War on the Body [1]

[23] Running north

Since the time of the prison falling many survivors lost faith, while a few still held out for their loved ones. Beth was one of the only people that believed she would once again see Maggie and the others. She had accepted Paige's death after the argument with Daryl. Not wanting to but not being able to deny it any longer.

Glenn knew he would be reunited with his wife, even though Tara and the three new people doubted it. Tara knew she would follow Glenn, even if she didn't believe in the same thing. She didn't know where Maggie was, she didn't think Maggie was still alive.

Maggie believed that Glenn and Beth were out there, until she came across the prison bus. Nobody had survived and for a small amount of time, she had believed Glenn to be dead. But he wasn't there, he had somehow survived.

Sasha believed her younger brother, Tyrese to be alive. He was a tough guy with a soft side, had the tendency to care too much. Sasha had watched her brother grow to be a loving and stubborn man, not showing fear unless he was truly scared.

Paige had hoped her sisters were still alive, that by some miracle so was her brother. She knew it was stupid to dwell on the lost but she couldn't help the feeling that they were still out there. She knew they were out there and she couldn't pass up the idea of never seeing them again.

So Paige made up her mind, as she walked from the prison. She would head north to find her brother and hope she would encounter her previous group one day again. She stood to her feet and ran to the nearest road, hoping to find somewhere safe for her to stitch her side up. She walked for what seemed to be hours upon hours and had found a car, she looked around not seeing anything dead or alive before she had opened the driver side door. The car had some gas, not enough to make it very far but enough to gain some significant distance. As she hotwired the car she heard a voice call out, causing her head to jerk in it's direction. A group of six guys were approaching her, the guy in the front being the one who spoke.

"Claimed!"

Paige worked as fast as she could, she had no idea what the man had meant by yelling that one word but she knew it wasn't good. "Leave me alone!' She yelled back as she worked to start the car up.

"Why would we ever do that sweetheart?"

"I will kill you if you come any closer!" Paige had threatened.

"No you won't, you know you want some" The dirty man in front yelled.

" I most definitely do not want, anything you have" Paige yelled fiddling with the wires once more.

The car had decided to not start but the head strong girl was persistent and just when she thought she was done for, the car roared to life.

She turned to face the guys, with a smirk on her face and her middle finger up. Putting the car in drive she sped down the street, hoping to find a viable solution for shelter. But first she had to find some medical supplies. She drove until the gas had run out, luckily there was a bait shop nearby so she made her way there. The roads were empty and she felt as if it was just the beginning all over again. She was on her own, no family, no friends, and no weapons. She stumbled into the bait shop, no walkers had come to her but it wasn't going to be safe forever and she knew that for a fact. She walked to the almost completely empty shelves and searched for fishing line or twine, she needed to close her wound no matter how unsanitary it was. But she couldn't find a damn thing, nothing was going to help with her wound that was in the scavenged bait shop. She left the shop, checking the surrounding area for anything that could harm or help her. She found nothing.

Paige groaned as she realized what needed to be done, She started to gather sticks and leaves to start a fire. She was going to have to pull the knife from her side and heat it up to cauterize the wound, all without bleeding to death. She knew she couldn't put it off any longer so as she built a fire and readied herself for the inevitable pain, she thought of her siblings and then she thought of her parents and last but definitely she thought of her group. Daryl, Rick, Carl, Judith, Sasha, Carol, Bob, Ty, and Glenn. She looked to the road and surrounding forest, sure there wasn't anything or anyone before she pulled the knife straight out of her and stuck the blade into the fire. As the blade heated, she held her hand to the wound to create pressure and hopefully slow the bleeding down. The knife was heated up enough as the blade turned a slight orange red color, Paige taking in her surroundings once more before taking her discarded top and putting it in between her teeth. As she finished this, she pulled the hot knife from the fire and pressed it against her wound, sucking in a deep breath as to not scream aloud. Paige dropped the knife to the ground as she caught her breath, attempting to slow her racing heart.

Paige stood to her feet and grabbed the knife in her hand, before stomping the fire out and clambering down the cracked and abandoned road. Paige had walked with her side burning and her body screaming for rest for a few more hours before she found an old pickup truck to sleep in. She climbed into the single cab and locked the doors before falling asleep.

She slept like a baby that night, her body to drained and tired to allow her to have nightmares of insomnia. She would be tired the next day no matter how much sleep she got, it would never be enough sleep. Not after the virus had occurred would she ever receive the amount of sleep needed to keep her body healthy and in shape. She would never un enough to keep her lungs from feeling as if they were on fire. She would never be the same and she just had to accept it.