Your Guardian Angel (A Daryl Dixon Story)

Chapter One

Chapter 1

Brielle crouched down behind the fence as she watched the group of seven men walk down the street nonchalantly. She watched as they made their way through the ghost town as though they had no worries in the world; as though there were not monsters roaming the streets wanting to eat them. The only clue she had that they were aware of the apocalypse was the fact that they had weapons on them and they looked as though they hadn’t changed out of their clothes in months. She couldn’t judge. She was sure she looked horrible. She wouldn’t know, though. It had been a long time since she actually stood in front of a mirror and looked at her reflection.  She waited as they passed in hopes they would keep on moving. She had one more street of houses to search before she would get her stuff together and move on her way.

She listened as their voices became more and more distant before she stood up and walked cautiously to her destination. She had been in that town for about seven days now and searched every house she could with the plan to get as many supplies as possible for her next move. She walked up to the yellow house with white trim and went to enter through the back. She slowly walked up to the door and listened for movement. She cautiously opened the door and waited for anything that may be lurking inside. She grabbed her knife that was attached to her hip. She entered the home and slowly walked into the kitchen. She decided to check all the rooms before grabbing what was left behind by the home’s owners or other scavengers.

She started to go up the stairs and the first stair creaked loudly. She cringed and stopped moving to listen. When she felt it was safe, she continued up the stairs. She walked into each room and checked for any of those things walking about; those non-humans that attacked the living. In all honesty they were zombies. They were the living-dead.

Brielle couldn’t believe her eyes the first time she saw someone come back after dying. It was too surreal. Those types of things only happened in the movies, not in real life.

Once the house was clear, Brielle went back down stairs and filled her backpack with what she felt was important to have. She found some canned vegetables and fruit and almost squealed with delight. She was surprised to still find canned food. She figured places would have been wiped clean by the people who were still living. It just proved to her that she was doing the right thing going house to house. Stu and Jackson had taught her well and she was grateful for that.

Brielle went through the rest of the houses on the street hoping to pick up her pace, so she could get back to her camp. She noticed the sun was lower in the sky signaling that sundown was approaching. She had one more house to go through, and then she would be done with that town.

She walked up to the grey house with white trim and surveyed the area. It had a wraparound porch that looked to be in good shape still. She went in through the back as usual. She did her normal routine of opening the door and listening for movement. Once she felt she had an all clear, she walked into the house slowly. She looked around the entry way and noticed some supplies that would be good to have such as rope and duct tape. She made a mental note not to forget that. As she slowly walked into the kitchen she thought she had heard a noise. She grabbed her pistol that she had attached on the other side of her hip and held her breath to listen more clearly.

“This should do for tonight,” she heard a guy’s voice say.

Brielle held her breath even more. She had to get out of there now. She looked at the path that she came from and thought about running, but there was no guarantee that someone wasn’t already back there checking things out.

“Let’s clear it out,” she heard another guy say.

She heard footsteps start to walk around the house. She quickly ran into the pantry and shut the door with her pistol clenched in her hand.

She listened closely as voices above her kept saying, “Claimed.” 

She held her breath as she noticed someone shuffling through the kitchen.

“Anything good?” a voice asked.

“Nah, it’s pretty cleared out,” another voice said.

Brielle knew it was just a matter of time before they opened that pantry looking for food.

“Claimed!” she heard the first voice say triumphantly.

“Shhh,” the second voice hissed.

Brielle put her free hand over her mouth to not gasp out. She prayed they heard something outside of the kitchen. She didn’t hear anything, but noticed the footsteps were walking away from the pantry door. She waited a good minute of not hearing anything but the footsteps above her before she let a deep breath leave her lips. That was too close for comfort. She slowly took a step forward and reached for the handle of the pantry when the door flew open.

Brielle aimed her pistol forward.

She saw three men standing there staring at her with shocked expressions. The man in the front had his crossbow aimed right at her while the other two behind him had pistols aimed at her.

“Claimed,” the man with the crossbow said lowering it slowly.