She breathed heavily as she ran through the woods. Her medium-length blond hair flew behind her as she dodged small rocks and tree roots on the ground. The voices from behind her were becoming softer as she put more distance between her and them. Never again, she thought to herself, am I going to trust a stranger. She gently cupped the fresh cut on her left shoulder, a "warning" as the man put it. He thought she knew people who she hadn't, which had cost her what would become a new scar. Luckily she didn't think it would need stitches, but it sure hurt like hell.

Snap.

She looked to her right just as a walker stumbled out of a bush and towards her. She swiftly took out her newly-found knife and stabbed the thing right through the eye. After stumbling back a few steps from the impact and removing her weapon from the walker's skull, she continued running. The burning feeling in her legs begged her to stop but she knew she shouldn't. Light tears started to fill her eyes as she bit down on her tongue, trying to suppress the pain in her shoulder. Her green long-sleeved shirt was already stained with old walker blood, now soaking in her own. She didn't stop running until her body couldn't take it anymore and she collapsed to the ground, shaking. She hadn't eaten in two days and hadn't drank water in what seemed like forever. Her eyelids were heavy and she was about to close them when she heard voices… again.

She didn't recognize them but she wasn't going to take any risks. She darted her eyes around, finally finding a tree that looked climbable. She gradually stood up and stumbled towards the tree.

Gripping the lowest branch she forced herself up, unable to see past her tears as she strained her shoulder to lift her bodyweight. She let out a sharp breath once she flung her left leg over the branch. She knew her body couldn't take trying to climb up further and that she would probably fall in the process. The voices were getting closer and she could hear the faint crunching of their footsteps. She lay her body as flat as she could on the branch, hoping the thin patches of mostly brown leaves could hide her from sight. It was getting close to winter and she could already see her breath.

"I don't know, man. It seemed like the sound was coming from this way. It could have been a deer but I haven't seen one of those in ages."

"Yeah you're probably right. Let's just try to find some squirrels or somethin' and head back so that we can camp out for the night."

Blinking away her tears, the young woman peered through the leaves getting a good look at two men whom she hadn't recognized from the last group she had encountered. The one had an orange shirt and medium length chestnut hair, the other taller one with darker hair and a baseball hat on. She could tell that they weren't starving and possibly had some food on them—maybe even water. She was tempted to call out to them but thought of her shoulder and decided to keep quiet. The two men walked closer to her tree, looking around for anything edible and making sure to be quiet in case there were squirrels. The woman could still feel the burning sensation in her shoulder from raising herself onto the tree and squeezed her thumbs to prevent herself from crying out loud. She couldn't help but squeal slightly.

"What the fuck was that?" asked the man with the darker hair. The other motioned for him to be quiet as he slowly stepped closer to the tree looking towards where the sound came from. The young-woman tried to keep as still as possible with her ears thumping from her racing heartbeat. As the man got closer she knew that she was going to be found and in his next step he locked eyes with her.

"Holy shit!" The man exclaimed, raising his rifle up towards the woman whose heart skipped a beat. She didn't know what was coming next but didn't want any part of it.

"Who are you?" asked the man with the hat. The woman slowly sat up, shakily gripping the tree.

"I asked who the hell you are?!" The same man repeated angrily.

"I… I don't want any trouble. I'm not looking for food or supplies… please just leave me alone and I promise you won't see me again." The shorter man seemed to take this into consideration.

"No, Luke, this girl could be working with Carver. If we let her go then she can go back and tell him where we are!" argued the other.

The woman quickly blurted out, "No, I promise you, I'm telling the truth. I'm not with a group or working with anybody! I've been by myself for a long time and I don't plan on changing that."

"Well then what do we do with her, Nick?" asked the man known as Luke.

"Shit… I don't know. But we can't let her go! We should take her back and let the group decide." Replied the younger man whom the woman now knew as Nick.

"Look how shaken up she already is. That'll just scare her to death!"

"Fine," the woman interrupted, wanting to end the argument. "You can take me wherever you need to take me, if it means that I can leave afterwards."

"Okay" said Luke after a few seconds of consideration.

He stepped forward to help the woman down.

"Hey, so what's your name, anyway?" asked Nick.

"Gemma" she responded.