Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
Ch.2: We Meet Again
I had spent the last day and a half just wondering around the woods with no specific mission in mind other than to find something living to ease the pain of hunger. Lately I had been following a river hoping to stumble upon a deer or something big, but it hadn't happened yet. "Sophia!" was I hearing things? That sounded like the guy from the house the other day. "Sophia!" Yep it was definitely him, but what was he still doing out here? I would have thought that after encountering me that he would have ran in the other direction.
His presence peaked my interest so I started following his voice, which had come from somewhere down the river, opposite the direction I had been walking. I had been stumbling toward his voice for a while, taking my own time, when I heard a horse whinny and the wind blew their scents up my nose. The sound was immediately followed by the heavy clopping of the horse running away.
Okay, so something spooked the horse that I'm assuming the man from yesterday was riding. If it was a walker that scared it, maybe I could distract it and help him get to safety. So I quickened my pace. God, why do I have to move so slowly? I can't run, all I can do is shamble along at a pace that might equal the leisurely jog of a normal person.
I had been trying not to breath for fear of smelling the man and having to deal with the pain of hunger, but I needed to smell him in order to pin point his location. So I gave the air a good long sniff. He was closer than I thought, to my right, in the little ravine. Not wanting to be seen, I snuck quietly to the side and peeked over. He was laying at the edge of the water passed out with and arrow in his side. If I were any other walker I would have thrown myself down the ravine and gotten some nasty wounds in an attempt to tear the flesh from his bones. But I'm not any other walker and I was feeling compelled to help him instead of eat him.
How am I supposed to get down there without hurting myself in the process? Wait, what the hell am I thinking? I'm a freakin' walker, the fall isn't going to kill me. At most it will scratch my soft, slowly rotting skin and hurt a little. That, to me, seemed worth it if it meant saving this man. So I stiffly laid down and tucked my arms across my chest before I let myself roll down the hill. I landed in the water, splashing the man in the face when I did. I expected him to spring to life, but he didn't. He just groaned as his eyes opened to little slits. I wanted to crouch over him and try to wake him up, but that would mean getting too close for comfort.
So instead I kicked his foot in hopes of getting him to stir. "Merle." Who the hell his Merle? Come on man wake up. I kicked his foot again. "Screw you. …Girl, they lost a little girl." So maybe that was who Sophia is. Maybe he's with a group and he has been looking for a little girl this whole time. "Shut up. I tried like hell to find you bro. You let out. All you had to do was wait. We went back for you." It was clear to me at this point that he was seeing things. He was looking at me, I think, but he was talking to someone only he could see. So I took the dangerous route and dropped to one knee beside him and softly slap his face. Making his head sway from side to side. "I ain't nobody's bitch."
The sigh I released came out as a growl and the sound was mimicked from a fellow walker that emerged from the edge of the foliage behind me. "Get…up." I rasped as I shook the man and he bolted to life. Freaked at my presence he immediately started shambling backwards and kicked me in the face making me fall flat on my back. Before I could get up be had a stick over my face ready to plunge it into my skull. Out of reflex I threw one arm over my face and used my other hand to point at the other walker who was slowly heading our way. "Him." I waveringly grunted out and the man turned to the other walker and took him down with a weak kick and started bashing his head in with the stick held horizontally in his hands.
When the other walker was taken down the man turned to me as I slowly pulled myself from the muddy ground. We stood there for a while just staring at each other. He was taking in my dingy appearance while I took in his sleeveless shirt, dirty face and the bolt protruding from his side. "What… are you?" he asked a bit breathlessly and I just shrugged. I didn't know what exactly I was, so how could I answer him? "What do you want?" his face was hard as stone and I was afraid that if I didn't answer fast he would kill me. So I shook my head from side to side. "So you can understand everything I say." It was more of a statement, but I nodded my head anyway. "And you can talk." He drawled as if he was freaked out and I didn't blame him. I nodded again in confirmation of his statement. "So why ain't cha talkin' now?" he asked and I felt the need to answer his question with words.
"H…Hurts." I grunted and he tiled his head slightly to the side.
"You things feel pain?" he asked and I just nodded. "Good." I didn't like the way his lip curled in disgust, but I couldn't blame him for hating my kind. Hell, I hated my kind. But I was different and I was hoping that he could see that I truly wasn't that horrible of a being.
We just stared at each other for a little while longer. My eyes slid down from his face to land on the arrow still sticking out of his side. "Ssshould…pull…out." I rasped with a nod to the bolt. He narrowed his eyes at me as if to tell me that I was overstepping some invisible boundary. I could sense that I was making him uncomfortable and he didn't want to take my advice. So I shrugged and decided to leave him to fend for himself and walked away.
"Where ya think yer goin'?" he asked and I slowly turned to face him. I just shrugged and pointed toward the direction that would get me out of the ravine without having to climb the steep sides. He rolled his eyes and walked to pick up his crossbow.
"Pull… out… Cover hole…lose… llless blood." My throat screamed at me for using so many words at one time, but I feared that if he didn't take my advice and pull the arrow out that he would lose too much blood and not make it back to where ever he had been staying.
"Were you a nurse or somethin'?" he asked. Wanting him to understand that my throat was hurting I pressed my hand to the base my neck and shrugged. "Ya sure seem to know what yer talkin' 'bout." I just rolled my eyes at him and motioned to the bolt in his side. "Alright alright. I'll pull it out, damn."
He was in pain. I could see it in his eyes as he reached around and attempted to pull the arrow out in a way that wouldn't cause more damage. I just watched him for a few seconds as he struggled and unwillingly let out a few pain filled grunts. I couldn't stand to see anyone hurting that much. So I slowly walked to stand behind him. He didn't even notice until I laid my pail hand on his sun kissed one stopping his struggling, but making him jump away from me in the process. "Help….just wanna help." I whispered making talking easier on my throat.
To my surprise, and I think his, he turned back around for me to pull the arrow out. Gently I laid my hand on the shaft and gripped it as tight as my walker fingers would allow, which was pretty tight, and gave it a good, fast yank. He let out a stifled scream before he placed his hands on his knees and breathed hard recovering from what I assumed was some intense pain. At lest he could scream if he wanted to, as far as I knew I couldn't do that.
When he was finally able to pull himself up straight he turned to me and held his hand out for the bolt. I hesitantly held it out to him hoping that he next bits of flesh that it went through wouldn't be mine. After that it was almost like I wasn't even there and for some reason instead of walking off like I was going to earlier, I stuck around and watched him.
Fist he removed his shirt and tied it firmly around his wound. Then he reminded me too much of myself when he cut open a squirrel and proceeded to eat it raw. When he was done with his snack he picked up a doll that had been lying on the ground and stole the shoe lace from the other walkers boot. I didn't understand why he took it until he cut off the dead walkers ears and strung them along the lace. Even then I still didn't understand why he made the necklace, other than maybe he had gone crazy from blood loss if he wasn't crazy before that. The face that he didn't kill me the first time we met made me think that maybe he was crazy before.
He started to head over to the side of the ravine with a makeshift cane in hand. "Where… goin?" I un-femininely grunted and he finally looked at me as if I had been a hallucination before.
"Hell no. I ain't telling' ya where my camp is at so you can come in and murder us all." He said as he turned back to the wall ahead of him.
"Won't murder… Just want… to help." He ignored me and started trying to climb up anyway. "Easier…Way…Up." I growled because him acknowledging the fact that I wasn't completely stupid and then choosing to ignore me was pissing me off for the first time since turned. I just wanted to help the guy and he wasn't accepting it.
My change of tone caught him off guard and he looked down at me with furrowed eyebrows. "How's that?" he asked and I rolled my milky yellow eyes as I pointed down the river. He just shook his head and waited for me to talk.
I sighed and it came out as a growl. "Half mile… Rope ladder." I didn't know how it had gotten there, but I knew that if he was willing to climb a literally slippery slope then he would be willing and able to climb a rope ladder. "Won't follow." I vowed to him and held three of my fingers up in the air as if I was a cub scout and he actually smirked.
"Smart ass." He said under his breath as he turned his back on me and headed stumblingly down the river in the direction I had pointed. That action alone told me that he trusted me to some extent.
I just stood back and watched him disappear down the river. I didn't follow him. I couldn't break my promise like that. Besides I was afraid that if I followed him to his camp that my heightened senses would pick up the scent of every person there and drive me into a feeding frenzy. It sounds stupid, but it had happened in the past when I was freshly turned, or what I call a newborn. So finding out who this man was and where he was staying didn't seem worth it.
I don't regret the decision I made that day to help him and not follow him. Helping him gave me a sense of worth, even if it was just for a little while, I actually seemed to feel something other than just here. Just…being.