┌────────────────────────┐ the beginnings of a survivor └────────────────────────┘
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( day thirty-two )
BOOTS FLY ACROSS TARMAC IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT.
A girl sprints ruthlessly down the moonlit streets with a baby strapped to her chest. Low guttural moans sound a short distance behind her, bouncing off wall to wall, seeking their next meal. There is nowhere left to run. So, she hides. She skids behind the back of an old dumpster and prays to high heaven that the monsters didn't see them. Cradling the child tightly into her chest, she slowly peeks her head around the side of the large garbage container to count the bodies.
Only seven, they've handled worse before.
Clarke wouldn't have minded that so much if it hadn't been for the fact that she was defenceless.
Throwing her empty pistol to take down that stupid roamer was probably the dumbest decision she had made since the world went to shit. She should've used the knife— no would've, if she hadn't've dropped it when she was fumbling around with her brothers baby carrier. That herd had really taken Clarke by surprise. It was almost as if they'd appeared out of thin air.
They needed to move and do it fast. The little town that a few weeks ago had been practically empty with nothing more than a couple of stray roamers, had been slowly filling up with more of the walking corpses every passing day. Streets and buildings that had been cleared by Clarke were no longer safe and without any means of protection she could not make it so once again.
They were coming down from the city, Clarke guessed. There must have been no more food for them. No more living.
It was almost frightening how similar the living and the dead were to each other— always looking for food, always wondering when they'll see someone with a heartbeat. . . if they'll see someone with a heartbeat. Survivingin this new world was a lonely feat indeed. Clarke's sure she hasn't seen a real breathing person since the outbreak claimed her hometown in the very beginning. For a while she'd began to believe that there were no more living left in the world at all.
All except her baby brother of course, the Wiley girl had made it her priority to keep that boy with her at all times. If something were to happen to that kid out here in this monstrosity of a world, Clarke would absolutely never forgive herself. She'd throw herself willingly into a herd of roamers just to know that even for a second her baby brother stood a greater chance of living than she did.
Everything she did. Every choice she made— it was all for him.
If he survived then it would all be worth it. Clarke didn't care about anything else. She couldn't.
He was all she had left.
A gunshot slices through the air. It's loud and unfamiliar against the animalistic growls and moans that Clarke's become so accustomed to hearing. The Wiley girl winces, sensing the impending howl that is about to withdraw from her brother's newborn throat. If that gunshot did anything to distract that herd of roamers then it would be a useless feat compared to the wet guttural screeches that could come from little Miles Wiley's powerful lungs. Acting on instinct, Clarke cups her hand over the squirming baby's mouth to muffle out the infant's screams.
Another gunshot sounds.
Then another.
And another.
What a waste of bullets. Whoever was shooting was either fighting for their life or just asking for trouble. Oh, how Clarke wished she had enough bullets like that to just shoot into oblivion. All she had left was her older brother's airsoft gun that he left behind when he went to college and that didn't exactly do the job in shooting down the dead when she needed it. It did look real though, at least she could threaten somebody with it if it ever came down to that.
But then again Clarke wasn't exactly sure if she could even do that. She was an eighty pound stick that had barely hit puberty, being threatening wasn't exactly a look she could successfully execute. Anything to keep her brother safe though, that was always the rule.
With the roamers trailing mercilessly after the gunshots, Clarke took it as their queue to high tail it out of there. A new problem however quickly arose, when the fourteen year old skidded straight into solid body. The impact of the collision had her hurtling backwards onto the hard cement floor, ultimately taking the month old baby down with her. Miles is fine thank god but that's not their biggest concern right now.
It's the body limping it's way towards them.
The scared teen shoots backwards, scouring the area around them for anything she could use to defend themselves against the lone roamer. Her blue orbs land on a smashed beer bottle and she picks it up without hesitation, holding it out menacingly for protection just as a single dirty hand reaches towards them.
Clarke holds the baby tighter, wondering if this was it. If this was how she was going to fail her brother.
But nothing happens.
She isn't pinned down. She isn't eaten alive. She doesn't have to watch as her brother is ripped from her chest and devoured into nothing but shreds of skin and bone.
She's alive.
And then a voice shouts. It's not a growl or an infants cry, it's a real breathing person.
"Hey! Take my hand if you wanna live!"
Shocked, her eyes snap open and she snatches the open hand with all the strength left in her weakened body. The person that is most definitely not dead tugs her off the ground forcefully and pulls her into another back alley just as another swarm of hungry roamers rounded the corner.
Clarke could've jumped for joy at that very moment. They weren't dead!
It was a miracle.
A heavy sigh of relief exits her chest.
"I'm Glenn, by the way," the mystery man says to her.
She smiles, "I'm Clarke."
It was on that very day that Clarke Wiley realised she had been wrong— there were survivors.
She wasn't alone.
author's note:
OHMYGOSH here's the introduction to devil's advocate! yes, i know it's short and it SUCKS, let's pray my writing will be less ✨ bland ✨ over the next few chapters.
anywayyyy, omg i love clarke and glenn's relationship with my whole heart, i know they've literally spoken like TWO sentences to eachother, but idc, they're gonna be so freaking cute. 100% absolute besties 🥺
it's six am and i've been up since two writing this so i hope you liked it! over the next few chapters we'll be starting season two and more of clarke's backstory will be revealed, so stay tuned!
