The sun was coming up like a big bald head, over the man made lake. It had been a quarry but that was years ago. It's waters a beautiful soft blue, surrounded on three sides by high walls of stone. The shore was filled with trees and rocks, and farther back from that was our new home, a camp filled with lost families.

We had been here for a couple of weeks now, trying our best to survive with little food, no homes, despair, depression, strangers, and use to be people that try to eat us…alive. The joys of an apocalypse….it can only get worse from here.

I always had a terrible time sleeping, but now it was almost non existent. I decided to get up for the day, nodding to Shane (he was a cop before this) who was on watch, and sit at the shore and watch the sun, my chin resting on my knees and my arms wrapped around them…Thinking about how life use to be, how it is, and how it will be. Who knew if I would make it to next month, next week, or even tonight. It was a new terrifying world, and I was waiting for my last moment. If I'm lucky, it will be by my own hands.

{'Of all the words of Mice and Men, the saddest are, 'It might have been.''}

I'm not sure how long I sat there, just watching the sun slowly rise and the water going back and forth from the shore. I could tell it was gonna be another hot one today, but when you are in Georgia, it's always hot. Being from Minnesota and only here because of a visit, I thought it was always ridiculously hot. I would kill for a nice cold winter day up on one of the lakes instead of this brain melting heat.

I heard someone's footsteps coming from behind me, their shoes making the small rocks crunch together.

'Shane said you've been here since before dawn.'

I turned my head and looked up. Dale was standing there, his hat on his head, he was looking out towards the lake. I nodded my head to his statement. I liked Dale, he was the 'Grandfather' of the group. I don't know if he actually had any kids or grandkids, but he kind of just fell into this role. He was a very nice man, but a bit of a worry wart.

'Are you okay?'

I nodded again. I had been coming out to the lake every time I couldn't sleep, it calmed me. The water reminding me of my home.

'I'm here if you ever want to talk…But..uh..breakfast is ready if you're hungry.'

I felt his gaze linger on me for a minute before he turned and walked away.

I didn't have much of an appetite anymore.

Staying seated for a few more minutes, I could hear the movement of the campers and could feel the temperature rising steadily. I sighed and got up, dusting my butt off and decided I should probably go do my chores.

Life continued on like this for a few more days, we were running low on food again so a man named Daryl Dixon went hunting for us. It was usually a couple of day trip for him. I envied that he was able to go out to the woods and enjoy the peace and quiet.

Daryl was a very quiet man, we had never talked, but we knew who each other was. If he wasn't out hunting, he was cleaning his knives, making arrows for his crossbow, or talking with his brother around their own campfire. His brother was Merle, he knew I was a quiet person, so he would come up to me and try to make me angry, try to get me to say something; but I always kept my mouth shut. I knew guys like him in high school.

Merle liked to start trouble and run his mouth, try to get into fights. And he was either high as a kite, or coming down. I stayed away from him the best I could.

Of the two Dixons, I liked Daryl the best. People thought him and his brother were stupid rednecks. But I knew they were both smart, very smart. Merle was bout an inch taller than Daryl and had a military style buzz, Daryl had kind of a shaggy long hair thing going on. He had a goatee and the most beautiful blue eyes I've seen.

Also going out, on a trip to the abandoned Atlanta to scavenge, was Glenn, T- Dog, Merle, Jacqui, Andrea, and Morales. Not sure when they would be back, or if they would come back at all. I just knew that with six people gone, we had to double up on chores. Which meant that now I really had to interact with people. You would think that with the world ending and human life coming to a low that I would buck up and try to be part of the group. But some things never change.

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