Black Roses

It was near dark as Rose staggered in between trees. She knew she had to get off the ground. For the past few days, due to zombies migrating together, she had been on the run. But her body was now completely shutting down due to lack of rest and food. Rose’s eyes scanned the tree canopy above her. It’ll have to do for tonight. She'll just rest up there for the night.

Her hands searched for the tree’s crevices and bumps then slowly pulled herself up onto the tree. Her body protested as she pulled her own body weight along with a sturdy book pack. Once she reached a sturdy limb, she shrugged off her book pack and hung it across from her. Rose unclipped the rolled up hammock from the bottom of her pack and began to attach it to two thick tree branches. Balancing herself on a tree branch, she reached over to grab the book pack and threw it over onto the hammock.

Darkness cloaked everything but her eyes were expertly attuned to the dark as she pulled out a jar filled with zombie blood. It was just a precaution to cover up her smell. Last thing Rose want is a herd of zombies bringing the trees down to get to her. She smeared it on the tree trunks, the branches and some of the leaves surrounding her. The smell didn’t bother her anymore. The guttural noises emitting from the zombies below her filled the silence as Rose shrugged off her bow and its quarry of arrows that was slung over her right shoulder and hung it on a little tree limb not too far from her. Then she unclasped the sheath belt that held a razor sharp katana sword from her left shoulder. She’ll just rest her eyes.

Some screaming startled her as her eyes popped wide open. It was a murky haze of sunlight and she realized that the sun was in the west. She slept in too long. At first, she didn’t remember where she was. She scanned her surrounding as she pulled back her curly red hair back into a tight ponytail, Leaves…. Branches… Trees. Letting out a relieved sigh, she remember setting up camp last night. Shit… she didn’t planned on falling asleep completely. She only meant to just close her eyes for a bit to allow her body to recover. Rose knew better. Years of doing her job definitely helped her survive in this godforsaken world.

When she heard the herd of zombies shuffling their feet under her, Rose sighed… she needed food. Making a mental check, she made sure that her weapons and belongings were still near. Her bow hung safely on a branch and the katana sword was safely encased in its sheath beside her. Rose was grateful for her hammock. She altered the hammocks a little and it was comfortable and light now. It was originally just a simple weaved nylon hammock. Rose took two hammock together and sewed several sheets of foams onto it. But suddenly a strange feeling hit her as she realized that screaming… human screaming woke her up.

She had never been good with people. She was more of a loner… it was part of her job. It was basically drilled into her that she had to depend on herself and nobody else. It was dangerous to depend on others. However for some reason, something was compelling her to go help. Rose knew that she was probably going to regret this. But gunshots filled the air, sending her into action. She quickly cleaned up her camp and smeared more zombie blood onto herself. A hard grin came across Rose’s face as she noticed that the blood looked like war paint. Without bothering to look how far she was from the ground, she jumped down and gracefully rolled over to break the fall.

Almost immediately, zombies were being drawn to her as she rolled her eyes, pulling out her katana sword, immediately cutting off their top part of heads. The blood splattered onto her as she made her way towards the gunfire.

There were a beautiful white farmhouse on the property as she saw a RV in front of a burning barn. Displeasure came darkly onto Rose’s face. Shit… whoever burned that barn is an idiot. That’ll attract the zombies from miles and miles around. Her suspicions of the zombies coming together and migrating for food were right as she saw maybe hundred zombies just completely plowing through the land. Her training took over as she began to cut through the zombies, attempting to locate the gunshots. The people were obviously idiots. Rose wondered to herself why she was helping them. They were wasting ammo. She sure as hell isn’t going to use her guns or her ammos. That’ll just attract more zombies towards her.

Rose’s multi-colored eyes scanned the horizon, seeing an older man standing in front of his farmhouse although with three women. She grimaced when she saw the older woman being bit as the young girl, not more than seventeen years old, held onto her. Yes… they’re idiots, Rose thought to herself. Why is that girl hanging on so tightly?

She adjusted the book pack that was strapped on her back and brought her lean body down closer to the ground. Once she crouched into the proper spot, her legs pushed her body up into the air as she forced her body into a frontal flip midair. Landing onto solid ground, just in time to take out a zombie near the older man, the woman who appeared to be pregnant was gaping at her. Rose had to hold back an eye-roll then hissed at the two surviving females, “Run.”

The pregnant woman yelled at the young girl to go with her. Immediately, the girl, Beth dropped the dying woman next to her and ran along with the pregnant woman. Rose turned her attention onto the elderly man as she gingerly placed her hand on his shoulders. She could tell that he was obviously the owner since he was defending his beloved home feverously. Rose noticed a truck pulling up to grab the two females that she spoke to few moments ago however she saw a blond female getting out of the truck as zombies swarmed around the truck.

Suddenly, Rose spun around as she pointed her sword towards a handsome man and a boy that seemed to be his son. But as soon he saw the strange eye colors, he threw his hands up, “Whoa… easy there.”

Rick definitely thought the woman in front of him was a zombie. She was caked in blood however her body were still intact. He noticed the bright red hair spilling over her back as she narrowed her eyes on him. But her eyes… was the thing that threw him off. One eye was green… unmistakably green as the grass below his feet and the other eye was an electric blue. A feminine voice of steel floated into his ears as her sensual lips moved, “We should get going now.”

So they all hopped into a truck, hitting various zombies as they peeled out of there. It didn’t matter that Rick hardly knew who this female was. He couldn’t just dump her there. He saw his son, Carl, looking at the girl with wide eyes. She was definitely a vision to look at. They both emerged from the woods, just in time to see her literally flying in the air just like they would do in karate movies and successfully killing a walker that was too close to Hershel for comfort before her feet hit the ground. He’d like to appreciate her looks more if they weren’t being surrounded by the walkers. A twinge of guilt hit him as he thought of Lori and what happened with Shane just few minutes ago. So he took his eyes off the rear view mirror and onto the road, erasing all thoughts of the female warrior behind him.

Rose was definitely annoyed as she stared blankly out the window. She knew that the little boy was gaping at her but she didn’t care. She was pissed that she put herself in a situation that involves people. Rose decided that as soon they stopped, she’ll leave before she gets attached to these people. What the hell was she thinking? Rose definitely didn’t want to feel responsible for the little boy and the elderly man. They’ll just slow her down. She saw that the man was driving to the highway. Rose closed her eyes, knowing that the highway was blocked but wouldn’t dare to say anything.

“We’ll have to camp here for tonight and hope that the rest of the group meet us here.” The man whispered to everybody else and turned his attention to the stranger. “Hello. I’m Rick Grimes and this is my son Carl. We saw you helping Hershel out. Thank you for helping us.”

So his name was Rick. Rose held back from crinkling her nose in distaste as she nodded. She watched them looking at her expectedly and realized that she’ll have to introduce herself.

Rick watched the female’s face, searching for any emotions or any trigger that would help him assess what was her purpose of being there. But he couldn’t see any. Her face was perpetually still and she didn’t even change expressions once he introduced themselves. The female sighed out of annoyance as she glanced up to meet Rick’s eyes, “Rose. Aurélien Emerwen Rose.”

Rose groaned mentally as she realized she made a reference to James Bond as she stated her last name and then her full name. She glanced around and then spun around on the heels of her feet to leave. But the little boy, Carl reached out to hold onto her wrist. “Wait… where are you going Aur… Aurel…?”

“It’s Rose. Just Rose. And I’m leaving. You all are fine now.” Rick heard her talking to his son. He wondered where Lori was and hoped that she was still alive.

“Why don’t you just stay with us? Just until everybody comes tomorrow?” Carl asked Rose. Rose mentally groaned again. She knew this was going to happen. She couldn’t get attached.

However against her better judgment, she found her mouth betraying her, “Fine. Just until everybody re-groups. Just until tomorrow…”