One Bullet....Two Lives... (A Walking Dead Fanfic)

Memories Hurt

"Explore. Dream. Discover."

Chapter Thirty-Six

~Angel's POV~

We started our trip early in the morning..too early. The sun was barely in the sky, pale streaks of light stretching across the sky like long and bony fingers. I yawned quietly and rubbed the sleep from my eyes as the group and I trudged on. The air had a bit of a chill to it, slowing down the numbers of the Walkers. We were hoping as the weather got cooler, it would temporarily stop the dead dudes from becoming a large problem. So far, we had only seen a few, which is a very good sign.

"Why do you think the cold weather slows them down?" Maggie asked, pushing her curly hair behind her ears. She smiled at me and continued walking with Glenn beside her. Rick and Daryl shrugged and started their own conversation with each other. Hershel pondered on the thought and seemed to have a hypothesis.

" Well, it is cold weather, think about it sweetie. A lot of them have gotten far in their decaying process. The cold could cause their skin to freeze, some could lose their limbs from frostbite, possibly even freeze themselves until warm weather comes. This gives people or us an advantage to clear alot of them out without trouble." Hershel's answer was very logical. I agreed with him, as did the rest. Judith whimpered in Daryl's arms, her angelic face puckering up.

We all knew she was hungry, but we had nothing to give her. She needed milk, not real food. She was a baby, not a toddler. I sighed and looked beyond the trees and bushes obscuring my view. We needed to find a gas station, an abandoned house, anything for now. We moved on for hours, stepping over fallen trees and long forgotten Walkers. Daryl knew where to go, he knew alot of this area from exploring it as a kid.

He estimated that if we were to walk until the next morning and half through that day, continuing this, we could be there in less than a week. My hand pressed against my aching stomach, my head starting to pound again. I took slow breaths and tried concentrating on something else. I clenched my fist together, sparking a dull pain from my sprained fingers. I focused on that pain, willing my headache to go away. I knew what I was doing to myself, I knew I needed to eat.

After that Safe Haven, the people, the food, it makes me want to vomit. It terrified me, knowing how easy it could be to get infected. How easy it would've been to ignore the hacking and coughing, to eat the food and possibly...possibly get the virus too. What confused me most was..the people weren't dead when they turned. That thought drilled inside my brain day in and day out. When this shit started, I thought it was when the body had shut down. Dead and gone, then the infection would turn it into the walking dead.

Now, it increased to something more. You don't have to be dead to turn. That sentence floated around in my head, repeating itself over and over. I looked at Charlotte, who had suddenly gripped my free hand. I smiled down at her, the corners of my mouth twitching as the pain grew again. She innocently looked around, blood still splattered onto her clothes. I looked at Judith, then Charlotte. Two little girls trapped in this kind of world. I couldn't bare to think the thought of one of them turning.

No matter how strong I was, I would not be able to put a gun to these children's heads. To pull the trigger and know that I was the one who had ended their miserable life. I felt my throat tighten and decided to kick those thoughts, at least until later. After what seemed to be an hour, I heard more moans as a break was seen in the woods. Daryl smiled and stepped through the gap, us following behind him. I pushed Charlotte behind me and raised my pistol as we walked into a campsite.

"Jackpot." Daryl muttered, keeping his voice to a whisper. We walked down a trail, seeing the different campers abandoned here and there. Rick handed the baby to Hershel as he walked up to a large rock and picked it up. He looked back at us and waited until we nodded to bring the rock back and hurl it at a trashcan. The force sent the can toppling over, spilling over empty food cans and trash. The sound rattled through the silence, the shuffle of feet being a response. My finger was on the trigger as they started showing up and coming after us.