The deer had sped up too far ahead of them, their 'getting to know you' session wasting too much precious time to catch up to their prey. The tracks had mixed in with something else's, something bigger and slower that had confused them into frustration. Maybe the heat was getting to them, or maybe it was the hunger pangs that pulled at their insides as they forced a few more lazy steps.
She stopped walking and placed her hands on her hips, sighing in defeat as she glanced up at the sun. It was lower in the sky now, signaling four in the afternoon as her lack of options weighed heavily on her shoulders. Was this new stranger just going to slow her down? Distract her? Lead her back to the Saviors? Was this all just an elaborate trap? Trap! She'd forgotten about the traps she had set earlier this morning!
She took off in the direction of her last hope for sustenance as the man grumbled behind her, keeping up with her pace quite easily. His legs were strong as they pumped his torso forward, his crossbow riding across his shoulders like a man on a horse with each stride. His face was serious, devoid of fear as he watched where she was going, each step she took like a line on a map. He followed her lead as she slowed her pace near the foot of the mountain, stopping in front of a set of trees with symbols she'd carved in them weeks ago.
She trotted to a stop as she reached her traps only to find them as empty as she had left them.
"Damn," she sighed again, placing her palm on her forehead to cool herself down. She thought even though she'd lost the deer, she would have at least caught something in one of her traps.
"Try puttin' some camo over your traps," he offered, his chest heaving rapidly. "Get more critters that way."
"Yeah, I did." She walked over to the empty cage and groaned in defeat. "Looks like the wind had a mind of its own today."
He shrugged his shoulders.
She bent down and let her eyes travel over to him, re-evaluating each cut and bruise, each scrape and tear on his clothes as it mixed in with the dirt and blood that painted his skin a dark tan. This new stranger looked like he knew how to take care of himself, like he knew the woods and the earth; but appearances could be deceiving, even in the apocalypse.
If he was a Savior, though, he would have been a little bit cleaner, a little more... kept than this man was. Most of the men she encountered from that camp had haircuts, shaved faces, and moderately clean clothes. They had guns and bats instead of crossbows covered in mud. Nothing about this man before her made her feel uneasy or set off any alarms. She felt safe with him, for some odd reason.
"How long you been out here like this?" He walked over to her, picking up the empty remains of the trap before handing it back to her.
"Months," she thought out loud, wondering if that was even true. "Maybe longer, I can't really be sure." She took the trap from him and turned it over in her hands, observing it gently before resetting it and put it down amidst the fallen leaves.
"After the Saviors came," she paused and kept her eyes on the wooden trap, caressing the outline of her handiwork as if it were near and dear to her. "After what they took," she sighed and placed some grass and dirt over the trap, hoping to disguise it from the rabbits and squirrels she was trying to catch. "I couldn't stay there anymore."
"What'd they take?" He looked away from her after his words hit the air, afraid of what her answer might be. He pulled the knife out of his belt and started carving aimlessly into the tree bark in front of him, wishing he could take the question back into his lungs.
"What they always do," she followed suit and looked away, staring at her hands. She sighed at the painful memory and patted her hands together to rid them of the excess dirt. "Half of everything."
She closed her eyes and envisioned the sights and smells of her old home; the smoke from the wood burning stove, the lavender tea that James always made in that dull black kettle and the smooth dark sound of his voice. She let it lull her into a bittersweet lullaby as memories of him replaced this lonely and barren place, almost making her forget how hungry she actually was.
"Yeah," he broke the silence of her thoughts, pulling his knife out of the tree with a grunt. "They do that."
"What'd they take from you?" She stood up and walked toward him, cautiously approaching with her dangerous question. She watched as the cogs in his brain began to turn, clicking one into the other as he weighed the pros and cons of telling her anything too serious.
He opened his mouth to speak but the sound of snarling in the distance immediately cut him off. High-pitched breaths mixed with low grumbly growls made him aim, shoot and kill quicker than she could even turn her head. His aim was fast and true, landing directly in the walker's eye as it came out the back of its head.
All questions about the Saviors left her mind as she turned on her heel, pulling her knife out of its sheath as she ran toward the group of the undead. Pulling the man's arrow out of the walker's head, she tossed it back to him, shaking the blood and brain matter off her hand with a flick of her wrist. She was pretty sure he only had a few arrows mounted on his weapon, and that he'd need every last one of them.
She grabbed the nearest walker by the scalp and rammed her knife through the top of its skull, its final breath rushing out through its teeth like rancid notes from an untuned organ. She held her breath as dust and blood filled the air before she jiggled her blade free from the monster, watching it collapse at her feet.
Another arrow whirred by her, the momentum of it blowing her hair away from her face as it planted itself firmly between a walker's eyes. This guy was good. She glanced back as he advanced on the group beside her, taking down one, two, three in a matter of seconds as she continued to take down the closer ones with her knife.
There had to have been a community that had gotten loose after its demise, small enough for them to handle, but big enough to catch them off guard. Were they the rest of the Saviors? Were these random survivors that had starved to death out here in the forest? It was impossible to say, but she at least welcomed the help in taking them out.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"Yup," he walked over to the lifeless bodies and collected the rest of his arrows.
"Haven't seen a group that big in a while," she started, wiping the blood from her knife onto her pants. "It's usually just one or two at a time out here." She looked around for any other moving targets and let go of her breath as the coast proved to be clear. "Maybe it's time to move on." She stepped over the corpses and started walking toward the foot of the mountain.
"Move on?" He followed her, without rhyme or reason other than his feet were moving in the same direction she was.
"I'll stay here a few more nights, maybe, but it looks like I've caught everything I can." She touched a tree with similar markings as the one before, following her own trail of breadcrumbs back to where she needed to be.
"What about that deer? Could last you a grip." He loaded another arrow into his crossbow, looking for anything scurrying around their feet that could pass as a meal.
"I'll try again tomorrow," she told him, starting a climb up the incline of the mountainside.
"Walkers could get 'er." He leaned forward to brace himself for the change in resistance as they climbed, noticing another one of her marked trees.
"Walker's could get us too, but so could hunger." She fingered the symbol briefly before walking past it, heading up a little farther. Her pace remained steady, making sure the man wasn't too far behind before she turned around another tree or climbed up any higher. She could feel the sun cool down as it changed from a golden yellow to a blood orange while it bathed them in color through the trees. If they didn't seek refuge soon, who knows what else they could run into.
"There's some food up here a ways." She glanced back at him to make sure he was still with her, motioning for him to stay close as she turned down a set of hidden stairs; rocks cut wildly into the mountainside by what she had presumed to be waterfall at one point.
"You make all these markings yourself?" He took his time down the rocks before pointing back at one of her trees.
"It's easy to get lost in these woods." She touched the marking on her last tree before coming up on a cave surrounded by wild vines. "Is that why you're still with me, stranger? You lost?"
"Name's Daryl, and I've got nowhere to be." He relaxed his grip on the crossbow and looked up at the cave in awe, slinging his strap over his shoulder. "Not anymore."