AN: So, I am playing around with the timeline a bit here. In the comic, they are in the quarry into winter, so this is after the quarry and the CDC in the show. No farm yet. Anyway, please let me know what you think :)
Disclaimer: I do not own anything Walking Dead. Wish I did, but I don't. I wish my brain was as ingenious as Robert Kirkman. I do own Natalie though. Thanks for reading!
The sun was starting to peek over the horizon in the east, the direction of the camp behind her. She had been running for hours. Natalie made sure to keep the sun on her left shoulder, because merely running west would have sent her straight through Waynesboro and last she heard it was overrun with biters. Natalie didn't fancy being anyone's dinner that day so she opted to continue in her current direction.
After another hour of slow jogging she became acutely aware she could feel the blood pulsating around the wound in her head, and her muscles ached in protest at being asked to keep moving. Feeling the stitches in her sides she stopped completely and bent over, hands on her knees, her breath coming in long drawn out gasps. The adrenaline that set in when she killed Tim and made her escape was starting to wear off.
Natalie's thoughts strayed briefly to the man she killed. He hadn't trusted her, but he at least sympathized with her in her current situation. When the light in his eyes had gone out when she beat his head in with the gun, she felt a mixture of emotions, ranging from self-loathing to a maniacal sense of glee. That was the part that scared her the most—the sheer joy she felt at ending a man's life. Natalie's thoughts jumbled together and she felt dizzy. She had to mentally remind herself of where she was and having a mental breakdown was not an option at the moment.
Straightening, she craned her neck to look back into the woods, scanning the area quickly to see if any of Phillip's henchmen followed her. Seeing nothing she turned forward…nearly running face first into a biter that managed to sneak up on her. Its long, bony fingers reached out for her shoulders. With a shriek she brought her hands up to keep it from getting any closer, shoving it back with all the strength she could muster. The biter was the size of a large child or small woman so she was able to easily push it to the ground. As the biter struggled back its feet, hissing in rage, Natalie took a few quick steps backwards. She fumbled to remove the gun that was strapped across her back.
"No guns," Mark's voice went through her head. "Noise draws 'em like moths to a flame." Not wanting to chance attracting any more biters in the area, she ditched the gun idea and grabbed the knife out of the waistband of her shorts, holding it out in front of her.
"Come on you ugly motherfucker," she taunted. She had never been in a knife fight before but figured now was the time to start.
"Easy babe," Mark's voice cautioned. "Wait for the opportune moment."
As the biter limped towards her she lunged forward, wanting to take it by surprise. This tactic seemed to backfire because she clumsily landed into the biter and it stumbled backward, tripping over a tree root and taking her down with it.
With a sickening crack Natalie could hear the spine of the biter underneath her break, but it cushioned her fall so she was now sitting on top of it. It still reached up for her, attempting to grab her arms or hair to pull her down towards its lustful jaws.
One of its hands got hold of the bandage covering her wound and she felt the medical tape rip from her head, taking some of her hair with it. Despite the pain Natalie managed to roll herself off the biter, out of its grasp and scrambled to her feet. The biter, unable to use its legs anymore due to its broken back, was trying unsuccessfully to roll and pull itself toward her. With one swift motion Natalie drew the knife over her head and plunged it down to rest in the biter's forehead, its motions immediately ceasing. Natalie bent down and picked up the knife, wiping off the thick, black blood on the front of her jean shorts. They were so filthy that that at this point biter blood would blend right in.
Natalie wiped the sweat from her brow and breathed a long, heavy sigh. She had seen biters plenty of times, but Mark had always been with her to take care of them. This was her first solo biter kill. Upon closer examination, the biter wore what was probably once a white blouse and the remnants of what looked like business pants, a young woman possibly. There was a gaping wound in the neck and part of the shoulder had been chewed away, exposing the tendons and muscles underneath. The face was so decayed that if it hadn't been for the clothes Natalie wouldn't have known if the biter had been a man or a woman. She turned around and walked away slowly, feeling sick to her stomach. No matter how many times she had seen Mark kill these things, it always bothered her when he did. Even though she knew the people were dead already, she still felt like she was taking a person's life.
"But you did that already. You murdered that man." Natalie shook her head, tamping down her emotions. It wouldn't do to mull over it.
"Well, that was a little too close," Mark's voice broke through the silence in the clearing. "You were lucky. Gotta watch your dumb ass next time."
She chuckled out loud. "Agreed. If I make cock-ups a daily habit I'd say my chances of surviving the apocalypse are seriously fucked."
Mark's chuckle rang in her ears. "Know I didn't get to teach ya everything, but you know enough about weapons and survival to make it. You'll figure the rest out. You're a fighter. Remember after we got married and your dad threatened to tie me to the ocean pier with a piece of bloody fish hangin' off me?"
Natalie smiled at the memory. "I told him to get his head out of his ass because it wasn't a hat."
"If you can take on your dad like that you can take on anythin' honey." Natalie sighed, and the grief and sadness threatened to overwhelm her.
"Not without you," she whispered to the empty clearing. She was very aware she was standing by herself talking to her dead husband, and she probably looked like a complete nutter. But his voice gave her comfort, and she wasn't going to fight it.
The crack of a stick brought her back to reality and she quickly spun in the direction of the sound. Seeing nothing, she turned and started walking in the direction she had been running. Blood was dribbling down her head from the now exposed wound, some of the stitching having ripped apart. She was disturbed to realize that she hadn't heard the biter approaching because when she turned her head to scan the area behind her, the wounded side had been facing the biter. Steeling herself, she held her fingers to the right side of her head and snapped. Nothing. She tried again, and still could hear nothing. Phillip must have done more damage than either Milton or she had thought. She was definitely deaf in her right ear.
Swallowing her emotions, Natalie thought of what she must do next. First thing she had to do?
"Find water and shelter," Mark's voice commanded. She scanned the area in front of her. Nothing.
"No matter now," she exclaimed aloud, "But I have to find something quickly and get out of here. Could have drawn more biters from the attack." Her head was pounding and her already weak muscles were screaming for a rest.
"I'm right here with you honey," Mark's voice sounded and then went silent. She knew she had to keep going. Mark and Cory were depending on her. With both of them in her head and her heart she found the will and strength to move forward. Without a glance behind her she continued further into the heart of the forest.
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Present Day, Five months after the outbreak
Squish!
The sound of the knife as it ripped into the biter's internal organs was enough to make Natalie turn her head and retch. The smell of a biter's innards was something she was never going to get used to, a cross between the sulfuric smell of rotting eggs, sweat, and rotting meat. The odor penetrated all of her senses and would linger in her nostrils and throat for hours on end, even when she was miles away from where she had made a kill. She had found a tube of Vaporub in a small convenience store that hadn't been entirely looted, and she would put that under her nose to dull her senses to the putrid stink. It was never enough.
With a grimace she reached down into the open chest cavity of the walker and pulled out a handful of its large intestine. She walked back to the entrance of the cave that had been her home the last two months. Stretching herself to her full 5'3" height, she draped the organs, much like one would drape Christmas garland, around the trees that served to camouflage the opening from the eyes of biter's and live people alike. The smell kept the biters from getting curious about the opening to the cave. She needed to at least keep them away one more night.
Natalie stumbled upon the cave a good month after she fled Phillip's camp. She found the highway shortly after her encounter with her first biter and managed to procure food, clothes, and a few supplies from abandoned cars. To her relief there was a first aid kit and she had been able to take care of her head wound. Natalie's attempts at re-stitching the laceration had produced a colorful stream of language and she swore if she found a doctor she would handcuff herself to him and throw away the key.
Since there was a stream near the highway Natalie had tried to sleep in the cars, but the decaying bodies of the cars' former owners eventually drove her to find a new place to set up camp. For the next month she perfected her climbing skills by sleeping in trees, strapping herself to the thick branches with a bungee cord so she wouldn't become a midnight snack for a wandering biter. She kept close to the highway, going back every now and then to forage for food. Natalie never thought she would pride herself on being a scavenger, but she now considered herself an expert.
When she couldn't take another bite of dried fruit or canned Spaghettios, Natalie decided it was time to get some real meat. When Mark would come home from hunting he would bring giant bucks that would deliver copious amounts of meat, enough so they could freeze it for an entire winter and eat it into the next year. Her mouth watering, Natalie had attempted to hunt down a deer in the surrounding wood. Unfortunately, any time she would get near one it scampered off into the woods. As her quest for real protein became more desperate, she resigned herself to the idea she might not be a big game hunter after all.
"Got to start small," Mark's voice chided. She knew if he were here he would be on the floor laughing at her antics. "Besides, you can't shoot the damn things. Whatcha gonna do, nag at it until it begs you to kill it?"
Desperate for meat, she had spent days creeping into the woods, looking for small game. She was surprised at the number of animals left with how many biters there were at this point wandering the woods. On approximately her 37th attempt, she managed to bag a small squirrel after she threw her knife at it in frustration. That meal would be one she remembered for a long time. After weeks of hunting small animals she felt she had at least become proficient at either throwing her knife and killing something, or lunging for a squirrel to snap its neck. She was successful probably 60% of the time.
"Don't know how to track worth a damn, and your techniques are sloppy," Mark said.
"But I can move more quietly than you ever could. You move as gracefully as a giraffe on roller skates," she retorted.
Mark's voice kept her a lot of company these days. Natalie knew talking to the ghosts of her dead family was not healthy, but it was the only thing she could do to keep her sanity from crumbling. At night she would whisper to Mark and Cory, informing them of the day's events and what the state of the world was. She would tell Mark what she planned to do to Phillip when she ran across him again.
In the cave she now resided Natalie managed to build a life for herself. She couldn't sleep worth a damn, the nightmares were never-ending—but she could say she had survived another day in this strange, new world. And she managed to survive another day to get Phillip.
That was the thought that had kept her going for the better part of three months, that when she saw Phillip his suffering would be nothing compared to what she had been made to go through, and Mark and Cory would finally be at peace. Natalie often spent nights fantasizing at what she could do to him and had found herself deliciously excited at the different methods of torture she could devise in her head. On one hand she knew her joy in inflicting pain on another human being was not normal and Mark would not approve—on the other, when she faced Phillip again she knew her lust for blood would far outweigh any moral compass she possessed before the apocalypse. Natalie spent three months using the skills she learned from Mark about survival, and taught herself more in the process. She had grown stronger and faster, and she could fight. After she killed Phillip she didn't much care if she lived, but her mission now was to make him pay. She just had to find him first, and on her terms.
It was with this in mind Natalie knew her time here was ending. She needed to move on. Staying in one place would be dangerous, especially if Phillip and his cronies were out looking for her. She didn't want them getting the jump on her. She was staying one more night in the cave, and tomorrow she would find a new temporary home.
The next morning Natalie left the cave at dawn her gun held high and her knife strapped to her hip. She adjusted the headband that now served to cover her deformed ear. It had healed nicely. Before she killed him she reminded herself to commend Milton on the bang-up job he had done stitching her up. Where the pinna had once been, nothing but a few loose flaps of skin and the hole leading to the ear canal remained. It looked hideous and she had no personal problem walking around with it exposed, but the area around the injury was still sensitive. She also didn't want to give any other people, should she run into them, the idea she was weak in any way. Adjusting the pack on her back, Natalie started toward the highway and diverted west, heading towards Waynesboro. If the knowledge that Waynesboro was overrun was widespread, she thought she could count on not running into other live people the closer she got to town.
She had only come across other people twice since she left Phillip's camp, and both times had served as a reminder why she now no longer could or would trust other living beings.
The first time was when a man and his wife that found her while she was out hunting and got the jump on her. When she woke up hours later the sky had almost grown completely dark. She could taste the blood from where the man hit her across the face and the pain in her head from where she was pistol-whipped by the woman. When she felt around to see what they took, she found that not only had they taken her gun and knife, they had stolen her wedding ring.
The fact they had stolen one of the last items precious to her had done nothing to ease her treatment of them after she found their camp. It was close to dark when they had attacked her, so Natalie knew they themselves or their camp could not be far off. She didn't know how to track them, but following the streambed she was sure she would stumble upon them. They had to be near a water source to survive. With her limited survival knowledge and a bit of luck, Natalie found their camp a short time later upstream. The couple had badly attempted to hide the fire they built to cook food, and the smell of roasting meat wafted in her direction. She could see a tent and multiple bags of supplies. Propped up against one of the bags, she could see her rifle.
Thinking quickly, Natalie slunk away from the camp. She ran a few hundred yards down the stream, straining with her good ear to hear the noise that would normally make her turn tail and run. After a few minutes, she could see it-nine or ten stray biters, wandering aimlessly through a forest clearing looking for a snack. There were so many biters in the forest these days it was hard not to find small groups like this. Quickly, Natalie bent and picked up a rock, throwing it in the direction of a male biter not more than 20 yards from where she stood. Seeing her, its eyes widened with hunger and it began to hurry in her direction, far faster than the aimless gait they seemed to acquire when there wasn't food nearby. As the biter came toward her, Natalie turned and ran toward the camp, making sure to never leave the biter's sight. When she saw the camp in the distance again, she smiled. This was going to work.
Natalie continued running until she was only fifty yards from the camp, then took a sharp right, disappearing into the darkness. After running a short distance she turned, hoping that her plan would work. With triumph, she watched as the group of biters that had been following her took notice of the fire and started wandering toward it, looking for another food source. Only one biter had managed to sense where she had gone and followed closely behind her. With haste, Natalie bent and picked up a thick branch. With as much force as she could muster she rammed the stick forward into the eye of the biter. It sunk to the ground, dead. It was then Natalie started to hear the screams and gunfire coming from the couple's camp.
Walking quietly, Natalie stalked up to the camp and hid behind a bush, watching the action unfold in front of her. The man and woman were trying desperately to shoot down the biters that had invaded their camp, but they were outnumbered ten to two and were disposed of quickly. Natalie didn't move from her spot, waiting for the biters to have their fill. Hours later, when they had gotten bored of the meal and started wandering aimlessly again, Natalie emerged from her hiding place.
She walked up to the bodies of the man and woman. Their faces had been ripped off and parts of their brain were hanging out, exposed to the muggy night air. They wouldn't be turning. Scanning their bodies, Natalie saw a gleam from the woman's finger, which had miraculously not been eaten off. Natalie couldn't quite believe the audacity of the woman, but she chose not to think about it. She bent down, removing her wedding ring from the dead woman, and slipped it on her own finger. Turning back to the camp she began scouring for supplies, finding more food, guns, and ammo in addition to her own. She picked up an empty bag and filled it with her new prizes.
As Natalie started to walk out of the camp, she glanced at the bodies and noticed a gleam from around the woman's neck. She reached down and removed what she now saw was a necklace, a locket. Turning it over in her hands, Natalie opened the locket. Inside was a picture of a little girl that couldn't be more than ten. The girl scarily resembled the dead woman before her. Natalie studied the picture, than looked back at the bodies of the girl's dead parents. With a shrug, she turned and threw the locket in the now dying fire, watching as the edges bent and the metal started to become discolored.
"Sorry you had shitty parents, kid." Not sparing a glance back, Natalie turned and headed back towards her own cave.
The second time Natalie encountered people she hadn't even talked to them. She had been in her cave, cleaning a squirrel she had just managed to kill when she heard a loud scream coming from outside the cave, too close for her comfort.
Natalie had grabbed her rifle and run as fast as she could towards the screams. Running over the ridge that led up out of the clearing, she saw her. A woman that looked to be in her late teens or early 20s, covered in blood, was running away from what looked to be a hoard of 7 or 8 biters. It looked like she had been running for a while because her movements were clumsy, stumbling. She was attempting to beat off the walkers with the butt of her gun, so she must have run out of ammunition a long time before. Natalie watched as the girl ran unknowingly in the direction of her cave, and she cursed herself. If the girl came much nearer Natalie was going to have a herd of walkers outside her front door, and that was a bigger problem than she wanted to face today.
Taking a deep breath, Natalie looked through the scope of the rifle at the stumbling girl. The look of pain and fear on the girl's face sent a ripple of nausea through Natalie's stomach, but she hardened her resolve. Without hesitation she aimed and fired, hitting the girl square in the kneecap. With a strangled cry, the girl fell to the ground, the biters quickly descending upon her. Natalie shouldered her rifle and hurried back to the cave, not slowing once as the choked screams of the dying girl rang through her arms.
When Natalie had entered the cave, she put down the gun and knife and flopped herself on her bed. She stared at the darkness of the cave ceiling, willing her heart to stop thrumming in her ears.
"Ya just...left that girl." Mark's voice sounded soft in her ears. Distant.
"Had to babe. It was her or me. I chose me." Natalie turned on her side. "I don't know her. Besides, I don't care."
"You can keep telling yourself that." His voice murmured. "Why are your hands shaking then?"
Natalie looked down and noticed her hands were, indeed, shaking. "It's survival Mark. I'm doing what I have to do now. There's only one objective now. Phillip." Her voice had turned cold.
Mark's voice maintained its warm, even tone. "Now you're soundin' like him. All crazy and shit. I know you want to kill him honey. I want you to kill him. But you can't lose yourself in the process."
Natalie sighed, her emotions in turmoil. "I know babe. I just don't know what I'm doing anymore. The world's changed. To survive...I have to change with it."
She paused, and she felt her ears brimming with tears. "One thing hasn't changed though. I still love you."
Mark's voice floated to her through the haze of her tears. "I know babe. And I love you too. Go to sleep. Me and Cory, we're here with you."
Comforted, and feeling the exhaustion settling into her muscles, Natalie had drifted off to sleep, images of happier days filling her dreams.
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It had been three days since she left the cave. For the first two days Natalie had stuck to sleeping in the woods, but as she had gotten closer to the highway she decided to stay out in the open. Natalie had been walking for a few hours following the tree line that ran parallel to the highway. If she came upon a threat she wanted to be able to make a quick getaway into the woods. She knew them better than anyone at this point.
Natalie sat down on the ground, taking out a bottle of water and taking a quick sip of the tepid liquid. Although it was October the temperature had climbed to a balmy 85 degrees, and she could feel the sweat trickling down her back. The flannel shirt she wore soaked up the liquid and thankfully kept her cool, but her jeans felt stifling. Natalie looked in both directions around her and sighed. There was no sign of anything.
"What am I doing here Mark? I should be looking for Phillip. I'm ready, I know I am. Walking toward Waynesboro is just a suicide mission."
Mark clucked his tongue, "Whatcha gonna do when you go after Phillip babe? Bust in hollerin' and shoutin', kill him, then go back to sleepin' in trees? You need a home base, somewhere you can go back to."
Natalie sighed. "Won't need a home base if they kill me after I get to him."
Mark's voice came out sharp, "You're not gonna die. Just stop being a stubborn ass and find a place to stay."
"Fine," Natalie said, "But if I die of dehydration I'm coming after you in the afterlife."
As she continued walking in the direction of Waynesboro, she noticed a series of subdivisions off to her right. As she made her way closer, her eyes started to widen. She couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. The neighborhood in front of her, the gated neighborhood, was surrounded by a 12-foot brick wall. "Tall enough to keep biters out," she told herself.
Natalie noticed the sign by the front gate and moved closer, wiping the dirt off the sign to read the name of the community. Wilshire Estates.
With a rush of excitement she hurried to the wall. Realizing she couldn't climb directly over the wall, she noticed the tree next to her had branches hanging directly over the ground on the other side of the wall. Natalie removed her pack and scuttled up the tree like a monkey, only to be greeted by a sorry sight.
The houses in the subdivision were huge, the kinds of houses well-to-do suburbanites built to show off their own wealth and ultimately make them feel better about themselves. They were probably filled with canned food, blankets, clothes, and beds, anything one could hope to find during the end of the world. And they were guarded by at least 100 biters slowly patrolling the streets, the walls around the community keeping them in.
Natalie cursed, sliding back to hide against the tree. The last thing she needed was for a herd of biters to start hissing at her and drawing the attention of any other beings in the area. She quickly climbed down the tree and cursed again, displeased at herself for getting excited and a bit too careless. She had been ready to jump right over that fence without seeing what was on the other side.
With a disgruntled sign she turned and headed back toward the highway.
"Maybe there will be more like it," she told herself, knowing it was a full-on impossibility. She was almost at the highway when she heard what sounded like vehicles. They were the first vehicles she heard in three months.
Panicked, Natalie ran back toward the subdivision, looking desperately for a place to hide. She noticed the trees had thinned out considerably and cursed herself for not noticing her cover had been stripped down to a few trees every ten feet. She could hear the sounds of the vehicles getting closer and, growing desperate, she turned back towards the tree she had climbed up earlier.
Without thinking, she put her pack on her back, slung her gun over her shoulder, and grabbed the lowest branch of the tree, making her way as high into the tree as possible and settling on a sturdy branch. As it was fall, there weren't many leaves left on the trees and she was fearful with the lack of cover she would be made quickly. Grabbing her rifle, she brought it to her front. She didn't have much ammo left so if she had to take a shot, she was going to make it count. In the meantime, she wanted to see the vehicles.
Looking through the scope of the rifle, she eyed the highway, a good 200 yards away from her current location. As the vehicles came closer she could make out a blue truck leading the pack, followed by a large ancient-looking RV, a Jeep, and another truck. They were heading down the highway towards Waynesboro and Natalie wondered how they had managed to get around other cars on the jam-packed highway. She was still pondering this when she heard a loud pop and smoke started to curl from the front of the RV.
As she watched all of the vehicles came to a stop and their occupants began to spill out, staring wearily at the RV. Looking through the scope, Natalie made note of the different members of the group. A large burly man had exited the jeep and was gesturing wildly. An old man with a fisherman's hat got out of the driver's side of the RV. Out of the RV their spilled what looked to be a cute young Asian man, a pretty blonde woman, an older woman with a short-cropped haircut, and a young girl that didn't look older than twelve. The people from the RV seemed relieved to be out and walking. A man with a floppy brown hair got out of the blue truck and was leaning against the side of the truck, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He was watching the actions of the others and seemed uninterested in the heated conversation that now appeared to be taking place between the burly man and the old man. She couldn't hear what was being said but it looked like it could come to blows until a slender man with brown curly hair put himself between the two and looked to be mediating the argument. A tall, willowy, rather pretty woman trailed after him, her eyes intent on the conversation going on between the three men. What Natalie saw next made her catch her breath.
From behind the woman appeared a small boy. He couldn't be more than 12. Natalie felt her breath hitch and a weight on her chest. He reminded her so much of her little boy she almost lost her balance and fell out of the tree.
"Nice going genius," she rebuked herself, re-settling her position.
Looking through the scope again, she saw it looked like the argument had been resolved and the group was now looking at the subdivision. Natalie realized, with a start, that they were gathering their belongings from the vehicles and heading towards the entrance. She made to call out to them, but quickly stifled herself. She didn't know these people. They could be rapists, murderers. "Like your old group," she reminded herself.
Natalie glanced inside the subdivision and noticed the biters that had been wandering the streets were no longer in sight.
"What the hell?" she thought.
She used the scope and looked in her full range of vision. There was no doubt the biters had disappeared.
"Damn, damn, damn," she cursed. She knew she should warn the group they were heading into a death trap. Even now she could see them at the entrance to the subdivision, working on loosening the gate so they could get inside to what they presumed were the safety of beds, food, shelter…the safety of normalcy. Aside from the argument she had witnessed, they didn't seem like a bad group of people and Natalie found herself caught in a battle of wills-the need to help, to get them away from danger…and the need to survive.
The group finally managed to break open the gate and Natalie watched them scope out the nearest house, probably clearing it of biters before they took up residence, with no knowledge of the other biters in the area. They could be dead by morning.
After the group disappeared in the house, Natalie took a deep breath and sighed. Taking her pack off and opening it, she removed the bungee rope she hadn't had to use for a last few months. Night was settling in, and there was no way she would get far in the darkness. She was going to have to sleep in a tree again. Forcing herself not to think about the group on the inside, she wrapped the rope around herself and the tree several times, tying it tight enough she wouldn't fall loose in the middle of the night. Natalie settled her head against the tree and watched the sun as it set. She closed her eyes and tried to not think about the group she had probably just sent to their doom-particularly the little boy with deep blue eyes that so reminded of her Cory. Her sleep would be fitful that night, but it wouldn't be due to nightmares.