Strained

Part 3

I run throughout the forest, blindsides, dodging zombies by blending in with trees. I need to find this man, his link makes my heart tingle. Fire enrages me as it glows faint purple through my veins. I grip my arm and hold it. I feel a faint whispering in the winds and I look towards a direction. Instantly I feel much relief. The wind howls a little bit louder and I cover my ears. I don't think about anything else besides finding this man, solemnly this man. Tae runs through my mind again but i push the thought away, I bet he's disappointed. All my time devotes is to running, as fast as I can, throughout this nasty forest.

The green hues of orange and red fall around me. I feel pure bliss. My legs stop running, stop moving in fact. I fall to my knees and sticks, and dead leaves dig into my knees. The sight of this is so beautiful. Trees scattered irregularly across the forest, leaving a nice full look. Red, green, yellow fall into my eyes, I take this in, this gorgeous sight.

A creature emerges from far grass, and I hide behind a decaying tree. I quickly glance at it, a baby deer, emerging from the brush. It walks slowly, towards a puddle on the ground. It sips from it gently not wanting to accidentally fall into the puddle. Loudly a walker comes out, clothes dried with blood, and saliva. It groggily walks up to the deer. The deer looks at the walker and sits down. The walker stares at it. It puts its hand up to the deer's face, and then grips around its throat, the deer struggles, but it's too late, the head pops off and blood comes gushing out. The walker holds onto its head until the lifeless body falls. It drops the head and walks away, leaving its purpose behind.

The deer is gone, its life slipped away. I don't move until the walker is gone. My legs hurt from everything stabbing them. I get up, walking up to the deer. Its head is purely clean, the body covered in blood and muck. At least the baby didn't die painfully as his head was decapitated. I move on, pressing further into the familiar woods, I start to recognize everything. The way the treeline starts to fade, more houses are lined in the woods, meaning I'm getting closer to Gardensville. The streets are lined with walkers, prowling the streets mindlessly. I creep through the backyards silently. I really hope he's still alive, I can feel his link pulsating, sometimes pulsating too fast, when you have a link whenever you think about them you can feel their heartbeat and the intensity of it beating. I stop walking and look at my arm, the link pulsating. I feel a tingle in my chest thinking about seeing him again, the way he stared at me and made me feel like prey, even then there was always romance towards Jungkook, but I never acted up on it. I'm with Tae.

The thought of Tae makes me feel bad. A bad feeling erupts into my head as I think about only having a year to decide. I crouch over a hedge to view the damage done to Gardensville. The entire wall is knocked down. The walkers are inside the entire place. I see Jungkook's building and the door is open. My link pulses through me. I get adrenaline and think about a plan. I close my eyes and think. I can't run away from all of those walkers...? Can i? No...that's dumb. I need to figure out this situation like the back of my hand or I'll be the next walkers dinner. I carefully climb a tree, making sure all the branches are stable enough to support me so I don't fall. I glance across the field of walker heads and non-beating hearts. It's scary to think about how I used to know most of these people, these now lifeless souls. 

I hope they're okay, I hope they don't feel pain, or I hope they don't get to witness them tearing innocent people apart. I see a girl I once knew, her hair is the same, beautiful and golden, except the fact she's dead. I feel sympathy. I bet she died with her husband in her arms. They were madly in love, sadly she couldn't have a child. A couple months before the fall of Gardensville, they had a child. I guess she showed it. Her stomach was bulging. There was also a hole in her stomach...i think the baby crawled out. I shiver at the thought of being torn apart by my own child. I clench my fists and look around more. Plenty of citizens are roaming the once plentiful streets of laughter and happiness. I climb back down from the tree, jumping and heading towards the broken down wall. The walkers mindlessly walk through the streets of the broken city, groaning and itching for a taste. I shake off some uneasy emotions of possibly being eaten. I get up on a ladder, placed around the walls on the outside, considering the things I don't know how to climb. It was very useful instead of opening the gate every time. I guess we thought it was a good idea, which it turned out to be a good one. I get to the top of one of the walls that hasn't collapsed.

It's weird seeing this once peaceful place overrun by freaks. I walk along the top of the walls. We have walkways in the middle of the tops of them, as this used to be a prison. Walkers are everywhere as I run through the top of the pathways. I passed through my old building where I stayed with Tae. Memories flood of Tae and me being happy, not a care in the world passed through our minds as we lived together in Gardensville. Looking back, Jungkook looked at me a lot, without thoughts back then I pushed them aside. He only talked to me once, and that was when it first happened. I see the open building, but it's too far to jump too, meaning I'll have to go through the closest building and try to maneuver my way to his building. My pulse stops and i look at my arm. Covered in dirt, and grime, the link moves throughout my arm even more now, pulsating and itching for need. I look for a way over to his building. There's a building a little bit by the wall, but almost the same distance between Jungkook's building and the wall. I run up to the building, its height scaring me. I can look down and see my death. Walkers everywhere waiting until they can tear someone else apart. I hear a faint scream. The second it registers in my mind who it is, I'm already in the air, leaping to the building.