bullseye ➵ daryl dixon

o n e - almost

CHAPTER ONE | a l m o s t
24/2/17

How long had it been? Perhaps a month, since that incident with the monsters. Her flashbacks had decreased to only about three per week, but they were still there. Taunting her. The memory may have not been able to harm her physically, but she still felt every drop of blood that seeped out of her deep mental wound. She had turned into something like a machine; all she did was survive. For that was all she could do with her mind aching so.

Adira studied her surroundings. She had ventured far out from Atlanta in the past month. She didn't recognize anything, and there were barely any signs of human activity around the area. Last night, she had sought refuge in a small shack which seemed to have previously stored hunting equipment before the world ended. It had almost been picked clean, but she managed to nick a box of ammo which miraculously matched her father's gun, in addition to what must have been a very expensive hunting knife, judging by its quality and sturdiness. It was long enough that she would feel slightly safer stabbing a monster's head with it and avoid getting bit. The handle was carved with an intricate design. She didn't know why, but she felt as though it would last her a while.

She turned away from the shack and walked into the forest, the naked branches doing nothing to shelter her from the morning sun. Instead, the leaves crackled and snapped beneath her feet as the sun and movement quickly warmed her up in the chilly winter air. She never stayed in any one place longer than a night or two. The monsters always found her, so she thought it best to keep on the move before they could catch up to her.

Adira walked for what must have been hours, until the sun was starting to dip in the sky. She took out her water bottle, but was disappointed to find that she had emptied it already. She checked her bag, but that was the last one.

Great. Now she had to look for more water.

It took a while, but she soon heard a stream nearby. Thanking her lucky stars for her love for science, she hastened her pace in an effort to reach the source of what would quench her thirst quicker. She knew how to purify water, so finding it had never been an issue since she didn't have to scavenge bottles.

An hour later she sat beside the stream, sipping at the water, wishing it were filled with ice. It may have been winter, but it wasn't that cold today. Georgia wasn't exactly far north.

She kept going until nightfall and found a tree which didn't have any branches too low for monsters to grab onto and plenty of leaves to cover her. She hauled herself up into it and tied herself to the tree. If she fell, she would most likely be some monster's next meal.

The next morning when Adira awoke, she realized she had slept in; it was probably already noon. She gathered her things, took a sip of water, and ate a protein bar. That was all she really had to eat. She knew she needed to find more food soon, but she was always busy moving along or finding a place to sleep. She was exhausted; she needed a place to reenergize.

She sighed when she heard the low growl of a monster. She didn't know what else to call them - did anyone? She was almost positive no one knew this was coming, or civilization wouldn't have fallen.

She took out her knife and jumped out of the tree she had tied herself up in to sleep for the night. She pressed her back against the tree trunk and waited until she heard another groan. It was to her left, so she changed her knife hand to her right and spun around to stab the monster in the head. She'd successfully killed it. She knew she wouldn't have to bother moving its corpse, having figured out that they could mask her scent from others.

However, in executing this move, she tripped over the root of the tree, which was rather large. The hill in the forest was quite steep so she took a plunge and twisted her left ankle, hitting her head on a few rocks on her way down. She also believed she heard a crack in her right arm, but that could've just been her imagination.

She didn't get up until she heard the groan of another monster. But it didn't come near her. She opened her eyes and saw that it wasn't paying attention to her. Then she noticed all of the blood. On her way down, she had pulled off the arm of the other monster. She was covered in its blood.

She stood up and kept walking. At least she had had her backpack on when she fell. Now she knew her arm was definitely injured. It hurt like hell along with her ankle.

Only two hours had gone by when Adira came across a small cemetery. There were no more than ten graves there. Two of them didn't have names. They simply said "Loving Mother" and "Loving Father". She swallowed hard and closed her eyes, allowing a single tear to escape.

It made her relive it all over again.

The door. The footsteps. The drawer. The gun.

She left the room and found her parents with the monsters.

She ran, grabbed her father's gun. She ran back, aimed it. She didn't shoot.

They died, and she avenged them.

She cried. She left.

She left and she didn't look back until it was too late.

She sunk down to the ground sobbing. She'd constantly said to herself she didn't know if she could keep going. Now? She knew she couldn't.

Just as she raised her dad's gun to her head and put her finger on the trigger, the bolt of a crossbow embedded itself into a squirrel running between the graves.

Someone came out of the trees, a man. He carried a black crossbow and a bag with three squirrels in it. He had long hair for a male, and it was brown. He wore a black vest over his clothes. He picked up his squirrel and almost left. But then, by some sort of luck, he turned his head and saw Adira in the corner of his eye.

He looked first at her supplies, obviously needing them. He then scanned her body, trying to see if she was a threat or not. Lastly, his eyes rested on the gun pulled up to her head. His eyes widened as he realized what she was about to do.

She knew she wanted to be gone. She couldn't let him take that from her. However, as she pulled the trigger, she heard a redneck voice grunt out a "No!" and felt something barrel into her, causing the bullet to hit her right arm rather than where it was originally intended. She fell to the ground, clutching her arm in pain, and hit her head on a tombstone, causing everything to go black.