Red Head

I didn't even have time to get a good look at whatever loomed behind the trees, before it straight up bolted. Not a corpse then. Somehow that made me feel a lot more uneasy.

'The hell...' Kenny whispered behind me.

My hand rested on my dagger and I peered into the darkness beyond the trees, waiting for movement or a noise, any sign of life... or dead. Nothing followed. In the distance I could hear vague noises of rustling leaves and there was an ever present gargle somewhere deeper into the woods. Silence was a luxury like any we'd lost.

'Did you see who that was?' Mike asked in a mumble.

I shook my head wordlessly.

'What's going on?' I heard a soft voice whisper. Clementine had apparently joined at the sound of the commotion.

'It's nothin' Clem, go back to bed.' Kenny said harshly.

'But...' she interfered.

'I said go back to bed.' He interrupted, his voice unnecessarily loud.

I closed my eyes briefly at the sound.

'Guys,' Luke approached, clearly panicked. 'I can't find Bonnie anywhere.

'What?' Mike asked, he seemed more alert.

'I shouted out for her,' he said

I glanced at him skeptically, despite the dark, he caught it.

'...as quietly as I could.' he added somewhat sourly. 'But she didn't respond. That means she's gotta be...' his voice trailed off as he faced the forest.

'That makes no sense.' I said cautiously.

'It sure as shit doesn't.' Kenny intercepted.

'So you think... Bonnie screamed, just now?' Mike asked.

'The screaming woke me up too.' Clem added.

'Not likely.' I responded, recalling when I'd last seen her. I felt restless just standing around the edge of the forest doing nothing. I shifted my weight over from one foot to the other. 'She was around camp mere minutes ago, that scream sounded pretty far away.'

'Maybe she went to check it out?' Clem opted.

'Who in their right mind would though?' Luke countered.

Clem shrugged and hugged one arm.

'If she's still out there we can't just go back to bed.' Mike mumbled.

These were the exact situations I'd wanted to avoid. Having to put my life on the line because someone was dumb enough to wander into the forest in the middle of the god damned night. I knew better than to voice that thought though. I'd rather enjoy a cup of tea with some lurkers than get into an argument with both Luke and Kenny here.

'it could be a trap...' Clem said quietly. 'Maybe it's that guy from before.' She locked eyes with me and exchanged a meaningful glance.

'Shit... d'you think so?' Luke asked Clem, and then he looked over at me. 'you saw him, right?' he asked. His rifle hung carelessly from a strap around his shoulder. Like he didn't even realize he was wearing it at all.

'I don't know man...' I sighed. 'It was too dark to see much of anything. It might have even been a lurker.'

'No, walkers don't run.' Kenny said abruptly as he took a step forward, in vain trying to make something out. With the state his eye was in, I doubted he'd see more than a feet ahead of him.

'It's in the name, isn't it?' I mumbled dryly. I hadn't given it much thought Kenny and Clem always seemed to call them walkers, where as I stuck to the term lurkers.

'What?' Kenny asked in an annoyed voice.

'Walkers don't run...' I attempted to explain the ironic pun, but when I saw the coldness in his eye I decided against it, and my voice faltered. 'Never mind...'

'We're wasting time, man.' Mike said as he anxiously paced from and towards the tree line.

'You're suggesting we go look for her?' I asked reluctantly.

He studied my face for a second, but didn't answer.

'What if it really is a trap? We can't just march into those woods like we own the place, we'll get ambushed.' Luke said pensively.

'It's not exactly safe to send one person in on their own either.' I remarked as I ran my hand along a tree bark.

I pulled my hand back in a startled reflex when yet another scream echoed through the trees.

'Fuck this shit, we gotta move, now!' Mike exclaimed, and he ran for the general direction of the noise.

'Mike, what the fuck?' Kenny called out loudly.

'Cammie, you gotta...' I looked over at Luke, who was pale as a sheet.

I wanted to snap at him that I didn't have to do anything.

'My ribs... I can't...' he looked from me to Clem desperately. If I didn't do this, he'd make the little girl go? Why should I care...?

'You have got to be kidding me.' I mumbled. But I dashed away, leaving the rest of them behind. Luke could not ever accuse me of not caring ever again after this.

The sound of my own feet plowing through the leaves was too loud for me to hear where Mike had gone. I couldn't hear much of anything. As a result, when a corpse stumbled from behind a tree, I hadn't seen it coming. I ducked to the side, avoiding its flailing arms. It collided with a tree behind me.

I had no idea where I was going. The trees weren't too densely asked here, and the moonlight was barely bright enough to illuminate my path.
There, in the distance! I spotted a figure, standing behind a tree. I stopped dead in my tracks. They weren't tall enough to be Mike, yet the shape definitely had to be male.

Was this a stranger? From the way the stood, they seemed to be hiding behind a tree, just as I was. Except they weren't facing me, but rather the opposite direction. As though waiting for someone to come by? An ambush? Had Clem been right?

If this was supposed to be an ambush, then where were his friends?

A hand suddenly clasped around my boot out of nowhere. I let out a scream of surprise and violently pulled my leg away. The hand holding my foot came with at the sudden tug with a sickening sound. I stumbled away and bowed over to peel the fingers off one by one. I kicked the rotting hand away. Fucking lurkers...

I couldn't detect the head of the corpse anywhere in the dark so I decided to move away. When I looked up, the figure that had stood by the trees a second prior was nowhere to be seen.

Shit, I'd given away my position.

I looked around hurriedly, as though expecting to see someone charging at me any second. Reality wasn't too far from the truth. Two lurkers were slowly approaching from opposite directions. How they managed to spot me in this darkness was beyond me. The noise, probably.

Their messy footsteps were too noisy for me to think straight. I was going to have to move if I didn't want to cause a scene.

I ran from tree to tree, occasionally checking behind me to see whether the lurkers had caught up yet. I seemed to be losing them, at least one seemed to have lost interest.

I was just about to stop for a second to catch my breath and see where I was, when I caught a glimpse of red hair in the distance. Bonnie!

I sprinted for it, jumping over various rocks and fallen branches. I almost dared call out, but decided not to risk it. There might be some more lurkers nearby.

Where had she gone? My breath came out in puffs and a drop of sweat slid down the side of my face.

'Bonnie?' I called out in a hushed whisper. 'Bo-' I shut my mouth the second I heard a faint whimper from a few meters ahead.

I pulled out my dagger and carefully approached, slightly squatted down so that I could move any second if the situation deemed it necessary.

When I rounded the next pair of trees I saw her, lying in a puddle of blood on the damp forest ground. Because of the absence of light, the blood appeared pitch black in this quantity.

I gasped. 'My god, Bonnie...!'

I ran over to her and crouched down next to the tree against which lay her head. her breathing was uneven and she had her hand pressed against her side. I carefully tried to get her to move her arm to asses the damage, but she only clenched to tighter to the wound and hissed.

'Shh, shh I know...' I whispered fearfully.

'He attacked me, Cammie.' She yelped quietly. 'Stabbed me in the back.' She groaned. She had to be more quiet, or else...

I was too panicked to think to ask who.

'Then Mike came runnin', scared him off so he cut open my stomach and up and left me to bleed out.' she practically pushed the words out with a force I hadn't expected her to be able to bring up.

'You're not going to bleed out.' I assured her, though my words sounded like lies, even to me. 'I need to get to the others...' I whisper, thinking out loud as I pressed my own hands to her wounds as well.

'Cammie...' she groaned. She raised a blood covered shaking hand to point at something behind me. My breath stuck in throat I turned my head slowly.

A bark sounded, right behind me, followed by loud footsteps disappearing into the night. Bonnie got even more white than she had and tried to push herself even more against the tree, though she screamed at the movement.

Wolfy had saved us, chased whoever had attacked Bonnie away For now at least.

'Please, be quiet!' I begged. I wanted to rub the sweat from my forehead but it left a trail of Bonnie's blood instead.

I looked over at Wolfy, a tall dark beast that stood soundlessly beside us.

There was no way I'd be able to carry Bonnie back to camp. I was going to need help. 'I'm going to find help...' I began, but Bonnie grabbed my arm and her eyes widened in a pleading fear.

'I promise I'll come back.' I said in a shaking voice.

I hesitated and looked at her, sprawled onto the mossy ground, lying in a pool of her own blood. I handed her my dagger. 'Use this to defend yourself if anything happens.' I didn't like giving up my weapon, but if I couldn't just leave er here completely defenseless.

I didn't give her time to so much as nod. Wolfy dashed away, and I knew nothing better than to follow him. He'd led me back to civilization before, I could only wish he'd do the same now.

I realized I was starting to get soft again. A couple of weeks ago I would have rather cut off my own hand then leave my dagger with someone else. Now I was running through the woods with literally not a single weapon on me. I sure as hell was stupid.

Bonnie was heavily injured, most likely beyond helping. She couldn't have been the person that that been sneaking around. But I knew I'd seen red hair, I just knew it. If it hadn't been Bonnie, who had I seen?

I didn't even have to run too far before I collided with a large body. Instinctively my hand reached for my side to grab my dagger, when I realized it was not there. But luckily, it didn't seem like I'd need it.

Mike grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look up at him. His eyes were alert at my rush. 'It's me, it's me!' He hissed. 'Are you okay, what happened to you?' His winced at the sight of Bonnie's blood on my forehead.

'I... I found Bonnie.' I said. I sounded miserable.

'Shit, is she...' I didn't leave him fishing for words but grabbed his arm and pulled him towards where Bonnie lay, dying.
We had to hurry, or there'd be no person left to save.