Fear broke out on her body in a cold sweat as the man's gun was revealed, her nonchalant facade faltering for a second as her brow twitched and she felt her throat constrict. Schooling her emotions and repairing her facade, she glared back at the strange man, a challenge in her stare as she became aware of the moans drifting ever so slowly toward them. He wouldn't shoot, she knew any sensible person wouldn't, the sound would draw walkers from god knows where. Though the real question was, was he sensible?
"Put the gun down, now."
Valen growled in a whisper, her nerves on edge as a moan drifted to her ears. She quickly glanced down at Calico, his ears cocked and his head tilted up for some reason instead of toward the approaching walker. What the hell was he looking at? Her own eyes darted upward for a second and catching a glance of something on the roof before it disappeared.
"Wha-" She was cut off by the sudden (loud) bark that erupted from beside her and echoed down the empty street.
"Calico!" She hissed under breath, bringing her alarmed eyes down to her dog. Her brows knitted as she looked at the canine, his flattened ears and bared fangs causing dread to flood her. She snapped her eyes up and watched in horror as walkers filed out of the abandoned buildings around them, a grimace planting itself on her features. She looked back to the man and
slowly drew her weapon back and put her hands up with a glance to the walkers inching closer, they were slow but they would get to them eventually.
She cursed under her breath as the moans became louder and the smell of decaying flesh made her cringe, Calico's soft growls growing louder as they advanced. Damn! there were too many...she wouldn't even kill half of them down before they got her. Her heart sped at the thoughts and she felt panic rising in her like a fire, leaving her nerves hot as her mind blurred from the smoke. She took a deep breath and stamped out the flames within her, this definitely was not the time for a panic attack. She calmly darted her eyes from building to building, trying to find a place that could shelter them safely. She finally noted that the only place with walkers not trailing from was the one they were currently standing beside, perfect. She brought her eyes back to the man and nodded toward the the building beside them, a quick hand motion ordering Calico in before she spoke.
"We can talk once we're safe, I for one don't want to die just yet." She said with a small smirk before darting inside the building and trying to push the surprisingly solid (and heavy) doors closed.
"You gonna just stand there or are you gonna help?" She asked the mysterious man, her eyes meeting his for a second before she darted hers to the wave of walkers that was closing in from all angles.
Walter held his gun aimed for a moment there, but then he decided to stop. It's better not to attract any attention now, while he still was undetected by the walkers (since he didn't make any loud sounds or quick movements... yet). But he couldn't leave this woman to die, no matter who she was; a lot of good people have died already...
"I will help you to open this door, but do not expect me to come inside. I don't want to have any kind of business with you." he whispered with his still-cold voice while slowly but steadily approaching the door the woman was trying to force open, crowbar at hand. When he was in front of the door, he has stuck his weapon into it and pried it open without as much as a slight cracking sound. Then, when the door was open, he left towards the horde of walkers, saying to the girl:
"You're lucky that I don't have time to deal with you right now." Although he wouldn't do anything bad to her if he could (unless she proved to be a serious threat to him), Walter threatened her to show that it was better not to mess with him (and you can be pretty dang sure of that).
While he was walking amongst the walking dead, he couldn't help but feel uneasy, even though he did this a lot of times already. A few minutes later, Walter lost the sights of both the woman and the horde surrounding her, so he went back to his hideout near Manchester's town hall. Yes, that zone was overcrowded with those "things", but at least he was alone in there (the idea of staying in the outskirts of the city was a really popular choice these days, he thought). Besides, he was living there for almost a month now, slowly clearing the building he was in from any unwanted visitors and the surrounding streets, so the place was somewhat safe for now (this kind of activity almost costed him his life when he was almost bitten in the leg by a walker that was hiding under a bed), and the high population of the zone provided a good amount of "guts" to cover himself with.
When Walter was in the back alley of the building that was his base, he climbed up a dumpster as quietly as possible and jumped to get the grasp of the cold piece of iron that made the emergency stairway, aiding himself with the crowbar (it had small leather straps covering each end of the iron pole, but without obstucting the sharp ends that he used to pry the doors down). When he was hanging from the ladder, he climbed up to the 7th floor (the building had 8 floors) and entered through the furthermost window to the left, ending up in a bedroom that once belonged to a young man. The room wasn't big, but it had enough space to accomodate a single bed to the left of the window, a desk with a (now dead) computer to the right, and a wardrobe next to the door on the opposite wall from the window (the door was to the right and the wardrobe was to the left). The walls were covered with posters of various rock bands that Walter barely even recognized (them kids and their weird tastes... by the way, Walter was 36 years old at the time of these events).
After checking the whole apartment just in case (it wasn't big, it only had a small but spacious kitchen-living room, a bathroom and two bedrooms, all of which hinted that a pair of students lived here before the outbreak), Walter dropped the rucksack near the wardrobe and went to the bathroom, where he had a small stash of clean water, to clean himself up. Even though he had to cover himself with blood in order to survive, he has still couldn't bear the smell of it. When he made sure that he was clean enough, he went back to his bedroom, locked up both the door and the window, and fell on the bed, trying to sleep. It has been a long day today...
((I suppose that as long as I don't make a lot of noise or sudden movements while I'm still in disguise I should be fine, right?))
