Author's Note: I can't believe I'm posting two chapters in one day! In my defense, there was a Walking Dead marathon on AMC today, what else was I going to do but watch it and write while I had Daryl's voice in my ears for inspiration? So I hope you enjoy his introduction, I think it's interesting at least! Reviews are much appreciated. Also...SEASON 3 TOMORROW!
Cassandra straightened from her position bent over a car's open trunk, doing her best to stretch out the kinks in her back. She'd been at the search for supplies for about an hour and so far she wasn't coming up with much. She'd managed to get a few changes of clothes for herself and Emma, a few bottles of water and some trail mix but that was about it.
Either too many other survivors had already scavenged this stretch of highway, or more likely the poor souls that had died here hadn't taken much with them in the first place. Why should they have? All the radio broadcasts had promised that Atlanta and several other cities would be safe zones with all the protection, shelter and food anyone could need.
Things hadn't quite turned out that way.
She hadn't even contemplated heading into the city even though from a map she'd found she realized she was probably just outside the Atlanta city limits. Too close. If Washington DC had lost control of its barricades and been over run what chance did Atlanta have? No, she was willing to bet it was crawling with zombies and she didn't intend to find out first hand.
Cassandra reached up and massaged her aching shoulder absentmindedly trying to decide if she should give up and head back for Emma. She didn't want to come back so empty handed but she wasn't comfortable leaving her alone for much longer either. A crying little girl alone was probably like Christmas morning for a hungry zombie and she wasn't willing to bet Emma's safety on the belief that they would have a hard time getting past the truck's lock.
She was just about to head out when something caught her eye. Buried under some clothes in the open suitcase Cassandra had just been rifling though was the shiny corner of some kind of wrapper.
Hope giving her actions a frenzied quality, she dove her hands into the suitcase tossing clothes out of the way. A moment later the jackpot was revealed and Cassandra had to literally cover her mouth to stop a cry of joy from escaping. At the bottom of the suitcase was a large pile of nutrition bars, the real survival nut kind that had enough calories to substitute for an entire meal. There were enough there to keep Cassandra and Emma going for a couple of weeks even if she didn't find anything else.
Cassandra quickly shoveled the nutrition bars into her backpack and was just swinging it back onto her shoulder when the sharp sound of a car horn rang out breaking the utter silence.
She instantly dropped towards the ground, one hand going out to steady herself against the car, her heart instantly hammering in her chest. It took a few seconds for her rational mind to kick in and insist that the sound had actually come from a fair distance away. In fact, she wasn't sure she would have heard it at all if the world hadn't been so eerily quite these days. If a walker had caused the horn to sound, it wasn't right around the corner waiting to snatch her.
Cassandra felt relieved for a split second before an even deeper sense of dread settled over her.
"Emma!" She choked out rising unsteadily to her feet. She didn't know if she was afraid a walker near Emma had set off the car horn or if she was afraid that Emma herself had stumbled into the truck's horn and was at this moment drawing zombies. Either way, she just knew she had to get back to the little girl as quickly as possible.
Cassandra hitched the strap of her backpack higher on her shoulder and prepared to take off in the direction she'd come from. The next thing she knew she was back on the ground, her vision spinning and a searing pain radiating out from the back of her head.
"Ugh," She moaned, her thoughts cloudy as a warm sensation that in retrospect was probably blood spread across her skull.
Before she had time to process what had happened she felt a sharp tug on her backpack that left her neck snapping backwards. The force was sufficient to clear Cassandra's mind enough to realize that someone was trying to take her supplies. She rolled hard to the right and out of the grip of her attacker. She had just enough time to get a glimpse of a man, big, dirty, and desperate looking before he was on her again.
"Just give me the backpack," He grunted jerking her body off of the ground by one strap of the backpack and slamming her back into the ground.
Despite the fact that she was seeing stars by this point, Cassandra lashed out with her hands and feet striking at the man anywhere she could. She felt one foot connect hard with his stomach and his weigh disappeared from her for a second. She seized the moment and scooted backwards a few inches struggling to get back to her feet. Before she could the man was back.
"You stupid, bitch," He growled, grabbing Cassandra by her hair and hauling her back.
"Ahhh!" Cassandra screamed despite all of her previous effort to keep quiet and not draw any zombies.
"Shut up!" The man used the back of his free hand to strike her across the face, a stinging force that sent her head snapping the other direction, her cheek scraping against the pavement.
She groaned and tried to kick him again but this time he was able to dodge her flailing feet. In desperation she managed to get one arm free and reached up and dug her fingernails into the skin of his cheek earning her a shriek of pain from the man. He thrashed in her grip and one of his elbows caught her in the eye sending her reeling back and causing her to loose her grip on his face.
The man's eyes filled with rage and she had no doubt that he now intended to kill her. She willed herself to close her eyes so she at least wouldn't have to see the fatal blow coming even as she continued to thrash pointlessly trying to pummel him with her weakened limbs.
Suddenly the weight of the man was gone and Cassandra's eyes snapped open in disbelief. The man was on the ground and another man, this one leaner and more muscular, was punching him. It took two before her attacked lay slumped on the ground, clearly unconscious.
"Well, that didn't take much ya son of a bitch," The other man drawled in a thick Georgia accent, shaking out the hand he had just pummeled her attacker with.
He glanced over at Cassandra but didn't seem particularly rushed to either find out if she was ok or finish the job the other man had started. Instead he scooped up the objects he must have dropped a moment before, a small pack and a crossbow that looked pretty deadly and stood slowly. He gave the man on the ground a light kick and spit on the ground next to his prone form before finally turning to face her.
Cassandra wanted to be on her feet by this point, ready to fend off a new attack if it came to that. Unfortunately she wasn't sure her legs would hold her at this point and her head was still swimming from the multiple blows it had taken. Instead she settled for scooting back a couple of feet and getting her hands under her in case she needed to try to push herself to a standing position quickly.
Her caution seemed to amuse him and he chuckled a bit as he looked down at her.
"Yer welcome," He finally said, his tone mocking. "In case that stupid look on yer face is actually supposed to mean thank you."
She didn't say anything. She couldn't quite figure out if she should running from this guy or not but if recent experience was anything to judge by this apocalypse hadn't been particularly great for bringing out the kindness of others.
"Ya know, thank you? That's what you say when somebody saves your ass," The man continued.
"Thanks," Cassandra felt the word slip from between her lips against her will, a habit of politeness ingrained in her from long before all this craziness had happened.
"Well, ya gonna get up?" He asked, seemingly reaching the point of exasperation with her hesitance. He held out a hand and Cassandra cautiously took it. He hauled her to her feet quickly without any gentleness and she had to struggle to keep her balance. Without realizing what she was doing she threw one hand out and gripped the man's arm to keep herself steady.
His hand came down over hers and for a second she thought he was helping to steady her. That illusion was shattered quickly as he used his grip to take advantage of her unsteadiness and yank one of her arms around behind her back yanking her flush against him.
Before she had fully realized what had happened he was using his other hand to yank her backpack down her free arm. He quickly released her other arm and shoved her forward and out of the bag. By the time she'd managed to find her balance and spin around he was already rifling through it.
"What are you doing?" Cassandra raged, rushing forward only to stop in her tracks as he lazily drew a gun from the waist of his pants and pointed it in her direction.
"Shopping," He said without looking up as he continued to rifle through the bag.
Cassandra was considering making a dive for his gun when he finished dumping nutrition bars into his own pack and had kicked her backpack aside.
"You can't just steal from me, I need that food!" Cassandra spat, the injustice of this entire new world where a rescuer was really just another enemy making her sick to her stomach.
"I ain't stealin'," The man walked toward her, drawing a deadly looking knife from somewhere. Cassandra's blood ran cold at the sight of the blade but he surprised her by flipping it around and holding it out to her. "I'm tradin'."
Cassandra couldn't fully comprehend what he was thinking but she wasn't about to let that stop herself from taking the knife. Her hand darted out and gripped the handle prepared to fight him for it but to her surprise he let it go freely.
She immediately pointed the knife at him as menacingly as possible but he just rolled his eyes and took a step closer. He grabbed her hand and before she could decide if she really was capable of stabbing him or not he twisted the knife slightly in her grip and then stepped away again.
"Hold it like that and ya might actually have a chance of doin' some damage," He told her like his impromptu knife lesson was the most natural thing in the world. "Don't know what kinda idiot goes walkin' around out here without a weapon, ya got a death wish or somethin'?"
"Wait, you're giving this to me?" She asked incredulously as he just looked at her as though she were stupid. "But you're taking my food? Why'd you bother stopping him then?" She gestured wildly towards the man on the ground.
His eyes went cold and Cassandra gripped the knife a little bit tighter.
"Listen up, bitch," He jabbed his finger angrily in her direction. "I ain't in the business of beatin' up women, but I'll tell ya what business I am in, surviving. I wasted time I coulda been hunting savin' your dumb ass so I took your food. That's a fairer trade than anybody else is gonna give you, so you best shut your mouth."
He glanced upward as though gathering himself but she soon realized he was actually checking the position of the sun.
"I suggest ya get out of here, all that screamin' you did bound to have attracted some walkers," He told her already moving off towards the boundary of the woods. "But hey, it's your funeral."
And just like that he was gone, disappearing into the woods as quickly and as silently as he'd come.
Cassandra stood there for a moment staring down at the knife in her hand dumbfounded. Finally she gathered herself enough to walk over to her discarded backpack and pick it up prepared for the depressing lightness of an empty bag. She almost dropped it when she felt how heavy it still was.
Glancing inside disbelievingly, Cassandra saw that not only had he left her all the water, clothes and trail mix but he'd left about half of the nutrition bars as well. She zipped the bag and threw it over her shoulder heading off at a jog in the direction of the truck and Emma.
She wished for a fleeting moment that she knew what the man's name was. He was a crazy asshole but he was also the only person she'd met since all of this began that had surprised her at all.