A woman is weaving through the trees, with one arm under her large belly and another shielding her face from the vicious scratches the branches leave.
The sun has left and returned since the dead invaded her home, hours have passed since she was separated from her family and surrounded by walkers with no escape other than the fence that encased their home.
The memories of their rotting faces getting closer encouraged her legs to keep up their pace, afraid of once again getting pinned back and panicking so much her thumping heart made her chest hurt.
She avoided their poisonous teeth thanks to the hunter of the group, who shot down any that got close and shouted to her the route to escape, which was a hole their group left in the fence when they first entered the prison.
With a final scream to her friend to take her son to safety, and the last sight of her husband with his revolver out and ready to protect his home, she began sprinting under the cover of the trees.
Her body is begging her to stop, but the only break she will give herself is when the contraction hits with so much force it takes her to her knees. She has attracted a walker every once and a while with a scream she was unable to suppress, but she would summon the strength to drive a stick through their brains and continued her sluggish run.
The logical part of her mind knows it's safe to stop but her body just won't obey, so set on getting her child to a safe place to be welcomed into the world, almost as if she runs far enough all the dangers that lurk around will disappear.
With yet another fallen tree in her path, she flings a leg over and practically throws the rest of her body to the other side, but before she can once again set off, another contraction hits, though this time it is accompanied by blood dripping down her thighs.
Pained groans scare the birds from their nests and the distant sound of moans from a corpse is suddenly heard once the woman's pain has passed.
'Just a few more steps' rings throughout the mother-to-be's head, the exhaustion and pain both encouraging her to just lay down and sleep, to give up despite the last twenty-four hours of fighting.
The dead are ascending the staggering woman, only an arm's reach from sinking their claws into her soft skin.
Just a few more steps.
And just before she gives in, the ground beneath her suddenly shifts and flings her into the air with a shocked scream, her half-closed eyes now wide open in fear.
Rope has her body surrounded like an animal caught in a trap, she's laying on a pile of leaves that were previously hiding the device from view, and now that she is suspended from a tree, the walkers are stupidly looking around for where their dinner had disappeared to letting her take a breath.
Her relief is short-lived though considering someone had obviously made this contraption, and she cannot outrun them even if she manages to somehow cut through the thick ropes.
The blood rushing to her head makes the light sound of clinking almost mute, but before she can search for the culprit, another contraction hits with such intensity she has to shove her fist between her teeth to not draw more corpses to her location. Blood is still gliding down her legs and she quickly catches a drop before it lands on a walker directly under her.
The blue sky has a gentle wind, swaying the clouds in a peaceful wave that helps slow her erratic heartbeat. A moment of calm during the shit storm that has happened to her this last day.
The moaning under her tired body is put to a stop with a familiar squelching sound and a body dropping, which instantly makes her moment of peace vanish.
With a shaky breath, she entangles her fingers in the rope to pull herself up so she's no longer looking at the heavens and instead gets sight of the gruelling reality and tries to catch sight of the survivor who inadvertently captured her.
Her head spins after leaving her reclined position and with her newfound blurred vision, she almost misses the small figure standing next to the tree that's connected to the rope she is hanging from.
With multiple blinks and a heave, she gets a view of the person who killed the walkers, and it is not what she expected.
"What the fucks wrong with you?"
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Torn Apart • TWD
FanfictionThe day the prison was attacked with walkers, Lori Grimes ran. She fled to the forest and she didn't stop running, determined to get to safety she didn't let anything stop her, not the dead, not nature and not even the contractions. The only thing...
