(Unedited) Stage One: Hope in Darkness

Chasing Shadows (A&L)

~~~~~Lara

I saw her sign and it took me a second but I did remember what it was. I looked ahead and saw the road had come into view and the truck was still there rolled over but the noise had attracted some walkers. We were luckily still unseen by them. There was a very large number of them. I'd say about ten all around. Spaced out all over and down the road finishing the corpses that had been crushed by the truck when it flipped over

The only thing that had caught my attention was one walker. Lucky. Number. Eleven. This one was strapped to the hood of the truck. Very Ripper style but not just that. This one had a note tied around its neck. In my curiosity and excitement I tried to sign to her 'the walker on the car has a sign' but I think I said something like 'look the chicken ate chicken'

Regardless I saw her laughing a little so I just had to tell her in a whisper

"The walker. On the car"

~~~~Annabelle

I breathed deeply, trying to control myself. This was not the time to laugh but I couldn't help myself. I really need to teach her asl and fast. I looked at the walker, there was a note. They wanted us to come back. That was a good sign. If they were using her friends as bait then they were still alive. They wouldn't kill them until they got what they wanted, me.

We need that truck, it would reduce the stress put on our bodies and we had to catch the ripper that took them. If we were really lucky maybe we could get to them before they got to the facility. First we needed to get rid of these walkers. Ten versus three weren't very good odds, and two of those three were injured. In a head on fight we would lose. We needed a distraction to get them away from the truck. I signed to Lara, stay here. I have an idea. Wait until the walkers leave then get in the truck. I could only hope she got all that, she had just started learning sign today. Hannibal had caught my motions and sat. Good boy. I moved stealthily off into the woods away from our direction but still hidden.

Now all I needed was to set up a trap that would make a lot of noise, preferably after I was back with Lara. Time to set it up.

~~~~~Lara

She had seen the note and knew I was eager to get my hands on it. I watched her sign a whole bunch of different things but the things I did make out because of the situation was wait, walkers, and truck. I got the idea and since Hannibal sat down I knew I had to be on the right track.

Stay here, then when the walkers do something get to the truck and see what that note has to say.

I really hope she knew what she was doing since I kinda didn't but I gave her my full trust. Mute or not we both knew taking this angry mob head on was a suicide mission. I looked at the truck again and watched the walker strapped to the hood worried he would disappear or something.

As time passed I grew more and more nervous since the walkers that were shuffling around grew more and more spaced out and were slowly getting closer to Hannibal and I. Whatever you're doing you better hurry or I'm going to start making noise. I thought to myself hoping she was getting my telepathic message as I held the gun ready to start firing. The large scope was able to be pushed to the side but this thing was a bolt action so making shots would take a minute so I made sure to load my mouth with a couple of bullets and waited. I could hear they're feet crunching through the leaves. It was too late to move positions

Time to count down. Five... four...three...two...

~~~~Annabelle

I had set up our distraction, gunpowder from bullets would make a loud enough pop to draw the walkers away. I was heading back when I saw something through the trees. Not Lara or Hannibal. Whatever it was it wasn't making noise, no groans or the snapping of teeth. Not a walker either. A person. They seemed familiar, I stalked around them carefully. I wanted to get back to Lara but this guy was between me and her.