Shadow settle on the place that you left
Our minds are troubled by the emptiness
Destroy the middle, it's a waste of time
From the perfect start, to the finish line
Two figures lay on the ground, or at least what was left of them. Almost nothing was left of the decaying corpses. Shattered bones littered the ground, many with flesh still clinging to them. Blood was everywhere, painting the ground bright crimson. A rib cage full of cracked bones was still attached to a severed spine. There was an absence of organs, but a half consumed heart lay a few feet away from the mess and a stretch of intestines was strewn about the ground, mauled at one end. Farther away there was a severed human hand still clutching a broken knife.
Stepping over the pile of bones and half consumed muscle, the child walked on. She looked small, but her arm and leg muscles showed her life of constant movement. Her cream colored arms reached up and tugged at her hair tie. An avalanche of dark chocolate hair tumbled free in a tousled mess, framing her elfin features. She was dressed in too big jeans held up with a sloppily, yet securely tightened belt. Her tank top was obviously a ripped boys teeshirt, but it was fitted to the girl as if she had been wearing it for a long time. A small pistol weighed down her pocket, and she fiddled with a pocket knife as she walked.
She couldn't be more than eleven, yet she barely regarded the decaying corpse with her pale blue eyes. Her eyes were intense, and unlike the rest of her they weren't at all expressive but were cold, like ice.
If you were to peer into her frozen orbs, you'd feel an electrical chill run through your body. It was if every shade of blue had knit themselves into one, making her irises seem like a white tundra, as if a blizzard was eternally raging on with a black void in the center that were her pupils.
Every member of the group both loved and feared her eyes, for they were identical to their formal leaders, the child's father. Judith despised her eyes, even if she caught herself vainly admiring them from time to time. Everyone would look to her as if she held the answers like her father would've, waiting to see if somehow he had lived on inside of his daughter.
"Hey, Daryl?" Judith asked, her voice ending the long silence. It was like a sigh of relief every time the girl spoke; her voice still carrying the light twinkle accompanied with childhood. The older man marching on ahead of her grunted in response, but the girl didn't seem put off by it, but encouraged. "When we's gonna stop?" She asks glancing at the older woman heaving a fairly light backpack beside her "I'm gettin tired."
The group knew that Judith wasn't tired, she still had the endless energy associated with childhood and was strong and hardened from all her life living on the road. However, Carol was sicker than ever with what the group assumed was some sort of cancer. Still, the rest of the group-Carl, Beth, Maggie and Glen-nodded as if they could also use a break to save the woman's pride.
Daryl slows to a halt in front of a decaying building that looked to formerly be a skate shop. "When are we going to stop" Beth corrects gently as she falls into pace with the younger girl.
"Ain't no difference" Judith replies with a shrug as she looks up at the rusting skate shop before her. She had grown up with no more English lessons than what the thick accented Georgians could teach her. The addition of Daryl being the main parental figure in her life didn't help much.
Daryl and Carl entered the store to check for walkers as the rest of the group waited outside. Judith's eyes floated up the store's sign in big bold letters reading: Surf and Skate. Her brow creased slightly as she looked over the words again. "S makes the ss sound" she mumbled to herself "SuRf an' Skate?" She asked Beth hopefully.
The blonde woman smiled. "Close" she said "Surf and Skate. You had it, just less emphasis on the r in Surf."
Carl, Judith's twenty five year old brother, exited the skate shop. He nodded, telling the group that it was clear. Judith held back a little, but she's was itching to get a better look at the beach themed shop. She dropped her bag and bedroll by the front counter and began her investigation in the back of the store. By the late evening light, Judith looked around the mangled shelves. Coming across a scratched and dirt coated glass case, she peered in the best she could.
"Whatcha find?" Carl asked as he came to stand behind his fourteen years younger sister.
"Don' know" Judith muttered glancing up at her brother before trying to rub circles in the filth of the glass. Finally in one quick move, Judith brought down her ringed finger against the glass hard. She leaned away from the breaking glass as it fell, then seemingly fearlessly reached in and pulls out a small black item. "What is it?" She asked turning the object over in her small hands.
Carl reached out and took the camera, smiling to himself as he looked it over. "That there is a camera. Polaroid, I think it's called. Prints out pictures right away" he explained.
Judith looked up at her older brother with a creased brow. "Pictures?" She questioned "like the one you got a' momma?"
Carl nodes and clicked a button on the device. "Yep. Ya got twelve picture left on it. Why don't cha go take a picture with Daryl and Carol" he said nodding to the sick woman and the redneck.
Judith smiled a rare grin and accepted the camera from Carl. "I'll go do that. Then one a' Maggie an Glen an' you an-"
"Naw" Carl said softly with a small smirk. "We'll all take a picture together, how 'bout that. But I want 'cha to save the rest of 'em for when it's important. You take it like this" he says showing her how to snap the picture.
The small girl nods and turns to where Daryl is rubbing some warmth into Carol's shoulders in front of the small can fire. Maggie was curled up in Glen's lap beside them, and Beth poked at the fire as she flipped through a book she's read at least a hundred times. Carl sits down beside Beth and wraps an arm around the older girl's shoulders, letting her head rest on his shoulder as she read her book.
With a small smile, Judith clicked the button on the top of the camera. With a shutter and a mechanical groan, a small white rimed picture emerged from the device. She pulled the picture the rest of the way out and looksd at it. The picture was a little distant, but warm and homey in strange way. Judith tucked it into the inside pocket of her jacket, knowing it was her most prized possession, nearly as important as the photo Carl had of her mother.
She goes to sit between Carl and Daryl, thanking the stars for her life instead of god because Daryl always said to believe in what you know to be true, and a man in the sky that made the world just to turn the dead against the living didn't seem true to Judith.
So she thanked the stars instead.
She thanked them for her family, only one of which was by blood. She thanked them for her mom and dad even though she never knew her mom and only knew her dad for a few short years. She thanked them for Carol especially, and thanked them for letting her leave this world soon that was so hard for her to live in. She thanked them for her new camera, and for the photo of her family that she loved so, so much.
Poets often describe love as an emotion that humans have no control over, one that overwhelms logic and all common sense. That's why every minute Judith spent with her family was seared into her memory. She'll never forget a single moment of it.
Love is to sacrifice for the another person. It's a promise to put them above yourself no matter what. Love is odorless, colorless and soundless, and there is no true evidence that it truly exists. Yet it always has been, and still is the strongest force in this world.
Hi everyone! This is my first one-shot! It's about Judith as she grows up with the remainder of the group. I'm probably not going to go into detail on how the group was split up, but they just are.
How'd ya like it? I love the idea of Judith growing up without ever knowing our world, and am trying to figure out how she would act.
I may turn this into a multi chapter fic, but if it does it will just be a bunch of one shots as Judith grows up. I hope you liked it and please leave a review if A) you want it to be a multi chapter fic, or B) cause you're awesome!