Status: updates coming soon-ish =D
Forsaken
Carrie
The dull grey sky perfectly described the bleak future humanity had in store. The decayed, lifeless city which had once been so full of promise only a few short years ago now lay on the horizon, drained of all life like a body left to bleed out. A cold shell. Nothing more. The metropolis didn’t even get to have the honor of calling itself a shadow of its former self.
Carrie felt half dead herself, barely capable of conscious thought. The mundane drone of her shuffling feet would have put her to sleep were it not that sleep was something stupid and exceedingly dangerous. Step.Step.Step. Left right left right left right.Over and over and over again. Though her body was still barely struggling to perform its basic functions, her mind was completely checked out, in another world in its entirety. Duke walked beside her, silent as ever, those dark brown eyes sweeping this way and that, before his body locked up, tensed as if ready to fight. Carrie knew he was just as, if not more, exhausted than she herself was, and couldn’t help but be amazed by the loyalty that he must be capable of if he was sticking by her through this. She was a liability to his safety, a constant source of danger. But he stayed with her. Never questioning, never challenging. He just followed her. If it weren’t for him, she would have lost her mind long ago- he kept her sane. Centered.Level. And when they came for her, he took them on without hesitation, protecting her. Duke was everything, and Carrie had no illusions that she’d be dead if not for him.
As she watched him, Carrie didn’t say a word, and hoped he stayed silent as well- noise brought them out. Sound was bad. Loud sounds even worse. And that big, booming voice of his could wake the dead.
Literally.
Left right left right le- fighting the instinctive yelp that wanted to work its way out into the world, Carrie slipped and fell, only allowing the softest of whimpers to come out. Duke was gone. Run off to check out whatever had caught his attention in the first place. She knew he’d be back- he always came back. He was making sure whatever it was that caught his attention wasn’t a threat. Weakly, she stumbled to her feet like a newborn foal on shaky, spindly legs, hesitantly putting one foot in front of another, until her brain checked back in enough to remember how to correctly walk again. Once that seemingly simple task had been achieved, she settled yet again into the mundane pattern of her shuffling feet, barely able to pick them up enough to make any real progress as she moved.
Deciding she did want to make some real progress, Carrie lifted up her foot and set it down- right into the exposed chest cavity of some poor bastard. Unimaginable fear ripped through her body, along with intense disgust as the sickening squelching noise that had immediately followed her placement of her foot into the body. Looking down, she fully expected to see the body moving, those hands- or rather, the stumps that were left, where the hands should have been- reaching for her, desperately trying to pull her down to his mouth so he could take a bite out of her leg and both satisfy that never ending hunger, along with simultaneously sealing her fate. However, after a few moments- maybe it was seconds, minutes, hours. She didn’t know and certainly didn’t care-, the body didn’t move, those blank, empty eyes staring at her accusingly as she weakly summoned just enough strength to lift her foot, that sickening squelching noise sounding again. Turning her head, Carrie vomited up the bile that made its way to her mouth, and the very scare contents of her stomach. Wiping her mouth off on her sleeve, she continued walking again, not paying attention to where she was going really, except to the city. While she could remember that she was supposed to be heading to the city, she couldn’t remember why. Maybe the ranch needed something. Or maybe she was offering herself up as some scrawny, weak sacrifice to the masses that dwelled in the inner city. She couldn’t remember. It didn’t matter. She’d either find it and go back- was she even suppose to be going back?- or she wouldn’t, and likely get eaten. Maybe she was getting gas so that the stupid broken down truck would have something to go on once she got it running. Yeah… maybe that was it. But again, she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be going back to the ranch. Maybe she was supposed to go somewhere else. But why would she? She couldn't remember anything…. But she did remember that she wasn’t suppose to want to go to the ranch. Too much bad stuff that she didn’t want to remember.
In her daze, she tripped for the umpteenth time, stumbling and falling onto the hood of a car. Petrifying fear gripped her for an instant, ripping her head out the clouds as she waited for that tell tale alarm to go off. Ring the dinner bell.
Mentally, emotionally, and physically, Carrie was completely drained. The will to fight on had slowly dropped, until she was now running on fumes. Maybe now would be the time to just end it- her body and mind couldn’t take it any more, and her heart wasn’t faring much better. It’d be so easy. They’d ignore Duke, even if he sat down and cried over her body for days as they devoured her like vultures. They didn’t want him. Only her. Idly, she wondered if he’d try to protect her corpse as much as he continued to try to protect her body. Did it matter? Probably not. Part of her hoped he wouldn’t- it wouldn’t do anything other than put him in danger.
The alarm never went off, silence being Carrie’s only companion. It mercilessly tortured her, yet was simultaneously a gift so wonderful Carrie couldn’t begin to put words to it. Inhaling a weak, shaky breath, she slowly, slowly lifted her torso off the car, eyes flicking around with a crazed look to them, utterly oblivious to the fact that she was in the scope of someone’s rifle. With a heavy sigh she pushed her body away from the car, stumbling away towards the city. So close… She stumbled and tripped over herself, only managing to keep her balance due to all the cars lying around. If she was able to catch herself. Many, many times Carrie found herself becoming acquainted with the ground again, only to get back up. Surely she looked like one of the rots. Her blood stained, dirt covered, sweat coated body was anything but pristine. The only time she ‘bathed’ was when it rained. And that was only what the falling water deemed fit to cleanse off her filthy body. Looking down at herself as Carrie tried to yet again rebalance herself, her skin was a soft red, still recovering from the nasty sunburn she’d earned days ago. That ever constant gnawing in her belly was just a drone in the back of her mind. Where did Duke go? She missed him.
The continuous stumbling kept on as she got closer. Please please please don’t let there be any infected. She prayed silently, knowing she was a goner if there were. No sleep in a week. No food for longer. Her body was starting to cannibalize itself. Water she’d gotten a few hours ago from a dirty pond. Carrie didn’t even want to think about what kind of parasites were potentially making her insides their home. There were bigger parasites to worry about.
Carrie felt half dead herself, barely capable of conscious thought. The mundane drone of her shuffling feet would have put her to sleep were it not that sleep was something stupid and exceedingly dangerous. Step.Step.Step. Left right left right left right.Over and over and over again. Though her body was still barely struggling to perform its basic functions, her mind was completely checked out, in another world in its entirety. Duke walked beside her, silent as ever, those dark brown eyes sweeping this way and that, before his body locked up, tensed as if ready to fight. Carrie knew he was just as, if not more, exhausted than she herself was, and couldn’t help but be amazed by the loyalty that he must be capable of if he was sticking by her through this. She was a liability to his safety, a constant source of danger. But he stayed with her. Never questioning, never challenging. He just followed her. If it weren’t for him, she would have lost her mind long ago- he kept her sane. Centered.Level. And when they came for her, he took them on without hesitation, protecting her. Duke was everything, and Carrie had no illusions that she’d be dead if not for him.
As she watched him, Carrie didn’t say a word, and hoped he stayed silent as well- noise brought them out. Sound was bad. Loud sounds even worse. And that big, booming voice of his could wake the dead.
Literally.
Left right left right le- fighting the instinctive yelp that wanted to work its way out into the world, Carrie slipped and fell, only allowing the softest of whimpers to come out. Duke was gone. Run off to check out whatever had caught his attention in the first place. She knew he’d be back- he always came back. He was making sure whatever it was that caught his attention wasn’t a threat. Weakly, she stumbled to her feet like a newborn foal on shaky, spindly legs, hesitantly putting one foot in front of another, until her brain checked back in enough to remember how to correctly walk again. Once that seemingly simple task had been achieved, she settled yet again into the mundane pattern of her shuffling feet, barely able to pick them up enough to make any real progress as she moved.
Deciding she did want to make some real progress, Carrie lifted up her foot and set it down- right into the exposed chest cavity of some poor bastard. Unimaginable fear ripped through her body, along with intense disgust as the sickening squelching noise that had immediately followed her placement of her foot into the body. Looking down, she fully expected to see the body moving, those hands- or rather, the stumps that were left, where the hands should have been- reaching for her, desperately trying to pull her down to his mouth so he could take a bite out of her leg and both satisfy that never ending hunger, along with simultaneously sealing her fate. However, after a few moments- maybe it was seconds, minutes, hours. She didn’t know and certainly didn’t care-, the body didn’t move, those blank, empty eyes staring at her accusingly as she weakly summoned just enough strength to lift her foot, that sickening squelching noise sounding again. Turning her head, Carrie vomited up the bile that made its way to her mouth, and the very scare contents of her stomach. Wiping her mouth off on her sleeve, she continued walking again, not paying attention to where she was going really, except to the city. While she could remember that she was supposed to be heading to the city, she couldn’t remember why. Maybe the ranch needed something. Or maybe she was offering herself up as some scrawny, weak sacrifice to the masses that dwelled in the inner city. She couldn’t remember. It didn’t matter. She’d either find it and go back- was she even suppose to be going back?- or she wouldn’t, and likely get eaten. Maybe she was getting gas so that the stupid broken down truck would have something to go on once she got it running. Yeah… maybe that was it. But again, she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be going back to the ranch. Maybe she was supposed to go somewhere else. But why would she? She couldn't remember anything…. But she did remember that she wasn’t suppose to want to go to the ranch. Too much bad stuff that she didn’t want to remember.
In her daze, she tripped for the umpteenth time, stumbling and falling onto the hood of a car. Petrifying fear gripped her for an instant, ripping her head out the clouds as she waited for that tell tale alarm to go off. Ring the dinner bell.
Mentally, emotionally, and physically, Carrie was completely drained. The will to fight on had slowly dropped, until she was now running on fumes. Maybe now would be the time to just end it- her body and mind couldn’t take it any more, and her heart wasn’t faring much better. It’d be so easy. They’d ignore Duke, even if he sat down and cried over her body for days as they devoured her like vultures. They didn’t want him. Only her. Idly, she wondered if he’d try to protect her corpse as much as he continued to try to protect her body. Did it matter? Probably not. Part of her hoped he wouldn’t- it wouldn’t do anything other than put him in danger.
The alarm never went off, silence being Carrie’s only companion. It mercilessly tortured her, yet was simultaneously a gift so wonderful Carrie couldn’t begin to put words to it. Inhaling a weak, shaky breath, she slowly, slowly lifted her torso off the car, eyes flicking around with a crazed look to them, utterly oblivious to the fact that she was in the scope of someone’s rifle. With a heavy sigh she pushed her body away from the car, stumbling away towards the city. So close… She stumbled and tripped over herself, only managing to keep her balance due to all the cars lying around. If she was able to catch herself. Many, many times Carrie found herself becoming acquainted with the ground again, only to get back up. Surely she looked like one of the rots. Her blood stained, dirt covered, sweat coated body was anything but pristine. The only time she ‘bathed’ was when it rained. And that was only what the falling water deemed fit to cleanse off her filthy body. Looking down at herself as Carrie tried to yet again rebalance herself, her skin was a soft red, still recovering from the nasty sunburn she’d earned days ago. That ever constant gnawing in her belly was just a drone in the back of her mind. Where did Duke go? She missed him.
The continuous stumbling kept on as she got closer. Please please please don’t let there be any infected. She prayed silently, knowing she was a goner if there were. No sleep in a week. No food for longer. Her body was starting to cannibalize itself. Water she’d gotten a few hours ago from a dirty pond. Carrie didn’t even want to think about what kind of parasites were potentially making her insides their home. There were bigger parasites to worry about.
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