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The only thing he could do was stay still and let them follow whatever they were pursuing. Although they were a good distance away from him, the young man knew the stench would easily strike his gag reflex. Decaying flesh falling from their limbs and hungry gurgling noises, just made his skin crawl by the sight. For many months he has taken out so many of them to save his skin and live to see the next day and yet, all this felt like a result of a horror movie, neighbors and civilians attacking themselves, running like chickens without heads, screaming for help or demanding for an explanation, he could still remember the bullets raining down onto civilians crying in pure terror.
He learned several things about how this virus affected the human body: with a bite or a scratch, your life ends, the fever drives you crazy until it drags you to death and somehow you come back to life. They follow everything that makes a sound; they will bite everything they can see and he still wasn't sure if they could smell, but that's something he didn't want to discover by himself.
It's a relief he's out of danger, regarding they hadn't spotted his presence yet, his grip relaxed in the tool which is usually for gardening but in this whole time, the mattock saved his neck plenty of times.
His map indicated there were condos near the area and planned to loot, hoping one of those places could've food for his furry companion who is currently guarding. Alert, and ready to act at any command. The pair was already moving away from his sight but he could still hear their hungry grunts and small sobbing, and he shouldn't waste energy on eliminating them, it's not worth his —
Heart leaped from his chest as he realized someone was being chased. Angel took two steps but stop, unsure if he should go. What happened to the 'don't go when it's none of your business?' What happened to not risking your life for unnecessary things? Make no contact whatsoever with other survivors?
You don't know them and you're not responsible for them.
Licking his chapped lips and swallow a heavy lump, those things were getting out of his sight quite quickly, meaning whatever they were chasing was running fast for their lives. Normally, he followed his guts, like following a voice. Sometimes it advised him that he shouldn't go to the infested towns, it warned him not to eat all the canned beans because it will give him diarrhea, and sometimes it warned not him to chase two cannibals that were probably chasing something or someone alive and terrified for their life.
Follow; follow them please, save them.
And then there's the soft irrational noise whispering in his ear, it's not very often he hears it, the only times when he hears it is when Angel gets entangled in difficult situations, and by the looks of it, this is a difficult situation.
"Que me lleva la chingada." Rolling his eyes, he uttered. His furry companion shortly followed her owner when Angel begins to chase the two cannibals, following the path they went. It took him a few seconds to locate the two cannibals and with a loud command, the dog pounced on one of them. Angel didn't witness how his dog clamps her scissors teeth's in the cannibal's arm dressed as a farmer and began to sharply jerk its arm knocking it to the ground, since he took care of the other, a woman with blond hair, dirty and mistreated.
Stretching both arms with intentions to tear away a piece of meat while uttering an inhuman snarl.
With a mighty swing of his mattock, the gardening tool pierces its way right through the forehead with a sickening sound. The body drop to the ground and Angel let the garden tool stay in its head, he turned around to take care of the other, who weakly tried to eat the dog but it was pointless, the canine easily dodged its dirty hands. The dog obeyed and released its arm as she heard the order to let go, tongue out panting and saliva mixed with blood falling from her snout. Drawing his knife from the belt, he wasted no time in piercing it right into the temple. Angel winced in disgust at feeling the cold blood making contact with his hand. He straightened up and walked away from the now-dead cannibal, Angel began to view around, making sure he hadn't strayed much from his original route and regain his breath. He put the knife back and took the opportunity to clean himself in his pants before the blood dried; Angel didn't care if he dirtied his clothes anymore.
"Good job Dama, good girl." Angel praised the canine that walked beside him and closed her eyes at the affection from her owner, a good scratch behind her ear. "Now we need uhm... I guess we need to find this person." He swallowed a little saliva to moisten his throat, he was uneasy now because there was no sign of the person crying, or maybe whatever was being chased was an animal and sounded just like a person.
The weather of Georgia doesn't compare with the climate of his home country. Angel hasn't been affected by sunstroke so he was sure as hell he heard someone cry.
Angel was not hallucinating.
"Everything is okay, they're dead!" Angel cringed at how odd his voice sounded but he reckoned it was normal; dogs aren't suitable for a conversation. "Well, they're dead-dead now, so you don't have to worry anymore of them…biting you." Angel took a few steps, his dirty boots stepped on dead leaves, and hazel eyes tried to find something other than a tree or a bush.
Dark eyebrows pinched with confusion as he noticed a piece of cloth at the foot of a tree, but wait it's not a cloth, it was a doll. Angel approached the tree and knelt, taking the doll in his hands. The dog approached Angel, curious about what her owner was holding, and gave it a quick sniff to the dirty doll, then wandered away from the brown-haired man, beginning to sniff the earth and leaves.
Angel brows shot upwards as he understood what Dama was doing.
"No mames, you can track people?" Angel questioned and frown his lips. "Why didn't Emilio tell me that?" He didn't interfere in the way of what the dog was doing.
Both arms went slacked, still holding the doll in his left hand, Angel's suspicions were crossed out as he noticed that the person who passed out wasn't an adult, but a child, a girl to be specific. Dama sat next to her, panting and waiting for her prize, something like dried meat. Angel ran a hand through his hair, wet with sweat and oily, it was to be expected since he hasn't taken a bath for months.
A loud rumble was heard, shaking the sky, and Angel couldn't see the sky because of the treetops shielding him, he knew that it was thunder and when there is thunder, there is going to be rain. Not very famous in the state of Georgia but they're famous to come unexpectedly.
"Let's go Dama, we don't want our guest to get soaked and I don't want you to stink up the trunk."
Angel received a gruff from the dog.
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Before this entire world went to shit, Sophia wasn't as shy as she is now.
Her mom mentioned she used to smile a lot. Sophia always beamed at everything, even at the most unusual things she found. Sophia was thrilled every time her mother left her in the kindergarten to learn with her classmates and have a great time. She was proud of herself every time her mother's green eye brightened up when she observed the drawings she had created, showing them with her dirty fingers full of paint, and even so her mother hung them with magnets on the refrigerator door.
One day after school her mom no longer hung them on the refrigerator door, the little blonde had noticed that all her drawings had been removed from the door and she asked where all her drawings were.
Sophia cannot forget that shade of color between purple and yellow, under her left eye, and a smile that didn't seem to reach her pale green eyes.
"I put them away sweetheart, in a good place, don't worry mommy just wants to save them."
She wrinkles her nose at this wet sensation touching the tip of her nose until she opens her eyes to see what it was. Sophia doesn't expect these pair of black eyes and a big grin full of sharp teeth. She recoiled and straightened up, anxiety and fear alerting her brains as the girl notices she was no longer in the woods, well she was no longer out in the woods. Her green eyes revealed how confused she was, questioning everything around her and wondering how she got here. Did someone find her? Did her mom find her? But Sophia remembers nobody in her group own's a car like this and she was sure nobody in the group had a dog like this.
Sophia returned her gaze to the canine who was panting with its pink tongue out and the girl flinched when the dog got on the seat and lay down beside her. The dog's head was near to her legs but Sophia didn't dare to pet him.
"I see sleeping beauty has finally awake."
The blonde girl flinched by the foreign voice and shrunk in her seat, someone was with her, and Sophia didn't recognize the voice. There was a stranger with her and was sitting in the driver's seat. Her little heart pounded against her chest, terrified and the worst thing is that she didn't know what to do; her mommy always told her that she shouldn't speak to a stranger or they would take her away in a car, and now she was inside the car!
"I wanted to clean your doll but it got dark and it rained," Her lack of answer didn't stop the stranger to continue. "Don't worry though, on my map I marked a small stream, so with a little soap and a good wash your doll will look new."
Sophia refused to answer the stranger but she couldn't help to frown at his funny voice. It reminds her so much of her friend who gave her that doll. The stranger's accent was slightly heavy compared to the accent of her friend Eliza but she wondered if he comes from the same place. A noisy snore took her out of her thoughts and she looked down at the dog, who seems to fallen asleep without any problem
"Is your name Eliza?"
Still, the blonde girl didn't give any reply,
"I saw the name on the skirt of your doll, so I assumed that was your name." Her blood froze and even the stranger could tell that she was uncomfortable. "That ball of snores next to you is Dante, his sister's name is Dama, she's sleeping here beside me."
"I'm Angel by the way."
She didn't want to know his name or his dogs' names, the little girl's mind was just shouting the order to open the door and run away. Sophia had no idea if this stranger had intentions to harm her but she didn't want to find out if he does. The handle door was inches away from her, the stranger fell silent after introducing himself.
"I know you're scared and you want to run away," Angel began. "I get it, you don't know me and you want to run and I'm not keeping you here, you can open that door, and go." Sophia glanced at the door as the unlock sounded on every door. It was tempting to open the door and flee the urge to do so tickle her stomach, but Angel wasn't done speaking yet.
"But I doubt a fragile girl like you'll survive at night, alone in the forest which I remember is infested with those things."
Like a cue, one of them stumbles right in the window where Sophia was sited, bringing a frightened gasp from the girl and scooting away from the door. Both canines woke up in an instant, growling low at the wobbling dead person who ambled away, ignorant at their presence inside of the truck. It didn't matter if Angel found a good place to hide from the dead; somehow, they always find their way to Angel and his dogs. The dark-haired man shifted on the seat after locking again the doors and reach a hand to soothe down the uneasy Dama, the dog still glaring daggers at the undead, while Dante just slumped on his blanket, understanding there was no danger.
"An advice, niña. If you don't want to end up like them, don't go out. Tomorrow morning you can run away."
Sophia felt dread in her stomach as she watched through the window several walkers wander around the truck, surely filling the silence of the forest with frightful snarls. She completely forgot about the walkers and felt silly about it, but there is no doubt the stranger ― Angel ― was right. The girl had to wait in the morning and look for her mother whom she missed so much. Tiredness nudges her body to lean against the door and slowly her mind sank to sleep.
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They are taking too long.
The hours of the day are ending, the sky painted with a faint orange indicating the sun was slowly hiding away and in a few minutes the night was going to come out. The forest at night was the worst place for someone to get lost and especially for her daughter. Carol just wanted to end this worry, she wanted to embrace her daughter, but with each second of Rick and Daryl not returning, mortification gnawed her insides. Her gray eyes didn't budge from the path where Rick took to chase down the walkers, eyes tired from crying so much they burned slightly but she was looking for any sign of them.
"Oh god, they're back."
Glen's remark had everyone turns to the two men walking up the hill with grim features, few of them happy to see them back but Carol's heart stammered at not seeing the figure of her daughter, she wasn't with them, they didn't find her.
"You - you didn't find her?"
"Her trail went cold, we'll pick it up again at the trail in the morning." Rick answer with a tired voice.
"Y-you can't leave my daughter on her own, at dark in the woods." Carol's voice trembles at the thought of that and continue her voice getting higher. "She's just twelve years old, she can't be out there alone. You didn't find anything!?"
"In the dark is no good, we'll be just tripping over ourselves. More people will get lost." Daryl tried to reason with the mother.
"I know this is hard, but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there –"
"We track 'er for a while."
"– We've to organize this, Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I asked him to oversee this." Rick hopes with his word it'll calm down Carol but she noticed a black spot on Daryl's brown pants and cold washed over her blood.
"Is that — is that blood?"
Carol need it to sit down, the thought of her daughter getting harmed by a walker was making her knees weak and heart just hammering against her chest. No matter what Rick said the mother was in despair. Carol trusted them there were going to return with Sophia. Small tears went down on both her dirty cheeks, sobs shook her frame, and while Lori attempted to comfort her while hugging her shoulders.
"My little get left on the woods. How'll she find her way back on her own? She's just a child, just a child..."
Just an idea, an alternate universe: what if someone found Sophia?
I know there's a few of them but I wanted to add my version
Hope you'll like it, read, and review.
— SALEM