Hey everybody, this is going to be a Daryl/OC story, but it is going to move a little slower. Please review and give your thoughts! This is my first time writing so let me know what you think! Many thanks!
"Just keep moving" Lena whispered to herself. She leaned up against a tall oak tree, the rough bark cutting into her face. She had been running almost nonstop for two days and was on the verge of dropping. Her water had run out this morning, and she had no food left.
Lena wasn't sure how much farther she could push without something to sustain her body. She was already showing the effects of malnutrition, at 24 years old, 5 foot 6, she was able to see her hipbones and when she had stopped a few days earlier at a creek for water, she had been able to see her cheekbones jutting up prominently.
The last year had not been kind to Lena. Running from the south of Florida to outside of Atlanta had nearly killed her multiple times. Had she not ran out of necessity, she would have long ago stopped.
Lena's head snapped up, she heard her pursuers shuffling gates and moans grow louder.
"Shit!" She whispered. Lena looked around and saw that her only option was either to enter the dried out creek bed to her left, or climb the steep hill to her right.
She had been avoiding climbing the hill for the past half hour, having felt her limbs growing ever more tired. Looking behind her, she didn't see the walkers in sight, and decided to start up the hill. Her short rest had given her the time to breathe and asses her options.
She plunged up the hill holding onto the trees, the sound of the walkers slowly chasing her. Her eyes flickered up, down, and all around, trying to stay as vigilant as possible. Finally, sweat soaked and exhausted, Lena made it to the top of the hill.
Clinging to a tree, she assessed the walkers trying to follow her up the hill and decided it was unlikely that they would be unable to manage the steep grade. Sighing in relief, Lena looked around, and to her surprise noted that there were wild blackberries growing nearby.
Approaching cautiously, she began to pick them and eat slowly; savoring the first food her body had had in days. Lena felt her stomach cramp around the food, and pushed down the desire to shove more food in her mouth. After eating as much as she could Lena filled a Tupperware container she had scrounged from an empty house with the berries and decided to move on, she could already hear the walkers scrambling up the hill, pursuing her.
Later that night
Lena looked down from her perch in the tree where she had tied herself in, and pulled her trench coat tighter around her. She could only hope that she was high enough up that no walkers would wander by and notice her. Sleeping was a hard task in this position, but eventually she managed it.
"RUN LENA!" Her mother screamed….she smelled smoke….moaning…Lena tried to turn, and snapped awake, arms flailing, almost falling out of the tree. The smoke she smelled was not real, just a nightmare of her minds' making. The moaning however was very real.
She looked down and saw three walkers clawing at the tree. "Fuck!" Lena swore.
Untying herself, Lena watched them for a moment and then decided that the best way to handle them was by scaling down to a lower branch and taking them out from above with her Bowie knife. She lowered herself to a branch no more than two feet above them, and quickly realized that if she tried to lower herself any more to take one out, the others would grab her.
Making a swift decision, Lena kicked the closest in the face, knocking it back into the other two.
Jumping down to the ground she made a quick lunge towards the walkers and plunged her knife into the first's head. Pulling her knife free she whirled to her right to try and bring down the second and heard the third shuffling up to her left.
"Shit shit shit" Lena muttered, backing quickly towards the tree, hoping to use it to keep her back safe. The second walker lunged towards her and Lena thanked her long dead self defense teacher for instilling her with fast reflexes. She plunged the knife into its soft skull, and pushed at its chest, trying desperately to free the knife.
Lena heard the third walker moaning louder as it came inexorably closer. "Oh god, come on!" Lena moaned in fear, finally freeing her knife, too late, as the last walker tackled her to the ground, its teeth snapping dangerously close to her face. Screaming, Lena pushed at it.
*Twang* An arrow bolt stuck out of the walker's head, its blood splattering Lena, causing its even more dead weight to collapse on her. "Ughhh nasty" Lena groaned, pushing the body off her.
Standing, she looked around to see where the arrow had come from. Her eyes landed on a man, tall, with dark brown shaggy hair, holding a crossbow, wearing a leather vest.
Lena felt her heart pounding and her hands shaking from the adrenaline. She heard a rushing sound, and as the world faded to black around her, Lena's last conscious thought was "Thank god, I'm not alone anymore."