Wake the Dead

(The song that represents the beginning of this chapter is: This Is The Thing by Fink)

What day is it? Week? Month? I don't know.. All I know is that is fucking cold and I'm alone. The snow was sticking and piling up heavy now. I was starving and the only thing close to water I had recently was the snow.

How long had it been since I lost the group? Weeks? Months?

Why should I even try anymore? The numbness tells me that I shouldn't, that there is no reason.

Oh yes, the numbness... I tried fighting it in the beginning when I still had shards of hope that I would find the group, but now... Now I feel mentally, emotionally, and physically dead.

I was surprised that I was able to fight it off for so long, but when I ran into another small group, it completely took over. Why? Because they threatened me? Beat me? Raped me? Gave me multiple injuries? Left me in the freezing snow? Left me for dead? No, I think it was the fact that every second and every moment all I could think about was Daryl.

It was my fault, too. I trusted them. Why? Because they had food... I was too weak to fight them off physically and too weak mentally when I met them.

Weak.

That's all I was... Weak.

Once I lost the group.. When I lost Daryl, Rick, Glenn, Maggie... When I lost my family and couldn't find them I felt myself slip away. I constantly ask myself why do I still try? Why do I still put up with the freezing, ice cold nights? The nightmares? The hunger? Thirst? Pain? Sadness? Suffering? WHY!?

My mind would bombard it's self with all these questions every day and night, but I could only come up with one answer every time... Because my family could still be out there and I can still find them. But, would they even want me? I was broken and they could have easily moved on. For all I know they probably didn't even look for me.

I had somehow learned to completely shut my mind off, slipping into a dark place and being perfectly okay with it. The numbness controlled me when I was in that state, but I didn't mind, I didn't have to feel.

I let out a grunt of pain as I hoisted myself down from a tree, landing on my bad ankle. I had twisted it some time recently, but didn't really care, it wasn't the worst of my injuries. I had a busted up lip, possibly broken arm, frostbite, bruises everywhere, insomnia, and I always seemed to be bleeding somewhere.

I kept moving, day after day, going no where in particular, just moving. I started to make my way through the thick snow, feeling an ache in my ankle, but I again ignored it. I wrapped the sleeves of my jacket around my hands that where turning red from the coldness and started to mindlessly trek through the forest. What forest was I even in?

I needed food and I needed it soon. I don't know how much longer I could drag myself around without eating. I could tell how skinny I was getting and it disgusted me. I was so unhealthy that my period was irregular and my bones were starting to stick out, especially on my ribcage.

*

I had been walking all day and the sun was starting to set. I had ate some snow, but that was it. I was starting to feel the energy leave my body and my head start to get light, but I kept walking. What was I even walking to? A buffet that was going to magically appear? I let out a sadistic laugh at my self, but ended up starting to cough. I was surprised that I didn't die from the flu that I always seemed to have.

"Yo V. Did you hear that?" I heard a voice in the distance call out as it started to get closer to me. Shit. No, not people. I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to run off, but I was so physically weak and food deprived I fell straight into the snow. "Hey over here!" A new voice called out. I tried to crawl away, but just collapsed once again.

I felt an hand on my arm start to pull me back. "No. No." I said as I tried to push away, but I was so weak I might as well have been poking him. I felt my mind start to spin and blackness try to take over. I tried to fight it off, but I was having trouble.

"Hey, hey. It's alright. I'm alive and I'm not going to hurt you." The man who was holding me said. His voice was pure and sounded sincere and truthful. I let my eyes roll into the back of my head and let the darkness take over at the sound of his words. I know I shouldn't trust anyone, but what else was I going to do?

*

My eyes flickered open and the blackness was replaced by brightness. Was I dead? Shuffling and faint voices in the distance made me realize I wasn't and I couldn't help but frown at the fact. All I remembered was some people looking for me in the forest and from my experience people where no good. I looked around and noticed I was in a type of tent. There was a table across from the makeshift bed I was in and it looked like it had some type of medical supplies on it.

I then looked down at myself and saw that someone had removed my jacket and put a weird homemade sling on my arm. I also felt something tight around my ankle, a brace? My stomach made a weird type of rumbling sound from the extreme hunger I was feeling, but I ignored it.

I slowly sat up, trying to avoid the dizziness in my head and aches all over my body. I quietly made my way through the tent to take a peak out. I was going to plan on sneaking out and making a run for it, but when I looked around I stopped myself. We were in some small clearing in the woods, but the thing that stood out the most was the men dressed in military coats and the tanks surrounding them. Military?
I pushed open the flap to the tent and stepped out, receiving looks from many of the men, but only a few of them ran over. "Hello, good to see you're up. My name is Victor, or you can call me V." The mans voice was familiar, he must have been the one that found me in the forest. He held out his hand and I just looked at it, feeling emotionless as I slowly blinked.

The man put his hand down and gave me a sincere look. "We aren't going to hurt you. We are the last survivors of the military that was relocated here and you are the first unhostile survivor we have found."

The man.. Victor, had truth in his eyes and voice that was hard to not believe. "What's your name?" He asked me after I just looked at him, not responding. "Uh.." I had to actually think about it, I mean I haven't talked to another person in months and my mind has been shut off so I had no use of saying my name. "F-Fiona."

The man gave me a small smile. "Fiona." He repeated. "Whens the last time you've ate anything?"

I shrugged and he nodded then motioned for me to follow him. I hesitated, but followed him over to a small fire pit they had that was surrounded in logs. There where a few more military men sitting around it, eating out of cans. My stomach groaned at the sight of food and my mind ached for it. Victor motioned for me to have a seat on an empty log and then walked away for a second.

I sat down and felt eyes on me, but they where different. They all held kind eyes, like they where good, pure military men. Victor came back with a few cans of food and bottles of water and handed them to me. I didn't hesitate to grab them and open them up, scarfing down as much as I could fit in my mouth. Victor sat down on a log across from mine and looked over at me. "What happened to you, Fiona?" He asked.

I swallowed hard and looked around at all the eyes that where now on me. I just shrugged.

"You have a group?" Another guy asked.

"No." I mumbled.

"We had our doc look at you, and you're pretty beat up." Victor said with pity in his eyes.

I just nodded and continued to eat as I looked down at my food. I could tell these men weren't dangerous, but I couldn't bring myself to think, let alone talk.

I was finished my food and started to look around. I almost choked when I saw a helicopter, but I just assumed it was dead and out of gas. Victor stood and offer me a hand to get up. "Would you like for me to show you around?" I hesitated, but grabbed his hand, not wanting to awkwardly sit here. I slowly lifted me up, but I hissed a little as I felt all my bruises scream at me.

When I finally got up, I followed him as he walked around and pointed out all their stuff and people. I just looked around, not saying a word. We finally made it over to the tent I woke up in and he stopped. "Don't talk much, do you?"

I just looked at him with my hard, lifeless eyes. He let out a sigh and then motioned me to go inside the tent. There was another man inside that was looking at all the medical stuff. "Hey Gill." Victor said as we went inside. The man turned around and greeted us with a small smile. "Hello, V."

"This is Fiona." He said, pointing to me. "And Fiona, this is Gill, the doc." Gill smiled at me, but didn't reach his hand out to be shook, which I was thankful for. Victor mumbled out something and then left, leaving me alone with the doctor.

"I see you've met Victor." He said as he messed with some stuff on the desk, but turned to look at me when I didn't respond. He let out a sigh and motioned for me to sit. "Okay, Fiona." He said as he grabbed a small notebook. "Your medical condition is a rough one." He paused and flipped to a certain page. "You have managed to fracture both your Ulna and Radius bones in your arm." He said as he looked at my arm in the weird sling type thing. "You have twisted your ankle, which normally would be an easy fix, but you have been on it for so long when you shouldn't have that you managed to damaged it more." He paused and flipped the page in his note book. Geeze, this guy was being really serious for the world have gone to shit. "You also have bruised your hip bone and have a few cracked ribs, but the only thing you can do is rest and those will fix themselves." I let out a sigh, I don't even know how I managed to get all these injuries. Probably from either falling out of trees, fighting off walkers, or ya know the group that attacked me.

I wasn't really listening more as he babbled on about my 'condition', I didn't really care. Hell, I didn't care about anything anymore, my mind was gone and my emotions where fried. I ended up staring off into the distance and the wheels stopped turning in my mind.

I didn't know when he left, but all of the sudden I was alone in the tent. I shrugged and then grabbed my jacket that was now sitting on the edge of the bed. I slid it on my good arm and just draped it over the shoulder of my bad one. I decided that this group seemed to not be the type to try and murder me... or worse. I also had no where else to go, so I might as well give them a chance. I laid back on the little bed and store up into the ceiling, feeling nothing.

Nothing.