A/N: Hey, I'm back with a new Lost Hope story. This one takes place during season two. I hope you guys enjoy! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead

Lost Hope: A New Life

Chapter One

The world is nothing like it used to be and it won't ever be the same again. At least half the population has been wiped out. There is no more government, no more armies; nothing that could save us from this new world. We either have to adapt quickly to this new life or die. My name is Erin Johnson. I am eleven years old and I am a survivor of the most traumatic event to ever take place in history; an apocalypse. My uncle has been killed in the apocalypse, leaving no one else in my family alive. My uncle was all I had, but then I found a group of other survivors who became my new family. They take care of me and treat me like I am one of their own. All we have is each other.

We have recently come upon a place we thought was safe called the CDC, but it wasn't as safe as we had expected; it was just another dead end. It was made to explode when the fuel ran out and that's exactly what happened. Luckily we had escaped, aside from Jacqui who chose to stay behind. She didn't want to face what has become of the world anymore. Safety is only an illusion to us now; something to comfort a person just for awhile before they realize the reality of what was really going on. One can only hope and dream about safety.

My group decided on trying to head to Fort Benning, another place that could be "safe". Who knows, maybe it may actually be safe, but of course that is just a dream for all of us. We all know that the journey is going to be hard, maybe even impossible, but there is nothing left in Atlanta for us; it belongs to the dead now. There is only a few of us now, so we need to stick together and fight for each other, because our only chance of surviving this, is each other.

I sat between Carl and Sophia as we began our journey to Fort Benning.

"We were just thinking about our trip to the Grand Canyon with Carl." Lori told us.

Rick started laughing, remembering.

"I don't remember that." Carl said looking at his parents in confusion.

"No, you wouldn't you were just a baby." Lori told him laughing. "And besides we never even made it past Fort Worth."

"You got sick." Rick said laughing more. "I never knew a baby could throw up so much."

"Eww." Sophia and I said in unison laughing.

"Ick." Carl said with a disgusted look on his face.

"Yeah, ick." Lori said laughing. "But the doctor in Texas said you will live and we turned around and went home."

"That sucks." Carl told them.

"Nah, it was a good trip." Lori told him. "Even though you were throwing up half the time."

"The best." Rick said smiling.

"Can we go see it; the Grand Canyon someday?" Carl asked hopeful. "I would like to."

"I would too." Sophia told them. "Can we go?" she asked referring to her and her mother.

"And Erin too?" Carl said nudging me. I smiled.

"We would never go without you guys." Rick said glancing back at us smiling. "That's a promise."

"It will be the best vacation ever!" Carl said getting excited. "Erin, have you ever been to the Grand Canyon before?"

"Once, a long time ago when my dad's job took us to Arizona for a few weeks." I said smiling. "It seemed like we were so high up so I got scared and ran all the way back to the tourist offices. It took my parents two hours to find me."

Everyone started laughing, but we all stopped when we noticed that the others in front of us slow down and come to a stop.

"What's going on?" I asked Rick.

"I'm not sure." Rick said stopping the vehicle. Then we realized why they stopped; there were vehicles all over the road that blocked us from going on any farther. They started to move again slowly to try to steer through all the cars. I got nervous and tensed up a bit; there could be walkers around. Carl noticed me tense up and held my hand. I looked over at Sophia to see that she looked nervous too so I held her hand as well. We could see dead people in some of the cars that we drove by.

We didn't get too far before Dale's R.V. started acting up again. Rick pulled the car to a stop and we all got out. We walked up to where Dale was who told us it was the radiator hose again. Daryl began looting through some of the vehicles to look for stuff that we could possibly use.

"What are you doing?" Dale asked him.

"Well if we can't find a radiator hose there probably a bunch of other things we can find in these vehicles." Daryl said continuing to look through a car.

"This is a grave yard." Lori said in slight protest. "I don't know how I feel about this."

The others thought about it for a second and decided to look for stuff anyways because we were desperate.

I walked with Carl as we began looking in vehicles for stuff we could use. I cringed when we walked to a car with a dead woman inside. Carl opened one of the back doors and began looking to see if he can find anything. I walked around to the other side and did the same thing.

"Erin, I found some pill bottles." Carl said holding up a bag with different types of medicine inside.

I smiled. "That's good. Those can be useful sometime."

Then we saw Rick running towards us with a terrified look. "Walkers, get down!" He whispered motioning for us to get under the car. Carl and I ducked and climbed under the car. I saw Lori and Carol do the same under another car. I looked the other way and saw that Sophia had gotten under another car close to the edge of the road. Then the walkers started to pass. I held my breath and waited. If I made the tiniest sound I would alert all those walkers and let them know that we are here. I looked at Carl who was right next to me, watching the walker pass by. I closed my eyes, not wanting to watch.

I listened as more passed by. I felt Carl scoot closer to me so that he was more hidden. He put his arm around me and pulled me closer to the middle so that I was more hidden as well. I put my hand over my mouth to keep myself from making any noise that would attract the walkers. When I didn't hear any more walkers passing by I slowly opened my eyes. I looked around and didn't see anymore. Carl looked at me and smiled. I looked over to Sophia to see her slowly starting to climb out from under the car she was under, but then, another walker that had been walking a bit far behind from the others, saw her. Sophia began nervously crying and climbed out on the opposite site of the car with the walker following her. I felt scared for her and was beginning to get out from under the vehicles, but Carl stopped me pointing at more walkers that were still passing by.

Sophia ran off the road and into the forest with the walkers following her. I then saw Rick holding his rifle running after her. Carl and I climbed out from under the car. I saw Carol already running towards the direction Sophia went.

"Lori, there are two walkers after my baby!" She said crying. Lori grabbed her and stopped her from running any farther and hugged her. We all waited on the side of the road for Rick to return back with Sophia, but when Rick came back, there was no Sophia. "Where's Sophia?" Carol asked crying more.

"She isn't here?" Rick asked shocked. "I told her how to run back if she decided to not wait for me."

Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Shane went back into the forest to look for her. Lori continued to comfort Carol. I walked into the R.V. to see Andrea with blood splatters on her and shakily trying to put her gun together.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

She nodded and continued trying to figure out her pistol. "Just a little freaked, that's all."

I watched as she tried to put her gun back together, but noticed that she had it all wrong. "Here, it goes like this." I took the pistol from her and rearranged the parts to fit where they went and handed it back to her. "There." I told her. "Good as new." I knew how to work guns because my dad had taught me how to as soon as I was able. He was a marine before he died three years ago.

Andrea looked at me funny, but said nothing.

"Sophia was chased into the woods by walkers." I said looking down sadly. "Some of the others are out looking for her."

Andrea nodded sadly. "I hope they find her."

"Me too." I said walking back out of the R.V.

I saw Carl was outside waiting for me. "Dad wants us to continue looking for things we can use."

"Okay." I smiled. I decided to try to stop worrying about Sophia. Rick will find her soon. The adults were beginning to move cars out of the way so that we could turn around and head back to a bypass that Glenn had found on the map.

"Erin, look." Carl said pointing to the inside of a truck where a dead man was sitting. "There is something in his hands." He came around to the other side and slowly opened the door.

"Carl, what if it's a walker." I said nervously.

"It's not, look; his head's been shot." Carl told me pointing to the bullet hole in the dead man's head. Carl began pulling on the bag that he was holding to try to free it from his grip. He gave one last pull and it gave away causing Carl to fall back on me. I noticed I got a small scratch and that it was starting to bleed.

"Erin, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" He asked me concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's in the pouch?" I asked pointing to the pouch he had in his hands. He laid it out on the ground and opened it up. It had a small axe in it and several knives and tools. "Sweet! You found an arsenal!" I said excitedly smiling at Carl.

Carl blushed and smiled back. "Come on, let's go show Shane." We ran back to where everyone else was. "Shane!"

"Carl, what's wrong?" Lori asked running over worried.

"Mom, I found something cool!" Carl said laying the pouch out on the ground and opening it up. "Shane, check it out; it's an arsenal." Carl told him excitedly.

"That's cool, bud, why don't you go bring it to Dale." Shane told him not sounding too thrilled about it at all.

"Check this one out." Carl said pulling out the small axe. "It's a hatchet."

I pulled out one of the knives and began examining it. It was a nice knife. "Carl, look at this one!" I said smiling handing him the knife.

"Whoa cool." Carl said taking the knife and examining it. "Can I keep one?" Carl asked his mom.

"Are you crazy?" Lori asked taking the knife and hatchet away.

"No way, you're not going to let me keep one?" Carl asked disappointed. "Shane, tell her to let me keep one."

"Come on, man. I told you to give them all to Dale." He told him. "Now, go!"

Carl looked down sadly and took grabbed the pouch and began running off. I slowly followed him. I could see that he was crushed that Shane yelled at him. Carl gave the pouch to Dale and went into the R.V. He walked over to the couch and sat down. I walked over and sat beside him.

"I'm sure Shane is just worried about_" I started saying.

"Just leave me alone!" Carl snapped.

I jumped to his sudden outburst and looked at him a little hurt. "I'm, sorry. I just want to_"

"I said go!" Carl yelled at me.

I felt my eyes water up. I ran out of the R.V. before I started crying. Carl had never yelled at me before. I felt a tear fall down my cheek, but I quickly wiped away so no one would notice, but it didn't go completely unnoticed.

"Are you okay?" Andrea asked me concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I told her looking down at the ground.

"You don't look like your fine." Andrea continued.

"I'm just a bit concerned about Sophia, that's all." I told her, which was true; I was worried about Sophia, but that wasn't why I was crying.

"I'm sure Rick and the others will find her." She told me pulling me into a side hug.

I smiled hugging her back. "Yeah you're right, thanks."

(Carl's Pov.)

I don't know what had gotten into me; I had just yelled at Erin. I know she was trying to help, but I was just so crushed by Shane, I guess I just let my anger out on her. I ran to the window of the R.V. and saw Erin standing outside wiping a tear away from her eyes. I can't believe it; I made Erin cry. I felt awful. I was about to go outside and apologize, but I saw Andrea begin to talk to her and changed my mind. I went back down and sat on the couch, wiping my own tears away from my face. I will apologize to her, for sure, but I want it to be when we are alone.