The Fighter

The sun was high in the Georgia sky indicating that it was nearly late noon. The air was drier than usual today which only made the heat more unbearable along with the stench of bodies that littered the side of the highway. It had been nearly three weeks since the outbreak reached a new threat level. People were biting others, infecting them with a virus that could either act in minutes or hours. The dead were rising causing hospitals and morgues to be hot spots for the infected. Three weeks since the young woman and her dog walking along the highway had seen thriving communities and heard the buzz of cities.

Gia Roberts, a soon to be wildlife rangers before the world came halting to a complete stop and the dead took over, was on her way to Atlanta. Her and her large black dog, Ghost, had been on their own for only a few days, recently taking off from their group. It wasn't easy for the young woman because that group had been her closest friends and her family. She made the decision to split after a disagreement with her brother turned into a deadly argument. After that, she decided it wasn't worth the danger he was turning out to be. Gia pleaded with the others to leave with her, that they didn't have to give in so soon and easily to his twisted leadership, however none of her pleas were listened to.

After a few days of being on her own, Gia knew it wouldn't be easy to be a lone wolf in this new world. She had already had a couple close calls on her way to Atlanta that most likely would have easily been avoided with another two or three people. She made her choice though and she was going to stick with it; she would never go back to that group no matter what she encounters out on her own.

Gia stopped at the edge of the road that overlooked the city of Atlanta, about a half mile away from the city it self. She pulled down the red and black bandana from her nose and mouth, the dry heat already burning her once protected cheeks. Her near silvery blond hair was pulled back into a rather messy bun, curly strands falling in her face and sticking to her neck and forehead from the sweat. Pale green eyes squinted as they took in the deserted state of the area, focussing more on the city than anything. It was too quiet for this place to be a sanctuary. Not one sound of a car, military personnel, or sirens like she thought there would be. Gia now had two options: continue to head to Atlanta for closer inspection, possibly supplies, or continue down the highway for somewhere else to go.

The young woman's instincts told her to keep walking. The nagging feeling inside her brain told her that the risk was too high to follow through with inspecting the city. Gia let out a low whistle to grab Ghosts' attention has she started to continue down the highway. She went to pull her bandana back up when the feel of her scar stopped her for a moment. Her fingers followed the trail of the scar softly, still feeling the tingle of it healing. She quickly stopped and covered her face back up. The five inch 'battle wound' would be something she would have to get use to especially because it ran over her right eyebrow, down her eye, and down her cheek. The dust of dirt and the sun kissed color she had gotten from being outside only made the pink scar stand out more.

Gia probably looked like a force to be reckoned with if anyone came across her. Half her face covered, black jeans with holes in the thigh and knees, a battered red tank top, and battered combat boots to pull it together. Gia currently looked like someone had crawled out of Hell after fighting her way through it.

Gia stopped her movement when she heard Ghost let a out a low growl. The large dog was stopped by her side, his attention on the tree line ahead of them. Gia reach to her right hip to grab an arrow from the quiver that hung from her belt. She took a few steps forward with her bow ready and ears focusing on any sounds of decomposing snarls or possibly living humans. She stopped again when she finally heard low chatter coming from the tree line, and it was only getting closer. She snapped her fingers next to Ghost to get him to follow her behind a box truck and out of sight. She had her back against the truck, bow at the ready as she small hands gripped the bow and arrow.

“We aren't going to get there till it's dark,” a young man's voice complained.

“We're nearly half way there, Glenn,” came an annoyed reply from a different man, older sounding than the first.

Gia could feel her heart pound in her chest as they approached closer and closer. She then realized they were going the opposite direction of what she predicted. They were going to pass the box truck which would allow them to see her. The other problem was that there were three sets of walking feet. Three men and Gia felt trapped in this moment. Then the foot steps stopped about five feet from her which only caused her heart to pound harder.

Why did they stop? Gia thought as she looked down at Ghost who was now looking to her right with great interest. She slowly and quietly moved her self to the right with bow up and arrow drawn and ready to release at any sign of danger.

“I'd put that down if I were ya,” a gruff voice stated from behind her that was accompanied with the point a a fellow arrow poking against her back.

Gia bit her bottom lip as she silently cursed her self for not hearing the stranger, and her dog for not notifying her of the stranger that had snuck up on her.

“Not many people can sneak up on me,” she stated with annoyance laced with fear as she slowly lowered her bow and turned around, easing on the bowstring.

Gia was met with bright blue eyes and a compound cross bow pointed in her direction. While she could admire the weapon of choice, she couldn't help but admire the man that was holding it. She could not tell if her admiration was coming from loneliness or if it was genuine. For now she would continue to admire those baby blues.

“You're dog is quite friendly.”

Gia's eyes moved to focus on a different man who was walking up. She took in his appearance and body language. His uniform gave him away. A sherif, a leader. Her eyes darted to Ghost who was happily wagging his tail as he sat by the stranger's feet.

This little shit. She thought with annoyance.

“You must not be dangerous,” Gia replied a she relaxed her body little more taking notice of her loyal pet's relaxed state. She always paid a great deal of attention of how her dog acted around people, and since Ghost was relaxed, she could trust that she was in no danger with these men but still kept her guard.

She separated her arrow and bow, tucking the arrow back into the quiver and holding her bow in her left hand. The crossbowman looked to the sherif for confirmation to stand down to only receive a nod in return. He lowered his weapon and backed away from her but still keeping his eyes on her. Gia didn't blame him since you couldn't be too careful around the living as much as the dead.

“She looks dangerous, Rick.” Gia took notice of a younger looking man, couldn't be older than twenty four or so.

Rick studied Gia for a moment, taking in the gun and quiver of arrows that hung from either side of her hip. She had a medium sized backpack on as well where a couple knives could be seen tucked on the sides, and not to mention a large hunting knife strapped to her right thigh. The most intimidating was the bow that Gia was holding. Rick wouldn't deny that this young woman looked dangerous and most likely knew how to take care of her self.

“If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it when you were still in the trees,” she started bluntly causing the young man to look at her with fear.

“But why hide?” The sherif, Rick, asked.

Gia looked back to him for a moment, thinking about her answer. “You never know who you can trust. Survival is the only option we have these days.”

Rick nodded in agreement. He didn't blame her for being so armed and ready for a fight to protect her self. She was a woman by her self with only a dog for companionship, and he would be lying if he said she was unattractive. From what he could tell, even with the bandana covering her nose and mouth, she was pretty which put her in more potential danger in the world.

“Do you have a group?” The crossbowman asked her, still observing her with those blue eyes.

“I did. I left only a few days ago with no plans to go back to them,” Gia answered with focus back on him.

“Why did you leave?” Rick pressed taking a couple steps forward with caused Gia to snap her eyes to him.

Rick stopped his movement when he noticed how those pale green eyes easily said 'don't come closer'. She may not feel the need to have her weapon ready, and she may trust Ghost's instincts, but that didn't mean she would give up her guard completely.

“It became more dangerous to be with them than be on my own,” she explained snapping her fingers to Ghost, causing him to walk back to her and sit by her feet.

The three men looked at each other for a few moments as if having silent communication on how to proceed. Rick and Daryl shared the longest look before looking back at Gia.

“What did you do before all this went down?” Rick asked.

“I was on my way to becoming a ranger. Was suppose to fly out to Alaska to work at one of their wildlife preserves before this all happened,” she explained with a small tone of sadness.

Helping protect forests and the animals with in them was a dream of Gia's. She always had a very special place in her heart for nature, especially wolves which is what drew her to wanting to work in the Alaskan forests. She had worked very hard in her life, volunteering with local rangers and worked on getting a degree in Wildlife Biology. Recently, it felt like a waste of work because the world became Hell it self. On the other hand, the skills she learned through the years of preparing to be a ranger, along with skills taught by her father, have already proved very useful in this new world.

“Come back with us. We could use someone like you. We can give you safety, food, water,” Rick went on about his group for a few minutes, who was apart of it, where they were located and how there was little walker activity where they had been living.

Gia listened to what he said carefully, thinking over his invitation to join his group. So far, the three men before her have no given any sign of being dangerous to her. However, she would still need to go into this with caution.

“I'd like to meet the other people in your group before I give you an answer,” she replied holding Rick's gaze firmly, letting him know she would not be convinced until she met everyone else.

“Fair enough. And should you want to be on your way, we can provide some supplies to help you out,” he stated with a friendly smile that came across honest and sincere.

Gia nodded in agreement with Rick, feeling some surprise from his generous offer should she decide not to stay with them. She supposed that because her first group, her family, had turned so sour that she assumed even the best of people who were left would never be so kind to a stranger.

Gia followed closely behind the three men, as they walked the highway back to a quarry where this group had made camp for the past few weeks. Rick introduced the other two men, the youngest one was Glenn and the quiet one was Daryl. She had noticed that they walked a small dirt road that Gia had contemplated going down when she first got to this area a day or so ago. She found amusement in the small coincidence; had she taken that little road then she would would have met these people a lot sooner. Maybe it was some weird twist of fate that brought Gia to these three men. She was a firm believer that everything happened for a reason and that life would always correct her to get back on the right path.

“Who taught ya to use a bow?” came the gruff voice of the man with those baby blues, Daryl.

Gia glanced at him, taking noticed that his strides fell in step with hers, Ghost walking in between the two.

“My dad. Taught my sister, brother, and I when we were young. He was big on learning how to defend your self. Well, just survival in general,” Gia answered as she took the bandana off her face for the first time around these men, wiping the sweat from her forehead with it.

Daryl couldn't help but glance at the pink scar that ran down her face, his curiosity swelling. He could tell that it wasn't old either, maybe on a few weeks old at least which meant that area was still healing. Daryl knew all too well how scars could continue to heal for a long time depending on the severity, and unfortunately for this woman, it looked like it was severe.

“He a ranger as well?” Daryl couldn't help but ask her another question which caused him to feel shocked and annoyed with him self. He had never expressed interest in another person in his own group, but now that she was walking next to him, he felt curious about her.

Gia smiled at Daryl's guess. “Yeah, actually. I guess I was destined to follow in his footsteps.”

“Hey, you never told us your name,” came the young voice of Glenn who was now turned around to looked at the woman as he walked backwards.

“Forgive me. My manners are a bit rusty,” she joked earning a smile from the young man.

“Gia Roberts at your service,” she introduced her self with a mock solute.

Glenn smiled bigger, feeling him self be a bit more comfortable with the new person. When he first saw her, she looked nothing but dangerous and feral. She had been rigid and blunt when the three men had first encountered her. Glenn was pleasantly surprised to hear her joke lightly and giving a small smirk. He guessed she wasn't too bad after all, and not to mention pretty. Though, the scar didn't go unnoticed by him. He had the urge to ask her what happened but he thought better of it knowing it was most likely a personal story. Should she stay with the group, she would open up about it on her own.

“Odd name,” Daryl mumbled causing Gia to look at him with an amused look. It wasn't the first time the woman had heard someone say that.

“And I'm odd. I guess you could say it's meant to be,” she joked as she smiled to her self.

The four survivors continued to walk along the dirt road as the sky grew dark and the air cooled down with the company of a warm breeze. Gia could feel her legs begin to ache and complain from exhaustion. She had been walking more than sleeping since she left her group, wanting to put as much distance as she could between her and brother.

“I can smell the fire from the camp. We're almost there,” Rick commented as they started to take an incline of a hill.

That's when they heard it, Screams coming from the quarry at the bottom of that hill. Rick took off almost instantly, sprinting up the hill and over it. Glenn and Daryl didn't hesitate to follow Rick to go assist their camp, to fend off whatever danger threatened their friends and family.

Gia ran after them as well, Ghost sprinting past her and down the hill as well. She loaded her bow as she reached the top of the hill, aiming it towards the chaos. Gia took notice of the walkers that were terrorizing and attacking the people of the camp. She released her first arrow, hitting a walker in the skull. Gia knocked another arrow and took another walker out that had been distracted by Ghost. Her dog was currently barking at walkers that came towards defenseless people which made it easy for Gia to take out those walkers.

The woman knew she needed to conserve each other which forced her to prepared for close combat. Gia ran down the hill, throwing her back back off and throwing her bow across her back, bowstring across her chest, as she grabbed her large hunting knife from her thigh. She ran at a walker, imbedding the blade into its skull and then tearing it away, blood spraying. Gia walked forward into the chaos and noticed a walker headed towards Daryl who was focused on another walker. The young woman ran towards Daryl knowing she didn't have time to ready her bow to take this walker out from a distance. Gia threw her body into Daryl's, knocking him out of the way just in time. Gia took her gun out and shot the walker in the head while rick took care of the last took walkers.

It was silent. Eerily silent around the camp with only the crackle of the fire and silent sobs of those in the camp. Gia and Daryl were still on the ground, slightly recovering from her tackle.

“Thanks,” Daryl mumbled looking over at her to see those pale green irises looking back at him.

Gia only nodded in response as she stood up, putting her gun back in the holster. She held her hand out to Daryl who hesitantly took it. Gia pulled him up with some surprising strength before bending down and grabbing her hunting knife.

“So much for low walker activity,” she commented when Rick stood next to her observing the damage of the camp. He looked uncertain and stressed.

A woman was collapsed by the RV, mourning the death of another who looked to have been killed by one of the walkers. A few others were dead as well, group members mourning them. This was the most sadness Gia had witnessed since the outbreak and for some strange reason it made her want to stay with these people, to help protect them.

“I'll stay,” Gia stated to Rick who, in response, put his hand on her shoulder and gave a light squeeze, as if to say 'thank you' before walking away to start dealing with the mess that was once their camp.