In that moment, to Douglas, time had stilled to a crawl, he was glaring at the three men in front of him, his time spent with Charis flashed in front of his eyes.
Douglas walked down a street in California, wearing a faded pair of fatigues, combat boots, and a white tank top, a rifle on his back that bore resemblance to the rifle he carries with him today, but the makeshift stock was newer, and the barrel wasn't as rusty, 'damn…the entire world's gone to hell…"
As he continued walking he heard a scream, followed by a young woman running down the street towards him, he reached for his rifle, but as he kept looking she was unarmed, she screamed, "help me! There's a bunch of freaky things chasing me!"
Douglas raised an eyebrow and drew his rifle, seeing roughly 10 walkers running down the street, Douglas looked around as he aimed, noticing a steel lamppost he had an idea, 'time for a trickshot,' he looked to the girl, "cover your ears," as she did so, Douglas fired, the gunshot echoing through the city, the bullet whizzed through the air, ricocheting off the lamppost and piercing through the line of walkers, nailing roughly 5 of them with head shots, "damn…" Douglas looked around, he grabbed a shard of broken glass, hurling it into one of the walkers heads, as it hit, he came running up to the walkers with a 2x4, smashing through four of their heads before it broke, he looked around, he saw 10 bodies lying upon the ground, 'there we go…wait a minute,' he looked behind him, a walker rose up and went for his neck, the woman quickly used her backpack to knock him off his feet, to which Douglas coupled by smashing the walker's head with his boot splattering it across the concrete, "…thanks, you really saved my ass there."
Douglas turned to the young woman, who responded with, "I should be thanking you, you're amazing!"
Douglas chuckled and started walking away, "see ya later."
The woman frowned at this, brushing her hair away from her face, "wait! I wanna come with you!"
Douglas looked the girl over, she was dressed in a short black dress with short-shorts underneath, her hair was cut short and framed her face, which seemed to adorn an eternal smile, her body seemed to be in decent shape, especially given her speed in running from those walkers, "fine, but only if you don't weigh me down, I plan to survive this BS, however long it takes."
"I understand, my name is Charis, by the way"
Douglas looked over his shoulder, "Douglas."
When Douglas came to, he had already drawn his machete and was charging at the biggest of the three men, his reflexes kicked in, and he hurled the machete at the only one with a gun, his machete stuck into his hand as he went to defend, cutting off one of his fingers and sending him to the ground, Douglas then jumped up, kicking the other man in the chest as he gripped onto the biggest one's head, he punched him repeatedly then proceeded to seemingly attempt to rip off the man's lower jaw, forcing it open farther and farther, he looked to his right and the man he had thrown his machete into had recovered and was aiming up his pistol, 'crap, I cant dodge in time…dammit and I cant use this guy as a shield, they might hit Charis!"
Before Douglas could react, a gunshot rang out, when Douglas opened his eyes, the man with the pistol was dead, a bullet piercing his head, "oops, that wasn't medicine," Lalum laughed, her pistol smoking, Douglas nodded a thanks before smashing the man's head with a devastating elbow, caving it in, as the large man hit the ground, Douglas was caught in a full nelson by the last guy.
The man said, "you son of a bitch, you're dead!"
Charis regained her balance and looked on, shouting, "Douglas!" fear paralyzed her, 'dammit…I cant move!'
Douglas closed his eyes, trying to think of a way out of this, the man was now holding a knife to his throat when he heard something, "Douglas! Kick out your legs!"
Douglas didn't bother questioning and did as he was told, the man struggled as Douglas dropped down, "you little piece of sh-," the man was cut off when he looked up, an axe blade filled his vision, Jonah had hurled his tomahawk at the man, nearly cleaving the thug's head in half, he dropped Douglas and lurched forward, before Douglas pushed him off, standing back up.
"that's three points!" Jonah pumped his fist in the air, having hurled his tomahawk with perfect accuracy
After ensuring all of the thugs weren't going to turn to walkers, the group finished their introduction as the sun began to set, Douglas being the first, "anyways, this is Charis, she's been traveling with me since California."
Charis cheerfully chirped out, "Hello!"
Jonah looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze, "so…what does she do?"
Charis replied with, "I'm the pack mule!"
"huh?"
Douglas facepalmed, "she keeps track of all of our ammo, food, and first aid. In essence, she's the supply manager."
Charis nodded, Jonah replied, "seems like a lot for one girl to carry."
"she refused to let me carry it, saying, 'because you're the fighter, you need to be able to move more.'"
Charis nodded sheepishly, Jonah smiled, "well that changes now, we'll distribute the weight as evenly as we can, we're all a team here, right?"
Douglas nodded, Charis smiled happily, lalum gave a thumbs up, and both Jonah and Brant smirked, Douglas said, "then it's decided, I guess, DC is our destination now."
Charis gasped, "DC?! That's on the other side of the country!"
"it's still better than before, right?"
Charis sighed and nodded, "true…"
Jonah raised an eyebrow, "um…what?"
Charis began to rant, "We've been wandering aimlessly since Lancaster! Every town we went through had already been picked clean, no guns, no ammo, barely any food or water, I doubt we would've survived too long without his ingenuity."
Jonah was struck silent and only looked in confusion at Douglas, "don't look at me, I lost my compass, all I had was a roadmap to go off of so I couldn't do any hunting."
Jonah shouted in angst, "gah! Too much info, let's just get going already!"
As they walked down the street, they reached the city limits, the small talk had been minimal, that is, until they stopped to set up camp, Lalum had been working on something around the campfire, Jonah was sharpening his tomahawks, Charis was counting up all of the supplies, Brant was making dinner, but something seemed off, Douglas chose to stay up in a tall tree next to their camp his rifle constantly trained on the road, Lalum took notice of this and promptly asked Charis, "hey, what's with Douglas?"
Charis looked up from the backpacks, "oh…I actually don't know, usually I just sleep under the tree in that camouflage blanket he has wrapped around him."
Lalum sighed, "he's an odd one, then, what about you? You're really eager to help out Douglas, despite how distant he can be."
Charis chuckled, "he saved my life, I kinda feel indebted to him, besides, I've seen glimpses of the man he is under that cold exterior, he's really kind, what about you? What's your story?"
"oh, you actually want to learn about me?"
"yeah, you're the one who's probably gonna save our lives no matter and I'd like it to be a bit more than doctor-patient, y'know?"
"Alright, I guess…well, perhaps I should start with the beginning."
A small house, the sun shining brightly as a small child played in the front yard, Lalum spoke over this scene, "I grew up in a standard home, my mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad was a doctor."
The scene fast forwards to a teenage girl sitting at the table with her dad, clothed in a brand new dress, she spoke up, "so, dad, are you going to teach me about being a doctor?"
The man replied happily, "you know what, sure, you're old enough to start learning," the man then led the girl into a library, he pulled a book down and began reading off the contents of the book.
Lalum continued, "my dad taught me everything he knew, but my mom always taught me how to be a lady, but I think my grandpa had the most effect, he taught me how to find herbs and natural cures."
The scene switches to a teenage girl walking through a dense forest, following behind an elderly man, "grandpa? What are we doing way out here?"
The old man laughed and climbed up a tree, catching the young girl off guard, "im going to teach you something my son learned a long time ago," he began scraping off the green of the tree after cutting it open, "natural remedies to anything that may ever ail you!"
The young girl was awestruck and excitedly followed, clambering awkwardly up the tree to follow along, Lalum then continued, "but…eventually this infection started and…me and my family kept trying to escape but…"
The scene changes again, a shadowy alley as four people run down the alley, a horde of walkers running after them, one of them, a woman trips, she screams, "keep going!"
One of the group stops, turning around and picking her up, a walker quickly lunged, biting the shoulder she shouts, revealing herself to be Lalum from the past, "Mom!" she pushes the walker off and starts running, carrying the woman
Charis cut in, "oh my god, your mom got bit?"
Lalum replied, "yes…we found a place to hide and both my dad and grandpa tried to fix her but…she succumbed, so I ran…I couldn't bear it."
Lalum was wandering, her body was beat up and thinner than before she left, as she came up to a small shop, she found a pair sleeping on the floor, she called out, "hello?"
One of them stirred and pinned her to the wall, "who the hell are you?! What do you want?!...Lalum?!"
Lalum heard her name and looked up, tears welled up in her eyes, "Jonah?!"
Jonah got up off her, "I thought for sure you were dead!"
"Same, im so happy to see a friendly face."
The other man stirred, "what's all the commotion about?"
Jonah replied, "Brant, this is my old friend Lalum!"
Brant yawned, "the girl with the doctor family?"
Jonah nodded and Lalum continued, "so what are you guys up to?"
Charis cut in, "and then they told you about their plan to go to dc, right?"
Lalum replied, finishing up one of her concoctions, "yep, and I asked if I could join them as a medic, and the rest is history."
Charis yawned, "wow, you've been through so much, though, that does make me wonder about the others…"
Lalum looked at the moon, "that's a concern for tomorrow I think, come on, we'll share a tent tonight."
Charis nodded and walked over to Douglas, "are you sure you don't want to sleep down here?"
Douglas exhaled, "no thank you, besides, there's not enough room in the makeshift tents for more than two people each."
Lalum replied with, "to be fair, technically my tent is slightly bigger than the other one…I retract my statement," as she finished her statement she climbed into her tent
Charis sighed, "good night, Douglas."
Douglas nodded, "night," he pulled his gun out again, watching the road
Well? How was that? Hope you all enjoyed learning about Lalum and her backstory, leave a review if you think anything could be done better.
