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The Hunter Within

Guts

“Hey.” An unfamiliar voice pulled Sophie from her thoughts, shuffling feet forcing her eyes open. “Are you alive in there?”
She opened her eyes, looking for the voice nervously, fingers brushing against the cement in search for her staff. Noise brought the rotters, she panicked, taking in the young man that headed down the alley, right towards her. His slick, black hair was almost completely hidden by a ratty baseball cap, a radio clutched in his hands. He was of Asian heritage, somewhat short of build, his accent American. As he rushed down the alley, towards the dumpster adjacent from her, Sophie forced her eyes closed, letting her body go limp. Her heart skipped a beat as the footsteps seemed to hesitate before her unmoving body, forcing Sophie to hold her breath until they passed. When they did, she opened her eyes just enough to find the man with his back to her.
“There you are,” he spoke into the radio, a sense of vague relief buried within his voice. “You had me wondering…”
Sophie strained her ears, trying to listen in on the conversation, the soft voice coming from the radio barely reaching her, the sentences fading in and out of her hearing range. “Where…. You… Outside…. Right now?”
“Yeah, I can see you. You’re completely surrounded by walkers.” The Asian man answered, able to hear the man on the other side much better than what Sophie could. “That’s the bad news.”
Sophie worked at shuffling closer to the man’s position without drawing any attention to herself as the second voice answered over the radio. From her slightly more advantaged position, she came to realise that the young man was looking down the street towards the tank. Settling into herself a little, Sophie wondered if the voice on the other end belonged to the sheriff. Who misses TV, she joked internally at the drama that had begun to unfold before her, finding herself closer to other people in longer than she could remember.
“Oh man. You should see it from over here. You’d be having a major freak-out,” The young man behind the dumpster replied. A mangled laugh escaped from Sophie’s lips before she could stop it. Breath catching in her throat, she threw her eyes closed, listening as the man seemed to turn in her direction quickly, growing quiet for a moment before turning back to the radio in his hands and whatever the sheriff had said. “Yeah, I’d say make a run for it?”
That’s it? …. Run… ‘f…. it?” The radio almost mocked.
“My way’s not as dumb as it sounds. You’ve got eyes on the outside here. There’s still one geek up on the tank, but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down.” His plan was met with silence, the radio crackling as Sophie waited eagerly for a reply. ”With me so far?”
“So far.”
The young man before her continued with giving instructions while Sophie forced herself to consider her own plan. What are you going to do? She almost sighed, her eyes flickering to the black head of hair before her, her stomach turning at the thought of introducing herself. Are you going to wait for them to leave, and then what? Follow the helicopter, she chewed at her lip, it could be anywhere by now. Listening back in on the conversation, now on the subject of weapons and ammunition, Sophie realised that she needed to make a decision quickly.
“Make ‘em count.” The Asian man warned, ducking his head out of the alleyway and into the street for a brief moment. “Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There’s an alley up the street, maybe fifty yards. Be there.”
Fifty yards, Sophie repeated, that’s all you’ve got. Her whole body ached at the thought, heart slamming against her chest as she considered how quickly someone could run fifty yards. Getting up off the pavement sounded like a battle, but still, Sophie had to consider the war ahead. The company of other people was something that she not only longed for, but needed. It scared Sophie shitless to consider opening herself up to strangers, to new people, as if it would be accepting that her old life was over and her family gone, but she needed to consider herself and whether of not she could continue to fight against the new world on her own.
Gunshots pulled Sophie from her thoughts, growing louder and louder, echoing off the tall buildings around them, signalling that the sheriff had made a break for it, that her fifty yards were almost up. Sophie’s heart raced alongside of him, her breath caught in her lungs as she childishly crossed her fingers for the man. In front of her, the young man laced his own fingers behind his head, pacing somewhat nervously, moving to peer around the corner of the alley seconds later, an almost impatient sigh slipping from his lips. The shots would bring rotters, after all, and he probably wanted to be far away by the time they arrived.
Whoa!” Not dead!” The black haired man called out as the sheriff rounded the corner, almost colliding with his saviour, eyes wide and gun at the ready. Two sets of footsteps rushed forward, Sophie’s eyes closing out of fear, fear of the unknown, of hoping. “Come on! Come on! Back here, come on!”
“Wait!” The new voice hissed, barely audible over the way Sophie’s heartbeat filled her ears as he knelt down beside Sophie’s still body, his breath brushing the skin of her blood-caked cheek. She felt a hand reach tug at her staff, another snaking against her skin to grab at the knife that was tucked into the waistband of her jeans. Without thought, Sophie’s hand instinctually flew up to grab at the man’s wrist, realising how entirely stupid that was when she opened her eyes to find herself staring down the barrel of the revolver pointed at her face. She instantly let go, raising her hands ever so slowly in surrender, keeping her eyes locked in on the icy blues ones that regarded her with a sense of surprise.
“What are you doing!?” The black haired man paused, turning to study Sophie with the same, wide-eyed glance as the sheriff grabbed at Sophie’s arm roughly, pulling her up onto her aching feet to drag her along behind them as the rotters begun to flow into the alley behind them. The younger man glanced over his shoulder as he ran, waving them forward almost impatiently, his dark eyes on the incoming herd. “Come on!”
Sophie worked at ignoring the yelling back and forth as she begun the climb up the narrow, completely vertical fire escape ahead of the sheriff, rotters hungrily reaching up the ladder for them. She clung to her staff tightly, desperately trying to hold onto both it and the sun-soaked rungs of the ladder. Before her, the black haired man paused mid-climb, staring down at his two tagalongs with a sense of curiousity. Sophie wanted to curse at him as she worked at holding onto the burning hot metal for dear life.
“Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood. You the new sheriff come riding in to clean up the town?” He scoffed, seemingly unimpressed as Sophie tightened her white knuckles around both her staff and the ladder, pleading with her protesting body to hold on just a little longer.
“Not my intention,” the sheriff answered abruptly, his accented voice floating up from underneath Sophie, above the moans below.
“Whatever. Yeehaw, you’re still a dumbass.” The younger man laughed down the ladder, his gaze pausing as it brushed over Sophie. “What about you? What’s your deal?”
“Can’t we do this elsewhere?” She almost growled, feeling as if the creaking ladder had exceeded its recommended weight allowance.
“Oh, right,” he smirked, continuing the climb after regarding her for a moment longer before briefly pausing once more. “The bright side is, that it’ll be the fall that kills us. I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy.”
“Excellent,” Sophie groaned, glancing down at the sheriff as she was finally given the room to move forward, away from the grabby, rotting hands below.
Once up on the roof, Sophie listened only vaguely as the two men talked, choosing instead to keep an eye on the rotters before, nervous that they would find a way up the ladder despite knowing the improbability. From what she had witnessed, they didn’t do much more than shuffle around drunkenly, forever searching for their next meals. And ruining lives, she swallowed, watching as dead hands clutched at the rungs almost too strongly, too knowingly.
“Hey.” The sheriff’s rough voice pulled Sophie away from her worried. Rick, he had introduced himself as moments earlier. His icy blue eyes studied her with a sense of expectancy, the younger man – Glenn – watching her just as carefully. “What’s your name?”
“Sophie.” She smiled, moving away from the buildings ledge in order to follow her new companions as Glenn gestured for them to follow him across the roof and down the other side. Sophie paused at the top, peering over to find that there were no rotters waiting for them at the bottom.
Despite the lack of dead, the trio sped up into a jog anyway, nervous about the possibilities, about the unknown. Sophie clutched at her staff tightly, her hands wrapped around the wood as if it were a lifeline. The men’s feet thumped against the group loudly, echoing in between the buildings while her own were kept as light as possible, purely out of habit and desire to remain unheard. Turning a corner, Sophie hesitated at the four rotters that blocked their path, shambling towards them with renewed purpose as Glenn pulled the radio from his back pocket, talking into it with a low voice. Taking in a deep breath, Sophie readied her stance, eyes on the rotters ahead.
As the trio close in on the dead bodies, the door before them slammed back against the wall, the sound enough to make Sophie flinch as she watched two figures wearing protective gear pour out through the door. She stayed anchored where she was as they worked at beating the rotting frames with bats, the sound of wood against flesh echoing down between the tall buildings. Forgetting herself, it wasn’t until Glenn grabbed at her wrist that Sophie considered the two remaining rotters moving towards them as he pulled her towards the open door and into what she assumed was safety.
Once inside the building, Glenn released his hold, moving through the store as Sophie hung back nervously. The men in protective gear shut the door behind her as she glanced back at it, eyes following the strangers as she lowered herself down onto the dusty carpet. Taking a moment, Sophie closed her eyes and rest her elbows on bent knees, working at taking in deep breaths and collecting herself after the previous commotion. Speak of commotion, she mused, eyes snapping open to the yelling the erupted from further inside the store. Standing on shaky legs, Sophie took a step back, taking in the angry blonde woman and the gun she held dangerously close to Rick’s face, yelling somewhat desperately.
“You just rang the dinner bell, you know that!?” The blonde woman hissed, rotters piling up against the glass entrance behind her. Sophie hung back, watching curiously as she listened to the conversation, grip tightening around her staff and eyes catching on the fresh clothes that surrounded her.
“Helicopter? Man, that’s crap. Ain’t no damn helicopter.” The dark man spoke after Rick tried to defend himself with a story about how he was only trying to flag the helicopter. Sophie’s eyes hovered on the man, watching disbelief seep onto the faces around her.
“You were chasing a hallucination, imagining thing –” The other woman in the room begun to argue before Sophie cut her off in an unintentional laugh, shifting closer towards the shadows as all eyes turned to consider her.
“I saw it,” she shrugged, feigning indifference. The silence that ensued sat heavy on Sophie’s shoulders, the weight of the stares only making it worse, knowing they were eyeing off the blood soaked clothing and crimson stained skin. Silently, Sophie found herself thankful that she had lost the intestines during the dash to the ladder back in the alley. Clearing her throat, she stepped forward with as much bravery as she could manage. “He wasn’t imagining things.”
Rick nodded a silent thank you from where he stood in the middle of the store, Glenn animatedly introducing Sophie to the rest of the group. Andrea, T-Dog, Jackie, Morales, names that could have belonged to anyone. As Glenn spoke about Rick, the two men huddled around the radio, mumbling to each other as Sophie turned to study the unstained clothes hanging before her. Looking up, her eyes met the young man’s before loud, echoing gunshots seemed to move the city around her into slow motion, breaking up the tense conversation before her.
“Oh no,” the obnoxious blonde sighed, Sophie following her gaze as she looked up towards the roof with obvious realisation. “Is that Dixon?”
“What is that maniac doing!?” One of the newer men groaned, taking in a deep breath as he turned for the stairs, the rest of the group following suit as he disappeared up the staircase. Sophie hesitated for a moment, her fingers touching at the soft fabric of a tank top before she followed suit, not able to deny her curiousity. Curiousity killed the cat, she sighed, making the climb.
Taking the steps two at a time, she pushed the top door open only moments after it swung closed, squinting against the sunlight that assaulted her eyes as she let it shut behind her. Standing on the edge of the roof was what appeared to be an absolute madman, yelling profanities as he shot at the mass of rotters congregating at the base of the building below him. Frowning at the sight, Sophie stepped forward as the group worked at begging him to stop, the rough looking gunman only laughing at their feeble attempts.
“Hey! Y’all ought to be more polite to a man with a gun, huh?” The apparent redneck raised his eyebrows, extending his hands before him, swinging the rifle around carelessly. Eyeing off the weapon, Sophie couldn’t help but see the point that he was trying to make. “It’s only common sense.”
The dark man worked at trying to reason with the gunman – Dixon – with a somewhat frantic tone, warning about wasting bullets as Sophie moved towards the edge of the building cautiously, keeping the rough redneck in her sights at all times. Below, the rotters were continuing to pile up against the glass entrance downstairs, the numbers having increased in the time it had taken her to climb them. Stepping back, Sophie worked at swallowing the nervousness that sat heavy in the base of her throat, sparing the loose hanging door they had come through a quick glance.
“You want to know what day it is?” The redneck laughed as Sophie tore herself away from the moans below, knowing that it would do more harm than good to dwell on the situations. The warm sun had begun to beat down onto her skin, continuing to harden the blood that she had smeared across her skin earlier. As least I won’t get burnt, she considered, trying to take on Glenn’s glass half full kind of attitude from earlier.
“What?” The dark man sighed impatiently, eyebrows raised and hands on his hips as he waited for his answer, the redneck chuckling to himself for a moment, eyes dangerous.
“I’ll tell you the day, Mr Yo.” He spat after a moment. “It’s not the day that I take orders from a nigger.”
Sophie’s mouth fell open at the comment, all hell breaking loose around her as she worked at correcting herself, eyes meeting Rick’s unsure gaze for a moment. The dark man took the comment as well as could be expected, lunging forward to tackle the much older redneck, colliding with the concrete below with an audible thump. The others began to panic, working desperately to separate the two men, to break up the fight that followed. Once again, her eyes went to Rick, considering him as the authority figure as he stood by in his sheriff uniform.
Her lingering gaze was forced back to the rest of the group as an unsettled, unsure silence worked at consuming them all. Sophie froze as her eyes brushed over the scene before her, her breath caught in her throat, as if breathing would push the redneck over the edge. Dixon had T-Dog pinned to the hot ground below him, a pistol hovering inches from his face. No one dared to move, the silence one of anticipation as they waited for someone to do something.
“All right!” Dixon seemed to relax a little, sitting back a little further, his loudly spoken words enough to make Sophie flinch as he scanned the still quiet group before him. With careful feet, she worked at inching away, her heart slamming against her throat and palms growing sweaty under the grip she had on her wooden staff. “We’re gonna have ourselves a little powwow, huh? Have a talk about who’s in charge. Now, I vote me. Anybody else?”
Sophie eyed off the members of the group, each of them just staring at the man with an undeniable sense of fury. Shuffling back a little more, she glanced up at the descending sun and then back to the older man and his gun. More trouble than it’s worth, she decided, looking for an out.
“Democracy time, y’all. Show of hands! All in favour? Come on, let’s see ‘em. All in favour, come on.” The redneck moved between each individual person, his gun trailing on each of them until they raised their hands, slowly but surely. As the weapon hovered over Sophie, she rolled her eyes before raising a single hand despite her lack of position in the group. “Yeah… That’s good. Now, that mean’s I’m the boss, right?”
“Right.” Rick nodded in agreement, making a short, calculated step towards the older man. Sophie couldn’t help but notice his deliberate movements, taking her own step back in response, unsure of what was to follow. Before her back foot could touch the ground, Rick had taken a pipe, swinging it at the older man, the sound of steel against bone more familiar than it had the right of being.
“Who the hell are you, man!?” Dixon whined as Rick pulled out a set of handcuffs, securing him to a nearby pipe before he had a chance at corrected himself, at doing anything else.
“Officer friendly,” Rick seethed, eyes narrowing in on the man below him. “Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore, no dumb-ass-shit, inbred white trash fools either.”
Sophie bit down on her lip at Rick’s not so downplayed insult, watching on as he continued to lecture the man beneath him about the importance of coming together to beat this. Whatever this really was. Sophie’s eyes went to the man as he corrected himself, sitting up against the pipe with a dismissive smirk. Trust the redneck to keep racism alive at the end of the world, she scoffed, eyes darting between the men before her.
“Screw you, man.”
“I can see you make a habit of missing the point.”
“Yeah?” Merle hung hopelessly by his handcuffs, unable to do anything more than attempt to verbally abuse Rick. “Well, screw you twice.”
“Ought to be more polite to a man with a gun.” Rick mocked the other man’s previous words as he cocked is own gun in the older man’s direction, he tilting to the one side, eyebrows raised. “Only common sense.”
“You wouldn’t. You’re a cop.”
“All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son. Anybody that gets in the way of that is going to lose. I’ll give you a moment to think about that.” He growled, stepping close once again to draw attention to the barely noticeable powder that dusted Merle’s nose. Trust the redneck to bring cocaine into the apocalypse, Sophie rolled her eyes. “Got something on your nose there.”
“What are you gonna do?” Merle laughed, his tone almost daring. “Arrest me, officer?”
Rick turned away from the man, despite the yelling that followed his cold shoulder, only turning back for a moment to assure Dixon that he could hear him just fine enough. Sophie watched as he turned to the rest of the group, questions about his police career, where he had come from, filling the air around them. Sophie kept her distance, turning her attention back to the rotters below, finding them unmoving before pressing herself up against the height of a cement block, sinking down onto the ground and into the shadows.
Time passed by slowly, occasionally conversation exchanged between the group as they waited, hopefully, for the rotters below to give up their struggle below. Sophie sat quietly, watching the mechanics of the group from a distance. Thankfully, Merle had managed to keep quiet, only occasionally throwing insults at one of the others, usually only if they accidentally looked at him. A habit that Sophie made a point of not getting herself into.
“Good luck with that. These streets ain’t safe in this part of town, from what I hear anyway.” The redneck laughed at something the blonde – Andrea – had said before turning to look Sophie in the eye as her gaze brushed over him. She bit at her lip, feeling uneasy under his intense, blue eyed gaze, wishing that she could go back to being invisible again. “Ain’t that right, sugar tits? Hey, honey bunch, what say you get me out of these cuffs an’ we go off somewhere quiet, get to know each other a lil’ better? Gonna die anyway?”
“I’d rather,” Sophie growled, holding his gaze as he seemed to consider his reply, determined to keep him from seeing her fear. Under his breath, he mumbled something about a rug muncher as he turned away, Sophie finding it best if she ignored him completely.
“The street’s ain’t safe.” The lighter skinned man of the two in protective gear muttered impatiently from where he was hiding in what little shade the rooftop offered the group. “Now there’s an understatement.”
“What about under the streets? Like, the sewers?” Rick suggested almost cautiously, gaging the reactions around him, Sophie not being able to help but screw her face up at the thought. She had already put herself through enough bodily fluid moisturising for one day, she wasn’t about to add sewer juice to the list. “Hey, Glenn, check the alley for me. See if you can see any manhole covers down there?”
Sophie watched curiously as Glenn did as he was asked, moving across the rooftop as silence settled back over it for a moment, all eyes on the black haired man as he peered over the edge, shaking his head upon return. Part of her wanted to rejoice, even if it meant that their means of escape had just reached another dead end. “No, must be all out on the side where the geeks are.”
“Maybe not… An old building like this, built in the twenties…” The older, dark-skinned woman spoke in a rushed tone. “… Big structures often had drainage tunnels into the sewers in case of any flooding down in the subbasements.”
“How did you know that?”
“It’s my job,” she answered Rick with a quick smile before pausing, a sense of realisation creeping into her generally friendly features. “Well, it was my job. I worked in the city zoning office.”
The group was buzzing with excitement as they rushed back towards the stairs without warning. Sophie stood to follow suit, pausing only to spare Merle a quick glance before slipping through the door as it threatened to close. The group had already disappeared by the time she reached the bottom floor, eyes brushing over the rotters that worked at pressing themselves against the glass. Voices drifted up from the basements, and instead of following any further, not really sure if she wanted to consider an escape through he sewer tunnels; she took to roaming the aisles in search of less bloody clothes.
Sophie couldn’t afford to be picky, scooping up any practical clothes her size and shoving all but a single, new set of jeans and a top into her ratty bag. As she worked at sourcing hole-less socks, Sophie glanced towards the basement briefly and then to the foot of the stairs they had all just come down, Merle waiting at the top. Deciding that they might be down there a while, and that they would have to come back up anyway, she moved towards their pile of supplies to scoop up one of the water bottles and a nearby t-shirt with a sense of eagerness.
Moving into the furthest change room and locking the door behind her, Sophie worked at washing the blood and guts off her skin with an undeniable sense of absolute relief. Using the t-shirt, she worked at drying her exposed skin before peeling her filthy, sun dried clothes from her body. Avoiding the sight of her poorly, bruised and battered naked frame in the full-length mirror, she worked at washing what remained of her usually unexposed skin, not surprised that it still managed to be decorated with blood.
A sigh escaped Sophie’s lips as she slipped on her fresh clothes and underwear, marvelling at how comfortable and refreshed they felt against her damp skin. Sitting down to reorganise and repack her bag, Sophie fought against the heaviness of her eyelids, a unwavering tiredness settling in her weary joints as she settled into her seated position a little more. Despite knowing better, she gave in to the fight against her eyelids, telling herself that she would only rest for a moment. With a deep yawn, Sophie sunk into her aching body a little more, shifting her weight on the hard seat as exhaustion worked at claiming her consciousness and any rational thought she might have had.



Notes

Let me know guys! I know it is very 'by the show', so to speak, but I feel as though in the beginning having Sophie added in will only alter the story line a little. As the story develops however, you would imagine that her presence influences differences more and more. I'm going to do my best to get season one out of the way, so keep your eyes pealed! :D

Comments

Who's here on 2020 for a re-read? :D

Tee- Tee-
4/17/20

@QueenUchi

New readers make my heart sing, especially when they start this journey ten months after I ended it (abit abruptly but we won’t get into that because it’ll make me sad again).

Thank you you so much for leaving a comment. Nothing is more motivating for the unmotivated than a little bit of love. Whenever I get a comment from someone new all I find myself wanting to sit down and grill them with a million different questions.

If youre chasing updates about any eventual stories I write, please follow me on instagram @ sophyl_

Thanks a million again!! xx

aryaaa aryaaa
11/28/18

thank you @sanders151 for recomending me this fanfic

Your fanfic has been in the center of my life for the whole month November. Let me just tell you that im in love with everything about this story. Im even at loss of words about how amazing this journey has been.

There have been moments when i actually had to get up and calm down from all the feelings may they be joy sadness or just extreme suffering. Ive been cheering, i've been crying to the point of ugly sobbing, ive been screaming while reading this all.

I dont even know how to tell you how i feel about this fanfic there arent any words for it so ima just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH about it cause thats the closets that i can think off "insert all the feelings i cant express here"

I am just so thank full for all your time and effort and everything youve put into this story. Cause WOW youre an amazing writer and when you do make your original story please do know that I WOULD LOVE TO READ THAT TOO.

This journey has ended but it will forever be in my heart.

QueenUchi QueenUchi
11/27/18

@Sanders151

I was so surprised to see a new notification on this story after all these months. Thank you so much for taking the time
to comment, I hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read since. Please feel free to leave me updated on your thoughts xx

aryaaa aryaaa
11/25/18

Hello,

It's been a looong time since i've read this story. Life got busy and i totally forgot to finish it.

SO i decided to reread everything and lemme tell you...I STILL LOVE IT AS MUCH AS THE FIRST TIME.
Im currently at chapter 62 (right after fort hill) and i can't wait for what is to come.


Sanders151 Sanders151
11/15/18