172 days later…
Anna gasped, her eyes snapping open to a dark room. She took a moment to breathe. To calm the panic in her chest and remind herself where she was, and where she wasn't. She clicked on her bedside lantern and sat up, the covers pooling around her waist. She stared at the blank wall in front of her, counting the bricks, grounding herself.
Standing from her bunk, she made her way into the small bathroom, her bare feet padding along the tiled floor. Flicking on the bathroom light, she could see herself clearly in the mirror.
Her hair had grown past her shoulders over the near seven months since Carol had cut it for her. Her once smooth face now had a scar running from her right temple to the top of her right cheekbone, and her nose had a crook in it from being broken more than once. She currently also had a small black eye on her left side.
She grimaced at her appearance and turned on the faucet. She focused on scrubbing the night's sweat from her skin. When she looked back at her reflection, she could almost see the person she was before. But things change – people change. Anna was no exception.
Anna clenched her jaw as she stared into her dark eyes and flicked the light off, drowning herself in darkness once again.
After dressing and braiding her hair back, she made her way to the chow hall. There was already a din of morning chatter as she pushed the double doors open. She took stock of the people that filled the room, men and women clad in army fatigues – just like her – bowed over their trays, scarfing down their breakfast and swapping stories.
Anna fixed her own tray and located an empty table far from everyone else. She chewed slowly on her scrambled eggs and sipped quietly on her cup of black coffee, ignoring the subtle glances a few of the other soldiers cast her way. Her solitude never went unnoticed and never lasted long. A tray was set down across from her as a woman took a seat.
"Morning." Marley greeted.
Anna stared back at her, taking in her appearance. Her light brown hair was short around her ears, and her hazel eyes were assessing. "How'd you sleep?" Marley asked.
Anna shrugged and took another sip of her coffee.
"Through the night." She elaborated as she set the cup back down in favor of eating the rest of her breakfast.
Marley sighed at her response before changing the subject altogether.
"Are you excited? The scouting party is heading out today." Anna looked over her shoulder to see a group of five men, four of which would be headed out by lunch.
Scouting, as Marley had explained it to her, was when a party went out with a helicopter in search of settlements and possible supply caches. They had three days to return with locations, and then a group would be formed to do the supply run or meet with the new people. Marley hadn't gone into much further detail than that, and Anna wasn't inclined to ask any questions. She didn't care.
"I guess," was the best response Anna could muster. She finished her breakfast and chugged the rest of her coffee before standing from the table. Seeing the already growing stack of trays, she didn't envy whoever had been assigned dish duty.
Marley trailed after her. "Well, you've gotta be excited for patrol today, at least."
Anna stalked out of the cafeteria, Marley behind her, and squinted past the sun. For the most part, Fort Benning had been overrun, but the remaining soldiers managed to protect one of the old hospitals on the base before taking the elementary school and the gym, as well as the smaller surrounding buildings.
Despite having the guns and ammunition to take back the rest of the base, they lacked the man power. Eventually, the walkers that had once threatened them became protection from the outside world, deterring any possible looters from taking what was theirs.
The elementary school had been turned into a combination storage and living quarters. There was no need for an educational institution anymore, as everyone there either had, at the very least, a high school education, or had given up on schooling altogether.
The hospital had remained the same, and they chose to store the weapons in the gym. Ultimately, they had a total of three large buildings and thirteen smaller buildings used for "project management" and living space for senior officers like the Colonel, who headed what was left of the military at Fort Benning.
As they crossed the field from the elementary school to the gym, Anna could see a single helicopter several yards away being prepped for the scouting mission. She found herself briefly wondering how it had fared throughout the bitter winter.
The last time the helicopter had been sent out on a scouting mission was just as the air had turned cold. The men operating it had been drawn to the flames of a burning barn and a herd of walkers converging on a white farmhouse. They had eventually come upon a camp five miles off the highway; a group of thirty men who were not looking to make friends.
Anna clenched her jaw at the memory. She didn't want to think about those days.
Inside the gym, Anna and Marley approached the front desk, where a young woman with white-blonde hair sat writing in a folder of paperwork.
"What do you want?" The woman asked, not bothering to look up from her work. Anna didn't have to look at her name patch to know she was Private Miller.
"Patrol." Anna replied. With a quick glance at the women in front of her, Miller pulled a file from the ever-towering stack and wrote their names down. She waved them on and they made their way to the armory at the back of the gym, their footsteps echoing down the hall.
Marley chattered away about meaningless things as they pulled Kevlar vests on over their fatigues and strapped their sidearms to their thighs, before heading to the carport to sign out a set of keys to a Humvee.
Once outside, they made their way to the bulky green vehicle parked in front of a metal dumpster. Anna hopped into the passenger side, Marley sliding into the driver's side a few seconds later, and soon they were off.
Marley steered the Humvee at an easy pace around the compound, Anna's eyes peeled on the perimeter.
"You know, you've been here almost seven months—" Marley started.
"173 days." Anna clarified, picking a piece of lint from her knee.
"In all that time, you have not once told me about the group you were with before."
"I've told you stuff."
"Not everything. Come on! I want to know about the people you survived all that time with." Marley pushed.
"There's not much more to say about them that I haven't already told you." Anna grimaced, turning away from her companion in favor of staring out the window.
"Not even the guy with the crossbow?" Marley asked. "There's gotta be more to that."
"Well, there isn't." Anna snapped, glaring over her shoulder. "Anyway, it doesn't matter." Her eyes landed on three walkers wandering too close to the compound. Anna nodded in their direction. "Walkers."
Marley sighed, pulling the Humvee to the side of the road.
"Right, that's what you guys called them."
Anna hadn't quite taken to calling them biters as Marley tended to do. Before Marley could continue, Anna jumped from the Humvee and approached the first walker quickly, pulling her knife from its sheath on her hip as she drew near.
She ducked its arms to come up behind it. She grabbed the walker's stringy hair and rammed her knife through the back of its skull.
Anna could hear the second walker behind her, feel the tips of its finger reaching for her. She whirled around and swung her knife, ramming it into the walker's ear.
Anna yanked at the knife, but it wouldn't come out. She gave up as she felt the third walker's hands curl over her shoulders. She used the training she'd received throughout the 173 days she'd been at the compound and wrapped her hands around the walker's forearms. Anna bent at the waist and pulled hard.
The walker lost its balance and tumbled over her as she forced its mouth away from her body. It landed hard on its back and let out a hungry roar. Anna reeled back as she got a good look at its sallow, empty face.
It was a male that looked far too similar to a face that she'd seen every day since the farm house was lost. She worked her jaw, clenching and unclenching her hands as she stared at it, watching it flip over to get up. With its face obscured, it felt as though she had broken free of some sort of spell. Anna threw her leg out, kicking it hard under the jaw. It fell back, and she followed through, not letting its face faze her again, stomping on its head again and again and again.
A shot fired through the air. Anna stared back at Marley. Both their eyes were wide, Marley's gun lowering from where it was aimed over Anna's shoulder. Anna glanced behind her and watched as the walker she had forgotten about fell to the ground, a bullet hole in its cheek.
"Your aim is getting better. You didn't close one eye this time?" She asked, straightening as she stepped over the walkers she'd put down. She knelt beside the first walker and yanked at the knife sticking out of its ear. It came out with a disgusting squelch, black blood and brain matter smeared on the blade.
Marley heaved a sigh.
"Anna, you can't just…." She trailed off, looking at the destroyed head of the second walker. "Do you... uh... need to talk?" Marley asked, looking back at her.
Anna strode past her to the Humvee. "Nope."
Anna and Marley rode back to the compound in silence. She could just feel Marley quietly fuming in the driver's seat. Anna leaned into her door, using her hand as a pillow against the window as she watched the helicopter take off and disappear on the horizon.
She found herself wondering what the scouting party would find. If they would find Daryl and the others – if they were even alive.
"Light it up!" Daryl called. The air filled with gun fire as the group took out the walkers in the field, aiming carefully so as not to waste their limited ammunition. Daryl considered how amusing it was. Here they were trying to break into a prison when a year ago people did their best to stay out of it. But this prison was a chance. A chance for them to start again, to have the security they thought they'd had at the farm.
After the last walker fell, he and Carol made their way from the guard tower they'd been firing from and gathered with the others to set up camp. For the first time in nearly seven months, they had hope.
Night had fallen, and Daryl took post on an overturned bus just inside the gate, his eyes trained on the dark tree line.
The sound of someone climbing caught his attention. He knew it was Carol checking up on him as she always did. He helped her up the rest of the way, accepting the food she had brought for him.
"It's not much, but if I don't bring you something you won't eat at all," she said, giving him a pointed look as she wrapped her arms around herself.
"I guess little Shane over there got quite the appetite." He replied snidely as he took a bite of the food.
Carol sighed and smiled at him.
"Don't be mean," she scolded gently. "Rick's gotten us a lot farther than I ever thought he would, I'll give him that." Daryl hummed in response. "Shane could never have done that."
They stood in silence as Daryl ate. Carol rolled her shoulder, grimacing.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"It's that rifle, the kickback," she explained. "Just not used to it."
Daryl set the bowl of food down, sucking the meats residue off his fingers before gesturing for Carol to turn her back to him. He kneaded her shoulder, feeling the knots in her muscle.
Carol glanced over her shoulder, smiling in thanks. But Daryl could see in her eyes that she wanted to ask him something. Something he wouldn't want to talk about.
"Better get back." He grimaced, pulling away from his companion.
"It's pretty romantic." Carol observed, pursing her lips. "Want to screw around?"
Daryl scoffed at her before they both broke into a fit of laughter. Over the long winter, Carol and Daryl had become close. They just seemed to understand each other in a way no one else in the group ever could. Despite her teasing remark, there were no romantic feelings between them - and they both knew why.
"Do you still think of Anna?" She asked, looking out at the group gathered around a small fire.
Daryl was still facing the tree line. He didn't say anything for a long time, unsure of what he was supposed to say. The group hadn't talked about Anna or any of the others they had lost at the farm. It was too painful. But Daryl would be a damn liar if he ever said he didn't think about Anna.
"I still…." He trailed off, grimacing at the pain that rose in his chest whenever he thought about her. "I still look for her. Out on hunts," he explained.
Carol nodded. "She's alive out there," she whispered.
Daryl had repeated that to himself nearly every day since they'd been separated. He had convinced himself that, at the very least, she was still with Anderson. And when that wasn't enough, he would pour over her journal, reading her words over and over until it felt as though she were standing beside him.
He had memorized each letter, each tear stain in the entries about her life before, each angry scribble when she wrote about the people they had lost. And she had seen the people around her, seen him, and decided they were worth remembering. She had detailed everything that had happened, from the moment she had boarded a plane for South Carolina to the moment she had kissed him in the dark.
But she wasn't beside him, and he hated the way her absence hurt. He had to believe she was alive out there. He just hoped she'd had a better winter then they did.