#deadwalkpara

Nadine didn’t get it. For some ungodly reason, she could not wrap her head around the fact that she had been caught in yet another turf war. 

There was a whole slew of men that littered the parking lot of an abandoned gun shop. She had crashed in one of the storage closets inside overnight. But at the time, it had been late and Nadine’s flashlight batteries had bit the dust long before the sun disappeared behind the earth so she couldn’t quite jump at the opportunity to stuff her bag full of goodies just yet. Her original plan was to loot the ever living shit out of this rifle shop the second she saw the faintest hint of daylight creep in through the windows. She was practically sitting on top of a gold mine. And for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Nadine was ecstatic. Every single pistol, and grenades was hers for the taking. And not to mention an abundance amount of ammo was also ripe for the pickin’. 

Or so she thought.

Beams of sunlight spilled in through the front window and Nadine managed to snag a sniper rifle and found herself able to get a pretty good scope of the empty lot. She was more than ready and willing to pick them off one by one if any of ‘em showed signs of trouble. She hated this. The idea of a human being pulling a gun on another human. It was sickening and the thought alone sent chills down her spine. But just because Nadine was against it, didn’t mean she was going to holster her weapon and put away the only protection she had. She would never start a gun fight, but she sure as hell would finish one. 

Peering through the scope of her rifle, Nadine noticed a quarrel had broken out between two men. One, huskier and taller man had begun to shout while the other, much shorter one insisted on keeping his mouth shut. Most likely because it was only attracting any walkers in the area to their exact location. Nadine agreed with shorty over there. If she had been in his shoes, she would have probably done everything in her power to calm him down, as well. But alas. They were out there and she was in here. 

Then out of the blue, a gunshot rang in the air 

Nadine hustled up a heap of courage to glance out the window once more. And to her surprise, everyone had vanished. There wasn’t a single human (nor walker) in sight. 

A heavy sigh of relief exited her chest as she pushed herself across the floor until her back touched the wall. 

"Glad that’s-" Nadine had been cut off from her own sentence as a strong hand clamped over mouth. Anxiety rushed through her body and her heart rate skyrocketed. She was being drug outside by the same powerful hand pressing down on her lips. 

Out of pure instinct, Nadine began to thrash her body, hoping to break free of the stranger’s grasp. She kicked her feet and pulled on the foreign hand with all her might. Her strength was all she had. Screaming would do no good. Who would hear her? Who would care enough to come to her rescue? 

Nadine could feel her skin scrape against the concrete. Her eyes grew wide with horror as the men she had seen earlier were now circled around her. 

Finally, her mouth began free once more. She felt like screaming. She felt like cussing the hell outta these men who had the nerve to lay a hand on her. But truth be told, Nadine was scared out of her goddamn mind. Unsure of her next move, she slowly rose to her feet, making sure no sudden movements were made. Yet. 

She felt at least four pairs of eyes locked onto her. Every muscle fiber in her being begged her to run. But she knew if she tried something stupid like attempting to take off, she’d be shot on sight. 

Then just as when one of the men took a step forward, Nadine’s adrenaline finally kicked in. She had some experience in the hand-to-hand combat field and she was about to take full advantage of those skills. Growing up on the streets of Georgia had taught her a thing or two about self defense, 

Without any further hesitation, Nadine knocked the guns out of the hands of two men closest to her before knocking back the one on her left with a heavy kick.

Everything was happening at once, Chaos had broken loose and now she was being shoved from behind by yet another unknown powerful force. Sure it slowed her for a split second and her guard had been let down, but Nadine recovered quickly and came back swingin’.