A teenage girl by the name of Ayla Meadows is held against her will and experimented on by a crazed scientist. Although she manages to escape the horrors with the help of a sheriff and his group, she is forever haunted by the memories of her torture...
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"Precipitate as weather, she appeared from somewhere, then evaporated, leaving only a memory." - Haruki Murakami
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She smells the smoke before she can see it. Its ashy taste claws its way up her throat and into her mouth until she's choking on it. Her body forces itself into a sitting position as she begins coughing from the exposure to the fumes. She curls over herself as she smacks at her chest roughly, attempting to clear her airways. Eventually, she succeeds and heaves in large breaths as the fresh air fills her body.
Once she regains some semblance of control over herself, Ayla stares down at her grimy hands. They are positively covered in dirt, blood, and other substances she'd prefer not to think about the origin of. Her head pounds and her eyes sting, but she cannot find it in herself to care one bit because somehow she is alive.
Tilting her head up, she sees that the sun is blinding and the sky is as blue as ocean. This signals to her that she's been unconscious for at least a couple of hours and yet for some reason, she hasn't turned. She reaches her hand up to touch her shoulder, praying that it was all just a dream, but unfortunately for her, as she strokes the jagged skin she finds the bite to still be very present.
At least there's a bright side to everything. She thinks to herself. Maybe now I'll have enough time to find the others and say goodbye. I might even be able to-
Her thoughts are cut off when she looks up to find a walker standing directly in front of her. She gasps and attempts to shuffle back but it's already too close. It trips over her legs and falls on top of her, squashing her against the ground. The fight loses her body when she becomes unable to move under the walkers weight and she accepts that finally, she will die.
My luck had to run out sooner or later. May as well get it over with.
But surprisingly, instead of tearing her apart, the walker simply stumbles to its feet again and walks away from her as if she never existed. Ayla stays frozen in shock for a long moment, wondering why on earth the walker ignored her. They're usually bloodthirsty monsters, sniffing out any human from a mile away to feast on their flesh and yet when Ayla was quite literally right underneath its nose, it walked away without a second glance.
She stands up cautiously and turns to face the wreck of a farm. Smoke emits from the barn which is a crumbled mess, everything else is either broken or burned, and an array of walkers are spread out across the grassy fields. Her curiosity causes her to follow the walker who ignored her. It is a young woman - possibly in her early twenties but it's difficult to tell. She wears a baby pink cardigan which is beginning to lose its colour due to the amount of blood it's caked in and a heart shaped pendant which hangs loosely around her neck. Ayla steps in front of her and blocks her path. The girl bumps into her and yet doesn't use the opportunity to attack her, only redirects the path she was taking.
