182 Days
San Francisco, March 2017
The glass crunches beneath her feet as she walks down the now abandoned road. Garbage and glass litter the street, along with the occasional deceased body lying around. She takes a deep breath of the warm afternoon air, it smells of smoke and decay. On warmer days like this one, the reek of death and rot is more prominent under the hot sun. She gags slightly, deciding to pull her handkerchief out of her pack, she wraps the black material around her nose and mouth, hoping to mask the smell. Her golden blonde hair is in a messy bun, she wears black slightly ripped up jeans and a one size too big forest green and black flannel. Black Timberland boots cover her feet, and a plain black backpack rests on her shoulders carrying the essentials, food, water, iodine drops to purify the water, 1 extra pair of socks, 23 tampons, and of course, her arrows. She has 7 left, they rest in her backpack sticking out of the hole she leaves in the top at the zippers so she can reach them and pull them free easily when she needs too. Her bow is gripped in her right hand, long and sturdy. Hand made and designed by the artist herself, it’s made of dark rosewood, it curves and bends to fit the blue eyed girls hand and posture perfectly.
She’s on a run. Looking for anything that can benefit her or her group. Somehow she's managed to help keep some of her friends and family alive, but that won't continue to happen if she can’t find food, water, or some medicine. She comes across an abandoned mini van that's been crashed directly into the side of what used to be someone's home. She approaches the van with caution, pulling an arrow from her pack and loading her bow. Swiftly, she places a hand on the van door and swings it open, taking a step back and aiming at whatever might be lurking inside the van, sudden movement catches her eye as she looks to the van's floor to see a family of rats frantically scurrying around at her sudden appearance. She scoffs at the sight of the rodents but enters the van anyway. It’s like stepping into a time capsule of what the world she once lived in use to be like, a soccer ball laid flat on the floor, there's a gameboy on one seat and a pile of dvds strewn across the other, in the pile of movies she spots one in particular. She grabs the film in its case reading the title aloud “Shaun Of The Dead”. She rolled her eyes tossing the dvd back into the pile, aggravated at how stupid they had all been to think that movie was funny and unrealistic. Karma’s a funny thing. There’s a car seat in the very back of the van and in it she finds a small package of fruit snacks and a Captain America comic book. She grabs both items with a silent thanks to whoevers listening. She places the comic book in her pack, knowing someone who might enjoy reading it, and opens the gummies plopping a grape flavoured one into her mouth as she heads back out into the blistering sun.
She reaches the end of the street and takes a left, She snaps her head up quickly as the rotten smell intensifies through her bandana. She spots it instantly. No more than 10 feet away staggers a walker, mindlessly roaming the dirty street, light moans can be heard escaping its mouth. The girl spins on her heals, deciding to leave the walker be, backtrack and go right instead of left, because frankly she didn't want to deal with its shit. It had been a pretty peaceful afternoon so far and she’d like to keep it that way if possible.
Before she could turn around fully, she was stopped in her tracks by a sound.
No. a word.
“Wait”
It was whispered so quietly she thought she had imagined it, until it came again, this time louder.
“Wait plea-” The voice was cut short and replaced by a deep wheezy breath.
The blonde turned around, gripping the knife attached to her thigh looking for the source of the sound.
“Over here” the voice said weakly.
She turned her head towards the sound, it was coming from a collapsed building to her left, when she looked closer she could see a hand slowly rise out of the rubble. She hesitated for only a moment, briefly considering this could be a trap, before disregarding the thought and running over to where the hand was waving. Climbing over some of the debri she came face to face with a set of brown eyes. They were familiar, and as she looked at the rest of the other girls dirtied up face, realization hit her like a bus.
“Oh my god! Raven?!”
The brunettes head snapped up looking at the blonde.
“Holy shit, Clarke?!”
Clarke stood in disbelief, taking in the sight of her old friend, her face and clothes were covered in dust as she laid in the rubble.
“What are you doing on the ground? Get up!” Clarke said.
Confused and happy to be reunited with one of her closest friends.
“I would if I could dumbass” Raven retorted.
Squeezing her eyes shut in pain as she motioned to her left leg. Clarke followed Raven's gaze down to her leg. It was trapped under a large piece of cement. She was stuck. Clarke quickly dropped her bow and started on getting Raven free.
“Oh my god, I’ll get you out hold on.” She said in a panicked voice. Moving rocks and rubble out of the way. Bending her knees and placing two hands under the bolder, she took a deep breath and lifted. Taken aback by how heavy the cement was the blonde lost her grip and the cement crashed back down onto Raven's leg. She let out a loud grunt in pain, quickly Clarke threw her hand over Raven’s mouth trying to muffle the loud noise.
“Shit, Shhh! I'm so sorry but you have to be quiet!” Clarke whisper yelled. With sudden adrenaline rushing through her veins, Clarke gripped and lifted the cement block once more, this time successfully getting it off of the other girls leg. She pushed it to the side before wiping her brow and turning back to face her friend.
“See” Clarke smirked “Piece of cake”
Raven let out a soft chuckle, looking lazily at Clarke
“Oh yeah right Griff you tota-”
Clarke watched startled as Raven's eyes flickered to something behind her, they grew wide and panicked as Raven yelled out
“Clarke! Behind you!”
Swiftly she pulled the knife from the sheath strapped to her thigh and whipped around. She was met by the face of the same walker she had seen in the streets only a few minutes ago. Raising her arm she drove the knife straight through its head with so much force it came out the other side. She pulled the knife free from the zombies brain and watched it collapse. She knelt down, using the walkers shirt to clean its blood and guts off of her knife. Turning back around she took a deep breath and held out her hand to help her friend up. Not wanting to waste anymore time here. Picking up her bow as they stood.
Before they could take another step though Clarke pulled Raven into a tight hug. They stood there for a few minutes, just holding each other, taking in the fact that they were together again.
“I thought you were dead Raven” Clarke spoke, letting the tears she had been holding back since she had laid eyes on the girl, spill over her cheeks.
“I thought the same of you” Raven replied, voice slightly cracking as she pulled back to look at Clarke.
“Can you walk?”
“Not by myself, I lost all feeling in my left leg a few hours ago”
“What the hell happened Raven?” Clarke asked,
“I was camped out in what used to be that store, when some jackass decided it would be funny to throw some kind of explosive through the upstairs window. Brought the building right down on me. It's a miracle no walkers came towards the sound of the bang.” Raven replied, limping and gripping Clarke's shoulder as they began to walk.
“Some people are worse than the damn walkers these days. I'm just glad you’re alive. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“Yeah, we do. Who would’ve thought that this is where we’d be 6 months ago?”
At that, Clarke laughed, not because what Raven had said was funny. No, she laughed at how naive she was 6 months ago. How oblivious everyone was to what was about to happen.
“beats me” Clarke replied quietly. Placing her knife back in its sheath, she pulled Raven’s arm over her shoulder.
“Come on, I’ve got a camp. There are some people there I’m pretty sure will be very happy to see you breathing.” Raven smirked, unable to hide the excitement of being reunited with more people she knows and loves.
“We’re gunna be so kickass. I always knew you were a survivor Griff.”
“You don’t know the half of it”.
--
Vancouver, March 2017
She was fast and silent, nimble as she weaved through the trees of the dense forest she was running through. Using her two knives efficiently, stabbing every stray walker along the way straight through the skull, barely stopping her quick pace to do so. Both her and her sister were agile, they could run for hours if need be. But right now they weren’t running from anything, they were running towards something.
“Lexa wait!”
She stopped running at the sound of her sister mentioning her name, spotting a walker a few feet from them she pulled her right arm backwards and threw one of her knives directly at the creature, striking it directly between the eyes. She turned around to see her sister, Anya, bent over begging for air to enter her lungs.
“Anya, we need to keep going” She said, walking over and retrieving her knife from the zombies skull.
“I know kid, just give me a minute. I’m older then you are, got creaky bones now” She joked, knowing she wouldn't get even the slightest smile out of her younger sister.
“You’re only 26, barely five years older than me. We don’t have time to waste.”
“Alright alright I know, just do me a favour and drink some water before we start running again. Last thing I need is you passed out in the middle of this God forsaken forest.”
Lexa huffed in response and set her pack down, deciding a five minute break wouldn’t kill them. Although in this world, it probably could. She sat down on a nearby log pulling her water bottle out of her brown and black half leather backpack. She wore her long thick brown hair in a wavy ponytail. She had on black ankle combat boots, black slightly scuffed up, ripped jeans, and an old black sweater. She’s always telling Anya she wears all black to stay hidden and unseen, but Anya knows Lexa wears all black because she thinks it makes her look like a badass. Which honestly, it does.
Lexa’s weapons of choice are 2 Five inch black military issued knives. She keeps them strapped to her thighs in matching black sheaths that attach to her belt. She keeps a long sword in its sheath on her back as her primary weapon. It was her mother's sword, and everyday she's more thankful for the harsh military like upbringing she had. She used to carry a gun as well, but quickly realised the sound attracted more walkers than it killed. And ammo was a lot harder to find then she had expected it to be. Now Anya keeps the pistol strapped to her hip, for emergencies, but really as more of a scare tactic than anything, seeing that they have limited ammo for it.
“Here” Lexa says, tossing the water bottle towards Anya.
“How far do we have left to go?” Anya asked, taking a swig of the warm water.
“About 12 ½ days maybe.” Lexa responded.
Mere hours before the world went to hell roughly 6 months ago, Lexa had been on the phone with her Mother, she and Lexa’s younger brother Aden were headed to the San Francisco International Airport, and were preparing to fly back to Vancouver. They were in California for Aden’s martial arts competition, something he took very seriously for a 12 year old.
“So you’re sure Anya will be there to pick us up this time? I don’t want to land and have to wait 3 hours again like last time.” Her mom had asked.
Anya had rolled her eyes as Lexa spoke to her mom on speaker phone. Lexa remembers letting out a soft chuckle at her sister's annoyed expression before replying.
“Yes mom. She’ll be there.” She said.
“Ok good, and for goodness sake tell her to-” Suddenly the line went dead.
Lexa had tried to recall her mother that day, but got nothing in return but the sound of the dial tone. She had thought maybe they had reached the airport and lost signal. She wasn’t worried. She went on with her day like it was any other one. She went to school, and work as well.
It took her hours, a full day even to finally realise that she should be worried. Very worried. And now, 6 months later, her and Anya were headed on foot towards San Francisco, it was roughly a 15 day walk from Vancouver. She figures if her and Anya have been able to survive all this time, her mom and little brother will have been able to aswell. She prays they’ll find them, this is her last hope. The last thing that can save her from herself. From this world. From what she’s done to survive. Lexa see’s the way even Anya looks at her sometimes, with such sympathy, like she’s trying to understand Lexa, but just can’t.
“What’re you thinking about?” Anya asked, snapping Lexa out of her swirling thoughts and memories.
“Nothing I was just… Nothing. Let’s go, there’s a small town 5 miles ahead. We should try and reach it before sundown. I’d rather not spend the night out here.” Lexa said, trying to conceal the pain she felt at the possibility of not finding the rest of her family.
“Agreed” Anya spoke, before picking up her own pack and setting the pace at a brisk run for the two of them.
Lexa’s had to do disturbing things to keep herself and her sister alive. Things she’ll never speak of. She’s always been tough, and very smart. But now, if this plan fails, if they can’t get to San Francisco and find the rest of her family, she’ll break.
And no one will be able to bring her back from it.