The Long Road Home

Chapter Ten

'You never have to be anyone's victim Page.' She heard her mother say. Pig flinched surprised at the sudden memory. She was ten and had been jumped and beaten up by two boys from school. Her mother had sat her down at the kitchen table to fix all of her hurts. When finished, she looked Pig right in the eye. 'You never have to be anyone's victim Page.' She had told her. 'Not if you remember one thing. As long as your hands or feet are free, you have weapons. Kick like your life depends on it. If you can't kick,' her mother stuck up her thumb 'Jab your thumb right into your attacker's eye. That will stop anyone. They will hurt too much to continue to attack you. When they are down press the attack, kick them right in the face then run, don't stop until you are safe.

Pig's eyes snapped back into focus. She rolled onto her back to find Bret standing over her unbuckling his belt as he crawled on top of her leering. She did just as her mother instructed. Pig jammed her thumb right into his eye fast and hard. Bret let out a scream of pain as he fall back clutching his eye. Pig scrambled up to her feet and before she could even think about what she was doing, she kicked him in the face. Not waiting for the outraged man to recover, she ran to the back of the store and out the exit.

A quick look around showed the ally to be empty. Pig headed south looking frantic for someplace safe to hide. She found a store with a broken out window and slipped into its shadows. The back door of the clothes shop door slamming open made her jump.

'Where are you bitch!' She heard Bret say in a whispered hiss. Screams of the infected sounded somewhere in the distance. Bret let out an angry curse. He then did the worst thing possible. He yelled loud. 'Good luck surviving without your bow bitch, I hope those freaks rip you apart!' A door slammed and she knew he retreated into the cloths shop. He would be safe there, but she was left in the cold with the monsters.

Pig moved to the darkest corner of the shop and sat in the corner with her knees pulled tight to her chest.

The infected swarmed the area seeking the source of the sound that called to them. Pig froze afraid to even breathe too hard. It took every ounce of self control she had not to jump up and run as several came into the building. Not finding anything to attack they milled around. Pig closed her eyes. If she sat here watching them, she was sure she would go insane.

She tried to think of anything other than the infected inches from her. What was she going to do now? Even if survived long enough to get out of this store, she had no supplies or weapons. There was no way that dick Bret would leave her things in the clothing store.

She could not believe he attacked her like that. Pig cursed herself for not listening to her first feelings about Bret. He had felt off to her since she first ran into the group.

What about the rest of the group? Who knew what Bret would tell them about what happened to her. If she went back to the junction, would they believe her when she told them he attacked her? Bret was Tucker's baby brother, and they had known her only for a couple of months.

She decided it didn't matter. She was leaving the group anyway. Her only regret would be not parting on good terms. Other than Bret, she had grown fond of the group. Daniel was like the kid brother she never had and she had found him something special in the last shop they had hit. It was a copy of his favorite book. His original was left behind in the outbreak.

Pig opened her eyes when she heard the infected moving away from her. She was a little surprised to see the sun was already going down. The infected were leaving the store and heading deeper into the city. Pig tried to stand but a sharp stabbing pain in her side made her freeze. She closed her eyes against the burning pain until it passed. When she could breath again she looked around and saw the infected had not heard her.