A/N: ...It's bee a while hasn't it? Yeahhh, I could tell you how interesting my summer was or how difficult my schooling situation has been, but, I'm just going to say: I'm starting my writing up again and I wrote out this crazy idea I had while watching the Walking Dead game. I hope you all enjoy this new story! - Windstrider
It was cliché of course but Elsa couldn't remember what it was like before the infected came.
Two years had passed since the virus had broken out and all beyond that was ruined memory. Elsa, fortunately, had been one of the few lucky survivors who had nothing much to on in her life she was unknowingly ready for what was to come. Her mother and father had died in a car accident seven years before the apocalypse swept the world and they left their daughter nothing at 15 years old. No home, no extended family, no food…
She had resulted in fleeing the shelter home and living in a dark alleyway where rats ran free and the smoky discharge from the homes above clouded through the narrow back way. In the night, the puddles of dripping condensation from the air conditioners above resembled ink when they collected together on the ground. She would oftentimes go out of her way to avoid them for she thought that the black water would stick on her tattered shoes. Her tent, which was surprisingly warm, was where she stayed every night. She used a beat up hoodie as her pillow a blanket to keep her warm. In the winter, however, a blanket could only do so much. Her living conditions were very unsanitary, and for the first few years it was hard for her in terms of sickness. She was oftentimes Ill, however her voice stayed strong. She could've turned to a shelter, but being the ever strong willed girl she was, she stayed right where she was and endured the sicknesses as they came. She was fortunate enough to not catch a serious illness for the first few years. By the time she turned 19, she was basically immune.
She had been getting by on singing at a street corner for money. All the woman had was her voice. On a good day, Elsa made almost fifty dollars a day, using that money to buy herself food and fresh water. She had been surviving off the faith that her voice would hold. Having taught herself to sing, she learned to live in her state of poverty.
There was a reason why no one came to the alleyway to steal what they could from the woman (and they might as well could've). Elsa had earned enough money - eating minimal food and little water for almost a month's time - in order to buy a gun. It was a small glock with a silver trigger. For another month, Elsa ate limited food and water to buy bullets. She always carried the glock with her, hidden underneath her grey hoodie she wore every day, an extra magazine of bullets in her pocket.
She had prepared and was always ready for anything that could happen in the city, however, Elsa didn't hear about the infected before it was too late.
As she was walking down the street to her regular spot on the street corner where she sang, she had overheard a conversation going on between two women who were standing by a lamppost nearby.
"It was all over the news last night." said the woman to her friend. Elsa had approached the two and silently sat down on the curb with her hood over her head to listen very carefully as she had learned to do, "The virus is spreading so fast it's moving through entire states within a day's time."
"They're starting to call them the infected now." The other woman put in, lowering her voice to a soft whisper as if she didn't want anyone to hear their discussion, "I don't know about you, but I'm going to try my chances with taking my family and flying to Europe."
Elsa heard the hushed words and had begun to stiffen as questions presented themselves in her mind.
What were the infected?
A virus?
Why was the woman talking about fleeing the country?
Was this threat so bad that they actually had to leave?
And then there came the question that crashed down on her all at once: Were the infected similar to those creatures in comics and seen on the TV's in store windows she had watched? She took a moment to think about the strange name before it actually hit her.
Zombies?
As the women moved on from their spot to walk down the sidewalk, Elsa slowly turned her head and looked after them, desperately wishing to ask them more. She then decided to wait until after midday to ask someone about what was going on.
When she was finally able to get a hold of someone who would be willing to explain the coming threat, a feeling of dread washed over her as the man spoke.
Something called The T-virus had been unintentionally let loose from a science lab in California. When it came in contact with the human bloodstream, the person was instantly forced into a state where their body was put under a fast process of decay until they were completely deceased. But even then, they remained alive, being controlled by the viruses' influence on the brain. What the virus wanted was flesh from other humans and so through the body it had taken a hold of, the parasite spread its disease through a bite. Anyone near an infected person would be at risk of contamination. Since the body was already dead and decayed, simple gunfire wouldn't and couldn't stop them unless the gunfire hit the almost indestructible organisms in the head.
The authorities failed to keep the growing virus quarantined and it spread unfaltering through towns, through cities, through burrows and through country houses. The more people that became infected, the more it got out of hand, the less the authorities tried to stop fighting it, and the more people ran for their lives. The virus had already spread its way halfway across the U.S. and was moving faster every day.
"The last reported sighting of an infected was just a few hours ago in Illinois." the man who was giving Elsa the information said softly, "A lot of us are leavin'. I suggest you do the same." And then he walked away, leaving Elsa standing alone at her corner. The woman instantly began to pace with her pouch full of money clenched in her right hand, her left hand running through her mane of blonde hair. Her mind was racing. Nothing like this was ever heard of before. It was impossible! She thought that zombies only existed in stores and comic books she found on the street.
She had to do something.
Elsa immediately went back to her tent and began going through the money she had saved (about 130 dollars) and she pulled out her gun, checking the clip compartment to see if it was filled. She pulled the small boxes of bullets out, set them in a small backpack she had found on the street, and packed as much food as she could in there. Once she had everything packed tightly inside the pack, Elsa crawled out of the tent and began to take it down. She put her blanket in the middle of the rolled up tent and was immediately on her way without a second thought. She began thinking of places to go as she walked through the downtown area of New York, however, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that there weren't many places she could go that would keep her safe for long. She couldn't go east for obvious reasons, but she couldn't go west due to the fact she would run into the ocean. There was no hope of stowing away aboard a plane or boat out of the country and there was no hope going anywhere without the threat of the diseased. Traveling north into Canada would prove useless soon since the virus would only spread upwards there once the states were completely infested.
Then she began to think of the pros and cons of living in a place like Canada...
The pros, she thought, were that if it got cold enough, the zombies would freeze since they have no body heat due to their corpse-like state. If the zombie's didn't freeze, it would be much harder to walk through the snow than solid ground to get to Elsa if she needed to escape.
A major con would be that it would be slow going for Elsa if she had to move through the country on foot. She would be cold. She would lack the clothes to keep her warm. Although New York could get freezing cold in the wintertime, she had found that the heat that the vents gave off above and around the alleyway she slept in kept her decently warm. She would have no warmth in the rugged terrain. She only had so much stamina, and she didn't know how long she could go before she had to stop. There would be little food up there if she had to hunt and she didn't know how to skin an animal once she caught one. She didn't know how to make a fire. If she was attacked by a wild animal she didn't know how to protect herself. She didn't know how to dress wounds…She knew nothing about survival in the wilderness…
Elsa halted in the streets then and fell silent in her thought. The quiet dripping from the dirty pipes resonated throughout the space in a quiet echo.
She had no choice.
If she stayed in the city a moment longer, the more likely she would get caught up in the chaos and god only knew what would happen then. Disease spreads much faster in a place like New York.
As she made her way out of the city, walking along the side of roads, and watching the traffic get backed up progressively more as the day went on. More people were fleeing the city and everyone was trying to get out in the same direction. She moved out of the Manhattan area in the following days and continued on her way upwards. The more rocky the ground became and the less the sun shone in the sky.
Elsa had managed to avoid the creatures as well as she could throughout the days in which the infected swept through New York and the other states around it. She had made her way through New York and had moved up through Vermont skimming the boarder of Canada. It was when she was walking through a dense forest, humming lightly to herself when she heard an infected for the first time.
A soft moan came from the distance. It was painful sounding, stopping only a few times to make way for stutters and the sharp tick of teeth snapping together. The woman paused and hid behind a tree instinctively as she heard more approaching on top of the one she had heard. Soon an entire chorus of moans filled the forest, and the creatures approached her from the west. All Elsa could see to the east was more dense forest with no way out. She pulled out her compass (which she had stolen shamefully from an abandoned supply shop) and hastily turned it so that the needle pointed north.
She had shut her eyes and had run then. The infected pursued, but pure adrenaline and fear gave her the strength to run for about two miles before she finally had to stop. The paranoia set in soon after and the loneliness reigned over all other emotion. It was a near impossible adjustment to a life of constant running, constant fear of being closed in by monsters who knew nothing of what it was like to be human again.
For two years Elsa ran. She moved her way through Montreal, toughing the harsh terrain of the landscapes, moving through dense forests. She found a way around lakes and over rocky hills and frozen streams. As she passed through Ontario and Manitoba, She grew adjusted to the cold and soon she forgot what it was like to not have her breath fog in front of her face whenever she exhaled. She adjusted to outdoor life and survived by learning the basics on her own. She always had a knife on her belt and her glock on the other side of it, always loaded. She learned the best ways to hunt and how to find food for herself. She stayed clear of all berries except anything that looked like wild raspberries.
A fire was mandatory every night and she figured out how to start one herself about two weeks into her travel. She always found high ground to sleep on and in the freezing rain of the tundra she would find protection – it wasn't much, but it was protection- by lifting her hoodie over her head.
For two years she survived on her own. She ran into other survivors here and there, but unfortunately they all betrayed her in the end. Soon, after putting her trust in too many people and being let down every time, she reached a point in which she trusted no one. Nothing was able to bring peace to Elsa except for the quiet of the forest, and her singing. Her voice could be heard through the forest on a good day and the sounds that produced were so wonderful that even the birds stopped to listen.
For two years she moved onward to the North, never faltering, never stopping, never weakening.
She couldn't remember a time when she didn't have to constantly be wary of a race of infected people attacking her at every turn.
Elsa had chosen to sit by the fire in a small, rocky area, her tent set up underneath a ledge of stone, keeping it protected from the freezing rain that occasionally fell in the night without warning. She leaned against the cool stone, writing in a journal that she had found lying on the road about a month ago. Half of it was already scribbled in with almost illegible writing with numerous misspellings, but for the second half, Elsa had begun to fill it with her beautiful cursive handwriting. She wrote on the pages her wishes, her hopes, and her thoughts. Some pages were tear stained while other pages were unintentionally splattered with blood.
Elsa tilted her head and continued to write of the day's events as night fell over the horizon. The grey sky became progressively darker and Elsa's senses heightened. The night was the time to be cautious in everything one did.
Relaxing herself with effort, Elsa leaned against the stone wall more and continued to write, recounting the strange story about how she caught her meal of rabbit that day...
Elsa's eyes rose to the bush in front of her moments before it rustled.
In an instant Elsa pulled out her glock, slammed her journal shut, pointed it at the bush and hissed ferociously, "Who's there?"
She hadn't heard moaning, (a person could hear the moaning from about 15 feet away if the zombie is quiet) so she assumed that whatever was behind the bush was either a very quiet animal, or a human. And by the rustle of the bush, Elsa could tell it wasn't an animal. A human was no less threatening than the infected. Elsa's life and her things were at risk. She knew if she pulled the trigger in her defense -if there were others with the one she was shooting at – she would force the others to fire at her immediately in retaliation. She didn't want to risk pulling the trigger and drawing the infected towards her with the sound of a gunshot so she stood there rigidly, still as stone, her ice blue eyes piercing through the darkness, looking for any sign of human presence.
"Who's there?" Elsa repeated, her voice a low growl, "If you don't show yourself, I'm going to shoot and draw all the infected within a mile's radius towards us. Now show yourself!"
There was a long pause as she fell silent, her jaw clenched painfully in her stress.
The bush moved slightly again, and the woman could see a faint outline of a body hidden underneath the leaves. She took a step forward and flicked the gun at the silhouette in an effort to intimidate the person hidden.
"D-don't shoot me." came a small, shivering voice.
Elsa's eyes widened in slight surprise as the dark shape shifted, then straightened and a head popped out from the bush. The woman who had managed to sneak up on Elsa held up her hands in surrender, her green eyes wide and pleading.
"Don't shoot me," repeated the woman, "I'm only j-just…I'm just passing by."
"Well move along then." Elsa snapped, refusing to lower her gun, "Do you have anyone with you?"
"No." the woman hesitated the moved clumsily out from the bush and stepped in front of Elsa, standing with her hands still raised in surrender,"Do you?"
"No." Elsa replied, her eyes lowering to examine the girl before her.
She was almost as tall as Elsa herself and about the same size in weight. Both girls were dangerously malnourished looking with dark circles under their eyes but the redhead looked slightly more exhausted due to her obvious exhausted state. She had a head of messy red hair that stuck out in most places like she had tried to get sleep, but was woken up abruptly with a bedhead she wasn't able to fix. Her bright, watery green eyes matched her ripped green shirt and the knees of her jeans were caked with mud and dirt. Shivering with cold and her breath puffing in front of her face, Anna lowered her raised arms to wrap around herself in an effort to keep herself warm.
"M-my name is Anna." She said with a violent shiver, "I saw you walking across the lake earlier and I decided to follow you."
Elsa's lips pressed together in apprehension at this statement.
"A-and I just caught up with you now actually." The girl's eyes flicked from Elsa's face to the roaring fire, "Please," she said, "May I please stay by the fire for a little while? I've been walking out here for almost a week without any warmth or protection I've been rained on, chased by those…things, I've been threatened by other groups of survivors and I haven't eaten or slept at all."
Elsa didn't reply, her threatening stance and expression unchanging.
"Please." The woman said again, swaying on her feet as if she were seconds away from passing out from her extreme exhaustion, "I'm on my last leg here. I know it's a lot to ask from a stranger, but I'm so cold I can't remember what it feels like to not have numb fingers!"
Elsa continued to remain still as the woman shivered before her, watching her and observing the way that Anna wished to get closer to the flames that flickered only a few feet away.
Elsa evaluated the decision in her mind for a few moments. If she let this woman stay, there would be the risk of her betraying Elsa and stealing something from her meager supply of survival essentials. Everything in her tent was necessary to her survival and if she had one thing stolen from her supplies, she might as well be dead. She had been stolen from before by other survivors and she wasn't about to willingly allow another person into her group again without threatening them first, no matter who they were or what they looked like. Elsa moved forward until she stood very close to the shorter woman. Anna let her eyes drop in submission and Elsa lifted her gun, resting the tip against the girl's head. The woman's shivering gasps ceased as she held her breath, the cold end of the gun pressing against her temple.
"You put up a good act." Elsa said, experimenting to see if the cute redhead was bluffing, "Not sure if I believe you entirely."
The fear was evident in Anna's eyes and suddenly Elsa received a small jolt of pity. She glared at Anna for a few more moments before she sighed tiredly and lowered the gun from Anna's head. Putting the glock on her belt she paused, then reluctantly gestured toward the fire. Anna looked at her incredulously for a minute, her wide eyes flicking from Elsa's face to the fire back to her face. Only when Elsa gestured again did Anna move. She crossed the space between her and the fire in seconds and crouched in front of it, her hands with fingers spread held out against the flames. Elsa could see the genuine emotion on the woman's face as her tense demeanor melted instantly in her relief.
Elsa sat down heavily on the other side of the fire, watching her, observing her. After a few moments of intense relief, Anna sighed loudly, her shoulders sagging, her shivering ceasing.
Then there was a tense silence between the two in which Anna became slightly awkward under the other woman's cruel stare. The redhead hugged her knees and fought eye contact with the other woman for a while. It was evident that this blonde haired woman didn't want her there, Anna could feel it by the way she was glaring at her. But at the same time she seemed desperately lonely. Anna could tell by the expertly hidden weakness in her eyes.
"W-what's your name?" Anna asked quietly.
"Elsa." The blonde answered, looking her over once again, "You're not armed are you?"
"If I was, would I tell you?" Anna giggled.
Elsa blinked and shifted suddenly upon hearing the pleasant sound of laughter for the first time in years. Anna's shoulder's bounced slightly as her chuckle died down and her eyes shone. Anna scooted closer still to the fire that sparked and stuttered steadily, it's amber sparks flying upwards though a trail of smoke into the night.
"I know for a fact that you're definitely armed." Anna giggled and a small smile tugged at Elsa's lips as Anna pointed to the glock on Elsa's belt. Smiling felt so foreign to Elsa
"So, what's your story?" Anna asked politely, "Everyone I've run into has a story."
"Are you sure that no one is following you?" Elsa asked, looking behind the girl.
"You're distracted aren't you?" Anna said, tilting her head, "Want me to tell you my story first? I mean, since I'm gonna be here for tonight we might as well get to know each other."
"I really hope you don't take this too personally." Elsa mumbled, lifting her hands to crack her knuckles nervously, "But you're not going to stay for very long, so you might as well keep your mouth shut."
"Y-you could've put it a bit kinder." Anna said, looking slightly hurt, "I mean, I understand that it would be hard for you to trust anyone. It's hard for me to trust you, but you've been traveling alone for hours…I figured that you were alone by the way you didn't seem to be looking or waiting for anyone."
Elsa looked into Anna's eyes and saw the honesty behind them. Either she was an exceptional liar or she was being truthful.
"I'm no threat to you, Elsa." The younger woman said, honesty coating her words once more, "I'm not armed, I'm not with anyone, I'm not very strong." She lifted her arm and flexed for Elsa to see and, indeed, she wasn't very strong looking at all, "I'm worn down and scared…"
Elsa's eyes fell to the flames where they stayed, listening carefully to the woman who was her first company in years that actually, somehow, made her feel comfortable. The girl's voice was soft and soothing, warm and light. It put Elsa to rest and no matter how hard she tried to keep her guard up, she was just so tired, and this was the first conversation she had in years so she decided to let her guard down.
"Okay then." Elsa sighed, resting her head in her hand, "what's your story then if you're so eager to talk."
The redhead's eyes lit up with excitement and she began speaking quickly in almost a ramble.
"Well, once I heard news of the monsters coming up through Canada I told my dad that we had to leave our country house in Manitoba. I mean, we had lived there out whole lives and we had just been getting over the death of my mom…" she paused, her shoulders slumping, "I wanted to leave, but my dad insisted we stay. He turned off the radio and said that we could survive anything together. We could hold our own in our house until the epidemic died down but I had listened to the radio more than my dad. These infected people don't get better. Once they're dead, they're dead and there's nothing that can bring them back. My dad didn't realize that before it was too late. I begged him to leave when they came but he said that he lived there his whole life and he wasn't about to leave because of some stupid sick people…"
Elsa tilted her head slightly as she saw the immense pain in Anna's eyes. She took a moment to think before she began again, "He…didn't make it out."
Elsa lowered her head and sighed, "I'm sorry."
Anna immediately perked up, "I mean, it's not your fault! There's no need to be sorry! These things just happen sometimes and…I'm sure everyone else is going through a rough time too! These are tough times and I bet everyone has a tragic story."
"It's the end of the world." Elsa said, lifting her eyes to look at Anna steadily, "The entire population has fallen to tragedy."
Anna fell silent, biting her bottom lip nervously. Elsa shifted in her seat, then stood and stretched her arms above her head, making a slight groaning noise. She turned to her tent, pacing to it and disappearing inside for a few moments. Anna thrummed her fingers on the cool stone, waiting for the blonde to return. Elsa poked her head out from the tent flap and the redhead couldn't help but notice how cute the woman seemed. As Elsa stepped into full view, Anna saw that Elsa was carrying with her four pieces of beef jerky.
"It's not much," Elsa said holding out the two biggest pieces, "But it's something to chew."
Anna, whos eyes had set alight with desire as soon as she saw the jerky immediately grabbed the pieces and instantly began to eat. Elsa sat down facing her, and watched with amusement as Anna devoured the pieces in seconds. As soon as she had eaten, Anna let out a massive sigh and she let her head droop with relief.
Elsa remained silent as she nibbled on the rest of the jerky.
Anna sighed once more before lifting her head and looking at Elsa, smiling happily, "Thank you!" she said.
Elsa nodded and continued to chew on her jerky. Then there was a moment of silence in which Anna couldn't tear her eyes away from the other piece of meat in Elsa's hand. Elsa's eyes shifted from the fire to Anna. She tried to make eye contact with the younger woman but failed to succeed seeing as how she was completely transfixed on the jerky in Elsa's hand.
"You gonna finish that?" Anna asked nervously.
Elsa frowned, swallowed, then handed over the rest of the pieces. Anna grabbed them and chewed the pieces slower than the one's before in order to satisfy Elsa while mumbling, "Thank you! Thank you!"
The blonde nodded silently and waited patiently for Anna to finish before speaking, "I already ate a rabbit earlier, it's…the least I could do for you." Anna turned towards Elsa and scooted closer, hugging her knees and smiling shyly.
"Would you mind telling me what your story is?" Anna asked. Elsa immediately shook her head and glared at Anna sternly. The redhead understood and nodded her head before she let her eyes drop back to the fire. A few moments of silence later, Elsa noticed Anna's head bobbing up and down as she fought the urge to fall asleep next to the warm fire. The blonde cleared her throat and Anna blinked, lifting a hand to rub her eye, yawing tiredly.
"Would you like to sleep with me in my tent?" mumbled Elsa.
"WELL!" Anna almost shrieked, "WELL THEN! Uhm, I mean, if you insist! You're a gorgeous girl and all, but I mean, that's going a bit fast don't you think? We, uh, we just met and, uh, uhm, yeah…"
Elsa stared at the other woman incredulously as Anna sat ridged with nervousness…
"Not that kind of sleep." Elsa sighed, lifting a hand to run her fingers through her hair, "Jesus Christ."
"Sorry!" Anna apologized, scooting a bit closer, "Sorry! I misunderstood! Uhm, yes! I would love to sleep in your tent with you!"
Elsa smiled slightly and then gestured towards the small sleeping area. Anna looked at her momentarily before she stood sleepily and almost stumbled on her way over to the tent. Elsa stood, then kicked a bit of dust onto the flames until they were extinguished, then followed Anna from behind. The redhead paused to look over her shoulder at the approaching woman before she smiled sweetly then lifted the tent flap and moved in clumsily, her foot catching on the blanket.
"Careful." Elsa murmured putting a hand on Anna's back and assisting her inside. Anna shyly plopped down in one corner of the dimly lit tent and Elsa crawled in after her, sitting down atop the blanket she slept with every night. The tent was small and had room for about one person; Anna felt slightly uncomfortable as Elsa settled down and looked at her once more. The two looked at each other for a few moments before Anna said awkwardly, "Uhm…Thank you again."
"Hmm," Elsa hummed, then her face fell, "I want to tell you something," her eyes narrowed as the doubts came back to her collectively. She got onto her knees and crawled up to Anna, placing one hand on the gun that rested on her belt, "I'm a very light sleeper."
Anna's eyes widened and Elsa's narrowed into slits.
"You so much as take one step outside that tent and I'll put a bullet right through the back of your skull," Elsa hissed, "you hear me?"
A shiver tremored through Anna's body and she nodded weakly in understanding. Elsa nodded once in reply and moved back onto her blanket. She sighed as she lifted it, then nestled underneath, resting her head on the balled up jacket, the zipper trail pressing into her cheek. She knew an indent would be there in the morning but she didn't care.
She could hear Anna shifting nervously in the corner for a few minutes before the younger woman eventually gave way into exhaustion. The redhead's steady breathing sounded and Elsa finally let her guard down, slowly letting her eyes shut. She let herself over to the oblivion of sleep.