Chapter Text
Somewhere in the state of Georgia (US), Autumn
Something is wrong.
I haven’t even opened my eyes yet, but I can feel it. And unfortunately my suspicions are proven right when I open them and I look around.
The first thing I notice is the trees. Not only are there more around me now, their leaves are orange, as if they were about to fall, which didn’t make much sense since last time I closed my eyes it was April and now it seemed to be autumn, and they looked different, since I didn’t remember seeing this kind of tree on the Russy Federation.
Has Being X transported me through time to another place? Or maybe… Did that bastard transport me to another world while in my sleep? It was a real possibility that, in his anger of losing his puppet, he decided to strip me from all I had obtained up until this point and make me start again. If that resulted to be the case I…
Let’s breathe and calm down. Now it is only that, a possibility and until I could prove it right or wrong, it’s better not to think much about its implications. It seems that my body is fully healed and I still have my knife and my pistol, which gives me some relief and puts me on high alert, since if Being X has left me with something to defend myself it must mean that there is something dangerous on this forest and he wants me to have a false sense of security to lower my guard.
I seem to still be able to use a bit of magic despite losing both of my orbs on the fight before, mainly a small scale magic detection which allows me to detect living beings in a relatively small radius (20 meters is small compared to what I’m capable with an orb) and body reinforcement (that I had to learn in my time during instruction to keep up with my fellow trainees) which gives me the physical abilities of an elite athlete of my first life. Other spells were either too dangerous, too difficult or straight up impossible to perform without a computation orb.
The sun is just coming up, and since I didn’t really have much choice, I used the magic detection spell, and after checking that there where nothing more than a couple birds on the vicinity (and more importantly, that I could actually still detect things with it) I decided to start walking west and try and find some kind of intelligent life that, with a bit of luck, wasn’t a religious fanatic and wouldn’t try to kill me.
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After approximately an hour of walking I heard some gunshots, so I started heading to where I heard it while using the detection spell and trying to make the least amount of noise possible.
It didn’t take me long to find the people who shot, they were seven and were localized on a river, two people in each extreme and three on a small pot of land in the center. Just by a look it is obvious that Being X has transported me to another world, since their clothing resembles more the style of my first life rather than the one in my second life, albeit it doesn’t seem like they wash them very often. They all seem to be armed, so the best thing I can do is to listen to what they are talking and then decide if I should present myself.
“… I still cannot believe that you only take a shitty backpack” - said one close to where I was hiding.
“Believe me, if I could change it I would, but if somebody hadn’t taken the shot and attracted all those teethers towards where we were I maybe I would have had more time to grab the meat too” - responded one of the center.
“Fuck you man, it was raining and I thought they wouldn’t hear it” - now it was one of the other extreme the one talking.
“Well tell that to Winston, I’m sure he will happily forgive you after you tell him that.”
“Shut up both of you, you are scaring away all the fishes and I’m starving, so you help me with the fishing, and the rest, keep your guard up so nothing disturbs us.” - responded the one who seemed to be the leader.
This was helpful, now I know that in this place they speak albish, so I can communicate with them, and that they were a hunting party that hadn’t had much luck until now (although I’m unaware of what kind of animal a “teether” is, probably just a local name for something like a wolf). They don’t seem dangerous, but I’ll try to appear the least threatening possible since it is never good to surprise people armed with guns. Having the body of a small girl was really helpful from time to time.
“Hello?” - I said coming out from where I was hiding.
“Oh shit, who the fuck are you” - asked the one close to me that talked before.
“I’m Tanya, could you help me please? I woke up in the forest and I don’t remember anything” - I looked at the rest of the group and now all of them were warily looking at me.
“Don’t remember nothing my ass, be careful guys she probably is with more people and they want to rob us.” - Yep, that dude was definitely their leader, but I’m a bit worried about why would he accuse me of lying so fast. And what was that about me wanting to rob them?
“Why would I rob you?”
“Shut up or I’ll shoot you now”
This definitely wasn’t going how I thought it would. At least I hope they will act like civilized people once they see there is no one with me.
We spent a couple minutes like that, with the leader aiming his gun at me and the rest aiming at the trees, like expecting someone to start shooting at them. Then the leader talked again.
“Okay, seems like she is really alone, but don’t lower your guard down yet boys, I don’t wanna get scared” -Now he was approaching me -“now tell us, girl with a funny accent, what do you want?”
“As I said before, I don’t remember anything but my name and I don’t know where I am.”
“Hey Ralph, Victor, is this the one girl that killed Winston the other day?”
“Couldn’t see her well because of the dark, but she seems to be the same height, and I don’t think there can be many little girls of the same height on the zone, right Roman?”
My mind started racing trying to process all of what was happening and thinking of how to get out of this situation. Out of all the things I expected this conversation to go getting accused of the murder of one of their friends was definitely not one of them.
“You’re right, so you see girl, I have a strict policy of not letting people who fuck with me live, and you have fucked with me so, nothing personal.”
Shit shit shit, this man wasn’t bluffing, he really looked like he was getting ready to shoot me, so with no other option I stabbed him with my knife and hid behind him while using the pistol to shoot at the two other men that were on the same river bank as me. I could hear the rest screaming at their leader to move since they couldn’t shoot at me with him in the middle, so I twisted the knife inside him to make sure he would die and took the chance and gunned down two more of them before they had the chance to start shooting at me.
“You fucking bitch! Take this!”
*BANG* *BANG*
The two left started shooting back at me, on the bright side, their bullets don’t seem able to go through the body I was using for cover, but on the other hand I was really lacking ammo since I used two bullets for each man to make sure they were dead. Luckily Mr Cover here (I think one of them called him Roman) had dropped his pistol right on my side after I stabbed him, so after firing the last couple of shots I had left and killing one of the two that was still alive, I rolled to the left were Roman’s gun was and shot the last one standing.
This is bad, not only have I been forced to kill the first people I meet, but I don’t have any info of where am I other than someplace where albish is spoken. Well that is not entirely true, the pistol that I’m holding right now is way too modern compared to the WW1 model that was obligatory for army officials back in my world, so I’m definitely in another world, or I Being X has transported me into the future.
Maybe one of the people I just shot have something that can tell me something about anything, so I suppose that I will have to search their bodies and if not, at least maybe they have more ammo or something to eat on them. I would appreciate something to eat since I haven’t eaten anything in almost a day.
…
…
…
It hasn’t been even five minutes since I started with the… “task” let’s call it, and I am already detecting three more people getting closer to the river, so I run behind a rock and get ready for what could happen.
“Hey you stop there! Uncle Pete come here!”
There goes the ambush I was planning, it seems like I wasn’t fast enough to hide but I am confident I can take the three of them if they also try to kill me.
“Nick! Jesus, Mary and Joseph” -said another voice, this one sounding more old.
“I just saw someone hiding behind that rock!”
“Clementine, get behind us, we don’t know the intentions of this person, and Nick, let me do the talking.” -said the old voice from before- “Hey you! Did you do this?”
Should I try to lie? No, seeing the reactions of the hunters before I don’t think they will believe me, also the one talking seems a bit too calm for somebody that is seeing the body of a person he knows, so I don’t think they knew each other. For now let’s just avoid the question and see the type of person I’m talking to.
“Why do you want to know? Worried I could do the same to you?”
“Well if your voice is proportional to the rest of you, I don't think you could, you sound young girl, from where are you? Germany?”
Wait, Germany? The Empire in this world was called Germany too? Did Being X seriously transported me back to the world I lived my first life in? That damn unoriginal bastard!
“Yeah, but I don’t know where am I right… now…”
What the heck? Was the body of Roman… moving? But that was not possible, I’m sure he was dead, and yet, he was getting up and then he looked at me with a look that sent shivers down my spine and started slowly walking towards me.
“Seems like they didn’t finish him properly” -I heard the old man saying.
Finish him properly? Why does he say something like that so calmly? Is he an expert on making sure people are dead or something? For now let’s finish off Roman and then I’ll decide if the old man and his companion are dangerous or not.
*BANG* *BANG*
WHAT THE FUCK? I just shot at him two times and he’s not only still standing, but he hasn’t even stopped walking!
*BANG*
He just received a shot in the neck and hasn’t even felt it!
“Seriously what kind of bullshit is this?!” -I was so frustrated with how the events have been playing ever since I woke up that I really needed to let out that scream.
*BANG*
“What kind of question is that?” -asked the old man.
Roman fell in front of me with a bullet hole in his head fired by the old man. Seemingly dead, hopefully this time for good.
In normal circumstances I wouldn’t have yelled like that, but in this case I can shield myself if I play the “innocent young girl wakes up in the middle of the forest without remembering anything and gets surprised when someone that looked to be death suddenly stood up and didn’t die even after receiving a shot in the neck” part. Sure, the title for that character may be a bit large but if the old man proves to be a more reasonable person that these hunters then it would surely pay off.
“I woke up some hours ago in the forest without remembering anything and started walking, after a while I found the river, and hid when I heard you.”
“You seem to know your way with that gun pretty well for somebody that doesn’t remember anything, anything else we should know that you remember?”
That is a very good point. It has been so much time since I interacted with anybody that didn’t carry a weapon that the fact that the average person doesn’t actually know how to use them seems alien to me. It seems that the time I've spent in the militar has had more effect to my view of the world than I thought. For now let’s just act like I haven’t heard him talking about my skill and just try and take the conversation to a more normal path.
“My name is Tanya von Degurechaff.”
“I see” -He answered.
After that I heard him mumbling for a second with the other person that had talked, and then started talking again.
“Well Tanya, why don’t you come out of that rock? Then we’ll talk face to face and I’ll answer the questions you may have.”
I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting such a surprisingly reasonable proposition, if he was as rational and civilized as he was making himself look, then I’m sure we could have a rather nice talk, so I will accept his proposal for now.
“Okay, you lower your guns and then I’ll come out.” -I answered.
“Seems good for me.”
I came out from behind the rock I was and looked at the group of people I had been talking to. It was composed of an old man that looked like a fisherman whom I think was the one talking to me, a younger man with a cap and a nervous look on his face, and a small girl that looked very tense and ready to run if things went south. The two men were armed, but they had their guns lowered like they promised.
“Come closer, don't worry, we will not hurt you.”
I started to carefully walk towards them, ready to pull out my gun and start shooting if they tried to do something, until I was in front of them.
“So, Tanya, are you alone?” -He said, looking into my eyes.
“Yes”
“And you woke up in the forest without really remembering anything? Not even about the lurkers?”
“I’m afraid not, and I would greatly appreciate it if you could inform me about what is happening.”
He looked at my face for a few seconds and then relaxed a bit, it seems like I have passed his test.
“I see, well, let’s start with the presentations, my name is Pete, this man here is my nephew Nick and that girl over here is Clementine, who will answer your questions if you don’t mind since I want to investigate what happened here and it will be the best for all of us if we finish as soon as possible.”
“Sure”
“Okay, Nick you take a look at the bodies here, I want to know if these were Carver’s men and let’s see if we can find who the hell killed them. And stop looking at me like that. You know I smell lies a mile away and would know if she lied to me.”
“Whatever” -Responded the man named Nick. After giving me a nasty look he looked at Clementine and said:
“If she tries something just scream, we’ll be right there.”
“Ok” -responded the girl named Clementine right before Nick went away.
“You two girls follow me, that way I can keep an eye on you and, if you have a question that Clementine is unable to answer you can ask me.”
We start heading towards the pot of land in the center of the river, and I start questioning with the hope to get some useful information about what the heck is happening.
“So, Clementine, I have some questions I would like to ask so let’s start with the basics, where are we and when?”
“We are in Georgia, where exactly I don’t know, and I think right now it is somewhere between November and December 2005.”
“I see, and what is a lurker?”
“It is what they call the walkers like the one that just attacked you, what do you call them?”
“The what?”
“You know… the people that die and come back to kill us. Have you also forgotten that?”
This must be a fucking joke… Have I been seriously transported to a world where zombies are real? Does Being X expect me to get infected and die or something? That asshole! I’m going to take my revenge against him!
“Are you okay?” -Clementine’s words take me back to the real world- “You don’t look very good, did one of them bite you?”
“No no I’m fine it's just… a bit too much to digest.”
“I suppose it is. If I woke up without remembering anything and hearing about all of this I would panic too.” -Clementine said with a reassuring smile.
Suddenly, her expression changed and started walking towards one of the bodies, stopping right at the side of one and grabbing a backpack.
“This is my backpack! And he is one of the people that attacked me Christa!”
Wait, were the hunters referring to Clementine when they said that a girl had killed one of their members? If so then she is much more dangerous than she looks like. Better to ask and try to discover what happened.
“They attacked you?”
“Yeah, two days ago I was with my friend Christa and they tried to rob us. We got separated while escaping them and then Pete found me yesterday.”
Well if they tried to rob her then I suppose it is justified, but now I’m worried about more things. She seemed sad when she mentioned that she separated with Christa, so I hope she isn’t between the people I just killed.
“AAAAAARG!!”
My attention turned to Pete who just screamed, and I see someone (or rather something) crawling towards him, and stopping once he shoots at it.
“PETE!” -I hear Nick screaming.
“I’m fine I’m fine… I just lost my footing! Damn it… damn it.”
“Damn it, lurkers!”
Seriously more of those things!? They are coming from the woods! At least there is no one waking up among the people I shot early so it seems like they only had one more infected with them. Nick and Pete have started shooting at them and it looks like a shot to the head is the way to go, but I don't exactly jump of happiness at the idea of wasting my already limited ammo on experiments when the alternative of running seems like a more secure option.
"Shit, I'm out of ammo!" -Screams Pete.
“Come this way!" -This time is Nick the one screaming.
"Get your asses here! The three of you!" -Answers Pete.
Damn it! Should I run away? No, I need one of them to explain to me about this world, and I don't think a child like Clementine can be of much help with that. Then to whom I should run with? Pete is on the side where I came from and most of the zombies still haven’t reached him, while Nick is on the side from where the three of them came from and is slowly getting surrounded. To be honest he decision to whom I run to is not even close.
"Clementine this way!" -I told her while I ran towards Pete.
One of the zombies grabs Pete's back and pins him on a rock, so I aim my (new) pistol and shoot at him on the head, which makes it fall dead.
After I help him get up we see that on the other shore Nick is fighting more zombies and Clementine is running towards him even though I told her to follow me. She manages to fit between the zombies and get on Nick's side, but the number of zombies makes the two of them retreat towards the forest.
"Shit! Nick!" -Says Pete.
As much as I would like to stop for a moment and reflect about what is happening, the zombies are getting too close and Pete seems to think the same, because after I point that out, he tells me to follow him and we run into the forest.