Chapter 1
She'd been running and fighting for what seemed like hours, now she was surrounded and exhausted and knew she couldn't last much longer. For every one of the creatures she killed it seemed two more came after her. She'd run out of ammo and only had her two hunting knives. She plunged one of the knives into the skull of a rotting thing that tried to grab her arm. It twisted and fell to the ground before she could free the weapon.
"Great" she thought "Might as well give up now" Two of the creatures lunged at her, one reaching for her throat, the other seizing her arm and pulling it towards its snapping teeth. She got her free arm up and tried to push the one in front of her away, giving her the needed space to raise her remaining knife. She could feel the rancid breath of the other one on her arm as it pulled her closer. She tried to get her knee up to push it away but there was no room. She started to resign herself to death.
Suddenly the one reaching for her throat fell to the ground an arrow through its head. As it fell it pulled her with it and she landed on top of it. The one trying to bite her arm stumbled down with her but she managed to get her knife up and as she shoved the blade into its eye an arrow hit it through the forehead. She untangled herself from the two bodies and pulled herself painfully to her feet, then spun and took out another undead creature.
"You bit?" A gruff voice questioned her abruptly. She turned, holding her knife defensively in front of her. A tall man was walking cautiously towards her. He used the crossbow he was holding to put down two more and she finished off the remaining one. Bending she retrieved her other knife and then pulled the arrows out of the bodies.
Stumbling slightly she took a few steps towards him, holding out the arrows.
"I'm not bit" She shook her head then regretted it as a wave of dizziness washed over her. She really needed to find some food and water.
"The hell you doin' out here on your own?" The man leaned forward and snatched the arrows from her outstretched hand. "Aint you got any transport?"
She didn't like his attitude but she was exhausted and he had just saved her life so she decided to let his abruptness go this time.
"Had a car, ran out of fuel couple of miles out of town. Thought I'd see if I could get any fuel or another vehicle but got outnumbered. Ran out of ammo too" She tried to smile "It's been a shit day really"
He didn't reply just glared at her.
She was trying to keep it nice, she really needed a bit of help, so she replaced her knives in the sheaths on her thighs and stepped towards him, holding out her hand
"Name's Eleanor, thanks for helping me out there"
He stared at her for a long moment before grabbing her hand
"Daryl" he replied.