She was moving through the underbrush as quickly as possible. Prey animals were never more skittish this time year, but the group still needed to eat. The leaf litter was thick, but damp from last nights rain and it muffled her steps as she stalked the doe. She had been tracking the yearling doe for almost an hour now and it wasn't going to get away this time. Peeking around a large oak she spied her quarry. It was standing in a perfect spot. Roughly 30 yards away and it's side facing her made for a perfect shot. She immediately darted back behind the oak. As the bark as digging into her back, she realized she was breathing hard from the excitement. Gathering herself she focused on her breathing.
"Inhale, exhale, nock, draw, release." She thought through her mantra once more. Pushing out the last of the air in her lungs, she turned out from behind oak and drew her bow. The turkey feather brushed her check as she took aim. The doe began turning its head in her direction but she had it in her sites and there was no escape. The twang of a string and all of a sudden a shaft was protruding from the doe's side. The unfortunate animal took one small bound forward but stumbled on its landing and fell, never to rise. The girl stood there, shocked. Her arrow was still in her hand and the bow was still drawn. She lowered her broad head arrow and relaxed her draw looking around for where the shot came from, but she already knew.
"You probably woulda missed anyway LA." The man said as he loudly came toward her. His crossbow already slung around his shoulder and pulling out his Bowie knife.
"I had it and you know it. We split up for a reason Unck." LA exasperated.
"No, you wandered off. Why did I even bring you out here anyway." Unck exclaimed.
"Cause you said you'd take me weeks ago and you finally got tired of hearing me whine." Quipped LA.
"Anyway our bet still stands." Unck said as he threw his knife into the oak LA was standing in front of.
"It was my kill and you stole it. That's my kill." LA exclaimed clearly exasperated.
"My arrow, my kill, you clean. Don't worry I'll watch your back." Unck explained as he sat down on a fallen log with his back to the dead deer.
LA pulled Unck's knife from the oak and started tramping over to the fallen animal.
"Watch my back from what? Nobody's seen a walker in months Uncle Daryl." LA said, now resigned to her task.
"Shhh, and I'd be happy to keep it that way." Daryl whipped back.
"Whatever..." La said as she slashed the neck of the doe and let the still warm blood seep out of the doe's lifeless body.

"Can I have the antlers" Henry cried as he ran up to LA just as she was getting out of the truck.
"It's a doe today, so no antlers" LA explained.
"Does are girl deers right?" Henry asked.
"Yep" LA said as she lightly pushed Henry back towards the other playing kids.
Continuing around to the back of the truck, LA saw Uncle Daryl dropping the tailgate and slide the half butchered beast to the end.
"Stop Daryl, you know you're not supposed to be lifting. Aunt Carol's gonna be pissed if she sees you carrying half of that thing."
As he hoisted the front half of the doe over his shoulder Daryl replied "Shut up, you ain't the boss a me and its not like its gonna walk itself over to the kitchen."
LA took the remaining half and flipped it over her back. For a scrawny thing she had good lifting legs and could easily carry most anything as long as she could get it onto her back. She tromped her load over to the kitchen house. Calling it a house was a bit of a misnomer. Shack was a more fitting title for this out building. The kitchen house was one of about half a dozen out building on the property that the group had come to deem "The Plantation." Everyone lived in the big house in the center of the property. The other buildings included the kitchen house, stables (which only held cows at the moment), chicken coop, a cold cellar, and few other unused shacks. These old slave houses were currently just being used as storage. A chain link fence around the whole property had been strengthened with a hodgepodge of items including metal sheeting, plywood, and even some barbed wire that LA found once while out on a scavenging trip. The group had been here for the last five years. Quite enough time to get comfortable and make quite a life. There was currently 14 people living up in the big house. It was tight sometimes, but at least in the winter it helped everyone keep warm.

As LA was walking her half of the doe into the kitchen house she could already hear Uncle getting chewed out by Aunt Carol.
"If you hurt yourself again, so help me, I'll just let you rot."
"You know I wouldn't rot. I'd die and just come back to bother you even more than I do now." Daryl joked.
"That's not funny" is the last thing LA heard as she closed the door on Daryl and Carol.
"Hey LA!" Greg yelled as he jogged over "Any luck?"
"A nice looking doe. Should be enough for a few days." LA explained.
"Is Daryl in there?" Greg asked.
"Yep, but Aunt Carol is ripping him a new one so I would give'em a minute if I were you."
"It's important." Greg explained as he started to open the door.
"Anything I can help with?" LA asked hopingly.
"What? No no it's not that big a deal. Uh, I think Beth is over in the garden and could use a hand."
"Ok," LA hesitated a second before turning toward the fields.

Maggie was the last to join the table as she walked in with the bowl of honeyed carrots. The whole group was here. Squeezed onto the normally eight person "Adult" table sat Daryl, Carol, Glenn, Maggie, Beth and her husband Greg, Christi, Ronaldo, and Jeff. As Maggie set the bowl on the table Carol began,
"Now that we're all here. Bless us father and forgive us our sins. Bless our friends and family those that are gone from us, especially Sophia, Laurie, Rick, Tyrone, Herschel, Meryl, Cheryl, and Ronald. Bless and keep safe those whose fates are unknown to us, especially Carl and Tyrese. Bless this food we are about to eat. May it nourish our bodies and keep us safe. Amen"
"Amen" the rest grumbled.
LA could never quite figure out why Carol kept ahold of her beliefs. The idea that a god would put her here and then cause all of the pain she's gone through is incomprehensibly cruel. But any thought of religion was washed away as she bit into her venison steak. Maggie knew that LA liked her steaks so rare is was almost raw and always made one just for her. Dinner was usually pretty quiet, but this day it was unusually silent. Even relegated to the "kid" table with Henry (Glenn and Maggie's son), Christi's two daughters (Marissa and Marta), and Estaban (Ronaldo's only remaining son) LA could feel the tension, like all the adults were waiting for something.
After the meal was done and everyone getting up from the table, LA started to help clear the dishes but Carol told her to help Beth watch the little kids.
"I know something is up. I'm not a child and I want to know what's going on." LA whispered accusingly.
"Its none of your concern and helping Beth right now will be the best way you can help." Carol retorted.
"Bullshit, when will you finally start treating me like an adult. I do just as much work around here and I started to do the hunting. I put this meat on the table. I deserve to be a part of whatever going on."
"If your father heard you talking to me like that, well I don't know what he'd do. Now do as you're told." Carol exclaimed.
"Yes ma'am" LA lamented as she shuffled into the kid's playroom.

That night LA couldn't sleep. Every time she dozed, she dreamt and every dream was the same. She was running through the woods. The little legs of her eight year old body couldn't go fast enough. No matter how far or long she ran the walkers were always right behind her. Then appearing as if out of nowhere, her father, Daddy. But not Daddy, Daddy was dead but still standing. Daddy was walking towards her. She tried to speak, but nothing came out. Her voice just wouldn't work. Daddy reached down toward her. He bent down as if to kiss her on the forehead. But he moved lower to her neck. He bit hard. Little LA cries out, and then... She was back in her room. The first rays of the morning sun peeking in her window. Marta and Marrisa (Christi's two daughters) were still asleep. LA either hadn't been too loud or they had gotten used to LA nightmares. She had them every couple weeks, but never had they been so intense or frightening. LA decided to start her day early with a walk around the perimeter fence, just to be sure everything was still in order.

The perimeter was about 10 miles around total. It was a pretty long walk for a morning exercise, but LA figured it couldn't hurt to check everything and do some hunting while she was at it. She grabbed her bow, quiver of arrows, and her favorite 9mm, just in case. She didn't see anyone else up so she slipped out trying to make as little noise as possible. The air was cool and after a couple of minutes LA wished she had grabbed a jacket, but she also knew it would warm up pretty soon. She picked up her pace to get her blood moving while she waited for the sun to finish coming up. Moving at a light jog she started began cover a good bit of ground. After about 20 minutes she slowed up as she topped a ridge and saw something she didn't believe at first. Was it really there? It looked like there was hole in the fence. She broke into a full run. "It isn't there, it can't be can it? No it's just the view or angle. The fence is never broken." LA thought. But as she got closer she couldn't deny it. There was hole in the chain fence. All the reinforcements were strewn about. There was fence and then about five feet of nothing and then fence again. "Shit!" LA blurted. Fuckin A!" Then she saw them. The tracks lead straight toward the house. It was a good couple of miles, but the tracks were at least a couple of hours old. Daryl taught her everything he knew about tracking game whether it is animal, human, or walker and these were definitely walkers. It was hard to tell how many, the shambling left smears more than distinct tracks, but there had to be at least a dozen. If they moved at a normal pace they may already be close to the house. LA took off straight towards the big house. How could this happen, there had 't been any walkers around for almost a year. Even on hunting trips they hadn't seen any. LA tried to focus on just getting back to the house. Maybe if she was lucky she'd run into whatever group of walkers had made it through. She could lead them off. Make sure that everyone was ready to defend the house before they got there. The tracks lead through the peach orchard. She stopped at the edge. She didn't like running through all those trees knowing that a group of the undead could be in there. The big house was just on the other side of the orchard though and if the walkers weren't in there they would already be at the house. LA took off sprinting as hard as she could. The trees were in nice straight rows, but the rows were angled away from the house so LA had to weave through the trees. When LA burst forth from the orchard trees, the house was about 100 yards to her left. The trees must have got her lost in orchard. She took a couple of running steps, but slowed to a stop and then crouched down. There was something off about the house. The front door was wide open and there was a side window that had been completely shattered. She started forward again. She didn't hear anything except the slight breeze through the trees and grass. When she got about 20 feet away from the house she saw movement. LA instinctively pulled an arrow from her bag and nocked it into her bow. As a walker shambled out the front door LA drew her bow and took two long strides toward the door. "Inhale, exhale, nock, draw, release" LA ran through her mantra to help keep her focused. The walker turned it head and made low growl just as LA loosed her arrow. The missile buried itself deep into the walker's face just under it's left eye. It feel to its knees and then flopped lifelessly forward on its face pushing the arrow the rest of the way through the back of its skull. LA nocked another arrow and moved forward into the front door. Keeping her bow up and ready to fire, she entered the house. The place looked like a tornado came through. She looked up the stairs; she saw four walkers laying there. She made her way up to the bedrooms, kicking each of the walkers to check for signs of life. As she got to the fourth she looked at its face. She recognize it. It was Ronaldo. He was looking straight up and had a small bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. She didn't see any other wounds, but two of the walkers were laying on top of him. She shuffled past the pile of bodies and continued up the stairs. The room that Glenn, Maggie and Henry all slept in was empty. Daryl and Carol's room was disheveled. A walker laid on its back with its face nearly smashed in, clearly stabbed multiple times with a large knife. Some of the drawers were were open and the contents were thrown about. She moved into her bedroom. No one was there. LA grabbed her "go bag." Everyone in the house kept a bag of supplies ready to go just in case they had to leave quickly. She moved back downstairs and looked out the back door. There was only one car left. Usually there were three cars and Daryl's old motorcycle under the awnings they had set up. Moving thought the door she could see dead walkers all around. Most looked shot but a couple had arrows though their heads. A coupled of smaller bodies caught her attention. LA approached the group of bodies apprehensively. It was Marisa and Marta. They had died together and were surrounded by dead walkers. The two girls arms and legs were bitten and torn ups terribly and there were bullet wounds on the sides of their heads. It looked like they were shot before they turned. LA bent down and closed the eyes of the two girls. As she stood up again she heard the distinctive THWACK-thwack of a old storm door being let go. She whirled around arrow ready and bow drawn. He was covered in blood and held a shotgun in his right hand and a butcher knife in the other.
"LA?" He asked.
"Jeff?" LA responded.
Jeff took a couple of step forward toward LA.
"Thank goodness your alright. Where were you?" Jeff asked. He was covered with dark, sticky blood.
LA lowered her bow and started walking toward Jeff.
"I woke up early and took a walk. Are you ok? What happened?"
"I'm fine for now. most of it isn't mine. Don't really know. Walkers came right into the house. Christi was supposed to be on watch, but I woke up when a walker knocked a vase onto the floor. I barely had time to get my hands up as it tried to bite right toward my face." Jeff sat down right down on the grass and leaned his back against an old oak. LA sat next to him. He smelled of decay and the metallic odor of blood.
"What happened to everybody?" LA asked.
"Christi tried to get her daughters and Esteban out, but Marta got cut off and Marissa went back to try and get her. They got mobbed. Christi got Esteban in her car and took off. After clearing the walkers, I put a bullet in the head of each of those girls. They don't deserve to turn."
"What happened to Henry?" LA prodded.
"Maggie, Glenn, and Henry got out in a second car. They moved quick and got through without issue." Jeff hesitated. "Your Aunt and Uncle stayed for a long time. They were looking for you everywhere. I could even hear her calling "Judith, Judith" as Daryl pulled her onto his bike and took off. The rest of the walkers either wandered off or I've been taking them out."
"I never liked it when she called me that." La admitted.
Jeff closed his eyes and let out a long breath. "You're Aunt and Uncle care about you a lot. You should try and find them."
"There not actually blood relatives. they just took care of me after my Dad died." LA explained
"I know, but Carol liked it when you called her Aunt. I think it made her feel like a real family." Jeff said.
"Well then lets go find them." LA said.
Jeff's face instantly changed. He frowned and looked away from LA.
"I don't think that'll work." Jeff said.
He pulled up his left sleeve. The outline of a bite was unmistakable. "Besides this place has taken care of me for quite awhile and I ain't going to abandon her now."
LA had never known Jeff very well. He was well into his fifties and LA always thought him pretty dull. LA pulled out her 9mm and reached it out toward Jeff.
"Do you want this?" LA asked.
"No, I've got my old revolver in my bag inside. I always saved one shot just in case. Never thought I'd actually use it." Jeff smiled mournfully. "I never wanted to die here, but I guess it's as good a place as any. You'd better get out of here soon. I have the feeling move walkers are on their way." Jeff stood up. "I'm going back inside to finish that last bottle of Southern Comfort Daryl was hiding. I'm guessing he didn't grab it on his way out."
Jeff walked back inside, leaving LA siting under the oak tree. She knew she would never see him again and that the plantation was no longer livable for her group. She looked up through the branches of the old oak. There were still a few dead leaves stuck on, but she could see the leaf buds were just starting to appear. LA had gotten over mourning for lost friends and places. Daryl had said humans were meant to be nomadic anyway. She stood up, brushed her pants off and hoisted her pack over her shoulders. Daryl and Carol couldn't be too far away and that bike is probably the loudest thing LA had ever heard. She tightened her grip on her bow, checked her quiver of arrows and set off toward the road.