Brain Damage, Chapter One.
Heat descended upon her like she had never felt before, it was by far the hottest day she had encountered in Atlanta since she ended up being stuck in this god forsaken place, hopping from shop to shop in an attempt to avoid detection by the walkers, and to avoid running out of food and other supplies. Now, she was walking through the streets, trying to stick to the shade, letting herself keep her back to the wall so that nothing could sneak up behind her, her eyes were kept peeled as she took in the landscape in front of her, there were no walkers that she could see. The key part of that sentence being 'that she could see', her guard was never down, there could always be a threat that you didn't notice, that would appear from nowhere, and that was how the majority of people died, or got turned into one of those things.
Evangeline was a loner, she had been since this 'epidemic' happened, she had been on a vacation to visit the sights of America when she had been trapped here, unable to get a flight back over to Britain, and so with dwindling money and no place to stay, she had it rough even before the world completely fell to shit. Now that it had, in some respects it was easier, she didn't have to worry about getting caught stealing, finding a place to stay, now all she had to worry about was getting caught by one, or a mob, of these drooling freaks that littered the city of Atlanta, which was becoming more and more of a death trap each day.
She had seen many people walking to and fro over the shops while she had been there, and they kept themselves to themselves for the most part as long as she didn't take what they had come in the shop for. Now, she was trying to get into the large department store around the corner from where she had been holed up, and her eyes widened when she saw that it had been completely ransacked and there were the familiar shuffles and moans of walkers in the streets around it. Sighing she ran her hand through her hair, short though it was, and attempted to think of what to do, before deciding she had best make a run for it into the store, after all, night was coming and she couldn't stay out here much longer without baking to a crisp in the heat, she needed to rest up even for a few moments.
Poking her head around the corner, Evangeline took stock of the situation at hand, there were only a few walkers around the shop and they seemed to be more interested in something they had caught recently, so, with her worn leather boots she softly padded through them, making sure to move both efficiently but also as quietly as possible, no point in being hasty if you end up getting yourself killed by the noise you make in the process. Once she had passed the group of walkers, with only a sniff and a grunt in her direction, Evangeline relaxed slightly, maybe there wouldn't be any in here? Although she found herself discounting that thought almost as soon as it popped into her mind, of course there would be some in here, there always was.
Threading three of her throwing knives through her fingers, Evangeline stepped into the dark of the shop, making sure to move with equal quietness, trying to avoid the broken glass on the floor, there was one walker shuffling amongst the shelves and she gritted her teeth and raised her hand, throwing one of the knives hard into the forehead of the walker, letting it fall to the ground with a small thump, quickly turning she hoped that none of the ones outside had heard it. When none of them turned her way, she moved on swiftly and located a staff area, that looked as if it had been used recently, and she cautiously retrieved her knife from the Walker's skull, before making her way over to the stairs that looked like they lead up to some sort of stock room, either that or some communal area that the staff had used when this place actually did business, and climbing them.
Eventually she reached the top of the stairs and she smelt the awful aroma of burning skin…and immediately wondered why the hell it would be there? Surely if it was a fire the whole building would have gone up, nobody would be cooking a human, especially if they were a walker, the only explanation would be if someone needed to heal a wound or something, but surely they wouldn't be on their own if they were. Pressing her ear to the thin plaster of the wall Evangeline heard what sounded like a Southern drawl, and the guy sounded pissed, very pissed. Debating if she should go back outside now, Evangeline bit her lip, it was getting late now, and she needed to hunker down somewhere and make it safe. She might not have time to do that if she went searching now.
But this guy…this guy sounded hostile, like he wanted nothing more than to rip apart the first person that he saw.
Before she herself could act the man appeared out of the kitchenette and boy did he look like he had been through the wringers, he was all bloodied and looked as pale as a guy could look without passing out, he must have had some serious blood loss. Letting her eyes wander down his body Evangeline blinked at his wound, the crazy bastard had lost his hand? How on earth did he manage to do that? That must have been something he had done himself, no walker would have bitten somebodies hand clean off unless they had stuck it in its mouth.
"What the fuck you doing here little missy?" he demanded, his southern drawl making him hard to understand at first, but then Evangeline thought it was best to respond before the guy used his other fist to give her a punch to the jaw, like he looked like he might do.
"I just came to find a safe place to stay, I didn't know anyone else was in here." She stated, her British accent making her a little softer sounding than the man, but she was by no means less formidable in a fight, she was sure that she could take him if the worst came to worst, although she knew she would avoid fighting at all possible costs.
"You expect me to believe that crock of bullshit princess?" he cooed, but his voice was angry, Evangeline needed to calm the situation down and calm it down fast, he needed to rest and gain some energy back, maybe if she helped him out now, he would be less likely to kick her in the gut and steal her provisions.
"I'm sorry but it's the truth…" she whispered quietly "But you look like you're going to keel over any moment, do you want something to drink, something to eat? Maybe some painkillers?" Evangeline asked, letting her eyes wander down to the bloody and rather disgusting stump that the guy now had on the end of his arm, maybe he should have cleaned that, it would get infected easily without a bandage on it.
The man, she could see, was mulling over her offer and she was glad that he was doing so, maybe he would take it and the atmosphere would calm down a little bit, although the look on his face told her that he was about to come out with some sexist and quite frankly embarrassing remark about something that she could give him instead, and as if on cue, he said;
"Well I'm not sure about all of that but, there's certainly something else I want from a pretty little thing like you, you got a name doll?" he asked.
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Evangeline thought that she had better tell the guy her name, if only so she humoured him long enough for him to get what he wanted and leave, she knew full well however that if he attempted to get close to her, she would SING to her hearts content on his sorry ass. But there was no need to get hostile right now, she was going to be able to continue this calm talking for a while longer before this guy pushed a button.
"My names Evangeline, what's yours?" she stated, making sure to ignore the first part of his speech, hoping he would get the subtle message, but already having the idea that this guy was far from subtle and she would have to spell it out for him in plain terms if she wanted to be able to get anywhere with him, maybe even then he still wouldn't listen to her.
"Merle, Merle Dixon sweetpea, now, about them painkillers…"
As Evangeline turned to pick the box up from her backpack, she could hear the fist in the air before she saw it, and she was already regretting her choice to be nice to this guy and she was hopeful now that his wound would get infected as she knew what his plan was, and she caught it too late to stop him from doing it. When her face turned of its own accord and against her better judgement to see the source of the noise, Merle's fist connected sharply with her nose, and she felt a blinding pain, before a blackness swirled over her and she groaned lightly as she slumped over onto the dusty wooden floor outside the staff kitchen.
"Sorry darlin'." He smirked "A shame to mess up that pretty face of yours."
Now, knowing that the girl was blacked out, Merle picked through her backpack taking what he needed, which was her water, her painkillers and the food and flashlight that she was carrying, he spent a long time looking for her weapons, but upon finding none of them gave up and quickly moved out of the department store, and over towards the main route out of town, he had a little business to take care of with his little brother.