Self Inflicted

1

It was the silence. The silence and constant worry. The gut wrenching feeling that you're never safe. Because you're not. No matter what, you're not safe. That's what made this an all too real hell for me. When the dead came knocking, I found a survivalist camp not far out of Atlanta. That's where I met the one person I've come to trust, Michonne. We've been together since the beginning. Hell we even trained together, she found my weapon for me.

I know things aren't safe because we've watched it happen too many times. People, places, falling to this world and what it's become. We've been drifting by ourselves since our camp got overrun, the only weapons we have are those on our back, we both carry katanas as our weapon of choice. You need one of those now.

We've been walking and finding shelter for days now, we were holding up in place for a few days but it was overrun, so we went back to the road. We've been trying to figure out what we need to do, where we need to go.

"Hey," I grumble, motioning toward a map I pulled from my bag. "Think we can make this by sundown?"

"Yeah, should be a straight shot if we take this road," she draws a line with her finger along a road. "Maybe we'll find a gas station or something along the way." Michonne tugs at the chains in her hand, motioning for the two walkers on the ends to continue forward. They meant something to her once. Now they're her protection. She cut the jaws and arms off of them, almost disabling their dangerous parts.

We don't talk a lot, but we've never really needed to. We know as much as we need to in looks anymore, that helps with the dead.

-

As we trudge along, we begin to see faint objects in the clearing of the road, vehicles it looks like. As we move closer we can see the swarm of vehicles blocking the highway. "We need supplies, I hate to say go through but we should look."

"Yeah, we should. Just be quiet," she replied and splits off to my right, disappearing between cars with her walkers close behind her. As I slowly walk between the cars, I have my hand resting on my weapon. The deeper I drift into the swarm, the more the smell gets to me. There are flies buzzing in and around cars, covering corpses and eating away at the remaining flesh. Some vehicles are covered in spattered blood, but all of the vehicles are covered in thick layers of dust and debris.

There is a trunk of a blue car open with multiple suit cases in it so I begin digging through them. I find some aspirin, a water bottle, and a pocket knife. I shove those in my bag and the pocket knife in my pocket. I also find a black leather jacket, nice and heavy, it's beginning to get cold. I search another car and find a pair of boots around my size, a little too big but they work. My old shoes were getting too worn out. I wander some more and search some more cars finding small items of food and water before making my way back to Michonne.

"This is sad, but a perfect place to find supplies," she nods her head slowly to my comment, brown eyes narrowed as she scans the area.

"Let's not overstay our welcome, or we'll have some unexpected guests," she hisses, looking at a group of the dead coming our way. "Come on, let's find a place to sleep for the night."

-

We walked for a long time, never finding a place to sleep. We eventually decided it was safer to walk in the woods, more cover from the dead than the open road. Her walkers help keep us safe but because there's two of us, it's hard for both of us to be protected. Then we hear the screams.

"HELP! HELP ME!"

"What the hell..." we trade looks and turn in the direction, noticing a herd following a blonde woman running. Gunfire rings out through the woods, echoing off the trees. She must have ran out of bullets because she throws the gun down and pulls out a knife, stabbing an approaching walker in the head. Then two more follow, she stabs one and then trips as the other one approaches, she then begins crawling backward away and screaming.

I don't bother asking for permission as I pull out my sword, running and slicing through the walkers head just before it reaches her, it falls limply to the ground beside her. For a moment she she stares at me with a confused look, her breathing jagged and quick.

"Luna," Michonne hisses my name through gritted teeth. I turn and see the walkers approaching and reach my hand down to the woman, she slowly grabs it and I help her up. She grabs the empty gun and we turn and run.

-

We ran for a long time, eventually finding a small cabin to hide out in until the heard passes. Michonne and I set our bags down on the ground of the dirty cabin, turning to the woman. "What's your name?" She looks at Michonne and answers.

"Andrea," she says slowly.

"Luna," I respond.

"Michonne," she growls.

"Okay Andrea," I begin, tossing her a bottle of water. "Why did we find you alone in the woods? You seem pretty clean," I suggest. Way too clean to have been living out there long.

That's when Andrea began telling us about her group, how many there are, who they are, where they came from, what happened to her. Michonne and I decided she was okay to bring along.

-

All winter we protected each other, the three of us. That is until Andrea got really sick, she could hardly walk. Michonne and I spent most of our time scavenging medicine for her, but at least it was beginning to get warmer. Finally it was warm, but Andrea didn't get better. We were going to stay in one place, but Andrea told us if she were going to die, it wasn't going to be sitting there waiting for it.

We're walking through a field, slowly. Michonne has fed her walkers twigs to keep them alive so we still have some protection. Just then, we hear something and our eyes shoot to the sky. I almost can't believe what I'm seeing, a helicopter flying above the field, quickly heading toward the woods in front of us, losing height as it does. There's a trail of smoke behind the chopper, just then it drops off into the woods, crashing and more smoke bellows from the top of the trees.

"Do we check it out?" I question.

"Maybe there are survivors," Andrea starts. "Maybe they have a camp," I can hear the slight excitement in her voice. People make me worried, not excited.

"It's worth the look I guess," Michonne agrees, beginning toward the woods and we follow.

We make it to where the chopper landed, hiding behind some bushes and studying the scene. Michonne ties her walkers to a tree and we check the area. We both have our swords out as we walk toward the fallen chopper, her sword it wrapped in white leather while mine is wrapped in black leather. We make it up to the chopper and see three men, two already dead and one still in a seat, he opens his eyes and looks at us Michonne opens her mouth to say something but is cut off by the sound of trucks. We sprint back to the bushes and duck down. As I look back at the chopper, I see one man outside of it, in a military uniform as the others, his body cut clean in half at the waist.

Andrea sat on her knees on the ground, not able to hold herself steady from her feet while crouched. One vehicle pulls up and four men get out, one carrying a bow and arrow, another with a baseball bat, one man wearing a pretty-boy vest holding a pistol, and the last man has only one hand. A blade on his right hand with a metal cast on his forearm holding it and his other hand holding a gun.

The man with the vest walks toward the chopper and toward the one live man we saw. "I'm going to get a better look," I whisper, still crouching and slowly making my way around to our right. I can see partially inside the chopper and both men. The military man begins talking but I can't hear him, just then the man with the vest pulls out a knife and stabs him in the head. My breath hitches and I grab my sword, holding it off to the side with both hands.

Suddenly, there is a sharp and then dull, lingering pain as I fall limply to the ground. I turn my head slightly to see a figure standing above me, but before I can make it out, my blurry vision turns black.