Brian packed up quickly, all heavy items going to the bottom of the pack (with the small perch being strapped underneath the backpack as it wouldn't fit inside) with the lighter items or more needed items on top. The disgusting container holding a bits and pieces of lurcher guts was opened but only so much as the smell was able to get out. It didn't much bother Brian any longer, especially since she had been splatter with the disgusting stuff before. The smell just assured that the lurchers wouldn't be attracted to her by smell, even as she had learned how to swiftly and silently move through the forest with nary a sound.
It was still warm out, though it was soon to get cold since Brian could tell that it was nearing October from the dates that she marked down in her diary. Her hoodie had seen some use at night time, especially after a cold front came in with a series of rainstorms that Brian had been forced to camp on the ground lest she be thrown from the tree by high winds.
Her stash of furs were finding more and more use in things, especially since she was crafty with their use. Having read multiple survivalist guides, she had grasped the importance of the fur for different uses. She hadn't need the furs for much yet, but she was determined to hole up in a high animal traffic area during the winter, and the furs which she was slowly accumulating would allow for a major amount of warmth when there was snow up to her knees. However, one major use she had already found a use for was using the furs for a makeshift armor. She had created thick leather 'pants' that were tied tight around her legs but over her cargo pants so no lurcher could take a meaty mouthful and infect her. She had also created leather sleeves that tied around her arms just over the long-sleeved shirts she normally wore. The last bit was a leather jerkin that tied mostly over her shoulders and torso with a thick leather that was tied tight in all areas so it was form fit under any heavy clothing but with just her shirt underneath.
Brian held out her bow, five arrows clipped into the small quiver attached to the bow itself, and an arrow permanently held to the string as she walked along the deer tracks. She wasn't purposefully hunting anything at the moment, she was just walking along and only had her weapon out and ready for the 'just in case' scenario.
Her blonde hair had been braided tightly, though it formed a massive Viking like braid on top of her head that ran to the nape of her neck before being tied off to let the strands loose. Dirt smudged her nose, not that she cared, and her brown eyes were simply hidden behind her sunglasses. Brian would admit that she wasn't Miss America, but she was pretty with high cheekbones and arched eyebrows. Her button nose was situated perfectly straight and between large doe-like eyes and above a cute little pair of lips. Though with the habit she had of licking her lips and chewing on them so they were dry and chapped while being a plain color in need of some lip balm.
Also, in her teen years, as she was currently 28, she had a major problem with acne so there were some residual scars marking the sides of her jaws though it wasn't entirely noticeable. Along with acne scars, she had perpetually oily skin that annoyed her since her forehead constantly shone as though it belonged to some greasy teen with blackheads that just covered her little button nose though they luckily never turned into pimply little whiteheads.
She wasn't perfect, but in this apocalyptic world, she was practically a supermodel with her skinny figure and perfect teeth.
The bushes rattled next to her but Brian ignored it as she could hear the tell-tale rasping of a lurcher even as it staggered out of the bushes and ignored her completely. Having tested the smelly container of lurcher guts beforehand, Brian was confident that no lurcher could detect her as long as she didn't make any sort of obvious sign that she was alive such as a loud noise not consisting of footsteps or moans. The lurcher was badly decayed, with bits and pieces having fallen off, and it just continued on its merry way without a problem in the world.
With a quick step, Brian pulled on the arrow still knocked on her bow and let it fly the few short feet into the lurcher's skull. One less lurcher in the world. She didn't often let the lurchers be free to hurt someone else, she killed them as soon as she could or as soon as she was able without possibly bringing danger upon herself. She didn't find any point in letting a single lurcher go when it could join a pack or sneak up and kill someone.
Having been on the road for over three months, Brian was searching for a place to hole up, especially as lurchers had been out in the forests more and more. She suspected the lurchers that had been in the cities were moving elsewhere in search of a new food supply, 'food' which had abandoned the cities because of the packs of lurchers. With sure steps, she grabbed the arrow and pulled it from the confines of the lurcher skull. With a quick swipe, the black sludge (that had originally been red blood when the lurcher had been alive) was wiped on the ripped and torn clothes of the now dead lurcher so she could knock the arrow back on her bowstring without covering her bow nor her hand in lurcher blood.
Continuing on wasn't difficult. She just hummed a little ditty to herself and continued on her merry way, probably looking quite insane as she hummed, grinned, and kept her bow prepped with an arrow. The woods were thick and allowed for plenty of cover, it also allowed for tall and thick trees that permitted the use of the perch for safe refuge.
A few rabbits crossed her trail, fleeing from whatever had frightened them, and Brian just ignored the small animals as she had almost more meat and other foodstuffs than she could feasibly carry. As it was, her pack was so heavy that she couldn't run more than a few yards before the weight got to her and made her wheeze like some sort of lurcher. If need be, she could slide from the arms of her pack to allow for free range of movement, but she wasn't going to willingly give up her backpack when it was her lifeline to surviving in this wretched world.
The days blurred together, though they were constantly marked in her diary, and the warm fall air turned to cold winter. Her supply of food was well kept and rationed with careful planning lest she run out before she could resupply. Her water supply wasn't too much of a worry since there were constantly little streams, rivers, lakes, water reservoirs, and other water to supplies to fill up at. When snow began, it wasn't thick, but it alluded to a cold winter. Brian figured she would be as snug as a bug with her winter jacket, beanie and gloves. Many of the animals had hunkered down for winter, half hibernating though they still popped up now and then for some food. She was grateful that she had already collected a massive supply of food items that could be carefully rationed so that she always had something to eat for the day.
She hadn't found any place to hunker down, not likin the lurcher infestation that was going on with the forests around her, and made her way through a small residential area. The houses were few and far between, but they looked as though they hadn't been ransacked before, which was lucky as it allowed for Brian to find some food items of her own without having to dip into her carefully rationed supply in her backpack.
With ease, Brian lifted up her bow and knocked on the door. Waiting a few seconds allowed for any lurchers to come towards the door in search of the source of noise. When nothing came banging at the door, Brian entered after breaking through a window as she didn't have the strength to actually kick open the door. With careful steps, Brian scouted out the building for any hidden lurchers before even daring to contemplate ransacking the place for anything useful.
Once she was confident in being alone, Brian entered the kitchen and grabbed the plentiful cans of leftover food before looking around for anything else. With a bit of effort from a handy dandy multitool Leatherman, a can of pork 'n' beans was opened while a spoon was taken from a drawer for her to eat from. With a full belly, Brian made her way up to a bedroom where she collapsed on the comfortable mattress of the master bedroom. She didn't bother getting undressed as though but she simply set her backpack on the floor next to her. With a groan, she got up and secured the doorway with cord, not worrying about downstairs since she had only broken the window not gone through any sort of doorway.
Sleep came easily and Brian woke up the next morning to the sound of some sort of distant engine grumbling as it made its way slowly down the residential street. It was bright out already and Brian didn't bother getting up until she heard the motorcycle stop completely just a few houses down. Alarmed, Brian got out her bow and looked out a window to see a handful of vehicles all parked outside a house farther down the lane.
The people were normal looking, but Brian didn't dare go out and meet them. Not that she wanted to or anything, especially as she hadn't had true human companionship in a little over five months. Months which just seemed to bleed together.
She watched silently as the group made their way from house to house until she saw a man holding a crossbow point to the building she was in, and gesture for silence. Guns were unholstered and various other weapons were drawn as the crossbowman pointed out the broken window. Brian quickly set her pack on her back, buckled the straps around her waist and chest, before walking out of the bedroom with her bow drawn and pointed down the stairwell.
A loud crash signified the door being kicked open even Brian didn't move an inch, keeping her weapon pointed down the stairwell towards the group of people invading her little makeshift sanctuary. A sanctuary that she had only stayed in because she had been running low on canned goods as hunting had been slim for the past two weeks, plus the bed had called out to her with promises of a comfortable and warm rest.
With a creeping lope, the crossbowman entered her sights and he froze at the sight of her already aiming her arrow at his head. "Rick!"
Another man came into view, this time holding a handgun. He purposefully raised his gun and aimed it, this had Brian switching her target from the crossbowman to the former cop. She could easily tell the man had been a cop from his bearing, which was even more easily discernable since she had known quite a few people in both the police and in the military.
"I don't care who the fuck you think you are, but you don't come near me and I don't put an arrow in your skull." Brian said clearly, keeping herself tense. "There's food in the kitchen, help yourself. Leave me the fuck alone."
"We don't want any trouble–"
"I could fucking care less. Don't come near me, and we won't have any problems."
The crossbowman had his weapon already raised and aimed, his finger already on the trigger only waiting for any sign of aggression.
"I stay up here, and you don't step foot on the stairwell. I will leave you alone as long as you leave me alone, if you try coming near me, I will kill you where you stand."
The man named Rick raised his hand as if to calm Brian down, but she was too tense to calm down near the presence of men. Men had nearly raped her, and so as far as she was concerned, men were not to be trusted unless they proved themselves.
"Fine, we'll do it your way. We didn't come here to hurt anyone, we just wanted to find food and shelter."
Brian backed away slowly, but kept her bow aimed at the man's head. "Stay here for all I care. You can even take all the food in the kitchen, you clearly need it." It was true for what she was seeing, the two men were almost unhealthily thin with their bones standing out in sharp relief.
Rick gestured for the crossbowman to lower his weapon while also lowering his own gun, "We'll collect the food and leave as soon as possib–"
"Rick!" a voice screamed out, the high pitch seemingly like nails on a chalkboard to Brian who wasn't really used to hearing another person speak after so many months on her own.
"Lori!" Rick called back, "We're inside!" He didn't take his eyes of Brian but his hand stayed at his hip, gripping the gun he had only barely placed in its holster.
Before Brian's eyes, an entire horde of people just seem to crawl out of the woodworks. They were all thin, all in need of a good meal, and they were all covered in sweat and dirt. What captivated Brian was the sight of the screeching woman who was clearly pregnant. Her belly seemed almost grotesquely swollen even as the rest of her body was bordering anorexic. Brian knew immediately that the babe must be sucking the life out of its mother even when the others in the group probably handed over a good portion of their scavenged finds to the woman.
"Rick, there's a herd of walkers coming our way!" An Asian man stated, carefully holding his weapon while keeping his eyes on Brian.
Another woman came forward to speak, dark brown hair chopped to just below her chin, "Must be a couple hundred of them, at least!"
Rick turned and walked away completely, ignoring Brian as a nonthreat at the moment in comparison to the undead that was slowly making its way through the residential area. The crossbowman kept his eyes trained on Brian but payed more attention to the obvious leader of the group.
Brian, using her hearing, could easily hear the undead lurcher horde slowly migrating its way through the small residential district. She could hear the groans and shuffling footsteps of the lurchers who were migrating in a massive pack in search of fresh meat.
"Don't leave the house and barricade the doors, but do it silently." Rick hissed to his group as they all split up to secure the house.
Brian scowled but she could definitely understand that they were being forced to stay in the same building do to annoying circumstance. She sighed, "I'm staying in one of the rooms. Don't enter it. The rest of the building is yours."
With an angry scowl, while mumbling incoherently to herself, Brian quickly stepped back to go back to the master bedroom where she had slept in only an hour before. With quick thinking, Brian barricaded the door with a massive chest and went right back to bed, her pack back on the floor but in easy reaching distance. She didn't bother looking out the window, at least not until she heard a gunshot that came from a street over.
"Shit!" Brian exclaimed before running over to the window. The herd which was just going to pass on through had stopped and swarmed whatever building the gunshot had come from. Now, instead of passing on through in a short amount of time the horde would probably stick around for days before moving on. Though, instead of them all moving on, the horde would probably be leaving behind dozens of stragglers who would make the formerly safe residential area a hazard to be in.
She could hear more gunfire than the screams of people, no matter how muffled, while the horde convened on its prey.
With a sigh, Brian went right back to bed, ignoring everything in favor of getting some more sleep. Sleep was preferred for now than twiddling her thumbs in boredom. So, she caught up on her sleep.
Waking up, it was late afternoon, and Brian felt as though her bladder were about to burst. With a peeved look, she didn't find any sort of in suite bathroom and so was forced to unblock the doorway and head out of her room. She silently shuffled across the walkway until she came to the doorway where the bathroom was located.
She knocked carefully, and without hearing anyone call out, she entered in as quick as she could. Unfortunately for her, the gruff looking crossbowman had been standing guard in a small but comfortable alcove, keeping watch on her room. While Brian used the restroom, he jumped down and raised his weapon so it was pointed at eyelevel for when Brian finally stepped out of the bathroom.
With a contented sigh and an empty bladder, Brian opened the doorway to exit the bathroom but was halted as she viewed the weapon pointed straight at her.
No words were spoken as Brian carefully maneuvered her way around the man, who kept his weapon steadily trained on her. She slowly walked backwards until she came to her doorway and entered the room, her eyes staring unblinking at the man's own glaring ones. The second she was safe behind the door, she barricaded it once more with the chest and flopped down on her bed.