Hope

After escaping the dumpster I had sheltered in I decided to find somewhere to set up camp. I had been walking for an hour now and I could see from the break in the trees a building surrounded by wire fencing. My heart gave a hopeful leap, fences were a rare commodity these days, ones that weren't broken or had the dead pounding against them, that is. I shifted closer, leaning forward onto a tree, both hands gripping the bark as I realised the possibilities that lay with this building.

It's huge. I thought. Look at all of that space I could have, none of the dead could come in. I would be safe.

Safe was a big word these days.

A hand grabbed my shoulder roughly, I had been so absorbed by the idea of a safe haven that I had completely forgotten where I was. My knife rose up at an incredible rate and I whirled around, stabbing the dead in the side of the head, pulling it out and watching the dead fall to the ground. My chest rose quickly as I struggled to regain a steady rhythm. I rested a hand over my heart and waited for my heart rate to go down as I scanned the area for any other threats.

Thankfully there were none. I resumed my position on my tree, looking forwards to plan my next move.

The building turned out to be a prison. Not really a place I had pictured myself living or even being inside but beggars can't be choosing and the way I was going, this was the best thing in my life right now. The ground seemed clear, there was no one, dead or alive inside that I could see. I pursed my lips, nibbling on the lower one as I pondered the best way to get inside.

I decided to climb the tree I was leaning on, resting on it to see if anyone came or went. Then I could make my decision to try and get inside. I couldn't see a hole in the fences so I wasn't entirely sure how I would be getting inside but that was definitely the next step if all went to plan. I hoped to anyone who was listening that this could be it for me. They should have an infirmary and kitchens in there!

That and the store I'd found earlier and I would be set for a very long time. There might even be gardens where the prisoners would grow things, I didn't know, I'd never stepped foot in a prison before. The world had just opened up to possibilities that were non-existent to me even ten minutes ago.

Don't get ahead of yourself. I warned in my head, this wasn't a definite thing yet. But oh God how I wanted it to be.

I waited in that tree for hours, no one came nor went and the sun was starting to set. It was getting dark now and I was starting to get nervous, my visibility was going to be completely gone in about forty-five minutes and night time was always the worst. The dead were more active, I think, because it was colder it slowed the decay and allowed them to move faster. I took the backpack off and took out the rope I kept for emergency tree nights, I had learnt after the first night to tie myself up if I wanted to remain in the tree when I woke up. I got away lightly the first time but had nightmares for weeks that I woke up being eaten alive after falling out of the tree when I was sleeping.

I moved in the tree, wincing in pain and discomfort as my back scratched against the tree bark. I took out some food that I'd gathered earlier this morning, nibbling on the edge of a protein bar and grimacing at the taste, but as I said before beggars can't be choosers. I closed my eyes briefly but shot straight back up when something shot a tingle down my spine. I looked back at the prison.

Oh no. There's already people here.

I could see, just, in the distance as there was a small light being held up to allow the people holding it to see in the dark. The blurry shadow moved towards one of the watch towers, quickly opening the door and slipping inside. I banged my head gently against the tree trunk. How was I supposed to go inside now?

It was also too dark for me to be able to move anywhere else to find shelter so I just had to hope that no one spotted me. The darkness was a good thing for me at this moment, I wondered how many people were inside. I didn't trust them to be nice to me, the last time I got near a group... I shuddered. Best to leave before they spotted me in the morning.

I was becoming irritated, here was somewhere that I thought might be a safe haven for me and now I couldn't have it. I looked back up at the prison, not seeing much in the darkness.

Or I could slip around back and hide in one of the other cell blocks. The prison was huge. They might not even spot me and I was good at hiding. I had gotten this far, hadn't I?

Morning came a lot faster than I thought it would. I stretched in the tree, swinging my leg up when I noticed some of the dead wandering around below me. They hadn't spotted me yet but I was down wind and that made it easier for them to find me. I turned my head to look at the prison seeing a few more people outside, a group of men, some of them were in what I thought from this distance were prison jumpsuit and that made me feel very uneasy about going inside.

I couldn't let this opportunity slip by.

I watched for a few more minutes as the three non jumpsuit men, one with a crossbow and the other two didn't have weapons that I could see. They seemed to be showing the others the bodies of the dead, for a reason unknown to me.

The back of the prison seemed to be a better place for me to try and get inside, it wouldn't be protected if these were the only people living here.

My immediate problem was below, there were two of the dead just standing there, they seemed to know someone was around but couldn't tell where. I gripped my knife in my hand, undoing the rope that was still tied around me and stowing it quietly in my bag. I climbed down the tree, making sure that there were no more dead on that side and peeked my head out. I killed the first one quickly, the second one heard the noise and turned slowly but by the time he turned fully I had already put the knife in the side of his head.

I looked down at the dead bodies, seeing the gun in the man's belt. I hissed to myself as I realised I would have to touch him to get it out. I slowly bent down and grabbed the gun, feeling some skin attached and as I took the gun out some skin pulled away with it. I gagged.

That was disgusting. I shook the gun, after making sure the safety was on, getting rid of anything else disgusting on it. The dead were decomposing a lot faster than they had been, must be the Georgia summer getting to them.

I perked up, maybe if they just melted, they wouldn't be able to move around and try and kill me anymore. What a lovely thought.

The dead girl didn't have anything of interest on her person that I could take. Before the outbreak I would have been horrified at the thought of taking someone else's things, dead or alive, but there was no shame in doing it now. In fact, I would consider someone who didn't to be completely stupid.

With that out of the way, I stood up and put the gun in my own belt, I would try and find a holster for it or something. Did it even have any bullets? I took it back out as I walked and saw that it only had two. I would try and find some more next time I went on a run. Back to the matter at hand, I walked towards the prison, nearing the edge of the trees even more, the only thing hiding me from the people inside, I peeked up at the prison again seeing that the group had gone back in, were some feeble bushes.

That was enough for me, I crouched down and made my way around. No one had spotted me and I wanted to keep it that way. I heard some movement behind me, groaning quietly to myself as I realised it was another of the dead. I walked towards it, springing up from my hiding place to take it down quickly with my knife, the gun would only attract more of them as I'd learnt the hard way.

I looked back towards the prison, I was in the clear.

I kept walking, making my way around the back and couldn't contain my delight when I realised that the back of the prison had almost caved in. I could climb over the bricks, the dead wouldn't be able to follow without falling back as I could see that it would be quite a difficult climb.

Finally, it's looking up. I ran over to the first set of bricks, climbing over them quickly.

I'm in.

AN: There we go folks! I hope this story isn't moving too quickly, I also realise there is absolutely zero dialogue in this chapter but that's what happens when you're all by yourself. Talking to yourself aloud in this situation would also draw walkers to her, I can't wait to actually call them walkers because calling them "the dead" is getting a little boring.

But the next chapter we will see some more talking and we're going to come across some new obstacles to overcome. I have intended for this to be a Daryll/OC story but it will be very slow because as we all know, he is a bit of an awkward one when it comes to the ladies. As in, I think the furthest he's even got in the show is with Carol and with Beth, but both of them were mainly friendships. So we will have to develop this first.

So let me know if you would like to see anything in the upcoming chapters, let me know if you like it and please leave a review. Constructive criticism is completely welcome and if you see any spelling mistakes please do let me know.

Hope you guys enjoy it and I will hopefully have the next chapter out next Thursday which is my update deadline that I've set for myself!