Finally got round to writing another chapter! Though its still pretty short, I've had a serious case of writer's block. Hope you enjoy though :) ~Skye
It was cold, so cold her thin body shivered as she struggled to put extra layers of clothes on. The mood had dropped since the winter weather came and they found it difficult to stay in one place for more than a week or two, even with the walkers slowing down. There were people to avoid too now, the world had become a cruel and untrusting place and the small group did their best to avoid confrontation with others. They had happened upon an abandoned cabin in their travels, small but big enough for four people. It had only been a couple of days before they properly settled, in hopes they would live out the rest of the winter there.
Lee stared around at her surroundings, still groggy from waking up, and listened to the creaking of the cabin.
"You're up early, you okay?" She looked at Anna, who was wide awake, and rubbed her tired eyes.
"yeah, I guess the cold woke me up. What about you?"
She rubbed her now healed stump, "just a little ache." Anna was the most cheerful out of all of them, after her near death experience she made the most of every day. Her and Shaun were even closer but as much as she was happy for them, Lee felt a twinge of jealousy now and then. She missed having the comfort of sleeping in someone's arms, someone she felt truly safe with.
"I'm going to go check the traps," Lee said as she grasped her hunting knife and stood up.
"Let me come with you," Anna moved Shaun's stray arm off her so she could move.
"No, I'll be fine. You make sure these two don't argue when they wake up." Lee smiled at her and left the house.
The frozen grass crunched underneath her boots as she walked over to the makeshift traps they'd set but sighed as she saw they were still empty. She rubbed her shivering arms as she carried on walking to check the perimeter, when she stopped at a familiar sight. The grotesque undead figure stumbled towards her and she drew her knife. Its movements were slow from the winter chill and its flesh pale, it raised its hands towards her but the wire around the trees stopped it from moving further. After taking a good look at the rotting face, content it was no one she knew, she raised her knife and ran it through the side of its bald head and yanked it out without a second thought.
"Any more?" Jake asked, making her jump slightly.
"No, we're okay for now." Lee wiped the dark blood off onto her already stained jeans before heading back to the house.
"Hey Lee?" Jake said, making her stop. "I'm sorry… I've been an ass lately and -"
"It's fine," Lee sighed, "let's get back inside."
The past few weeks Lee noticed Jake's increasingly erratic behaviour, one minute arguing and the next trying to get close to her. She new he was missing the comfort of another person, he'd lost people he loved too. Yet she wasn't going to betray Daryl, even if there was no chance of seeing him again. She couldn't explain why she felt so strongly towards one person she barely knew, she just knew those feelings had not wavered. Jake could be nice when he wanted to be, but Lee felt nothing towards him other than plain friendship.
The two of them walked in silence into the cabin to find Anna wrapped up in Shaun's arms, a smile on her face and her eyes closed. Lee slid down the wall and gazed at them, but it wasn't long before her thoughts turned dark. She'd often wonder how long they would last out here, and with food and ammunition growing sparse, they might not even make it through the winter. She hated seeing them together knowing that this cruel world would soon break them apart, she hated herself for thinking that way.
"Lee stop looking at us like that," Shaun told her, she almost felt like she was being scolded. He knew how she felt but he remained hopeful that things were going to get better for them.
"I'm sorry," Lee hugged her knees and stared at the floor, pushing the depressing thoughts to the back of her mind.
"We need to go out to look for more supplies," Shaun continued. "Lee, you stay here with Anna and make sure nothing gets in here."
"Will you two be okay on your own?" Anna sat up and looked at him to which he nodded in reply.
"I'll bring him back, don't worry," Jake reassured her.
"No arguing then, you'll attract the walkers," Lee looked at them both with a serious look. "Are you sure you don't want us all out there?"
"We've got a good place here, we're screwed if someone else takes it or it gets overrun by those things," Shaun explained as he started to get his things together.
Hours past and the two women started grow anxious. They hadn't split into two groups like this in a while and it made even more worried. Anna tried to talk to her, she tried to get Lee to open up but Lee always changed the conversation much to Anna's effort.
"I know how you feel, but this can't be all that's left… We're going to get through this, you'll -"
Lee put her hand up to quiet her, she heard the cans on the wire around the house clanging together. She waited to see if it would stop but the sound kept hitting her ears and she moved quietly to the window to see if it was a walker or someone else. She lifted the curtain to get a better look outside and saw a walker struggling to get past the wire, it was just one.
"I'll get it, you stay here," Lee told Anna as she headed outside. She breathed in the brisk air as she charged towards the lone walker with her knife but as soon as she reached it, she felt a something hard collide with the back of her head. The sudden dull pain caused her to lose her balance but she used all her strength to spin around to her attacker but it was too late. All she saw was a tall figure before before the injury took it's effect and she collapsed to the ground
Lee's vision was blurry when she came too, she heard Anna's soft cries but couldn't move. Her hands were bound behind her back and past memories came flooding back to her.
"Hey, look. The redhead's awake," A deep voice said as she felt a hand grab a handful of hair and pulled her up off the ground. She struggled to get free but felt a strong arm around her, keeping her still.
A tall unfamiliar man stood in front of her, "Looks like you ladies have a nice cosy place here, is it just you two?"
Lee glared at the stranger and nodded, "Just us… No one else."
"You sure about that now?" He moved over to Anna who was kneeling on the floor with a bruise forming around her eye. He pulled her up by the arm and pointed a small handgun to her head. Lee struggled again to get free from the second man and kicked him hard in the shin with the heel of her boot.
"You bitch!" He shouted as he through her to the ground and kicked her in the face causing her to grunt from the pain. He then proceeded to kick her in the stomach before holding her body down to stop her from moving. She tried to get away but the injury to her head left her unbalanced, "get the fuck off me, what do you want?!"
"Damn, you are one feisty woman," the man holding Anna laughed. "We were going to just let you leave without any more trouble but now… Now I think it would be safer just to kill you so you don't come back. We just want this little place of yours and whatever goodies you have lying around, might've even kept this pretty little thing around if she cooperated but I guess you're just as bad as each other."
"W-wait," Lee spat out the blood in her mouth, "don't hurt her, please. Just kill me and let her go."
The men just laughed at her, making her feel pathetic and insignificant, she felt completely useless. "Would be doing her a favour, she's not going to get very far on her own with one hand."
"Please, just let her go," Lee continued to plead with them, if anyone deserved to walk away from this it was her. She felt like it was her fault this happened, she wasn't paying attention to the surroundings because she didn't want to care. Now she was in this situation, she couldn't bear to lose anyone else.
"Lee, it's okay," Anna smiled at her, "I'll be fine."
"I hate to break up the emotional goodbye, but this is going to happen," The man holding Anna said, "Nothing personal but we take what we can get these days. Let's just get this over and done with Billy, kill that one first."
She felt the cold gun barrel on the side of her head, making her shiver. Is this it? She thought as she bit her lip to stop herself from crying and shut her eyes. Damn it, I'm sorry Shaun… The only sound she heard next was a gunshot.