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It seemed like she’d been running forever. Her legs aches, her lungs burned, and cuts stung her face and arms from fighting her way through the dense forest. Lilith knew she couldn’t keep this up much longer. She was fast, but the creature was faster. If she didn’t figure something out soon, she would die.
Despite everything, she still didn’t want to die.
She weighed her options. Dusk was approaching, and once the light failed her chances of survival were almost nonexistent. If she couldn’t outrun it, and no hiding place magically appeared, she would have to try and fight it off.
Her frozen fingers tightened around the small hunting knife. It was better than nothing, but hardly the weapon she’d wish for.
She scanned frantically ahead, looking for somewhere to make her stand. If she backed against a tree it would just lunge right at her, but in the open her back would be exposed.
There!
Far ahead, almost beyond her sight—a cliff. They must be near the river; she couldn’t hear the water over her own panting. If she could just get there, she might have a chance of knocking it into the ravine. If all else failed, she could jump herself. These creatures may be bloodthirsty, but they must have some sense of self-preservation.
She hoped.
As if sensing her thoughts, a roaring growl sounded from somewhere behind her, shooting a fresh spike of fear down her spine.
Nails digging into her palms, she forced her legs to run faster still. She was so close. So close.
Ten feet away. Her arm shot out, hooking onto the trunk of a young tree. Her momentum swung her around easily, and she raised her knife, gaze locked on the way she’d come as she carefully backed toward the cliff.
She heard it before she saw it, crashing through the brush with even less grace than she’d managed, snarling and yowling all the while. If she hadn’t known what it was, she might have mistaken the sounds for a rapid dog.
Branches shook as it barreled towards her, and then she could see the creature itself, showing no signs of slowing down or awareness of her location. It was going to hit her at full speed, Lilith thought. If she wasn’t careful, it would knock them both over the edge easily, but if she timed it just right...
She barred her teeth, set her stance. The creature let out a howl of triumph. She braced herself as much as she could, fighting the urge to close her eyes or run. She’d never seen one this close before, and if she survived this, she knew she’d never forget the sight. Her hands shook. She wasn’t sure if her eyes closed or not.
A booming crack echoed through the air, and her eyes went wide as the creature suddenly flew sideways. She whipped her head in the other direction and stared dumbly, mouth agape, as a redheaded woman with a shotgun and a hard expression rose up from behind a bush.
There was a ringing in her ears. Lilith realized that too slowly. There was a ringing in her ears, and she was shaking like a leaf, and the creature...
The creature was lying still, spilling sickly blood onto the forest floor. Dead.
She dropped to her hands and knees, unsure if the cry she felt in her throat had actually made a sound. She could hardly breathe, every inhale pushing her heart against the cage of her aching chest. She needed to move. Just because this woman killed the creature didn’t mean she wasn’t a threat to Lilith as well.
Crunching leaves broke through the din in her head, and she looked up. The woman was walking towards her cautiously, more wary than anything now that she was focused on Lilith.
“Thank you,” Lilith wheezed. Civilization may have collapsed, but she hadn’t forgotten her manners. She sat back on her heels, knife clutched tight but hanging at her side, out of view. She may still have manners, but she wasn’t stupid.
The stranger nodded, gun held across her body. “Are you hurt?” She asked in a gravelly, faintly accented voice.
Lilith shook her head. “Just exhausted. I was running for...” She shook her head again, swallowing thickly. “I don’t know how long it was chasing me.”
“What was your plan, exactly?”
“Throw it off the cliff. Throw myself off. I don’t know, I just couldn’t keep running.”
The woman grimaced. “Well, you're safe now. Relatively, that is." She looked around, then back at Lilith, still crouched on the rocks and breathing heavily. Her face softened unsurely, and she shifted the gun to her shoulder, offering a hand. "We should both get out of the area before anything that heard that shot comes looking."
Lilith eyed her warily, gaze shifting from her hand to her gun to her face. The woman lifted an eyebrow.
"I have no interest in harming you, and in your state I'm fairly confident you couldn't harm me. So just let me help you up."
Lilith scowled. She hated it, but this redhead was right. She grabbed her hand, letting the woman haul her to her feet. She had to stop herself from groaning aloud as her legs stretched, nearly buckling.
As soon as Lilith was steady, the woman stepped back, and Lilith could finally focus enough to really look at her unexpected savior.
She was without a doubt the most stylish person Lilith had seen since everything happened—combat boots, tight jeans, leather gloves, and a brown fur coat that she had no doubt was real. Her clothes all looked expensive, certainly not made for hunting and hiking and camping, and yet the way this woman wore them, shotgun slung over her shoulder and her other hand propped on her hip, she looked nothing but natural standing in the middle of the forest.
She was also very, very beautiful. Lilith shut that thought down quickly.
"Well, best of luck,” the stranger said after a few moments when it was clear that Lilith just intended to stare at her.
She turned on her heel, and Lilith realized with a jolt that she intended to leave her there. "Wait!"
The redhead stopped and sighed, but did not turn around. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I can't help you or bring you back to my camp. I don't know you, and—"
"I'm looking for the Greendale settlement," Lilith interjected quickly. "I was headed there when that thing drove me off course. I was sent."
The woman did turn at that, facing her with glaring suspicion—not that Lilith could blame her. "Sent by who?"
"A young couple. Their names were Ambrose and Prudence."
"Ambrose and Prudence? They're all right? When did you see them?" The woman hurled questions at her in rapid succession, face pinched with desperate worry, her wariness of Lilith apparently forgotten as she stepped closer and closer.
Lilith stepped back in turn, hands up in surrender though she still gripped her knife tightly. "I ran into them about a month back, and they were fine," she placated. "They pointed me towards your camp, said it was safe."
The woman glared suddenly—honestly, these mood swings were going to give her whiplash. "How do I know you didn't torture the information out of them and then kill them?"
Lilith scoffed in disbelief. "Well I'm not stupid, for one. Going up against those swords with my little hunting knife would be suicide, no matter how good a fighter I am. Second, I had no reason to think they'd come from a larger camp until they mentioned it, which they did because I helped them out and they wanted to repay me. Ambrose did, at least. I think the girl was rather cross with him for telling me. So, can I come with you or not? Because like you said, we really should be getting out of here."
The redhead eyed her carefully, then rolled her eyes.
“Fine. I still don't trust you, but you at least seem smart enough to know that there's no advantage in killing me."
Lilith smirked. "A pleasure to meet you, too. My name is Lilith."
"Zelda Spellman, mayor of Greendale. What's left of it, anyway."