Flesh Eaters

The Girl in the Tree

Chapter 2 - The Girl in the Tree

*Murphy's POV*

I wake to the sound of something moving in the tall, dry, dead grass that surrounds me. Rolling over onto my stomach I reach for my crossbow. I reach for an arrow as the scent of decay reaches my nose. As the scent grows stronger I take aim. Moments later the grass parts and an eater stumbles toward me. Its bloody arms reaching out for me as it moans hungrily. I aim for its head and pull the trigger. The arrow easily pierces its skull dropping it dead.

I sigh and stand. Slinging the crossbow over my back I walk over to the eaters body. Looking down at it I mumble to myself, "ugly sum' bitch" and pull my arrow out. I wipe the blood off on my pants leg and head back to my camp. As the sun starts to rise I pack up what little I have and continue on my path to nowhere.

I have no plans 'bout where I'm going, never did. Maybe I would've if my ma' didn't leave me alone with my sister the way she did. Oh, my little sister, Annabelle. I would've done anything, givin' anything to protect her. I couldn't move fast enough, I tripped and the eater, it bit her before I could do anything. At the time I didn't know a bite made you one of them. I tried to save her, but I lost her, and she became one of them.

My pa', don't even know him. Wouldn't want to even if could. He raped my ma' and left her for dead. Police found her, took her in for questioning but she was so strung out on drugs that they locked her up instead. Enough 'bout that. I don't even wanna think 'bout my family, my past.

I head East, always keeping the morning sun in front of me and my sister behind me. She's never far behind, always hungry for my flesh. I couldn't bring myself to end her, I've tried.

When the sun is almost directly above me I stop to hunt, need food after all. I pull my crossbow off my back and start tracking. Before long I'm on the trail of a small deer. I follow it's tracks and soon find it grazing on a patch of dry grass. Crouching down, out of its sight I take aim at its chest. I pull the trigger back and send the arrow silently hurtling through the air. It pierces the deer's flesh right where I aimed. The deer runs a few steps before it drops to the ground. It kicks a few times then completely stops moving.

I smirk as I stand and sling my crossbow over my back. I've always had a pretty dead on shot, self taught at that. I head over to my kill and pull the arrow out. I wipe the blood off on my pants and put it with the rest of my arrows. I unholster my knife and set to work, first skinning then gutting the deer. Once finished with that I look up and notice a couple eaters starting to shuffling toward me. Quickly I gather some meat and put it in the dufflebag I carry. I look up at the eaters for a moment before turning and continuing East.

As I'm walking I come to a small trailer park similar to the one I grew up in. A few eaters roam around the trailers, searching for living flesh probably long gone by now. I pull my crossbow off my back and press forward. Soon I notice more than one eater heading in the same direction and decide to check it out. Quietly I creep after the eaters and find at least ten of them surrounding the trunk of a rather tall Beech tree. Their hungry hands reach upward toward something unseen to my eye. Figuring it's probably a squirrel or a cat I start to turn away only to hear a voice. I turn back to the Beech tree and take a closer look. In the branches I notice something moving. Carefully I walk closer and stop just behind a trailer.

Now up close I see a young girl, about my age, crouching on a branch. In her right hand she holds a hunting knife and glares down at the eaters. She looks up and see me watching and shouts, "Don't just stand there dumb ass, do something!"

That, right there, pisses me off. I should just walk away, leave her stranded up in that tree, but something makes me raise my crossbow. Calmly I send an arrow into the head of an eater and load up another arrow. Easily I drop all the eaters, not missing a single one. I sling my crossbow back onto my back and head over to the tree to collect my arrows as the girl starts to climb down the tree.

As I pull the first arrow out from an eaters eye socket the girl jumps outta the tree, landing in front of me. Ignoring her I move on to the next eater's body. She watches me with a smug expression on her face. As I yank out my second arrow she says, "Thanks, dumb ass."

Again I feel my anger flare and wish I would of left her up in the tree. I glare at her as I pull out another arrow. "Your just lucky I had the heart to stop," I say and pull out my last arrow. "What'd ya think your doing up in that tree anyway?"

Still looking at me with that smug expression she says, "What the hell do you think I was doing? Playing with the eaters? I was surviving. You really are a dumb ass."

That's it, I had enough of her. Holding the arrow I turn and face her, "call me that one more fuckin' time and I swear..."

Crossing her arms she steps towards me. "You'll what? Hit me? You wouldn't hit a defenceless girl, would you?"

"Screw you," I say and storm away. Fuck her, she can do whatever the hell she wants. I'm not sticking around to be treated like shit. I adjust my crossbow and continue East. I knew I should've turned away, kept going like I saw nothing.

"Hey! Wait," the girl calls after me.

I ignore her and keep moving but before long she's jogging along side of me. I sigh and adjust my crossbow again. Great I have a tag along, I think to myself.

"Where you headed," the girl asks after a moment of silence.

"What'd you care?"

"I don't. You just don't see many people passing through here is all. Besides it's not very safe in that direction."

At that I slow my pace a bit and ask, "And why's that?"

"Eaters," she says then adds, "I'm Grey by the way."

(A/N) So what do you think of Murphy? Would you trust Grey? Did Murphy do the right thing, stopping for Grey? What about the eaters? Should there be more eater action?

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