A New Home

"We've got ourselves a badass."

You were struggling to take in clean breaths of air as the dead one fought with your strength. You could smell right down to it's gut as its mouth was snapping open and closed right in front of your nose. It's moans and growls filled your ears and drowned out any other noises around you. Panic crept its way into you-your strength was failing but you had to do something. With all the strength you could muster and a yell to go with it, you pushed with all your might and managed to straddle the corpse. It's twisted arms grabbed at your jacket, and in your anger you tore them from their sockets, 'pops' emanating through the trees. The snapping did not stop, and without any warning you plunged the sharp edges of the shoulder bones into the skull of the dead with a sickening crack. The body went limp beneath you and the haunting moans that had filled your ears ceased. You could hear others approaching and you went to run, but could hear a struggle off to your left. You approached cautiously, to see Negan grunting as he viciously thwacked heads of the dead with his crowbar, bloody cartilage being flicked in all directions. One hit your face with a harsh slap, and proceeded to slink down your cheek leaving a red streak in its wake. Disgusted, you picked it off with two fingers and hurled it onto the forest floor.

"Oh hey, kid. Sorry about that, got sidetracked myself."

You cringed as he called you 'kid' again, and contemplated kicking him in the balls.

"You asshole. You didn't even try to pull it off me."

"Well shit kid, excuse me if three walkers jumped me at once. You had one, I knew you could handle it. Shit watch it!"

He flew behind you, weapon raised and smacked another skull like he was trying to get a hole in one. Panting, he turned to you.

"We should probably get going."

"Yeah."

You both started running towards the direction of the group, but they were no longer in sight. You stopped mid run, trying to find your bearings- your ankle was also on fire, and you were sure you could feel fresh blood trickling it's way down your side.
You groaned, a slick sweat appearing on your forehead. The low moans behind you both were getting louder by the second. Looking frantically around, you spied another tree that looked climbable.

"Hey, hey, hey, not so fast."
Negan grabbed your arm and span you round to face him when you started to head off in the direction of the tree.

"Get your hands off of me!" You spat indignantly at him, batting his arm away.

"I'm just saying, probably best not to go with your plan because we know how that turned out last time." Ok fine he had a point. Asshole. He gave you a knowing look. "Look, there's what, six of them? You wait here and I'll take 'em. Easy peasy."

"Fine." You smirked in amusement. This would be fun to watch.

You watched him stride confidently towards the 'walkers' you heard him call them? He raised his weapon and sent more teeth and bone and brain flying through the air with ease. He glanced back at you, thinking you were impressed. Hmmph. You have a crow bar, you thought smugly. I fought off three with my bare hands in the last day.

He turned to carry on the bloodbath, and you watched on, bored. You didn't, however, see the walker dragging its way straight towards Negan, jaw opening and closing like a mechanical door, followed by two more. It suddenly grabbed at his ankle, switching his attention from the bloody pulp on the floor to the wriggling mass attached to him. As he looked down and before he could make a move, the other two were on him in an instant.

Shocked, and without a second thought, you sped towards them, and flicked your good foot deftly from the floor, hurtling yourself into the mass of bodies. You felt a spine crack beneath your arms as you landed on the floor on top of one of those sacks of shit. It's neck craned painfully upwards to try and taste your flesh, but you simply put one of your knees on its forehead and sunk forward, brown liquid staining your jeans. You could hear Negan crying something out as you stood up, and when you turned you came face to face with the second walker. You instantly swung your knee into its ribs, the fragments of skull attached to your jeans shattering in the process. It staggered backwards for a fleeting second, then continued its assault. You then snapped your arm up and grabbed its throat, and pulled fiercely towards you. Muscles tore away from the shoulders with loud rips as you held the snapping head in your hands, and the body slumped onto the floor, folding in on itself. You dropped your prize carelessly then proceeded to stamp your foot in one effortless movement to end the incessant noise. You turned to Negan, your face locked in sheer determination and survival instinct, and proceeded to do the same with the crawler advancing up his body. Blood sprayed across his face making him cough and splutter as he doubled over. You merely observed him as he choked. This had happened before . You would get so focused on surviving that your animal instincts took over your body, leaving no room for human emotion. Instead it was all primal. In those moments you would feel no sympathy or remorse- or even fear. That frightened you to your very core (funny isn't it? Lack of fear sparking new fear). Negan regained his composure and stood up. A look of amazement filled his features.

"Holy mother fucking shit."
He looked genuinely impressed.
"What the shit. That was the baddest thing I have EVER seen."

"We need to keep moving."
It would take a couple of hours for you to regain your humanity. You weren't going to take any shit- or distractions.

"Yeah, well shit, I'm following you."

You walked on with Negan trailing behind you, trying to mask your limp to no avail. You were an idiot for doing that. Now the pain was worse. Cursing yourself under your breath, you glanced behind you. You could tell he was shaken from the ordeal and was trying to hide it, but you didn't know whether that was from the walkers, or you. His eyes moved to something in front of you- another stray Walker. Without any hesitation and anger fuelling your actions, you strode towards Negan, snatching the crow bar from his hands and striding towards your target. When it noticed you coming it turned its head to growl, but you stopped it with the metal rod, steel meeting black teeth and cracking through bone. The top half of the skull was wedged on the bar you had hit it so hard, and for the second time that day you watched a body crumple in on itself. You deftly flicked the bar with your wrist to discard the bone, then turned and threw it to Negan, who caught it, stunned.

You turned yourself back around to carry on in the direction (you thought) the group was headed, and heard Negan exclaim in awe,

"Well shit. We've got ourselves a badass."

You continued walking forward unfazed, but you could feel a smile appearing at the corner of your lips. Then the torrent of new blood spilled down your side. Shit.