Shared Blood (A Walking Dead fan fic.)

Arrows - Chapter 1

If there was anything Caylx had learned in the zombie apocalypse, it was how to run. And how to run fast. You didn't survive just by skipping your way past death. Traditionally, you might think she'd pick fire building skills or some of the knowledge she'd gained through the survival handbooks and guides she'd found, but believe it or not, you won't find anything more important than knowing how to run in the zombie apocalypse. Not a single guidebook that she'd picked up along the way mentioned anything about being in shape, and honestly, they really should. Because really, there's no chance in hell you're gonna make it anywhere if you can't run. You don't even have to know how to use a gun in this world, actually it's almost better that you don't (the noise actually attracts them). But if you can run...

Well then consider yourself ALIVE.  
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Give her whatever explanation you want, but Caylx could've sworn she was only being followed by two biters. But surely enough, dehydration, exhaustion, and the plethora of other ailments impairing her, doubled that number pretty fuckin' quickly. Caylx was in some pretty deep shit, for lack of a better term, and really, there's only so many times one can escape from the hands of death... And Caylx was pretty sure she'd exceeded that limit a long time ago.

The greenery surrounding her usually provided her with a sense of safety, however right now, the ever increasing amount of  trees and their sprouting roots were proving to be more of an obstacle for Caylx than an advantage. The forest was both a blessing and a curse, and Caylx knew that first hand, but that didn't stop her from feeling slightly bitter about the whole thing.

She was trying to concentrate on where the hell she was going, but honestly, she hadn't eaten a real meal in days and had been lost for hours. Trying to figure out where she was and where she was going was long gone out of the picture. Her whole body was working against her and the limp in her right leg certainly wasn't helping. The injury itself was a foolish mistake, she'd jumped from high up in trees to collect her traps before but surely she wasn't invincible. No, that was left to the biter population, who no matter how many kills she had to her name, barely made a dent in their massive numbers.

The odds were definitely not in Caylx's favor, and somehow she couldn't help but think this was karma for the stupid tree stunt. She should've known better... She did, she did know better...

But she supposed that didn't matter all that much now, provided she was still stuck in this mess and no matter how she got in it in the first place really bears no relevance to her chances of survival now anyways. Her pocket knife was unmistakably chipped, the blade could barely chop a walnut in half if she tried, the strength of her bow lacked the ability to do the same amount of damage as it once had before, and she had only three field tipped arrows left in her posession, which left no room for error seeing as she was already one arrow short of taking out all four of them with one arrow each.

Honestly? Caylx was screwed, and there was really no other way around it. 

She grunted, stumbling over a small rock, stupid. Whipping her head around, brown locks slapping her face in pursuit, she could see that she had gained some substancial distance on them-- enough to catch her breath for half a second and nock an arrow. There was no room for mistakes, and if Caylx was gonna survive this, she was gonna have to do this right.

There was really no other way around it.

Slowly, Caylx drew the bow string back. It was ripped in some parts, practically chewed through in others, but beggars can't be choosers, and a mediocre archer in the zombie apocalypse was no certainly no exception. She lined it up with the base of her chin, the shaft perpendicular to her jaw bone and a familiar burning sensation began to spread throughout her arm, igniting her muscles painfully. She knew this meant she couldn't hold her aim for long, so she adjusted her grip tightly and placed a solid aim. There was no time to waste.