If it didn´t put her in a situation as dire as this one obviously was, Liv would have almost laughed at the biting irony. Months – or was it a year or more already because who really kept track of time anymore – of wandering a world fallen to pieces as virtual fodder for the undead without having a single hair on her body harmed and now, wounded by man´s hand, her possible death sentence. The raid had been planned out in meticulous detail, the roles clearly defined and hers, along with a few others, to scavenge the small habitation once the residents had chosen between surrender or a bullet between the eyes. But they were prepared, had perhaps even been warned. A barrage of gunfire entailed not long after the cars had pulled up in front of the seemingly unguarded gate, forcing the attackers to retreat before their invasion could begin.
Liv barely made it back into the truck when a grenade from behind the wall hit the ground not far away from it, its ear-splitting explosion causing the truck to keel over and crash into one of their others, catapulting the brunette through the hot midsummer air and onto the torn, undulating concrete road, head first. Dazed from the whiplash and ears ringing, she soon realised warm wet trickling from her temple and a hot, sharp pain throbbing in her left thigh. Shards of various sizes and undefinable nature had torn through her jeans and into her skin and muscle, making the slightest move torture. And apparently, as she realised after what seemed like a momentary blackout, Liv was alone too. No sounds from behind the village’s walls, no one left of her group either. Fantastic. Not even biters, as far as she could perceive for now, which was the only good thing apart from being alive, she reckoned. A tentative hand felt up her hip to find her resting gun and knife, much to her relief, so even when these assholes had left her behind, she still had her weapons to defend herself with. Liv panted against the overwhelming pain, pondering over her next move. But there wasn´t much time - she had to get awaay from here and find shelter, somewhere as their camp was too far to reach on foot. Grunting in anguish, she hoisted herself off the ground and fled off the street, hobbling, and into the nearby clearing, deciding that staying in the thinning edges of the woods with an eye on the highway would be her best bet.
The sun was on its way to set when Liv noticed a batch of walkers staggering in a relatively safe distance from her, across a field, and lucky as she was, it also directed her eyes to a small building she could only assume was a gas station. She still had enough strength in her to schlepp her exhausted and dehydrated body in direction of it, the bleeding wound on her thigh firmly covered by some old dirty plastic bag she´d found close to a cold fireplace by the clearing – she wouldn´t make the mistake of luring the walkers by leaving a trail of fresh warm blood behind her. The glass door of the small service station was found intact and squeaked open under the pressing body weight she moved against it, causing the brunette to sigh with utter relief. Once inside but under physical duress from pain and fatigue she still managed to shove an empty rack in front of it and limped a round to rule out other ways for the undead to get in until she finally collapsed behind the counter, unable to look for something, anything to drink or eat as she had initially planned before passing out.
Liv woke from the crashing thunder outside or the heavy rain pelting against the ducked building or the askew signboard grating against the corrugated iron roof but she knew there was something else that was far more alarming than these natural sounds. There was… someone. Against to what her parched throat allowed her she tried swallowing, heart pounding, and adrenaline flushing her system despite her inability to move, and as quietly as she ever managed she reached down for the gun on her hip, cocking it and knowing for certain that if there was another person, they´d know what was up, by that sound alone. Damn. This really wasn´t her day, at all.
