Destination Life or Death

2. Dezzy

It had been a few weeks now, scavenging for food in whatever abandoned cabin I stumbled across in the woods. While the fear I had felt of hunger and pure defeat, I couldn't get my mind off of the boys' icy blue eyes. My caramel skin, now covered in blood and dirt, was inching. Not because of the filth, but because of the curiosity of what happened to that boy. That long haired handsome boy I saw on the road that day. Where was he? Was he even still breathing? All these questions I had no answers for. I remember listening to my heart beat while drifting to sleep. I had no one, I was alone, mother abandoned me, father was dead and my brother, I hoped deep down he was at least breathing somewhere. The next morning was cold, but not as cold as the day before, yet the air was more damp than the previous days. I sat up, grabbing the shoestring backpack I had found one day and filled it full of food and medical supplies. I stepped outside to the smell of rain. The weeks that had past made it easy for the seasons to change without even noticing. I started walking, hearing the ground sink ever so slightly with each step I took. I didn't know where I was going, I just had to survive. I knew saying that in this world wasn't easy but, for myself, I wanted to live. I wanted to see the world for what it had become. After a few hours of walking, I sat down on a large rock and pulled a metal water bottle out that I had filled with water from bottles I had found along the way and took a large drink. It was quiet. At least, I thought it was because before I knew it, I felt a hand touch my shoulder. I shot up, pulling the knife from my shoe and stabbing it right through the head of the dead man that was just trying to rip the flesh from my bones. After a second, I looked to the right, and then to the left and saw two more on each side. I started fighting. After a few minutes, it turned into me struggling to stay on my feet and yelling for anyone to come and save me, as the dead kept flooding in at the sound of my fight. After what felt like forever, I heard a gunshot, and then another, followed by another while seeing one by one the dead around me falling. I killed the last one that had been alive and fell to my knees panting from the work I had not planned to do. I felt a warm hand line my back and then a body move to sit next to mine. "You're the highway girl huh?" the raspy voice said, it was almost like I was hearing it for the first time. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and then looked forward wiping a drip of sweat off my forehead. "The highway girl?" I asked, letting out a slight laugh and then straightening my face when I saw he wasn't laughing. I turned to face him and nodded my head "I'm Dezzy". I was scared to trust him but I wanted to. I needed to. I could feel his eyes trace my body in confusion, "Have you been bit?" he questioned. "No?" I answered with a question as I was confused as to what he was doing. "Yes or no?" he snapped, sounding annoyed, I looked at him trying to hide the confusion of why he hated me already. "No! I have not been bitten!" My voice was a bit sharp, making him acknowledge the same tone he used with me. "How many walkers have you killed?" 'Walkers', the word flowed so quickly as he had known what these dead things were. "I don't know, at least 50 by now." I shrugged pulling some grass from the ground and then looking at him. I waited for another question I knew was coming "Have you killed anyone?" I looked at him a bit surprised. How he could think of me, a 5 foot,110 pound girl could kill a living, breathing human. I shook my head "No, I haven't" I said, almost a bit insulted. "Come on" he said, getting up and not even making sure I was following. Probably because he knew I was, and I was, not even three steps behind him. Following this strange boy to wherever he was taking me,. "For what?" I mused to myself. Because I'm intrigued with him? Because he felt pity for me? Because he knew I was alone? My brain ran a hundred miles a minute before my mind went completely blank at the sight of a silver chain linked fence built up around an old prison, not old, but old to the world I once knew.

I looked at him and then the gates again that now had the same middle aged man I had seen before, walking directly towards us, signaling for them to open the gates. "Who is this?" the Man asked, looking at me and then the boy standing next to me. Their features were so similar, the same curve in the nose and light colored eyes. Probably his father, something I longed for, something I was immediately jealous of. "Her name is Dezzy" his voice was deep yet you could hear the ever so slight voice change throughout his talking. Puberty maybe? Or fear? I looked at the man and then the kid again. I shook my head while closing my eyes and then focusing on the older man again "I'm sorry, I don't want to intrude." My words fell so quickly. Not even realizing that I was saying I was intruding on a safe place, giving them the opportunity to send me out there on my own again, So I just stood there and stared waiting for someone to say something. "Come on Dezzy, you can stay" the older man said with a stern face before turning and walking away back to the building. "That's Rick" the boy's voice said quickly. He started walking, and I followed him. He seemed bitter, almost angry, but for what? I walked into the building to be greeted by the group that was at the road before and some that I knew hadn't been there. People I had assumed they found along the way. Everyone's eyes were on me but quickly shifted back to their bowls of oatmeal as they were only wondering who I was. Who this strange girl who came from the woods was. The boy moved behind me and grabbed a bowl, filling it with the watered down oatmeal everyone had been eating and walked right passed me to a cell covered by a white sheet. I watched him move, yet his eyes never met mine, they always stayed glued to the floor, never a smile pasted on his face. He was unhappy and everyone knew it. I had just turned sixteen and I knew he was the only one around, other than a blonde beautiful girl named Beth, that I wanted to surround myself with. I couldn't tell you what called out to me from behind the white curtain of his cell but I could say that whatever it was, wasn't gonna let me forget him that easily.