A/N:No reviews... Well I guess I've seen that coming. I think it's because the first chapter wasn't that interesting. :/ Well hopefully the second chapter is more alluring...
What ever got her, it got her good. Didn't look like a bite though, looks more like a deep cut. Blood was dripping from her leg and she looked like shes having trouble standing up, trying to put minimal pressure to the injured leg as possible. When she did, she hissed. Wincing at the pain, she hollered out.
"This hurts like a bitch you know!"
"Be quiet!" I whispered loudly. I double-timed over to her and put her arm around my shoulder, supporting the injured side of her leg.
"T-Thanks a lot" she stammered.
"Didn't I tell you to be quiet?"
"Well shit." I glared at her. Getting the picture, she stopped yapping and focused on her leg.
"AJ, stay close behind me and look behind us for any walkers. Tap me every five seconds so I know that you're still behind me." He gave me a nervous nod with timidness plastered all over his face.
"We'll start training now. First rule, don't be afraid. Now stay behind me, and remember to"
"tap you every five seconds"He finished
"Good. Now let's go." We started moving and as I said, he tapped me every five seconds... on my ass. Really? I asked for it anyways. I did tell him to tap me every five seconds.
"Whoa sis. Look at the walls." AJ said with astonishment. Wondering what was all the fuss about, I looked up. The backstreet is something else, if not creative. There's artistic graffiti on the peeling paint, so the doodles look faded, but you can mostly see what it was.
There was one that looked like a mural of vintage Mickey Mouse smoking a joint. Love the art, hate the message. Not like anybody would have the time to be smoking a joint anyways, you could die in seconds because of carelessness.
Pacing myself, I looked around some more, observing the backstreet canvas. Anything from large projects like a Malcolm X mural, to tags like... I can't even read that. 'Ti...Ti... Tirike?' (Tirique) what kind of name is that? Then it hit her. They've been walking for about 15 minutes without disturbance of any sort. Not even a walker could be seen, which was a bad sign.
"Wait. Something's not right," as to confirm my suspicions, I hear snarling coming from a nearby alley. There were like five of them and they were coming fast.
"AJ! Hold her for a moment." He nodded and put his hands on her waist to keep her standing, while the girl has her hand on her shoulder to keep balanced. I turned back around and unsheathed my 120 general and walked towards the approaching walkers. There were three of them in a bunch in front and two in the far back which gives me time to deal with all of them. I then placed the handle of my knife between my teeth, ready for the fight.
Opening their mouths hungrily for a human snack, they got closer and closer and I just made it the engagement a whole lot quicker. One of the three in front attempted to grab me, but it was too slow so I grabbed the arm, pulled it back a little away from the others and heaved the walking corpse to the side of the street, losing its arm in the process.
I then turned back to the other four. There was one trailing a little too close to the two up front so I aimed the arm and threw the arm at it staggering it back a few which gave me plenty of time to deal with the two in front of me.
Taking the blade out of my mouth, I rushed towards the two, Kicking the closest in the middle of his chest, making it fall on its back. I then plunged my blade through the walker's temple, instantly killing it. I moved on to the one that I kicked, stabbed it's forehead. I looked at the one that lost it's arm I walked quickly, earning a few snarls from the walker. Immediately silencing it by curb stomping it.
Dark red blood painted part of the dirty street, earning a sound of disgust from AJ. Hearing the remaining groans from the last two walkers, I power walked towards them, hitting a metallic bar on the floor. I looked down to see it's a crowbar. I sport a smirk and picked up the crowbar. The walkers were closing in on me so I whacked one with the crowbar and stabbed the other in the head, killing them both. I look down on them, dropping the crowbar on one so it doesn't make noise.
I turned to AJ and the girl to check if they're okay. No... A walker is creeping up on them. Why can't they hear it's groaning? Oh my god! Oh my god! For some reason, I couldn't speak, completely paralyzed, just a billion of this went through my head. AJ is going to get bit, and it will be because of my carelessness. Who am I going to live for? Who am I going to teach how to kill walkers? I.. I... I'm sorry AJ... No... He's not going to die. I came so far with him, there's no way I'm going to throw all that away. We'll LIVE FOR AS LONG AS WE HAVE TO!
Breaking from my trance, I look their way with the intent to eliminate the threat that's approaching AJ. AJ who is now aware of the walker, was panicking, frantically backing away and pulling the girl from it. I flipped my knife to its back, bent it to the side of my head, and launched it at the walker who is closing in on AJ. The blade plunged right between its eyes, making the corpse gradually fall on AJ pulling the girl with him..
"Sis! Help! It got me!" AJ screamed. I just walked over there and tossed over the finally-dead corpse.
"It's dead AJ. You'll be fine" With a smile on my face, I went in and hugged AJ. "You'll be fine." I'm so happy to see AJ alive. I didn't know what came over me, it's like something told me to throw that knife, like I'm supposed to do what I did and there's no way I was getting out of that spot running towards AJ. He would've got bitten before I got there. I then hear hissing coming from the girl. Looking at her wound I could see that it was in pretty bad shape and needed medical attention pronto.
"Lets get outta here." I sheathed my knife and grabbed the girl's arm, putting it over my shoulder. Then I thought of a better idea.
"Get on my back." The girl was confused.
"Are you sure? I mean, you look tired an-"
"Or I could just leave you if that's what you want." I interrupted.
"Geez fine." she surrendered. I lowered myself so it was easier for her to get on my back. With one foot she hopped on. Grabbing both her legs, trying my best not to mess with the wound on her lower thigh. Lifting her up with a grunt, we started walking again, and this time, no surprises. We turned the corner to a sight of a abandoned five-star hotel. Just like every other building we've passed, the hotel is in bad shape. Vines and plants growing in the walls, broken windows, and lines of rust looking like the building was crying blood. I sighed.
"Home sweet home." continuing towards the hotel. Our base is on the second floor for strategic reasons. There was a fire escape in our room that is close to a roof of another building. So if shit hits the fan, we're ready for it. We went up the stairs and stopped at a room at the end of the hallway. 225.
"AJ, open the door."
"On it." He acknowledged. Slowly opening the door, he had to hold on to the doorstop to disengage a booby-trap. When he caught the wedge, he casually swung the door open big enough so I could go through. I went to the couch and laid her down, trying to get a better look at her wound. She was sweating badly, her breathing quickened, and she was hissing trying her best not to make any type of noise that would attract walkers.
"AJ, bring me water, ibuprofen, isopropyl alcohol, gauze, needle, and fiber glass string."
"Huh?" AJ said bewildered. I sighed.
"Painkillers, rubbing alcohol, bandages, and the string you could see through..."I explained.
"Ohh, on it." He saluted and went off into the other room looking for the items. I turned my focus back on the girl wincing in pain on the couch.
"I'll do my best to patch you up." I assured. The girl then looked at me with worry.
"What do you mean? Like you never done this before?"
"I've done this once when I was eleven"
"Fuck me." she whispered. I don't even point out swears anymore. I would tell them and they would just continue on 5 minutes later. Besides, she's in pain right now, I don't blame her.
"Just relax"
"How the fuck am I supposed to relax? Some girl is going to stitch me up, she did only one patch up and she already thinks she's a surgeon."
"You asked for help. I would of just left you out there for the walkers to get you. But I didn't. I would of assumed that the flesh wound was infected and shot you, but I didn't. You are in no position to refuse my aid because I would of refused to help you so now, relax." The girl gave me a sour face and looked up at the rotting ceiling, closing her eyes and taking deep breathes. The approaching footsteps from AJ broke her focus and she's back to panicking. She then looked at me with despair in her green eyes and looked away. I guess she's ready. With that thought, AJ placed all the supplies on a nearby coffee table. I thanked him and started to get to work. I looked at the wound for a moment and sighed.
"AJ, get me a clean rag."
"That bad?" AJ asked. I nodded in response. Without saying another word, AJ got up and went toward the cooler, reaching in to get a unused rag. He then handed it to me, thanking him in return. I tapped the girl's shoulder and she turned to look at me.
"What?"
"Here. Put this in your mouth and bite down on it. Hard." She looked at my stretched out hand and reluctantly took the rag, folded it up, and placed it between her teeth.
"This, is gonna suck." I warned. In response, she squeezed her eyes shut, Indicating that she's ready. I sternly poured the alcohol in the cut earning a squirm from the girl and a muffled she didn't hit me.../em I reached for a couple of paper towels and doused it in rubbing alcohol and resumed to treating the wound. Rubbing it slightly and dabbing it constantly so she could get used to the pain and calm down a little.
I removed most of the dirt that was around her gash and disinfected it to the best of my ability. AJ was just spectating the whole thing. I'm not even sure if it was okay to let him see this but my focus is on the girl now. Besides, if I need him for something, he's right there. I looked at the girl and she seemed relaxed now, she's breathing steadily so that's a good sign.
"It's not over yet. I still need to-"
"I know. Just get it over with already." I wasted no time. I disinfected my hands, put the string in the needle and poked her skin a little. I paused.
"AJ, Hold her hand." What I said might of startled him a little, because I see his brown eyes darting every which way except to me and the girl. I frowned, wondering why he's acting this way and just merely dragged him towards the couch.
"Hold her hand." I repeated. He then gingerly held her hand while the girl tightened the grip, which made AJ wince a little from the amount of force shes putting into squeezing the life out his hand. We didn't even start yet... I disinfected my hands once more and started to go to work. The whole procedure was full of muffled screams and pricked fingers. She almost made my hand slip, thank god I had a steady hand or It would've gotten real messy after that.
It took time, but I made sure the stitch wasn't sloppy at least. It's done./em I took a sigh of relief and dressed the wound with gauze and bandages. After that, I used some of the water to wash my hands and whipped my hands to air dry. I had to sit down after that. That was intense. I looked over at the girl. She was drumming her fingers on her stomach and staring at the ceiling again, she could be thinking about anything right now, I'm just glad she's okay at least. It got real quiet after. The type of quiet that if you listen hard enough, you could hear your ears ringing. That and the occasional coughs coming from the girl. This is real awkward...
"S-" interrupted by the bedroom door opening to AJ and he was carrying his pack that he filled the cans with earlier. He sat down next to me and tried to humor me by frantically moving his eyebrows like he's trying to sell me some awesome product that he shouldn't have possession of.
"Let's take a look at our loot sis." he said. At that moment, I spotted the girl looking over at us with curiosity, kinda wanting to know what's in the bag also.
"Okay. Let's see what we got." AJ unzipped his pack and took out the five cans, two of them barely have the label on them and the other three had no label on them so it could be anything. I'm just glad that the cans didn't look like it's been tampered with.
"We need something to open this with" I stated.
"Use your knife." AJ suggested. I looked at him sideways.
"The same knife I used to kill undead, rotting, decayed corpses with?" AJ cringed, giving me a gesture of someone vomiting.
"I didn't think so. You haven't used your knife yet right?"
"No."
"May I use it to open the cans?"
"Sure sis." He went into his holster and pulled out the blade and handed it to me.
"Thanks. We need to disinfect the knife just in case." AJ merely nodded in response. Turning to get the rubbing alcohol, I noticed that it was handed to me already. We both looked at each other, for a moment though.
"Thanks." I said, breaking my gaze.
"No biggie." she responded. Her eyes reminds me of the green fields I used to see back at Hershel's farm when the whole world went to crap. It was the most relaxing view ever and I wanted to stay like that forever. Ironic how forever seem short term these days.
p style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;""Um. Sis? What are you looking at?" I snapped back to reality and seen a very puzzled AJ look at the same direction I was just looking at. I smiled at him and just ruffled his afro.
"It's nothing bro." He smiled back and pointed at the cans, reminding me that I still needed to open them. Pouring some rubbing alcohol on the blade, I tilted it every which way so that the alcohol covered the whole knife. Letting it sit for a minute, I rinsed it off with a controlled amount of water, making sure I don't waste any. Picking up the first can, I saw a faded palm tree on the little bit's of paper wrapping that was left. I was just hoping it wasn't palm oil because mom would make some of my favorite foods with palm oil. It's good for a base or an ingredient but not for drink raw and I learned that the hard way. Yuck!
Wiping off the dirt, I stabbed the can and worked my way around it. A strong aroma of citrus danced in my nose, making me more eager to open the can. Leaving just a little bit of the top sticking to the rest of the can, I wedged it open. Looking at the contents, my eyes grew wide as saucers. Sections of small, tangy goodness just floating around it's own sweet soup
"Sis? What are those?"
"Clementines." I gave AJ a warm smile, then looked back at the citrus.
"They're really good. Mom would always pack me a clementine for lunch when I go to school. You want to try one?"
"Would I?" he said, carefully picking one from the can. He then analyzed it, squinting his eyes for closer inspection.
"Just eat it"
"It looks weird"
"Just eat it."
"... Fine." AJ popped it in his mouth and gave this look of exploration while chewing. Jaw is moving side to side, clockwise, counter-clockwise. He's really tasting it...
"Mmm. It tastes good."
"I told you."
"I didn't deny it"
"Whatever bro."
AN:
really hope that this chapter is much better than the first. At this rate I could bring you another chapter in shorter duration. It just depends if you guys are reading the content. I'm not even going to give a set amount of reviews. A review regardless is awesome! Constructive criticism is always welcome. So with that said, READ AND REVIEW! See you next chapter!