Dark Meat [Walking Dead]

Chapter Six

-- Thanks animelover123 for being the first to read and actually like my story :D I really appreciate it! Hope you enjoy this, we get to learn a little bit more about Tessa --

-Tessa-

As I shuffle up the steep dirt road with Glenn, somebody who I feel is probably more trustworthy and intelligent than most in the group, I can't help but feel a little dizzy. It's not only the heat, or the fact that my stomach is all but screaming at me, but all of that combined with blood loss. For a wound that is barely a few millimetres deep, it has bled almost non-stop and soaked a scarlet patch into the once clean, white bandages.

I touch the sticky liquid gingerly, wincing when layers of pain attack the already agonised area. A few droplets stick to me finger, so I rub them off on my jeans. Beside me, Glenn is still quiet, simply staring ahead.

We had only come across one Walker on the way back. A female, and one Glenn was obviously reluctant to put down. I think he's done it before, although it's never an easy thing to just kill somebody who was just like us; with a family, a home, friends and a future. However now, it's not just the Walkers who have lost those. All the survivors, as few as I thick there might ever be, have lost much.

I rub my thumb nervously around the long hilt of the axe as I see -at least who I believe to see- Shane standing at the edge of camp, just before the dirt road. He doesn't look impressed as we come closer, and I shrink a little under his dark gaze. His eyes are slightly hooded from his thick, black hair, giving him a menacing look.

"Where were you two?" He asks in gravelly voice, muscled arms hanging limp but tense at his sides.

"We, er, j-just went down to the barricade to see if-"

Shane takes a few steps forward, powerful strides that show he is both frustrated and angry with us. I look up at Glenn. He looks very nervous of this man's reaction, as am I. "So you went down there by yourselves?" He asks with calm anger, coming right up to us. I bite my lip and shuffle behind Glenn a little.

He doesn't seem as bad as I had thought it would be. From his facial expression, I expected him to explode in a frenzied volley of shouts and curses, but instead he shifts the wight onto one foot and looks at us expectantly.

"Bu' we go' s'me cool weap'ns." I mutter holding out the axe. I don't mind losing such a great weapon if it means Shane, who I think has established himself as leader, according to last night, isn't royally pissed at us. People being mad at me is something I don't handle well, and is almost always a reactant in my cowardly traits. They bring out the frightened little girl in me, and make me want to run away.

Since Nortown, I had promised myself I wouldn't be a coward, or more I wouldn't do cowardly things. Running away isn't cowardly, it's survival, much like bargaining and hiding aren't. Yet acts of murder, untruthfulness and simply doing something wrong because it's so much easier than doing what's right, those are cowardly acts. I can't go back to that. I won't, not ever.

Glenn licks his dry lips anxiously and continues on, saying, "Y-Yeah, and we just checked out the barricade to see if it was overrun, or if the army is still there." Shane shoots Glenn a curious but still concerned look, his brows furrowing deeply. "Um, well there were only two left, but now they're dead. There aren't any Geeks either." His dark eyes fall to Glenn's bloody pick axe. "We-Well there was one..."

Unfortunately for both Glenn and I, Shane's attention is brought to the bloody bandages wrapped messily around my upper arm, just as a small group of people come wandering down the road. "Is that a bite?" He asks tersely, taking a precautionary step backwards and placing his hand to the holster at his side.