Escape the Walking Dead // h.s.

11

Jane's POV

I had already had enough of staying inside the walls. It'd been over a month and a half since I'd been outside in the real world. Over a month and a half since Harry brought us to his camp. Over a month and a half since the three of us abandoned the rest of our group for a glimmer of hope and a running shower.

It was early. Most people weren't up yet. Only the cooks got up this early here. The day had just broke through the night as the sun started to lighten up the roads from my second story window.

Tugging my boots on, I got ready to have a day of adventure outside the walls. A strange sense of excitement overcame me when I put my knife in the leather holster on my hip and then my gun in the back of my belt.

Climbing the wall wasn't too hard, but hiding from Juan Pablo was. He was distracted for a slick moment as one of the cooks brought him a coffee. There I had my moment to escape and hike myself over the metal fence surrounding my living quarters.

Once my feet landed on the soil just past the perimeter, I had expected a loud siren to blaze through the camp like in a prison escape movie. But the only sound I could hear was my own soft breathing, and I ran straight for the woods.

My adrenaline had me buzzing and I felt more alive than I ever had inside the camp. This is where I belonged, out here fighting and surviving. I didn't belong in a camp where people still thought they were privileged enough to throw away uneaten and untouched food.

The air felt cleaner as I sucked in breath after breath running through the trees. My first dead one came dangerously close to grabbing me first, but I drew my knife from my hip and stabbed him in the skull. My mind went blank and I was briefly mistaken that the air felt cleaner.

The air was certainly dirtier out here. A stench of rotten flesh and piss surrounded you wherever you went. Nothing was pretty out here and that's why I thought I belonged. The outside was meant for people who did whatever it took to survive. People like me.

Harry's POV

I hadn't slept much the last few days. Actually, the last proper sleep I had was when I was calming down Jane. We hadn't ever spoken about the night, not that I wanted too, but it was odd now between the two of us.

She had kept low the last few weeks, taking shifts at the scaffolding lookout point during the day and extra ones at night. Our normal guards didn't mind the offer, but I had a feeling Jane was using her time up there for a separate reason other than keeping the camp safe. I just didn't know what it was for yet.

I had had a lot on my plate the last few weeks. William had gone on another mission to town to secure some more food. We were running low and I wanted to keep my people properly fed. He had come back in one piece but reminded me how low supplies were in the outside world.

For myself, I hadn't left camp in over a month and a half. It was gnawing at me to get back out there and kill some infected, but I was taking Kelsey's advice and "resting." My rib had started to heal nicely thanks to the pain meds and antibiotics. The swelling had subsided and it almost felt like I could actually breathe again.

The day had gone by quickly as I looked over a map of neighboring towns. Strong black X's were marked over the picked over neighborhoods and city squares. Only a few places remained until we would start looking in the more dangerous areas, like the food and shopping centers. I cringed thinking about any of us having to search through those graveyards.

The door to my office opened suddenly and my head shot to the left to see a panicked Will.

"Jane's missing," he breathed and I immediately dropped my pen in my hand to go follow him.