Round in Circles

"Well it ain't perfect but it's the best I can do 'thout any laundry soap," Carla was pinning a white t-shirt with a small stain to the clothesline.

"Looks fine to me," Willa nodded reassuringly.

Carla and Willa always washed the clothes together. It was just another ordinary day as far as they were concerned. Rory was sitting by a tree not too far away, whittling sticks into arrows with his pocket knife. Amanda was rationing out lunch by one of the RVs in the distance. It was quiet, the sun was shining, no one had seen a biter in a while; they probably should have known something bad was going to happen. Good things don't stay long anymore.

A low rumbling noise broke the tranquility of the little camp. At first, Willa wasn't sure what it was. Her first thought was thunder somewhere off in the distance, but there wasn't a cloud in sight. Once it got louder it was much more recognizable; it was an engine. Willa motioned to Rory and he came running to her side. Carla looked at her, panic in her eyes, and three of them ran as fast as they could back to where the RVs and tents were grouped. Willa knew she had to get to her crossbow, but it was in her tent and time was not on her side. Three huge pick-up trucks came out of nowhere, taking out the barbed wire like it wasn't even there at all. There were men with guns much larger than anything Willa's group had, sitting in the backs of all three trucks. She tried to shove Rory backwards towards one of the RVs, but she wasn't fast enough.

In a split second it was raining bullets. Screams echoed through the woods, blood splattered everywhere. Willa tried to grab Rory and run but he fell and she went down with him. She tugged on his arm but he didn't get back up. Willa looked down at him and her breath caught in her throat. Rory groaned a little and bright red blood began to soak through his t-shirt and pool around him. His head lolled to the side and some kind of noise, a scream or cry or maybe some combination of the two, escaped Willa's lips.

Willa's eyes clouded with tears and her heart felt as though it had been ripped from her chest. She cradled Rory's limp body in her arms, cursing the God she didn't believe in and crying as she had never done before. Just as she was wishing it was her instead, she was grabbed gruffly by the collar of her shirt and pulled into a standing position. She reached out for Rory but a steel-toed boot kicked his lifeless body away. Willa screamed and thrashed and tried to get back to him, but she wasn't anywhere near as strong as her captor.

"Ain't you a pretty little thang," the monster drawled, "Imma have some fun with you."

She couldn't see through the tears anymore. Willa half hoped this guy would just kill her but as he dragged her away, she knew it wouldn't be that easy. He stopped walking and shoved Willa hard to the ground. She could make out Carla, sobbing on the ground in front of her, and at least 20 men all around them. They stared hungrily at the terrified women and then at the big guy who'd brought Willa over, as if to ask for permission. He nodded. Carla shrieked as they ripped off her clothes, and even more tears began to obstruct Willa's vision.

A man who smelled of vodka reached for her pants and Willa instinctively punched him in the face. One of his friends called him a pussy while shoving him aside and grabbing at her shirt. It tore, her chest now mostly exposed, and he ran his grimy fingers all over breasts. He leaned down a little to get at her pants and that's when Willa saw the knife on his belt. He saw it too, right before she buried it in his skull. She ran as fast as she could and when she felt a hand on her shoulder she swung blindly behind herself with the knife. Willa pulled it out of the man's shoulder and before she could stand again there was another one on her. She lost it. She couldn't see through her tears, her ears were ringing, and she was fairly certain she was going to die so Willa just kept stabbing.

"Fuckin' psycho," she heard someone say, but she didn't care.

She got up and ran. Willa didn't know if they were following her or not but she wasn't about to stop and find out. She ran until every muscle in her body burned and her legs felt like they might give out beneath her. She could hear some scuffling off to her left somewhere, a walker no doubt, so she took a deep breath and began to run again, trying to ignore the fact that her chest felt like it was on fire. After a while, she could see a small shack in the distance. There was a biter out front so she took it out, and cautiously opened the door. It was more or less empty inside but the windows were boarded up and there was a small sofa that Willa wasted no time in pushing against the door. She sat in the middle of the floor and even though she wanted to cry, she couldn't. There were no tears left. Then the room started to spin and then everything went black.