Gasping For Life

As Rain Hits the Ground

The autumn season was beautiful for those who truly understood it, taking in the glory of the changing colours. It held the smell of moist leaves and dirt, giving the air an Earthy quality that only certain people could appreciate. There was no humid heat like the summer, or a biting chill like the winter; fall was soothing and neutral, a season in-between. There was peace in Autumn time, when the world was calming after the heat of summer and preparing for the cold of winter.

It was raining that day, leaving the entire land covered in a chilled layer of water. It seemed to wash away the grime in the world, clearing it of rot; cleansing the world.

This was why she loved Autumn.

Blair sat under the overhang of a porch, the small cabin buried deep in the forest and away from any main roads that could draw people to it. It had been raining for several days, leaving people to rush out of the open and try to find shelter somewhere stable and safe. She hadn't run into anyone else in the area, but there had been the odd dead person stumbling around. She loved the rain because it made the smell of dead flesh, and the rancid stench that came from them cooking in the sun all through the summer, finally disappear.

Inhaling deeply, Blair closed her eyes and took a moment to listen to the rain as it poured over the rusted eavestroph, the dead leaves inside causing the water to spill over like a waterfall. There were puddles and small rivers all around the little cabin, creating a mote for Blair to try and get over if ever she wanted to leave.

She had only wanted to tuck herself inside the cabin long enough for the rain to stop, hoping to avoid getting wet, cold and sick, but she hadn't expected to be stuck for three days. As much as she loved the rain, sitting in one place was beginning to put her on edge and made her go stir-crazy. Tapping the heel of her boot on the rotted wood of the step beneath her, she let out the long breath of air before rising to her feet.

Staying in one place so far from her group didn't sit well with her, so she felt it was time to move on. It had already been a week and a half since she'd left her group, telling them that she was going to be on a run for a while—which turned out to be longer than she had been intending.

"Titan," she called out, glancing over her shoulder to the open doorway of the cabin. The patter of claws sounded before a black and white Border Collie jogged out to meet her, the long fur on his tail waving like a flag as the appendage wagged excitedly. He'd probably be more excited to get out of that cabin than she was. "Time to go home, boy," she said with a smile, reaching out to scratch behind his ear affectionately. Her thick Scottish brogue came through as she spoke, strengthening her words.

Still quite young, Titan was basically a genius of a dog for his age. He was still a puppy when the infection had spread and she had been sure to train him to keep quiet and alive. Blair didn't want to lose the young one so soon, especially not to the dead. Blair's brother had done an amazing job with training the Collie, not only to never bark but to warn them discretely of the dead. If he ever smelt them nearby, he would whine quietly and lie down where he was, only moving when they gave him their safe word; 'Divert', meaning that they would divert their path to a safer route.

Her boots clunked on the wooden boards, Titan excitedly wiggling around her with his tail moving at super speed. "Calm, Titan. Calm," she ordered, holding her hand out, palm to Titan, and watched as he stilled gradually. Only when he was standing still did she tap his nose with her palm and give a praising pat.

Pulling her pack onto her back, tightening the strap, Blair made sure that she had left nothing behind in the cabin one last time. She didn't want to travel through the rain, especially with Titan, but sometimes she was left with just no other choice. Her pack slanted around her back, one strap across her chest in one direction, with another crossing in the opposite direction that held two machetes against her back, each in a sheath of faded black leather.

Neither she nor Titan gave a care to the water and mud as they stepped through the puddles and rivers around the cabin, more rain pouring down on them from through the canopy of dying trees. Titan's nose was raised up, letting him catch any scents that were dragging through the moist air. Blair never quite felt as safe without a dog at her side; there were four of them back at base and she always tried to take one with her on scouting jobs, but it was usually her Collie that came with her.

It didn't take long before her hair and clothes were soaked through, leaving her dripping with the rain. Titan was much the same, his once fluffy coat flattened down. She felt sorry that she had to drag him out into the rain, but she wasn't in any better of a condition. Reaching back for one of the machetes at her back, Blair pulled it out when Titan slowed with a faint whine, letting her know that something was wrong in the area.

It only took a moment for the biter to stumble out from around one of the larger trees, the skin of its face clean of blood and revealing the rot that had been masked underneath. Titan growled beside her, but Blair held out a hand to quiet him and instead stepped up to the biter with her machete, swinging at the face of the biter to slide clean through its skull.

The rain almost immediately washed away the gore from the blade, letting her see the visible black metal beneath. Flicking her wrist in a waving motion, Titan relaxed and jogged up to her again. She bench over to praise him, scratching behind his ears and wishing that she could give him a treat for what he had done but they were almost out of food.

Best to save the food for when they were supposed to eat, not only as a gift.

Titan was wiggling happily at the praise, happy to have done his job correctly and receive the praise that his mistress was giving to him. Blair smiled at his excitement before she turned away from him to look at the surrounding area, wondering which route she should take. She never followed main roads, since she knew that most survivors followed those routes. She met other survivors before, and unfortunately most had been extremely unkind.

She mostly worried for Titan, since he was rare in a world of the undead. People had tried to take him from her before, or the other dogs that her group trained. She feared that most of the time it was because they wanted to eat the poor thing.

Sheathing the machete back into place, Blair resumed her trek through the leaves and mud at a steady pace. No longer rushing as she had done in the past—everything would happen in due time, whether it was in her favor or against it. Titan trotted along beside her, his ears twitching this way and that, his eyes soon to follow as he kept a constant surveillance of their surroundings. One problem that came with the dogs was that sometimes her group members left all responsibility to them, letting themselves become unawares and almost end up with a bite because of it.

Blair refused to slack in her duties—she had just as much responsibility to keep Titan safe as he did to her.

They had been walking for a couple of hours, the rain coming and going, when Titan stopped and turned his acute nose in another direction. Instead of warning of a walker, he glanced over to Blair, who had stopped when he did, before veering off of their original path to follow whatever scent he had picked up. Blair frowned after him for a moment, watching as he continually lifted his head to scent the air before redirecting his course. Whatever the Collie had found, the rain was making it more difficult to track. Had she brought one of the Shepherds or Labradors, they'd have less trouble, but Titan seemed very determined to locate whatever was guiding him.

So, knowing that something important must have caught his attention, Blair followed. She kept herself prepared for anything to attack them, be it the living or the dead, with her hand near the handle of her machete. This went on for several minutes, Titan stopping and starting again whenever he nearly lost the scent. Mud and leaves had dirtied the fur around his nose, but he didn't show a sign that he cared as he trotted on as determined as ever. Blair kept close, but didn't interfere with his path so as not to muck up whatever trail he was on.

She knew basic tracking methods when hunting, but Titan wasn't hunting an animal. He had different cues for that.

He finally seemed to have caught exactly what he was looking for as thunder rumbled in the distance, warning of a coming storm, as he took off at a dead run in a direction to their left. Blair had to race after him, silently cursing his sudden obsession with whatever it was that he had found. He'd never just run off like that before. She was careful to keep track of his black and white fur through the trees, but the forest was hard enough to run through when it wasn't soaking wet with rain falling into her eyes every few paces.

"Titan!" she called in a voice as loud as she dared, but the dog did not cease for a couple of more yards. Only when he broke the bushes of an overgrown yard did he finally slow down, jogging up to where a ruined house was in shambles before them. Blair, panting from the chase, broke the trees after him with her arm wiping at the water dripping into her eyes. If she hadn't been soaked to the bone before, she certainly was now. "What got you in a fit," she grumbled to herself as she followed the panting dog, who had sat just beside the remains of the front porch, with a wagging tail.

He wasn't growling or tense, so it wasn't a walker, and he wasn't keen on it like food. Blair hadn't seen this reaction from him before; just sitting there staring at her, waiting.

"What did you find, boy?" she drawled out as she walked closer, noticing that he was beside a broken section of lattice that had once surrounding the underside of the deck, hiding the beams and dirt beneath. Holding onto the handle of her machete just in case, Blair knelt down next to the dog and peered into the gaping hole.

Staring back at her was a pair of terrified eyes, surrounded by pale cheeks and dripping hair.

Blair must have looked as bewildered as the child did scared, staring at one another before Blair had collected her wits and released her machete to kneel on the ground fully, getting a better look into the hole. "Are you alright?" she asked carefully, hoping that her Scottish accent wouldn't confuse the poor thing too much. The kid was so far back inside the space that Blair couldn't see properly and therefore had no way of telling if it was a she or a he, but the child was certainly terrified.

Of course, the child didn't say anything but only scooted further back.

"Hey, now, I'm not going to hurt you. And this one might lick you from head to toe, but he's sweeter than honey." Titan, as though to prove a point, decided to plant a nice long lick up the side of Blair's face, replacing the rain water with a slick line of saliva that had her making a face at the feeling. The feminine giggle the came from the shadows told Blair that she was dealing with a little girl, which made it easier to try and convince her to emerge from her hiding place.

Pushing Titan away gently so as not to get tongue attacked again, Blair tried to get a better look at the little girl.

"I promise, you'll be alright. I can find us somewhere dry to stay, so we don't get sick. I'm sure you're getting cold, just hiding under there." Blair reached her hand out in offering, smiling as gently as she could so as to appear unthreatening. She was sure that any kid that was left on their own would be terrified of anyone and anything, so she didn't blame the little girl for being so hesitant.

Slowly, the little girl shuffled forward until she could take Blair's hand and let the Scottish woman help her through the hole in the lattice. She looked around ten years old, but Blair wasn't certain. Dirty blonde hair was matted with water and mud, but she was relieved to see that there was no sign of a wound on her. Clothes torn and stained, soaked with water, Blair could see that she was a naturally pale girl, but the cold rain had probably gotten her sick somehow. She was already shivering heavily.

Remaining kneeled as she girl stood up, letting her have a slight height advantage, Blair smiled as she kept a gentle hold on the child's hands. "I'm Blair," she introduced. "And if you can't understand me, just let me know. I won't take it personally," she told her, getting a shy smile and nod from the child. "What's your name, lass?"

"Sophia," she answered shakily, her shivers coming through in her words. Titan took that moment to worm his way between the two females, wiggling excitedly at seeing someone new. Sophia gasped in surprise at the dog's wet, cold fur, but she timidly petted his wet head none the less.

"His name is Titan," Blair said as she pulled up to her full height. "He'll help keep you safe. Very smart dog." Glancing to the house that had been attached to the deck Sophia was once hiding beneath, Blair frowned at the condition. It wasn't suitable for the three of them to hide in, the roof gone and half of the walls burned and charred black. "First, we need to find somewhere to get out of this rain. Get dry."

Slipping off her pack and the belts that secured her machete sheathes to her back, Blair shucked off her jacket and shook it out once before she wrapped it around Sophia's shoulders. Waterlogged and heavy, it was still able to block the wind from her girl's bare arms. It dwarfed the child, but Sophia silently, gratefully, slipped her arms into the warm sleeves and wrapped it tighter around herself. Blair felt the chill as soon as the jacket left her arms, but she was more worried about the little girl than herself at the moment.

Once they were out of the rain, she'd find out what had happened to her. And whoever she had been with.

"Ready?" she asked patiently with an offered hand, to which Sophia took with much less hesitation. Her machetes and pack back in place, Blair led them away from the burned house to try and find some sign that they were near another cabin. They couldn't turn back for the one she had Titan had bunked down in before, too far away in the opposite direction, so instead she made her way along their original route.

She didn't want to risk taking out the map in her bag, packed in a watertight baggie, so she instead checked the compass she kept attached to her belt and resumed their southwest path.

Sophia was still timid, but Titan seemed to help calm her down whenever he trotted up to her side and licked at her hand that poked from the sleeve of Blair's jacket, or sniffed at her cheek with his wet nose. She giggled each time, scratching the happy dog behind the ears with a tiny smile that encouraged Blair a bit more.

"You feeling alright?" she asked after they had been walking for a couple of minutes. "Been in the rain long?"

"I couldn't find anywhere else to go," she admitted as she looked up at Blair's dark blue eyes, her auburn hair sticking to her head and trailing over her face where the strands had fallen loose. Sophia guessed the she must have a reddish hair colour when it was dry, since it looked like an odd brown when it was wet.

"That's alright, we'll get nice and dry soon. I'll find us a place, I promise." Blair's accent was a bit of work to decipher, but she'd been living in America long enough that it wasn't impossible. When she'd first arrived as a teenager, back in her senior year, she'd been a nightmare to understand. Even her teachers complained about her 'illiteracy'. She'd been forced to take lessons with vocal instructors, trying to lesson her accent. It happened on its own over time, and the lessons only provided a means for other kids to mock her.

That didn't last very long when her older brother started showing up after school to pick her up, a Master Sergeant in the Marines with an accent just as thick as hers. Only his made him terrifying just to listen to; the packed on muscle and scars from war didn't help much, since he looked like he wanted to kill everyone that he saw. Hilarious truth about him was that he was an absolute teddy bear.

Thankfully, luck was on the girls' side. A couple of miles through the woods, they came upon a rather snug cabin that was tucked deep inside the forest, an overgrown path big enough for someone to walk along the only way to it. Blair sent Titan in first, even though the door and windows had still been intact, to sniff out if there was anyone or anything inside. He barked an all clear and was at the door to meet them when Blair led Sophia up the two steps that made up the entrance.

"Is it safe?" she asked the woman in front of her with weary eyes.

"Yep," Blair answered with an assuring smile. "Titan here can sniff out anything—like you! And when he barked meant that there was nothing in here." Glancing around, it looked as though the house hadn't been touched since the outbreak. There were some things missing, but not in the way that she had seen when a place had been ransacked. "Looks like we got lucky, lass, the place may even have a good meal."

For the first time since she'd emerged from her little hold, Sophia gave a true smile.

Not only was there some canned and bagged food, but there was clothes. Blair changed into a pair of sweat pants and a tank top she found in the master bedroom, the only bedroom, and brought out a pair of shorts and large shirt for Sophia to wear while their regular clothes dried. Most everyday clothes were gone, but the worn ones that probably would have been useless were left behind.

A couple of cans of corn, heated over a tiny fire directly in the can—one for each of them—and a box of rather stale crackers was their meal for the night. Blair filled a bowl of kibble for Titan and gave him a couple of crackers for his treat, since they were salted he only got a few but he loved them none the less. Sophia snuck him a couple when she thought Blair was unaware, but the Scot knew what she was doing and decided not to comment.

"So, Sophia, were you with anyone? Family? Parents?"

Sophia sobered quite a bit from where she had been running Titan's dog brush through his fur, the Collie lying rather happily on his side as she did so. "I had my mum, and some others."

Blair waited for her to continue for a couple of moments, but it was clear that something had spooked the child and she was scared of saying more. "Did you get separated from them?"

Nodding her head, Sophia looked away from Blair and focused on a knot in Titan's fur, brushing it out as gently as she could. "There was a whole bunch of dead people. They came up the road. Mummy and the others were all crawling under the trucks, so I did, too." Remaining quiet, waiting, Blair reclined on her side on the floor a couple of feet away with her torso supported by one elbow. Sophia was momentarily distracted by the candle flame lighting a silver chain at her breast, falling into her shirt, but she turned away before she could really see what it was.

Soon, Sophia continued on her own. "Miss. Lori was covering mummy's mouth. They were under another truck. Mr. Rick did this," she stopped talking to put a finger over her lips in a signal to be quiet. Blair nodded her head in understanding, letting Sophia know that she could continue. "I thought they were gone. I thought they had all passed." Sophia's voice quivered with her fear, pulling at Blair's heart.

Shifting her position, she moved over to lean against the wall near Sophia and tried to run a hand soothingly across the little girl's back. Sophia was trembling and her hands were fisted in Titan's fur, but not enough to hurt him. Even the dog was watching her with worried brown eyes.

"I started to climb out from under the truck—I honestly checked first!—and one of them was there. I tried to hide again, but he followed me under the truck. So I ran. I ran away from the road, into the trees. I thought I could hide there but he kept following me!" Sophia was beginning to cry and turned herself into Blair's arms, her face pressed against the woman's collar. "Mr. Rick told me to hide, in the pond under the tree, and I did! When they were gone, I tried to get back to the road but I didn't know the way. I kept hearing noises and I was scared they came back!"

"Hey, they're gone now. You're safe here. I'll keep you safe, Titan'll keep you safe. Nothing to worry about here. Once we've rested and our clothes are dry, I'll help you find your mum, aye?" she offered, running her hand along Sophia's back, through her hair or over her cheeks. The child nodded weakly into Blair's chest, her hands fisted into her shirt.

That night, Titan slept on the couch in the front room while Blair and Sophia took the large bed in the bedroom, leaving the door open in case the dog was trying to alert them of something. Sophia clung to Blair all through the night, especially when the storm passed overhead with great rumbles of thunder that quaked the house around them and flashes of lightning brilliant enough to blind.

Blair barely slept.

Alright, so this is my second Walking Dead story, the other is a Daryl/OC. I've wanted to start on a Rick/OC one for a while and only recently found the time to do so! It will be a bit AU, still in the apocalypse and all that but not directly following events of the show or comic—which I watch and read both.

It'll be a couple of chapters yet before the rest of the gang shows up, since I want to have some time to get a foundation around Blair's character.

Hope you liked it, let me know what you think!