Barely Alive (#JustWriteIt #SuperCharged)

Chapter 3 - Victoria "Tori" Foster

"It's not fair. She stood no chance. Attacking a poor injured girl isn't fair."

Victoria grabbed a stray curl and started to play with it. She watched the walkers finish with her sister and scatter. Once they were gone, she, to herself, counted to one thousand. She always used that when she, Danielle, and Talon were waiting for an area to be safe. If they saw even a single walker, they stopped counting. Once they couldn't see it anymore, they would start over. She kept counting to herself until she reached one thousand. She started to swing herself down like a monkey. When she was close to the ground, she stepped on a branch that she didn't use while climbing the tree. The branch snapped under her weight causing her to crash to the ground. She slammed her head hard against a root. The world was spinning until it suddenly stopped perfectly in focus. A girl who looked like a younger version of Danielle stood over her.

"You okay, Tori? That looked like a pretty nasty fall," the girl commented.

Victoria just laid there looking at the girl in confusion. She was pretty much Danielle just without the British accent. The girl grabbed Victoria's face.

"Tori? Do you remember who I am? I'm your best friend-"

The girl suddenly disappeared into thin air. She was a figment of Victoria's imagination. Yet, she seemed clear as day to the young girl. How could that be? And why did she called Victoria Tori? Victoria started to sit up but she felt a strong hand shove her down. She looked up and saw a younger Talon standing over her.

"Don't force yourself to sit up. You'll get dizzy. Stay here for a second," he instructed.

As she predicted, he lacked a British accent.

"Talon?"

"Talon?" the boy asked, his green eyes returning to Victoria's face. "Who's Talon? I'm-"

Much like the first girl, the boy dissolved into air when he started to say his name. Victoria forced herself into her feet. She almost fell against the tree but steadied herself. Her hazel eyes immediately started to scan for danger, with no obviously threats to her safety, she started to force herself to walk towards her camp. She didn't know exactly where it was but she had the general idea. As she reached the camp, she noticed it had been trampled, most likely by the horde that passed through. She grabbed a grey leather bag and pulled it over her shoulder. She looked for anything she could take with her. She saw a gun lying on the ground. It was Talon's. She slowly picked it up to observe the weapon. She could hear Talon's voice in the back of her head as she remembered him describing the exact weapon to her.

"This gun is considered flawed by many. I'm not one of them," he had told her. "It's the perfect gun for me."

She held the gun in her hands for the first time at that moment but she felt like the gun had been with her forever. The gun was a memory for her. Her eyes started to water as she thought of Talon. She wiped the tear from her cheeks.

"Not the time," she whispered to herself.

She scanned the camp and saw Talon's chest. That's where he kept all the ammo for this gun and Danielle's handgun. She ran to it and threw the lid open. She saw the two types of ammo were sorted by the type of weapon they were for. She reached in and slowly pulled a box out. They were the correct bullets for her gun. She opened the bag to fill it when she noticed a leather journal inside the bag.

"This must be Danielle's," she gathered as she pulled the book out.

She sat down on the ground and flipped the book to the last page with writing on it.

August 29, 2179

Dear Journal,

Victoria put the book down. This was an invasion of Danielle's privacy.