Malevolent. The Walking Dead

[ 005 ] satisfying numbness

"Oh cmon, I've shot one before!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together markedly. He shook his head. "You shot one of these before? You're fucking with me,"

"Damn straight! I mean, at rats . . ."

He furrowed his brows, stopping in his steps. "Rats?"

She shrugged, stopping too. "With BB's,"

He scoffed, turning on his heels and continuing to walk until the woods broke into a vast plain. There were a few rotters that littered the field, and a black mass that drew both of their eyes to it. It seemed to be laying on the ground, not moving, but Bill still held his gun up to his eyes. "Is that a ━ "

"Looks like it,"

A black bear, not too far from them. Joey had never seen an animal die from eating infected meat. She supposed she was sniffing away at any food she could find for her cubs, but failed. For a long time she wondered if animals could even get infected, but every animal they had seen had been ripped to shreds with salvageable parts that could even help them be animated. But, Joey supposed they weren't too different from humans after all. Her heart ached a little to see it.

After they took down the few rotters that were lingering nearby, they approached the bear. "We can't eat the meat, but the skin might be useful," Bill pondered, observing the body for any other disturbances. Joey scrunched up her nose. "You want to carry twenty plus pounds of just skin to Denver?" he looked up at her with an incredulous look on his face. Bill never liked when he was wrong and Joey was right. That was part of the reason why Joey always felt so satisfied when she was right. "But, the cubs might be nearby," Joey prompted, and even though it made her want to feel so murderous and gross to kill innocent baby cubs, she had killed two people already. Eventually you have to muster up the courage to fight back against your own psyche ━ and when she mentioned it, she didn't feel anything. Bill looked at her and sighed. "We're short on sunlight. It could take us hours to find the den. Let's just find a safe place to hunker down and get some water so we can sleep," he grabbed her forearm gently and dragged her through the open terrain. Joey looked back at the bear. Her stomach growled.

They had feasted on the last of their canned food that night. There was only about a fourth left of the corn for Joey, and even as they tried to ration it, they were running on too little fuel to get away with it. Joey's stomach still made noises even as she ate and drank. It hurt to take such little sips of water, but now that they were out of the humidity, it wasn't awful. They ate in silence, as they always did. Joey felt like falling asleep right then and there. She didn't know what time it was, or what month it was, let alone what day it was, but the only thing keeping her going was knowing that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

The next morning was the same. Everything was the same at this point. Sometimes the sense of deja vu was so intense that her head began to hurt. Sometimes they'd end up walking in circles, at least it seemed like it, and sometimes Joey wanted to punch Bill right across the face whenever he would say the wrong thing or give her the wrong look. Her patience was wearing thin, so thin she thought it might break.

"Please tell me we're getting close," she groaned, flipping her balisong in her fingers, growing more accustomed to the nature of it and even perfecting some tricks. Her fingers still calloused and cuts turned into scabs, but nevertheless, she was getting more used to it. Bill tried his hardest not to get too aggravated with her and the clinking sounds of her ━ not so oiled ━ butterfly knife. Not to mention she's "accidentally" cut him multiple times.

"The river ends at about - Glenwood Springs. If we keep pushing Northeast we should hit Denver . . . eventually. Look for signs if you're so damn eager,"