Sweet Child O' Mine-TWDfic

Southern Hospitality

The growl of Valerie's stomach broke her from her thoughts. She had been hiding out in the woods for 5 days and the only food she had been able to catch were a few squirrel in snares she had set about. Of course those went fast and it turned out Val had been a bit rusty with her hunting skills, leaving her alone with her thoughts and hunger on this uneventful evening.

Currently she was sitting with her back to a rather uncomfortable oak tree, with her legs crossed at the ankle out in front of her. She was attempting to carve a small bear out of wood with her trusty pocket knife, having particular trouble in the dark.

Night time was typically uneventful for Valerie, as it was too dark to get much done. She had tried to catch something more to eat but that ended with her tripping over a rock and landing with a painful thud onto the ground. That was the end of that and now she had settled into her whittling.

Sitting in front of Val were some soft embers, just enough for her to keep warm by. She wasn't very worried about being spotted as for all she knew, she was alone in these woods, far from the living and the dead alike. Still, she was cautious.

For the past hour or so, all that had even made a sound was the hoot of an owl in the distance. At least that was all she heard until now, as Val heard a twig snap a few kilometers away in front of her. Immediately she sat up, in a defensive position, ready to fight or flee if necessary.

For a minute everything was still, until she heard the crunch of leaves in the distance. Was it a bear or coyote? That would be if she were lucky. She heard another crunch, this time from her left. Something was coming from multiple directions. Whatever it was, she knew better than to wait and find out.

She stood up quickly and silently, grabbing her backpack and stomping out the embers in front of her. One by one, she began to hear more snapping of twigs and crunching of leaves. Thats when she began to hear the low moans of walkers. Still kilometers away, they began approaching her.

She turned on her heel and began running as quiet as she could. Each step she took was placed with care, doing everything she could not to trip or make too much noise. The more and more she ran, the more the cool air attacked her throat with a sharp pain, shooting down to her lungs.

She was running uphill now, pushing her body to its limit, fighting each branch that hung down to scratch and batter her face like claws. She was loosing stamina. She had already been without energy due to hunger, and now she was really starting to feel each calorie burn out of her body. She felt as though the squirrel was crawling up her throat for revenge.

All of a sudden, she is cut off by the growl of another walker, pushing her to make a sharp left. She felt like she was running in circles and she didn't know how much longer she could keep up. She was coming up on a tree with a few branches just low enough for her to climb. Would she get stuck up there? What if they surrounded her? But on the other hand she was about to pass out. She needed to take that risk.

She then used all of the energy she had left to grip the lowest branch and throw herself up. Branch by branch she forced her way through the tree as high as she could, nearly falling when a few branches snapped under her weight.

In the pitch black she could hardly make anything out, but she could assume from the grunts and sound of movement below, they were surrounding her just as she suspected. She was too worn out to do anything about it now, so she opted to take a bit of time to rest.

While Val attempted to steady her breathing, she quickly leaned over the side of the branch and wretched. Just as she thought, the squirrel came back up to get her. She wiped her face with her sleeve and leaned back, reaching in her backpack for a cigarette and lighter. It was a habit she picked up from her mother, who ironically would have traded her for a pack.