𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 ➪ «𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑥𝑜𝑛»

ch. XXIV pt. II

oOo

Once they spotted her, they grew even more restless, her human smell ripe in the air. Diana stopped in her tracks, her feet turning to lead and her heart plummeting to her stomach.

She felt scared, but maybe her exposure to zombie movies B.A. desensitized her to them, or she was straight out dissociating from herself because even though she was scared, she wasn't terrified. She didn't feel the existential dread that came from facing your own mortality.

Despite their dangling jowls and bloody rotten snapping teeth, they weren't that frightening to her, at least not as frightening as the mob at their doors.

Diana swore she couldn't understand herself sometimes.

She swallowed around the lump in her throat, hearing the others call her name again. She took a slow step and then another, resuming her stalk towards her target. She powered through the shaking of her hands and raised her bow. With a steady draw, the geek closest to her fell in a heap of decaying flesh at her feet at first shot.

Diana skipped over it and continued.

She drew another arrow.

The last geek was less than seven feet in front of her.

"Diana!" Glenn called once more, urging her to return, and Morales' voice joined him.

She heard rushed footsteps coming up behind her, but she stood still, bow and arrow ready. When the geek was within grabbing distance of her, she released the string and the creature flew backward with the blow, an arrow protruding from its sunken eye socket.

"Hey!" She was grabbed by the shoulder and turned around.

"I did it," Diana whispered breathlessly. Her disbelieving smile contrasted deeply to Glenn's angry brow and concerned eyes.

"Don't do that again!" Glenn's grip tightened on her upper arms.

"Glenn, I killed them," she said emphatically and grabbed onto the side of his neck. Her legs felt weak for some reason. He was not happy with her at all but she only felt a tiny bit bad about that. This was a personal accomplishment and nothing could take that joy from her.

Those two had been an easy start. They were nothing compared to what lied beyond that bus, but now she knew what she could do.

There was a strange power that came with that. She'd felt such a surge of self-confidence when the two creatures dropped at her feet. There was no point in being afraid of something that could so easily be defeated with a draw of her bowstring. And what other reason was there to justify her having found the bow? This is what she was meant to be doing.

There was that coping strategy again, trying to bring her mind some sense of purpose.

"Glenn, I don't think I'm scared anymore," she said to him while he took her by the arm and rushed her back inside, to the midst of the others' staring eyes. She was almost sure her knees were knocking together, and her heart was beating so fast; it was almost drowned out her voice.

"That's the adrenaline talking, alright? It's okay to be afraid sometimes, fear makes you cautious and being cautious keeps you alive, okay?" Glenn tried to meet her wandering eyes. "Diana, look at me, I don't want to see you do something reckless and get hurt."

Diana shook her head. "You don't gotta look at me like that. I'm not insane. I'm not just gonna go out all 'pew, pew, pew', yeah?" She did finger guns to emulate the action. "I know my limits, Glenn. I know I'm not invincible. I'm just saying... I can help out." She looked at the Sheriff, asking for his thoughts.