I'm with You

I quietly made it down the stairs. I was on alert for anything that moved or made a sound. Instead of going out the front way of the apartment building, I was going to go out the back way, wherever that might be. Going through the front was too risky of being seen. The lady had been shot not even twenty feet from the door to the apartments. My luck would be stepping outside and getting shot, that wasn't happening.

My flashlight was on as I searched the bottom floor of the apartment building. When I checked these apartments a couple of days ago, I didn't think to look for a back way out. There had to be one here somewhere, almost every building has more than one exit. My flashlight soon shined on a door that said emergency exit. That door will do since I can't find any others. I turned my flashlight off as I neared the door. I slowly pushed it open, leaving a big enough gap for me to get out. My head peeked around the door to make sure it was clear both ways. I then slipped my body quietly out between the door and wall. I let the door silently close behind me before heading behind the apartments. Which way to go was unclear to me as I hid behind a dumpster. Either way I went had a wide open area where I would be seen. I could take my chances and run across the opened areas, or I could hide behind the buildings and try to make my way towards the woods once again. Hiding behind buildings seemed much safer. If they saw me or began shooting at me, then I would run.

I kept my body crouched down low as I stayed close to the back of the buildings, heading towards the way I came into the town. When I got to a gap, I darted across to the other side after checking for it to be clear. So far so good. No walkers and no people. I could see the edge of the woods in front of me, getting closer with every step I took. Just had to keep quiet and not be seen. Another gap, no people or walkers, run across, then hide behind the building. This is a little to easy. Why does everything feel too easy? Something doesn't seem quite right here...

"Hey! There's another!" A voice boomed from somewhere behind me. Oh, shit.

My legs began moving before I could even comprehend it. I took off like a bat out of hell from behind the current building I was hiding behind. The only thing I could think of was that I was going to die like that lady had. Gunshots rang out, but none ever hit me. If they did, I just didn't feel it. I'm sure that my luck has ran out now, and that I would feel the pain of being shot. The trees got closer and closer. The bullets behind me seemed to also. One whizzed by my head, causing me to jump to the side. I felt like I was literally dodging bullets.

"Fuck!" I screamed, tears quickly falling down my cheeks. Guess I spoke too soon since a bullet just hit my upper left shoulder. I could already feel the blood gushing out, soaking my bra, shirt, hoodie, and jacket.

Through my blurry vision, I could see the trees get even closer. I wasn't giving up. I had to lose these fuckers in the woods somehow. Gunshots were still being fired, but I was doing my best to avoid them. I was running as fast as I could while trying to not trip. I let out a small smile when I entered the woods. As long as these people weren't trackers, I could easily avoid them. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. We all know how clumsy I usually am.

The deeper I got into the woods, the less gunshots I heard. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Every few seconds I had to wipe my eyes with the back of my right hand, careful to not cut myself with the knife that was still in it. My left arm was held close to my body as I tried my best to not move it much, because when I did, pain would shoot through my arm from where I was shot.

I began slowing down into a fast walk. It was quiet behind me, too quiet. I couldn't keep running though. My legs ached from running. My back was aching from all the weight in the backpack pulling me down, as well as the gunshot wound now. My chest ached from running and getting out of breath. Running in cold weather always made it worse, but I had to deal with it. I finally leaned against a huge tree to stop and catch my breath. The first thing I did was checked the bullet wound. After putting my knife in my left hand, I painfully slid my leather jacket off my left shoulder. Blood was seeping through my hoodie on the front and back. I peeled my hoodie and shirt back away from the wound before pushing my bra strap farther away. I winced at the hole that was gushing out blood. The bullet went all the way through, which was good. Bleeding a lot was not good.

My right hand went through my messy brown hair as I tried to think of what to do next. Standing here wasn't safe. Those people could still be following me in these woods. I also couldn't exactly stop the bleeding by putting pressure to the front and back. I needed to keep running until it was safe, then deal with the wound. Hopefully, I wouldn't lose enough blood to pass out before I found a safe place to be.

I slid the left side of my jacket back up onto my shoulder, feeling where the blood seeped through my layers of clothing onto it. I put my knife in my right hand again before placing that hand over the wound the best I could while keeping the knife pointed away from me. I began running through the woods again, hoping to find a safe place soon, or maybe even Rick's group.