Sneaky

Chapter 161

I woke up to painful cramps twisting my empty stomach and slowly I blearily came to my senses. Crust at the corners of my eyes that I tried to rub and nearly put my own eye out with the handle of the knife in my hand.

My dry mouth made it hard to swallow but the lump in my throat made me try to anyway.

It's still dark out but the sky just beginning to turn from black to blue is a good indicator that it's almost dawn but I'm not that tired. Aching and mentally exhausted but energy-wise I think I'm good.

It gets dark around 6-7ish these days, I don't know how long I was running after it got dark but it certainly wasn't anywhere near 6 hours. That means I must've gotten at least 5-7 hours of sleep. I don't know how in the Valkyrie's homeland I managed to actually get a near full night's sleep after yesterday, but maybe it's precisely because of yesterday.

Sometimes pure exhaustion can be a wonderful thing.

I licked my lips as I pulled my stiff legs up, setting my knife down next to me so I can use the inside of my shirt to rub the crust off my eyes (last thing I wanna do now that I've seen my hands is rub this disgusting old dry blood into my eyes) before using the wall to stand up.

My bones cracked and legs ached in protest but aren't complaining nearly as much as they once did.

I might up my training regimen a little, now that I know it's working the way I intended for exactly what I need it to.

I cracked and stretched my neck, trying to loosen up my muscles a little bit. The absence of adrenaline makes all these pains a little harder to ignore, especially the ones in my hands.

I was smart enough to think about training my legs and arms and all that, regrettably I did not think about the more obscure things I should've been training; like my hands and wrists.

My stomach cramped sharply again followed by a growl that actually relieved the pain a little for a few seconds.

I have to get out of here. I don't know how much longer I can handle this.

It feels like being trapped underground.

My head snapped over when all of a sudden an eruption of growling, a stampede of footsteps — not all of them shuffling — and a harrowing scream echoed through the hall like a horror movie.

Not a second later I almost had a heart attack at a loud bang followed by a distant short yell echoing off the concrete walls.

Not a bang like a gun shot but a bang like a door being slammed.

In a heartbeat I hit the cell bars with almost my entire body shoving my hand between the bars with the keys to unlock it — I practically threw them at the wall the second it was open — and pulled my knives, running towards the sounds of someone fighting for their life.

How did the others manage to get down here so fast? It's only been one night — it was dark — there were so many walkers — how did they even find me!?!

I raised my knives up as the sounds came from just around the next corner and a short scream burst from my lips as I ran smack into a chest and almost flew backwards.

Both of us barely managed to realize in time that we're not dead and it took a moment to process the brown eyes staring back at me.

"T-Dog!?"

"Eve!?"

I pushed him out of the way and angled my already raised knife up again and let the walker stumble straight into it all by itself.