Haunted | Daryl Dixon

26. Train Track

Evelyn's pain was like this train track. Never ending.

As she walked along it, stepping from piece to piece, the names floated back into her mind.

The names of the ones she lost.

With every name she thought of, another stab into her already brutalized heart.

She walked along the train track that would bring her to the new community. To Terminus.

It felt as though she had been walking for days, when, in reality, it had only been a few hours.

Through that time, just as she had promised herself, she thought over if going was actually a good idea. In the end, though, she decided she had nothing left to lose.

Her pack with scavenged supplies from a town near the prison was nearly empty and within the two weeks since the fall of it, she had gotten a total of ten hours of sleep. And, of course, it wasn't as if she had anyone else.

It was hard to stay in unconsciousness long when everytime she closed her eyes, torments of the prison and the people that had once resided in it haunted her.

Suddenly, Evelyn was snapped back to reality. Something was wrong.

The woman froze midstep, senses immediately heightened as she tensed and waited, her hand immediately grasping onto her knife in her belt and pulling it out.

She listened to her surroundings whilst her eyes swept them but she couldn't find anything-

The smell.

There was a fire nearby. A big fire.

A frown pulled at her lips. If she was drawing nearer to the new community, then was it possible that something was wrong with it? That something went wrong?

Before she had anytime to try and expand upon that thought, a sound reached her ears.

Shuffling footsteps. Lots of them.

There must be a herd of walkers heading her way.

Had Evelyn come across this two weeks ago, she would've done the smart thing and immediately turned on her heel and run for a safe spot, probably scaling a tree to hide in.

Only, two weeks ago. Evelyn was still with Daniel. Evelyn had just been taken into the prison. Evelyn had just gotten a new family.

Now, though, Evelyn had lost all of that.

Evelyn had nothing to live for.

So, she stood there, stone faced and waited. She waited for the walkers to come to her.

Some part of her, deep down, knew this wasn't right, knew that she shouldn't be anticipating killing them. But she was.

She needed to take her frustrations out. She needed to drive her knife into something.

She needed to see if the world would let her live afterwards. If the world thought her life was still worth living.

There was no doubt in Evelyn's mind that had this been the world before the outbreak, someone would take one look at her and call the police.

Her hair was tousled every which way, no doubt having sticks and mud caked in through the knots of it.

Dark bags sat prominently under her eyes, showcasing her lack of sleep to the entire world.

The clothes she wore were torn in multiple places and grew dirtier and dirtier by the day.

She looked like a crazy woman.