Alrighty, things in RL seem to be calming down a little so hopefully, without all the stress, I'll be able to get some more chapters out without too much of a wait. So in the meantime, heres chapter 4 :)
Thanks to cemeterydreamer, Torchwood Boy, GageWhitney, endlessvanity, , Dannie Tomlinson, Heatherlina, The Apothecary, CriminalMindsWhore and RedLil for the reviews :D
Andrea bent over at the waist and braced her hands against her thighs, trying desperately to catch her breath. She winced and rubbed at the painful stitch in her side. Beside her, Michonne was standing with her back turned, facing the direction they had come from, the chains in her hand hanging loosely.
Andrea glanced warily at the two armless walkers that were bound to the end of the chains. While Michonne had assured her that they were no longer dangerous, their missing arms and lower jaws made sure of that, it had done nothing to eradicate her unease in their presence.
"We need to keep moving." Michonne spoke quietly but firmly, her head turning in a slow arc as she scanned the woods.
Andrea sighed moved to lean against a tree, "I know, I know, I just need a minute." She knew in the back of her mind that it was only a couple of days since the they were forced to leave the farm, but to her, it felt like she'd been running for weeks.
She was beyond tired, so much so that she was sure she wouldn't be able to go much further, and she ached everywhere; she didn't need to take of her boots to see that they had rubbed her feet raw, and from the tightness of her left boot, she was certain that her ankle was swollen.
"The longer we stay here, the closer they get," Michonne turned to look at her, her eyes hard and cold, "Walking through these woods, we might not see them, but they notice us. They follow. It's only a matter of time before they catch up."
Andrea cast her eyes around in a wide arch, warily taking in as much of the suffocating woods as she could. If what Michonne had said was correct, they needed to get away from the trees as soon as possible, there were too many places where walkers could be hidden from their sight.
"Are you sure?" she asked, pulling away from the tree and forcing her tired limbs to keep her standing.
Michonne hummed a positive and moved towards her, a sharp tug on the chains in her hands making her two 'pets' follow, "They're out there. They might not be close enough to hear them yet, but they are there."
"…Right" Andrea replied distractedly.
"Let's go." Michonne set off further into the trees, the two armless walkers loping aimlessly along behind her. Andrea sighed in resignation, but knew that if the other woman had survived this long alone, she had to be doing something right, and so trudged along after her.
They walked in near silence for what Andrea thought was nearly two hours, the crunching of dry leaves, the occasional snapping twig and the low moans of their undead companions the only sounds to be heard. Andrea was quickly becoming accustomed to Michonne's quiet nature; in the short time they had been together, there had been very limited vocal interactions between the two of them. As Andrea studied the woman walking silently as a shadow just ahead of her, she found that she was reminded of Daryl.
She had been into the woods enough times with Daryl during their stay at the farm to know that he could move without making a sound, he saw things that no-one else could see or would easily overlook. He was a strong, imposing force when he wanted to be, but was capable of melting into the shadows and staying in the background. The more time she spent with Michonne, the more she saw that the woman possessed a lot of those same qualities.
"So, where are the rest of your group?" Andrea asked, hopping lithely over a large rotten branch in her path.
Michonne snorted back a laugh and threw a look over her shoulder, "No group, just me."
The shock of what she had just heard made Andrea's steps falter, "You've survived all this time on your own?" she asked incredulously.
Michonne stopped and looked at her, an eyebrow raised, "That a problem?"
Andrea felt her eyes widen at the challenging look Michonne was giving her, "What? No, no, of course not, I was just surprised," she stuttered, "I don't know how long most of the people in my group would last on their own," she glanced down at her feet, "we're too dependent on each other." She mumbled.
Michonne nodded slowly before setting off again, "Does no good to be completely dependent on another person, especially now," Andrea jogged to catch up to her new friend and fell into the easy pace she was setting, "Times like these you need to know how to take care of yourself."
Andrea hummed in agreement and snuck a glance at the other woman, "So how is it you managed to do this all on your own?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Michonne shrugged her muscular shoulders, "I was smart, stayed on the move, never stopped in one place too long," she hiked her thumb over her shoulder at the two walkers trailing along behind them, "saw the dead don't attack each other so I brought these two along with me. They 'shield' me, for lack of a better word, from the others."
Andrea nodded her head in understanding. She had suspected that was the case; helping Glenn and Rick cover them selves in the decomposing corpse that was Wayne Dunlap, and the effect the smell had on other walkers, was not something she would forget in a hurry.
"Did you know them?" Andrea asked softly, and as Michonne glanced back at the two creatures following the pair of them aimlessly, a sad smile curling her lips, she knew the answer to her question. "I'm sorry."
"My boyfriend Mike and his best friend Terry. We didn't know what was going on, just that the dead were coming back." She kept her eyes straight ahead and her voice never wavered as she spoke, and Andrea found herself captivated by the woman's story. "One tried to get into our house. Mike killed it, but not before he got bit. We didn't know bites killed you, so I just bandaged him up and left him with Terry while I went on a supply run. By the time I got back they'd both changed."
Andrea bowed her head slightly in understanding of the other woman's grief, "I'm sorry." She replied, genuinely feeling for her new friend. She couldn't even imagine how she copes on a daily basis with seeing the decomposing, yet animated, corpse of her boyfriend.
Michonne shrugged lightly, "You've got nothing to be sorry about, not your fault." Andrea smiled briefly in response, the smile lasting barely a second before it turned to a grimace at the pain emanating from her sore ankle and blistered feet. She managed to bite back the hiss of pain that threatened to escape her, but not before Michonne noticed.
"Are you okay?" she asked, her eyes narrowing in what Andrea assumed was concern. Andrea nodded half-heartedly, wincing when she landed a step on a particularly sore spot on her left foot. "Bullshit." She walked over to a tree and looped the ends of the chains around one of the branches. "Let me take a look."
"Oh, no, really I'm-" her protests were cut off by a sharp look from Michonne that clearly said sit down or I will make you sit down. She huffed in mild annoyance, secretly glad for the opportunity of a rest, and sank down against the base of the same tree Michonne had tied Terry and Mike to.
The African-American woman went and knelt at her feet and helped to undo one of the worn leather boots while Andrea did the other. Brushing her long dreadlocks out of the way, Michonne gently peeled the boot she had been unlacing off Andrea's foot, and then proceeded to do the same with her sock, taking her time and apologising when the blonde flinched and hissed in pain.
"Damn." Michonne muttered as she threw the sock to the side and looked at Andrea's foot. Andrea did the same and grimaced at the sight. It was more than rubbed raw as she had initially thought; blisters upon blisters had broken out around her heel and the side of her foot, so much so that in some places they were no longer blisters but bleeding sores.
Andrea sighed and pulled the sock off her left foot, expecting more of the same. She wasn't disappointed. She pulled her trouser leg out the way and prodded at her sore ankle. It was definitely swollen, from the degree of pain, Andrea suspected it was nothing more than a sprain.
"That's going to need a wrap," Michonne pointed at her ankle and then looked back at her blistered feet, "those will be a bit more difficult."
Andrea snorted in amusement, "Yeah, a little bit." She reached for her socks and slowly pulled them back on, deciding to forgo her boots, at least for a little while.
"First things first," Michonne unlooped the chains and gave them a quick tug, "we need to get out of these woods."
Andrea nodded in agreement, "You'll get no argument from me."