead grabbed ahold of her booted foot, knocking her onto her back with a painful thud and dragged her closer to him. She managed to pull her foot free of the boot the asshole had ahold of and dove towards her knife. She grasped the handle just as the undead asshole lunged at her. She turned and tried shove the blade through its brain. She let out cry of frustration or fear, probably a bit of both as the blade slide into its jugular.
The stagnant smell of death was sickeningly potent as the creep's jaws snapped closer and closer to her face. The brunette let out a small whimper and closed her eyes as she tried with all the strength she could muster to push it off of her, when she heard a rush of air and suddenly the geek went completely limp, slumping on top of her. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the sight an arrow protruding out of the geek's temple.