Blood Soaked Arrows

There were too many. Everywhere I looked I saw decaying flesh, tattered clothing, and blood stained teeth. The horde was swarming around me with their broken limbs extended out to grab me and their mouths hanging open hungrily spewing out blood as they growled. Any other person would have been too terrified to think about surviving something like this, they would have been praying for a miracle or maybe even just stuck the gun to their heads and opted out, but I was trained to be better than that.

There was ritual needed to calm down my nerves or ease my mind because I was already calm. My mind wasn’t cluttered with death or fear, it was thinking rationally and quickly I was able to scope out the best route to take. The Walkers were so crowded that I couldn’t see any space between them but I knew that it wasn’t true. There was always a way out.

Two Walkers on my three o’clock caught my attention. The spacing between them was thin but there were no other Walkers closing in behind them so that made it my best option out of this circle of death. I made no attempt at being quiet when I swung my rifle around and popped off two shot, each one hitting between the eyes. With the small space open I ran through it.

I felt the light scraps of nails skimming across my skin as I pushed through the crowd. Being confident in my skills and athleticism gave me that extra push to hall ass to the barn. The front door was already shut with a pile of Walkers banging their bodies against it so I knew that the front door was off limits. Rick and Shane were smart to seal the door shut but it was only a matter of time before more Walkers came over and broke it down.

As I ran towards the building my eyes were scanning for another entrance. There were a few windows and a hayloft door but those were all too high up for me to reach. I ran around one of the other sides and noticed the barrels conveniently staked up next to a stable. I smiled briefly at the beautiful sight and ran towards it, popping off a few rounds as I went.

I swung my rifle around to my back as I leapt up onto of the stacked barrels. With ease I jumped, latched onto the side of the stable roof and pulled myself up. The graze that I hadn’t yet tended to on my upper thigh scrapped against the wooden roof. I bit my lower lip at the sting and pushed myself forward. Once onto of the roof I quickly moved over to the nearby window and smashed my elbow against the glass. Pieces of glass shattered to the floor but none had managed to nick me.

Using the butt of my gun, I cleared off the rest of the glass before going in. As soon as I was inside on the upper level of the barn my gaze instantly met with Rick’s. His blue eyes were wide with surprise as he stared up at me from the ground.

“How did you get here?” He asked as he swung a gallon of gas around in his hands.

“I ran.” I scoffed walking away from the broken window. “What are ya’ planning on doing with that gas?”

“We gotta’ burn down the barn. Attract the others over here and while they’re burning we’ll escape through that window that you just came in from.” He explained quickly as he spread the gas on the ground.

“Alright.” I smiled at the plan and looked over at the other person who was coping Rick. My eyes grew wide when I noticed the Sheriff’s hat and recognized the small body as being Carl. I wanted to ask about how the hell he had snuck on by me and gotten caught up in this mess but now wasn’t the time. “Where’s Shane?”

Rick tossed the gas tank to the ground. “Gone.” I frowned down at Rick when I heard that but again there was no time for details. Rick ushered Carl over to the stairs and handed him a lighter. “Drop the lighter when I say.”

Carl grabbed a hold on the lighter that his dad handed to him but still looked a little shaky. Rick took the smallest of moment’s to re-explain what his plan was to his son and how much he loved him. That got Carl to nod his head to his dad before turning and heading up the stairs.

Rick’s eyes met up with mine. “Shoot what you can out of the window, make us a clear path.”

I nodded curtly down to him. “Got it.”

I ran back to the window I had just come out of and positioned my gun between my shoulder and collar bone. My gun was a sheer beauty with its low recoil so basically in my trained hands it breathed like a dream and shot like a god. With an added bonus of my high advantage point, taking down walkers from a perch like this was no hassle at all. Each time my trigger finger clicked back a Walker fell. It became almost musical with the trigger clicking back followed by the snap of the bullet releasing and then the crush of it hitting its target’s skull.

I was so captivated in my own work that I had no idea how many I had shot down before Rick was tapping my shoulder. With a nod I got myself out through the window and fired off a few more rounds as they followed out. I had a good path cleared for us but with the crowd of Walkers that was pouring out of the woods and fields it wasn’t going to be there long. What made matters even worse was the fact that the house was a distance away.

There was an empty click and I cursed down at my gun. “Shit.” I looked down at it and toggled my finger on the trigger but it was pointless. All of my ammo was in my ‘tank’ that was parked up at the house, leaving me with a bullet-less gun and a hunting knife.

“You’re out?” Rick asked by my side.

I lifted the gun strap over my head and tossed the rifle on the roof. “Yeah.”

“Shit.” He cussed running his hand through his hair. “I only have six shots.”

“Damn it.” I yelled going over to the edge of the stable.

“Wait.” Rick walked over to me. “What are you doing?”

I crouched down and then dangled my legs over the ledge. “I have a bow and arrows hidden in a barrel on the back of the barn. I’ll get them and cover ya’ all.”

I was well aware of the growls and snarls that were nearing us as well as the thick sheen of smoke that was stinging my eyes. If we didn’t make some kind of move soon we were either going to be toast or tore apart.

“You can’t do that.” Rick argued. “There are Walkers all over the place you’ll never be able to get them.”

“Oh please.” I laughed dryly letting my foot hover a few feet over the barrels. “This is nothing and besides we need those arrows.”

With that I jumped off of the roof. My feet rolled as I landed on the barrels and I felt a snap under my feet but the barrel didn’t break. Without hesitating I leapt off of the barrels and ran down the side of the barn. There were Walkers being drawn in by the fire and sounds of my gunshots but they weren’t dangerously close. I got to the barrel behind the barn with ease and gave a little praise to myself for stashing this bow and arrows here.

I reached down and retrieved them quickly, flinging the quiver over my shoulder and loading my bow in one fluent motion. A growling to my left made me twist to the side and release my arrow right into the bastard’s skull. It fell to the ground and I quickly bent down and yanked out my arrow before reloading it. I ran back the way I had come and as soon as I turned the corner I noticed that Dale’s RV had somehow magically appeared there.

Rick and Carl were hopping around on the roof of it and I vaguely wondered who it was that had driven it here. Cracks of the wood braking on the barn were followed by hungry growls and moans. I glanced over to see the Walkers fingers scratching against the burning wood, leaving trails of blood against the wood as they desperately tried reaching out for food.

Screams filled the smoky night air and I looked over to see that some Walkers had found their way inside of the RV. Instantly I began to run over to it but as the screams waned from horrific to blood curling I knew that the person inside was done for. Blood splashed up on the window on the inside as if to prove some kind of sick point.

Shooting yanked my attention away from the RV and back towards the Walkers. Rick was standing along the side of the RV with Carl close by his side. Carl noticed me coming over to them and tapped his dad’s back. “She’s back.”

Rick glanced over at me but kept his gun trained on a Walker. “Good.” Another shot rang out and the Walker fell to the ground.

We all turned in the direction of the house and made a run for it. Rick was quickly out of bullets leaving me to be the only source of protection. I had twelve arrows in the quiver and if this was a normal time that would be an easy number to keep but with this hell raining down on us there was no way I was going to be able to retrieve any of my arrows.

As we ran I shot only when one of us were going to be unable to dodge a Walker or if there was a group coming our way I’d trim it down. By the time we reached the fencing around the yard I was down to five arrows. Once we cleared the fence and were safely in the yard I tapped Rick’s shoulder.

“I need to get to my car.” I yelled so that he could hear me through all of the growls and gunshots.

He frowned over at me. “We need to go protect the group.”

I shook my head at him. “My guns are in that ‘Tank’. If I can get there then we can take down this damn herd.”

“Grab you’re weapons and then meet me up on the porch. I have to go find my wife and Hershel.” He instructed and I nodded.

As I turned to run to my car I noticed the fence that was around the yard fall and then Walkers started limping their way inside. I let out another foul curse and picked up the pace. When I was close to my tank I yanked out my keys from my front pocket and unlocked my car. My hand flew to the door handle and I yanked opened the door in record time.

I tossed my bow and quiver into the passenger seat before traveling into the back. The first thing that my hands grabbed was my Heckler & Koch MP5K. The small 9mm submachine gun could pump out 900 rounds in a minute. After sliding the strap over my arm I grabbed a Beretta 92FS pistol and shoved it in the back of my jeans. I was just about to grab a hold of something else when a child’s scream echoed in the air.

My head recognized the small girl’s voice instantly and for a moment fear slipped its way into my veins. Fear drove me to do something extremely stupid. With the two guns and my hunting knife on me I ran out of my near impenetrable ‘tank’. Sophia’s screaming continued to ring in my head making me that much more desperate to find her.

I dodged Walkers instead of shooting them as I ran around the yard yelling out Sophia’s name. Another blood curdling scream drew my attention over to the porch as I watched the child struggling to get away from two Walkers.

“Sophia!” I cried running over to the porch with my submachine gun in my hand. I watched as the small child turned to look at me with a pair of watery eyes, a small glimmer of hope shined there just before she was thrown backwards.

“Sophia!” I screamed lifting up my gun and firing at the two Walkers that were starting to bend down after her. My wild emotions threw off my shots and instead of hitting their heads I blew holes through their necks and chests. It didn’t matter though because after firing that quick burst I was firmly planted on the porch standing protectively over her.

I clicked the trigger back and let out a bloodthirsty scream as I shot directly at their skulls. After a second I notched the barrel of my gun down and bent over Sophia. Her cheeks were stained with tears and her entire body was trembling with fear.

“Are ya’ okay sweetie?” I set the gun aside and started patting down the little girl, there was a scrap on her elbow and both of her knees but other than that she was fine. I let out a sigh of relief before tugging her up and wrapping my arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I thought I was going to die.” She mumbled between sobs in my ear. “Again. I’m scared of dying again.”

“I’m not going to let you die.” I held her closer and ran my hands soothingly down her back. “I’ll protect you. I’ll always protect you.”

She let out another cry and I felt her hot tears wetting the side of my neck and the top of my shirt. I knew that there wasn’t any time to waste consoling a child at a time like this but it just felt like it was something that had to be done. After she had a good cry I pulled Sophia away from me wiped her cheeks with my thumb.

“Now listen,” I spoke as softly as I could. “We’re going to have to make a run for my ‘tank’ over. From there I’ll be able to protect you and keep everyone safe, do you follow?” She nodded. “Okay good. I’m going to need you to stay right by my side. Don’t leave it for a second do you understand?”

“Yeah.” She whimpered glancing over at the now infected yard.

“That’s my girl.” I cooed leaning over and picking up my submachine. “Let’s go then.”

I pushed myself up off of the porch floor and leaned over to grab ahold of Sophia’s hand. She held on tightly and I gave her one last smile before lifting up my gun and shooting off rounds. I lead Sophia off of the porch and towards my ‘tank’ as safely and quickly as I could but she kept tripping over herself.

When she fell a third time I knew that we were both going to be in trouble if we didn’t make it back to the ‘tank’ soon. I let out a frustrated sigh when I realized what I was going to have to do. Swigging my gun strap over to my back I bent down and picked up Sophia. She clasped her arms around my neck as I sprinted towards the ‘tank’. Growls and hungry snapping sounds clipped at my heels as I ran and I prayed that whatever happened in the next few seconds would hold off until Sophia was be safe.

I felt the greedy chipped nails scrap against my back and let out a curse. Not gonna make it. My brain scream. Should have parked the car closer. I looked over at the ‘tank’ that was a few feet away and prayed that the Walkers behind me just tripped or something.

I felt broken fingers grab ahold of my shirt and yank me backwards. Luckily I had let go of Sophia a second before the Walker grabbed firmly onto my upper arm. With seconds to spare I pushed Sophia forward. She stumbled to the ground with a cry and turned to look up at me with a pair of wide eyes.

“Run!” I screamed at her just before I felt a pair of teeth clamp down on my shoulder.

I let out a scream at the intense pain that was shooting through my body. I reached a quick hand behind my back and pulled out my hunting knife. Before the Beast could rip my skin off of me I jammed the knife up through its eye. The Walker’s bite fell loose as it dropped to the ground with my knife sticking out of its head. Sophia looked up at me with watery eyes and I felt anger pulse through me.

With one hand clamped over my bleeding shoulder I leaned down and yanked Sophia up off of the ground. “I said run!”

With that I dragged her the last few feet to the ‘tank’ and threw her inside. I could hear the Walker’s jaw snapping behind me so I turned around on my heels and slugged the bastard in the face. “Shut up.” I seethed before hopping into the car and slamming the door shut.

In a matter of seconds I watched as Walkers bumped against my ‘Tank’ and streaking their bloody hands down the barred bullet proof windows. I threw my keys into the ignition and without a care in the world started up my baby. More Geeks snarled as they pounded their hands against the sides of my ‘tank’. I tossed it into gear and ran over any stupid Geek that just so happened to be in my way.

Sophia began crying for her mother beside me but between the pain in my shoulder and the sound of bones breaking as I rolled over them I didn’t really hear her. At first I had been planning to find the rest of the group and toss them some of my guns but when I noticed the cars heading every which way off of the property. I realized that we were a abandoning the farm.



I ended up following behind the blue truck that Glenn, Maggie, and I had taken for our run into town earlier, though this time I had no clue whom was in it. Sophia stayed quiet in the passenger’s seat. She was so worried about her mother that she couldn’t even talk and personally I couldn’t blame her. During the drive I repeated the farm incident over and over in my head trying to remember if I had seen Daryl or not.

No matter how many times I replayed it though I couldn’t see him anywhere. My hands tightened on the steering wheel as I followed behind the blue truck, hoping that the group had established some kind of rendezvous (ron-day-vo) place.

The pain in my shoulder had stopped bothering me a long time ago but the bleeding had not. During the drive I had been able to wrap a cloth around it in hopes that it would stop on its own but it hadn’t. Blood had soaked through the cloth and now stained the left side of my shirt. Even if I had found the time to stitch it there was no way that I would be able to. The bite was in a strange place on my shoulder meaning that I couldn’t stitch it up by myself.

The blood lose made me woozy and at times I could only make out the back of the truck, so when we neared a bunch of blurry objects and started weaving our way through them it was extremely difficult. The truck in front of my pulled to a stop and I gave a little sigh of relief.

The clicking of car doors opening made me smile as I glanced over at Sophia. Her face was plastered to the window as she scanned the area looking for her mother. My smile wavered for a moment before I reached over and tapped her side. “Come on Sophia.”

She gave a little nod before prying opened her door and stumbling out of it. I ran a tired hand through my dirty hair before opening up my own door and basically fell out of it. Sophia was by my side in an instant and she slowly led me over to where other kinds of familiar blobs were.

Once we got closer I heard a little cry, “Sophia!”

I recognized Carol voice instantly and smiled at the fact that she had made it here okay. Sophia ran from my side with a cry of her own and when she did that I became unsteady. My body pitched to the side, ready to fall on the hard ground when a strong hand latched onto my good shoulder.

“Easy now.” I felt my heart lodge itself into my throat at the sound of Georgia’s finniest Redneck.

“Daryl?” I turned to look at him but even now all I saw was a blur.

Daryl’s fingers eased over to my sloppy bandaged job and he gently lifted up the side. “Jesus woman what the hell did ya’ do?”

My head wobbled back and forth. “Someone had to be the hero and save the damsel in distress.”

“Well ya’ suck at it.” He grumbled slowly wrapping his arm around my back so that I couldn’t fall over. “Damn it, you’re covered in blood.”

I waved the comment off. “It’s probably not all mine.”

He scoffed at my comment and for a second I thought he wavered something in front of my face but my vision was shot by now. “Ya’ damn idiot how could ya’ let yourself get so bad.”

“I was more worried about making sure that Sophia wasn’t separated from her group again.” Knowing that Daryl didn’t like to be touched I resisted the urge to rest my head against him.

“Hershel!” Daryl yelled out and I felt his hand tighten against my ribs.

“Daryl that’s not necessary-

“Ya’ immune from bleeding to death?” He asked curtly.

I glared at him as best I could. “No but I’ll be fine for a little while longer.”

“Bullshit.” He spat and tugged me along beside him.

“Good Lord child what happened to you?” Hershel’s voice caught my attention and I swung my head in his voice’s direction.

“Got into a little tussle and now Daryl’s demanding medical attention.” I tried keeping my voice calm but in the end it just sounded exhausted.

I felt another, smoother pair of hands fiddle with the cloth on my wounded shoulder. After a few seconds he lowered the cloth back down. “You’re bit.”

My head fell forward. “Damn bastard snuck up on me.”

“All my equipment is back on the farm. I don’t have anything to stitch you up with.”

I gave a half shrug with my good shoulder. “That’s fine I’ve got some supplies back in the car.”

“Where is it at in the car?” He asked professionally while he led Daryl and me somewhere.

I felt Daryl helping me down on something but I couldn’t tell what. “You know I can’t let you in my car.”

“You’re going to die if we don’t fix that wound.” Maggie’s voice called out from somewhere.

I watched as the blurry shapes began to fade into something grey…and then black. “Got floss and a needle in my back pocket. Problem solved.”

“Tell me how to get into your car.” Daryl’s demanded.

“No.” I slurred and started nodding off.

“You tell me how to get into that damn car or I swear to god I’m going to break it open.”

I smirked a little at that. “Good luck.”

“Damn it, don’t you dare close your eyes!”

I felt someone reach into my back pocket and pull out the dental floss and needle. “You better give me some room.” Hershel called out and I felt his soft but withered hands against my skin.

I could still feel Daryl hovering near by and I could almost sense the uneasiness of the group around me but I passed out before I could comfort them.

Notes

Isn't that weird that you can used dental floss as a stitch....that's what I thought anyway and I didn't know that (rondayvo) was actually spelt rendezvous....I know right?? So I put that little thing up there just in case haha.

P.S there is going to be a twist coming up and I am so excited to reveal it!!! Ahh then I can finally work on more Daryl and Evie time hahaha!! Let me know what you all think this twist is going to be???