Carol
"Dad!" Watching as her father lost his footing as he stepped down from a truck bed, falling the few feet onto his back with a hard thud. Carol ran to his side, crouching beside him as he rubbed his swelling ankle.
"I'm alright, sweet heart. Just a sprain." He clasped her shoulder tight for support as he raised himself off the ground, wiping away a bit of dust from his already filthy cargo jeans. He stumbled slightly but supported his weight, to his daughter's relief.
"Watch out, dad. I can't carry you, and you know I couldn't leave you behind..." Her voice got quiet at the end, trailing off into silence as the girl looked to the ground. Lifting her face to his, her dad gave her a weak smile.
"It's okay. I know you would only do what's right." He took a wobbly step forward, limping to keep the weight off of his sore ankle.
The rest of the night consisted of only the sounds of rumbling stomachs and the occasional cry of some mutated thing yelping in the distance.
"I don't think that I can go on much further. I think it's broken." Carol's worst nightmare was becoming real. She shook her head as her eyes pooled with tears.
"No, dad. You're fine. Come on, get up!" She yanked hard on his arm, but he didn't budge. "Dad, you can't give up." Tears fell readily, leaving clean steaks on her dirty face.
"Carol, I can't walk fast enough. You've got to go find food, and you can't just drag me around. You know you can't. It's what's best for you, and you know it." He took his daughter's chin in his hand, looking in her blue eyes.
"You think it's best for me to lose my mom and my dad? Well, that's fucked up, dad." She got to her feet at once, looking down at him. Carol reached for the rifle that leaned against a large boulder, the only cover they were lucky enough to get from the harsh wasteland creatures. "I'm going to get some food, but I'll be damned if I leave you behind. I'll be back by sundown." She heard her father sigh as she walked away from their poor excuse of a camp, a backpack slung over her shoulder and a pistol in her hand.
Carol's solo trek through the wasteland was short lived, as she quickly found the remains of an old restaurant on a hill. She couldn't resist the urge to sprint up the hill towards the food source. With a few cuts on the palm of her hand after breaking the glass door with the butt of her pistol, she was relieved to find a pantry stocked nearly full of slimy canned vegetables. Her backpack filled to capacity and her stomach full of wet, salted green beans, she stepped out to look at the wasteland below the hill.
She nearly vomited at the sight below her.
"Dad! Dad!" Carol screamed, running full-force back to where her father lay by the boulder, the backpack flinging randomly and bruising her skin as it struck her side and back. She didn't care.
"Carol? What the hell, do you want to attract something?" He put a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her breathing enough to hear what she had to say.
"Dad, I found a vault. I found a vault!"
