All These Frosty Nights
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Hello, one and all! This is my first Walking Dead Game story that I've put up here, and I hope it doesn't disappoint! Now, I spent a fair amount of time on this one as I thought it would be interesting to see Sarita's story continue on. I feel as if after her near death experience she would have begun to have a clearer view of things and her character would act in a stronger way. She always had a kind word so say, just like Katjaa. I guess Kenny needs someone to put him in his place.
I own non of the characters or the game itself, all I own is the writing :3
Have fun!
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Her head hung low, Sarita shuffled alongside the rotting beasts; among them, she felt as if every moment was her last. The stench of decaying meat swam around her, the loud, rhythmic beats of gunfire filled her ears, the thought of the monstrous things that the man she loved had just done. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. This did little more than fill her with the scent of the undead, bringing her nerves to new levels of high. A small smile pulled at the edges of her mouth as she saw a small gap in the ever looming walkers, a clear path to the tree line surrounding Howe's.
She had not taken two steps when the heartbreaking wailing replaced the gunfire. She turned and she felt her heart sink as she saw the Spanish doctor stumble, dead hanging over him like flies. One bite and she knew it was all over. She couldn't determine who was making more noise, Carlos with his screams of pain as walkers bit into his flesh and sealed his fate, or his young daughter, Sarah, witnessing the one person she had left leave the earth.
Sarita looked back at the opening. She furrowed her brow, gripped her hatchet and ran towards the two younger girls. She was relieved to see that she was not the only one who had come to their aid. Bonnie was unloading rounds of metal husks into the corpses of dead surrounding the younger girls, breaking her cover momentarily. Sarita ducked and dodged her way through the hungry savages, the thought that one false move would end her looming in the back of her mind.
An older fellow, looked to be in his mid 50's, with a few wisps of hair still clinging onto his skull lurched towards the girls. In one swift movement Sarita lodged her hatchet deep into the creature's cranium. At least Carver did one thing right, a sharp hatchet will never let you down.
Her body convulsed as she let out a scream, a sharp pain running through her hand and down her fingers. Looking over her shoulder her blood ran cold and she gagged, trying to get out a scream to anyone that could hear her. The walker had its teeth clamped down on her right hand, instinctively she tried to pull her arm away, but this succeeded in doing nothing more than tightening the man's grip on her arm.
Hot tears ran down her face, warming up her frozen cheeks as she continued to pull her arm away. The pain was unlike anything she had ever been forced to go through before, she screamed louder as she imagined how much Carlos must have suffered during his final moments. The blasts of light from the gunfire coming from high above reflected off of something, catching Sarita's eye.
Clementine's face looked horrific, her expression made Sarita feel as if her fate was sealed. And truth be told, it was. Her heart stopped as Clementine raised the hatchet and narrowly missed Sarita's arm, hitting the walker's skull. The grip on her hand became loose, but the pain remained. She held her arm, her tears drying on her soft skin "I, I'm bit. Oh, God!" She stuttered. Clementine muttered something to her about staying calm, but Sarita processed non of it "It doesn't matter... I'm bit. Oh, God."
Clementine opened her mouth to say something else, but was silenced by the sound of Kenny's reaction. Kenny and the man that had joined them recently, Mike, ran over to her, looking almost as shocked as she was. Kenny took her hands and told her how everything was going to be okay. Sarita felt like smiling, she felt as if the Kenny she had once known was here with her.
As Mike and Kenny led her off, she looked back at Clementine. She saw her stumble and then she was gone. Sarita tried to get Kenny to go back and help Clem, but if Kenny had heard what she had said, he hadn't agreed with her. She knew Kenny, were they somewhere where they could talk properly he would have given her the whole "Clementine's not a child." or "She's been through more than any of us." lines he dealt out so often.
Luke raced past them, Nick following after him, clutching his shoulder. The walkers were thinning out and the three of them took cover behind a large rock. Mike pulled out his own hatchet and pulled back the sleeve on Sarita's hoodie. She instinctively pulled her arm away from him and gave him a horrified look "This needs to be done, Kenny. Man, you love her and don't want to see her get hurt, but if we don't get rid of her arm right now she's going to end up a lot more than just 'hurt' " Kenny started to argue against this, but Sarita tugged on his arm and gave him a nod.
Before she even had time to think about what was going on, the metal blade was deep into her arm, just below the elbow. Whether her screams attracted any attention from the walkers, she didn't care. She just wanted the pain to stop. With a sudden tug, she suddenly fell to the side and narrowly missed hitting the ground. Kenny caught her, tears visible in his hardened eyes. Mike took his hatchet, pulled at a large lock of Kenny's mullet and brought his weapon down. In one swift slice a large bit of hair came free and Mike got to work on covering the stump with the hair, claiming it would slow down the blood loss. Every breath felt fainter than the last. The only thing she wanted to think about right now was Kenny. She looked up at him as everything became a blur and suddenly she became weightless. With what little thought she had left, she realized that Kenny and Mike had picked her up and were carrying her.
She gagged a little before slipping through the darkness and into the void.
She let out a scream, flailing her arms to try to get the attacker away. Sarita the figure holding her said. How did it know her name? She took deep breaths and her mind became clear as she realized that the man standing above her, tears running down his face, was Kenny. "Oh, God, Sarita. I thought you'd left me... I'm so sorry darling heart, I should never have left you." The older man said.
He rarely cried, and whenever he did he never told her why. This wasn't exactly abnormal these days, everyone had lost someone. She realized that she herself had tears flowing down her face, as Kenny rubbed his thumb over her pale cheek, wiping away the tears. She turned her head to the side and saw the sun making it's ascent over the rocky hills. Kenny held her head in his hands, cradling her as if she was a newborn infant.
The love of her life informed her of all the things that had happened; The three of them had reached the meeting point, shortly followed by Bonnie, Clementine, Jane and Rebecca. Bonnie and Mike had kept an eye out for walkers and taken care of Rebecca as Kenny had cradled Sarita in his arms. He told her that there had been nothing else in the world he wouldn't give to see her soft, kind eyes. Sarita smiled and put a single arm around him, leaving the other arm where it was as it stung too much to move.
The two lovers sat in each others arms, silently. This silence was broken by the tired voices of Luke, Clem, Jane and Sarah. Kenny mentioned something about Luke, Nick and Sarah being missing, however he hadn't gone into details and, quiet honestly, Sarita hadn't wanted to think about anything other than the fact that she was safe. She felt a slight pang of guilt for not having cared about the other group members, but she reassured herself that she had a pretty good reason not to have thought about them. From the sounds of Rebecca's weeping, she assumed that someone had not made it, quite possibly Nick as she couldn't think of anyone else that had yet to arrive.
Sarita gazed sadly at the pregnant lady, having all the sympathy in the world for the woman. She remembered how Rebecca's husband, Alvin, had been killed. She didn't blame Kenny for firing the shot that wounded Carver. She blamed Carver for hurting someone else for Kenny's actions. She had to keep reminding herself that Kenny HAD stepped down when Carver took her hostage, therefore he did have some compassion left in him. Sarita sighed as she wondered. She had never fully understood what had happened between her and Carver. It seemed likely that Rebecca had gone along with it willingly, but with Carver being the man he was... Rape was certainly a viable theory. She disregarded such thoughts from her head and lay it back down upon Kenny's lap. She rubbed her own stomach as she stared at Rebecca's bulge, and furrowed her brow. Her and Kenny had lain together several times, the thought brought a smile to her face. However, they had not used any precautions. Why would they? At the time, their plan had been to arrive at Wellington within a few weeks. And now... Sarita sighed and closed her eyes. Such thoughts could wait for another time.
She awoke to the sounds of gunshots. The sun was now behind the mountains of the west, and Kenny was nowhere to be seen. She called for help faintly as she tried to push herself up with her nonexistent arm. She fell back down against the bricks and moaned softly, the dull pain throbbing with every heartbeat. "Mike, help Sarita!" the faint voice of Clementine shouted. Her world spun and she was lifted off her feat by the strong man. He called loudly for Sarah to follow them, and after a moment's hesitation, she did. Looking off to the side she saw Kenny, crowbar in hand, fending off the large swarm of walkers that had surrounded them. She attempted to call out to him, but all that came out was a soft croaking sound. They turned a corner and Kenny was gone. She looked back and once again, Clementine was left behind.
Before she could say anything to Mike, she started to ascend, just as the sun had done this morning. Once they had climbed the flight of stairs, Sarita was laid down near the inner wall of a small square room. She smiled as her love came into the room. However, a smile was the exact opposite of what Kenny had. He started shouting at Luke and Jane, calling them childish teenagers. Sarita decided it was best to let Kenny say what he had to say. There was no arguing with the man. Rebecca let out a loud moan in pain and almost collapsed to the floor, Luke narrowly catching her and laying her down on the frosty wooden floor. Everyone rushed to the deck to fend off the walkers as Kenny tried to calm the agonized cries of the woman. It's alright, I've done this and been here before..." She caught Kenny saying. Kenny had once had a job on the ocean water, which as far as she knew about boats, had nothing to do with babies. She decided now was not the best time to be analyzing things he was saying and to help. She slowly got to her feet, wobbled a bit, but found her ground. She made her way past Kenny, he hadn't noticed that she had gotten up. The loud creaking of the deck told her that something was wrong.
A loud metallic snap could be heard and Sarita had to hold onto a wooden post to steady herself. Cries from multiple people could be heard and she gasped as she witnessed half of the deck go plunging down, a few people going with it. Sarah hadn't been fast enough and had been caught directly underneath the wrecked deck, Jane however had just managed to hold on to what was left of it. Jane's gun had been thrown across the broken platform and Jane herself was barely hanging on. Clementine shouted something at her that caused her to jump down and onto the ruins. Sarita felt her heart sink as she heard Sarah's soft pleas for help, her body trapped under the wreckage. Jane desperately tried to lift one of the fallen posts, and for a moment she seemed to be getting somewhere, but a falling wooden plank knocked off any chances of Jane saving the fifteen year old girl. The walkers slowly closed in on the young girl, like moths to a flame.
Sarita acted souly on even the mere chance of saving the girl, grabbing the gun and dropping down onto her stomach. She had been right handed, but the sound seemed to be enough to grab the walkers attention away from the screaming girl. However, the gunfire just drew more of them. Sarita looked back at Kenny with a sad smile. She dropped down from the platform and landed with a THUD onto the earth, her backside aching from the fall. With all of her effort she lifted herself up and fired at the approaching walkers. Even with both her arms she had never been all that much of a good shot so it wasn't unexpected when she didn't hit a single walker. She did manage to get the attention of all the lurkers in the area, buying Jane enough time to free Sarah and make her way back up the rubble.
Sarita was making her way back towards the others when a tug pulled her from her feet and onto the ground. She cried out as she pulled her leg away from the walker that was crawling after her, only to have the beast sink it's teeth into her leg. She screamed for help as Jane looked back momentarily, but then continued to carry Sarah away from the wreck. Within moments a second walker was on her and had it's face buried into her thigh. By the time the third walker had arrived and started to dig it's crooked teeth into her chest, just below her breast, she had lost all feelings of pain. Everything went dark as she heard Kenny's voice call out for her, searching for her. Find me, Kenny she thought as she sobbed quietly.
She thought about her love, the only love she had ever had. Kenny used to always be with her, always slept by her side. Sometimes, if she was lucky, she would catch him talking in his sleep. Whenever he did this, it was always followed by him waking up covered in sweat and tears. Nightmares, he told her. Upon asking him what the nightmares were about, he would give her the same answer every time. Just one word seemed to sum up his terrors. As she felt the life slipping out of her, she thought one final question to herself
Why was he so afraid of a duck?