So, finally the next chapter. Sorry if this one is a little shorter, but it took me a while to write it. I hope everyone enjoys it though!
The first thing he did when he reganed consciousness was take a breath, but the cloth that was over his face was pulled into his mouth and made him choke more. His heart rate sped up and he could feel himself begin to panic. He tried to move his arms to yank the cloth from his face, but his arms were bound tightly to his side. He didn't even notice that he was holding his breath as he struggled to unbind his arms.
Fabric tore and he felt something cool and grainy touch his hands. He struggled to move his arms and began to wriggle. Once there was more room to move, he started to dig furiously around himself. The fabric that prevented him from moving slowly began to tear away from him and he felt it slip from his face as he began to claw his way upwards. Cool air touched his fingertips and he felt relief. He gripped the grass and dug his other hand until it reached the surface. Then, pulling with all his might, he slowly pulled himself to the surface. Air washed over his face and dirt fell down from his hair. Bright light hit his skin and the back of his eyelids exploded with light. A pounding headache made itself noticed and it felt like his head was being spit in two. He took a deep breath and let the air fill his lungs.
Finally opening his eyes, the man looked around himself. The trees were bare and dead leaves littered the ground. The grass was brown and looked like it had just started to turn green again. He listened carefully and heard no sound except for the ever present animals hiding amongst the trees.
With a grunt he pulled the rest of his body from the ground, using his arms, and rolled onto his back. The sky above him was blue and white fluffy clouds spotted the vast area. The day looked like it would turn out to be a good one.
The man turned his head and looked at the the area where he had just dug himself out from. The area around the hole looked undisturbed, which meant that he had been in the ground for a rather long time. He didn't know how he got in the ground or who put him there in the first place.
A noise from the side of him drew his attention and he sat up to look over towards it. A groan and the sound of shuffling feet through leaves met his ears. Someone came stumbling out of the line of trees and moved towards him. The man immediately stood up and his muscles tensed. He almost fell back over when his eyesight went fuzzy and his headache let out another painful pulse.
"Hey, are you okay? What's going on?" he called, his voice hoarse from lack of use. He swallowed to try to wet his throat. The person just groaned and kept limping towards him. The man carefully watched the person and finally noticed some alarming things. The first was that the person's clothes were stained with blood and tore. The next was that one arm was missing and all that was left was a raggedy looking stump that had brown muscles and nerves tangling from the end. The final thing that he noticed, which was probably the worst, was that half of the person's face had been torn off, leaving an eyeless socket and torn muscle over dirty bones.
The thing snarled and snapped its teeth at him, reaching fowards with its remaining arm. The cold fingers skimmed his arm and it snapped him from his trance. The man stumbled backwards, his heart in his throat. A mound of dirt that he had made from digging out of the ground caught his foot and sent him spwarling backwards onto the ground. The thing immediately fell down onto him and the smell of rot filled his senses. He had managed to get his arms between himself and the thing to keep it from away from him.
The thing snapped his teeth and strained its neck in an attempt to get at something to chew on. The man ground his teeth and tried to push the thing off of him, but the thing on top of him was pretty much dead weight and his unused arms were weak. He felt them begin to buckle and the thing moved closer. The man shifted and something sharp dug into his leg. He automatically reached for it and his fingers wrapped around the hilt of a knife. Pulling it from his belt he brought it up and rammed it into the side of the thing's skull above him. The thing gave a jerk then fell completely on top of him. His arms went out and the thing crashed onto his body with enough force to knock the air from his lungs, but it didn't move.
He felt his body go slack and his head fell back onto the ground. After catching his breath he pushed the thing off of him and shakely got to his feet. He bent down to pick up the knife that he had dropped and listened carefully to the world around him again for more of those things, but no similar noise came from around him. He took one hesitant step towards the oppiset way that the thing came from and entered the woods.
It was like his senses were on hyperdrive. Every noise and movement made him jump, but no more of the things came after him. A deer ran out in front of him, stopped briefly to look at the man, then ran off. The man continued his walk in silence.
XxXxXxX
It felt like he had been walking for hours before he finally found the road. The sun had sank and the night was getting darker. Something in the back of his head told him that it wasn't a good idea to be out after dark. He had to find a place to spend the night and something to eat. His stomach felt like it was going to eat itself if he didn't put some food in it soon.
He ducked beneath a low-hanging branch, the branch snagging in his hair momentarily, and stepped into a ditch on the side of a road. He could have collapsed in releif when he saw the road and he all but ran towards it. His dirty shoes thudded on the road and he spun happily in the middle of it. He knew he should be quiet, which he was, but it was hard not to laugh.
"I don't think I've ever been this happy to see a road," he mumbled to himself. The best idea was to follow the road in one direction and hope that he runs into someone who would help him. After a short decision making session, he decided to head left.
He didn't know how long he was walking down the road when he heard a car coming. He stopped and looked behind his shoulder. The car was barreling down the road towards him. Something told him to get off the road as quickly as possible and that was exactly what he did. He hopped off the side of the road and sprinted into the line of trees. The car simply drove passed where he was hiding without slowing down and soon disappeared around the corner. The man cautiously walked back onto the road and looked around for any other sign of the living or undead. Down the road was one of those things, but it was too slow and far away to be much of a problem.
He continued down the road, heading the way he was previously going. The sky had gone black and he had to squint to see in front of him. With one of his senses gone, he relied on his sense of hearing to guide him. There were no other sounds around him other than his feet slapping on the road. It was too quiet for his taste.
A sudden, loud clap of thunder made him jump and the man froze. He looked up at the sky and saw a flash of lightening, which lit up the whole world around him. Then the rain came. It felt cold on his skin, but it was the best thing that he had ever felt. He could already feel the dirt and grime being washed off his skin. He closed his eyes and tilted his head up even further to enjoy it as much as he could. Which was probably why he hadn't noticed the things coming up from behind him.
Clammy fingers grazed across his bare lower arm and it made his body tense. Instict immediately kicked in and he quickly moved fowards. Spinning, he was ready to kill the thing, but froze. The one that grabbed him reach forwards again, but he was no longer focusing on it. Further down the road, moving towards him, was a horde of those things. They moved slowly, but there were too many of them for him to kill by himself. The only thing he could do was run, which was exactly what he did.
He spun on his heels and ran as fast as he could down the road. He had sheathed his knife so it was easy for him to run. He didn't bother to look over his shoulder, worrying that it would only slow him down. A small gravel road broke off of the road he was running on and he realized that it was probably a driveway. And if there was a driveway then there was a house. And if there was a house then it would be the best place for him to hideout in until the things passed.
He almost slipped when he turned sharply to be able to run down the driveway. The gravel beneath his feet was muddy and it made his feet sink in the mud. There was another clap of thunder and flash of lightening, helping him see down the road. At the very end, looking abandoned, was a small cabin. He jumped the three steps of the porch and crashed into the door. Thankfully the door didn't give and he tried the doorknob. He let out a sigh of releif when it turned and the door opened.
He slammed the door behind him and locked it. Whoever had been in the cabin before him had already boarded the windows and the backdoor, but he still moved to block them. The ugly sofa was pushed up in front of the front door and he shoved the fridge in front of the backdoor to make sure nothing will come in. As soon as the door was blocked, he heard the first banging on the side of the house. More hands banged on the house and the man sat in the middle of the room, his knife in hand. He folded his knees to his chest and waited. Now that he had time to sit and think, he started to panic about what he's going to do now. He can't remember how or why he was in the ground, or about anything before that. The first experience he had in this world was something that looked human but was defininatly not tried to kill him.
He finally realized that he was all alone. He had no one to trust or anyone to look out for him. He had to somehow survive this on his own. He couldnt' remember the last time he felt this lonely.
He let his head drop to his knees and closed his eyes. His headache was still going full force, but after a day of it he was getting used to the pain. He didn't notice how tired he was until he felt himself slowly slip into unconsciousness. Before he was totally out he thought he was a bright blue light flash from outside, but he dismissed it as lightening.
XxXxXxX
When he woke up, the rain had stopped and morning light filtered through between the wood boards over the windows. He opened his eyes and sat up from where he had managed to lay while he was sleeping. He rubbed his hands into his eyes and stretched. His headache bad decreased to a dull ache, but it was still noticeable. His body was sore and he determined that sleeping on the floor was not a smart idea. When he climbed to his feet, he limped to one of the windows and listened. When he heard nothing he looked out into the yard. The yard was empty and none of those things were milling around.
His stomach grumbled loudly and he clamped an arm over it in an attempt to quiet it. He silently slipped away from the window and went to the fridge. Opening it was a horrible mistake and he quickly closed it again, holding back his gaging from the strong smell of rotten food. Next he checked the cabinets in the kitchen. The first few cabinets were just plates, bowls, and cups. The next one held boxes of stale cereal, one of which he grabbed. Then he went back to the chair in front of the broken TV and opened the box. Sure enough, the cereal was stale but it was better than nothing. He used his hands to fish out the sugary balls and stuffed them into his mouth. Once his stomach was full and stopped making loud noises, he closed the box and set it on the coffee table.
Standing up, he checked the rest of the house. There was a bathroom and bedroom in the cabin, and nothing else. He found a backpack in the closet of the bedroom and tossed it onto the bed. Opening the drawers of the dresser, he found a pair of jeans that looked like they would fit him and a white undershirt and flannel. He changed out of his dirty clothes and left them on the floor once he changed into the new ones. Then he packed a few changes of clothes into the backpack and went into the bathroom. Looking in the medicine cabinet, he found some pain killers and popped a few into his mouth for his headache.
He also looked around the cabin for some sort of gun, but if there was one it was probably taken a long time ago because there wasn't even a bullet left in the house. He sighed when he realized that he was stuck with the knife that he had in the woods. After another quick look outside, he unblocked the door and slipped out. The sun was still low in the sky, but it had to be late morning by now. The man slowly climbed down the stairs, trying his hardest to not make a noise.
There was a shed around back of the cabin, but a quick look inside revealed nothing of use. A half done car sat in the middle of the cement floor with parts spewed around it, but if it didn't run then he had no use for it. He exited the shed and headed back towards the driveway. Even in the daylight the driveway was overgrown and hard to see. It was a miracle he had found it last night in his haste.
He started back down the driveway, intending on getting back on the road and following it the way he had been going, but something caught his eye. Off to the side of the driveway, hidden amongst the overgrown grass, was a feather. He stooped to pick it up and held it in the air to see it better. The feather was the softest thing he had ever felt (or figured that he had ever felt) and it was like molten gold in the light. Something in the back of his mind told him that it was familiar, that he had seen if before, but he couldn't remember where for the life of him. So instead of wondering for any longer he simply put it carefully into his pocket and continued on his way.
XxXxXxX
His feet hurt like hell and the muscles in his legs were worn. He had been walking all day, only stopping for a short meal when his stomach hurt enough. The sun was sunk low in the sky and night was threatening to fall soon. If anything that last night taught him was that he wanted to find a safe place to stay when it wasn't day. He had traveled through a small town a few hours ago and he regretted not deciding to stay there for the night. Ahead of him was nothing but woods.
He was about to move off into the woods in hope of finding a cabin like the night before when he heard the cars. He froze and listened closer, hoping he wasn't imagining it. Sure enough, the sound of multiple cars met his ears and he turned around to see headlights in the distance. Relief flooded through him and he quickly stepped to the side of the road to avoid being hit. As the cars drew closer, his heart began to beat faster and regret settled in. What if they didn't stop? What it they were crazy and decided to kill him just to do it? What if they thought he was one of those things and kill him anyways? The cars were too close now for him to run off into the woods without being noticed, so he just waited where he was and hoped for the best.
The first car slowed down and pulled to a stop beside him, the others stopping behind it. He couldn't see through the window, only his own reflection. The window finally rolled down and a man stuck his head out.
"Hey there, you lost?" the man asked and he nodded. "Well, we have a safe town not far from here if you want to jump in and come with us. We can always use the help."
"That would be great, thanks," he said, his throat hurting from the lack of talking.
"That's good to hear," the man said and smiled. "The name's the Governor."
Finally, it's done! I hope it was enjoyable and I will see you all next chapter.