This is merely another guilty past time of mine that wouldn't leave me be. It's also posted on Wattpad! :) I'm trying to fix the way I write and become more the character rather than just writing them for the hell of it. Please enjoy this first chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead.

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"Khendra, I'm scared," a high voice whimpered fearfully. Her bottom lip trembled violently and her wide eyes were sparkling brightly. Not from happiness, but rather from fear and helplessness. Her face was dirty, smudged with dirt and random blood splatters. Her clothes had seen better days, what with them being all torn and certain places being drenched in blood. I couldn't count all the times that she had fallen in our haste to get out of an area that had been overrun with the Biters and all the times we had had numerous close calls as we traveled from one place to the next. We both pretty much looked like a duo of ragged hermits.

I placed a dirt and blood splattered hand over her mouth gently, prompting her into silence. "Shh," I shushed her quietly, lowly. I couldn't have her panicking on me if she saw just how scared shitless I really was. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. Nope. I was more than scared. I was already imagining all the painful ways that I could die right here and now, but I wasn't going to tell Cammy that. I knew how high her voice could get and quite frankly, I wasn't in the healthiest of conditions nor was I in the mood for having to once again flee from the hordes upon hordes of Biters that would come running at the sound of food being nearby. "You need to be quiet, Cammy. You don't want them to find our hiding place, do you?"

The little girl—Cammy—gave a pitiful whimper and buried her head into my backpack. Her tiny fists clenched tightly onto the straps and I could feel her tremors wrack my body. I ran a reassuring hand through her hair, grimacing at the layer of grease that had once again taken up residence in her once long, bouncy curls. I wondered when was the last time she had had a shower and dully noted that it had been a couple months since she had last bathed. Disgusting, but at this point in time, survival ruled over cleanliness.

A shuffling of feet and a gurgled moan had me snapping to attention. I quickly placed a hand over Cammy's mouth to cover her gasp so as to not alert the Biter that was no doubt lurking in our current direction. Keeping my hand over her mouth a second longer—a clear warning for her to remain quiet, which she thankfully headed— and carefully urging her backwards after swiftly handing her my bag, I waited until she had hidden herself behind the back of a trash can and peered around the corner of the alleyway that we had currently taken to hiding in, my right hand fingering the gun that rested on my thigh.

Sure enough, one of those things had broken away from the large group of Biters that were lingering a mile or so down the road and was shuffling towards us at a slow, loping gate. Cloudy white eyes gazed at nothing and saw nothing as it limped towards us, its mouth hanging wide open to reveal black, bloody teeth as another raspy groan escaped its throat. It seemed to have been dead for quite a while. It's skin was grayer than the rest and was decaying heavily in numerous places, especially around the torn flesh around it's right arm and leg. It would make killing it a hell of a lot easier than having to a kill a freshly turned Biter.

It didn't seem to know that we were but a few feet away from it, but I wasn't going to take any chances. I didn't want it catching hold of our scent and come running with its other buddies close behind. Signing to Cammy that I was going to leave her alone for a short while—I could see in her eyes how heavily she wanted to protest, but I knew that she was still heeding my earlier warning about being quiet since she only gazed at me with scared eyes—and for her to stay hidden behind the trash cans, I waited until she hesitantly nodded her head before I slinked around the corner.

Who would've thought that all those years of learning how to Jazz run would finally be put to good use, I thought humorlessly as I crept across the ground, taking long, quiet strides and using destroyed vehicles as hiding spots as I crept closer to the Biter that threatened our safety. I took my hand away from my gun and slowly drew one of the mini daggers that I kept sheathed at my hip as I crouched behind a vehicle that had placed me behind the Biter. It seemed to smell that food was nearby as it came to a sudden halt, its face tilted upwards as if it were sniffing the air and I could hear a low, hungry moan from where I was hiding. And this was exactly what I feared would happen if I had just left it alone.

Checking that the other Biters weren't paying attention or had heard the Biter's moans, I flicked my wrist at the Biter, sending my dagger straight into the back of its head with a sickening crunch. It faltered for a second before it fell with a heavy thump to the ground, black blood soaking the area around its head in an almost dramatic fashion. Extracting the weapon from its head with a sickened expression at the wet squelch that sounded, I wiped the contaminated blood on my pant leg and quickly headed back towards the alley where Cammy would be waiting for me.

"Go to Atlanta. There was supposed to be a safe zone that had somehow successfully managed to keep the infection from getting in. There have food and water and protection. You and Cammy head on over there, Khendra. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

"You liar," I grumbled under my breath, unable to help the spiteful thoughts that clouded my mind as my father's voice echoed in my head. Stupid. It was his reckless idea that had almost gotten Cammy and I killed the instant we had first stepped foot in Atlanta. "You said this place promised safety, help that would keep us alive from these things. You forgot to mention that this 'safe zone' had been overrun from the get-go. This place belongs to the dead now."

It was difficult. Living in this city that was crawling left and right with these dead things. They reacted to the slightest of sounds and came running like packs upon packs of rabid wolves when they thought food was close by. Food was almost nonexistent and water was rare, if not already gone by now. Every store Cammy and I had come across ever since we first arrived here two weeks ago had been raided, leaving behind nothing that could be of use. There was nothing here. There were no survivors. No food. No water. No protection. Nothing.

A month ago, if someone had told me that I would be surviving in a world filled with dead beings that craved human flesh and that I would have to live off the land like people of old had done, I would've promptly laughed and proceed to ask them what it was that they were smoking and if I could possibly have some. It was ludicrous. These things were only supposed to happen in movies. In games. Not in real life. It just...wasn't possible. And yet, it was like I had made some God angry at me for thinking that something like this couldn't have happened. Like I was questioning their power. I certainly believed in them now.

One second, I'm sitting in my room with my friends, having a good time and laughing at the stupidity that was us humans as reports about people getting high on bath salts became more and more frequent. And the next second, we were all running for our lives as people suddenly died, reanimated, and began craving the skin that covered our bodies. Very few people survived and those that didn't make it were changed into one of the dead at some point in time if they were bitten or scratched. There was no stopping them. They didn't tire. A head shot was the only thing that could kill them. Their hearing was ridiculously sensitive. It's like we had no advantages as humans anymore. Most would call it unfair. After all that's happened to me in the past few weeks, I'd call it leveling the playing field for us humans who were trying to play God.

"Come on, Cammy," I said, getting her to feet from her hiding spot. I noted that she had swung my bag over her shoulders and was thankful that it was in good hands for the time being. "We need to find somewhere safer."

"Cause we're not safe out in the open anymore?" She inquired softly, eyes shifting in every which direction as if a Biter would appear out of nowhere and spot us. Her hands wrung nervously together, twisting and pulling at her fingers until cracks could be heard. A hand over her own made her stop the mutilation of the bones.

"No. Not anymore." When she grasped a fistful of the back of my now too big shirt—two weeks of little to no food made one lose weight as if they were trying to be anorexic—and her breathing had quieted to a barely there breath of air, we jogged from the safety of our alley, keeping behind rows upon rows of cars and turning down multiple alleyways to avoid any run ins with Biters as we made towards the front of the city. Biters littered the area the closer we got to the road that would lead us out of the city and it wasn't long before we had to stop behind the safety of a car before the large herd that was gathered in the center of the street could spot us.

Curse words flew vehemently from my mouth as I glared at the Biters, wishing they would just combust and rot in the pits of Hell where they belonged. I mentally hoped that Cammy couldn't hear what was coming out of my mouth. I didn't want her developing any bad habits from me. God forbid she start shouting "shit" and "fuck" left and right like I did.

This herd was bigger than the herd that we had seen back down the road and while I was confident I could sneak around them, I knew I couldn't do that with Cammy. Not that she was a liability, but rather that I couldn't maneuver myself the way I wanted to without attracting attention. I couldn't very well leave her here while I leave to see if I could find a place that was secure enough for the night so that we could find a way out of here. So much could go wrong in the few minutes that I was gone and I wasn't comfortable risking Cammy's safety by leaving her in a supposedly safe place. And something could happen to me if I were to go off by myself. Worse comes to worse, I could possibly be bitten by a Biter that I hadn't seen coming and I would be forced to leave Cammy alone in this cruel world since I positively refused to become one of those things. It was a lose-lose situation. Once again, we were stuck.

"Khendra?" A light tug on my shirt grabbed my attention. I passed her a reassuring glance, one which seemed to slightly appease her as she stopped wringing my shirt like she was trying to see how tightly she could wrap it, and looked around. A convenience store across the road caught my attention. The front windows were shattered and I could see that many of the shelves inside had been tipped over, most likely from the haste of trying to get supplies and to get out of the city fast enough. The automatic doors had been destroyed entirely and it didn't take a genius to know that something heavy had been thrown through the doors so as to get inside. Squinting through the darkness that the sun's rays couldn't reach inside the store, I saw a door in the back of the store that I knew would surely lead up to the roof, providing an excellent view of the Biters and a way for me to monitor the streets for a safe way out. It also gave me a way to keep a close eye on Cammy should she ever try to play hero for the night.

"You see that store, Cammy?" I asked her, pointing. She followed the direction I was pointing in and nodded. "We're going to hold up in there for awhile so that we can come up with a plan to get out of here."

"How are we going to get over there?" She questioned, eyes suddenly turning sharp as she critically surveyed the shop. I knew her attention was mainly focused on the distance it would take for us to cross the road to get to the shop. It was a short walk, but it was still enough for a random Biter to look over and see us.

I bit back a smile. "I'm getting there." I looked towards the Biters and she followed my head's movement to stare at them, too. "We need to create a distraction, keep the Biters occupied while we get inside and barricade the doors and stuff so they can't get in should they find us."

Now, Cammy wasn't stupid. She was actually very smart for a nine-year-old. She noticed things that other kids her age wouldn't and she knew that while I didn't know what the hell was going on anymore, she knew that it was every man for himself nowadays and that her cooperation was very much needed if we were to survive. She just let her fear get the best of her sometimes. Like how she lost her cool earlier when that Biter almost found us. She was still a kid. I firmly believed that even though I knew she was growing mature way too fast for my tastes, she was still entitled to having kid time and having the emotional stress every kid her age worries about.

Cammy looked up at me, rolling her shoulders to get the bag into a more comfortable position. I went to take it from her, knowing how heavy it was since it was filled with quite a few necessities, but she stubbornly turned her shoulder away from my reaching hand. "What kind of distraction?"

"Noise," I said simply, dropping my hand.

It took her a while to put the pieces together and when she did, her face gave me a horrified look. Noise was loud. And anything loud attracted Biters from miles around depending on how loud something was. "I'm not letting you be the distraction," She said firmly, her high voice doing nothing to intimidate me. If anything, it looked like she was merely pouting at me instead of trying to glare at me. "Can't you just fire off a round or something? It'd save us the effort!"

I arched an eyebrow at her in disbelief. "Do you want the whole city of Biters on our ass?"

Cammy's cheeks burned and she looked away sheepishly. She seemed to have forgotten that loud noises attract these things. I patted her head. "We'd have the advantage if we didn't waste bullets on something as simple as a distraction." Here, I gave her a small smirk. "And who said anything about me being the distraction?"

Confused, Cammy watched as I picked up a large stone and gaped in absolute horror as I pelted the rock as hard as I could into a car near the crowd of Biters, successfully shattering the window and setting off the alarm. "What happened to being quiet?!" She hissed as I pushed her to the ground and shoved her under a car as the blaring alarm attracted every Biter within a six mile radius. I quickly followed after her as I merely gave her a smirk, shushed her, and waited. She grumbled under her breath for a little bit before she stopped, nose scrunched up in annoyance at my so-called "distraction".

Shuffling steps caught my attention and I faintly heard Cammy's breath hitch as multiple pairs of feet began passing by our hiding spot. I wrinkled my nose as some of them with bare feet passed us. And here I was, thinking that zombies couldn't have smelly feet. God was I wrong. Ugh.

I wasn't going to lie when I say that both Cammy and I jumped out of our skins when a Biter or two would stumble into the car accidentally, making it shake above us. Sweat had managed to accumulate above my brow and drops slipped down the side of my face as I watched dozens upon dozens of feet pass us by. It wasn't hot necessarily-that was saying something, seeing as how Georgia was freaking famous for having nasty heat waves-and the shade the underside of the car provided was nice, but the anxiety in my gut was making me twitch constantly and I had to bite my lip to keep myself from making any unnecessary noises.

Glancing over at Cammy, I saw that she was no better off. Her hand was covering her mouth in a feeble attempt to prevent herself from hyperventilating. I could see her pupils dilating slowly with fear, but I could see she was trying to keep on a brave face for me.

When the last pair of feet disappeared, Cammy moved to crawl out from under the car. I snatched her arm before she could go out any further and pulled her back down with a shake of my head. She gave me a confused look, but complied, remaining still beside me. She found out why a minute later. A duo of feet soon came into view and Cammy's eyes widened and she gave me a look.

My heart was beating a mile a minute in my chest, my arms shaking with adrenaline. To survive in a place like this, it was better to be more cautious than more impatient. I would've thought Cammy would be thinking this after an incident similar to ours happened a while back. If I hadn't grabbed her the instant she moved, she would've instantly been spotted by these lagging Biters and wouldn't make it away in time before they overcame her.

The grateful look in her eyes that she sent me was enough and we waited a while longer after the last pair of feet disappeared, holding our breaths the entire time. After what felt like an eternity, I pulled myself out from under the car and glanced around. There didn't seem to be anymore Biters coming and I was relieved to see that the now larger herd was very much interested in the car, whose alarm still blared loudly.

Once Cammy had crawled out with me, we made a break for the store doors, Cammy grinning stupidly to herself as we reached the store easily without attracting any attention. Pointing out the glass that littered the floor, we tip-toed across the glass as lightly as we could, both of us cringing when one of us accidentally crushed a piece beneath our feet. After moving the shelf that blocked the door, Cammy hurried up the stairs as I grabbed a few cans of food that hadn't expired from the ground and snatching somewhat cold bottles of water from the freezers and going up after her.

Handing our new findings off to Cammy, I tore loose a thin pipe from the edge of the roof and stuck it through the door handle, grunting as I struggled to bend the metal around the door handle and a nearby pipe. Once I was satisfied with the somewhat shitty job, I sat myself beside Cammy, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her towards me. She giggled slightly and wrapped her arms around my middle.

"We're safe now," She said. "Now all we have to do is wait for Daddy to come and get us."

"You'll be safe there. Wait there until I arrive and we'll figure things out once we're together."

I didn't have the heart to deny Cammy's innocent sentence, so I merely smiled at her as the sun's tip touched the horizon. She either didn't see the sadness that was present in my eyes, or she merely decided to ignore it, as she snuggled up into my side, relaxing into me.

What Cammy didn't know was that we were leaving the city whether Dad was with us or not. She didn't seem to realize that we were in dangerous territory and we were practically sitting ducks just from merely staying an extra day. And I also didn't have the heart to tell her that Dad wasn't coming to get us. Cause I was almost one hundred percent positive that Dad was dead and that he had turned into one of those things the second he had hung on me.

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And that's the end! I hope I did okay. I'm trying to take things slow so that I have time to get a feel of my character and elaborate the way she thinks and see things through her own eyes. Thank you for reading!