Chapter One
"Wander"
Anna
A/N Hey, thanks for clicking on me! I know you probably just want to jump into the story, but I would ask that you please hear me out before you do so. I have one goal when uploading this story, and that is to inspire at least one person. I don't care how many people hate my writing, I don't care how many views it gets, as long as one person says they like it. Also, this is my first ever upload to FanFiction, and I'm still getting the feel of things, so bear with me! I'll try to upload a few chapters every week. One more thing! You'll notice that the first few chapters are VERY similar to the video game, but I promise that as the story progresses, it'll become more original. Hope you enjoy!
I don't know what hurts more: the throbbing in my head, or the gnawing hunger pains in my stomach. It's been a matter of 'heads or tails' ever since I found myself washed up along the riverside. I try to remember what happened, but I can't seem to catch my thoughts as they ricochet and slam into the walls of my head. I shudder. If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that I need to get dry.
It takes strength to lift myself off the cold, damp grass. I'm tired and weak, but I manage to do do it. I look around. Besides the river, I see nothing but large, lofty trees. I suppose there's only one option.
The trees cast grisly shadows upon the forest floor. As I proceed deeper into the forest, I start to feel nervous. These woods could go on for miles. It could be days before I find food or shelter. I haven't even got a single weapon with me for hunting...or self-defense.
I spot a bright yellow flag not far ahead and approach it, feeling more hopeful than before. Maybe it leads somewhere. When I get closer, I notice that the post goes straight through a walker's head. This could means two things: people were here, and there's a possibility that they still might be here, or it could be a warning, for more walkers are prowling in the woods. It lays there, with its bloodshot eyes looking right at me. I cringe, and just as I'm about to turn away, I notice something written across his tee shirt. The words are pretty worn, but I can't still make out the tiny writing: Camp Coveside.
I continue my trek through the forest, expecting to find a camp lodge, or maybe a little cabin. Only that's not what I find when I look past two big trees. Instead I find a tiny campground with a few tents and logs spread out along the area. Is this Camp Coveside? I wonder, half-disappointed. Oh well. It's better than nothing. The tents might be all tattered and torn, but they could be holding something that I desperately need.
I make my way to the first one, slowly and quietly. The last thing I need is a walker to hear me and pop out of the tent and devour me. I peek through the meshing and see a dead body, a walker not walking. But when I unzip the tent, I discover that this body was never a walker to begin with. Its – her – eyes are calm and glassy, unlike the walkers' whose are wide and dreadful. And her skin may be colorless and wrinkly, but it's nothing like the way a walker's face sags to the ground. A knife is stuck in her forehead, leaving a red bloodstain trickling past her chin and onto her clothes. It isn't too often I see dead that isn't a deceased walker.
I don't want to, but I cant but wonder how she died. Was it murder? Was she bitten, and ended her life before she could become one of them? Or did this world just become too much for her that she finally gave up and took her own life?
I pull the knife out of her skull and wipe it on my wet jeans. It isn't food, but I could definitely use it. As I back out of the tent, I bump into something. My heart stops. There wasn't anything there before I went in, I think, scared half to death. But then I think logically: If it is a walker, it would've attacked me already. I force myself to turn around.
Starring directly at me is a rather-large dog, with light brown hair and big eyes, a red collar around his neck. His tongue is hanging out of his mouth excitedly. He probably hasn't seen a human in ages. I sure as hell can't remember the last time I saw a dog. It doesn't feel too bad. I don't feel on-edge the way I usually do when I meet a human.
"Hey boy!" I try to make my voice sound happy, but instead, the words come out cracked and hoarse.
The dog doesn't bark, which is probably a good thing since we don't want to attract walkers. He does however, run hurriedly to a tree located on the perimeter of the campsite.
"Wait up boy!" I call. "Some of us don't have as much energy as others." I follow him over to the tree, where he's wagging his tail like a fool. At first, I think he's getting all hyped up about the frisbee at my feet, but then I see it too: a live walker. It is alive, but it's not a big threat. It's tied tightly to the tree, it's arms flailing, mouth moaning. I don't want to be here when the ropes give out, so I go to kill it with the pocketknife. It reaches for me, and I stumble backwards. One scratch can be just as bad as a bite. I need to find something longer to kill it with.
I examine my surroundings, and retrieve a long, thick branch that should do the trick. With a couple large whacks to the head, the walker quits grasping for me and rests against the tree.
"See that boy? You just can't get too close to them." I'm not exactly the type who talks to dogs, but I guess that's what sixteen months of being alone does to a person.
I crouch down to study the dog's collar, moving his fur so I can read it. "Sam," I say aloud. "Hiya Sam, my name's Anna." It's been so long since I said my own name. I go to give him a little pat, but he starts to growl and backs away. "Oh okay, guess you don't like that." Instead, I eye the nearby frisbee. "You wanna play catch?"
Sam's face is content once again. His eyes widen as I pick it up and swing my arm back. I give it a good toss; not too hard that it flies far from the campground, and not too soft that it's a complete bore. He goes after it in a flash, catching the disk in mid-air. With the frisbee between his teeth, he returns it to me.
"Good boy!" I praise. He looks at me expectantly. "Alright, we can go again." I throw it again, this time it's a little too hard. Sam chases after it, but stops when it disappears behind a couple of large rocks. He begins to whimper. "Well, it was fun while it lasted," I mutter.
Maybe it's not such a bad thing we lost the frisbee, because now I'm reminded of how short I am on time. I'm cold and hungry. I need to find food and warm up before setting out to find shelter. My body's begging me for rest. I can't spend another night out here wide awake.
After finding a little pit and a few twigs, I make a decent fire. I sit close to it, Sam at my side, and allow myself to dry. It feels good as my clothes stick less and less to my skin. However, it doesn't feel so good when my memory comes back.
I remember being alone in the woods when those men came along and tried to steal my supplies. I attempted to shoot one in the leg, but missed. The noise attracted a herd of walkers and they went straight for the two men. I tried to ignore their screams as I ran from the scene, as far away as possible. I keep telling myself that there was nothing I could do to help them, but I still had my gun at the time. If I wanted to, I could have saved them. But I didn't. I didn't even try. After that, I was cornered by walkers, and the only way to escape was by falling into the river.
Sam nudges my side, bringing me back to right now. I've already got a knife and I'm all warmed up. Now all I need is some food before I depart to find shelter.
I begin to search the camp, my stomach growling with hunger. I remember back in high school, when I'd be dying for the lunch bell to ring so I could stuff my face with turkey burgers. Starving was the word I used to describe it as back then. But now I know that was barely hunger. Now I know what it's like to really be starving.
The tents are all empty of food, and anything helpful in that matter. I search the entire campground, looking under every pile of leaves, and behind every tree. I'm almost out of options. The last place there is to look – and the last place I want to look – is the trashcan. It stands on the edge of camp, near the tree where I killed the walker. I really don't want to do this, but I'm really hungry, and desperate times call for desperate measures. It's been days since I've eaten and I don't think I can make it on an empty stomach for much longer. I pull my sleeves up and dig through the all the waste; canned soup, juice boxes, candy bars. If only the packages weren't empty. All I need is one thing. One thing to help me last the night.
And then I find it: a full, untouched can of beans. Relief washes over me. Yesyesyesyesyes.
As I make my way towards a log to sit on, I clutch the can close to my chest like it's a newborn child. I use my pocketknife to open it, nearly stabbing myself in the process, because I'm that eager to eat. Sam watches at my knees with enthusiasm, his tongue hanging so low, I think it might drop to the ground.
"Bet you're pretty hungry too, huh?" I ask as I'm about to pop the lid off.
I don't look at it right away. "Please be decent," I whisper, hoping that it's not all gross and expired. When I do bring my eyes to the can, I'm thrilled to see that the beans are edible. The stench rises to my nose. Never had I been this happy to smell canned beans. I scoop a few into my hand and stuff them in my mouth. This is so worth digging through a garbage for...
As I eat them, I completely forget about the hungry dog waiting to be fed.
Sam pounces on me and buries his razor-sharp teeth into my skin, dragging me to the ground. A sharp pain shoots up my arm. I kick him in the face, but he doesn't budge. I can feel the bite grow deeper and deeper with every second I waste trying to get him off of me. The torture is excruciating. I pull my leg back with all my strength, and lash it at him as hard as I can. Sam goes flying and disappears behind the log. I quickly grab my knife, afraid he might strike again.
Seconds go by, but nothing happens. I approach the log very slowly, my blade as my only protection.
I almost cry out when I see him.
Sam lays by one of the tents, impaled by its pegs. He sobs in agony, his whole body struggling to escape, but they go straight through his chest and his leg. I can't let him suffer, so I do the first thing that comes to mind, and stab him.
I stagger backwards, not believing what I've done. You killed that dog, I tell myself. His death is on you. Killing humans and walkers is one thing, but killing dogs is a whole new level of cruelty in my book. The angel and devil on my shoulders are dropping thoughts in my head like nuclear bombs:
It attacked you. You did what you had to do to keep alive.
Yes, but the poor thing was hungry and scared. What do you expect it to do?
The death wasn't even your fault. It was his own fucking fault and the tent's.
You committed a great sin, and you know it.
I'm still shaken, but there's no time to recover. The sun is beginning to set, reminding me that I don't have a lot of time to find a place to spend the night. I don't know what these woods are like, and I sure as hell don't want to be wandering them in the dark when there could be walkers around every corner.
Before leaving the campground, I kneel beside Sam and shut his eyes. I used to see this happen in movies all the time and it was sad, but it hurts so much more in real life.
"I'm sorry, boy," I whisper.
I wander through the dark forest in the dead-quiet night. Uneasiness washes over me with every breath I take. My arm is bleeding puddles on the ground. It looks like it needs a lot of stitches to patch it up, and I don't know how I'm ever going to find a needle and thread. I'm cold once again, but I don't want to risk a fire. If a herd of walkers happen to see it, I'll be damned with just my little pocketknife
My legs feel like jello, my eyes like a burden of bricks. All I want to do is stop walking and rest for a bit. I lean against a tree and slide down the trunk. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if I sat here for a few minutes. And maybe I could close my eyes a little, but no sleeping, just...
As I begin to drift off, I see a shadowy figure coming towards me. My legs don't want to move, but I need to get up and kill this walker. Just this one walker. Jello legs isn't something worth dying over.
He runs over to me, quicker than I can run to him. I skip the part where I kick it in the knee, and go for its head right off the bat. Not as safe a method, but the quicker I get it over with, the better. It falls to the ground in one movement. I sigh, exhausted. Thinking that the business is done, I return to the tree where I was sitting before.
But the business is not over. Half a dozen more walkers gather around me, their growls ringing like evil music in my ears. I try to run but there's nowhere to go. I'm slow, and I'm surrounded. With all my options pretty grim, I decide that the only way I can get out of this, is if I take them.
I kill one walker easily, but its friend, who I hadn't seen, follows right behind. He knocks me to the ground. the knife falling out of my hand. With his jaw snapping at my face, I do whatever I can to keep it from biting me – punching, pushing, kicking, everything. My knife is too far way for me to reach, so I continue to punch the walker until its head is completely beaten in.
With three more added to the party, seven walkers are coming for me. Instead of bothering with them, I snatch my blade and run for my life. I wheel past the bodies and the trees, going as fast as my legs will take me, until I pull one of those scenes from a horror movie, where the victim trips over absolutely nothing. I try to get up, but I simply can't. The walkers catch up, and one topples on top of me. I feel helpless, like there's nothing I can do. Its teeth are only a couple of inches away from my face. I push harder and harder as the gap shrinks smaller and smaller, and just as he's about to win, his head goes flying off his body.
A/N What did you think of the first chapter? I know it was kind of slow, but it will get better. (I pinky swear like Sarah!) Please leave a review, I'm all open for suggestion and feedback. Thanks for reading! peeeace