Hello, thank you for reading (: I couldn't help but start this story even though I have Feel Again as well. Things were getting dark when I was writing Adelaide's feelings so I wanted to create something with a character whose almost the opposite of Adelaide.

I hope you enjoy! Thanks again for reading!

She was so tired of running.

The weight of her legs seemed to just increase with every step she took. Her stamina was running low – fast – and if she took one wrong step now, she might as well be dead. Her breath was staggering and she wheezed her way through the woods, knowing that that monster was tailing her every turn.

She couldn't understand what had happened. Just the day before she'd been happily learning about the flora of the world and planting saplings, and now here she was running from a flesh-eating zombie. That's what they were right? Zombies? She didn't know. She couldn't think right now. Her first priority was to run.

But life has a way of slapping you in the face just when you think it settled into a comfortable cycle.

A tree decided to grow right where the tip of Belle's boot thought it'd be smart to step. She slipped on the root and fell, face-first, into the damp soil of the forest.

As quickly as possible, she tried to stand and run again but a cold hand grabbed the loose bun her hair was pulled up into and yanked her back. Something metal dropped on the ground but Belle didn't notice it as she struggled to keep that snarling mouth away from her flesh.

In her struggle she slipped again, bringing the monstrosity down with her, still tangling with it and trying to get away. In the midst of their power play, Belle's hand found a thin metal chopstick – one of the two she'd put in her hair to make a bun the morning before. She grasped it tightly and slammed it into the red eye of the zombie-like being under her.

She scooted back away from it and leaned on the base of a tree trunk staring bewildered at the half rotten corpse lying lifeless before her. She then looked at the slim metal piece in her hand; half of it covered in goo, and made a face of disgust but thanked it for being there for her.

Belle laid it down at her side for a moment to take out the other matching pair in her hair and redo the loose bun, trying to get as much hair out of her face as possible. It was kind of difficult with bangs but she did her best.

Feeling satisfied, she gripped the metal of her chopstick and began walking in the direction she was previously running. She felt safer now that the walker that had been chasing her was down. She was lucky it had only been one.

The day before she had been at a camp sponsored by her college. It was a camp focused on botanical studies and something that Belle had looked forward to since her admission to college. She was only a freshman with a major in botany. It was a strange choice but something about plants made her feel satisfied; she could spend hours in her home garden just sitting and relaxing or cultivating new plants. Her parents didn't mind, they always told her it was nice to have a little garden of fresh fruits and veggies – it saved them a trip to the farmer's market.

We love our little green thumb! She could just hear them in unison praising her interests. They always supported her…

It was only the first day at the camp when a couple of strange people walked onto the campgrounds and began attacking. There were only a few of them… and then a dozen. No body knew where they came from, but when they arrived it was chaos. People had barely had enough time for introductions to each other that day, so it turned into an 'every man for himself' type of situation. No one helped each other; they just ran for their lives.

Belle made it out of the camp but she bypassed one of those monsters a little too close and it began chasing her. And now here she was, metal hair accessory in hand and tired as hell.

She walked aimlessly forward, making sure not to take turns or wander off; she didn't want to walk in circles. But it wasn't easy. Her legs had already begun to feel heavy while was running, and with each step it was like her feet had turned into dumbbells.

She must have been walking for hours when she saw a strange string of tin cans lining an area of the forest.

"What is this doing here?" She tapped the string; it made a light jingling sound from all the cans clanking together. Confused, she ducked underneath the string of cans and started walking forward again.

She'd only walked a few minutes past the string when she met the cock of a shotgun and barrel staring at her nose. She didn't know what to do, she just stopped and stared at the black metal at the tip of her nose and trailed up the barrel to find a tan man with a serious five-o-clock.

He glared at her with intense eyes, "Who are you?"

An elder Caucasian man approached from behind, he had a tacky hat and sported a rifle but didn't point it at her.

"Belle," she managed to get out. Her words were shaky, she wasn't used to a gun being pointed at her head. Her hands were raised, the metal chopstick still loosely held onto by her fingers.

"She's just a young girl, Shane," the elder man said. "She's no harm to us."

This 'Shane' took a few seconds to think but didn't lower his weapon. He eyed the metal chopstick in her hand and recognized the color of walker blood on it. "Give me that metal piece," he demanded.

She looked at the chopstick, of course it looked like a weapon to them – to her it was – so she relinquished it to his upturned palm. He lowered his shotgun and ushered her forward with his head. When she got in front of him, the other man put an arm around her shoulders and walked with her.

The trees cleared out to a quarry filled with tents and an RV. There were less than two-dozen of people flitting about doing things like laundry and prepping food. It was like a little community of people… How did this pop up so fast?

"How?" She could only make out at first but she cleared her throat again. "How is this here so fast?"

The Caucasian man looked at her a little shocked, "Well the break out was at least a week ago… We all met on the high way a little way off from here."

A week ago?

"That thing they were talking about on the news?" She questioned. "I thought… I thought it was like all those times talking about a new flu and everything. I didn't think… it was so scary." She remembered the faces of those rotting corpses walking around and eating others.

"We've only just started up," Shane said walking up from behind. "Where'd you come from?"

She turned to face him, "I was at a camp with a group of college students… It's probably miles away from here. I don't even… I don't even know how long I was running."

He looked at her with concern, "Was there one of those things behind you?" It could compromise everything here, and the safety of Lori and Carl was all Shane could think about right now.

"I got… in the eye," she winced as she admitted her kill. "With that." She motioned to the metal object in Shane's hand.

He examined the piece, it was wider on one side and thinned out to the other, it was basically a flat piece of metal with carved decorations on the wider side. Although half of it was covered in eyeball guts, it was a spectacular piece of stainless steel.

"I'm Shane," he finally properly introduced. "This is Dale." He handed her back the metal piece.

Dale smiled at her, his face was friendly and comforting like a father. "Come," he motioned her to follow him, "Let's introduce you to the group."

He first took her to meet Lori and Carl, a mother and son pair, and Amy and Andrea, a sister pair. Lori was friendly while Carl was shyer towards Belle. Amy and Andrea were bright and greeted her with smiles. Then he introduced her to Morales and family, Jacqui, T-Dog, and Jim. They were all decent people, none to menacing. But the Peletier family irked Belle; Carol and Sophia were such kind people while Ed Peletier screamed negativity.

Dale introduced her lastly to Glenn, a Korean boy about her age, most likely a little older than her. He made a lasting impression on her.

"I'm Glenn," he smiled at her, holding out a hand to shake. With her free hand, Belle shook his and smiled right back.

"Belle," she replied. "It's a pleasure."

Dale noticed the good chemistry between the two. "You two will get along just great," Dale commented. "I feel it in my bones." He put a little joking tone into the last words.

Glenn and Belle laughed at him.

"Well, we need to get you situated here," Dale started and looked around. "But the tents here… they were brought by each family. I don't know where you're going to be staying." He already had Amy and Andrea in the RV with him and there weren't any spare tents to set up.

"I've got space," Glenn offered. Dale eyed him up and Glen gave him a shocked look. "I wouldn't! I swear!"

"I'm sure Glenn's the perfect gentleman," Belle defended. "But I don't think I should stay here, my parents are in Atlanta to visit me. I'm sure I can get to their hotel and…" She trailed off after watching both men's faces slowly fall. "What? What's… What's wrong?" She was scared to ask after watching them make grim faces.

"Atlanta…" Glenn tried to start.

"Atlanta's not safe," Shane came up behind Glenn and Dale. "We watched as the military… took the city out."

"Took… took the city out?" She asked quietly. "What do you mean took the city out? My parents were supposed to arrive there this morning… I mean they should be safe right?" She grabbed Dale's arm desperately, hoping he'd tell something good.

Dale shook his head at her, "We haven't seen any planes for days."

'They could be safe at home,' she thought. "Yeah, they could be at home… It should be safe there," she sighed and closed her eyes. Belle didn't want to think about anything negative about them; they had to be safe.

"You can just camp with me," Glenn offered again. "I'm pretty clean, and there's enough space for the both of us."

Belle smiled at him, "You're very kind, Glenn. Thanks for letting me invade." Glenn laughed and just nodded while pulling her in the direction of a tent. "I'll talk to you later Dale? Shane?" The two older men just waved her off.

"So you got anything with you? There's lot of space here," Glenn opened the flap of the tent and let her in.

Glenn didn't lie; there was actually a lot of space in the tent for the both of them, and maybe two more. He actually kept to one side of the tent already, not really spread out. There was one sleeping bag and a pile of guy's clothes in the corner.

"I, uh, I didn't really get to pack when they came," she admitted. What she had on now what all that she owned. Just her jean shorts, white loose tank, and brown combat boots.

"Oh," was all Glenn could say. "We need to fix that."

She laughed a little, "And how exactly are you going to fix that? All you've got are guy shirts and stuff."

"I was thinking about doing a run into the city to gather supplies, but I haven't asked Shane yet. It could be a good idea, you know, there's only so much we have here," Glenn said as he tossed a few stray items to his side. "I need to get you a sleeping bag too."

She looked at the floor of the tent, she was already on all fours to keep from hitting the top of tent so she pawed the ground on her side and found that it was actually pretty soft. "I think there's wood chips or something here, it'll be comfortable enough," she smiled at Glenn. "But if I could borrow a blanket or something, that'd be awesome."

Glenn nodded and then headed out to ask for a blanket and ask Shane about his idea. Left alone to her thoughts, Belle could only think about her parents in Kansas. It might be better over there… It had to be for her to survive because the thought of her parents gone rattled her.

Unable to take the stress of thinking about family, Belle exited the tent and walked over to Lori and Carl.

"Hi, Lori," Belle greeted.

"Belle right?" Lori asked and was met with a nod. "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if I could help out with something," she glanced at Lori cleaning mushrooms. "Those are poisonous."

Lori stopped cleaning them and looked up at her with a little surprise. "Can you tell which ones are and aren't?"

"I've been studying all sort of plants and fungi since I found a book in the library on it in sixth grade," Belle took the chance to sit down on the same log as Lori. "I was actually at a botany-focused camp when it was… attacked."

Lori gave her a comforting smile, "Well by all means, I'd love if you'd be able to tell if what we gather is edible or not! I sure as heck can't. Usually, Shane can tell some of them, but not all."

Belle was glad to have something to keep her mind off things and began picking through Lori's small batch of mushrooms and cleaning them with her. "These can give you a mean stomach ache," she commented on one of the varieties in the bucket.

"Guess I'll save that for when Carl gives me some attitude," Lori joked.

"Hey!" Carl frowned while the two women laughed at him.

Shane, Glenn, and Dale stopped by Lori and Belle.

"Hey," Lori greeted the men. "Look! Belle's great at telling which are edible, and which are perfect punishment foods for Carl." She wriggled her nose at Carl.

Dale patted Belle's shoulder, "That's a big help, Belle. Thank you."

Glenn nodded, "Yeah, I'm glad I'm not getting anymore stomach aches!"

"We're entertaining the idea of a city run," Shane said, not acknowledging their topic. "Just Glenn and maybe a few others." He was talking to Lori, just Lori, and Belle was beginning to think they were married.

Lori gave Glenn a look before saying, "Are you sure that's necessary?"

"We're going to run out of supplies if we keep going at this rate," Shane grimaced. "We need this."

Lori sighed but gave in, "It's a risk… But we do need to get supplies before we start running on empty."

Belle looked at Glenn, "When are you going?"

"Tomorrow morning," Glenn replied. "It'll be really quick, in-out and nothing will notice we were there."

Belle had only met Glenn a couple hours ago but she felt concerned for him already. Lori seemed really apprehensive about entering the city and that made Belle worry about the city… If it wasn't that safe…

"Don't worry," Glenn patted her head because she was still sitting. "I'm good at being quick."

It didn't help much but she wasn't going to start telling him what to do. "Okay," she said.

That night she didn't sleep well even though her stomach was full and she was covered in a warm blanket. When things were silent like this all she could think about was her family and their safety. And finally when those thoughts were done with Belle couldn't help but start to worry about Glenn. He was such a sweet boy to her even though they'd just met. Thinking about not seeing him again made her uncomfortable. She wasn't ready to start losing friends.

Morning came and Belle woke up without even noticing that she'd fallen asleep in the middle of her thoughts. Glenn was already gone by the time she opened her eyes. She exited the tent to find Lori again.

"Want to go mushroom hunting?" Belle offered.

Lori smiled, "It'd be great if you could teach me a little." Lori called over to Dale to tell him we'd be heading out a little into the woods.

"Not too far, alright?" He was definitely the father figure here.

Lori grabbed the small bucket and headed into the woods with Belle. They only went about 50 yards before they started kneeling on the ground to pick for more mushrooms.

"I didn't imagine myself living off of mushrooms for the rest of my life," Belle laughed a little.

"Neither did I," Lori joined in.

"So," Belle tried to be smooth. "Are you and Shane married?"

Lori stopped picking mushrooms, and looked up at Belle. "No, my husband… he died. Shane has been taking good care of Carl and I." Her voice grew quiet.

"I'm sorry," Belle placed a hand on Lori's arm. "About your husband, I'm sorry."

Belle saw small tears forming in Lori's eyes but she quickly wiped them away, "Thank you."

With that they went back to their mushroom gathering. Some times Belle would mention and point which ones weren't edible and which ones to not touch at all. Other than small comments, there wasn't any more conversation; Belle didn't want to upset Lori again.

On their way back to camp, Lori noticed a small berry bush with red berries. She tapped Belle and asked her about it, "No, don't eat those. Usually I stay away from all the berries in the forest, unless you can recognize them like blackberries." She nodded and walked back to camp with Belle.

It passed maybe just an hour or so, not enough time for Belle to feel satisfied so she tried to get Lori to give her another job but she didn't have one. Slightly down, she went to Dale and asked him if he needed something done but he didn't either. Everyone at the camp was securing his or her own lifestyle but Belle didn't know what to do. She didn't have laundry to clean and wash or anything fix… It wasn't quite time to eat so there was no food prepping. Belle was unoccupied and a little anxious.

When she returned to the tent, she noticed her hair chopstick and that it was still half covered in zombie eyeball guts, now completely dried up on it. "Gross." She grabbed it and went outside to ask Lori if they had any water or something.

Lori gave her a small cup of water; "You might want to boil it for drinking."

"Thank you, Lori," they gave each other small smiles but went back to their own tasks.

Belle sat outside Glenn's tent and dribbled some water on top the metal chopstick and rubbed at it with an old rag she'd found on the side. It looked like it was used for cleaning something that was covered in black soot. Soon enough the metal was looking spick and span again. She even felt it was clean enough to be put back in her bun.

As soon as she finished cleaning, she saw a grey truck pull up to the quarry. Shane and Dale didn't seem to recognize the truck and she watched them wield their weapons as a precaution.

'People don't trust each other anymore,' Belle sadly thought.

Out of the bed of the truck jumped Glenn, gleaming with satisfaction and several bags hanging over him.

Shane narrowed his eyes at the Asian boy and motioned him away from the truck. Glenn looked a less joyous and walked over to Belle. She was happy he was back.

"Welcome back," Belle said. "Thanks for saying bye this morning."

Glenn laughed lightly, "Sorry about that, didn't want to wake you. You seemed to calm." He swung a rucksack off his shoulders, "This is for you, everything inside is all girly and all." He gave her a playful wink and dropped off a sleeping bag in the tent. "The rest is food and the necessities for the camp."

Belle gawked at him, "This is amazing! How'd you carry so much back?"

"Actually, I would have taken a couple more hours to get back if it weren't for those two," he motioned towards the truck and the two men that got out. "At first, I was kind of scared of them. But I think once they knew there was a place to stay with others they were nicer."

She looked at the two guys; one was older like late thirties to forties while the other was probably late twenties to early thirties. The older one was intimidating, and had a daunting smile as he talked to Shane. The younger one was very quiet; he let the older one do all the talking. Belle didn't notice but she had started staring at the younger one – he was attractive.

He had short brown hair and steel-blue eyes. His build was muscular and lean. The most noticeable thing about him, though, was the crossbow strapped across his back. It made Belle think that he was a hunter of sorts.

Suddenly he was staring back at her, scrutinizing and glaring at her for looking at him first.

She felt her cheeks burn under his gaze and turned her eyes elsewhere, landing on Glenn.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "Your cheeks are a bit red, are you sick?"

"Oh, no," she laughed nervously. She couldn't admit that a hot guy stared at her and made her blush now could she? "Must be the Georgian heat!"

Glenn agreed, "Yeah, man. The heat gets pretty intense over here."

Shane, Dale, and the two men were still going at it. "I think they're trying to reason their way into joining," Belle said softly. "Why doesn't Shane just let them in?"

"Well, he's got his reasons to be careful," Glenn recalled a memory. "There were a few times when a couple people attacked us for food. It's gotten pretty crazy out here."

Belle looked at the two men, "I'm sure if they're reasoning, then they're willing to contribute as a community… right?"

"Maybe, but you can never be too careful."

She just looked at the two men and couldn't help feeling curious about them – well more about the younger man. Some part of her wanted to get to know him better.

Belle didn't know then how much of a handle Dixons were.