What we could've been | TWD Carnid

STRANGER

 ENID

Red. All I see is red. Blood everywhere I look. Then my sense of smell awake and a wave of nausea hits me as soon as I get sniff of death. And their eyes... Their once filled with life eyes are now all white and empty. I stumble back, trying to get away but even though I am not looking, I can feel their gaze and their screams are haunting me. It just keep getting higher and higher until my head feels like it's going to explode. I put my hands on my ears, trying to stop it. Please make it stop. I can't hear them anymore. I just can't.

"Aaah!" I wake up screaming, my knife out.

Out-of-breath with tears rolling down my cheeks, I take a good minute before being able to slow down my heart rate. In an abandoned car I've found yesterday night, I look through the dusty windows to see if anyone's there. I can hear some irregular footsteps but it's just some lonely walkers. Even so, I still hold on tight to my weapon, in a way of reassuring me. I am exhausted. Between the cold and hunger, sleep is not an easy thing. Especially not here. And when I finally find it, nightmares take over.

That's why, well aware I can't go back to sleep, I decide to search the car. I haven't done it before because of how tired I was yesterday. Especially since I had to outrun the whisperers. I think I am safe for now as I covered my tracks but it won't take long before they catch up to me. Still, here I am, opening the glove department. I don't find anything useful except for an empty bottle that I could fill up next time and a map of the area. That is until I find a lighter. I laugh a bit out-of-joy as I hold in my hand a source of heat. I immediately light it up to warm my freezing hands. But no flame whatsoever appears. It's empty. I try again and again, hoping for one spark but nothing comes out. Nothing. Out of rage, I throw it against the window but it only bounces back and falls on the floor. I don't know if it's the sound of the lighter on the window that left nothing but a small crack on it, or me grunting of frustration but some walkers start heading for the car. One starts scratching on the widow once he spots me. I stare at him from the inside of the car, annoyed as it's disrupting me. But I ignore it to roll out the map on the seat.

It's really dusty so I blow on it. Terrible mistake. It just ends up with me coughing as hell which brings back another walker. The window still holding on, I look at the map and, with a pencil I've found in the department of the car door, put myself in action. I begin with crossing every place I've tried to escape and failed, then the last places where I spotted the different herds surrounding the forest. I am quite far from the camp now, maybe three or four days on foot. That's even further away from the Kingdom or Alexandria. I don't write the cities down, in case the map falls into the wrong hands, only the bridges leading there. I stay out of the roads but never too far to be able to have a way back if needed. Once sure of my next stop, I roll up the map and put it inside my bag's side pocket. I then take the axe on the front seat : time to take care of these walkers.

Because the other doors are blocked, the only way out is the one where now three walkers are piling up. I roll down the opposite window, not enough for me to pass through, but enough for me to throw at the nearest tree in front anything I can find to distract the walkers. Two of them remain on the door but at least the last one steps back. It gives me the opportunity to push the door but because it's too heavy I can only partially open it. I let go of my axe to take my knife which is easier to manipulate while pushing the door.

"Hey you idiot." I call for the first walker to bring his head close enough for me to plunge my knife into his eye. With some weight off and one last hard push, I succeed in opening the door and getting out of the car. I take the other walker out right away with my blade before taking my ax and bag still in the car. The last walker comes back just as I swing my axe so hard it splits its head open.