Hayley felt the earth softening beneath her feet with every step she took. The rain from last nights storm had caused every grassy part of Tennessee to turn to thick mud. She struggled as it tried to pull her boots in like quicksand. Every rise of her foot required extra effort, but it didn't slow her down. Not yet.

When she reached the edge of a creek she started scaling the nearest tree. The bark bit roughly into the skin of her palms, undoubtedly scrapping them bloody. Hayley used the branches to get lift herself to the highest point to could get. Theres no way she'd risk them catching her sent, she could hear the groaning getting inevitably closer by the second.

She let out a silent sigh and tried to settle in as best she could for the next hour while those things made their way past the tree she was camouflaging herself in. The loud flesh hungry groaning let Hayley know they were now directly beneath her. She clenched her eyes and tried to block the noises out, exhaustion from the day finally catching up to her and seeping deep into her bones.

Hayley wished she could be angry. She wished she could scream and yell at the sky, ask some form of god why he would do this; why he would take her from her life and force her to kill walking corpses just to survive the day.

Honestly, before all this Hayley didn't have much going for her anyway. She wasn't in college and was only working as a receptionist at a veterinarian clinic seven hours a day. That wasn't really her first choice in things she had to be stuck doing all day, but it paid her bills every month and allowed her to rent a place to sleep every night.

When it was announced nationwide that the dead were walking the earth, Hayley thought that maybe some higher being was playing a joke on her. That all the steady misfortune that happened in her life was just someone having a big laugh.

She wanted to lie and say this wasn't hard for her. That killing and running didn't bother her.

But she couldn't.

She didn't even how long it had been since all of this started, but she was exhausted. Physically and mentally. She's been running and trying to survive for so long she couldn't even tell if there actually was a life before this.

When she was alone at night she allowed herself to think about a hot shower and how she wanted to be able to watch one of those reality shows she pretended not to like before. Hayley tried to nip that thought at the bud though. This was her life now wether she liked it or not. Thinking about before did nothing but depress her into wishing for things she knew wasn't going to happen.

Maybe this was for the better, maybe this was better than ending up answering phone calls at the clinic until her hair greyed.

She learned to survive on her own long before this. She never had someone to take care of her or to protect her. Hayley's default setting had been switched to 'fight or flight' mode since her adoptive parents kicked her out at sixteen. Hell raising on earth just called for Hayley to tackle things differently. Instead of trying to save up money to put a down payment on an apartment; she was trying to find a way to kill a corpse without her knife getting stuck in the eye socket.

It was basically the same thing.

Hayley waited until she couldn't hear the groaning for at least twenty minutes before she finally dropped out of the tree. The corpses matted a path in the thicket heading towards her right, so she decided it was a safe bet to head left.

Climbing through all the bushes and undergrowth, she kept a sharp ear open for any indication that something was sneaking up behind her.

Hayley didn't know how long she was walking for but so far she hadn't had to kill anything so she really couldn't complain. Even in fall, the hot Tennessee sun was beating down on her & making her overheat. All signs that they got any rain last night disappeared into the suns rays. They only reminder was the humidity that made the air thicker than the mud.

Up ahead the trees started to become sparse and opened up into a small clearing, although Hayley's attention went immediately to the cabin that sat in the middle of it. Her feet began picking up a faster pace and skidded to a stop at the front door. Her right hand clenched around her knife while her left grasped the door knob.

Unlocked.

Hayley's eyes fell closed for a brief second. Either the god that was intent on making her life hell had decided to spare mercy on her or it was about to get a lot worse.

The door opened with a loud groaning sound and Hayley's face screwed up. Shit. She waited a full thirty-seconds before proceeding inside, knife ready and waiting. The first things her eyes took in was an old cot. The blankets were pulled back from its last inhabitants, hopefully a while ago.

Carefully she shut the cabin door and walked further inside. It wasn't big, only one room were everything was located & a storage closet. It was probably used as a hunting cabin.

Hayley made her way to cot, pulling back the blankets to search for anything useful. Finding nothing, she dropped to her knees and peered under the bed. Her eyes widened considerably when they skimmed over a shotgun. Eagerly, Hayley snatched it and started examining it.

Loaded. Two Shots.

Maybe mercy was being spared on her after all.

Walking forward Hayley made her way toward the kitchen portion of the room. The various empty cans were laying out on the counter made Hayley doubt this places worth for food. Just as she was going to open the cabinet something rattled in the closet and sent a spike of fear shooting through her chest. Clutching the shotgun, Hayley crept forward. The door rattled again and Hayley stopped, hand inches from the handle.

With a final determined breath Hayley threw open the door.

If this was someone else, they'd open the door and laugh to themselves as they saw a raccoon tensed up at the back of the closet.

But this was Hayley.

So as she opened the door a corpse twice the size of Hercules came barreling out and rushed straight into her.

As they fell, Hayley's head caught on the corner of the wooden table and sent a piercing pain shooting through her skull. When her and the corpse hit the floor, all the air was knocked out of her lungs and sent her into a coughing fit.

Hayley struggled to get the corpse off of her and tried to regain her breath at the same time. Desperately, she tried reaching for the shotgun that was knocked out her hands. The loud sound of snapping teeth and gurgling groans were loud in her ear and Hayley tried not to panic as the gun was kicked even farther away.

When Hayley finally got the upper hand she rolled out from underneath him & stood up on shaky legs. The corpse wasn't far behind her and came darting towards her again. Hayley moved out of the way and made a beeline for the shotgun which was closer than her knife. Just as her hands grabbed it the corpse charged into her, sending them both crashing into the wall.

Hayley fought to keep the corpses hungry teeth away from her flesh. The corpse had her pinned up against the wall, using all its weight to keep her there. With determination and desperation, Hayley shakily managed to get the barrel of the gun under the corpses chin. Without thinking for another second, she pulled the trigger.

The sound of the shotgun rang heavily in her ears and added to the already pulsating pain radiating through her head. Hayley closed her eyes and mouth as dark blood splattered across her face and neck. With a thud, the corpse fell to the ground.

Nice try bitch.

Her first instinct was to be relieved. Then she was panicked as she realized that the gunshot just rang the dinner bell for every corpse in a mile radius of this place. With a quick hurriedness, Hayley grabbed her backpack and threw open the kitchen cabinets.

On the shelves were three water bottles and in the next cabinet was a can of beans. Having no time to spare, she dumped them into the bag and zipped it up. After one final sweep the cabin and recruiting a just a pack of batteries and a bandana, Hayley decided she better leave fast.

The sound of branches snapping stopped her in her tracks. She wondered if she was quiet enough that the corpse would just carry on its merry way. However, with what she heard next she concluded her earlier thoughts and decided that no mercy was spared on her and things just got worse.

A lot worse.

"Im tellin' ya, I heard a gunshot."