#7

Lily was doubled over in the dark forest, no longer verdant in the absence of luminosity. Night had fallen a while ago and the oppressive darkness was beginning to enshroud them. The only thing that kept it at bay was the small fire that the other raiders had huddled around whilst one kept his solitary guard of the 'bounty'. 

Her legs, weak with the effort of walking for endless hours, shook dangerously under her weight. They felt like iron. Their captors had encouraged them to sleep but Lily could not stand the idea of being in an even more vulnerable position around these predators. They had overtly told her that she did not need to guard her private space so cautiously... for now. The raiders were apparently under strict demand to 'not spoil the goods', a phrase that made her feel sick.

She was a slave. A plaything. How did it come to this? Stuck in the middle of a dangerous forest, having to contend with sociopathic rapists on one hand and the unknown number of walkers present among the trees on the other hand. She and Samantha were truly stuck between a rock and a hard place, steadily being crushed by life-threatening harm from every direction. 

Calliope had always wanted to join a group, she reflected. It was beyond terrible that, the moment they ended up staying with one for more than a few hours, they were both separated and enslaved. As if she wasn't afraid enough for her own safety, the thought of Calliope's predicament threatened to end her. She felt as if her lungs were constricting her breathing and that she would collapse every time her thoughts drifted off to her younger sister.

She was under the aegis of Levi, a man who had been completely fine with letting them get devoured by a herd of walkers so that he and his friends could escape. He was a vicious solipsist and someone undeserving of the forgiveness she had lent to him. This world had an extreme dearth of good people and an abundance of bad ones who would sacrifice thousands just to save themselves. He had probably already escaped, using her as some kind of bargaining chip or distraction. She would be left alone, trembling, crying for her sister to rescue her...

As vague visions of a possible rescue enraptured her mind, Samantha's face began to swim into her vision. Although her words seemed disembodied and her face blurry, Lily immediately snapped into an extreme state of alertness at the mention of a reunion with Calliope.

The next words, unfortunately, filled her with cold dread. Lily had survived this long without being confrontational; she didn't even know how it was possible for someone with her skill-set to help Samantha. Lily and Calliope had avoided groups because strangers could not be trusted. They had avoided guns because sound attracted walkers. They had avoided physical confrontations because the idea of either of them dying was unforgivable.

Everything that was happening went completely against her modus operandi. Would she have to kill for the first time? Their situation was unequivocally desperate, but how far would she be asked to go?

"OK." she finally whimpered, her light blue eyes wide and fearful, reflecting the crackling fire a few metres away from them.