Under The Wall [REWRITTEN]

8 ~Winter~

It was freezing, but she only knew it from the snow on the ground around her and her own breath clouding in front of her face. She did not feel the cold, for her veins coursed with adrenaline, as she lifted the bow, the string pressed against her lip as she aimed for the buck standing several feet in front of her. Her brownish hair blew around her, reaching her shoulder blades. Her icy eyes glared at the animal as she tensed.

She took a tiny breath and held it, the bow steadying itself. She let it fly, the bowstring springing forward, launching the arrow at the deer.

It hit the leg, and it made a small noise, and ran.

"Fuck!" she swore, glaring, before she saw the blood trail.

"I guess that's easy."

She followed it, kneeling down and touching the bloodied snow. She grimaced at the feel of it already freezing against her finger. She followed it, her only sounds being her breathing and her boots crunching the fresh falling snow.

She basked in the silence, following the tracks and blood.

She followed them to an abandoned-looking village, where it lay, dead in the square. She grinned, happy that she had actually gotten food for once.

Then she heard a snap of a twig. She whipped around, bow immediately aimed at a man not much older than her. He looked familiar, but she couldnt place him....

"What the fuck do you want?" she sneered, the arrow quivering on the bow.

"Delanie..." the man started towards her. She drew back the string, the arrow ready to fly.

"I said, what the fuck do you want?!" she hissed, glaring at the guy.

"You don't recognize me?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be ready to put this in between your eyes." she huffed, lowering it only slightly.

"It's Hale."

She froze then, nearly dropping the bow in shock.

"How do you know Hale?" she said, voice shaking.

"Jacob was shot by three military guys. He was infected right here, and you... you left a long time ago."

She lowered the bow, and tears gathered in her eyes.

"H-Hale...?" her bottom lip quivered, and he held out his arms.

She dropped the bow and ran into his arms, the two holding each other tight.

She let go after a moment.

"Where's Kaleb....?" she trailed, looking around warily.

"Kaleb stayed back at the camp, he's sick.

Del's eyes widened with shock and realization. "Kaleb's..." she choked it out, the word heavy on her tongue.

"He's not Infected, it's just a really bad cold. I was sent to find you. And Del... Joel left a week after you did, saying something about finding you... I'm sorry." he said.

"Joel's not dead." Del said, steppig back.

"I know it's hard for you, but-"

"Just.. stop. Help me get this back."

The two caught up as they walked, but Hale's thoughts were clouded as to why she wouldn't say anything.

"Here we are. Down in the basement."

She grunted as they pulled it down stairs. She opened the door, and Hale saw Joel, unconscious on a blanket on the floor, wrapped up.

"Shit." she ran over, yanking her bag off her shoulders and throwing it open, grabbing a box. "Joel, can you hear me? Joel..." he didnt respond, and she grimaced. "I need to roll you over, okay?" she said, biting her lip and gently pushing him over onto his side. She tenderly lifted the hem of his jacket and shirt, and saw the red hole in his back. At least it had mostly closed itself. She told him everything she had to do, even though he probably wasn't listening, pretty much comatose. She called Hale over, and told him what he needed to do, essentially just having things ready as she needed them.

She dripped peroxide on the wound, and it fizzed. She did so twice more, until it stopped foaming. Must be good, right? Hale gave her the segment of string and the needle, and she grimaced as she led it through his skin, tying it off at the end. They did the same to the front of his stomach, and then they wrapped a bandage all the way around.

She heard clomping outside.

"Shit. Hale, watch him. I'm going to check this out." she hissed, and grabbed her knife and pistol, leaving her bag where it was, next to Joel, who was wrapped up again in the old blankets.

She opened the door, and heard a whinnying noise.

It reminded her of Strider.

She peeped out the window, and there were two horses there, both with saddles and supplies.

"Strider.." she grinned. She didnt know the other horse.

"Hale, do you have a horse..." she called.

He came up.

"Yeah, I tied it off back at the village.." he trailed, and I cheered with glee, rushing to Strider. "You came back!" she grinned, rubbing it's neck.

"We have horses, and those horses have supplies. We're gonna make it!" she grabbed Hale into a hug, her face buried in his coat.

He hugged her back, but the moment didn't last long.

"We can finally get out of here after we pack up the buck." she sighed, grinning.

"Yeah. Tomorrow morning, then?"

"Tomorrow morning." she laughed happily, excited.

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She sighed. "I'm kind of going to miss this place."

"How long have you been here?" Hale asked, helping her strap the sled onto Strider.

"Two goddamn weeks." she said, finishing up and making sure Joel was secured tightly on the sled, sheltered.

"How long has Joel been.."

"Two weeks, too. We barely escaped from some motherfucking hunters, I had to drag him half of the way here." she sighed.

"I wish I could have gotten here sooner."

"You didn't know, it's fine." she said, and climbed onto Strider.

Hale said nothing, instead sighing as he got onto his horse.

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He went ahead of her, scouting out easier paths for them to take.

"We reached the highway. Maybe we'll get all the way to Toronto without having to go off-road." Hale grinned at her.

"Yeah, maybe." she flashed a smile at him, and they set off once more.

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Hey guys, I'm really sick, so it's hard to update! I might not be able to post the first chapter of the sequel to my other zombie book tonight, but I swear I will get it done by Sunday night.

Sorry!

Sarahgrace

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haha remember when I made promises?

I don't do that anymore

Sarahgrace

P.S. It's 3:15 AM now I'm binge-editing/rewriting