Chapter Two

"Not Out of the Woods Yet"

Luke

A/N Hey! If you're reading this that can either mean that you liked my first chapter enough to continue reading or that you thought it sucked and just wanted to see how much worse it got (I'm crossing my fingers that it's the first one). Thanks for the kind reviews, I hope to see more of them! Don't be afraid to leave some feedback, I do anything I can to improve my work. This chapter is going to be told from Luke's point of view, and it should be a little bit better because there's more dialogue incorporated. Alright, adventure awaits! Let's get into the story!

I could have sworn that the sun was in the sky a minute ago. The forest has become dark and gloomy, filling me with the tense discomfort I'm used to feeling everyday. This is what the world is like these days; the sun sets in the blink of an eye.

"I think we should be heading back Pete, it's getting dark real fast," I say, breaking the forest's eerie silence.

Pete pulls his crossbow closer to his chest. "I guess you're right. It's gonna be damn hard to find that thing when we can't even see two feet ahead of ourselves."

We were just outside the cabin when he spotted the deer. The big hunter that he is, Pete snatched his crossbow and dragged me into the forest with him. We've been out here for over half an hour, without having spotted it once since the cabin.

I glance over at him. If you didn't know Pete personally, you'd expect him to be a pretty mean-spirited guy, with his hard eyes and thin lips. But Pete's nothing like that. He's the considerate guy who everyone looks up to and trusts completely. I knew him before the apocalypse and he's always been this way. Even after losing his wife and daughter, Pete hardly changed. The only thing different about him is how his hair turned from brown to gray.

"Alright, so which way's back?" I ask, my eyes scanning the tall trees. Everything looks the same to me out here.

"East," Pete replies almost immediately. He must have noticed the confusion on my face, because then he adds, "To your left."

Just as we're about to head left, a body catches my eye.

"Wait," I tell Pete and beckon him towards the body. His eyes widen at first, but then he follows close behind me.

It's a lurker, with its head completely bashed in. There's no sign of a bullet hole or knife markings. The wound goes deep to where I can see its cracked skull. The blood is still fresh. This means that somebody was here not too long ago.

"Whoever did this is probably close," I state.

Pete bites his lip. "What are you suggesting?"

"We gotta find out who it was. What if it's Carver, or somebody from his group?"

"We'll look around for a few minutes, but you said it yourself – we need to get back soon."

As we continue past the body, I begin to hear the groans of excited lurkers, and the grunts of someone struggling against them. I know Pete hears it too, because he lifts his crossbow, ready to shoot at any second.

"This way," I command, taking him deeper into the forest. We run in the opposite direction of the cabin – or west, I should say. My feet sink into the wet ground with every step I take. As we zip past the towering trees, the sound of lurkers grow louder. So do the grunts.

And then I see her; pushing helplessly as a lurker throws himself onto her. Just as another one is about to do the same, I pull out my machete and decapitate them both. She breaths heavily, rolling the headless body off of her.

Pete is shooting arrows at the others. Dead bodies scatter the ground, most are courtesy of Pete, but some have visible stabs in their heads.

"I'm all out!" Pete shouts. "Quick, grab her!" As more near us, I scoop the girl into my arms and then follow Pete back to the starting point. The lurkers turn their stupid heads as we sprint past them, but they're too slow to catch on.

After about a minute, we come to a stop.

"I think we lost them," Pete says between breaths.

I look around. The woods are quiet and lonely, the same they were before. "Yeah, we're good," I say, and then turn to the girl in my arms, whose big, dark eyes are staring at me in disbelief. "Hey kid, you alright?"

She blinks. "I – I think so." Her voice isn't high like I expect it to be, but instead it's low and soft.

"What are you doing out here all alone?" Pete asks. "You're with a group, aren't you?"

She slowly shakes her head.

I glance over at a very concerned-looking Pete. "There's no way you made it this far on your own. How old are you?"

"Seventeen," she croaks. "And you don't have to carry me, I can take care of myself."

"It sure seemed that way with that lurker on top of you," I say sarcastically, and keep carrying her.

She frowns. "I was doing fine on my own until these guys came along and attacked me."

"By who? Were they looking for anyone?" I ask, sounding a little too persistent. "I mean uh...did they mention what they were after?"

She shakes her head again. "All they wanted were my supplies. It wasn't much but...but they were willing to kill me for it."

"The world has come to a low place," Pete states softly.

I glance down at the girl. She's small and easy to carry. When I first saw her with that lurker on top of her, I thought she was just a kid. But now, seeing her up close, I note that kids don't have cheekbones that high and eyes that pretty.

"Well uh...my name's Luke, and this right here is Pete."

"Hi there," he pipes in.

"I'm Anna," she says with a weak smile.

"Nice to meet you Anna," I say honestly. "If it's alright with you, we're gonna take ya back to our group. We got a doctor with us and it sure looks like you could use some – HOLY SHIT!" I drop her to the ground.

"What is it?" Pete says.

I can't believe I haven't seen it until now. Her arm is bleeding through her sweater, and even with all the layers on, it's still pretty fucking obvious she's been bit. Of course she's bitten! We just saw her back there with all those walkers, completely cornered. Why didn't she say anything? Why hadn't she warned us before we found out this way?

I throw my hands over my head. "She's been bit man! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! What are we gonna do here?"

Pete squints at Anna, who's sitting on the ground with a worried expression.

"No!" she objects. "It was a dog, I swear!"

"I didn't see any dog around here, Anna," he says.

"It bit me back at a campsite," she explains while pulling up her sleeve. "Look, it's too wide to be a human bite." The bite is wide and also very deep, but heck, I don't know the difference between a dog bite and a lurker bite.

"Those things aren't human," I remind her. They're something much more malicious.

She turns to Pete. "Just look at it."

"I don't know about this..." I say, but he's already lowered himself to the ground. I keep my distance as he examines the bite. Anna looks up at me and when I don't look back, she turns away.

"Can you tell what it is?"

"Hmm, well it could be a dog bite, hard to say. We can have Carlos take a look at it once we get back." He pauses. "So where did this "dog" go?"

Anna hesitates. "I – I killed it." Her eyes sadden.

"You killed it?" I yell at her.

I didn't mean to! Well, I mean, I did but-" She looks at her arm. "You saw the bite, I just did the first thing that came to mind. It's not like I wanted to kill it."

"I know," I tell her. "It's just...you don't kill dogs."

Pete's hard eyes soften, before wheeling back to the girl. "Anna," he says, "are you telling us the truth?"

"I have no reason to lie," she says, her eyes glued to Pete's. "It's not like it would get me anywhere."

"Well, alright Anna, that's good enough for me."

"What?" I clamor. "You're just gonna believe her?"

Pete stands up. "I've got a good bullshit detector, Luke. Besides, we're not leaving a little girl alone in the woods when we got a doctor with us who can make the call."

"Little?" she says, her brows knit together. She brings herself to her feet, but it doesn't add much to her argument considering her height.

"Do you want help or not?" I say a little too harshly. "Look, just don't get too excited kid. You're not out of the woods yet."

We start walking back to the cabin, which should be near. Anna drags herself slowly behind.

"You alright back there?" Pete asks.

"I'm fine," she says, but her voice sounds weak and tired.

"You better be fine," I tell her, "because I'm not carrying you anymore with that bite on your arm."

"I didn't want that to begin with," she snaps, and I can see Pete smirk from the corner of my eye.

Past a few more big trees is the cabin. Being the only bright thing for miles, it stands out like the sun in the sky.

"Here we are, Anna," Pete announces. "How does she look?"

When there's no reply, we both turn around.

Anna falls to the ground in a heartbeat.

A/N What did you think? I had a lot more fun writing this chapter than the first one, even if it was kinda short. Please, please, please tell me what you think in the reviews! I'm thinking about mentioning my favorites in the next chapter, but I'm not really sure yet. Thanks so much for reading! peeeace