I don't own The Walking Dead.

Clair Fay, Damien, and the compound are mine.

? belongs to AquaDestiniesEmbrace

Chapter 10

?'s POV

I walked through the forest, pushing some twigs out of my way as I did. That girl from my dream... who was she? That dream felt so real... but... what did that voice mean...? What was that key thing she had? Why were those things attacking those people in my dream?

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I felt my foot slip. I realized that I had tripped on a log that was right by a hill. Aw crap...

Before I could stop myself, I fell forward and started tumbling down the hill, swearing as I did. "Ow! Ow! Mother-! Ow!" I exclaimed each time I bounced. I should really pay attention next time.

I reached the bottom of the hill with a very sore back and throbbing hip. I laid on my back and groaned, trying to ignore the pain as I tried to get up. I swore again quietly as I held my hip.

"That wasn't fun." I muttered as I looked around. Well, the good news was I didn't attract any walkers to me. The bad news was I heard voices coming my way. Not good.

I turned and ran into the forest. I'm not a coward, but I've got more sense to attract attention when it's not wanted. I ducked behind some bushes as I heard the voices approaching.

"See anything?" One guy asked his pal.

The other man shook his head. "No. Nothing but plants."

"You remember how Paul was wishing the lurkers had been vegetarians instead of people eaters?"

"They'd clear these plants away."

"Well, we should head back. Damien's going to want the stuff we found."

I stayed where I was until I was sure they were gone. I don't know who this Damien was, but something inside me told me I needed to follow them. I shook my head. I must be going crazy. I turned and continued on my way.

Clair's POV

I spent my time trying to figure a way out. Light was filtering in from cracks throughout the truck, but I couldn't make them any bigger. Not without cutting myself at least. Nothing useful in here either. Looks like they wanted to make sure everyone was trapped, and the doors were the only way in or out. Guess I just wait. For now.

I must've fallen asleep in that stinking prison because a lot of light flooded in to my eyes. "You. Out." The ladder hit me on the head. "Come on. Damien don't like to be kept waiting."

Rubbing my head and groaning I climbed out. I wasn't going to find an escape in here. I doubt Damien would want to see me after the bite I gave him. The guards had been changed to a guy with a heavily scarred face and a girl with short blond hair. They both looked at me like I was some sort of criminal.

Thankfully they didn't lead me towards Damien. They took me to an area that must've been a stable because they were leading horses around. Those horses looked as if they were in a worse state than I was. Their manes and tails were a mess, no sign of grooming and with twigs and leaves tangled in them. They were also covered in scars and cuts. Didn't these people know how to take care of horses?

One horse, chocolate brown with a black mane, reared up and started neighing loudly. The walkers that served as the security turned and reached towards us, but they were tied up and couldn't go anywhere. Several people grabbed the horse and tried to get it under control. The horse just reared up and hit a guy with a hoof. I cringed as I heard the person's skull crack and they fell over.

I saw people coming out of an area with guns. That must be the armory, but I decided to worry about my weapons later. I ran over to the horse that was out of control. The others were backing off to avoid being killed by him. Don't ask me how I know it was a male. I just did.

I slowed down as I got closer. Something inside me said you should never run towards a horse. The horse turned and glared at me. I held out my hands. "Easy, easy." I could see the people with guns aiming them at the horse. Now or never.

"I'm not going to hurt you." I told the horse. He stopped rearing up and neighing. He did snort and breath heavily, and looked at me like he suspected something. I let him sniff me before placing my hands on his snout. "That's a good boy. I just want to help you." I looked into his eyes and I saw that he was calming down. It was like he decided to trust me.

Someone else began to approach. The horse noticed and snorted in agitation. He even raised a hoof. I held out a hand to tell the guy who was approaching to stop. To my surprise he listened. I kept stroking the horse and talking to him.

"Well, well, well." I heard one of my guards say. "Think you can take him back to the stables?"

"We'll see." I said. I began to lead the horse back to the stables. The horse took one look and whinnied softly. I looked at him and realized he didn't want to go back there. I stroked him again. "It's okay. I'll come get you." The horse looked at me and I saw he didn't want to stay here. He wanted to leave.

I sympathized with him. I hugged his snout to try and let him know I knew how he felt. I wanted out of here too. But we would need food and a means to keep us safe. I looked at the horse and to my surprise his eyes seemed to say he understood. He would wait.

I let go of him and walked towards the stables. I heard murmuring and saw that the horse was following me. Guess he's given people here a lot of problems. He followed me to the makeshift stable and entered what was supposed to be a stall. There was a pole with a rope on it. I tied him to it, as much as I didn't want to.

I noticed someone had dropped a knife on the ground. I knelt down to act like I was checking the horse's hoofs, then I grabbed the knife and hid it in my right boot. I then stood up, patted the horse on the snout, and left.

"Well, you handled that horse well." One of my guards told me. "Work with horses before?"

I shrugged. "I don't really remember anything."

"Well, don't get too attached. That horse is for next week's dinner. Though Damien might-"

I turned to my guards. "They're going to kill him?"

"Why not? If we don't eat them, the lurkers might." The male guard laughed. "Not too fond of horse meat, but these days our options are limited."

"Now get to the kitchen. You're needed."

?'s POV

I was getting really irritated. All day my heart has been bothering me, like I didn't do something I was supposed to. What would it take to make it go away?

I kicked a rock. This sucks. This was like an itch that wouldn't go away, and was in a place that was out of reach for you to scratch. I looked to the right as my heart had the same feeling. Am I supposed to go that way?

I looked at the path before I looked at the other one. I looked back at the right path again and sighed. "I am so gonna regret this, ain't I?" I asked myself sarcastically before taking the path to my right.

Clair's POV

Well, apart from washing the dishes, if you could call it washing, and cleaning up the bones of… I don't want to know what, I was put back in the truck. They really wanted to keep me under lock and key. Hopefully the knife I found would help me get out. Good thing they didn't search me.

Once the ladder was pulled out, I waited until they locked the door. I began to look around for a way out. However it wasn't long before I heard a commotion outside. The door was opened again and the ladder was lowered. "Out."

"But I…"

"Shut up and get out here." They pointed their guns at me. I listened to them and began climbing out. I froze when I saw why they wanted me out. Damien was coming towards me. And with him was the man from before.

"Here she is." Damien said. The man looked at me with pleasure. I don't know how he found me, but this couldn't be good.

"Kill her." The man said. The girl pointed her rifle at me and pulled the trigger. That's when crazy stuff started happening. The rifle exploded in her hands. She fell over, and I had a feeling she was going to get back up quickly.

"Eliza! Eliza!" The other guard shoved me out of the way and ran to her. "No. No…" he turned back to me and grabbed his rifle. "I'll kill you for that you little…" he was cut off as Eliza came back as a walker, or lurker, and bit him in the neck. He screamed as she pulled him down, tearing off chunks of flesh and eating them.

"Eliza." The man said. She looked at him. "Stop eating." To our surprise she did as he said.

Damien looked at her. "What the heck is this?" Only he didn't say heck.

The guy smiled. "Oh, let's say I have some talents. One of them is commanding the dead."

The other guard got back up. Thankfully he didn't attack me, he just stood up and joined Eliza in moaning. If I was scared before, I was terrified now. I was sure that my death had come.

"Watch this." Pointing at Damien, the guy said, "Kill him."

Damien pulled out a gun and fired at the walkers, but they overwhelmed him and sunk their teeth into him. His cries were drowned out by people screaming. The guy then turned to me.

"You're next." He said. To my shock fangs appeared in his mouth and he lunged at me. I rolled out of the way, but he was fast. He grabbed me by the neck and growled. "I'm going to enjoy this."

I kicked him in the gut, but that didn't do anything. He growled and moved his mouth to my flesh. I never thought I'd go like this. I tried to force him away from me.

He then screamed in pain and dropped me. I noticed his hands were burning, with smoke coming off them. What in the world? I decided to not waste this opportunity. I got up and ran towards the armory.

People were grabbing weapons and ran towards the guy. They began firing at him, but none of their bullets seemed to affect him. I was convinced more than ever that he wasn't human.

I searched through the armory trying to find my weapons. Yes. There they were. I grabbed my quiver, threw it over my back, and grabbed my bow. I put my tomahawk and my knife back where they belonged. I then raced out of the armory. Time to get out of here.

I stopped and saw, to my horror, everyone here was dead. The man was standing over them, a look of triumph in his eyes. He sniffed. "Nothing like the smell of carnage to make me feel happy."

"You're crazy!" I said. He just smirked at me and snapped his fingers. Every single one of them got up and started towards me. Great. Trapped with walkers inside and outside. I probably didn't have enough arrows, but there was one way to find out. I readied my bow and began firing arrows.

I heard a whinny. I turned to see the horse I helped earlier had broken free from the stable and was racing towards me. I didn't know what I was doing, but the next thing I knew I was grabbing a hold of his neck and swinging myself over his back. The horse charged through the walkers, kicking and knocking them away.

The horse ran towards the gates, which were shut. Oh great. Now what? The horse didn't make any sign of slowing down. I just held on and braced myself for the worst. To my surprise he just leapt over the fence. I don't know how he was able to clear the fence, but he did. The walker security didn't stop him as he raced towards the forest.

We stopped later next to a stream. I dismounted from the horse and got the rope off him so he could drink. I looked at him with gratitude. I never expected to have my life saved by a horse. What had driven him to do that for me? "You can go free if you want." I told him. He looked at me with a look that I swear said, "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm serious. You're free now." I told him. He nickered and resumed drinking. I think he was serious too. He was going to stay with me. Now I need to figure out how to feed the two of us. He was also going to need a name.

"Well, if we're sticking together, you're going to need a name." I told him. "How about Chocolate?" He nickered. "Yeah, that'll only make me hungry. What about Noble?" No response. "Fleetfoot?" No response. I thought about it. When he was running, it was almost like I was the wind. "Windrun?" He nuzzled me at that. I laughed. "Okay. Windrun it is."

Now she has a mode of transportation. That's going to come in handy.