Chapter Text
I saw her running at high speed past the trees. Her wails and sobs told me she was in a state of fear. It was obvious she was running from something, but what exactly? I turned my head towards the direction she had come from and it didn't take long before I spotted them.
One,- two...
Two of them were following her.
Shit, shit, shit.
They weren't too far behind and although she was running pretty fast, she would soon grow tired, but they wouldn't. They never did.
Despite the fact they weren't running, they would not lose her scent any time soon. Eventually they would catch up on her.
I had to do something. Staying up here while that little girl was crying and running from those creatures, would be inhuman and cruel of me. But I also knew what was on the other side, more specifically, into the direction she was running towards.
More of them.
I knew my limits. An entire group as large as the one up ahead was even something I couldn't handle. That little girl wouldn't stand a chance.
I held my breath as I saw the girl trip and hit the ground. She yelled loudly and glanced over her shoulder to see if those undead things had gained up on her yet.
If I went after her now, the chances of escaping were slim, but a chance nonetheless. A struggle between my mind and heart broke out and annoyingly enough it was my heart that won.
As of right now there were only these two. If I played my cards right, I could take care of them without alerting the group up ahead. I turned around, left my backpack between the branches and started to descend from the tree.
My feet touched the ground softly. I had no intention of alarming the two following her just yet. Their focus was on her, giving me a solid opportunity to take them out. But when I looked at the spot where the girl had fallen I saw nothing.
She was gone.
A short scream sounded but went silent almost immediately. I spun round and luckily enough spotted her once again, only she was no longer alone.
A man, who I had not noticed earlier, lifted her up in his arms and started to run away.
Where had he come from?
I quickly scanned for the undead, still hearing them clearly, before following the guy and the young girl.
Even though she was no longer alone, they were now both going into the wrong direction. They had only to cross the stream further down and they would butt heads right with that other group of undead beings.
I suddenly stopped and turned back to the tree I'd been hiding in. If something were to go wrong, I wouldn't have time to head back and fetch my belongings.
I quickly reached for my pack, flung it over my shoulder and hurried back into the direction of those two.
It didn't take long for me to reach the stream. But when I got there, there was no sign of either of them. Had I missed them already? Or had they gone into another direction without me noticing?
Then, from my left, I could hear the splashing of water. They were moving down the creek.
"Shit." I muttered as I ran a hand through my hair, there was nothing I could do now.
The man and little girl were heading straight into a death trap. But that's how it went nowadays. Each day was a day of survival and in order to survive you sometimes had to make a choice which would decide your own fate.
Cursing under my breath, I began making my way down the bank. Every now and then I threw a quick glance behind me to seew if those two undead were still around. Once I reached the bridge up ahead I stopped.
Still no sign of either the man or the girl. Everything was quiet.
This was it. There was nothing more for me to do. I wasn't going to tempt fate by risking my own life any longer for the sake of those two people.
I turned on my heel when a noise from beliw caught my attention.
It was soft, but there was definitely something there. Sobs. Clearly recognisable even with the sound of the stream. I peered over the edge of the bridge and saw a head of dark blond hair. The girl from earlier.
She looked up and her widened deep brown eyes stared at me.
Why was she still here? I quickly jerked my head up to look around. Where was the guy? Was this a trap? Or had he left her here all by herself? That would make no sense...Why would he,- No, it didn't matter, I had to get her out of here.
I looked back again and raised my index finger to my lips, signalling for her to keep quiet. She had to keep still, any noise and those undead would surely come this way.
I climbed down into the wanter and extended my hand out to her. But the girl looked to the left before shaking her head at me.
Damn it.
I crouched down this time and once more reached for her with my hand.
"If you don't come with me, more will show up. So either you stay and die, or you can come with me and live."
I said trying to sound as nicely as I could.
Her bottom lip started to quiver.
Oh no…please don't cry.
"Please." I tried again, even adding a small smile in the process. "This is not a safe place, little girl."
Somehow it worked. She walked forward and grabbed hold of my hand, with one big pull I yanked her out from beneath the branches. She was breathing heavily and started to shake.
"What is your name?" I asked her, I had to figure out a way to prevent her from having some sort of break down. It wasn't winter time, sure the water was chilly, but she couldn't be freezing yet.
"S-S-Sophia,-" The little girl said. "Sophia P-Peletier."
In her arms she was holding a small doll, nothing that could protect her.
"Sophia, my name is Madison and I need you to listen to me." I grabbed hold of her hand and looked into her eyes. "We need to get to safety, alright? Do not make a sound until I say we are safe."
For a moment it looked like she wanted to protest or pull away, but luckily she didn't.
"Good girl, come on." I squeezed her hand tightly and made my way back with her to where I'd first spotted her.
"Do you have a weapon?" Sophia whispered as soft as she could as I crouched to the ground.
Removing my backpack, I reached for the flap and pulled a long black metal object out of it. I glanced over my shoulder and held the crowbar up for her to see. She nodded.
"Come on. Let's get out of here before it turns dark." I was about to grab hold of her hand but she stepped back.
"Rick told me to go back to the road." She replied.
Rick? Was that the man she was with earlier? He told her to go back to the road on her own? Did she mean the highway? That was a dangerous place to go to. Lots of undead roamed around there.
"Sophia," I lowered myself to the ground and looked at her. "You can't go back to the road now. Those things that came after you, they most likely came from there. They're still nearby, they could be blocking the way back too."
"B-but my mum,-" Her bottom lip started to tremble again.
Heaven help me, why did I go after her?
I sighed deeply. "Sophia, tomorrow we,-" With one big push I shoved Sophia aside and stood up.
I raised my crowbar and swung it with full force against the head of the walking corpse in front of me. Sophia screamed as the undead creature hit the ground right before her feet.
The highway was definitely not an option and it didn't matter to me what Sophia wanted to do. Right now we had to get the hell out of here before more would show up. I quickly grabbed Sophia's arm and pulled her with me. She did not resist this time.
::::::...::::::
"How come we didn't stop at that tent back there?" Sophia asked as we walked out of the woods.
We passed a small camping site a few minutes ago. I hadn't given it a second glance, but the little girl wanted to stop and rest. Without saying anything I had pulled her along with me.
"Because I have been there before and there is nothing to find." I replied shortly.
That wasn't a hundred percent true. I had found some things inside the tent, but nothing I would tell that little girl about. The current world was already traumatizing enough as it was.
It seemed like she didn't care that much in the first place for she quickly changed her focus on something else. Something tall and white, she extended her arm into the distance.
"Look over there." Sophia pointed. "A church."
The church. We weren't too far away from one of the houses I was planning on hiding in for the night with Sophia, but I needed to check on the church for undead first. It had been a while since there had been one in there. Probably a week since I whacked the last one to the ground, but that only meant it would only be a matter of time until a new corpse would decide to show up.
"We have to be extra quiet." I whispered to her. "There may be some of them inside." Sophia nodded.
The first time I'd gone into that church, there had been no one there, at first. It was completely deserted. But then the church bells had gone off and scared the living daylights out of me.
Luckily I quickly discovered the source of them. It was an automated bell toll, hanging outside on the side of the building. After I had managed to shut the damn thing off, I had to fight three undead off my back.
It hadn't taken long for me to figure out that these things were attracted to sounds and the louder those were, the better it worked attractingthem. The timer on the bells gave me an advantage when I needed to head out to find supplies or scan the neighbourhood, so I changed the time setting on the church bells to my own liking.
Sophia and I stopped at the side of the church. I dropped my backpack on the grass and opened up the box containing the timer of the bell toll. I turned one of the knobs, then pressed a button, something I was certain I had done before, but then I don't know what went wrong. I must have pressed something because suddenly the audio blasted through the speaker echoing over the entire area.
"Shit!" I cursed, hitting the button again and the bells stopped.
Damn it. Now we had to be extra careful, every undead in the area would join the party.
"Won't the noise attract the Walkers?" Sophia said to me.
"Walkers? What are Walkers?" I looked at her as I grabbed the backpack again.
"That's what we call them. We call them Walkers." She explained.
"Oh. Walkers, huh?" I frowned.
Walkers. That sounded less gruesome than undead.
I looked at Sophia, clutching that raggedy looking doll close to her chest. She looked so innocent, with her short blond hair, dark brown eyes and her rainbow t-shirt.
"We'd better get going before those,- Walkers show up." I hoisted the backpack onto my back and took hold of Sophia's hand.
"Any moment now these church bells will go off again, luring some of those Walkers towards the church. That will provide us with a clear path to reach one of the abandoned houses in the woods safely."
"What about the road? Aren't we moving too far away from it?" I felt a tug on my arm, Sophia had stopped.
She wanted to go back to the road more than anything and even though I fully understood her, I couldn't risk my life giving our current situation. The best thing to do was to wait till morning and then get to the road.
"We're not, I'll make sure we won't go too far. I will get you back to your mother, Sophia." I smiled at her. "I promise."
The bells chimed, we had waited too long. If we wanted to reach the house safe and sound then we'd had to go now.
"Come on, no more dawdling." I told her firmly.
::::::...::::::
I told Sophia to wait outside but the girl was too scared to be on her own at the moment. I should have realized that before making the suggestion at all. She had been chased by undead after all and then was left alone by one of her own people.
Nonetheless, it was very difficult keeping an eye on my surroundings and on her at the same time. This was exactly why I travelled alone. I couldn't handle the responsibility of having to take care of another person. But I had made the decision of going after her and now I was stuck with it.
The abandoned home which stood in front of us was huge, it wasn't a farm like most of the houses in the area, but still almost the size of one. I tossed the flashlight to Sophia.
"I need you to light the area in front of me when we scout some of the rooms. Can you do that?"
Sophia clicked the flashlight and nodded.
We checked the kitchen first. There were candles on the dining table. Most of them already used, you could tell by the multiple coloured layers of wax upon the surface.
"Madison, I think someone's been here." Sophia whispered, which was very observant of her.
"That would have been me." I replied as I placed my backpack on a chair. Sophia frowned at me. "But if you have been here before, how come we are,-"
She stopped talking and looked up at the ceiling. The sound of someone or something moving about came from upstairs.
"That is why." I said keeping my gaze on the ceiling. "I'm going to need your help."
I opened my backpack and took out one of the knives I carried in there. I handed it to Sophia, but the little girl shook her head at the sight of the knife.
"Sophia, I'm sorry, but if we want to spend the night here, then I'm going to need your help." I moved my hand and she stepped back.
I sighed. "Or would you rather have me lock up you in the pantry?"
She pulled a face and reluctantly took the knife from me. We headed up the stairs, Sophia tightly held on to my jacket as we made our way into the corridor. An orange light shone brightly through the window at the end of the hallway, the sun was setting. We halted in front of one of the doors. It had gone quiet.
"Do you think it's in there?" Sophia whispered. A loud bang sounded from the other side of the door, causing me and Sophia to jump.
"Stand back." I grabbed the handle and turned it, but nothing happened. I turned it again and still it did not budge.
I rubbed the back of my neck and stared at the door with confusion. "It's locked."
How had that happened?
"What do we do now?" Sophia asked. "Are you going to kill it?"
I had no idea how it could have gotten itself locked up in there. Judging by the hinges, the door opened up towards the inside, not into the corridor. Had something heavy fallen against the other side? In any case, we couldn't get in, which meant it couldn't get out.
"We're going to leave it."
"Leave it?!"
Another loud bang came from behind the door, followed by a gurgling noise.
"If we can't get in there, then it can't get out. We can block part of the corridor with furniture in case it does manage to find a way out of the room." I suggested though I strongly doubted it could manage to accomplish that.
Sophia didn't seem to like the idea. I was actually starting to think she wanted me to kill the Walker.
She never said a thing though, so we started to check the other rooms. They were all clear, meaning it was just the one undead. I knew that eventually I would kill it, but for now I was going to leave it where it was. Before we headed downstairs I decided to move the cabinets, which stood in the corridor, towards the room where the Walker was.
"Sophia. Watch my back, alright?" I asked her while placing my crowbar against the wall. I took a deep breath and with great effort pushed one of the cabinets towards the door, where Sophia stood guard. It was a rather heavy thing, so I stopped. "It's heavier than I thought, can you help me?"
Instead of saying yes, or no, Sophia screamed loudly.
I turned around staring directly into the face at one of those Walkers. A female Walker, missing half of her bottom jaw and teeth. Her brownish red tongue flopped around like a tired dog gasping for air. She launched forward at a speed I hadn't seen before in one of them. I raised my arms and caught her before we both toppled over.
"Sophia! Knife, give me the knife!" I yelled trying not to breathe in the horrible smell coming from the dead, yet very much moving, corpse on top of me. I tried pushing her off, but she was too close to my face.
"Sophia!" I shouted again.
Something wet hit my face and the body went limp. I quickly shoved the Walker off of me and stared at it with disbelieve. The knife I had given Sophia was stuck in the creature's left eye, what was left of it. It must have hit her brain somehow.
I turned my head to look at Sophia and saw that she was still standing in the same spot. She had thrown the knife, actually thrown the knife! What if she had missed and hit the wall or me instead, I could have been bitten or killed. But the little girl had very well just saved my life.
I crawled back onto my feet and stumbled towards her.
"Are you alright?" I asked her with concern. All of the blood seemed to have drained from her face. "Sophia?"
She didn't reply but simply stared at the Walker she had managed to kill with a single toss. I pulled her into a hug. "Thank you. Thank you, Sophia." Then I felt her small arms crawl over my back and she returned the hug.
"Come on, let's go down and have some dinner before we go to bed."
::::::......::::::
The next morning we were sitting outside in the tall grass, taking our time before we would head out towards the road to look for Sophia's mother.
"Maddy?" Sophia yelled a few feet away from me.
"What?" I replied, leaning on my elbows to look at her.
She was standing next to a bush with a few white flowers. She plucked one and walked back to me.
"Look at this, isn't it pretty?" She handed me the little white thing. It was rather odd to see something this beautiful still being able to bloom during these times.
"Do you know what it's called?" Sophia asked.
"I have no idea," I shrugged. "It kind of looks like a rose." I returned the flower to her and she continued back to what she had been doing since the crack of dawn, throwing knives.
Ever since she had saved me from the Walker last night, I figured it would be best to have her practise with a weapon, should she need to defend herself or perhaps save my life again. Last night could have been sheer dumb luck, but it was the best shot I had ever seen.
This morning Sophia proved that she had some form skill when it came to knife throwing. The first few throws were shit, but soon she figured out a way, and after that almost every single toss she had done was a direct hit at the target. If I didn't know any better, I'd even say she was rather enjoying it.
Even this morning when Sophia woken up she had been quite chirpy. It annoyed me to bits. We had opened a can of anchovies for breakfast, which was just as disgusting as it sounds but we had to eat something. It was rather weird the way she had gone from having a breakdown to this happy-go-lucky child in a span of twenty-four hours.
Though last night had shaken her up pretty badly, she had still fallen asleep rather quickly. We had created a makeshift bed at the bottom of a pantry. She squeezed herself in there while I kept guard in front of it. I sat there all night, against the doorframe with my crowbar across my lap and the flashlight in my hand, watching her sleep.
I didn't want to admit it, but it felt good to be with someone again, talking to someone. But it also meant I had to watch out more and be even more careful. I had stayed up the whole night not getting a wink of sleep as a result.
"I think it's time we hit the road, Sophia." I said as I stretched out in the grass before getting up.
"Alright!" She replied as she gathered the knives.
I hoisted the backpack onto my back and took two of the three knives from her. That knife she had thrown last night belonged to her now. She had earned it.
:::::::::...::::::::::
"Do you think my mum and the others are still on the road?" She asked hopefully after we had walked for an hour.
"I hope so and if not, we will keep on looking." I replied and I meant it.
I may not want it, but she was my responsibility now. If her mother and friends were still alive I would have to do all I could to get her back with them.
"Will you stay with us?"
I suddenly stopped and stared at her. "What do you mean?"
"Well," Sophia started. "We're a big group and we look out for each other. You're alone, so I thou,-"
"We shall see, Sophia. The first important thing is getting you back." I said sternly not wanting to discuss it any further.
I didn't buy it for one second that her group looked out for each other. That man had left her behind for heaven's sake.
After another hour of walking, having encountered no Walkers, thank goodness, we had made it to the road. Dozens of cars had been left there. Some still containing Walkers, most of them actually dead instead of undead.
"Do you recognize any of these surroundings?" I asked her after we had walked around for fifteen minutes.
Sophia shook her head. I couldn't blame her for not recognizing anything, seeing as there were a lot of cars on this highway. I could hardly imagine a little girl the age of,- I halted. I had no idea how old she was. She couldn't be a teenager yet, but not a young child either.
"Sophia, how old are you anyway?" I asked.
"Twelve," She peeked into one of the cars, crinkled her nose and walked back to me. "How old are you, Maddy?"
I leaned my back against one of the cars, my shoulders still hurt a bit from falling against that cabinet last night. "It's not polite to ask a woman her age."
Sophia crossed her arms. "Forty?"
My eyes widened. "Forty, well thanks a lot. Just because I haven't had a decent wash in a while..."
"Sorry,-" She apologized.
"That's alright, I'm thirty-three actually."
"That is still old." She replied.
"Okay, enough resting," I replied feeling irritated. "Let's continue down the road, if we don't find anything we'll head back to the house."
We walked down the highway, Sophia told me that one of the vehicles they had was an RV. But there wasn't an RV in sight, perhaps they had moved on. I couldn't imagine they would, no mother would leave their child unless she knew for certain it was hopeless.
"Is that food?" Sophia suddenly exclaimed pointing at a yellow car. I narrowed my eyes and noticed, what seemed like, writing on the back window.
We approached the vehicle, and indeed those were letters on the glass;
SOPHIA STAY HERE
WE WILL COME EVERY
DAY
A message for Sophia, they hadn't forgotten about her, they simply moved to somewhere else. These roads weren't really safe, lots of Walkers hung around here. It would only be a matter of time before we'd come across some of them.
I glanced at the supplies they had left on the car, a blanket, large flashlight. Bottled water and,- was that peanut butter?
Sophia didn't seem to care much about the stuff.
She placed her hand on the window and looked up at me. "They left? When will they come back?"
"I don't know, Soph,-"
Honestly I had no intention of waiting for them. I understood the idea those people had in mind, but truthfully it was rather dangerous and I was not going to risk my neck by waiting here until they might show up.
The fact that they expected Sophia to wait here on her own for them was irresponsible and naïve. The chances of her surviving that for God knows how many hours, were slimmer than hiding in the woods.
I grabbed the food and water from the trunk and stuffed it into the backpack.
"Wait! What are you doing?!" Sophia cried out. "Leave that! We have to wait for them."
She grabbed hold of my arm and started to pull, causing me to drop the bag on the floor.
"Sophia, we can't wait." I turned around to face her. "What if they've already been here today? Do you know how many of those things are around here? On and off the highway"
Her bottom lip started to tremble and I gritted my teeth.
"I told you that I'd get you back to your mother and I will, but for now we have to go. I don't want to wait here and become Walker food in case they don't show up any more."
She started to sob and I pulled her into a hug. I shouldn't have yelled at her. "I'm sorry,-"
"I'll tell you what, how about we'll leave them a message?" I suggested. Sophia looked up and wiped her tears away.
"What kind of message?"