The air was thick, blanketing her skin in a sticky sweat as she studied the deer that stood silent among the trees. The animal was majestic, bending its head down toward the creek as it's ears flicked a fly off its fur before moving back to their natural position. It paused, listening for potential predators as it drank from the slowly flowing body of water.
Its spotted back reminded her of the fur James had worn in the cold winter months, holed up in his cabin with her sipping tea by the fire. If he were here with her now, he would tell her to breathe, to see the deer for what it really was… a sacrifice, a blessing.
She blinked and took in a deep breath, praying to the earth and river as she aimed her arrow at the young fawn. "Forgive me, for I must take this life to save my own." She chanted in her head as she pulled the arrow back against her string.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH...
The deer looked up, quickly flicking its ears again before hopping away and disappearing into the brush. It was gone. She released the pressure on her bow, deflated at the thought of another night without a meal.
"Damnit," she whispered, letting go of her breath and arrow.
This would be the third night in a row she would have to live off the thin supply of military meals she found on road the other day. James was a much more skilled hunter than she was, but she had been doing well enough on her own until now. Until this.
In the old world, something like this would have thrown her off, would have caused her to lose her cool. But this was the new world, and she couldn't afford to do that. Instead she crouched down behind her tree, looking in the direction of the footsteps as they continued to get louder. Could there be a walker out this far? Was there a new group of survivors making their way through this area?
She mimicked the deer and perked up her ears as much as she could. Quick and purposeful, with no dragging in between them, the footsteps sounded like they belonged to a living human. A living human! She hadn't seen one of those in months! She held her breath again as she waited for them to approach, stalling her excitement to see if they belonged to anyone useful.
The man's shoes were covered in mud, tarnishing what might have been shiny black leather at some point before all of this. His pants were tattered and torn, baring knees dried with blood holding the scattered fibers of fabric together. He took his time trailing through the brush as his eyes remained trained on the fleeting animal.
"Damn," he whispered under his breath, lowering his weapon. He sighed and turned in place as if to look for any other animals before stopping just in front of her.
She crouched down in her spot, using the foliage next to the tree as a shield against this burly stranger. Was he looking at her? Was he looking past her? Was there something behind her that she should be worried about? Was HE something to be worried about? She contemplated turning her head to look, but any movement might give her position away if she hadn't already done so. She stared at him as he walked toward her, his sharp features defining a trustworthy face as he tilted his head from side to side.
"C'm on." He coaxed her, raising his crossbow in front of him. "I can see you." He kept his eyes on her and periodically surveyed the landscape, keeping his bow pointed at her head. His eyes were cool and deep, filled with secrets she could only begin to decipher from the pain that hid so close behind them. He was cautious, afraid, and untrusting. In a world like this, she couldn't exactly blame him.
"It's just me," she offered, barely recognizing the sound of her own voice.
She had been hunting in these woods with James for years, and silently by herself for only a few short months. In all that time, she had never been lazy enough to get tracked by someone. What was happening to her? Was she losing her touch? Was she forgetting James' teachings already? Was she subconsciously trying to get tracked by someone… anyone... that was looking?
"Prove it." He held his weapon with strong arms, retreating a little as he beckoned for her to come out from behind the tree.
She stood up slowly, sensing he had come across some off-kilter people before he had run into her clearing. Maybe those people had caused the sadness in his eyes he was trying to cover up, or maybe he was one of those off-kilter people. Either way, she knew that there was only one way to find out.
She held her bow and arrow out separately in each hand, keeping a stream of eye contact as she set them both down at her feet.
"What's on yer face?" He lifted his bow higher, kicking her weapons away from her.
Her face? What was he talking about? Oh yeah, she'd almost forgotten. She'd almost forgotten that she'd painted her eyes and cheeks with mud before she went hunting that day.
"Just dirt and ash," she spun around slowly and tossed her knife onto the ground, hoping it would get him to drop the bow.
"How many walkers have you killed?" He bent down and took her knife, quickly aiming back at her as he shoved the blade in the back of his pants.
"Forty," she confessed, keeping her hands up in surrender.
"How many people have you killed?" His grip on his weapon tightened.
"Ten."
"Why?" he snarled.
"I had to." She took in a deep breath at the memory she couldn't get out of her head. The images of those men attacking her and James were too vivid for her to bury, too loud for her to ignore. "They were going to kill me," she confessed.
He held her fast with his weapon, his arrow pulled tight against the string as he judged the answers she gave him. His breath was slow and steady, like the breeze in the trees above them as he exhaled slowly. He looked down at her weapons given freely, then back up at her face before dropping the bow to his side.
"You got a camp?" He looked around the clearing as he slung his crossbow onto his back.
"Are you one of them? The Saviors?" She retreated back into the tree, her naked shoulder blades brushing against the aged bark.
"Nah." He pulled her knife out of his pants and handed it to her. "They're gone."
"Gone?" The word echoed in the forest, bouncing gently off the tree bark. She couldn't believe that such a powerful force had been removed from this earth, especially when they had so recently taken everything from her. "How do you know?"
"I just know." He swallowed hard as the rest of the story brewed in his chest, threatening to spill out of his lips as he kept his distance from her. "That why you're out here? Why you paint your face?" He picked up her weapons and examined them carefully, noticing skillful knife marks in the woodwork. She had either done this for a living before all of this or had perfected the skill out here to stay alive. "So they won't see you?"
He handed the weapons back to her.
"They saw me anyways." She volunteered, gripping her bow and arrow tightly before placing them on her shoulder. "Just like that deer saw you earlier," she scolded.
She pointed in the direction of the deer's path, noticing the bent leaves and displaced mud before shooting him an accusatory look. "I hope you're good with that crossbow, because now you owe me dinner."