Atalie In WalkingDEADland

Preface

Natalie felt the darkness surrounding her fall away until suddenly she found herself gasping for air…

            Instead all she got was seawater.

            Blinking, she finally saw that she was surrounded by water. Her senses were reacting slowly to everything. Yet, her throat, and lungs began to burn with the water it was consuming.

            With a sudden strength she had not realized she even had, she began to propel her body upward.

            Suddenly she could hear herself gasp as she reached open air.

            Trying to keep afloat she flailed her hands on the surface of the water. she tried looking for land as she turned in circles. Finally she spotted a sandy shore only a few meters away. Lunging herself in the direction of land, she didn’t notice how empty of life everything was. Reaching the solid land, she dragged herself as far from the water as possible.

            Then she proceeded to retch out all the seawater onto the sandy ground.

            Coughing out the last bits of seawater, she fell onto the ground exhausted. Breathing heavily, she turned onto her back and stared up into the sky. She gazed up at the sky blue sky trying to remember how she got here…

            “Who am I?” Natalie suddenly let out.

            She flinched at the sound of her hoarse voice.

            “Snap!”

            Quicker than before, her body reacted to the sound by jumping up, and turning around in mid air to face the direction of the sound. She was surprised by her body’s agility, but that wasn’t such a surprise like what she was faced with… After all, zombies aren’t an everyday thing.

            At least not that she can remember.

            “Grrr…”The zombie went as it crawled towards her.

            It was an ugly thing with half the skin on its face hanging down from it. The dull gray color in it eyes and its pale skin gave her the creeps. With its nose in the air sniffing out her scent, she felt like suddenly vomiting again.

            She suddenly had a flashback…

            ‘Everyone keep running! We only have about ten more seconds before the zombies get through that door!’ Natalie yelled out as she kept on running alongside her childhood friend Gina.

They were all inside the tunnels.

            ‘But what if there’s more zombies at the other side of the tunnel?!’ Jade asked alarmed.

            Everyone seemed frightened.

            Suddenly Gina stopped, and everyone else followed suit. Looking at her, Natalie felt a ripple of horror grip her as she saw fresh blood drip from a gaping wound Gina had on her stomach. Glancing at the others, Natalie saw a mixture of horror, pity, sadness, and rage.

            ‘Don’t worry! Just go!’ Gina ordered.

            Seeing the determination in her brown eyes…

‘You should leave, I’ll hold the zombies back as best as I can.’ Gina told them, ‘Now just go…and don’t look back.’

Feeling lost and hopeless, they each nodded reluctantly, and together they turned to leave her behind…

Natalie Steel remembered everything now.