Finding a Family

Nora risked a quick glance back at the crackling flames, rising rapidly. She feebly covered her mouth and nose as much as she could to keep from inhaling more of the smoke and started limping over into the woods. The growls and moans of the biters seemed to come from all around, but she stayed focused on her feet trudging their way through the rotting leaves.

I've got to get out of here, I've got to find shelter.

She kept her mind occupied with her current job to find herself shelter where she could bind her wounds and start scavenging in nearby houses for anything useful. She had gotten used to the parties and food of Woodbury and hadn't been outside the walls before that day. They all knew that outside those walls the world was ending and that people were still out there fighting for each breath, and I think that when the Governor started training them for the past few weeks to take the prison they thought they stood a chance, mostly because they were so blinded by how bad the outside actually was. They got cocky, and now people she had just been talking to that morning were either dead or escaping into the woods like she was. They didn't think about the fact that while they were protected inside walls and attempting to forget that the world turned to shit, there were other people such as this prison group who had to fight to live day by day. And that's why they lost, they were delusional.

Nora gripped each tree trunk she passed to help her move more efficiently and looked up to the distant opening in the trees that she knew would lead her to the train tracks they passed on their way there. Huffing,she tried moving quicker to get away from the biter hoard and towards the only chance she had.

The smoke from the tank was getting higher and the darkness of it was more evident against the sunny sky. A sudden snap jolted Nora, and she whipped her head up to see a few stray biters coming towards her from the opening she was moving towards.

Damn,they must have seen the smoke.

She tucked herself as small as she could behind the nearest tree and made herself as silent as she could, holding her breath and slowly moving to grab the knife on her side. She waited until their shuffling feet were right next to her and jumped out, stabbing the nearest one in the forehead and pushing it away before checking if it was dead so she could make her move on the next two. One opened its mouth and she heard a muffled click of it's jaw as it appeared to come unhinged, the skin flaying off the bones. She stabbed it and pushed it as she did to the first, but she didn't push it away quick enough and the last biter grabbed at her left arm and brought it to its mouth. Her instincts kicked in and she kicked it's knee in and watched it collapse because of it's already decaying state, and jabbed the knife through it's skull.

Nora looked down at the corpses and leaned her back against a tree,catching her breath. The adrenaline of everything that had happened that day was starting to wear off and she noticed her hands were starting to shake from the weight of everything. Stuffing her knife back into the belt at her side, she continued on.

The light of the clearing was close, and she allowed herself to feel a small inkling of hope. Perhaps she would survive this after all.She covered her eyes as she breached the clearing, and that's when she heard the yell.

"Maggie!"

She stopped immediately and waited, sure that she had imagined it but knowing that it wouldn't hurt to try and see if anything happened.

Another distant, "Maggie!," came from the direction of the prison and Nora took a step back in surprise.

No, there couldn't be any survivors left there, right?

After another yell of Maggie's name, Nora started going back as quickly as she could on her injured leg. She kept going through the internal struggle of deciding if she should call it quits and go back towards the tracks and survive on her own, or continue towards the voice, towards another survivor. But it was also towards the dozens of biters littering the prison yard. And by the time she had reached the edge of the forest and saw the destroyed prison, it was too late to go back.