Dark Days

People

©JRF2016

Rachel keeps one hand on her pistol and grips the bat tighter with the other hand. She was holding onto the bat so tight that her knuckles were turning white. She slides around the corner of the aisle as the two men keep talking.  They don't notice her.  "Excuse me," she says slowly and softly as the two men spin around aiming their weapons at her.  She throws her hands up into the air dropping the bat, "I'm alive," she says, "Don't shoot."  They lower their weapons a little but not completely. "I'm Rachel," she tells them holding out her hand.  The first man lowers his weapon and takes her hand, "Reid Davis," he said.  She looks over at the other as he stands there biting the inside of his cheek.  He still didn't say anything. "That's Darrick," Reid told her, "Are you alone?"  Rachel nods at him still watching Darrick out of the corner of her eye.  Darrick raises his bow and fires an arrow that whizzes right by her head.  She spins around to see one of the monsters fall to the floor with the arrow sticking out of its eye socket.  "We need to get what we are goin' to get and head back before it gets dark," Darrick finally speaks up as he walks over and pulls the arrow out of the walker's head.  He glares at Rachel as he walks by her.  She walks up to Reid, "He doesn't talk or even like me much huh?"  Reid laughs.

"You'll grow on him."

Rachel walks the two men to their vehicle and grabs Reid's arm, "Do you guys have room for one more in your group?"  Her eyes pleading with him, Reid looks at Darrick and he shakes his head.  They step to the front of their car and she could hear Darrick arguing, "We don't know this girl," he said.  Reid looks back at Rachel, "Darrick," he said, "She's alone. No one needs to be alone in times like these."  They lower their voices and argue it out between the two of them. Rachel sighs and walks over to them, "I promise I won't be any trouble. I'll pull my weight, help out. Please don't make me go back all by myself. It's lonely out there."  They look at one another and then back at her.  Reid walks around to get into the driver's seat as Darrick gets into the passenger seat.  Before he shuts the door, he leans out, "You comin' or what?"  Rachel smiled and reached for the door handle when she felt a hand grab hers.  Blood and maggots dropped onto her arm as she looked up and saw a woman standing there with her jaw wagging.   It looked like it was hanging on by just a thin thread. She reaches for her bat and realizes at that moment that she had dropped it inside the store. Darrick runs up and stabs the woman in the back of her head dropping her to the ground.  He yanks his knife out of her skull and Rachel cringes at the ripping sound of the knife cutting through the bone.  "You okay," he asked reaching out to catch her as she nearly collapsed.  "Yeah, thanks," she replies as he nods to her and opens the door for her to get in.