C H A P T E R  6

❛ the ballerina and the samurai. ❜

QUINN

     THE FIRE CRACKED, SPITTING OUT ITS SPARKS into the dark night sky. They danced through the darkness like little fireflies, carried away by the wind. Quinn followed them with her eyes until they disappeared, leaving nothing but the smell of smoke behind. The warmth of the flames wrapped itself around her like a blanket while the shadows of the forest danced around her. When another one of the sparks she'd been staring at disappeared she turned her eyes back on the woman seated on the other side of the glowing flames.

They had barely spoken a word since they met each other on the road. She only knew the woman's name, Michonne, and didn't need to know much more. Quinn wasn't planning on sticking around, so there really wasn't any need to familiarise herself with the samurai. She could almost hear her brother's voice loud and clear in her head, as if he was sitting next to her. "When something happens, you search for a safe place. You trust no one until you reach a safe place..." His advice had kept her alive.

Over the years she'd made many allies. Their homes became safe holds for her to go to whenever a deal had gone wrong and Marcus would kill everyone who dared to come near him. Or whenever her father drank too much and felt the need to remind her of her mother's death with his fists. It never made sense to her why he blamed her for it. The pregnancy hadn't been easy and ended with her mother needing a c-section. Quinn had survived the operation, a healthy, and more importantly alive, baby. However her mother lost her life on that operation table. It was nothing Quinn could have even come close to try and stop. Yet her father seemed to blame her for it, and never let her forget it. She'd spent a few blissful years in the house of her aunt and uncle, until they got children of their own and she'd been placed back in the care of her father. Life had only gotten worse from that point on, the only source of light was dancing. After she found her mother's ballet shoes, it was all she did, day in and day out. But that too had been destroyed...

Her eyes drifted to the woman seated in front of her. She was good at reading people. It became a habit when you tended to surround yourself with the most wanted drug lords in the city. Still, this woman seemed determined to close herself off as much as possible. Whatever had happened since the outbreak had left her cold and guarded.

'So, tell me,' Quinn finally ended the heavy silence, playing with a twig as she talked, 'what's your plan, Michonne?'

Her saviour looked back at her, her gaze just as calculating. Their glare was like a razor sharp blade. Both women were trying to balance themselves, to make sure they didn't get cut in the process of deciding whether or not the other could be trusted.

'Staying alive,' Michonne finally answered.

Quinn almost laughed at that but bit her tongue to hold it in. Laughing meant you were comfortable and she was determined not to let her guard down.

'What's yours?' The samurai returned the question.

The twig broke in her hands, and she let it fall back on the forest floor. She saw no harm in telling the truth and so she reached in her backpack beside her. She took out the map and handed it to Michonne. 'The military gave it to me the day this all went down. Told me to go there for safety. Been trying to reach it ever since,' Quinn explained.

Michonne folded the map out on the forest floor, her eyes scanning every inch of it while her fingers traced the lines. Quinn kept her eyes focused on the woman's face, trying to catch a glimpse of emotion in her eyes, a crack in her mask. Finally Michonne handed the map back to Quinn and she was surprised to see some kind of sadness in her eyes. Just a glimpse, though, a small crack in a carefully crafted mask, gone as soon as it came. But it was enough. She'd won their little game. That glimpse of emotion was enough for Quinn to know that her saviour was someone she could trust. And she was pretty sure it meant something else too...

'You've been there, haven't you?' Quinn whispered softly.

The fire sparked higher between them and the chains that held the two walkers rattled. Quinn never moved her eyes away from Michonne during the silence that followed, trying to tell her without words that she could trust Quinn and tell her what happened.

'It got overrun,' Michonne finally mumbled.

Quinn simply nodded, not wanting to force a more satisfying answer out of the woman. 'I was afraid it would be,' she said, trying to sound like she couldn't care less but she wasn't completely able to ignore the heavy weight that had suddenly appeared in her chest.

The thought of every safe haven, every military base being completely overrun by those corpses scared the hell out of her. The world was empty now, it belonged to no one but the dead. All that was left were a handful of desperate people trying to survive in a chaos that they secretly wished they could escape. And the true horror of it all was not knowing what had even happened in the first place. It felt like the world had simply decided to end and no one could have done anything to try and prevent it. Quinn threw one last look at the map that had been her anchor through the chaos for weeks now. No matter what she told herself, it still felt like she'd lost something. A small piece of hope that she'd desperately clung to. She wasn't one for sentiment or holding out for the hope of something better. Still, having this taken away hurt.

Moving her eyes away from the torn and blood stained paper she inhaled sharply before tossing it into the flames. The fire sparked and the paper dissolved together with Quinn's last bit of certainty in this new world.

She leaned her chin on her hands as she stared into the flames. Multiple options were circling through her mind but none seemed good enough to survive. What could she do now that her only plan had failed? The weight in her chest was slowly becoming too heavy and she had to force herself to keep breathing steadily. Her worst fears were coming true. Her brother's advice had failed and for the first time since she said goodbye to her life of drugs, blood and pain, she had no idea what to do. She had to stay focused to survive but all her certainty had crumbled beneath her feet, leaving her with no ground to stand on.

There really was only one option if she wanted to stay live. Scanning the face of the mysterious, sword-wielding and walker-keeping woman, she tried to see it. She tried to picture a life in this world. It was simple really and it could start right here and right now. If only she was brave enough to put everything she was used to aside and start an alliance with a woman she knew next to nothing about. Quinn used to want to do everything on her own, always avoiding other people as much as possible. People always seemed to find some way to hurt her and so it had been easier to try and do everything alone. The only exception had been her brother. He'd been the one voice of reason she was willing to listen to. And now that his last piece of advice had failed her too, what other choice did she have? She didn't even know if Milo was still alive and so the only choice she had was to become her own voice of reason.

Surviving alone wasn't an option in this world. Especially not for her with her small knowledge about surviving and lack of fighting skills.

Michonne seemed to be a force of nature, sitting there, simply staring at her with a soul crushing gaze. Every vibe of her being told Quinn to trust her, to take this leap and put aside her instincts for once. With Michonne by her side her chances of survival would definitely be higher.

'Where are you heading?' Quinn questioned, reaching for another twig to crush between her fingers.

The woman shifted in her seat, her eyes focused on Quinn as though she realised what she'd been thinking but not wanting to say it just yet. 'I was thinking of the coast, keep the water on one side. Maybe find an island.'

Quinn nodded. It sounded like a solid plan. With water on all sides they could build a safe haven for themselves. If the world was so hellbent on taking every chance of surviving out of their hands, maybe what they had to do was create their own chances. 'You want some help getting there?' Quinn asked, her heart beating nervously in her chest.

For a second Michonne simply studied her but Quinn knew she wouldn't say no. She wouldn't have told her about her plans if she was planning on leaving her behind. Finally Michonne nodded. 'Alright,' she said.

Quinn offered her a small smile as a way of saying thank you. The camp was no longer an option, but at least she wasn't alone to figure out her next steps anymore. Though staying with this woman also meant staying with her pet-corpses. When they were bound in chains they seemed almost docile and the thought slightly scared her. Without hands to grab them or teeth to bite them, maybe they lost interest in doing so. The thought almost made her want to laugh. She was analysing dead people like it was the most normal thing in the world. But her desire to laugh disappeared as soon as it came when she realised that this was indeed the new normal.

'Why do you keep them around?' Quinn asked, not able to stay quiet about the strange sight.

Fire blazed in Michonne's eyes. Her gaze a clear warning for Quinn that any questions about her pet-corpses were off topic. But Quinn wasn't planning on giving up that easily. If she was going to travel all the way to the coast with this woman and her pets, she at least wanted to know what the purpose in keeping them around was.

'You don't have to tell me who they are, or where you found them,' Quinn said, her voice steady and eyes filled with determination as she stared back at Michonne. 'I just want to know why.'

A small sigh left Michonne's lips. 'They protect me. Having them around masks our smell from the other corpses.'

Quinn raised her eyebrows. That was not the answer she'd been expecting at all but if there was any reason to keep living corpses in chains around she supposed that was it.

'You look exhausted,' Michonne observed. 'You should try to get some sleep.'

She was exhausted. She hadn't had a good night sleep in days but that didn't mean she would just be able to lay down and sleep now. She'd known Michonne for just a few hours and walkers were all over these woods.

'I'll try,' she mumbled despite knowing sleep wouldn't come. She lay down on the ground, using her backpack as a pillow, her kitchen knife firmly in her hand.

As expected she didn't sleep at all. Every bone in her body was tense, every sound made her jump. Her thoughts kept going in circles about the plan she'd made with this stranger. The trust she put in someone she barely knew. It was the smartest move, she knew that. But it was also a move so far out of her comfort zone that it would take some time to get comfortable with her decision.

Morning came way too quickly and though she hadn't slept at all, she felt wide awake. Sitting up straight, she stretched out her sore muscles before standing up.

Michonne had put out the fire and was now searching through her bag. She handed Quinn a can filled with beans and Quinn felt herself smiling before she could stop herself.

'What's funny?' Michonne questioned.

'I used to hate beans,' Quinn said while using her knife to open the can. 'Now they seem like the most delicious meal on earth.' And as though her stomach had heard her it started growling.

Michonne didn't quite smile but deep within her eyes there was a spark of amusement. Then she blinked and it was gone. Still, Quinn had seen it and it was enough for her.

They ate their breakfast in silence, then packed their stuff and started their long journey. And though her hand kept hovering close to her knife, Quinn was glad that for the first time since the outbreak started, she wasn't alone.

edited: ✔