The Walking Dead
"Run. Run. Don't stop now, they're right behind you." I could hear the words replaying over and over in my head, and they were my only sense of guidance. All around me I could hear the echo of the shrieks and growls of the walkers, and despite my best efforts to evade them they grew closer. Pulling out my pistol I hopped over the nearest fallen tree and continued my retreat into the forest. I knew that firing the gun would only attract more of them, but exhaustion was quickly getting the better of me. Struggling to continue I ran down a small leaf littered hill and came across a lone walker. Without a seconds hesitation I aimed at it and fired before instantly collapsing to the ground. More of them were on their way and I could hear the sounds of the walkers drawing in. Checking the clip I counted six bullets left. Five of those I could use on the walkers, but the last one….well I tried not to think about that at the moment.
Even though my ribs cried out in pain and my lungs felt hotter than the fires of Hell I rose back to my feet and pressed on. Before long the sound from the walkers became muffled, before finally coming to a silence. Even so I kept on sprinting, before eventually collapsing near a small ravine. Plunging my face into the water I felt the instant reward of refreshing water sustaining me, and after having my fill I laid down and regained my composure. The last hour had gone by so quickly, and yet so much had happened. The prison was gone, everyone was scattered and Herschel….oh poor Herschel. I don't know why the Governor felt it necessary to take your life and attempt to take mine and everyone else, but in the end it wasn't worth it. I know not what happened to the Governor and his henchmen nor the fate of Rick and my fellow companions, but I needed to press on. Failure to do so would lead to me becoming one of them….one of the walking dead.
After a few minutes, I slowly made my way back up to my feet. Gazing up past the tree line I desperately searched for the sun, trying to find my sense of direction. I quickly found what I sought, and came to the realization that the sun was setting in the east. I only had a few hours left to find shelter for the night, because it would be a fate worse than death to stay out with the walkers around. Carefully navigating the terrain I could slowly start to feel the temperature drop. Thankfully today was one of the first few days of Fall, otherwise this could've been a far direr situation. It was actually quite refreshing in a way, the cool breeze managed to quell both my exhaustion and emotions. As I slowly advanced my way through the forest, the sound of several gunshots could be heard in the distance. At first my instinct was to continue on, but I knew that I wasn't the type of guy to leave someone behind. Picking up a rather sturdy tree branch I sped my way towards the direction of the sound, not knowing the trouble I was getting myself into.
As I drew closer and closer to the site of the gunshots, the sound of walkers was once again audible. Another minute or two passed before there was a break in the tree line, and right in front of me were train tracks. Relieved that I found something to guide me I let out a little chuckle, but when I turned to my side my excitement quickly turned to fear. The good news was that there were survivors, three to be exact, but the bad news was we were surrounded by over a dozen walkers. With the three survivors already fighting for their very lives I entered into the fray, instantly decapitating the first two walkers in front of me. Drawing as many as I could from the survivors I took down what walkers I could, but it wasn't enough to make a dent. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the survivors, and to my dismay I saw the elder gentleman in the group get bit right in the neck. Blood splattered all around and he collapsed to the ground before being lost in a sea of walkers. The other male survivor followed suit shortly thereafter, until only me and a lone female remained. She was in her mid-twenties, around my age, and it seemed as though she was pretty handy to have in a fight. Together we managed to take down the remaining walkers, and both collapsed due to exhaustion. Taking a look at the carnage around us we sat speechless, what a day it had been so far.
After a few silent minutes, I made my way back up to my feet and offered my hand to her. Taking a moment, probably to assess whether or not I was a threat, she eventually mumbled a thank you and rose back to her feet. Looting her once living companions she tossed me a backpack, presumably from one of them.
"Come on we don't have much time" she said frantically. "More of them will be here soon"
"My name is Fred by the way". I said to her. "You're welcome for the help".
"Okay what do you want a cookie?" She snapped back. She had a sense of humor….great. After a moment she responded again. "My name is Kimberly, thank you for helping me. Now come on we need to go".
"Well where do we plan on going" I said back to her. "It's not like we have a lot of options now".
"I don't care where we go, as long as it isn't here or with another group". She said angrily, her nostrils flaring.
"Why not" I shouted back angrily. "We won't survive here on our own. We need to find help. There are people out there that can help us".
You don't get it do you? She said to me with a bewildered look on her face. "The walkers aren't what we need to fear anymore. Do you understand? It's the living we need to be afraid of now. There are no nice people left in this world. There are those that are strong, and those that are weak. I'm not reverting back to who I was, I'm going to be strong, are you with me or not?
Despite the cold dark look that Kimberly had in her eyes, I knew that we needed to worry about ourselves for now. To restart would be too risky, so I bit my tongue and we made our way into the wilderness. After a few hours the last rays of sunlight went away and the moon made its way out. Traveling in the dark wasn't an option, so we built a fire and sat by it silently, waiting for someone to talk first. As it turns out, that somebody ended up being me. Desperately looking for a way to start a conversation I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"So, do you come here often?" I said to her. To this day I can't tell you whether or not I was intending to be sarcastic or not, but thankfully for me she did.
"Do I come out to the woods at night during a zombie apocalypse often?" She asked herself out loud. "Well come to think of it no, this is a first for me. How about you? You totally scream badass".
"Well yes I am a total badass. I'm glad you're able to recognize that." I retorted back. Finally I could keep my own again this girl in the humor department. "I haven't had to spend a night outside in a long time. Guess I should consider myself fortunate".
"Yeah you should" she responded. "So…..how many of the living have you killed?"
"You mean how many people did I kill that weren't walkers" I asked. "Great question to ask. Really sets the mood." For a moment I deliberated giving her an answer. Thinking about the past was….unsettling and sent a chill down my spine. However after some hesitation on my part I finally opened up. "One" I said coldly.
"What happened? Why did you do it" she asked me. She had been able to tell that it was going to be a tough topic for me to discuss. Slowly she drifted her hands towards mine and held them softly, and when she did so my mind fell at ease. Something about this girl made me want to share every dark secret I had, to let go of all the emotional baggage that comes from living in this hellhole. Slowly I began to provide my answer.
"It was…six months ago. Before I had made my way to the prison. I was in a small group with two other survivors, one male and one female. We had stopped for a few moments to regain our energy, the female needed the break especially. She was pregnant, fairly far on, her husband hadn't made it, and the constant travel was taking a toll on her. So while we're resting, a group of walkers snuck up on us. Struggling to get up due to exhaustion the walkers kept getting closer to us. Out of desperation the guy…..he pushed her…..right into the horde to save himself. She was pregnant and he….I couldn't imagine someone was capable of doing such a thing. So we ran….and we escaped….and then that night when he went to sleep….I ended it. It needed to happen." Tears slowly started to fall down my face as Kimberly embraced me, and I held onto her as tightly as I could. After a few moments I let go, and decided to ask her a question.
"Those two men that you were with earlier….who were they?" I asked her softly. Instantly you could see the blue sea of her eyes turned red, and a lone tear came from her left eye. You could tell that she had put off even processing what had happened earlier. Looking at me she also began her answer slowly.
"The older one was my….dad and the younger one was my brother. We were just following the tracks when….when the walkers just came out from everywhere. They were all I had left….I have nothing" she started to sob. I had never been one that could deal with crying that well, but I felt the sudden urgency to comfort her. Slowly I wrapped my arms around here and pulled her in close. Softly brushing her dark air away from her ear I leaned down and whispered as gently as I could.
"You have me". Upon hearing that she snuggled up even closer to me, and we sat next to the fire in silence, and comfort.
Even though I knew that the outside survival strategy wouldn't last, near the end I had fooled myself to believe that together Kimberly and I could get through anything. Little did I know that things were about to change for both of us in a big way. For a month Kimberly and I managed to make it on our own, gathering supplies and one day the two of us decided that we were going on a supply run. There had been a number of warehouses in our area and we had salvaged everything we could from all but one of them. By this point we had acquired a car, and we drove up to the entrance and proceeded to travel the rest on foot. It was pretty simple by this point, all we had to do was get in and out and do our thing without getting caught. However this time, what we didn't know was that the place was infested with walkers. The survivors that I guess had lived in the warehouse at some point had rigged alarms all over the place to alert them if walkers had infiltrated, but they didn't count on one of them already being infected. It had been a massacre, blood was painted all over the walls and items scattered on the floor, and when we set off the alarm by mistake, all hell broke loose.
The trap had been sprung to perfection. Before I knew it I was surrounded by over thirty walkers. I couldn't find Kimberly, she was probably in her own hell just as I was. Taking out my knife I jabbed it into the first walker in front of me, before running through the warehouse desperately searching for an exit. Knocking anything down in sight to slow down the walkers and try and buy me some time, I finally managed to find an exit, but it was blocked by four walkers. Taking out my pistol I ran towards them and fired, and instantly four corpses plummeted to the ground. Now I was down to two bullets, not a good situation by any means. Smashing through the door I ran my way around the warehouse and on my way back to the car, a walker managed to come out from behind the car. Instinctively I ran up to it and went for the fatal blow, but it stumbled right into me and we both fell to the ground. Pushing my arms out I kept the walker at bay with all my might, but even still his teeth were bare inches from my face. Frantically grabbing my knife from my side I held the walker with my arm under its throat and managed to put it out of its misery. Taking a moment to regain myself, I opened the car door and proceeded to turn it on. After a few moments Kimberly came running out, hacking through any walker that came her way. The moment she entered the car I took off and we sped away down the road. She looked at me with tears in her eyes though and showed me her arm, she had been bit.
A few hours past, and before long Kimberly started to fade inside the car. Seeing a small barn off in the distance I parked the car outside and began carrying Kimberly into it. I placed her down on the softest spot I could find. By now the wind was roaring into through the openings, and nothing could be heard except for the constant barrage of thunder and heavy rain. It was cold, a sign of things to come I guess, and of course we had nothing to warm ourselves with. An indoor fire was too risky due to smoke inhalation, so I simply tolerated the cold and made my way over to Kimberly. While I was getting colder she was burning up even more now, sweat dripping off of her. She didn't have much time left, maybe an hour, but it was an hour I intended to be present for. I gazed into her eyes and thought frantically about what I could do to save her. Sadly I already knew the answer; there was nothing I could do but wait for her to turn. Crying softly, she looked into me deeper than anyone I had ever known and knew what had to be done. Struggling to talk, she managed to let out a few words.
Don't…..let me…turn….like them." She let out desperately. "You know what you have to do". She was right, I did know what I had to do. Slowly I started to stand up, but before I made it to my feet Kimberly grabbed my arm. Pulling me down with what little strength she had left she softly kissed me, her burning lips touching my cold ones. It was my first kiss actually, and for all I know it could be my last. I think a part of me loved her after all we had been through, all the emotions we had shared together, but of course this world had other plans for me. After breaking off and staring into one another's eyes for a moment I made my way back up to my feet, crying that this was how it was going to end. Taking out my pistol I pointed it at her, and by this point she was openly sobbing. Nodding at me to end her suffering, I pulled the trigger and just like that Kimberly was released from this world. The instant I pulled the trigger I collapsed to the ground sobbing, and that's where I would lay for the rest of the night.
Morning came after what seemed like an eternity, and yet the entire time I stayed latched to Kimberly's side. I had no way of burying her with what little equipment I had, and it felt wrong to just leave her here. Deliberating for a moment, I remembered a scene from a movie I watched when I was a kid. It's been so long that I've forgotten the title of it, but it helped me figure out how to properly honor Kimberly. Taking my knife out I made my way to one of the wooden boards in the barn and carved a sentence into the wall; "RIP Kimberly, friend, hero, badass". Short and sweet, just like she would've wanted. Grabbing what little gear the two of us had been gathering and placing it into my pack, I began to head north and try my luck. Two days past and I still hadn't found anything, until a lone trail came into my proximity.
Following the trail, the sight of large metal walls soon came into view. The settlement indeed seemed huge, and even though it was still several hundred feet away I could clearly see figures standing in the watchtowers surrounding the wall. I was being watched, and I knew any shady movement on my end would end with my demise. Slowly I made my way towards the front gate, and when I was within a close enough range I dropped my bag in front of me, to show those inside I wasn't a threat. After what seemed like an eternity, the doors slowly began to open, and two figures made their way to investigate me. One had his eyes fixed upon me, and stood with his crossbow trained directly at my torso. The man was Daryl, I had known him from the prison. Even though it hadn't been too long since I had seen him something seemed off, like he was broken on the inside. Before I could reintroduce myself the other figure made his way towards me, and after a few seconds I realized it was Rick. Right away you could tell that he recognized me, but I wasn't as close to him as the others in his group were. With the world being the way it was everyone you didn't know by heart was a threat, and I had to work my way out of that stigma.
Rick took a moment before talking to me, obviously inspecting me. I pretty much looked like shit by this point. Dirt was all over me and walker blood covered most of my uncovered skin, plus I really needed to shower. Even though I believe he didn't sense any harm from me he stood still for a moment, his sidearm aimed at me, debating whether he should let me in or not. He surprisingly looked better than he did while we were at the prison, and he even smelled like he had showered recently, lucky bastard. After a moment he relaxed his body and trigger finger and addressed me.
"It looks like you've been busy since I last saw you" he said to me warmly, trying to make me feel more comfortable. It's good to know that more people survived the attack, for a while there I thought it was just a few of us that made it out. How did you get out"?
"The south end of the prison" I responded back. "I remembered that the wall had been damaged from before we had arrived, so I grabbed what I could and headed out. Glad to see you made it as well". For the first time in over a month, I felt comfortable talking to someone other than myself….other than Kimberly.
"Well it's good to see a familiar face Fred. Don't worry, you're among friends. You're home now. Rick stated to me calmly. "You made it".
For a moment I paused, before the sound of a walker could be heard behind me. Turning around I saw it, and as Rick prepared to kill it I held out my hand.
"No, let me". I stated coldly. I pulled out my pistol and aimed down the sight. This was supposed to be my bullet. When all else failed, this was my one way ticket out of this hell hole. After this experience though, I have no intention of going out quietly. This world has lost a lot of good people lately, and while I'm no saint my place is here. Not just for me, but for the safety of my home and my friends, and in honor of Kimberly. As the walker slowly crept up to my I pulled the trigger, before turning around and embracing my new home.