A.N: The original story 'Already Dead' is deleted and this is the reimagine of it, I deleted 'Already Dead' due to one simple reason: Bad Grammar being a misconduct. For that reason alone, I thought about moving on from posting this due to my grammar but I am allowed to use tools to fix things up. Stories with bad grammar can be deleted if reported for it and I'm just not going to correct the grammar in 'Already Dead'. So, I decided to delete it myself before someone else does. Anyway, this reimagine of 'Already Dead' has biblical supernatural elements that the original doesn't have. But it won't overtake the main story and you can skip over it if you want, I promise.
Act 1 - Light Amongst Shadows
The sky above Heaven, resplendent in its endless luminescence, rippled with a sickening distortion. The firmament, bathing since the beginning of time in the unblemished glow of eternity, shook now with the insidious crawl of a gathering darkness. The gilded citadels, untouchable for eons, cracked and groaned as the malevolent weight of Lucifer's wrath stretched across the heavens like ink seeping into the purest of waters. Standing literally in the middle of this heavenly kingdom, amidst the ruin of what once was perfection, three grave faces stared out with expressions of sorrow few could know existed among beings of their caliber. Gabriel clutched the hilt of his sword, his wings dulled as if stained by the fateful despair of Heaven. His eyes flashed to the remaining archangels; even his unyielding force was weakened by the weight of a loss he could never take back. Standing beside him, the burning armor of Michael had dulled.. the great general of Heaven looked upon the ruins with silent rage smoldering behind his gaze. Raphael, the Healer, knelt on his knees before what could only be described as an altar, now broken in sacrifice, his hand laid upon the lifeless form of their creator. And God had then poured, from His infinite love, the last of His divine essence to snuff out the heart of the rebellion. In that one blinding flash of glory and sorrow, Lucifer was defeated, but at a cost too terrible to utter. The light of the Creator had stumbled, dimmed, and then fallen back into nothingness. Heaven shook on the brink of utter collapse, bereft of its light eternal.
"We have been left forsaken." Grabriel spoke and there, within his words, the weight of millennia of service broke in his tone.
"No." Michael's voice sliced in, cold and sharp. "We have not been abandoned. We have been entrusted." His gaze never wavered from the shard-scattered altar. "The Maker, in His final moment, laid a charge upon us.. a bequest."
Gabriel's gaze fell to the sparkling shards scattered across the floor. Among the ankle-deep dust of the ether lay two tiny, shining cradles, no larger than mortal infancy needed, fragile as starlight yet humming with the gentle buzz of nascent life. Inside them, like dying embers of Heaven's fire, lay two newborn archangels. Barely visible, mere wisps of divine essence, but powerful-uncontainable in their potential. One was carrying a flicker of deep indigo, another one with a soft hue of pale gold. These were not ordinary creations. These were beings forged in the crucible of Heaven's twilight, the last hope woven by God Himself.
"Susanne…" Gabriel whispered, his hand reaching toward the cradle of the indigo flame. His heart splintered on the fragility of this newborn archangel, who was a guardian born for strength and yet, for now, little more than an infant in her raw, untrammeled form. The indigo flame danced up as if in response to Gabriel's touch, shining with an innocence that stood in pitiless contrast to the chaos around them. "And Christen," Gabriel said softly, his armored hand lying beside the gold cradle. A different light-an infant archangel-represented less combat, more… mercy. Pure, untainted love came from her very being.
"They must go," Raphael finally said, his words heavy with what must be done. "Kept from the darkness that would still follow. The world below… Earth… is the only one left behind them.
Gabriel spun around. "You mean to cast them into the human realm? Amidst that chaos?" He shook his head. "They are not ready. Their forms are not yet strong enough to endure the mortal coil."
"They will not last here, either." Raphael's voice was as a stone against truth. "Heaven is dying. Its walls are breaking. The darkness that Lucifer unleashed continues to linger, soon it will consume what is left. We must send them down, into vessels. It is then that they will grow strong enough to complete what our Father could not."
The silence fell. Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael looked at each other with eyes full of unspoken grief and determination. There was no other choice. The war in Heaven was done but the greater battle lay ahead, these two young archangels were the only hope left that remained to turn the balance of fate. In one fluid calculated movement, Michael raised his sword and drew a line through the air. The tenuous fabric of Heaven's reality ripped open, revealing another world below-a planet balanced between salvation and ruin. Earth was shrouded in shadow, its inhabitants plagued by terrors born from their own hands, little like the haven angels like himself and Jacob were used to. Yet it would be among rotting garbage and despair that these young archangels were to find their vessels.
"I have found them," Raphael whispered, his divine sight piercing the veil. "Children. Innocents. They alone will bear the weight of this light."
Gabriel, with a heavy heart, took Susanne's cradle, and Michael, in silent reverence, lifted Christen's. Together, they stepped toward the glittering portal. "Go," Michael ordered, his voice steadied by duty. "Find the ones that shall keep them. Protect them. Guide them."
-_-_-
Outside, the night was as unyielding in tone as ever, out in the ravaged outskirts of Georgia. The air was thick, the remnants of civilization crumbling into pieces from the consistent onslaught of fear and chaos. Kelly ran through the woods, a group of raiders chasing after her. Not too far from her, across the desolate landscape.. a boy named Justin was crouching in the dark and shaking. His hands were unsteady as they grasped onto a piece of wood, a poor defense against the horrors that lurked at a distance. His heart was racing, beating against his ribs while every breath he took seemed shallow.. as if the overriding fear had clutched his chest. He didn't belong here. Father had protected him all this time, now nothing stood between him and the nightmare called the great outdoors. Justin was lost, vulnerable.
Neither knew it but deep inside them stirred something ancient, something divine. In an instant, a light burst to life deep within their young, terrified, pounding hearts. Susanne found her vessel in Kelly, Christen found hers in Justin. The newborn archangels, concealed from mortal eyes clicked into their human molds and fastened themselves to the fragile lives of these two innocents. The world was shrouded in darkness, Heaven was lost. Yet within Kelly and Justin, the last hope had taken root. The embers of the celestial would, one day, burn bright enough to chase away the darkness. But for now, survival was left.
Chapter 1 - Ashes Of Sorrow
Day 1
The world around Kelly felt as if it had shrunk, the tall trees of the forest closing in on her with every weary step she took. The undergrowth whispered with a faint breeze, rustling the leaves with an almost mocking laughter in the stillness of night. Kelly wandered, her small feet dragging in the dirt heavy with the weight of absence. Her mind was a hollow echo of Gordon's steady voice and Charlie's soft touch but they were gone now, ripped away and leaving behind only a yawning chasm in her chest that she didn't know how to fill. Before her, the forest fanned out endlessly, huge and uncaring. The trees, which had been a comforting shield against the dangers of the world.. were now like sentinels of her solitude, watching her with impassive silent eyes. Kelly's hands shook with exhaustion as they clutched the frayed strap of her pack, though it felt like a useless burden. She walked aimlessly, numb, as if her legs moved her along some instinctual path her mind wasn't even aware of.
Kelly had been trained for survival but every lesson Gordon and Charlie had taught her seemed distant and unreachable, slipping through the cracks of her broken resolve. A gnarled branch snagged her arm, tearing the thin fabric of her sleeve but she barely noticed. Pain felt distant, muffled behind the thick fog of her grief. Time had lost meaning. She didn't know how long she'd been walking. Hours? Days? It didn't matter. The only sound that broke the suffocating quiet was the shallow rasp of her own breath, each exhale carrying with it a faint tremor of despair. The sun was setting, casting deepening shadows in the forest. As the cold crept in, a shiver coursed through her frail body, jolting her momentarily out of her stupor. She stopped and glanced around, her vision blurry, the thickening twilight obscuring the already unfamiliar terrain. She had to make camp, she knew that. She had to start a fire, build shelter. Simple, basic tasks. She could hear Gordon's voice in her mind, quiet and instructive leading her through the motions she had done already a thousand times. But her hands were worthless, heavy as lead. Her knees buckled, she fell onto the forest floor as if her legs could no longer carry her. The soft damp earth pressed against her palms, cool and unforgiving. She stared at the ground, her vision blurring as the tiredness pulled at her.
Kelly fumbled through her pack, fingers clumsy and numb. The flint stone slipped from her grasp, clattering against dirt. With a growl of frustration, she picked it up, heart hammering with a sudden, irrational panic. She struck the stone against her knife, the sound harsh and grating in the stillness but no spark came. Again. And again. Each strike sent a burst of energy through her arms, but nothing caught. Kelly's breath caught as her chest constricted under the weight of such big failure. If she can't even make a fire, how was she supposed to survive? How was she going to- A little quiver. One spark lit the dry tinder at her feet, tindering dimly. She stood quite still, her breath caught as though even that faint expiration might blow the fragile flame to extinction. Cautiously, she dropped her head and covered the quiver with a protecting guard, blowing upon it. The coal deepened, igniting upon twigs and dead leaves, and suddenly flinging a golden fantastic light against her pallid features.
Kelly simply stared at the flames, mesmerized by their dance. The warmth seeped into her bones, driving away the biting cold, if only for a little while. A small victory. It wasn't much, but it was something. The flame, however weak and vulnerable was hers. It was alive because of her. She sat by the fire, hugging her knees up to her chest, her little body curled tight like an injured animal. The flickering of the flames danced in her eyes but held no warmth-only existence. Her mind began drifting to Gordon and Charlie. What would they have done in this very situation? Would they have been proud that she managed to make the fire, or would they have looked upon her struggle as a failure? The thought made her chest ache. She was missing them so damn much that it had taken on a physical manifestation-a twisting knife lodged somewhere deep inside. She hadn't cried. She couldn't cry. The tears simply would not come no matter how hard she wished they would. They were just… gone. And she was alone. Alone in a world that seemed intent on destroying everything good. The crackling of the fire threw Kelly's gaze around her ring of light, beyond which the shadows now stretched and contorted fantastically. The trees loomed above, their branches grasping up to the sky as if skeletal fingers. The silence was oppressive, heavy, and every rustle of leaves or snap of a twig sent a chill of paranoia up her spine. She was alone, but she wasn't safe. They could be anywhere, she wasn't even sure if she had the strength to fight. But she couldn't give in to that fear, not yet. She needed to focus, needed to survive, even if just for another night.
Slowly and deliberately, Kelly began to pick up branches and leaves to at least give her a semblance of a shelter. Every stick weighed more than it did, every action draining. Her hands were raw, her muscles screaming in protest but she continued. She worked until she was satisfied that she had something.. a rude lean-to, little more than a few sticks and leaves but enough to block the wind and mask her from prying eyes. It was only when she sat finally beneath the shelter wrapped in the dim warmth of her fire, that the exhaustion crept up upon her in a wave. Her body throbbed, her mind frayed at the edges. Still for the first time in what felt like forever, she let herself breathe. She'd made it through another day, what a small victory it was. As her eyelids drooped and her mind wandered back to the things she had learned.. Gordon's strong hands guiding hers through the tying of knots, Charlie gentle encouragement as she snared rabbits. Those memories, once clear, were now foggy, indistinct, as if in a dream from which she'd only partially awakened. But they were there somewhere, giving her strength she didn't know she still possessed. Kelly huddled deeper, letting her eyes fall shut to curl into the warmth of her body. The fire crackled softly beside her and for the first time in what felt like days, sleep began to claim her.. not as an escape but as a respite. The world was still cruel, still unforgiving but she had survived. And maybe.. just maybe, that was enough. For now.
-_-_-
The fire had died down to hot coals, casting long, very weirdly shaped shadows on the forest floor. Kelly lay huddled under the lean-to, her small body shaking with cold, despite the residual heat. The quiet of the night had closed in about her but it was restive, not peaceful. The stillness was smothering, each minute ballooning into some sort of time-dimension distortion. Her body ached from exhaustion, yet her mind refused to quiet itself. Precarious sleep now taunted her like some kind of malevolent master, pulling her deep down into the darkest recesses of nightmares from which she could not awaken. At first, the dreams were vague, amorphous shapes that blurred in the fog of her subconscious. But soon they sharpened, crystallizing into images she had been trying to suppress. It had started with the cabin, the place she had called home now no more than a bloody memory. Gordon's deep voice, from a distance, called out to her, but it was wrong, hollow, warped by something darker. The dream of the cabin door creaked open, swinging hard against its frame, and the world inside was red. Red with violence. Red with loss. She could see them-Gordon and Charlie-fragmented faces that twisted in their fear and pain. Raiders came so fast, tearing through the thin veneer of peace they had. Her dreams returned to it again and again.. that terrible moment when Gordon had stood in the doorway, defending them, his strong figure suddenly fragile as the bullets flew. Charlie's scream was piercing, desperate, and rang in her ears.. a sound that would not end even when Kelly clamped her hands over her ears. In her dreams, Kelly was paralyzed with fear. Her little hands grasped the same knife she now held, she felt utterly useless. She wanted to move, wanted to help but her body refused to listen. She watched in horror as the raiders came like a storm, tearing apart everything that was dear to her heart. And each time she blinked, it reset, and she was doomed to watch it unfold anew-the never-ending cycle of agony and powerlessness. And in an instant, the cabin was gone, consumed by darkness that crept forward like smoke. Her dream shifted.. the once familiar forest was now an endless maze of trees, reaching out with taloned hands to snare her. Shadows danced between the trunks in grotesque forms.. twisted figures stalking her, yet always just out of sight. She ran, her heart pounding, but no matter how fast she moved, the shadows closed in. They whispered now, venom, taunting her with her failures. With Gordon. With Charlie. With her parents. Her parents-their faces flashed across her mind, distorted and broken by the passage of time. She could hardly remember the sound of their voices, the feel of their touch and the absence of those things gnawed at her like a festering wound. Her dream twisted further yet, flashing her fractured memories of the day she lost them-an accident? The betrayal? She couldn't be so sure. It all became a blurred, indistinct tangle of grieving that refused to settle. All she knew was that once more, she had been left behind. It twisted, once more, into a forest of trees warping into jagged, skeletal forms, and the shadows took on forms she knew-what passed for faces beneath masks of cruelty, their laughter cruel and taunting. She seemed to hear the echoes of footsteps, heavy, deliberate, as if drawing closer, hunting her. Kelly's breathing quickened in her dream, fear overtaking her, the inability to move or even think. Suddenly, one of the figures broke from the shadows. A faceless man, yet oh so familiar in his cruelty reached out with a hand stained in blood, Gordon's blood. Kelly jerked back as her chest tightened in dread, she was helpless to resist. The man grasped her wrist, cold and unyielding pulling her forward as she kicked and screamed but no sound could rise from her throat. Her eyes snapped open.
Kelly sat bolt upright, her breathing in ragged gasps with her heart pounding so hard it might burst from her chest. The darkness of the forest surrounded her, the fire now barely more than faintly glowing embers. For a moment, the line between dream and reality blurred. Yet, the shadows still seemed to move.. the whisper of the trees morphed into sinister voices. She could still feel the raider's hand on her wrist, cold and relentless.
A twig snapped in the distance.
Kelly's breath caught in her throat, her gaze darted in the trees surrounding her while her pulse thudded painfully in her ears. Was it real this time? Were they coming for her? Every rustle, every shift of wind sent her heart overdrive, screaming in her head to run, to hide. Her fingers curled around the handle of her knife, though shaky. Another sound this time closer. A rustling in the underbrush, slight but definite. Kelly scrambled to her feet. Her legs were unsteady under her, her heart racing up into her chest like a trapped animal trying desperately to be free. The fire was out, and in its place was a dim, suffocating darkness. She couldn't see the origin of the sound, but she could feel it.. Someone was close.
Kelly hunched low and leaned her back against the rough bark of a tree, her breathing shallow as she strained to listen. Her fingers tightened around the knife, the knuckles white. She didn't know if she could fight.. if she was strong enough. The terror from her dreams still clung to her, thick and suffocating.. making it hard to think clearly. Closing her eyes and pressing herself harder against the tree, she willed herself to disappear. The shaking of her body, with fear and exhaustion mixed inside, her mind still fractured from the nightmares. She didn't know how much more she could take. The minutes ticked by, each passing more painfully than the one before. Every sound was a threat, every shift in the wind a harbinger of danger. No one came. The rustling stopped and the forest went back to that eerie stillness.
Day 2
Slowly, Kelly opened her eyes.. her body was tense, every muscle coiled and ready to flee. The fire had died almost completely, casting faint shadows that flickered and wavered in the dark. She didn't trust the quiet. The forest had a way of hiding things, of making you believe you were safe when you weren't. Her body was tired but sleep was impossible now.. her mind was too raw, too vulnerable to slip back into unconsciousness. The nightmares still hovered at the edges of her consciousness, waiting to drag her back into that horrible place. She couldn't stay here, not for another night. The security of the fire had all been an illusion, she knew now she'd never be able to rest. Not while memories of the cabin-and the raiders-lingered on. Kelly grasped her knife tightly and leveraged herself to her feet. Her legs trembled beneath her, weak from fear and fatigue but she made herself move. She just had to keep on, dhe couldn't let the nightmares catch her. As she moved deeper into the forest, the embers of her fire finally died out leaving behind nothing but ash.
-_-_-
Before her lay an endless, stifling sea of tangles and undergrowth, and each step Kelly took felt heavier than the last. Her legs burned with every movement, her mind was in a whirlwind of exhaustion and fear. It was still early morning.. the sun had hardly managed to break through the thick canopy above them, so that the world was in gray hues, making everything ghostly and unreal. Her breathing was shallow, her heart still thudding from the restless night she'd endured. The faint rustling of leaves beneath her feet was the only sound in the stillness. Every rustle in the distance made her tense, her hand never far from the knife strapped to her belt. Gordon had always told her to stay vigilant, to never let her guard down-not even for a moment. But Gordon wasn't here anymore, that truth gnawed at her like a festering wound.
Kelly pressed on, her steps faltering as the weight of her body pulled her down. Her skin sensed the coolness of the air against her skin and spoke of how fragile she was to this world, which could not care less if she lived or died. The forest might have been beautiful once but it was just another maze of threats, a place where death waited around every corner. Her fingers constricted on the handle of her knife, its familiarity an anchor to the spiral of chaotic thoughts.
A faint sound caught Kelly's ear.. a low dragging noise, all but imperceptible at first. Her body froze, her breath catching in her throat. She turned her head slowly, scanning the shadows between trees, underbrush shifting ever so slightly. A walker lurched through the trees. Its skin was taut and gray, peeling in places where rot had taken hold, its mouth gaping open in a permanent grimace. It moved with a grotesque slowness, dragging one foot behind the other, but its eyes.. clouded and milky were locked on her, drawn by the faint sound of her breath, the scent of living flesh. A juddering step closer, the walker vibrated a guttural growl in the air. Kelly's knife slickened further in her sweating grasp, she deliberately drew her mind back to what Gordon had taught her.. don't waste your energy, aim for the head, get it quick.
The fingers on his hand were gnarled and cracked, hungry. Kelly took a step back, her stomach churning but there was nowhere to run. It was as if the forest was simply closing in around her-the trees too thick, the ground too uneven. The walker moved closer and closer, groaning as his weight overbalanced him forward with his jaw working mindlessly. Kelly shifted, her breath shaking at the memory of innumerable drills by Gordon on what to do in case of a walker. She squared her shoulders, her gaze locking onto its head. Her pulse pounded in her ears and for an instant, the world shrank to just her and this shambling corpse in front of her. She plunged, driving the knife home into the walker's skull with a sickening crunch. Its body jerked once, a final spasm of life before collapsing into a heap at her feet. Kelly pulled the blade free, the weight of the act hit her all at once. The lifeless body of the walker crumpled into the ground, the reality of what she just did was heavier than the corpse of the miserable thing itself. The forest seemed to spin around her, trees blurring into each other. She killed it. She had done what she was supposed to, what Gordon taught her but the victory felt hollow. There was no one to tell her she had done a good job. No one to tell her that she was strong, capable. It was just her. Alone. Kelly knelt beside the body of the walker, knife still clutched in her shaking hand and dripping blackened blood. She stared at the ground. Her breath came in short ragged gasps, her limbs trembling. It had been a quick kill but it had taken what little strength she still had. She wiped the blade on her pant leg but the stain of death clung cold and sticky to her fingers. But it was the weight of her isolation that leaned on her harder than the exhaustion in her bones. It was what her life had become.. one eternal fight for survival with nobody to rely on, nobody to catch when things got too hard. It wasn't just the walkers that terrified her; it was the lonely, sheer loneliness of it all. To realize that each day was going to be like that, every moment a fight until God knew when. One tear escaped and rolled down her cheek, unnoticed at first until she felt the cold trail it left behind. Kelly hastily wiped it away, her throat constricting as she made herself stand. She couldn't afford to cry, not now. Not ever. No good would come from grieving the irrevocable. And no good would come from longing for the reassurance of a past that was lost to her forever.
-_-_-
The shed appeared as a silhouette between the trees, its weathered frame leaning slightly to one side, as though even the forest had grown tired of supporting its weight. Kelly's footsteps slowed as she approached, her gaze narrowing in suspicion. She hadn't seen a structure in what felt like days, not since the cabin where everything fell apart. Her heart quickened, not with relief but caution. She knew better than to trust anything that looked too good. The shed was old, that much one could tell. Its wooden walls were weathered and splintered, the roof sagging where years of rot had eaten away at the beams. The windows-if they had ever been intact-were now dark, their glass shattered or missing altogether leaving jagged shards that seemed to threaten slicing any intruder. The door hung askew, one hinge rusted nearly through.
Kelly stood a few feet away, her hand instinctively on the knife at her belt. She narrowed her gaze at the structure, scanning around for any sign of movement. The quiet that enveloped her was unnerving, as if even the forest held its breath to see what she would do. It could be a trap. Raiders could have left it as bait, something to draw desperate people in. Worse there could be walkers inside, just waiting for her to get close enough for them to grab. She glanced over her shoulder once and moved closer to it, each step cautious, her body coiled and ready to bolt if something didn't feel right. The creaking door as she nudged it opened with her boot was loud in the stillness of the woods. She froze, listening. But nothing was there.. no growling, no footsteps, no scratching in the bushes. Nothing except soft moaning of the wind slipping between the leaves.
Inside, the space was even smaller than she had envisioned.. one room, cluttered with leftovers from a life long forsaken. On the walls, old implements hung, rusted beyond use, their handles cracked and splintered. A table leaned against the far wall, one leg missing, its surface etched with dust and cobwebs. Shelves sagged under the weight of rotting wood and in the corner, a pile of crumpled blankets lay in a heap, filthy and stained.
Kelly swallowed hard, her eyes darting from one shadow to the next. It was clear no one had been here in a long time... Still, the silence didn't reassure her. She couldn't afford to feel safe. Not yet. She went to the window and peered through the jagged panes. The forest was quiet, its trees swaying nimbly in the breeze. Her muscles ached with exhaustion, yet she made herself stay alert. Her eyes scoured the treeline for movement. After a moment, she exhaled. Her shoulders sagged just slightly. For now, at least, it seemed she was alone.
Kelly turned back to the room, her fingers trailing over the dusty tools. They were useless now, but there was a certain comfort in their presence-a reminder of a time when people built things, fixed things. She pressed her lips into a thin line and walked to the door, nudging it closed with a soft click. The shed offered little protection-its walls were thin, the windows left gaping holes that would do little to keep out walkers or the cold. She ran her fingers along the broken doorframe, testing its strength. It wouldn't hold for long if something tried to force its way in. She jammed an old chair under the handle of the door to secure it as well as she could. Next she went to the windows, cramming old rags and garbage in the crevices to seal out as much of the outside world as possible.
When Kelly had done all she could, she sat in the corner, back against the wall with her knife in her lap. She stared at the door, watching as faint light filtered through from the outside. The silence settled again over her, thick and heavy. Her body sagged down, exhaustion seeping into her bones.. however, her mind refused to let her rest. Not fully. She could still feel the tension, the constant hum of anxiety buzzing beneath her skin. Even here in this fragile shelter, she couldn't rid herself of the feeling that danger was lurking just beyond the door. Every creak of the old wood, every sigh of wind outside, made her flinch, her heart pounding as if the threat were already upon her. Kelly's fingers were curled tightly around the knife handle, her knuckles white. She had survived this long because she'd learned not to let her guard down. She knew too well how quickly everything could fall apart, how easily safety could be ripped away and leave only pain and loss in its wake. She'd seen it with Gordon and Charlie. She'd lived it.
Kelly looked across the room at the blankets lying there in a foul heap. They might make her quite comfortable, but the mere idea of sleeping and surrendering to her fatigue caused her stomach to twist with anxiety. She had no right to sleep, not when the world outside was so hostile. She could still feel the residual stains of the walker she had killed that morning, its decaying face was burnt into her mind. She had won that fight, what if there had been several? What if next time, she wasn't fast enough, strong enough? Her chest constricted, her breathing turned shallow. She couldn't think about this way.. she had to remain tough, keep going, and keep fighting. But the weight of all that, at being alone and having no one was overwhelming her. It pressed upon her with a force that seemed to buckle her piece by piece. Kelly closed her eyes, hating the way she held the knife so tight. She forced herself to breathe, to focus.
-_-_-
Day 3:
The chill morning air nipped at Kelly's skin, she stepped warily out of the shed, her breath coming in slow, purposeful puffs that joined with the mist rising off the forest floor. The shed had been a fragile refuge, but it would not provide her with food. And without that food, she would not survive very long. The woods around her were both familiar and alien, some endless maze of trees whose branches twisted overhead like skeletal hands reaching for the sky. Birds called somewhere in the distance, their cries sharp and fleeting. Her stomach growled, an unmistakable reminder of why she was out here. She moved through the underbrush, crouching low, her eyes scanning the ground for any signs of food.. berries, edible plants, anything that might stave off the hunger gnawing at her. The act of foraging once had been a lesson, taught by Gordon with patient hands and a soft voice. But now it felt like an act of desperate survival-one small misstep away from failure.
As she picked her way through the woods, something caught her eye-a faint trail of disturbed leaves, too deliberate to be of any animal. Kelly froze, her breath catching in her throat. She crouched lower, studying the ground more carefully. Footprints. Human. The prints were fresh; the soil was still dark and soft where it had been disturbed. She followed them, her knife at the ready. Each step was calculated as her mind whirled with the possibilities.. Could it be someone just passing through? Or worse.. could it be them? The memories of the attack on the cabin cascaded into her mind, uninvited. The raiders, the chaos, the screams, the blood. She took a step forward, her hands shaking a little as she did so.
The trees thickened ahead, forming some sort of natural barrier. As Kelly pushed through dense undergrowth, she came upon the remnants of what had once been a campfire.. blackened logs, charred ashes, and the faint scent of smoke still clinging to the air. It was recent. Far too recent. She dropped into a crouch, her eyes darting around the clearing. The voices reached her before she saw them-faint, distinct, carried along on the wind like a ghostly whisper. Kelly's blood ran cold and she moved quickly behind a large tree, pressing her back against the rough bark. She strained to listen, her heart thudding in her ears.
"I told you, we will find him. You must remain calm," a voice - coarse and commanding, with a tint of authority - grated on her nerves.
Kelly's heart stopped, the voice. She knew it, she heard it. It was the leader of the raiders who destroyed everything she had left. The face of cold eyes and scarred features which haunted her nightmares ever since the attack. Her breath caught in her throat, terror threatened to overpower her. A second voice sliced through the air, desperate and raw. "He's out there, Briggs. I know he's out there! You promised to help me find him!"
Kelly peered around the tree, far enough to see the figures standing in the clearing beyond. Three of them in all, their tattered clothes bleeding into the forest with the features of their faces cloaked by the hoods pulled over their heads. One was pacing, frantic, while the others stood more calmly, watching him with a mixture of impatience and irritation. Briggs was the calmest of them, his stance wide and commanding.. his arms crossed over his broad chest. He was the same as she remembered when he first burst into the cabin.. cold, calculating, his presence seeming to suck the warmth from the air around him. He watched the pacing man with a practiced indifference, but something sharp glittered within his gaze and Kelly felt a twist of unease in his stomach.
This man different than the rest, paced back and forth. Cleaner, put together more, as though he didn't quite fit into the group. His face was drawn, his eyes wild with desperation. "I just can't stay here. I have to continue looking. If in the near future we don't find him-"
"We'll find him," Briggs said, his voice steady but with a warning inside. "But you do need to stay with the group. Running off on your own won't help anyone."
The man stopped pacing, clenching his hands into fists. "I'll do whatever it takes to find my son. I don't care about your rules.
Briggs stepped closer to him. "You will care about my rules if you wish to survive out here. Now, pipe down or we'll leave you behind.
Kelly forced herself closer to the tree until her heart thudded in her ears. The realization settled over her like a dark cloud-these were the people who had attacked her cabin, taken everything from her. Now they were here searching the same woods, still a threat, still hunting. Her hands were shaking, her fingers closing tighter on the knife.. the urge to run warring with the knowledge that moving too quickly could give her away. She could hear the desperation in the man's voice, the pleas for his son cutting through the stillness like a blade. And Briggs, with his cold, methodical tone, trying to control him, to bend him to the group's will. Kelly needed to get out. Now. Before they discovered her, before they realized she was here.
Kelly swallowed hard, forcing herself to move slowly away with her movements deliberate and slow.. careful not to make a sound. The voices had faded as she put space between herself and the camp but the fear still clung to her, wrapping itself around her chest like a vice.
-_-_-
The trees swallowed Kelly whole in their vastness as she sprinted, branches whipping across her legs, the damp earth beneath her feet trying to drag her down. Every nerve was alight in her body, strung with fear; her breath came in ragged bursts. She didn't know how long she had run but she knew she couldn't stop. Raiders.. the thought of them hunting her, finding her-fueled her frantic pace. But finally, her legs buckled. Plopping back against the trunk of a very old oak, Kelly's chest heaved. Her body screamed in protest, it wasn't just physical. The real weight that crushed her came from deeper-in a place no amount of running could escape. The grief now was a constant presence, a shadow draped over each of her moves. Gordon and Charlie.. gone. Mom and Dad.. Gone. And now the world itself seemed as hostile as the raiders who had taken everything from her. She pressed her back to the rough bark of the tree, the coolness of the ground beneath her a temporary relief. The woods were quiet here, yet the silence was not the sort that would bring tranquility. It was the silence of a world in wait for the next tragedy to strike, a world which had already taken so much away from her.
Kelly's hand instinctively went to the knife at her side. She grasped the handle tightly, her fingers quivering as she raised it into view. A sliver of light reflected off the blade, momentarily gleaming to reflect the grey, overcast sky. She stared blankly at it, her gaze unfocused, her thoughts spiraling. What was the point anymore? She had run so long, fighting to stay alive, to find some sliver of hope in a world so determined to break her at every turn. But now she was alone. Truly alone. There was no one left to fight for. Her hand tightened on the knife as the bitter thought clawed its way into her mind. What if this was it? What if she just stopped? No more pain. No more fear. No more running. She could get away from it all. It settled there, took root, and the weight of it grew with each second. She could almost feel what it would be like.. the sharpness of the blade, the warmth of her own blood, the release. No more fighting, no more suffering. It would all be over. The knife was shaking in her hand, its cold edge hovered just over her skin. She closed her eyes and immediately as it had been threatening to do for days, the dam broke and she began to cry. Her breath caught as she drew the blade nearer, its weight pulling her deeper into the dark.
"Don't give up." A voice came, not loud, not hectoring, but soft, like a breeze carrying a whispered rumor. And it wasn't a foreign voice, not some great booming call of some deity but a voice that sounded uncannily like her own. They were soft, almost delicate, words, but they cut through the noise in her brain like a blade. Kelly's eyes snapped open, her hold on the knife faltered. She froze for a moment as her mind whipped over with confusion. Had she imagined this? Was she finally going crazy? "You're not alone, Kelly. You're stronger than this. The knife fell, with her heart racing in her chest.. her hands shook uncontrollably. The voice wasn't just in her head, it felt real. Still at the same time, it sounded like her voice. That little piece of her still clinging in desperation, not wanting to give in to terrors of the world. The part of her that still wanted to survive. "There's still hope." The words felt like a lifeline, something for her to hold onto as the weight of her despair threatened to pull her under. "You can do this. You've made it this far." Tears streamed down her face, but they were not the tears of defeat. They were the tears of release from all that fear, pain, and grief that had drowned her such a long time. And then in the middle of it all, there would be a flicker-a small, fragile but unmistakable-one, a spark of hope.
Kelly's breathing steadied and slowly she lowered the knife, loosening her grip on the handle. The strong compulsion to end it all started to ebb, replaced by something else.. quieter yet a lot stronger. The voice whether it belonged to her or was something else entirely had given her the strength to carry on-to push through the darkness. She wiped at her tears with the back of her hand, her chest still aching with the weight of her emotions but the knife now lay beside her on the ground. She wasn't ready to give up. Not yet. Maybe not ever. The woods surrounding her were a little less menacing now, the weight of her hopelessness a little lighter. The danger was still there.. the raiders, the walkers, the constant struggle to survive but something in her had shifted. The voice though it had sounded like her, carried with it a sense of comfort that she hadn't felt in a very long time.
Kelly didn't know if it was something buried deep within her or something more, but it had saved her. For now. She drew a deep breath, wiping the last of her tears away and picked up the knife this time with a firmer grasp. The blade was no longer a tool of escape but one of survival. She wasn't done fighting. Not yet. Shr stood, her legs still shaky with the wind rustled in the trees-the faint rustling of leaves now almost comforting. Kelly looked around half expecting to see someone but once again, it was just empty forest. The voice was gone, its presence lingering in her mind now. She would keep moving. She would keep fighting. Because despite all, a part of her had still believed in survival. In hope. And that part of her wasn't ready to die. Not today.