Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
OCTOBER 7TH, 2013
"Who the hell even are you?" the Korean man spoke up.
"That's a good question," Reign muttered, but she didn't give an answer. Not until the man she punched, Aiden, stared with a nasty glare.
"We're fucking talking to you," he spat. Reign still didn't answer. She didn't look at him, kept her eyes trained on her shoes.
"I heard," Reign responded.
"You're making it worse," the darker skinned teen spoke. But, to Aiden instead of Reign.
"We get that you're scared. We are too. All of us. If it helps, my name's Glenn. This is Noah, and Tara. They're from our group. This is Aiden and Nick, from Alexandria," the Korean man spoke.
"Kerosene," Noah smirked. Everyone looked over at him, in confusion. "You won't tell us your name. Kerosene. It fits. You're hella hot headed, you know."
"Sounds cool. I guess," Reign shrugged.
"Yeah. Whatever the hell your name is, we can't leave you out here," Glenn spoke, "you're bleeding." Aiden immediately protested.
"She's not coming with us. Teenager roaming out in the woods like this, already proved herself suspicious. She killed one of ours. We aren't taking her anywhere. Straight to fuckin' hell maybe," Aiden spat.
"Look around, motherfucker! Nobody else is here! I'm alone! Fifteen and fucking alone! And injured, might I fucking add. Don't you think this is already hell enough! I'm good here," she sat on a broken tree stump, one leg propped up, bringing her knee to her chest. Her other one lay out on the dry, crunchy grass and layer of fallen leaves as they all stared at eachother.
"That's our point. You're fifteen and by yourself. You're coming or we'll walk you back to wherever you came from," Tara butted in.
"No. No, I'm not going back there, I'm not going with you. I'm not going anywhere," Reign protested. Noah, the dark-skinned teen, crouched down beside her.
"I get it. I'm seventeen. They took me in from a corrupt hospital in Atlanta," Noah spoke up, "Scared the hell out of me. Lost a good friend, Glenn's sister-in-law, in the process. Right in front of us. Five more seconds and we all would've been okay. Been a couple months since then. I almost didn't go with them. I was scared. Didn't wanna leave what I thought I knew. But, here, with us, you're safe. Beds, running water, food, medical supplies, people. Exactly what Glenn said, Kerosene, you're alone."
Reign didn't answer at first. She picked at her nails. She stood up and made her decision. "The second you give me a reason, I'm out. No sweet talking me back in. And you two," she pointed at Aiden and Nick, "Fuck with me and I'll tie you up on a chain and let you fucking rot, you hear?"
Knowing they were defenseless, both boys nodded. Then, the group began to walk in the opposite direction in complete, awkward silence. "So... Where are you from?"
"Somewhere not good. Show one sign of a fucking allergy and they lock you up. It's not group against the roamers. It's you against them. Fucking civil war shit," Reign muttered.
"Lock you up?" Aiden questioned, concern laced in his voice. But Reign knew that concern was probably falsified, or not for her.
"Old jail. Not a prison, but a jail."
"Sounds familiar," Noah spoke up. Reign looked up at him, her brows furrowed, a way of silently telling him to elaborate.
"My group. My wife, inlaws, good, good friends, four prisoners we found locked up in the mess hall. Other people we found and housed, caught a real bad case of the flu, at least we think. Killing people left and right. We got overrun by walkers. Roamers, whatever you call them. We had to leave. We found a priest, and survived in his church for long enough to get by. Then a barn. Then Alexanderia," Glenn answered. Reign huffed. What she was been through was arguably worse, not that it's a competition. Still, she could almost see the toll it took on Glenn and the members of group.
"I'm from Atlanta, myself. We stayed in my house when all this hit. Couple neighbors too. We made a makeshift hallway between houses just to have enough room for everyone," Reign spoke, matter-of-factly.
"They lasted?" Nick asked.
"For a bit. Two and a half-ish years, if I believe. I was about ten when all this hit, a week from my twelfth birthday when we were on the run again," Reign nodded. She kept a hand on the strap of her backpack, the other messing with the hole in her tank top.
"On the run? I guess the walkers broke through? Been there," Tara sighed, a hand on her gun just in case there was a surprise walker or something.
"Our houses got raided, lost my aunt to a rogue gunshot. We were on the road when we were attacked, taken to some factory, locked in train cars. Some of those train cars were burnt, gassed. They didn't feed anyone. If you were lucky, maybe, they'd take you out of those traincars. Whole families, sometimes one or two people. They'd never come back. We just hoped they'd been given a home or something. But I think deep down we all knew what was going on. We managed to get away from them. Then, we were on the run," Reign began.
"Again?" Glenn sighed. He'd been on the run a lot, but not like that.
"Those factory people, somehow they kept eyes on us. We lost my brother to a woalker before we even reached the fence. My cousin bled out from a gunshot, my dad was electrocuted. All within fifteen minutes. We got out in the woods, another cousin, my mom, my sister and I. Then we found the Jail."
"How long ago was this?" Noah asked.
"Two weeks ago. In those two weeks, the same people found us. And they shot a... a- uh, an oxygen tank. It was really bad," Reign informed. Silence fell over the group.
"She can't come," Aiden spoke up again. "If they're following her... She can't come with us, she'll put us all in danger!"
"They think I'm dead, dumbass. No normal person would've gotten out of that!" Reign argued.
"What, so you're immortal or some shit?" Nick cackled in a mocking manner.
"I don't want to know. But sometimes, I kind of hope so."
