A Candle in the Dark

Monroe was twenty feet ahead, her ears perked up for any noise. A crack sounded, and Astrid froze. She scanned the tree line while notching an arrow into her bow. There was another crack and Astrid spun around, locating the source of the noise. Her finger twitched on the trigger.

“Fuck,” came a hushed voice, barely reaching Astrid’s ears.

It was Monroe, whose keen ears had picked up the voice clearly, who had a significant reaction. The German Shepherd crept forward, sniffing the air, closer and closer to the trees.

“Monroe,” Astrid hissed. Her dog stopped short and glanced back at her.

A woman stumbled out of the woods, muttering to herself, impatiently pushing long strands of dreadlocked hair out of her face. She looked up, eyes widening when she saw Astrid. “Oh,” she said, her gaze fixed on Astrid’s still raised bow. “Um, hi.”

Astrid couldn’t speak. It had been weeks since she’d seen, much less heard another human being. Her only constant company since the beginning of this whole mess had been Monroe. At the start there had been a man and his wife, but they disappeared out of the blue while Astrid was sleeping.

“You’re alive,” she managed to say.

The woman grinned. “And well. Now, if you’ll lower your bow then maybe we can have a proper conversation.”

Astrid hadn’t even realized it was still pointed at the woman. She smiled, feeling sheepish, and quickly released the strain on the arrow, returning it to her quiver. “Sorry.”

“S’not a problem, what with rumors of Snatchers in these parts I understand why you’re wary of people too.”

“Snatchers?” Astrid echoed, her eyebrows knitting together.

The woman frowned. “You don’t know what a Snatcher is?” she asked, and Astrid shook her head. “Short explanation: they kidnap people and make them fight the walkers. Massive dickheads. Best to avoid them.”

“There…there are more people?”

“You’re a Solitary, then.” the woman said, and sighed at Astrid’s confused expression. “Somebody who has survived this hell alone.”

“I guess I am.”

As the woman stepped closer to Astrid, her sympathetic look turned into one of excitement. “Well, then. We’ve got a camp, a few hours from here. There’s twenty of us now, with you it’ll make twenty one. Interested?”

The thought of suddenly going from no human contact to living with twenty other people terrified Astrid almost as much as being surrounded by monsters with one arrow left would. However, it was also an opportunity to find a more permanent home, rather than sleeping in a different house each night. Astrid was confident in her abilities that she could protect herself, but having somebody else do that for a while would be a relief.

She didn’t think about whether or not she should trust this woman. Astrid didn’t like the amount of sympathy the woman was giving her, because she may have survived alone thus far but she was still alive when so many had lost their lives to the creatures. That had to count for something. The woman seemed to know much more about the human side to this new world, unlike Astrid, and she could only follow as the woman set off back into the forest.

“Oh, and by the way, my name is Maddie.”

“Astrid.” she replied, and motioned to Monroe, who was sticking to her side. “This is Monroe.”

They walked in silence for a while, but questions were brewing in Astrid’s mind. She thought for a long time of how to form the words, what order she should ask them in; she plotted out every detail and had opened her mouth to speak when Maddie’s voice cut through the air.

“Where are you from?”

“Colorado. You?”

“California.”

Astrid sighed. “We’re both a long way from home.”

“Not so far as some. There’s a family in our camp from Oklahoma, and one guy is from fucking Georgia.”

“It must be worse back east — in the higher populated areas, I mean.”

“Oh, definitely. One of the other men, a cop, came from Dallas. Said it was a fucking nightmare. He’s lucky to have made it out alive.”

“You said your camp was a day’s walk,” Astrid began, and Maddie nodded. “So what are you doing out here alone?”

Maddie lifted the shotgun in her left hand. “I’ve been trying to bag this deer. The thing bolted before I could get a shot, so I went after it. Don’t worry, I haven’t been lying about having a camp. I’m not a Snatcher.”

It didn’t do much to ease Astrid’s nerves. She’d never liked firearms, which is why when her father brought her hunting when she was a teenager she chose the crossbow instead of a gun. In a world filled with flesh eating creatures, however, the rules were different. Astrid had taken a handgun from a dead police officer and kept it tucked into the back of her jeans as a precaution. She’d never had to fire it. When Maddie brought attention to her shotgun, Astrid noticed the revolver hanging from a holster around the woman’s hips.

“You’ve got two,” she commented, more to herself than Maddie.

The woman looked surprised that Astrid had spoken. “Oh, yeah. I usually don’t use this,” she said, motioning to the shotgun. “We’ve got an extra one lying around the camp that I use for hunting. Against the Walkers I got my Python.”

“Walkers — is that what you call them? The monsters?”

Maddie nodded. “There’s lots of words, people make up their own. Walkers, Biters, or just monsters like you said.”

They fell into silence again, although Astrid had more questions for Maddie. She figured they would have to wait until they got back to the camp. If it really existed at all.