When the dead start walking, Sam learns that survival is all that matters and people will do crazy things to stay alive and even crueler things to each other.
The walkers aren't nearly as dangerous as people. She had to learn that the hard way.
Unti...
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The deer treaded carefully through the forest, making next to no noise over the sound of the flowing river to its north. Presumably where it was headed but before it could get closer to its destination, I grinned and let my arrow loose and my smile stretched even wider when I hit it straight through the eye and killed it instantly.
It had been a long time since I had venison.
Without wasting another second I hopped down from my perch in the oak tree and pulled the arrow from its head, checking it wasn't damaged from the impact before returning it to my quiver.
"Better me than some walker getting to you." I mumbled under my breath as I crouched down, my hunting knife drawn and ready to start the tedious process of skinning and gutting the animal, making sure not to waste a single ounce of it. All that was left by the time I was done was blood and inedible bits of flesh and bone.
Which reminded me I had to clear out quickly before the stench of a fresh kill draws the walkers toward me, it was too early in the morning for me to even think about dealing with them yet.
I quickly took off my quiver and threw my half full backpack on and reattached my quiver and bow to said bag, ready to make a move I pulled the folded up map out of my back pocket and easily found my location. Since I was low on supplies such as water, clothes and other necessities I had slowly been making my way toward a nearby town.
Hopefully it had what I needed and I wouldn't bump into any trouble along my way. The last thing I wanted was to bump into any people.
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The town was a lot further than the map made it out to be but luckily there was highway some ways through the woods that was a straight shot to it.
However, I was quickly sidetracked from my journey when a distant scream echoed through the trees. Ordinarily, I would've just kept walking. Chances are by the time I got there they would've been bitten or eaten and in my experiences, people are more of a threat than walkers because we can be much more unpredictable.
The only thing that made me turn and start sprinting towards the screams with my knife drawn was the fact that it wasn't an adult screaming, it was a child.
Luckily I was fast and arrived to the source of the distress to see a little girl stuck in a ditch, holding back a walker with a thick log.
It was mere inches from her face, snapping and snarling at her.
I dropped my bag and shot into action, jumping down into the ditch and ripping the walker away from her and throwing it to the ground before stabbing it through the skull. I holstered my knife back onto my thigh and looked to the little girl, who was silent sobbing while staring up at me.
"Are you alright?" I asked carefully as I crouched down to her level. "Are you hurt?" Without replying back to me, the girl shot into my arms and clutched onto me tightly, sending me down onto my back.
"I...I'm sorry." She sobbed into my chest which made me furrow my brows in confusion. She had no reason to apologise whatsoever. "You s-saved me...but I got bit." My blood ran cold and I looked down at her to see she had a patch off fresh blood on her calf, a fresh bite mark.
"Am I gonna...turn into a monster?" I couldn't find the words to comfort her so I instead, wrapped my arms around her and held her tighter.
"Where are your parents?"
"I-I got scared on the highway and ran from my mom and everyone...do you think they're still looking for me?"
"I'm sure they are. I'm going to help you find them okay but we need to go now. Can you walk?"
"N-No...it hurts."
"That's okay, I'll carry you." I say before running back to my backpack. "I'll put you on my shoulders." I made quick work of it too. This girl only had four days at most before she turned, that's the way I've seen it work. First it's pain, then it's a fever which only gets worse and worse until it kills you. Then you come back and you aren't nothing but a mindless, hungry beast that will rot and decay as time goes until your bones are exposed but even that doesn't stop you from killing people.
You won't stop until someone stops you and I refuseto let an innocent child meet that fate.
"What's your name?"
"Sophia."
"I'm Sam, let's go find your mommy."
If the last thing I can do for this little girl was reuniting her with her mother and group before she met her end then I will do anything to make it happen, I know what it's like to see people I care about die and there's one regret that I have about it all.
