Chapter Text
Her head whipped round at the sound of footsteps following her, never easing up. She wasn't quite sure how long she had been running. Months - years? - of the same repetitive running. It was becoming tiresome, it was becoming lonesome and quite frankly, she was nearing the end of her tether with it all. It would have been easier to just give up. Nobody would have blamed her. There was nobody there to blame her. Max wasn't there anymore. He couldn't urge her to run faster, he couldn't call her out for her stupid choices, he couldn't tell her stupid jokes to keep that smallest of smiles residing on her face. Max wasn't there because of her. It was her fault that he was now buried in the middle of the woods somewhere in South Carolina beneath a thin layer of crisp autumn leaves. She shuddered just thinking about the manner in which she had left him. There hadn't even been time for a proper goodbye, let alone a proper burial.
Heat bore down upon the dark haired girl as she stumbled clumsily up the muddy verge from the edge of the woods, the thick soles of her boots slapping down on the pavement of the road once more. Weakness had never overcome her this way before. She'd been a sickly child once, but that was in the past. She was now twenty nine, and sickness was not an option. It hadn't been for a long time now. The sun was relentless as she carried on at a pace that reached as fast as she could go, trying her best to put a reasonable amount of distance between herself and those... things... that were coming after her. Her mind had not been creative when it came down to naming them. Her mind had been at a blank, as it had for most of this journey. She'd settled on a multitude of nicknames to call them. Graspers. Grabbers. Clampers. The Undead. She tended to avoid saying the last one. It made it all seem a bit too real. But, how could it be any less real than this? This had been her life for God knows how long now. She couldn't remember. She could barely remember if it was two or three weeks since she had left Max behind.
Max was her brother. Tall Max, with the dirty blonde hair and the twinkling grey eyes that held many untold stories behind them. Untold stories that now would, simply, never be told. Max had been a people pleaser, a class clown, a dad dancer. He was everything that a parent could possibly dream of for a son. Kind, generous. Selfless. All the things that, as the days continued to pass, she found that she was not. It had started off as a group of them. Her, Max, their mother and their father. A week after the world went to shit, they decided to pack up and get moving. They filled the boot of their family car with all the necessities they thought might come in handy, and braved the unbelievable scenes on the streets and roads that laid ahead of them. Max's girlfriend, Jenna, had joined them. One week passed, their mother was gone. Two and a half weeks passed, their father was gone. They joined a camp. A small camp, not far from their hometown in Georgia. There was Ryan, Oliver, Christian. Kara, Lucy. One by one, they went. Jenna was the last to go. Max had tried to hold out for her as long as he could. However, this world was not the same. Even a person's efforts were not the same. So, it had been her and Max, alone. For as long as she could remember now.
Once again, she glanced over her shoulder. The Graspers seemed to become faster with every step they took. Every step she made, they challenged her with at least two of their own. Three, four of them. She wouldn't be able to take them down alone. She was weak. Her gun had only two bullets to its name and her hunting knife was tucked away somewhere in her backpack. Her eyes were beginning to see black dots in front of them as she pursued forward, hauling her bag up higher on her shoulders and heaving out a heavy breath. Safety had to be somewhere. She couldn't be the only person walking these roads. There had to be someone. Just one other person, at least. Sweat dripped mercilessly down her forehead and her rising chest became clammy with the residue. She didn't dare look back another time, for she knew that they would be closer, and the panic that she would feel at that would be unbearable. It would create more problems than it was worth. Running would have been the smartest idea right now, but she didn't have it in her. She had no fight left in her at all. It would be easier to sprawl upon the hot concrete of the ground and close her eyes and just -
A gunshot. An alarming sound that put her in an even more dangerous position than she was in before. One of the Grapsers was floored behind her. Then another. Then the third. And then the last one. She wasn't stupid. She knew that the gunshots would attract more, and that she had no choice but to keep on going, but she was more concerned about what she would face when she met the gun wielding stranger out on the roads with her. Surely, she had met her maker. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the surrounding area. She'd not seen anyone ahead of her before now, and that was surely where the shots had been aimed from. Finally, when her eyes did fall upon the stranger, she was surprised. Eyes wide kind of surprised.
He ambled his way over to her, a confident stride. His red hair was cut into a perfectly straight buzz and his facial hair seemed well groomed as well. He was dressed in a khaki t-shirt and a pair of camoflauge slacks. A military man? Or, at least pretending to be. She had met a few of those in the last few months of her strained living. He didn't lower the gun as he approached her. There was no surprises there. You couldn't trust anybody in this world. She had learned that the hard way. Her hands were held out in front of her, a display of innocence. A display of desperation. A display of mercy. Despite not having done anything, she felt like pleading for her life. If he was anything like the men she had already met on these roads, she knew she should turn on her heel and run in the direction she had come from as fast as she could. But, perhaps she had already given up.
"You got any weapons?" He asked in a gruff voice, jerking his head towards the bag hitched up on her shoulder.
He was going to steal her things instead. The only things that she had left to keep her alive. Reluctantly, but with a timid stance, she removed the bag from her shoulder and dropped it to the ground in front of her. She slowly reached her foot out and kicked the bag towards the redheaded stranger. He eyed her cautiously for a second more before he knelt to the ground, unzipping the plain black backpack and rooting through it. He didn't remove any of the items. He simply straightened his back and resumed his authoritive standing position. She let out a shaky breath.
"You alone?" He fired her with another question - the question that they all asked, no matter who they were.
"Yes," Her voice was barely above a whisper. "I did have other people. But... they're all gone now. It's just me. I'm not a threat to you. I swear it."
She wasn't quite sure why she was bothering to make an attempt to beg for her life. If he had already decided her fate, then it was a done deal. A meek girl like her would not be able to reverse the decisions of such a powerful and strong looking man like himself. Yet, he seemed to remain cautious. His eyes wandered around the area, looking out for any immediate threats that surrounded them. Then his eyes glazed over as he looked at the small heap of Graspers that he had taken down behind her. When he had seen her struggling along, he had considered just leaving her to her own devices. She seemed persistent enough. But, as he had continued to watch her, he had realised how close she was to giving up. He had wanted to yell at her, tell her to move quicker, or to do something. Anything. Anything to stop them latching onto her. That's when he had had to step in. When he knew that she was just going to let whatever happened to her, happen.
"What's your name?" He asked the slight girl before him.
"Erin," She barely breathed out. "Erin. Thank you... for helping me back there. I'm sure I would have been done for if you hadn't have stepped in."
"Abraham Ford. Yeah... Looked like you would have been. What are you doing out here? Where are you headed?"
Erin wasn't quite sure whether or not she was able to trust this gruff looking man. What did she have to lose, though? She ran a hand through her messy hair and sighed. It was an interesting question Abraham had asked. Where was she heading? She hadn't known the answer to that for a fair few months now. The game plan had been to just keep on moving and not look back. That hadn't been working well for her so far, however.
"I don't know anymore," She shrugged. "Everywhere I've been is a dead end. I don't have the slightest clue where could possibly be any safer than the next place. I've been out on the road now for as long as I can remember. Ducking into houses for a few days every now and again, but nothing more than that."
"Seems like everybody's in the same boat. There's nowhere safe to go anymore."
"Are you on your own? You're the first person I've seen around here for days."
"Like you. Had people, but they're not here anymore. You're the first person I've come across in at least a week."
Erin nodded. The world was more wiped out than she had first thought. Wiping her sweaty palms over the thighs of her jeans, she looked Abraham Ford fully in the eyes for the first time since they had encountered one another. He looked like he wouldn't take any shit. He looked tough and he looked like he could handle his own plenty well enough. Erin knew that she had shown to him that she was the opposite - she was the person who could not handle herself. Why would he want to be dragged down by a woman who simply accepted that death was round the corner? Nobody should accept their lifeline that easily.
Abraham looked the young woman up and down with narrowed eyes. Although she acted as weak, she didn't look it. Her dark hair was scraped up in a messy ponytail, tendrils framing her slimmed face. Her grey eyes were alert and constantly flitting around. She was always on the lookout. That was a valued trait now. She was slim, but Abraham took notice of the toning of her arms that showed an element of strength, no matter how small it was. She might not have been fighting when he found her, but she had to be a fighter to get this far alone.
"Right," Abraham nodded ahead at the road. "Guess we better get going on our way then."
Erin had once been inquisitive and would have questioned every other word in a person's statement, but she knew then not to question the 'we'. A small smile lit up her face as she started to trail along behind the bulky Abraham Ford. This was the first time she had felt relief in a long time. He was her saviour.