Chapter 10
I couldn't keep doing this. I traced the wood of Merle's knife in my fingers. 'It could all be over' I thought to myself as I flipped the blade out. My reflection caught my eye as I starred at the knife. Dirt and blood covered my face and I looked away from it.
"That's cowardly Kris." I could hear Merle scold me and the hairs on my arms stood on end. I looked around at the trees as if he was just going to be there lookin over me, shakin his head like he always used to.
Sweat ran down the back of my neck making me remember what it felt like to be human and my head started to pound. Unsteadily, I stood to my feet and staggered through the forest for water. I stumbled over rocks, and broken tree branches, falling to my face. I wanted to give up but a voice in the back of my mind kept telling me to keep moving. It wasn't Merle's, or even Daryl's, it seemed familiar but I couldn't place it. Regardless, I pulled myself up from the mud and the muck and pressed on.
The sun was beating down on me something fierce, numerous times I thought that I was surely going to die out here and become zombie food.
"Don't give up just yet baby girl." The voice kept telling me. It almost made me want to scream because I didn't know who the voice belonged to. "You're almost there, just keep going." Again the voice in my head spoke. I knew one way or another I would go crazy, I just had something a little different in mind.
I'd heard something moving around in the brush ahead of me, I'd prayed it was a bear but I knew it wasn't. A groaning corpse walked out of the bushes as started rushing towards me. I panicked and started fumbling around in my pocket for my blade.
"Shit!" I cursed as I dropped it on the ground. The biter was just a few feet from me when I finally found my knife and stood up quickly to bludgeon its brains. I panted and waited for my heart to stop racing before I continued walking again. "I'm so over this." I said wiping the blood off of the blade on my jeans, and shoved it into my pocket.
After walking for what seemed like hours, I stumbled upon a creek. Using my hands to siphon through the dirt and debris I drank as much as I possibly could and splashed water on my face and on the back of my neck. Sun stroke was the last thing I needed at this point.
I pressed on through the woods. I didn't even know what I was supposed to be looking for. Merle kept saying how him and Daryl were held up with a group somewhere, but even when I was with him I didn't have a clue where we were headed. Hell, I don't even think he knew where we were going. I tried anything to keep thoughts out of my head but the only thing I could think of to do was to keep counting my fingers. I don't know why, that just seemed like the thing to do.
It made my brain focus on something. In fact it kept me so focused on it that I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going and I tripped over something on the ground. When I turned to see what I'd fallen over yet again I was pretty taken back when I saw that it was a zombie; just lying there with a bullet hold in its head. I didn't move, I just stayed there on the ground for a while.
Eventually, I propped myself up against the tree on the other side of the biter and clenched my knife. I didn't have any fight left in me. Leaves crunched and sticks shuffled around behind me and I just waited there; I sat there waiting to die.
I kept my eyes closed and waited for it to be over. I didn't want to watch it kill me so I just held my eyes shut for as long as I could. Whenever I thought everything was about to be over, I felt a kick on my foot which instantly made my eyes shoot open. But what I opened my eyes too was far more terrifying that a zombie coming to pick me clean. I opened my eyes to see a man pointing a gun in my face. I gasped and he retreated slightly; guess I wasn't what he was expecting either.
"You bit? Scratched?" he demanded, still holding the gun to me. I used whatever strength I could to shake my head and he put away his gun and knelt down on his knee. "Are you hurt?" I couldn't speak, and I now struggled to keep my eyes open. He shook my leg as my eyes drifted closed, "Aye, what's yer name?" I fought to keep my eyes open and tried my hardest to form words.
"K-Krista." I muttered. My head bobbed forward and back against the tree.
"Krista, my name's Shane. I'm a police officer, you don't gotta be afraid of me." He extended his hand towards me. "Can you walk?" he asked, his voice softer now. Again my eyes tried to close. "Come on now Krista," he shook my leg again, harder this time. "How old are you?" I could feel myself fading. "Krista, come on now, stay with me girl." I slightly opened my left eye and kept trying to breathe.
"20." I licked my lips. "I just had a birthday."
"A'right, do you have people out here?" he asked and I felt a sharp pain in my chest.
"No, they're gone." Everything felt heavier, it was harder to breathe. I gasped for air and clutched my knife feeling that would bring me some comfort. Shane placed his hand on mine and pried the knife out of my hand.
"Krista listen to me, I'm gonna take you back to my camp. I have people there, we can help you." I didn't say anything in reply. I could feel him scoop me up in his arms, but I didn't have the strength to hold my head up, or wrap my arms around his neck. I just hung there like a dead person. I felt as if I'd died, I almost wished that I was because the pain I felt at that moment, I felt like being dead wouldn't have hurt as much.
OKAY GUYS, SO THE UPDATE CAME A LITTLE SOONER THAN I'D EXPECTED HAHA.. I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE STILL READING AND IN CASE YOU DIDN'T GET THE MEMO, THE CHAPTER BEFORE THIS HAD A LOT MORE ADDED TO IT SO GO READ IT NOW :) UPDATE SOON. XOXO I MISSED YOU GUYS
