Deadland

Epilogue

I nod with a heavy, upset sigh. "We're gonna have to leave her. She obviously doesn't want to be found." Bull-fucking-shit. I am not leaving Adrian. Though, they're not gonna let me go so, gotta go in secret.

I've distanced myself from a lot of people, not by choice, it just kind of happened. The only people I really let in, mainly because they forced it, are Gabriel, Kelly, Connie, and Rosita. 

I miss the whole Walsh family, even though Alyssa didn't go by the last name Walsh. A chunk of me died with her, and a part of me left with Adrian. I'm holding onto hope that she and her family are out there somewhere, and until I find a body, I'm not stopping. I don't know what I'm gonna do if I find them, but, as of right now, the chances of that are incredibly slim.

I've been searching for about four days consecutively. I told Gabriel that we were going to train Kelly on how to sense Walkers without using her hearing aid, she should be avoiding him so he doesn't get suspicious. I've never been to the town I'm in, it's pretty far for the amount of times I've been searching so, hopefully, I find something. 

It's starting to get dark, the sun is beginning to lower into its dark blue blanket and the trash around me on the town road is dancing with each bitter gust of wind. Small droplets of rain dampen my clothes, irritating me to the brink of explosion. The town around me is full of rotting buildings with sad, jagged windows and Walkers stuck under abandoned cars. The browning autumn leaves of the trees growing out of one of the buildings flutter past me like the wings of frantic birds.

I don't know how long I'm gonna stay out this time, the longest I've stayed out was with Kelly and that was two weeks. We didn't make an excuse because we're fucking adults but the group had a stroke about it so, now we have excuses locked and loaded.

As I'm searching for a place to stay for the night, the sound of heavy footsteps comes from the alleyway to my right. It doesn't sound like just one pair, no, it sounds like a dozen, possibly more. 

Fight or flight kicks in and I dash behind a wall, pressing my back up against it and gripping my knife until my knuckles turn white. I make sure to pull up my ski mask to cover my face if they manage to find me, that way if I get away they can't identify me by my features.

"I saw her." A man's raspy voice says. "Shut up and listen." Swiftly, the footsteps stop and the only noise around us is the sound of the rustling leaves and the wind. I put my hand over my mouth to cover the sound of my breathing and inch to my left, slowly putting distance between the group and me. 

Snap.

I pause and look down at my feet, and to my horror, a stick is under my boot, cracked in half. "Go!" The same man roars. 

"Shit." I gasp, taking off running. 

Why the hell do you do this alone? That's so fucking stupid of you, what the hell?

"She's right there!" Another man's voice yells as I cross the street and run through an alley. 

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" I whisper as the air I'm inhaling turns painfully cold. With every inch I run, it seems like the group behind me runs four. I haven't even looked back to see what they look like, but by the sounds of their boots and shotguns cocking, they're terrifying. 

My boots screech on the ground below me as I make a sharp turn and jump onto a fire escape ladder of an old, four-story antique store. The rungs are rusted and rough on my hands, no doubt slowly breaking under the weight of my body. 

After a few rungs, I yell out in frustration as someone grabs my ankle, forcing me to hold onto the ladder with the strength of a god as they try to yank me down. "Fuck off!" I shout, trying to kick their hand off of me. I can feel the rung underneath my foot slowly begin to bend, so I maybe have fifteen seconds to get this man's hand off of my ankle before the rung breaks and I'm holding myself up by just my hands.