Chapter 6 [Of disappointment, conversations and temper]
'Today we made our first deal with them. The terror caused by their presence made me close my eyes and remember sunny beaches and waves washing the sand from under my feet..."
An exaggerated sigh was all the reaction Katherine could give after scanning yet another page trough. She spent most of her waking hours with the book, however as soon as silly babble started making any sort of sense it would go back to reminiscing about world long gone and days forgotten. As if whatever happened was too horrible or too secretive to write down to these pages and so it was all buried under random lines of words.
She was too involved for her own good, but there was not much to keep oneself occupied by at those times. Or maybe she only needed a good enough excuse to channel all her free time into something harmless rather than forcing herself out the door and into the ghost town that apparently held few quite lively souls wandering around.
That temporary stagnation that she was suffering form, however, seemed to drain her strength and power of will with every hour that passed instead of helping her recover as she initially thought. Four walls, endless darkness and walkers groaning around the house at nights didn't help her to keep the spirits up and little by little a spark or resistance to the daily routine was growing brighter and brighter within her.
Katherine jumped up from the armchair with such haste that her head started spinning and the room went black for few moments. It seemed like her body was acting on its own accord, not paying much attention to her mind, guiding her to the corner where all the thing were at, reaching down to pick up the knife and then the shotgun, throwing it over her shoulder and sliding the blade into the sheath. Katherine stood like this for a moment, taking few deep breaths as if preparing before picking up the backpack and turning the handle so to be greeted by the daylight that felt like the biggest enemy to her sight.
It was yet another hot day, so hot that even walkers seemed to be hiding somewhere cold and dark which meant that her walking down the street didn't draw any unnecessary attention. Manoeuvring around the cars and being careful so not to step on broken glass she was making her way forwards even if that way wasn't leading anywhere in particular.
Abandoned houses and old playgrounds was the only thing she saw around for what seemed to be miles and just as her so suddenly born determination started fading away as quickly as it appeared, a bright smile graced her features as an abandoned shop came in sight. There were next to no chances that after all that time it still had something of value, however she was willing to take a risk and find it out by herself rather than assuming something that was completely unpredictable.
Shotgun was more of a lucky token to her but the knowing that it won't protect her very well didn't stop Katherine from gripping it tightly before entering the musty room that reeked of filth and neglect. Even though windows were long gone and it was still bright outside it seemed that even light didn't want to go inside with her and so she stood there for a while, scanning the room for any nasty surprises that could come out crawling.
It seemed empty, though, maybe even too empty as the shelves were covered in nothing more but a thick layer of dust and cobwebs that were abandoned long time ago, leaving this place even emptier. Prospects of finding food or anything at least slightly useful were looking grim and so did Katherine. She cursed silently while pinching the bridge if her nose, trying her best not to lose it completely. There had to be something, had to be something she could use, something she could take so that this whole foolish trip wouldn't be as worthless as it was turning out to be in the end.
She took her time going through the shelves, even kneeling on the floor so to look under them, hoping that no one did this before and she was about to find all sorts of things that others forgot. It was a beautiful hope that got shattered moments later, making Katherine sit on the ground leaning her back to one of the shelves and closing her eyes in frustration. It's not fair, she thought to herself, breathing heavily and trying to calm down before leaving. All this is just...Not fair.
Thoughts, however, were pushed aside as a shard of glass snapped not that far away from her. Whether it was an impulse or she simply was fed up with everything, this time Katherine didn't hide, she simply jumped up aiming the gun right were the noise came from just so to come face-to-face with the very same stranger again, holding his gun up with the very same determination he did days ago. Difference was that that time she had a gun pointed at his face too.
"It's not very nice to walk in on a girl twice in a row, you know." She spat out through her gritted teeth, astonished by the new-found attitude he sparked in her that was mixing up with the previous disappointment very well.
"Do you even know how to use it?" He motioned his gun at her direction, corner of his lip quirking into a smirk that angered her that much more.
"No," Katherine admitted honestly with a little nonchalant shrug. "But I was planning to do some practice. Truth be told, moving target beats bottles and cans by a mile."
The gun was quite heavy, however she tried to hide the fact that her muscles started burning up after another minute standing like that and looking at each other, waiting for either a fight or at least a temporary truce. Nothing seemed to happen and she grew ever so anxious because of the unfortunate meeting; not like it was the first one two of them shared, though.
"Very well, then..." He finally spoke and lowered his gun after yet another moment of silence. That, however, was of no comfort to her and she didn't move by as much as an inch, her face not touched by any emotion but cold determination.
"Found anything here?" He started walking towards the shelves, brushing his finger against one so to look at the dust on it with a grim smile. "Still not putting that gun of yours down, huh? I think there's a better chance of you shooting yourself than anyone else, so..."
"I'll take that risk." She cut him off in mid-sentence, following every movement with both her eyes and the gun, witnessing his smirk turning into a grin that made her roll her eyes in impatience. "I think you should go now."
She was waiting for yet another sharp-witted reply, however just as he was about to open his mouth to give it to her, a walker appeared behind him as if out of nowhere, proving that the two were focused on things that didn't matter, allowing the dead to have an upper-hand even if both of the living were armed.
Right that second both of them disappeared from her sight as the walker grabbed the stranger and pulled him to the ground. Katherine's mouth widened and without wasting a second she ran around the shelf just so to watch the scene of walker trying its best to reach and chew the other's face off while he was trying to grab the gun lying what seemed miles away.
For a moment she caught herself choosing between two evils, thinking which one was more worthy of a bullet, but there was no time as she pulled the fore-end to load it and pulled the trigger moments later.
It seemed like the loud shot echoed through at least half of the town and her shoulder hurt like hell as the gun recoiled, hitting her so hard for a moment she thought that it crushed the bone to dust. But, whether it was the adrenaline or shock, she didn't whimper just lowered the gun looking at the man standing up and cleaning himself from the bloody mess.
"Well, guess you were right." She finally murmured with some sort of dark glee marking her words. "My aim is definitely not the best and you being alive proves it."
