Chapter 7-
Hey guys! I'm back! So I'd really like to say thanks for the 1000+ views! Thank you so so much! SO I am back and as you know this chapter will be about Newt's journey. I hope you guys like it. :)
Also, quick AN. Sonya's actress for the movies is named Katherine McNamara, so I used the actress's last name for Sonya's. Just an FYI.
Disclaimer: I do not own TMR, TST or TDC. I do not own the concept of Walkers. I do not own any Walking Dead references.
Leaves crunched under Newt's feet as he trudged through the forest. His crossbow was strapped across his back and he had a knife sheathed to his belt. He was playing with a small wooden carving of a lizard laying on a small pointed branch, specifically a newt. The wooden sculpture, shaped out of a bright birch wood, was about 8 inches long from the pointed end of the branch to the dull edge. The lizard took up 6 inches of the sculpture. It's figure lay on the top of the stake, it's limps wrapped around it and it's tail following down the edge to the point.
He sighed, tucking the carving into the back of his waistband. He ran his freehand through his rugged, dirty, dark blonde hair. And continued to trudge through the thick foliage. The highway was roughly 4 miles away from Jorge's farm. After realizing that fact, Newt realized that Thomas had dragged Minho 4 miles and made a mental note to take the next person that got hurt.
Minho.
Minho had been Newt's best friend since the beginning of high school…that felt like so long ago after everything that happened. The first time Newt had met Minho was when the world wasn't jacked, it was a normal day in school and they met.
~FLASHBACK 1~
"Aw, come on mate," Newt laughed, slapping the muscular boy—a boy named Stephen—on the back. "You can't back down now."
"I dunno," Stephen shook his head, "This is a really really bad idea…rumor has it that this kid's got a short temper…"
"Come on, all you have to do—as the dare says—is swing yer arm over his shoulder and say somethin' stupid," Newt urged, "That's all it says," he assured.
Stephen sighed, "I knew Truth or Dare was a bad idea…"
Stephen stood up straight and swaggered over to the Asian boy that was standing by his open locker, digging around for a history book of some sort.
"Hey brah," Stephen swung an arm over the Asian's shoulders. The Asian boy gave him a confused and partially angry look.
"Can I help you with something?" the boy asked.
"Umm…" Stephen lost his cool for a second, obviously considering what to say for the 'say something stupid' part of the dare, "Umm…" he repeated, "Your face." He bit his lip as the boy's eyes narrowed.
"Excuse me?" the Asian boy with the quiff haircut demanded.
"Umm…your face?" Stephen repeated, less confident this time.
The Asian shoved Stephen's arm off his shoulders and closed his locker.
Stephen was about to try again. Newt ran over.
"Oi, sorry mate," Newt apologized, setting his left hand on Quiff's shoulder and his right on Stephen's. "My friend seems to have messed up the first impression. Name's Newt." He stuck out his hand and the Asian shook it.
"Minho," the boy replied.
"Nice to meet you," Stephen smirked.
"Could you please go away?" The Asian questioned.
"What?" Stephen seemed a little taken off guard. Newt laughed at his confusion. "Why?"
Minho spun heel and walked away.
"Because 'your face' is hurting my eyes," he called.
~END FLASHBACK 1~
Newt smirked at the memory. Stephen. Newt remembered the last time he saw Stephen. It was an hour before all klunk broke loose, math class— to the best of his knowledge. Stephen asked for help with an algebra problem. He, Steph and Minho had always cracked jokes about Mr. Harrison—the math teacher—behind his back.
An aching feeling set into Newt's stomach and he made fists with his hands, locking his jaw. Newt remembered how Stephen had died. He remembered how all of the nice people he used to know died.
~FLASHBACK 2~
Newt furrowed his eyebrows as he pulled out the keys to his steel gray Honda CR-V, staring at his phone. He had a coffee in one hand, his phone was held with the same hand and his keys in the other. He gazed at the previous text message as he got into the SUV and closed the door, setting down his coffee.
He read down the list of texts they had so far:
ME: Hey love, fancy a picnic?
SONYA M.: I suppose so. When and where exactly would this 'picnic' take place?
ME: How about 8pm at the docks
SONYA M.: Hmm…I guess so… :)
ME: See you then.
An hour after those texts he received this list:
SONYA M.: UGH. Finally done with work.
ME: Still able to make the picnic?
SONYA M.: Definitely. Could you pick me up?
ME: Sure. Be there in 5
SONYA M.: Sounds good.
Newt started the engine. A loud growl shocked him and he snapped his head to the left, staring at a bloody face pressed against the window. Newt shouted, frozen in surprise. The…whatever it was…slammed a gory hand against the window and dragged it's bloody fingers across it.
Newt's breaths were ragged as he slammed the gas, driving wildly away from the creature. Screams filled the air and students came pouring out of Glade's College. The people were followed by roaming, stumbling gory beasts.
He plowed a couple dead people and a couple live people as well, guilt washed over him in tidal waves. He spotted an Asian boy sprinting from the dead. Minho. He quickly realized. Minho was his closest friend, one of his 'pack mates' so to speak. It was Minho, Alby, Frypan, Gally and Sonya. That was the group.
Minho had his messenger bag backpack across his right shoulder and he was sprinting so fast that he might as well have been flying. Newt slammed the gas again and plowed through the mess of corpses littering the street. He halted the car and a loud screech ran through the air.
He reached over and pushed open the door.
"GET IN!" Newt shouted urgently.
Minho stood for a second, a little surprised and then jumped in, closing the door behind him.
"Thanks," Minho panted, sweat beading his forehead.
Newt tossed his phone at Minho and Minho caught it with ease.
"Text Sonya," Newt ordered, "Tell her to find a weapon," Minho's fingers began typing, "And that we're on our way."
"GUYS!"
Minho and Newt turned, startled, and stared out Minho's window. Stephen was just now exiting the school. He sprinted across the yard, backpack bouncing up and down the movement.
"STEPHEN!" Minho shouted suddenly, "LOOK OUT!"
Stephen gave a confused look as he ran.
Newt was confused as well.
Minho began flapping his arms around, shouting at Stephen to look out.
Stephen halted.
"NO! RUN!" Minho shrieked.
Then Newt saw it. The undead were fumbling after Stephen at a rapid pace. Stephen began running again but something tripped him. It only took a moment before Stephen screamed and Newt saw an undead man biting into his ankle, ripping out a large piece. Stephen wailed, tears pouring out of his eyes. He was dog piled from every angle.
"Do you have your dad's hunting gun with you?" Minho asked quietly.
Newt nodded, "And my crossbow."
Minho stuck out his hand and Newt handed him the gun. He rolled down the window and aimed the sniping rifle outside. He fired two shots and on the second Stephen's screaming ceased.
~END FLASHBACK 2~
Newt readjusted his crossbow. This wasn't helping with the guilt. It was only piling fear and regret on top of it. He shoved it down like he always did, adding it to the massive pile of stress that engulfed everything.
Suddenly his right foot was yanked from under him. He gasped, falling to his chest, the wind pressed out of his lungs painfully. He flipped over and saw a disgusting Crank reaching in to bite a giant gash out of his leg.
The Crank was hideous. It had nasty skin that was peeling from it's face. Blood ran all over it's corpse. Hair was missing from its head. The creepiest thing about the Crank was that it's nose had been torn from it's face.
It grumbled. Newt knew it couldn't speak but the growl slurred into a word that resembled the word 'Rose'.
Newt growled, he kicked the Crank in the face and shoved himself backwards. He fumbled for his crossbow, taking a swift breath and bringing the scope up to his eye and releasing an arrow. He shot the crank dead between the eyes and got up, not bothering to dust himself off. He yanked out the arrow and heard the sickening—yet satisfying—sound of cracking bone.
He tugged the crossbow string back into place and prepared to load the arrow. A sudden low snarl caught his attention and he turned around only to have a Walker hand get shoved in his face, decaying flesh dragged across his cheek and he choked back vomit.
He brought up his crossbow, smacking the Walker across the jaw. The Walker stumbled slightly but continued clawing at Newt's face. Newt took a step back and his foot suddenly dropped into a hole. Pain ran through his ankle and he shouted, unable to halt the noise. Momentarily distracted, the Walker shoved Newt to the ground and opened and closed it's mouth, biting at Newt's neck.
Newt shoved his crossbow firmly under its jaw. He reached for his knife with one hand, struggling to keep the grown used-to-be female Walker off of him. He shouted through gritted teeth as his fingers skimmed the handle of the knife. The Walker flailed it's arm at Newt's arm and smacked the knife another foot away.
Newt shoved upwards, sending the undead lurching backwards. He jumped for his knife only to have the Walker bite into his leather boot. Newt's eyes widened in fear and he kicked the persistent Roamer in the jaw with his good foot.
The jaw broke off, dangling loosely. Can't bite. Can scratch. The undead woman crawled up onto Newt's chest and he
Newt reached to the back of his waistband. He pulled out Sonya's pointed lizard carving, he paused for a split second before stabbing the stake into the Walker's head and shoving it deep down.
The Walker collapsed onto Newt's chest and Newt shoved it off.
Shucking Walker…Newt thought angrily, yanking the carving out of it's skull and glaring at his bruised ankle.
Hey! Let me know if you guys caught onto the ankle thing (it's pretty obvious). :)
So, I hope you all liked the chapter. I am really really thankful for all of the favs, follows and 1000+ views. Seriously, it means so so much to me to have people who share my interests favorite my work. :)
I hope you guys liked seeing into Newt's past. :) I also hope you guys enjoyed meeting Stephen. Let me know please what you liked and didn't like.
So! Anyways, time for the reviews:
Stargazer-Dreamcatcher01: Thanks so much! I'm really happy that you liked Newt's scary tough side and Jorge's sassy side. :) Yes! The next chapter will return back to the RV and we shall see what has been going on in their crazy party bus! :D
Machete Girl: I liked all of your theories and the answers will definitely be revealed soon enough! Thank you so so much for your support! I really really appreciate it! :)
EVERYONE:
Okay, so all shall be revealed soon enough. I promise. :)
Also, I would like to clear things up: the next chapter will return to the RV and we'll get to see what's been going on over in the Fry's bus. :)
Question of the day:
Which chapter did you like most so far?
What would you like to see happen?
Quote of the day:
"We live in a rainbow of chaos," Paul Cezanne
*Hint hint*
Please review. :)
I'll update soon.
-AG
