You Are The Wilderness

Chapter 1 - The Reunion

Kiara's POV

I was becoming winded with every step that I took, running through the thick woods few miles north-west from Atlanta. I was trying to get away from the four Biters that were closing in on me, my mind becoming fuzzy from the blood lost caused by a deep cut on my side. Smell of fresh blood attracting the crawling corpses, making them dour in their pursuit of a human flesh. I shook off my backpack; my katana in its sheath still slung over my body, and snatched my hatchet and baseball bat in one hand, pulling out my hunting knife in the other. I swung around and threw my trusty knife into the forehead of the nearest Biter that immediately slumped to the ground. One down, three to go. The pain in my side was growing with every second. The second Biter making its way towards me, I took the bat into my right hand and with every ounce of strength embedded it into its temple. I didn't bother to retrieve it as the third creature was coming straight at me. The Biter went down with one swift swing of my hatchet. The stinging pain in my side made me fall to my knees, the blood stream from my wound restless in spite of my best efforts to contain it. I saw the last one of the corpses gaining on me and reached for my katana, the will to survive still strong within me. I lounged forward, shoved the disgusting creature to the ground and thrust my sword into its eye ending its miserable afterlife.

Finally rid of any imminent threats I slumped to the ground breathing hard, my vision becoming blurry, the dizziness from the blood lost overwhelming me. Then I saw it, the outlines of a figure hunching over me. I must have missed this one. I franticly reached for my sword, but it was still stuck in the head of the Biter I took down. "This is the end", I thought, "I'm going to get mauled by these drooling freaks". I closed my eyes waiting for the agonizing sensation of teeth ripping the flesh from my body, but instead I heard a voice calling my name.

"Kiara? How's this possible?"

I forced my eyes open, trying to find the source of the voice, the southern accent oddly and sweetly familiar. Then I saw him, my friend and neighbour who I thought was dead. Rick Grimes, I'll be damned. His bright blue orbs shining with the mixture of confusion, surprise and relief.

"This must be the best hallucination I've ever had." I chuckled slightly and raised my hand to touch his face, to make sure he is indeed real.

"How are you here right now?" I asked as he hugged me tightly. I hissed sharply, the wound in my side reminding itself. He looked down on my blood soaked flannel shirt and then back at me.

"There will be time for explanations and stories later, but now we have to get you back to the camp." He helped me up from the ground, slung my arm around his shoulder and picked me up as if I weighed nothing.

"My gear..." I protested weakly.

"Yeah, I got it." That's when I first took notice of Rick's companion - tall lean guy with light brown hair in a ragged clothes. He had all my stuff slung across his shoulders and a crossbow in his hands, closely watching our surroundings with a cat-like expression on his face.

"That's Darryl Dixon. He's one of ours, great tracker and hunt..." Rick was cut off by Darryl who spoke up.

"Save this for later. I aint waitin' around for more of them bastards to come sniffin' around. We need to patch 'er up before the blood attracts more of 'em."

Rick sighed and started towards where I assumed the camp was. "He's also the snappy one."

As Rick was carrying me through the thick flora of Georgian forest I allowed my stressed muscles and adrenaline ridden mind relax and slowly drifted away into shallow slumber.

Rick's POV

We lost people last night, a lot of them. Everybody thinks it's my fault. I can see the looks on their faces. Even Lori's face betrayed her and Shane said it outright. I'm trying to convince myself that I did the right thing coming back for Merle and the bag with guns, but their accusing faces were starting to get to me. I walked away from the camp to take a breather and to talk to Morgan.

We spent most of that day cleaning up the aftermath of the attack, sorting Walkers away from our people and piling them on for burning. Andrea still hadn't moved away from her sister's body. She had sat with her through the whole night, not moving, just caressing her hair and weeping silently. We all knew it was only matter of time before Amy turned. Lori went to talk to her first, trying to convince her to let us take care of her, but not getting any kind of acknowledgement from the shocked blonde. When I walked up to talk to her, she drew her gun on me telling me she knows how the safety works. I backed away, but stayed close awaiting the inevitable. When Amy finally turned, I started to slowly approach the sisters, but it was Andrea herself who put her out of her misery. It broke my heart watching it to happen and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one.

I was talking to Shane about our options when Jacqui yelled that Jim got bit by a Walker which led to another wave of panic rising among the survivors. Darryl would nail Jim straight in the head with a pickaxe if I hadn't put my gun to his head which he wasn't very happy about to say the least. We had quite the argument, Shane and I, about what our next move should be. Shane insisted we tried for Fort Benning but I knew that the only chance to save Jim's life and to get some answers was to go to CDC. I'm pretty sure most of the survivors didn't agree with me, I could see they were terrified and I didn't blame them. After the funeral I stepped into the RV to talk to Jim and reassure him that we will do everything we can to help him. Later, when we gathered together to talk, I was surprised and relieved to see that Shane finally agreed to try for CDC.

The atmosphere at the camp was still very grim and heavy so I decided to go hunting before we head out the following morning and asked Darryl along with me in hopes to get on the redneck's good side.

My thoughts wandered to the day I got to the camp. It was the best and the worst moment since I woke up in that hospital. I still couldn't believe I had found Carl, Lori and Shane safe and sound there. When I looked around the camp trying to find another familiar face, Shane told me how Kiara had left for Boston two days after I got shot, because her mom got attacked in the hospital she was working in and died few hours after. They hadn't heard from her since. Only after everything had gone to hell they assumed that her mom must have been one of the first victims of the outbreak. I felt my heart sink upon hearing this and fear crept into my soul. That night I hadn't slept, trying to figure out what to do. I was truly conflicted. I knew I had to find her somehow but I also knew I had to keep my family and friends safe.

We were walking through the woods for a while when we heard panting and shuffling of feet in the close distance. We sneaked towards the sound and saw a young woman finishing killing a Walker with a sword of some sort and then slumping to the ground. As we got closer I noticed her hair was the familiar dark auburn colour. "This is too good to be true" I thought to myself but as I hunched over the barely conscious woman, I realized it was really her. Her face covered in sweat and Walker blood and those beautiful turquoise eyes looking cloudy and confused as she was trying to reach for her sword. She then closed her eyes as if expecting something bad to happen. I called out her name and she reached her hand to touch my face.

"This must be the best hallucination I've ever had", she chuckled, "How are you here right now?" I hugged her tightly still not believing I found her. She winced sharply and only then I noticed her bleeding wound. The panic rose in my throat and I started to pick her up. She protested weakly and started to look around for her gear. Darryl picked it up and was starting towards the camp. I tried to lighten the mood by introducing him to Kiara but was shut down immediately by the snappy redneck. I didn't blame him, we needed to get her to the relative safety of the camp and tend to her wounds. It was no time for the introductions. As we headed for the camp I noticed she started to drift off and the panic inside rose again. I checked her vitals and noticed she was breathing steadily and probably just dosed off from sheer exhaustion. I quickened my pace nevertheless. I couldn't believe I found her. Now everybody I cared about was within my reach and under my protection.