The Walking Dead: Return to Paradise Part Two

Chapter Nine: This Old Routine

Lily fired her pistol at the escaping girls, missing by a long shot. They were moving too fast and they were too far away.

"Don't let them get away!" She yelled at her soldiers.

All the gunshots had drawn walkers. This was the last thing she needed right now.
One of them reached out with its rotting fingers, trying to grab her face.
Lily kicked it back and shot it in the head.
She wouldn't let Clementine escape.
She couldn't.
She wasn't about to let months of planning, regrouping and scavenging be ruined by their escape.
Lily thought of it as a temporary setback as she ran through the woods.
The girls wouldn't be able to get far on foot. She'd have them back soon enough.

The number of walkers was steadily increasing, it started off slow, barely noticeable.
They would show up in twos, then fours, then Lily realised they had stumbled into a herd.
The wall of groaning bodies threatened to surround them, cutting off their chase.
Lily saw Sullene keep running in another direction, breaking off from the group.

"Fuck. Stay in formation and don't let them surround us!" Lily ordered.

The Delta raiders formed up into a circle, weapons pointed out towards the herd.

Jesus, there's nearly fifty of them.

All at once, multiple guns went off. Lily carefully aimed her shots, wary of the fact that she had only a handful of bullets left for her handgun.
Anika let off a succession of precision shots from her rifle, taking the heads off two walkers and missing the third by a hair.
Dominic was out of ammo and had resigned himself to bashing heads in with the stock of his gun.

"Don't stop shooting!" He yelled, not able to heed his own advice.

Lily fired the final round in the mag, afterwards bashing the walker on the head with her gun and stepping back to reload.
She had eight shots left, after that, her knife was her only saving grace.
She hoped Sullene was going after Clementine and the blonde girl, because the rest of them were set to be stuck here for a while.

***

"Clem..."

Clementine was pulled out of the dream she had been having by a soft voice calling her name.
She opened her eyes and yawned, pinching the back of her neck.
Every part of her was so stiff, she wasn't sure whether to attribute it to running or sleeping against trees.
Violet handed her a small tin of sardines. Clem took it, her fingers numb from sleeping in the snow.

"Breakfast of champions, huh?" She chuckled weakly.

"Oh yeah, totally." Violet smiled.

In spite of the awful sleeping conditions and biting cold, they were both in good spirits.
They'd managed to keep ahead of Lily and the Delta raiders for four whole days.
They weren't about to get cocky though, maintaining a consistent travel distance each day.
Their routine consisted of; waking up at first light and having breakfast, working their way through the rations they took, then walking all day until sunset. They had a small collection of sticks gathered and made a tiny fire, small enough that it would keep them warm without producing too much smoke.
When it came to sleeping, they took turns. Every four hours, they'd switch and the other would keep watch.

"I fucking hate winter." Violet stated, shivering a little.

"Right now, so do I." Clem agreed.