Chapter 7: A Day in the Woods

Annie Hughes awoke in the area where she met Elizabeth, Sam, Cleo, Tucker, and Elizabeth's children the previous day. After having been able to find a respectable group of people she was finally at ease. But not completely.

For the night the group would hide in parked cars outside of the perimeter. They had driven so far into the forest there was no way they could find their way out. And they were good places to hide during walker attacks during the night if herds ever came out of the woods.

The car she slept in was pretty spacious and could hold up to eight people in total. Inside the car with her was Elizabeth and Cleo who were in the driver and passenger seat and were still asleep.

Before they went to sleep, Elizabeth and Cleo said they would take her out into the woods the next day to show her how to hunt and how to use certain weapons to defend herself against an attack.

Also Elizabeth had shown Annie her secrets to medicines and treatments for certain injuries using medicinal herbs and treatment techniques.

Elizabeth then awoke in her seat as she stretched and yawned before looking over to Annie.

"Morning," she said with a smile.

Annie gave her a wave of the hand and a smile to return the gesture. Just then, Cleo awoke.

"Hey girls, I guess we'll be working hard today, we gotta get hunting for food, and we gotta teach you how to hunt Annie."

"Yeah I guess," Annie said disgruntled at how she couldn't hunt anything properly.

"Don't worry," Elizabeth said, "by the end of the day you'll be shooting rabbits with a bow and arrow just as well as you can go and shoot bucks and deer with a shotgun."

"What?" Annie asked confused.

"I don't know I was just rambling on with random stuff in an attempt to lighten up your sullen mood," Elizabeth said before she laid back in the seat and laughed hysterically with Cleo joining along as well, and Annie joining in right behind them. Eventually they got themselves together and decided it was time to leave the van.

Elizabeth opened the door to the front of the van and looked around for a brief moment. "All clear," she said with a thumbs up.

Each of them got out of the van and went to meet up with the others. Sam and Tucker were both out overlooking the perimeter trying to keep a watch out for walkers. Elizabeth's children were sitting in a corner outside playing.

"Good morning everyone, how's it going," Tucker said to them enthusiastically.

"Pretty good," Cleo said as she rubbed her eyes, still a little tired.

Annie had gotten to know the new members of the group very well yesterday. She could tell right from the start that they were good people. If she hadn't have met them, by now she would probably be still out there in the woods starving to death, just waiting for the walkers to come and finish her.

Tucker Foley was the most enthuisiastic of the group. He was energetic, quick witted, and a huge jokester. He was also a huge techno geek, always rambling about everything technological, computers, cell phones, the Internet, everything. But despite that he still was a nice guy and he was good with kids, having taken care of Elizabeth's children several times before.

Sam Manson was sort of the opposite of Tucker. While she was polite and kind, she was very quiet and reserved, but by no means antisocial. She really cared about the animals and environment they live in. The other day she refused to eat the rabbits that Elizabeth had gotten in the woods.

Cleo was an entirely different story. At times she just changed from different emotions. She could be energetic, calm, collected, serious, angry, sad, happy. To Annie it felt like Cleo had been through so much already and it was taking it's toll on her, but she didn't want to say anything about it, as that could lead to more trouble.

"Elizabeth," Sam said quickly, "last night several of those things came by and damaged the fence, we need some extra reinforcements around the perimeter to fix it, can you stay by this morning for a while."

"Well," Elizabeth said, "I was going to take Annie out to the woods to...,"

"I'll do it," Cleo jumped in interrupting Elizabeth.

Everybody was taken aback by Cleo's offer, as it just seemed so sudden and on the spur of the moment. Elizabeth turned to Cleo and whispered to her quietly so no one could hear her.

"Cleo, are you sure about this, I could just fix it and we'll do it later."

"I'm sure Liz, this is an important thing right now and we need to get this chick here to learn how to hunt if she's going to survive. I can't see another person die and we have to be prepared. Go and out and show her the ropes and I'll stay here and helped them fix the fence."

"Whatever you say," Elizabeth said having given up on trying to convince her.

"Come on Annie, let's go," Elizabeth said as she gathered her bow, her arrows, and her bags, along with some pistols.

Annie nodded and went with her. As they left the area she looked back at Cleo, who had begun to set the fence back up.

"She shouldn't have to go through all of this, she's just a kid."

The two women walked through the woods looking for game, which there wasn't very much of this morning. They talked amongst themselves about different things. Mostly what had happened for the last couple of weeks since all of this started.

"I'm very surprised that you were able to survive on your own this long, especially since you don't have any experience in combat," Elizabeth told her quietly

"I just ran and just looked for anything I could find, also I brought rations with me to last me a month." Annie responded.

"What about you," she asked.

"Back in Thorn Valley, I always used to do archery as a child, I could always get the center of the board without even trying," she laughed to herself, "ah good times, good times."

"What did you actually do for a living while in the Valley," Annie asked.

"I was a medic and assistant with the main doctor Mr. Horatio Ages, he was a good man."

"Is he dead," Annie asked worriedly.

"No he's just missing, we were all separated when we left," Elizabeth said quickly, "what about you."

"Schoolteacher, teaching kids writing and literature, all that crap," she said with a laugh.

They came across the tree where they met yesterday. Elizabeth went over and used her knife to carve a symbol of an arrow board onto the tree. She walked over to Annie and handed her crossbow over to Annie and loaded it.

"Now look through the scope of it and then when your ready push the trigger. Take a deep breath before you do it, I felt that when I did that I could get the shot better."

Annie did just that and hit the tree. Not in the center but at a good shot. Elizabeth gave a little nod in response.

"Pretty good, just keep trying it and we'll see if you improve."

They did this again and again for a good twenty minutes until finally Annie started getting the shots in the center and was doing it consistently.

"I didn't think I would learn this fast," she said to Elizabeth grinning.

"That's probably because it's basically a gun, not a real bow and arrow. Which reminds me, come along I'll get you to your next most usable weapon." Elizabeth said before she turned and walked.

Annie followed her and coming to a clearing, Elizabeth took out a small pistol from her bag and handed it to Annie. Annie took it with an unsteady hand, having never held a gun before.

"Don't worry, it's a silencer so it won't make any noise," Elizabeth said with a pat on the back. Then she pointed her in a direction towards some rabbits.

"Use what you already know from the crossbow and shoot those rabbits, remember aim, take a deep breath, and then pull the trigger. But three times now since there are a couple there."

"Okay," Annie responded quietly.

She then took the gun and aimed it at the rabbits, the same way she aimed the crossbow. She then took a deep breath and in a second pulled the trigger three times.

Each shot took out all three of the rabbits as each bullet struck them dead. Annie looked at the gun in her hands. She couldn't believe it. She had actually learned how to shoot today and did it well.

"Good job," Elizabeth said enthusiastically, "those should last the group members for a little while."

"Thanks Elizabeth, you were a great help, I never thought I would ever have to shoot a gun until now."

"Well you still need to get used to it, that's why you're going to be my hunting partner for when we go out and get food," she said smirking.

"Are you sure," Annie said reluctantly.

"Of course," Elizabeth said in disbelief, "who else will there be to help me here."

"Well I won't argue, so I guess I accept to be your hunting partner."

"Excellent," she said, "come on let's get the food and get out of here before those things show up."

They went over and gathered the rabbits putting them in their bags. Just then something hit Annie. At this point she really felt she had to ask Elizabeth this.

"Hey Elizabeth, can I ask you something," she said.

"What?"

"Do you actually eat rabbits, I mean I wouldn't suspect a mouse would."

Elizabeth looked up smirking and said, "No I don't, I only eat vegetables and fish, if I would go as far as to eat rabbits, I'd be a fucking abomination in the face of my species."

She then started laughing hysterically with Annie joining right in behind her. They then gathered up the rest of the rabbits and went back to the camp.

It's finally done. I still have more to go but I finally got this out of the way. Good to be back and to see my fellow writers here on the web. I'd like to give a shout out to Guest Calypso, Sharks Potter, AngelaMay234, and other writers. I hope you all are doing well and I hope to see a lot from you all again soon. Good luck to you in all of your work.

Sincerely yours

Videogameaddict237