Hey all, here is the next chapter, that I hope you enjoy! It's the start to a can of worms being opened that will set the stage to this story and Anamika's fate. Besides, you find out a little bit more about why Anamika is such a loner and I'd love to hear what you guys think about it. Thank you for all the favourites and follows and especially to Kaikitty165 and angelstuffing for reviewing!
Enjoy!
Chapter 4
Anamika drove silently, the quiet hum of her truck soothing her mind. It had been almost two months since she escaped Terminus and she had decided to give up on Georgia and instead head to Washington DC about a week ago. So here she was, taking backroads and off the beaten path routes to reach the city, scavenging towns and cars along the way. She camped out at night, sleeping on the roof of the truck, as the dead couldn't see her up there and it was very warm out. At nights she lay there, looking at the sky and wondering if she would live through this apocalypse. She knew she could survive it, she had the specific skill set to do it, but to live she really needed to enjoy life, to embrace it and to revel in it. At this moment, she was just watching as each day disappeared behind her, never pausing, never hesitating, never wondering what it would be like to have some company.
She knew there were still some good people, just the other day she had met this man in a red poncho who had been incredibly kind and had taught her ways to keep the insects away and more about edible plants than she had known before. Though he had been kind and welcoming, she had felt on edge around him, her mind screaming at her that he was vulnerable, that he was prey and she could snap his neck in a second. She knew she couldn't stay around him, as when she had her white-outs and her mind swallowed her consciousness, she usually ended up killing people who her mind saw as weaker than her, instinctively knowing their vulnerability would be a danger to her if she got attached to them. She abbored her mind and body's reaction, but she seemed helpless to stop it.
She had learned the hard way, when she had tried to join this couple near the beginning of the apocalypse. They had been kind and generous, but entirely ignorant in the ways of survival. She had liked them however, and took to teaching them how to survive, how to hunt and kill the dead. Yet they were still like bumbling foals compared to her and one day, their camp was attacked by the dead.
She had killed as many as she could, slicing through their rotten bodies like butter, her body a blur of motion and her face set in a snarl. Finally, she stopped to see that she was standing in the middle of a bloody massacre, almost twenty dead bodies scattered around her. The couple had stood off to the side, not even trying to come to her aid, their terrified eyes trained on her as the man had held his wife. She had felt shame flood her, at the animal she must appear to be and had hung her head, silently gathering her supplies and telling them they had to leave the area.
That night when they had made camp, she was dozing against a tree when a branch cracked nearby. Immediately her eyes had flown open, her hand grabbing her machete, before her mind processed what she saw before her. The man was standing in front of her, a pistol aimed straight between her eyes, while his wife stood behind him, wringing her hands anxiously. She could see the fear in their eyes, the wild look an animal gets when cornered by a hunter. She instantly understood what was happening, that they regarded her as a monster and was so afraid of her snapping and killing them like she did those dead ones, that they decided she needed to go. Instead of just leaving in the night, they had decided they needed to kill her.
Those were the early days, when she was still figuring out who she was and where she belonged in the world, when she was still coming to terms that she was not the same as other people, that she was something more, something unusual. As she looked into the man's frightened eyes, her heart calmed and her mind became quiet. Her hand unclenched from her machete and her body uncoiled. She accepted their decision on what to do with her, for they were normal people and surely knew what was acceptable in this world and clearly she wasn't. She closed her eyes, waiting for death to claim her and breathed out shakily.
The gun cocked.
To this day, she wasn't quite sure what happened after that. It was all a blur in her memory, painted in red and echoing screams. What she did remember with horrifying clarity, was when she came to, when her mind was released from that deep pool of whiteness and she found herself standing over the slaughtered bodies of the couple. The man was missing a hand, which she saw lying off to the side, still clutching the gun and there was a stab wound in his chest. The woman was lying a small ways off, her hand on the gun that was tucked into her jeans, but her neck slit open before she could pull it out. Anamika was covered in their still warm blood, her chest heaving and her muscles shaky. It was at that moment she realised, truly understood how big of a monster she was, a person who would kill innocents because she couldn't do the right thing and just go quietly. It was also at that moment that she decided, if her own mind and body wouldn't allow anything less than her survival, then she would become the scariest monster out there, the type that people avoided and so didn't fall victim to her uncontrollable killing sprees.
Since then she had been on her own and though it was tempting to join a group, to be around some company, her own fear and conviction kept her away. She wasn't meant for civilization and she did better on her own. And so her solitary journey continued.
The next morning, she opened the back of her truck, making sure to disable her trap first and counted her supplies. The haul she had gotten from the doomsday prepper's hideout was starting to run low and she had to find more supplies to stock up. Sure, she still had about a month's worth of supplies, but she wanted more, as one never knows what might happen or where one could be stuck. She was getting close to the capitol city and wanted some insurance before she arrived.
As such, when she saw the signs for a distribution centre, she decided to check it out, even though it may be looted already. After a further ten minutes of driving, she pulled into the suspiciously empty town, the street quiet as she parked her truck in a dark alley. Climbing out, she made sure the back was locked properly, her traps in place for anyone who tried to rob her, and then she opened the hood, making sure to take out the spark plugs and hoping it would be enough to dissuade anyone from bothering with her truck, if they even saw it hidden in the back of the alley.
Taking her usual gear of the rifle, pistol, machete, kukri and bowie knife, she made sure her hidden knives were secure and then set off, running down the street while keeping her body low. Soon she came upon the parking lot at the back of the distribution centre and saw, once again, no walker wandering around. The entire situation had her hair standing on end and she considered just leaving and trying out a different place. However, the idea of supplies lured her closer and so she sneaked across the parking lot, keeping her eyes open for anything odd. Making it to the back door, she found it locked and she slipped her lockpicks out, crouching in front of the door. Jiggling the lockpicks and twisting, she smiled when she heard the click of the lock turning. Pausing to listen if she could her anything, she swung the door open, keeping her body behind the door so that if anything was there, she'd have the door between them.
Luckily, nothing emerged from the darkness and on silent feet, she creeped in, keeping her pistol up and ready, silencer attached to prevent unwanted attention. Creeping through the small room, she cautiously entered the next one, continuing this trend until she reached the main room, the ceiling high and the massive area filled with shelves that contained boxes upon boxes of goods.
Jackpot!
She swung her big hiking backpack around and walked over to the canned goods section. She saw some of it was already taken, neat spaces open starting from the end of the shelves closest to the door, but ignored the oddity and started stuffing cans in her backpack. She had enough clothes and such, so she really just needed food and some hygienic items. When she was satisfied with the amount of food she had gathered, she searched the boxes until she found some basic necessities, like tampons, shampoo, soap, razors, toothpaste, a few extra toothbrushes and so forth. She also made sure to grab some more underwear and socks, as that was the two items of clothing she was quickly running out of, not having a thorough way of cleaning them besides rinsing them in a river.
She was just on her way to check if there was anything else of interest when the sound of a heavy duty truck outside caught her attention and she immediately ducked behind the shelves, cursing as she made her way to the back of the room as quickly as possible. The sound of loud voices laughing and fooling around reached her ears and she cursed even more when she heard a padlock click open and the big screen door at the front lifted up. No wonder there was no walkers and some of the stuff was already taken, someone was using this place as storage!
"Hey man, what did Simon say we needed to get?"
"He said to get some clothes for the wives, as well as more makeup and soap. We're also running low on pasta, so might as well grab a few packets and some sauce. The rest of the stuff we'll get from the Kingdom and Hilltop."
"Alrighty. Come on man, let's get it done quickly, there's going to be a punishment back home tonight, according to Simon. Some stupid prick who thought he could cheat the points system is gonna get burned."
Peeking out from behind the shelf she was crouched behind, she saw two guys strolling in the front door, with four more guys outside by the truck. Shit, she really needed to get out of here, these guys were carrying heavy duty semi-automatics. Turning, she sneaked around the back and tried to make her way to the exit she came in from, but a moment of glancing over her shoulder to make sure they hadn't noticed her yet, proved to be her one mistake.
Her foot hit a box that was placed on the floor, the dull thud echoing through the room and causing the men to immediately lift their guns and look around. Her head and shoulders dropped as she felt like screaming at the world. She just couldn't get a break!
"What the fuck was that? There some dead pricks at the back there?"
"How the fuck can there be one back there Larry, we cleared the entire place and locked it up you stupid fuck!"
Anamika crept around the shelf as the men came her way, she knew she wouldn't get away now without killing them, as they didn't sound friendly, considering their conversation from before. Looking around frantically, she didn't see anywhere to hide, so did the next best thing. Grabbing some metal cutlery knives from a box nearby, she started to scale the metal shelves, silently grateful that they seemed sturdy enough to hold her weight. Her heart was thudding in her throat as she climbed to the top and lied down, her breath shallow as she tried to find her calm. She'd been in a lot of shitty situations and had to fight her way out of even more, but she could just never get used to this. This feeling of do or die and reckless actions to stay alive was something she was familiar with and to a certain extent comfortable with, but it wasn't normal.
Seeing the men almost rounding the corner, she chucked one of the knives to the far side of the aisle, hoping the men will be so focused on the noise that they won't pay close attention to what was going on above them. The metallic clatter of the knife on the ground immediately made the men walk faster, their attention on the end of the aisle, just as Anamika had hoped. She waited till the first guy passed beneath her and knew she would have to be as fast and as quiet as she could be to pull this off. She reached into her boot, pulling out two of her throwing knives and palming them, one in each hand. As the other guy started to pass beneath her, she inhaled deeply, her heart thudding erratically. She couldn't believe she was even considering this, she was a bloody idiot! The man reached the point directly beneath her and her body tensed.
It was now or never.
Coiling her muscles, she let them loose as she jumped off the shelf, her feet hitting the guy on his back as her right hand gripped his hair and her left used the throwing knife to stab him in the head. His body dropped so quickly her feet didn't even have time to start sliding down his back and she used her momentum to ride his body to the ground, ending with him on his front and her crouching on his back. The other guy was just starting to turn around, a startled yelp on his lips when her right hand shot out and released the other throwing knife, watching in satisfaction as it plunged into the side of the man's head. His body thudded to the ground and as relieved as she was that she had been able to pull it off, she knew there were still four more guys outside and they would soon be coming to investigate the thuds of the men's bodies hitting the ground.
Jumping up, she collected both her knives, keeping them in her hands and started sprinting for the back door. Maybe she could make it out before the other guys came in. Sweat was beading on her forehead as she ran, her heart racing from the adrenalin, and she put on a new burst of speed when she saw the door she had come in by. She was almost there, only a few feet away, when a shot rang out and a searing pain registered in her leg. She screamed as she crashed to the floor, sliding painfully on the concrete as her hands automatically clutched at her upper thigh. Blood was seeping from the bullet wound and soon her hands was coated in red. For one second, she was afraid that a major artery had been severed, but she soon realised the bleeding would have been a lot worse if it had. Unfortunately, she couldn't feel an exit wound, which meant the bullet was still lodged inside her leg.
Before she could think what to do further, a woman was standing over her, her gun pointing at Anamika. The woman's curly dark hair was bleached at the ends and tied back in a messy bun on the top of her head. Her dark eyes glared at Anamika and her gun was trained steady and confidently on her.
"Hey Arat, you got 'er?"
"Yeah. Bitch was trying to escape out back." Another man joined the woman now identified as Arat and Anamika gritted her teeth, snarling a the two.
"Oooh, got ourselves a little fighter on our hands. Negan is gonna like 'er!" Arat rolled her eyes and scoffed, but she didn't say anything against the man. The man stepped forward and grabbed the machete that was lying next to her, before he took all her other weapons as well, including, to her chagrin, all her hidden knives she had squirreled away across her body. The man seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to hiding spots and her eyes burned a hole in him as he placed her weapons in the big pockets on his combat pants. Anamika's mind raced, unsure how she was going to get out of this one, especially now that her leg was busted.
"Hello sugar, what's ya name?" She gritted her teeth, not wanting to give these people anything.
"Oh come now, that ain't polite. I'm Joseph and this is Arat. Now, your turn to introduce yourself." She glared at the cocky asshole in front of her, swearing that she would kill him to herself, but Arat kicking the wound on her leg had her screaming in pain, the tendons in her neck standing out as she clenched her teeth.
"Now, I asked ya a question. And seeing as ya belong to the big man now, ya better answer. He don't like no disobedience."
"I don't belong to anyone," she gritted out, her eyes promising death to these two, but it seemed to just make Joseph's smile bigger. She could see the other two people standing a way behind them, but kept her focus on the immediate threat.
"Oh, now see, that ain't true. Because everything ya have and everything ya are, now belongs to Negan."
WD
So, thoughts? We found out a bit more about Anamika in this chapter, thought there's still a lot more to come, but this is setting the stage, so to speak. Please review, because I really want to post the next chapter to see your reactions, but I feel like a softy to do it without any feedback hahahaha:D