Greetings! I've had some kind of idea strike me recently and, since we've now got about seven months to go before the next season of The Walking Dead on television, I figured I'd get back to trying my hand at some fanfiction. It's been a while, and I'll be brushing off the dust on my style and storytelling, so any feedback of the constructive variety will be greatly appreciated.
This is an AU story where there will be situational blurring, mixing OC with canon characters from the TV and comic series, and survival horror.
And of course, though I wish I owned something pertaining to this fantastic series I only have a picture of Bicycle Girl and a few volumes of the comics/graphic novels. All those characters and places that you recognize are the work and property of the people you see listed on the credits and copyright pages -all hail Robert Kirkman's genius. I'm just a student trying to entertain herself and others; I get nothing more out of this than joy.
Without further adieu, I give you the first installment of "The Horsewoman of the Apocalypse".
"I hate the woods, Faline. Those things could be anywhere," I whispered to my horse. We'd been traveling for days and running from the geeks as Liam had called them. I pushed that thought from my mind trying to move on before the pain hit me. We had to get out of these woods or I was going to go crazy from jumping at every little sound. Faline wasn't too fond of having to weave through the trees, especially when we had to kick it into a fast gallop to maneuver around three of Them. She whinnied in response to my statement, but froze when we heard a yelp and the panicked breathing that was definitely not the corpses. We both turned this way and that, trying to find the source, when we saw the bobbing of a muddy blonde head a few yards away –headed straight for the three we'd avoided only ten minutes before. The little figure was fleeing from another couple of stumbling bodies with gnashing teeth, and they were gaining on her pretty easily; they must have been going for a while. I whistled and pressured Faline's sides, though not much goading was necessary as she sensed what we needed to do. There was a reason we'd both made it this far together.
"Hey, hey, c'mon kid, gimme your hand!" I called as loud as I dared as we sped up to the figures side, kicking up dirt and debris that helped to slow the geeks only momentarily. What I could now clearly see was a little girl hesitated only a moment –a leftover reaction from when society was as it had been, the fear of a stranger, but at least I was living—and she flailed her arm out as she stretched her legs as much as she could. I tensed my arm and readied myself for a big pull, grabbed her proffered limb and heaved her up onto the saddle in front of me. She was small and easily curled into my front, shaking from adrenaline and fear, and if she hadn't been doing that I would hardly have noticed she was there front how light she was. "Ha!" I cheered Faline on into her fastest pace she could muster and we all three got the heck out of there.
It was a good ten minutes of Faline's run before we finally found the open road. Well, as open as a highway full of abandoned cars that had once been shuttling fear-stricken people to dead ends could be. At least here I could see further than ten feet in front of me before a tree blocked my sight. We had lost the stumblers from the woods a decent way back, so I wasn't too worried about them reappearing for a while. A nice strolling gait would do us for now. The girl in my lap had ceased her shaking and dared to peek up from my shoulder as we slowed, and she looked at me after she surveyed our surroundings. Her hair, without mud, probably looked like straw, her eyes were the same hazel my brother's had been before the infection, and her face –or what I could see where she'd been crying and wiped away the dirt- was spotted with many freckles.
"I'm Sophia," She offered after a moment of awkward silence. "Thanks for saving me."
I grinned at her manners and glanced once more around us. "I'm Fiona." I gently tugged Faline to a stop so we could readjust now that we had a moment; I'm sure my shoulders wouldn't be the most awesome scenery for the ride ahead of us. "Hold tight, I'm going to swing off and then I'll help you down."
She certainly hadn't come from a place where she could regularly ride horses. She sat very unsteady for a moment after I touched ground before I could help her down. As I was guiding her form down I could hear a loud gurgle from her stomach, and I realized I was rather hungry myself.
"Well Sophia, what d'you say we take a peek in these cars and see if we can't find some food to get us on our way, hmm?" She nodded and we moved forward as a group, Sophia sticking very close to my side.
"You have a very nice horse," She said quietly after we had gone maybe a football field's length down the highway and snagged a rather full knapsack of decent snacks and surprisingly a couple of bottles of water –one of which we both shared happily and another I poured into a makeshift bowl for Faline, who had blown a playful gust of air at Sophia for her comment.
"Why thank you. She thinks you're pretty nice yourself," I translated. "That's Faline."
"Oh! Like Bambi's friend!" She said excitedly while petting Faline's cheek. I nodded with a chuckle and looked into another promising car that looked loaded to the brim with rather useful stuff. After I'd pulled free a couple warm looking blankets, a small bag of canned foods, and a nearly new carton of cigarettes I turned back to my two companions.
"Alright Miss Sophia, we're going to get you back up on the saddle, I'm going to pack these supplies up, and then we're going to figure out where we're headed. Were you traveling with anyone?" I asked as we headed to the trunk of the car where I would lift her so she could hop back on.
"Well, I was with a group, and we got separated a couple days ago, but I don't know where they would have gone. I think they mentioned Bending…?" She inflected her words to make it a question.
"You mean, Fort Binning?" She nodded enthusiastically and I tried to keep my face from falling. Binning had fallen a while back.
"Alright, well we will try to catch up to them then. Now, I'm going to lift you onto the trunk here, and you can step up to the roof. And now, just slide up and onto the saddle –yes, you can hold the horn. There! Alright, now I'll just put these things in the saddlebags. And done!" I commentated, trying to keep myself from mentioning what I knew of Binning. Maybe we'd catch her people before they got too far; they may have stuck rather close to the highway if they knew Sophia was lost. I shook my head a small fraction and hefted myself up behind the girl and situated myself comfortably around her on the saddle. We snacked quietly on a sealed bag of pretzels as we headed down the highway in the direction of the fort. As we trudged slowly and silently, only sighting a single far off "walker" as Sophia called it, she started to doze; she had to have been exhausted if she had been separated days ago. I looked at her face with worry etched into her brows and a firm grip on my left arm and hoped I could do better at keeping her safe than I had with my brother.