AN: Thanks for reading! Please Review so I know how it's going!
First chapter is a journal entry of AJ's, to let you get to know her a little bit. And it starts a Month before the outbreak.
'Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.' –Tony Robbins.
You want to know my beliefs? I believe that as long as you've got something to live for, there's nothing stopping you from giving it your all and making something much more then what it could have been. I've got a lot to live for now; now that my life's right where I want it to be in terms of money, friends, and family.
You see, my name's Aislin Jana Baxter and I hale from a small trailer park on the near one of those cities on the out skirts of Atlanta, Georgia. My mom died when I was 6 years old from one of her drug dealers thinking she needed to pay him more then what she was. Long story short my dad took care of me by himself for a while until one night, when I was 12, he's had too much to drink and decides we need to get more food and booze. So I'm sitting there in the front of the car next to him because he can't function enough to get what we'd need for the house. And not three minutes later, we crash. He's dead on impact considering there's the grill of an 18 wheeler two inches from the middle consol. The force of the crash sent me flying into the forest because 1) I had my window down, and 2) I wasn't wearing my seat belt. Hey, it was just down the road, no need to put the thing on, especially when it likes to jam up on you - keeping you in the seat.
No, I was lucky to have no seatbelt on at the time. No way would I have survived with it. But anyway, the entire trailer park heard the crash; and when the Police got there they thought I was back at home. My only friend at the time, Evan, beat them to the house and searched all of my normal hiding spots. He knew it was a waste of time though, when the officers were talking about how bad my dad smelled of Jack. He told them what most likely happened was we went for more food and booze, telling them it was a regular thing with my dad. That's when the search started.
Evan when to all the trailers to get them to help, it was a small park so everyone knew everyone. They all pitched in to find me, but after an hour there wasn't any luck. Then someone got the bright idea to get the only rude, selfish, nasty people in the park to help too. They could track anything for ten miles or
more; the Dixons. They were my neighbors, and they hated me. There dad was friends and drinking buddies with my dad, though, so he made both his boys search for me.
They found me with in twenty minutes. The crash sent me into the forest and after bumping into a tree about ten feet from the road, I went rolling down hill into the creek bed. The others would have found me first, but I just happened to roll down the exact spot where the only bushes on this side of the bed grew.
I heard all of this after I woke up in the hospital two days after; Evan was a good story teller. I think he was jazzing it up for me though, trying to lift my spirits or something. But either way, I now didn't have a mother, or a father, and none of my other relatives wanted to take care of me. So, into the foster system I went. That was the first good thing life did for me; and two weeks later was the second.
Now that I was out of the trailer park, Evan was home a lot more. And that didn't fly well with his abusive mother. One night she took it too far and one of the nicer neighbors called the cops. Then he was in the foster system with me. He just happened to be put into the same foster home with me, and that was life's second good gift for me. From then on it was me and him no matter what; we wouldn't go any place without the other and the system people decided it'd be easier for them to just have us be together.
We moved from one place to the next, to the next, to the next always causing trouble. Till one day, when we were 15, there was this couple who couldn't have kids of their own and wanted a boy who could help them work the farm. When they set eyes on Evan, they couldn't say no. But the other kids in the group didn't really like us so they tried to get them to change their minds.
"Well, look at you son, looks like you can handle heavy lifting. What about coming with us?" The man asked him, "We can put you into a good school and help you get into college. We'll even get you a car and a horse and anything you want."
Evan just stared at them, not really knowing what to do; I mean the couple looked good and they sounded well off, but he didn't want to go anywhere without me. And that's when one of the other boys there cut in.
"You two are waistin' your time. He don't go nowhere without that little Hussy at his side. So 'less you want a cry baby Sally too, you best look somewhere else."
"What'd you just say about her?" Evan asked while getting in his face. I acted faster than the adults in the room then, and got between the boys – pushing them apart.
"That's right, you little pussy, let the bitch here tell you what to-"He started, but didn't get to finish seeing as my fist had a nice meeting with his nose. Before Evan reacted though, I got in a few more punches.
"Don't talk about him like that!" I screamed at the kid while Evan was pulling me back. He brought me to the other side of the room, kicking and screaming the whole way. What can I say, I was protective of him.
So I sat there with Evan while the foster people took care of that kids bloody nose; both of us pretty much holding the other back, when the kid felt sure enough to talk bad about us again. Needless to say they took the kid out of the room. When it was calmed down, the adults started apologizing to the couple, who saw the whole thing.
The couple looked at us, obviously ignoring what the adoption guy was saying, and then looked at each other. It pretty much shocked the entire room when they started laughing.
The lady walked over to both Evan and I and said "Now we weren't thinking about havin' two kids at the farm just yet, but if ya'll would like, we can adopt both of you. Seeing as you two already have a sibling bond, I really wouldn't want to take you away from each other."
Evan and I looked at each other, looked at them, then back at each other; having a non-verbal talk, like we do countless other times. When we looked back at the lady, her husband was beside her with a hopeful expression.
Their eyes lit up like they were kids at a candy store, when Evan and I both nodded in agreement. And from then on I knew Life was trying to make up for our childhoods. The lady loved the idea of having a girl there to talk with and pamper, though I was more of a tom-boy and liked to get my hands dirty with the guys. She went overboard though, when I told her I wanted to be a Photographer; finally getting me to do something "not so boyish." She got the guys to build me a studio, red room and all, and even had some models come to the farm. Though she didn't really approve of what I did with my gifts after I got into the grove of what I wanted to take pictures of. That was the next thing Life gave me that was good.
What I loved taking pictures of, was for a website I came up with, "how its done .com". We showed how to survive in the back woods with hardly any tools, how to make a bow, how to hunt birds or ground squirrels, how to track an animal, and many other things. It was an idea that came to me when I was twelve. Seeing as I could have been found a whole lot easier if even one of those people looking for me knew what they were doing. So now, we put the tricks and trades out there for others to see.
When I was 17, I got my next gift from life. Having taken pictures mostly of Evan, or our new friends Mark and Brian, I got a lot more offers for photo shoots. But one came to me that I couldn't really pass up. It was for a survival magazine, and they wanted Even, Brian, Mark, and I to travel the country and take pictures and document how their products worked. We got to test new items they were advertising and go different places, see how well different things worked in different areas. It was a good chance for us, so we talked to our adoptive parents about it (who agreed it'd be a good shot), and signed the contract. Little did we know, there was conditions we skipped over in the contract.
It wasn't just the four of us anymore; there were 14 of us, and I was the only girl. But it worked out ok because they guys all got along and that meant I got along with them too. Now, there were Evan, Brian, Mark, Dom, Gray, John, Ken, the twins Frank and Nick, Quinn, Will, Zack, and Peter. And Might I add, not a bad crop at all!
The other conditions weren't that bad, but one had me freaking out a little. I was to be part of the pictures too. The first time we did a shoot where I was with the guys, I was a nervous wreck. I didn't want my face out there, it wasn't pretty enough and I wasn't skinny enough, or many other reasons that were running through my head at the time. But once we got the copy of the issue, I almost fainted.
The editor promised me that the pictures weren't edited to conform to me. I still don't believe him, I mean it wasn't me on the cover, it wasn't me that got 5,000 copies sold on the first day. It couldn't have been. But alas, it was. It was me on the cover, and it was me in those short shorts with the tank top. It was me with a little mud on my legs and arms, little on the shirt too. It was me with the knife in my left hand and the skinned rabbit in my right. It was me with the boys in the background looking sexy as all hell, but they were looking at me, and I was looking at the camera. And might I tell you, I looked damn good too.
It went on and on like that, Life was good to me and my boys. Yes, my boys. They became my family, and I theirs. Now I'm 22, I have been crazy on the job lately trying to get things out of my head. My mom's killer just got life in prison, and the Deed to the trailer was now in my name. Last week the state officials signed it over to me, and told me that stuff about my mom's former drug dealer. Evan and the boys knew something was up with me too, seeing as I was scheduling shoots for every day after that. Today I'd have all of them over to my apartment/studio and we'd take shots for their private portfolios. I haven't told them yet about the trailer, and I have a feeling I'm going to have to today.
But life, life's given me things I'd never take for granted. And my personal beliefs won't allow me to give up or dwell on my past, so here goes nothing...
