Disclaimer- I do not own anything Walking Dead related. I just like to play with the characters and see where things go.
Summary- Judith Grimes also known as the lil' Ass Kicker is 18 and all grown up. She is on her own in the world of walkers and bad people having gotten separated from her older brother Carl a few years prior. With her family gone can she make it in this world. Will a chance meeting with a surely 16 year old change everything. Follow Judy as she makes her mark on the world gone to hell.
Flashback
"CARL...CARL... No, where are you?" I screamed, whirling around looking at my surroundings. The night was creeping in, but the Georgia heat stuck around long after dark. My skin was sticky from the sweat of out running the walkers that had emerged into our camp.
"CARL." I called again hoping he would respond. More growls emanated from the walkers in the woods around me. I quieted down and picked up the pace of my running, remembering how to be quiet like daddy always taught me. Although he always reminded me that Daryl a man from our group when I was really little was much better at hunting and tracking. I would ask questions trying to get my dad or someone to answer but all they ever told me was that they lost him when we lost our home.
I kept up a brisk pace as the woods cleared into farm land, a big white farm house came into view and I ran for it pulling my knife from its spot on my hip and holding it firmly in my hand. I slowly crept up the porch and wrapped a few times on the still closed door. No rustling or moans came within a few minutes so I pushed open the door and slowly cleared each room. The place was almost perfect, aside from a thick layer of dust covering everything. After clearing both floors and bolting shut the doors and windows I plopped down on the sofa in the little living room. A large baby grand piano sat in one corner and a small TV sat in the other. I looked around at the walls and noticed a picture of Aunt Maggie, she was smiling her biggest smile while holding onto a trophy and standing in front of a horse. I stood up quickly and scanned more pictures. An older man and woman smiling brightly, a young blonde girl with bright eyes and a big smile and so many more photos.
"This must be Beth the woman who took care of me for a while." I said aloud to myself. "And Aunt Maggie's father Hershel."
The pantry was still full of canned food so I placed a few cans in my back pack and got to work getting myself some dinner. Tonight I would sleep and tomorrow I would come up with a plan.
After my meal I barricaded myself in the room I assumed belonged to Hershel before they were forced to flee the farm. All the years I spent with my family I had heard the stories of before. A plastic container with a black book sat in the corner of the room. I walked over to it and picked it up wiping some of the dust from the cover. I pulled open the front section and the first thing I saw was a very young looking Carl and my dad looked pretty young too. But what got me the most was the thin long haired brunette staring back at me with brown eyes. My mom, I realized. I had never before seen what she looked like. I could only guess by comparing myself in the mirror. She was beautiful, strikingly so. I thumbed through the pictures of my family, happy, before the turn. Before the walkers took everything.
Of course I had heard the stories of Shane Walsh, my father's partner on the police force back in King County, the town I was meant to grow up in. I have heard of how my mother was carrying on with him when she thought my dad was dead and how people were and still are unsure of whether Shane or Rick was the one who actually fathered me. But none of that matters, only the family I know matters to me. I came to a picture in the back of the book. Two men in police uniforms stood side by side with Carl in between them. Carl smiled this huge smile, as both men looked at something in the back ground. On the uniform I could see the name Walsh, S printed in bold letters. "So that is Shane" I mumbled. After pocketing the family photo from the beginning I laid down on the bed and let sleep take over.
End Flashback
The thought of leaving Georgia scared the life out of me. It had been years since I was separated from Carl and even longer since I was separated from the rest of my family. When I was eight years old a group tore down the walls of Alexandria, killing my dad in the process. Carl and I got away and ran for as long as we could. Somehow we had made it back to Georgia where we moved around every few weeks. Not wanting to stay in one place. He kept training me on the things he had learned such as guns and sword fighting. Everything was fine while it was just the two of us until we went on a run when I was 16 and ended up being separated by a herd of walkers passing through the town. That was three years ago, and now I travel alone. Never staying in one place long, the longest stretch of time I stayed on my own was at the farm that my family had been on before I was born. The place where Carl was heeled after having been shot, the place where we lost many people.
The winter was settling in around me as I kept walking, having not learned how to drive I tended to avoid vehicles unless I needed to sleep in one at night. I stopped to listen, hoping the small footsteps I was hearing was an animal, I turned around as the sounds got closer, my knife out to protect myself from an attack.
"Whoa there girl." A tall surely blond boy said. He couldn't be more than sixteen. His blue eyes were striking as he looked down at me with an amused glint in his eyes.
"Who the hell are you?" I said with a slight accent, however his was much thicker than mine. "Have you been following me?"
"For 'bout a day."
"Why?"
"You shouldn't be alone out here, it aint safe." He said.
"I know that. I repeat who are you."
"Names Jackson, you?"
"Oh no, you are the creep who is following me, I am so not giving you my name kid."
"Kid?"
"Well yeah you can't be older than what sixteen?"
"True but you don't seem old enough to be out in the world wandering around."
"Technically I am an adult not that I should be explaining myself to you. I don't even know you and my daddy always taught me not to talk to strangers." I told him jutting my chin in the air like a petulant child. He chuckled a bit before speaking again.
"Well, I saw you were by yourself. You gotta group round here?"
"Yes." I lied easily.
"Liar."
"Excuse me?"
"You aint gotta fear me girl, my mama and daddy raised me right."
"In this world no one get's raised right." I told him earnestly.
"My mama was a good little church girl back in the days before the outbreak, she made sure she taught me good while the world taught me the bad."
"My name is Judith." I said giving in. "But I go by Judy."
"Well it's nice to meet ya Judy." He said giving me a shy smile. "I'm on my own now too. Wanna stick together?"
"I would like that." I said realizing that I meant it. I have spent so much time on my own that I had almost forgotten what it was like talking to another person. I smiled shyly at him as we got to walking down the old back road.
.
.
.
"So you from Georgia?" He questioned as we settled into an old abandoned office building in a small town.
"Yeah, I was actually born in a prison. I think I was six or seven months old when we had to leave it. Then I lived in Virginia until I was eight. What about you?"
"Born and raised in Georgia. Moved around a lot although we did stay in this old funeral home for a few years when I was real little." He said, he looked down at the bowl with peaches for a moment before he spoke up. "What did you say prison?"
"Yes why?"
"You wouldn't be lil' Ass Kicker would ya?"
"How in the hell would you have heard that name?" I asked my guard flying up immediately.
"Hey girl calm down, my mama and daddy told me stories of their time in a prison and how there was a baby that my mama took care of. My dad called the girl Ass kicker."
"Beth and Daryl?"
"That's them."
"Oh my god, they survived." I mumbled more to myself than anyone.
"Well up until a few months ago, at least as far as I know." He said sadly. A tear fell from his blue eye which he quickly wiped away.
"Oh my god if aunt Maggie knew that her little sister ended up with Daryl she would have a cow." I laughed slightly. "Last I saw them they all believed them to be dead."
"It takes more than a few walkers to kill a Dixon, girl."
"Wanna help me look for our family?"
"Hell ya."
Inspiration hit for this story yesterday and I couldn't not write it. Let me know what you think!
