AFRAID
chapter one, how many walkers you killed?
RICK GRIMES AND DARYL DIXON walked out from the prison they now used as their makeshift home. They had both gone on a hunt for supplies, like food, water and bandages as such. Their hunt came to an abrupt end when their ears pricked up at the sound of a worrying noise emanating from the nearby woods. The sound was unmistakable - a loud thud, followed by a muffled scream of agonizing pain. They froze in their tracks, their senses on high alert, scanning the trees for any sign of movement. The silence that followed was deafening, broken only by the occasional rustle of leaves in the wind.
ROSALIE TURNED THE CORNER, NOT expecting to see a horde of walkers ready to attack her. She let out an accidental yelp, her voice echoing through the trees, alerting them of her presence as they began to move towards her. The walkers were closing in fast, their arms outstretched, their gruesome skin and lifeless eyes coming closer. Panicked, she hastily ran through the woods, trying to outrun them. Rosalie barely knew her way around these woods, she had never been through this particular area before.
She looked back as she ran, trying to keep a distance between herself and the walkers so she could reach into her bag and get her gun — she stupidly put it there thinking it would be a good idea. She quickly ran out of breath and could start to feel a stitch forming just beneath her ribs.
She paused for a second, taking deep breaths as she reached into her bag, grabbed her handgun from inside, quickly zipped up her bag and threw it over her shoulders. She could hear the walkers quickly catching up to her. It quickly dawned on her how many there really were, there was no way she could kill them without running out of ammunition — which she was lacking.
Hopeless, she gave up her idea of shooting them, but she kept her gun in hand just in case, so she didn't end up like her dad. Walkers scared her, and killing them scared her even more, especially after her father was bitten.
In a panicked state, she ran as fast as she could, soon running out of breath and energy. She felt like she was running through water, and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears. As she thought of being bitten, panic raced through her as she felt a burst of adrenaline course through her veins.
Trying to catch her breath, she forgot to focus on her steps, causing her to trip over a tree that must've fallen over. She fell into a big ditch, her knee twisting as she landed. As she fell, you could hear the thud of her falling and the ripping of flesh. She caught her breath quickly before she let out an agonising scream, covering her mouth with her hand so she didn't attract more walkers.
Pain radiated from her knee to her toes, causing her to quietly sob into her hand. She couldn't move, she couldn't get up. She truly believed that this was when she was going to die.
RICK AND DARYL SHARED A worried glance, Rick instantly reaching for his gun from the gun holster around his leg, as Daryl reached for his crossbow that was thrown over his shoulder. They heard muffled cries, coming from the same place they heard the scream of pain. It sounded like someone was either being ripped to death by Walkers, or they had fallen and injured themselves.
They cautiously followed the noise, trying to find out where the source of the cries was coming from. Instead, they only found the horde of Walkers that had been chasing Rosalie. Half of them had lost interest in her, but the two men still hadn't noticed that the young girl was nearby.
Daryl placed his crossbow on the floor, reaching for his knife, Rick put his gun back into the holster before grabbing his knife from his other leg. They both started to attack them, stabbing each one in the head once, pausing for a second to watch the lifeless body drop to the floor before moving on to the next.
In a matter of no time, both men cleared out the horde of zombies, so they returned to tracking the source of the sobbing. Daryl reached for his crossbow, keeping it out just in case another few Walkers decided to turn up.
Rick put a finger up to his lips to remind Daryl to keep quiet, then pointed to his ear, as if to signal he could hear it.
"Is someone there?" The young girl cried out, struggling to speak between sobs of pain, "Help me! Someone! I'm stuck!" She called out, trying to pull herself up from the ditch but failing, only hurting her knee more, which made her let out a painful cry.
Daryl pointed to the area where the noise came from, both on high alert, with their weapons on hand just in case.
They followed the noise, and eventually came across a ditch with a small ginger-haired girl in there, tears streaming down her face — creating streaks down her mud-covered cheeks. She looked to be in extreme pain, causing Daryl to look at Rick with a persuasive look on his face.
ROSALIE LOOKED UP, NOTICING TWO unknown men hovering above her, "Help me, please!" She croaked through small, quieter sobs. Daryl gave Rick a quick look before they both disarmed themselves.
They both leant over, grabbing a hand each as they pulled on the ginger girl's arms to lift her, "What's your name?" Rick asked, "I'm Rick, this is Daryl." He had long curly hair, with hints of grey throughout the curls, an unshaven beard and arctic blue eyes. Daryl on the other hand, had shaggy, brown hair that reached his shoulders and covered his face, he also had an unshaven beard, but it wasn't as long as Rick's, and also had blue eyes.
"Rosalie." She muttered, wiping her tears away with her hand, smearing more blood and mud onto her cheeks. Both Rick and Daryl intimidated her slightly, they were nothing like her father. They were strong, but they looked like they were good people. Especially Daryl.
"How many Walkers you killed?" Rick asked as he pulled Rosalie's bag off her shoulder, opening it to see her small stash of food, water and her knife.
He put his hand out for her gun and she passed it to him as she answered, "A few dozen?" She shrugged, "I haven't kept count." Daryl noticed how she was putting all of her weight onto one leg, and not the other.
"How many people you killed?" Rick asked as he started to pat down the small ginger girl. The question caught her by surprise, would he leave her if she admitted the truth?
She sighed deeply, before responding with, "One." Quietly, tears welled in her eyes but she fought them back, not wanting to cry again in front of the two men.
"Why?" Daryl spoke, surprising the girl with his thick Southern accent. Rosalie closed her eyes, willing not to cry.
"He asked me to. He was bitten." She mumbled, making it hard for Rick and Daryl to hear, never mind understand what she was saying.
"What did you say?" Rick demanded, scaring Rosalie slightly.
"He wanted me to kill him. He asked me to, he was bitten and he wanted me to kill him before he turned." A salty tear dropped from Rosalie's eye, but Rosalie quickly wiped it away before she could give Rick or Daryl a chance to notice.
Rick looked over to Daryl and nodded slightly, it wasn't very noticeable but Rosalie still managed to notice. Daryl nodded back, turning his head to look at Rosalie with confusion, "Can you walk? That looks bad." Rick hadn't noticed her odd stance, and how she was avoiding applying pressure to her left leg, and he certainly didn't notice the amount of blood that was coming from her leg.
"I can try..." She tried to limp forward, trying to ignore the excruciating pain in her left knee. She took a deep breath, limping forward. Suddenly, the pain became too much, and she collapsed, almost sobbing in pain as she came in contact with the floor.
Daryl and Rick walked over, Rick pulling her up as he made sure she was okay. He knelt, lifting the bottom of her newly ripped jeans to see the damage. There was a large gash going halfway up her leg, it was deep too — which probably caused some of the pain as you could almost see the bone, and in some parts, you could see the bone. As Rick pulled her jeans up more, he could see the main problem, because of the fall, she had dislocated her knee and it was severely out of place.
"'ere." Daryl wrapped his arm around the girl, "Lean against me, I'll help you walk." Rosalie hissed in excruciating pain as she continued to limp. Rick stayed in front of the two others, keeping a lookout for Walkers so they didn't get attacked. Rosalie needed the help, she felt like she was going to pass out, but with their help, the pain wasn't as bad.
"We're almost there," Rick announced, trying to get Daryl to hurry up. He sped up a little, but Rosalie yelped in pain as the sudden change in speed surprised her.
Rick, Daryl and Rosalie eventually made it to the entrance to the Prison. Rosalie's limp had become worse as the swelling on her knee and around the deep cut on her leg grew worse as time passed. Rosalie's breathing had become quicker and worsened. Her health was declining quickly, and Rick and Daryl needed to get her help fast.
They rushed her through the entrance gate of the prison, Rick and Daryl ignoring the glares from the other people around. As Daryl hurried through the prison, the agonising pain in Rosalie's leg felt like it doubled, making her fall to the floor yet again. Quickly, Daryl pulled her up and Rick grabbed her other arm, the both of them rushing up closer to the actual prison.
"Maggie!" Rick shouted, and a tall woman with chestnut shoulder-length hair, and kind, chocolate-coloured eyes turned around, a questioning look on her face.
"Shit, what happened? Who's this?" She questioned, pointing to the pale girl in their arms, she had now started to feel tired as if she was about to pass out.
"I'll explain later, where's Hershel? She needs help." Rick answered, looking around as sweat beads formed on his forehead. Rosalie was slowly growing tired, slipping in and out of consciousness as she lost an extreme amount of blood. As the shock began to finally settle her body started to shake and her limbs weakened. She knew she couldn't keep herself up for much longer.
"Block C!" Maggie yelled back, pointing to block C of the prison, Daryl and Rick quickly turned around, causing Rosalie to groan in pain as she felt her knee move more out of place than it already was.
The three of them rushed to block C, which fortunately enough was the closest. A dull headache started behind Rosalie's eyes, causing her to grit her teeth in pain.
"Get 'er in there!" Daryl yelled to Rick, hastily ramming his hip into the door, causing it to swing open on its hinges.
Hershel stepped out from his cell, curious to know what all the commotion was about. The red-headed girl threw her head back in pain as her breathing worsened, which worried the two men greatly.
Hershel's confused expression dropped from his face as he saw the disturbing scene unfold in front of him. His jaw slacked slightly as he hobbled over towards the two other men. Many questions raced through his mind as he escorted the two men and the unconscious girl into an unused cell.
"What happened to her?" Hershel questioned as he pulled the bag from Rosalie's shoulders, throwing it into the corner before gently helping Daryl to lower her down onto the bottom bunk. Rick stepped back from the others, giving Hershel space.
"We found her in a ditch, she was runnin' from a group of walkers and fell in." Rick explained as Hershel slowly started to roll up the young girl's jeans to see how badly she was injured, "She lost a lotta blood." Daryl added, pointing and nodding to the blood-soaked trousers.
"It looks like she's dislocated it." The white-haired man declared as he rolled up his shirt sleeves, "I'll have to put it back into place." Daryl gave Rick a cautious look as Hershel started to apply pressure to her kneecap and pushed slightly as he also slowly began to straighten out the girl's knee. With a small pop, her knee was now in place, but now Hershel had to deal with the extensive gash on her leg.
"Daryl, go get the medical supplies box, she's going to need stitches." Hershel elucidated to the other men, Daryl rushing out of the cell to grab the box of medical supplies. Within a few minutes, Daryl re-entered, with a moderately large box in his hands, placing it down softly next to Hershel's leg.
The man reached into the box, pulling out a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and some cotton balls. He applied a small amount of the alcohol onto the cotton ball and gently dabbed it onto her wound to clean it up. Hershel grabbed the needle from the box, sterilising it with some of the alcohol, making sure it was clean so he wouldn't cause an infection. He weaved the needle through her skin, pulling the wound together, luckily enough — Rosalie had passed out long ago, so she never felt any of the pain.
Hershel finished stitching up her wound, tying off the stitching before thoroughly cleaning the needle and placing it back into the box, along with all of the other medical things he used.
"She gon' be okay?" Daryl voiced both his and Rick's question that they were internally thinking, Daryl twisted his rough beard between his fingers as he looked down at the innocent-looking young girl, a pitiful expression growing on his face.
"She should be. She'll have to use my old crutches for a few weeks before she's able to walk properly, else she'll pop her stitches and possibly dislocate her knee again." Hershel explained to the two other men in the room, rubbing his hands together, before standing up from the stool he was previously perched on, "Someone will need to keep watch, I was thinking Carl as they seem to be of similar ages — and she looks like she'll need a friend." The old man nodded to Daryl and Rick, who nodded their goodbyes.
A few seconds later, a young boy appeared next to the cell Rosalie was in. He peered his head around the corner, noticing the young unconscious girl, "Who's that?" He pointed his index finger at the wavy-haired redhead as he took a small step into the cell.
"Ah, Carl! Rick and Daryl found her in the woods whilst on a supply hunt," The man explained to the black, fluffy-haired boy, "We don't know when she will wake up, so I'm going to need you to watch over her, alright?"
"Yeah, I'll do it." Carl smiled at the older man, taking a seat on the stool next to Rosalie.
"Thank you." The white-haired man nodded as he left Carl and Rosalie alone in the cell. Carl looked over to the young girl, lying unconscious on the bed with blood-soaked clothing, old blood covering practically her whole leg and somehow everything she wore.
Eventually, the sky grew darker as more time passed — and Rosalie was still unconscious. As night approached, Carl grew more and more tired — and bored, as she still hadn't woken up by the time it was completely dark outside. Even though it was uncomfortable, the fluffy-haired boy fell asleep, leaning his head against the wall, and his hat sat on the floor by his feet.
— FREYA SPEAKS
this was the first chapter, i hope you enjoyed reading <33 i know there wasn't much plot/story in this chapter, and the next one won't have much either, only because i'm introducing the characters and rosalie's character so we can all get a rough idea of who she is before the main plot starts.
if you could give me any tips for my writing it would be greatly appreciated, other than that, i love you all, and i hope you enjoy the rest of your day/night <33