All Hope Is Gone

She woke with a sudden start as terrors of the undead stripping her bones bare of flesh flashed before her minds eyes. The jolt she woke with shook her body so violently that it had dislodged her from the teetering top of the roof. Her fingers grappled for the tiles and a whimper left her lips. Panic and a sick shiver set in. The pinch of the skin on her fingers trying desperately to hold tight in the tiles finally gave way. The thick orange tiles made a terrible cluttering sound as Anastasia slid down them with a yelp of her own.

Fuck! That was surely going to bring those Walkers out.

Anastasia wailed and crashed to the yard below, landing with a sickening crack on her arm and only to hold back the curdling scream she was about to let rip she bit down on a chunk of grass and squeezed her eyes shut.
The high pitched pain shooting up her arm was almost indescribable save for the thought of falling into a dump truck compactor. Slowly Anastasia forced herself to sit up and sucked back a hoarse curse as she did so. At a time like this she oddly enough remembered the breathing techniques the nurse had run through with her on the night she gave birth to Dana. Which at the moment felt like it was nothing but a twenty-seven hour walk in the park.
“Just look down.” Shakily Anastasia pep talked herself into looking down at the damage and instantly she wished she hadn’t. The flesh on her right arm had been pierced right through and flapped to the side as part of her forearm bone stuck through coated in gorish blood and gunk. Green sick pooled deep in her stomach and she looked away.
There was only one way to remedy a compound fracture and Anastasia wasn’t looking forward to it in the least.
But firstly she looked around before even thinking of fixing the wound. Her crash landing would have surely caught the attention if at least one Walker…hadn’t it? As she anxiously looked around there wasn’t a hint of a shuffle or groan. Everything had fallen silent. Something about the quiet chilled Anastasia to the core, there was definitely odd about the lack of Geeks to the noise she’d caused.

She grunted as she slowly got to her knees and fished out her knife with her god hand and stuck the handle in her teeth. Anastasia grabbed hold of the bottom of her tank top and lifted it to the tip of her blade and proceeded to rip through the material till there was a big enough hole to get her hand through and tear the rest off. Left in her hand was a thick strip of dark material long enough to wind and tie around her forearm, now came the hard part.
Tucking her knife back into its sheath on the waist of her jeans Anastasia looked around for a fence paling or any thick bit of wood. Her eyes clapped upon a thick enough branch that had fallen to the ground. It wasn’t all too long, but it would have to do. She grabbed up the branch with her free hand and pressed it down over the exposed bone. Stuffing the material in her mouth she ground her teeth down over it and braced her body. Bringing around a leg, she was thankful for the Yoga and Pilates classes she’d attended before this whole screwed up world happened. Her lungs filled with breath as she sucked in fresh air. Raising her booted foot above the thick branch she counted to three and brought it down hard over the branch. A scream tore through her throat and she bit down so hard on the material she thought her teeth would snap. A steaming hot impact rippled up her arm and the sensation of hot liquid being forced into the wound radiated through the opening of her fracture.
Anastasia threw her head to the side and sick stung her throat and vomited past her lips. Looking back she was relieved to see the bone had been shunted back into place, maybe not exactly where it had snapped from but it was close enough. Blood was oozing from the rip in her skin.

She wiped the spittle from her lips over the back of her hand and proceeded to wrap the tank material around the wound before sitting back on the grass. It wasn’t until she was done did Anastasia note the light headedness and haze before her vision.
“Not the best time to pass out.” Her lips mumbled.
Forcing her legs to move from under her she gingerly rose from the grass, taking a moment to steady her balance before slowly treading her boots over the grass.
The light around her had an early dawn smell to it, not that she’d taken the time to really notice what time of day it could have been. She could feel blood already beginning to sop the material wrapped around it so her thoughts were now stuck on finding something to cease the burning and since heading back to the shops where the Chemist sat there weren’t a lot of other options left.
It occurred to her though as she walked on that with the lack of options left for her, the ones that were left were often the most basic and brutish ones.

Her arm was bent and tucked up as her good arm nursed it, blood slicked her hand and she shook her head. The bleeding had to stop and it had to stop soon or Anastasia would risk passing out in the middle of the road. What she needed was a fire. But there was no way she could make fire like Daryl had, the lack of two good hands prevented her from rubbing the two required sticks together. Anastasia looked to her side, she was at least two blocks over now and her eyes landed on another ‘burbs style house. It’s lawn like the others was overgrown and claiming back the land humans had taken from it but it wasn’t too far gone to see the front door up from the driveway. Her boots clunked up the driveway as her head began to swim from the loss of blood and pain rocketing through her entire body.
She dropped both her arms and grabbed her knife before giving the front door a gentle nudge and sticking her head inside. So far there were no Walkers to greet her with wide and hungry mouths inside. Stepping in she looked around. The TV had been long smashed and lay face down on the floor. There was stench she guessed was the really dead owners. Blood stained much of the lounge room as well as the clawed curtains hanging above the window. Careful to tread lightly Anastasia crept through to the kitchen. The stove had also been upturned and the table smashed to pieces. Drawers had been pulled open and thrown over the floor. Sifting through the contents with her boots a little red box was revealed amongst the junk. Anastasia breathed a sigh of thankfulness and bent to pick up the box. The illustrated face of a lady with flaming red hair adorned the box of matches. She shook the box and heard at least three matches rustle around inside.
Turning from the kitchen she headed back into the lounge room. The idea of what she was about to do was just as unappealing as it had been to snap her forearm bone back inside its flesh casing. Kicking aside the carpet Anastasia sat cross legged in the middle of the room placing down the box of matches and used her knife to cut off a section of the carpet. It felt fluffy under her touch. Using the fingers on her good arm she poked the box open and tipped out the three little matches and lined them up beside one another before unwrapping her blood soaked bandage and tossing it aside. It made a wet slapping sound as it hit the hardwood floor.
“This is going to be fun.” The sarcasm in her voice dripped from every syllable.
Taking one of the matches Anastasia flicked it across the box till its red tip hissed and sparked with the flame. Immediately the piece of carpet took flame as she pressed the match to it. Grabbing her knife she held the blade over the flame, watching as it slowly turned a bright orange. Her arm rested over her thigh even as it shook knowing what was about to come.
Taking a gulping breath Anastasia pressed the red hot blade down over her jaggered flesh. She screamed a gargled growl as her skin burned and bubbled underneath sealing the blood in. The stench of searing human skin made her stomach crawl and bubble with sick as again she held the blade over the flame waiting for it to heat back up.
Sweat beaded across her skin and her cheeks flushed a shade of red as she again gritted her teeth and held the flaming knife blade over her flesh.
By the time she was finished her head was a mess of haze and her gut a tub of sick writhing. Using her boot to stomp out the fire she tucked her warm blade back into its sheath and rested her head back upon the couch behind her.
Unable to keep her eyes from closing and her head from spinning she let herself slip into a coming darkness. The will to care lost on her heavy limbs.



“Ya stupid girl.” Daryl growled as he looked around the last spot Anastasia had been. He could just make out her footsteps from the Chemist door, knowing the tread of her boots but it was soon lost amongst the mess of Walker tracks scuffling over the ground. “I lose her here.” He turned to Rick who was close behind with eyes peeled for Geeks.

“Where did Glenn say she went?”

“Alls he said was she turned and ran…” He looked at the spot where T-Dog had said the car was parked. “Reckon she went that way.” Daryl nodded his head towards an alleyway that gave into a street of houses.

“So let’s go that way.” Andrea walked forward only to be stopped as Daryl stretched an arm out towards her.

“Look before ya walk.” He warned as a Walker shuffled past the street Andrea was about to walk into.

She nodded. “Right.”

“I don’t got time to keep an eye on ya. I’m already lookin’ for one idiot.” The guilt he had felt the day previous had turned to anger that he was taking out on Anastasia’s actions.

“Sorry, I’ll be more careful.”

Waiting till the Geek passed the trio made their way up the alleyway and out onto the streets where houses lined each side of the road.

“She couldn’t have gotten far with a horde after her.” Rick pointed out as he looked around for any sign of her.

“Naw, she wouldnta.” Looking up as they walked, Daryl thought of what he would have done and what would Lincoln have taught his wife if she was caught in a tight spot. “Up.” The idea dawned n him. “Anastasia woulda gone up.”

The other two looked up at a high and thick tree that towered over them. “How do you know?” Andrea asked.

“Somethin’ her husband woulda taught her…I woulda taught her and anyone else the same thing.”

Andrew screwed up her face. “Husband?”

“Not now, Andrea.” Rick was intrigued by the new facts about their camp member but knew this wasn’t the time to ask. “So she climbed?”

“Yeah, probably up this tree too.” He looked around and noticed this was the tallest tree in sight. “Yeah, this one.”

“And next she would have gone into a house, for shelter.” Andrea suggested.

Daryl shook his head. “Girl ain’t that stupid. She knows any house here would have Walkers, she woulda kept walking.”

“Hey…we got company.” Rick’s voice was rushed as he stepped back. A thicket of Geeks was shambling down the road towards them.

Daryl pulled an arrow but Andrea tugged his arm. “There are too many we gotta go!”

“Go? We can’t go!”

“Yes we can and we have to! We’ll come back tomorrow and keep searching.” Rick was already past them when Andrea joined him.

Daryl stood staring down the pack as it picked up pave and grumbled towards him. “Fuckin’ dead shits.” He cussed before turning away knowing that a dead Daryl wasn’t going to find Anastasia.



“Hey, who’s that?” Spencer turned to his wife as they entered the house. He had a bag slung over his shoulder ready to loot whatever they could on their way back to the little house manned by his group.

“I don’t know.” Annika replied slowly as she cautiously approached the woman leaning against the couch. “She doesn’t look dead.”

“Or smell it.”

Annika looked down at the carpet and noted the ashes on the floor. “I think…I think she is just passed out.”

Spencer craned his skinny neck to get a better look at the dark hair woman passed out on the floor. He looked around her and noticed the nasty knot of skin that looked like it had been melted over her forearm. “I think she was bit.” He pointed to the scar.

“Maybe…certainly looks like she might have been.” Annika nodded to the bloody rag on the floor beside the woman’s boots.

“What do we do?”

Looking back at her husband she shrugged. “We don’t do anything. Just back out of the house and leave her here.”

For a moment Spencer hummed and drummed his fingers over the strap of the bag. “What if it’s not a bite?”

“What else could it be?”

“A cut or something? I don’t know, but don’t you think we should check? After all we are probably the only people taking in survivors and not killing them on sight like the rest.”

Annika pushed her hand through her ashen blond pixie like hair cut knowing her husband was right. “Alright, you got my back if she tries to eat me?”

“You know I do babe.” Spencer already had his gun fully equipped with a silencer aimed at the woman’s head.

“Alright here goes nothing…”