Chapter 1
Lily Bright had been walking for a very long time before stumbling out of the woods and finding the derelict farmhouse. By then, the girl had reached that point of exhaustion where her body wanted to drop to the ground, curl itself up in a tight ball and never move again. Somehow, the girl had found a last reserve of strength and pushed onwards.
Finding shelter after having to rough it in the woods was very fortunate and Lily hoped that she wouldn't find the house overrun by "Walkers".
The girl was terrified of the smelly, shuffling, vile things who'd come after you with the intention to gobble you up like you were a chicken dinner and you had to watch out for their bite because that's how the infection spread from person to person.
Now she hesitated in the weed choked yard, a tall, thin eighteen year old, girl-woman, dressed in dirty jeans and layers of t-shirts beneath a sun faded University of Georgia hoodie.
Her only weapon is a rusted crowbar which she grips in her right hand and strapped to her back is a camouflage backpack containing all of her worldly possessions plus two bottles of Kirin beer which she'd scavenged from an Asian liquor store a monh ago.
Raising the binoculars to her eyes, Lily carefully checked the front of the house noting the sagging porch and broken steps and thick mat of virulent ivy climbing up the wall.
There was no sign of Walkers or humans outside of the house although anything could have been hiding inside of the house.
Fingers tightening on the crow bar's handle, Lily inhaled a deep breath to settle her nerves and cautiously approached the house through the tall, dead grass which made a swishing sound against the denim fabric of her jeans and finally the young woman gained the front porch where she now very carefully stepped over the gaps where some of the splintery, gray boards were missing.
The front door looked solid enough, although the paint was chipped and peeling in several places.
Lily banged on the door with the crowbar and yelled, "Hey!"
Nothing happened.
She banged on the door several more times and was surprised by a flock of birds exploding from the roof and taking to the air in raucous fury at being disturbed from their nesting place.
"Whoa." Lily whispered, awed as she turned to track the flight pattern of the birds until they grew small and distant across the steel colored sky and when she faced the door again, a man was standing there and she found herself staring into the business end of a Mossberg 500 shotgun.
The man had a grim, dirt streaked face. A sparse goatee sprouted from his strong chin and he had shaggy brown hair with unruly bangs which spilled into his steely, light blue eyes.
"What do you want, girl?" The man growled in a hostile voice thick with a Southern accent.
Hope you enjoy the story! 10/21/22.
2/7/23
I've edited a lot of details from this chapter.
I did a rewrite on 3/8/23.
I did another short edit on 12/8/23.
Edited 3/20/25.
Edited again 5/7/25.
