Angel Girl 〰➰〰 [TWD] [On Hold]

Welcome To The World

(I have never made a picture collage before, so bear with me)

The light of noon played across the leafy ground, it was beautiful, too bad beauty can't kill the undead. I used to smile and laugh at how the leaves were tossed about in the winds lazy juggle, now it just seemed to laugh at me. The trees stared with accusing eyes and the flowers laughed cruelly as I struggled to survive. Nature judged me and shamed me, keeping food and water just out of reach in order to watch me squirm.

Once upon a few years back I was happy, it's so funny how those memories are so hard to find. I was once a sweet and happy girl, now I'm just alone. I haven't lost my humanity, thank god, but I have lost the innocent part of me that many fight to preserve and protect.

The sharp crunch of leaves from behind me brought me from my bout of self loathing. I guess I'm not completely alone after all. In a quick and coordinated moment my body was turned with my bow raised, the painful click of my joint and the twist of my stiff shoulder making me wince internally, even as my face outwardly remained stoic.

The weapon I owed my life to was old and worn, the wood creaking in protest as I had the sharp and deadly tip aimed at the enemy. My bow had no name and no origin story that I cared to delve into my broken memory for, it was simply my guardian in a world that spat on the guise of protection. Even as I have been told that it was a parting gift from my estranged biological father who I don't care to learn about, that is not what people who ask hear. If you ask you will hear a woven tale, never the truth. Who needs truth out here anyways?

As my eyes peered down the black shaft of my arrow I saw, not another monster, but a human. Humanity nowadays is as rare as the undead were when the world still functioned, hopefully nonexistent. Not that I didn't mind company, that humans had the instincts of animals now, kill to survive.

The human was only a child, reminding me of my brother in height and look. From the piercing blue eyes to the brown mop of hair, yet he lacked so much that my brother had. The boy's eyes were haunted and lackluster, a boiling point of horror and pain. A stick with a relatively sharp edge was in his hand, his fingers constantly tightening and flexing around it to show how nervous he was despite his emotionless eyes. I would say he had obviously survived through hell, but now hell never ends. I knew he was dangerous, as was any other, but the comparison to my own flesh and blood stalled my movements. What if my brother encountered someone like myself in the woods? I would hope he had a chance, so I will give one.

In a swift moment that my stiff joints protested with vigor I released the tension on my arrow and handed it from where my bow had held it. When the deadly point was away from his head the boy sprang into action, as did I. The sound of my arrow dropping into the leaves barely registered in my ears as I thrust my bow forward and it and the stick he held loosely in his hand was suddenly clashed with mine in a way that resembled sword fights of old. Blood from the tip of the stick he had was flung about as we both parried and thrusted our 'swords' at the other. This to a stranger who never knew the horrors of the world would be two children playing about, not two strangers fighting to survive.

As the fight raged on I knew I would have to use my bow, even if I resented the idea. I shoved my self deprecating thoughts to the back of my mind and dropped down to the earth, my legs going outward and wrapping around the boys only to twist and send him to the ground in a painful sounding snap of my joints. The arthritis in my knees burned and bit as I stumbled up, nearly falling on the terrified lump of child. When I had finally gotten upright I drew my bow with sickening accuracy my malnourished body should have lost the ability to do and aimed it at the boy. I didn't plan on shooting him, but fear is a great conversation starter.

"Who are you?" While my voice wasn't necessarily harsh, the undertone was very prominent as I asked. My bow started to shake lightly as my body was succumbing to the starvation slowly, at of course the worst moment. The boy seemed to take my depleted body shaking as anger and yelled out his answer.