02 : BIG BAD MAN
" Who the hell is that? "
- ᴅᴀʀʏʟ ᴅɪxᴏɴ
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LUCY lost count of how many days they've been in the woods. If she was being honest, it probably wasn't that many but it felt like ages.
Luckily with the campers bag they found, they should be able to keep this up for a few more days. They'll need to find the highway and Sophia's group soon. The water and food won't last.
"How long before we're on the highway?" The other girl asked. Something she's been asking for a while. Something Lucy didn't know the answer too.
"Soon." Lucy answered. "I promise."
It would probably be best not to tell her the fact that they were actually completely lost. That would only bring unnecessary panick. She was sure they were gonna make it to the highway. Somehow.
Sophia held her doll tightly, she does that quite a lot. Lucy figured the doll was a gift. A gift from someone important. Or maybe it's just the only kind of comfort she has right now since her entire group is missing. Well, technically she's the one missing.
"Where did you get the doll?" The brunette asked. "It looks like it's important to you."
"It is." Sophia nodded with a faint smile on her face. "My friend gave it to me. Her family was with us in the beginning but they wanted to look for their own family so we split up."
"Wow, that sucks."
"Yeah, it does." She agreed. "But atleast I have you now, right?"
Lucy smiled at her. She's never had an actual friend before, not even before the apocalypse. Kind off fucked up that the first friend she had was in a world like this.
"Right."
It was almost noon. They were both really tired and exhausted, not having enough sleep at night. Sophia's ranting was taking sleep off her mind. She was talking about some kind of funny event that happened with Carl.
Lucy wasn't listening if she was honest. She tried too but for some reason she kept zoning out. Even though Sophia's ranting kept sleep of her mind for a while, the thought soon came back.
"And then he-"
The rustling behind them snapped her out of her thoughts, cutting Sophia's sentence off. Lucy grabbed her knife while the other girl hid behind her. Growling was heard. She was 99% sure it was a biter.
Then before she knew it, the biter appeared out of nowhere. She held her knife tightly as she rememberd the trick she saw someone in her group do once. When the biter was close enough, she kicked it right under the knee causing it to fall down. Even when the monster clawed at her, she managed to avoid it. Waiting for the right time, she stabbed it in the head with much force. The biter's body fell down, now being completely liveless.
Unfortuntaly for them, that wasn't the only biter. Atleast three more of them came in sight. Lucy's eyes widened. She was able to kill one of them, even that was hard enough. How the hell was she gonna fight two more of them with no help?
Lucy stepped back as two of them slumped towards her. She had to think quickly if they wanted to make it out alive. Maybe she could run around in circles and lead them away somehow? Maybe she could-
Her thoughts were interrupted by a scream. Lucy cursed herself for not thinking about the third biter since she was to busy with the other two.
Sophia tripped and screamed in pain, dropping her doll in the process. The biter almost had her. Almost.
Lucy decided to take out her gun since there were two more biters making their way towards her. Pointing the gun at the monster that was about to bite Sophia, she shot it right in the...
Shoulder.
On the bright side, the biter was no longer attacking Sophia, being after Lucy instead.
"Sophia, run!" Lucy warned as she took careful steps backwards.
She looked hesitant but did it anyway. Her leg was wounded and bleeding which caused her to run slower than usual. Maybe that was a good thing. If Lucy managed to get rid of the monsters, she could track her friend down easier. She won't get far with a wounded leg. Lucy just prayed there were no other biters in their area.
She shot the 'shot in the shoulder' biter once again, only this time it was clean through the head.
"Fuck yeah." She whispered to herself, though she didn't have much time to celebrate as the other two were still trying to eat her.
She shot the one that was the closest. Not in the brains but in the leg. Lucy didn't know how she managed to shoot him that badly, I guess the head - shot was out of pure luck. The biter fell down. She grabbed her knife, stabbing it in the head but not fast enough because by the time she pulled her knife back, the other one was already on her.
Her gun and knife both flew out of her reach. The gun was too far away to grab. The knife on the other hand was a little closer. Maybe if she tried hard enough she'd be able to reach it.
The bad news was that the biter was ten times stronger than her. It was hard to keep him at a distance. She had to push him away with both hands which meant she couldn't use her other hand to grab her knife. Her hands started to give in as the biter kept getting closer.
She wasn't able to keep him away anymore. 'This is it.' she thought to herself. 'I'm gonna die.'
Then the monster's body went limp. For a second the weight got lighter before the corpse crashed down on the girl. The first thing she noticed was the arrow through it's brain.
Lucy pushed the corpse off, with much trouble, but she managed. When she was free from the biter's grip she was quick to grab her knife and gun.
The sound of branches snapping brought her back to reality. There was still someone out there. The person that saved her.
She looked at the stranger. The man had short hair. The shirt he was wearing seemed to have ripped off sleeves. He was wearing a necklace. An ear necklace. Lucy's face scrunched up in disgust. He looked dirty and bloody. He could probably pass as a biter, if she was completely honest. She noticed that he wasn't alone, there was a girl right next to him, leaning on a tree for what seemed like support.
Sophia.
Lucy let out a breath of relief as she ran to the girl and wrapped her arms around her.
"Are you okay?" Sophia asked her. She nodded before pulling away from the hug.
"Sophia." The man called. "Who the hell is this?"
"This is my friend Lucy." She answered. "She saved me."
He didn't seem so convinced, giving her a suspicious look. "You bit?"
"Do I look bit to you?"
"Don't matter what you look like." The man huffed, seeming pretty annoyed as he glared at the girl. "Were you bit or not?"
She sighed, crossing her arms and returning to glare. "No."
Sophia darted her eyes between the two of them, trying to figure out what the rivalry was that was going on. "Uhm, Daryl." She spoke up with a small voice, breaking whatever staring contest was going on.
"Yeah?"
"Can we go back to the highway?" She asked him. "I want to see my mom."
'Daryl' scratched the back of his neck as he raised his eyebrows. "She ain't on the highway."
Sophia shared a look with Lucy, who seemed just as confused, before frowning at Daryl. Even Lucy herself was confused. The other girl told her they were staying at a highway. If Daryl was part of the group, they either had to be somewhere near the highway or they got split up.
"We found a farm. It's safer there, you'll like it."
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Lucy was giving Sophia a piggyback as Daryl lead them back to the farm. Sophia wasn't able to walk, or atleast not very well since her leg was still wounded. Luckily the bleeding stopped but it was most likely gonna get infected if they didn't get it treated.
It's been a pretty quiet walk so far. Sophia fell asleep, somehow. Lucy didn't even know people fell asleep while getting piggybacks. It was probably since she was exhausted, not having a single night of good sleep. Daryl on the other hand, didn't exactly seem like the talkative type but it wouldn't hurt starting a conversation.
"So." She started, dragging out the 'o'. "You're Daryl, huh? The 'big bad man' Sophia told me about."
"Big bad man?"
"Well, she didn't say it like that." Lucy laughed. "She told me you were the one getting them food. Like squirrels."
He only huffed in return. Definitely not the talkative type.
"She also told me you scared her."
That seemed to get his attention. He had an odd expression. "I scared her?"
Lucy scoffed, like she couldn't believe he was actually surprised by that. Daryl probably wouldn't have scared an adult that easily but Sophia was a sensitive and fragile little girl. Someone like Daryl, probably didn't seem like the nicest person.
"Can you blame her?" She gave him a look that screamed 'you're an idiot'. "You're not exactly the friendliest man on earth."
"Pft." Daryl narrowed his eyes at her to wich she only gave him a cheeky smile in return.
"Can I ask you a serious question?" She requested all of a sudden.
He frowned at her. "What?"
"Why are you wearing an ear necklace?" Lucy asked. It's been the only thing on her mind ever since she met him. I mean, what the hell was the purpose of wearing an ear necklace? Maybe it was to scare people off, though that didn't seem like the best way to do it.
"That isn't a serious question-" He stated, causing Lucy to cut him off almost immediately.
"No, no, no." She shook her head. "It is a very serious question."
Daryl sighed as he rubbed his temples. He acted like he was annoyed but he didn't seem annoyed. It was probably just an act to keep his 'tough boy' appearence up.
When he didn't reply, silence fell upon them again. The only noise being the rustling of the leaves under their footsteps.
"So?" Lucy decided to speak up.
"So?" The older man repeated. "So what?"
"So why are you wearing the ear necklace?"
Daryl rolled his eyes at her, making sure she saw how annoyed he was at her before picking up the speed. Lucy trailed behind him as she couldn't go any faster than that.
"Hey, wait up!" She called after him to which he only sped up.
Petty bitch.
"Stop being so slow!" He yelled back. "Even my grandma walks faster than that."
"Well, excuse me" She started. "I'm the one carrying an entire child ontop of my back."
After a while, they reached the end of the forest. With Daryl still walking infront of her, he dissapeared out of sight once they reached the farm. She knew where he went so she didn't bother picking up her pace aswell.
That was until she heard a gunshot. Sophia got startled awake causing Lucy to almost drop her in the process.
"What was that?"
Before she had the chance to reply, they heard more screaming. People screaming 'no'.
Lucy ran. Sophia's weight on her back made it harder but she tried to ignore it. When pushing past the leaves, a beautiful farm appeared in sight.
It had a big green field, only the field was filled with people crowding around Daryl. Four guys, a girl and an old man.
She let Sophia back on the ground, wrapping her arm around her neck instead so she could lean on her for support. They were walking towards the group, slowly but surely.
"Hey, who's that?" The asian guy was the first one to notice them. The entire group turned around, some of them having their guns ready to fire.
"Is that-" The other guy started. "Is that Sophia?"
The two men that were holding onto Daryl seemed to whisper something to the rest of the group. Something that Lucy couldn't make out since they were still too far away. Than the two of them dragged Daryl away to, God knows where.
"Sophia?" The blonde girl called as she was the first one to run up to them, the others trailing behind her.
She gave her a hug as soon as she was in her reach, causing Lucy to let go of her.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Before Sophia could say anything, she got cut off. "Sophia!"
"Holy shit! It really is you!" The asian guy smiled brightly, pushing the blonde girl out of the way to hug Sophia.
This time, Lucy decided to step in. "Careful. She's wounded." The guy's smile dropped as he inspected her, looking for the wound. While he was doing that, Sophia had already wrapped her arm around her friend's shoulder for support again.
"She fell when we got attacked by biters." She explained further. "Don't worry, she isn't bit or anything like that."
Sighs of reliefs were let out by everyone in the group before the old man stepped towards them, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. "It is so nice to see you again, Sophia. We were all so worried."
She smiled, finally being able to say something without being cut off. "It's nice to see you too. Everyone here. I missed you guys."
There was yelling heard in the distance.
"It's Sophia!" She faintly heard. "She's back!"
Not soon after, the sight of a woman with short grey hair running up to them appeared. "Sophia!" She yelled as she cried.
The girl pulled her arm back from Lucy's shoulder as she tried to slump her way to the woman as fast as she could. "Mom!"
Even though Sophia was still hurt, she didn't seem to care, being too focused on her mom instead. Her mom hugged her so tightly as they fell down to their knees. They were both crying now.
"You're okay, you're okay." Her mom cried, holding the back of her daughter's head. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Sophia. I'm sorry." She kept repeating.
In the mean time, the rest of the entire group had already arrived. They all seemed shocked. Shocked but happy. There was a boy, around the same age as them. He ran up to his friend as soon as he saw her.
"Sophia!"
"Carl!"
Oh, so that's Carl.
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This chapter sucked, I know 😭 I lowkey wasn't sure how I wanted to write the reunion but yk
Everything was so rushed I'm sorry, next chaper will be better (hopefully)
Hope you enjoyed the chapter either way!!