The Walking Dead: Open Roads

Hunter for Yales Peak

I held an old rusty bolt action rifle in my hands as I walked down the trail where the Chompers came through quite recently. Tracking herds was both hard and easy at the same time, you just had to look for chaos while avoiding death, I was a paid gun for hire, it was the only thing I could do to support myself and the kid after Hugo and the farm a couple years back. I started raising that little girl, Amber. Problem was, raising a kid was hard. Way harder than I ever thought it would be. She needed food, water, and constant attention. Now I know how Hue felt with me... I ended up finding a place that could support us: Yales Peak. The community was run by an older Oriental man and his son, they were trying to rebuild. Trying to give us something, except gangs ran loose in the complex. I ended up working with the Trackers so I could support the little girl I have been taking care of for the past two and a half years. It was hard, but, so far I was doing it. Amber was almost five or six now, which meant we could leave that needy community and go on our own. Maybe back to Georgia...

"Where did you fucks walk off to?" I cursed I had to stop where the tracks ended. Soon as they hit the tree line, it was like they disappeared. I needed to take care of those flesh bags before it reached a place called Hill Top or another community near there. It would be about a four-day walk, but my company was paid to stop the herd from going there. I knelt down and examined the ground, I was looking for faint tracks, blood, teeth, cloth. Basically, anything that could fall off those Chompers, I was using a technique Hugo taught me when I was four. We used it for hunting rabbits, but, I guess it could work on the dead as well. I looked down and saw downed limbs and trampled ground, blood from decaying bodies along with items scattering the ground. "East..." I mumbled once I found the main direction. I stood up and continued to follow through the woods until I found, once again, the obvious tracks of a herd. I smiled in relief once I saw the tracks were fairly fresh, this was good. It meant they were close. I reached for the side pocket on my backpack and pulled out one of my air horns. "Party time." I joked to myself as I ran down the path. About halfway down, I saw them, Their rotting, smelly corpses. cringing at the stench, I held the air horn up "this-a-way Chompers!" I yelled just before pressing down on the button. A loud honk rang obnoxiously out the other end of the horn. The zombies turned around and started to follow me. "Let's go, bitches!" I signaled them with the horn a few more times as I ran down the path away from them. I followed down the main road until I came across the junkyard, it was meant to herd them into. The fence was still sturdy looking and the trash walls were still pretty high, a good place to keep them. I ran to the gate and opened it, no walkers came to the door, Not even to that annoying air can. I ran in the junkyard and ran through it carefully. I didn't want a walker to just be hanging out under some trash. Once I reached the other side, I reached in my pocket and pulled out a little remote control. I smiled as I held it in my hand, it was remote to an old RC car that a good friend of mine, Preston, gave me to distract the dead. I pulled off my backpack and unclipped the metal-framed car. It was an old Toy-Bot car that made noises with one of the buttons on the remote. I tossed the car on the ground where the walkers would soon be and climbed the fence, the dead close behind. they began to surround me on the fence and I hopped off the other side to safety. I quickly booked it back to the front of the junkyard to close the fence. I continued to press the button, hearing the echoing rattle of a prerecorded engine. I smiled at the thought of the walkers trying to take a bite out of that. When I reached the front I quickly slid the gates closed and wrapped the chain back around the handles. I smiled with pride, I finished my job and that Hill Top place was safe. Maybe I would look into this Hill Top, maybe Amber and I could move there and get out of that gang-ridden community we were in.

"LET ME GO!!" A girl's voice in the distance screamed in distress. I quickly turned around in the direction it was coming from. I narrowed my eyes at the woods, I still heard screams. So, the girl was close. I slid the remote back into my pocket and ran into the woods, completely forgetting to mark the junkyard gate. I jumped over fallen trees carefully, not wanting to attract the people in the woods. Once I was close enough, I saw a group of men. Oddly enough, they looked familiar... too familiar for my own liking. The men were obviously Ven-Cross. I could tell by the markings on their dirty white van. I noticed one of the men, Kyle. He was the ole giddy man that let me go with Hugo on that job. I shook my head and sighed, I really didn't want to mess with these guys. I was tempted to turn and walk away, but the terrified screams of the girl with dark brown hair and brown eyes being held by her arms and legs by two tough guys wouldn't let me. I quietly jumped out from my hiding spot and casually walked up to the group like nothing was happening.