Malevolent. The Walking Dead

[ 001 ] in a ragged hymn

001: in a ragged hymn

Joey missed the life she craved for months ago ━ the one she missed most ardently. She hardly had time to put up her shield before the shard of pain pierced through her with an impenetrable force. She thought her sacred armor was strong. She began to write poems when she couldn't speak to her grandmother, even her grandfather, and especially her parents who seemed to cave a harder hole in her than she had imagined ━ but she couldn't write to them anymore. She could only speak into the bleak void of the never ending terrain of a barren California that seemed to deteriorate within weeks. It had been two months since the initial outbreak, yet it felt like it had been years. Her heart ached for a world that used to be. That wasn't anymore ━ Joey had always been an angry girl, bottling up the seether with a tight jaw and balled fists ━ she tried to swallow it, to cradle it to sleep, but it was useless. Can't fight the seether when all she wants to do is seethe.

After their neighborhood had been overrun by the dead, there wasn't much hope for that specific quarantine zone ━ Joey and Bill had packed up camp and made their way into the city. Los Angeles was a lost cause, nearly every neighborhood being taken down after the city spiraled out of control. It wasn't as though Joey thought they were going to last long, given the fact that the cities were the first to fall down. She didn't expect her and Bill to last this long, however, and even though the outbreak was only two months ago it felt as though they were living in this desolate country for years. Sometimes she'd forget how much she'd lost until she tried to fall asleep and all she could think of was her grandparents corpses being torn to shreds as she looked back, fleeing with malice and vengeance crippling her mind. Bill was any better, either. Ellie was the main reason the two stuck together ━ some sort of unspeakable bond that made them keep soldiering on for each other. Bill felt as though he had some sort of obligation to Joey, to protect her. Maybe it was because he saw himself in her, and Ellie too ━ but after Ellie died in his arms and the pair of them were left to their own defenses, he couldn't leave her. Joey's ultimate fear was being left alone, and she couldn't fathom being abandoned again, whether it was in death or not.

Joey knocked on the door frame of a convenience store, eyes drooping in the Santa Clarita heat. It had been about a week since they decided to leave Los Angeles, and head north, and she was about ready to stumble down on the pavement and take a nap right for the rotters to see. It was all the more tempting than trudging through city after city trying to find some sort of silver lining or motivation to move forward. She would, now, only look forward to showing off the inventory that she would find in stores to compare to Bill. They made it a little game, something to look forward to, choosing one supply to splurge on and see who could find it first. They currently decided on lighters.

A few stragglers wandered from the back of the store, and Bill took them out with his knife ━ straight through the head. Joey winced, as she always did ━ trying to look away from the blood as it caked beneath his nails and coated his skin. She had only killed a few rotters since the breakout, and ever since they ran out of ammo and had to rely on their knives for everything, Joey tried to avoid killing them as much as she could. It reminded her too much of the past.

"I think we're good," he muttered, wiping the underside of his nose. "You sure you're okay on your own? This place is huge,"

Joey placed her hand on her knife. "I should be fine. I'll just run if I need help, K, old man?" she nudged his side, and he ruffled her hair before turning on his heels. "First one to find a lighter does second guard, a'ight?" he turned to face her, walking backwards towards the cashier counter. She saluted him before he jumped over the ledge. She rolled her eyes and made her way towards the back, kicking around the rubble and trying to scavenge anything. She found a few packs of beef jerky beneath toppled over shelves, shoving it into her bag before stepping over some (extra) dead rotter bodies. They weren't even worth searching.