The Walking Dead: Three Knives (a fanfiction, based off of Season 3 & 4)

Chapter 2- Goodbye

I awake to a scream. My eyes shoot open and I see that the sky is still dark- the moon is directly above me.

"WALKERS!" I hear Addy scream into the night. I bolt up out of the small hammock I had made and try to clutch onto a nearby branch, but miss and my face lands on it instead. I curse under my breath. Walkers had to attack at night didn't they? They couldn't ever attack at convenient times.

Branch after branch I hurry down the tree, but I try not to move too fast, or I'll slip. Next time I'll remember not to go so high up in the trees to sleep.

Finally I reach the ground. No walkers are in sight around me, so my guess is that they are invading the opposite side of the camp. Though I am used to killing them, it was different when it was nighttime and there were so many. I'm only 5,5, and some of the 'walkers' that I've killed have been a lot larger. I'll have to remind myself later to raid an overrun military campground to search for night vision goggles.

I run to the camp as fast as I can keeping an eye out for the dead, but encounter none. More screams sound throughout, and my anxiety bubbles in my throat. Before the apocalypse I had to take anxiety pills because it would get to so bad. Now that it's the end of the world, it didn't really come in my favor to be without.

I finally reach the camp and I burst through the shred of trees. I didn't care if they saw me- they needed my help. My eyes widen to see how many walkers are in the camp. There looks to be about fifteen or twenty, and if the screams keep up there'll be a lot more.

I close my eyes for a quick second to feel anger rush through me. I did this every time I fought to make myself stronger. I harnessed and controlled my anger and used it to fight more accurately.

I unlatch the knives from a pouch hanging on my belt and start throwing. I hit one directly in the temple who was nearly on top of Addy. He looks up at me, shocked, but I keep going. I feel the presence of a walker behind me and instinctively stab it in the eye, and then throw it at the one trying to kill Isabelle.

I throw my last one, then retrieve them as fast as I can to repeat the process. I try to move a knife from one of the head's, but find it to be stuck. I step on the head and pull as hard as I can, but it doesn't budge, and then I feel one of the walkers behind me. I look up at the tree in front of me and hop into it, then swing my leg at the walker to catch it in the jaw. I harshly pull at a strong branch from the tree and it breaks. Careful not to miss, I jump out of the tree and swiftly smash the stick into the right, infected eye of the walker.

Another shriek from the center captures my attention, and that is when I see a walker five times Isabelle's size fall on top of her.

"No!" I scream and run at it, and on my way throw a knife in the head of a walker attacking Dill. It didn't slow me down one bit. I could have thrown a knife at the walker on top of Isabelle, but its head was perched sideways, hidden by its shoulder.

I reach the walker and stab it in the head, but by that time, I know it is already too late.

Dawn breaks in the back, which sheds some light. I roll the walker off of Isabelle in hopes that she hasn't been bitten...

But there is a gaping hole in her neck.

Blood gushes out of the hole, pooling slowly on the ground. I don't know what I felt in that moment, disappointment? I can't remember the last time I actually felt... sorrow, or any emotion other than slight frustration over the past year since the outbreak. The others kill off what's left of the walkers, and that is when they see her, laying on the ground, helpless. Hank screams in anguish as he sees his little sister in the center, and cries out even more when he sees his brother Addy crouched in an odd position in the corner by a walker who gouged into him. Addy had just enough time to kill it after it tore into him. The mother stares in shock at everything that just happened, and again, I couldn't stand to look at her. She hadn't helped in the slightest. Pregnant of not, she could have saved Isabelle.

I crouch down, and Isabelle's breath is faint. Her eyes are squinted open and her voice is barely a whisper, "Angel?"

My mouth strays agape. Six months. That's how long it's been since somebody's ever spoken to me. Six months.

She twitches as if her body is becoming irritable, "Guardian angel, is that you?"

I debate on how to answer this. I haven't much hope in God ever since this has happened, but I suppose I had to give somebody else hope in an afterlife. She's eleven for heaven's sake.

I tune my voice to sound angelic and calming, even though I felt a pang of anguish sear throughout my chest. I can't remember this feeling, and it makes me uncomfortable. I tried to train myself to become incapable of feeling major emotions. They got in the way of survival and were pointless in the end. Everybody dies.

"Yes, I am." I say in a peaceful voice. I had used to be an actress. Not that I was in movies, but that's what I had aimed for before the apocalypse. I wanted to act or do voice overs. I had the ability to change my voice, and I was quite efficient with improvisation.

Her eyes widen a little bit, trying to take in my pale face. I suppose it helped give off the impression of being angelic. I wasn't in the sun too much because I was always well hidden in the canopy of the trees. I also had the long blond wavy hair, though I had the top section of it braided. I tried to keep my bangs out of the way so it wouldn't obscure my peripheral vision. My eyes are an intimidating peircing blue, but yet can show fathomable kindness, which helped to give off the angelic appearance.

Isabelle smiles widely at me, and I don't know how she has the strength to do so. I lower my face closer to hers to hear her better. Audibly, she was tiny.

"I think I see him." She whispers.

"Who do you see, Love?" I ask, and stroke a piece of her hair back.

"God's calling me." A tear slips her eye, and her gaze bores into mine, "Right?"

I smile, trying my absolute hardest not to tear up, "Yes, Isabelle."

Her eyes blink for several seconds before they reopen. Oh god... The blood. Does it stop?

"You'll be with me in heaven, right?"

Somehow, I can't bring myself to lie to this one. I frown, "I have other little girls I need to protect."

"But you'll be with me eventually, right?"

Why did this have to hurt me so much? I smile, but my lip quivers, "Absolutely."

"Thank You."

Her chest heaves one last breath, and then she is still. The blood looks already as if it is starting to coagulate. Her eyes begin to glaze, and I know she is gone. I know I should stab her in the head so she won't become one of those- things, but I can't bring myself to do it.

I couldn't. I wouldn't.

Before I shift onto my feet, I lean over and kiss her forehead. If there is a heaven, Lord have mercy on her. She's just an innocent child. Through her eyes, the world was an innocent place, even with the monsters walking about, eating.

I feel the groups eyes on me, but I don't look. I'm afraid if I look at the mother now I'll tear her throat out screaming, "This is your fault!"

But it's not completely her fault. In a way, I take the blame too.

I retrieve my three knives and then walk slowly to the edge of the clearing in a bold stance. Before I leave, I turn around and meet everybody's gaze. Hank is so distraught that he can barely stare, he just keeps looking at the ground. It's okay. I understood. I didn't want their gratitude- they had nothing to thank me for. Absolutely nothing. I had only come for Isabelle.

Dill cautiously approaches me though, and I let him.

"You're the one who fed us? The berries... The walkers that endangered us but died 'fore we got to them?"

I don't respond, or even give the slightest nod, just stare, but he takes it as a yes.

"Thank You. You saved what we have left. Thank You."

I nod my head at him and then turn away.

That's when I make a promise with myself to never get involved ever again.