Ellie Dixon

Jesus

I could feel a weight on my body. I could smell the blood. I could hear the walkers. I could see piercing blue eyes staring into my brown ones. I tried to move, but it was too heavy. I managed to wiggle my hands free, and quickly discovered that it was Jesus laying on top of me. I turned my head to the side and saw walkers kneeling all around me. Blood was squirting to the ground. They were eating... But, what were they eating? "Jesus?" I whispered into his face. No response.

I couldn't move. I could feel my own blood on my hair. The sharp edges of the rock dug deep into my skin. If I moved, I would be to weak to fight off the six walkers that surrounded my body... Jesus' body. Jesus was a lot bigger than myself, so his entire being covered mine. When my brain stopped lagging due to whatever brain trauma I just endured... I realised they were feasting on the leader of Hilltop. A single tear slid down my face as I stared at Jesus' cold, dead eyes. Only when his body shifted slightly, his head moving to the side of my own... Did I see the knife plunged deep into the side of his head.

"Ellie, look out!" Jesus yelled.

He pushed me out of the way. He saved my life... Losing his own in the process. I wanted to cry at the realisation, crawl up in a ball and apologise to whatever screwed up God that was letting this happen... But, I remained silent. Like a coward, I just let those walkers eat my friend. It was his dead body, or my alive one... And I chose to sacrifice his. I bit my bottom lip as it began to tremble. I couldn't scream. I couldn't weep. I couldn't run. I couldn't escape. I was trapped.

Only when the walkers moved on from Jesus' corpse, to the corpses of the dead horses... Did I even consider the possibility of trying to escape. I brought my hands up and tried pushing at his chest. I groaned slightly, he was too heavy. I put all my weight into rolling us over. Jesus was on his back, I reached up and closed his eyes. Sparing a glance at the distracted walkers, I tried to get up, but my knees gave out on me.

This caught the attention of one of the walkers. He started slowly limping towards me. I tried to silently drag my body away. Whimpers left my mouth as I crawled as far as I could. I got to the closest tree, using the bark, I pulled myself to my feet. A loud groan left my lips as I pulled myself up. I managed to get up a couple feet, before laying back on the thickest branch. I let out a sharp breath as I tried to relax. My people would find me soon... I just had to have a little bit of faith, like Sophia always advised me.

"Ellie! Jesus!" Mama's voice rung in the air, catching the attention of the walker which had been clawing at my tree for the past three hours.

"Luke! Alden!" Magna's voice called.

"Ellie!" Dad's voice seemed aggressive, but it wasn't directed it at me, it never was... He was probably angry with himself. Unfortunately, that was a pattern.

"Anyone!" Tara shouted out.

I could see the group: Sophia, dad, Rosita, mama, Tara, Magna, Yumiko, Connie and Kelly. I watched as Yumiko killed the walker I had silently named Barry. He used to be a Pilot because his dream was to go to every country in the world. Or, he was a bartender in Texas. Maybe a lawyer in New York.

I watched as the group took out the walkers that had surrounded the horses. They were mostly doing it from a distance. The dead were a lot more dangerous now that we knew not all of them were dead. I couldn't say a word, my throat was too dry. The lack of blood was really getting to me... Again. I wasn't having a great twenty four hours. 

I couldn't hear their words, until my father's voice trailed from the others and into my direction. "Wait, wait... Look at these tracks here." He followed the trail I left when I crawled away, before his eyes slowly trailed up to me. "Ellie?" He yelled, dropping his crossbow and scaling the tree. I'd never seem him climb a tree... Nevermind with such speed. I heard my name repeated from mama, Sophia and Rosita's mouths as they gathered at the bottom. "Baby, are you okay?" Dad asked quietly, pulling me into the safety of his arms.