"Momma." The tiny voice of a eight year old Faith Dixon says from across the dinner table.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Beth smiles at her child.

The littlest Dixon gives a shy glance. "Um . . . Well . . . What did Daddy look like?"

Beth's eyes grow wide, but she remains calm. She should have expected her daughter's curiosity would get the best of her daughter one of these days. "Um . . . Well . . . Daddy was . . ." How does one describe Daryl Dixon? Beth ponders over the thought before answering. "Well, he was tall and handsome." Beth begins.

"Is that all, Momma?"

"No," Beth laughs. "And . . . He was always protecting you and me, even before you were born. He . . ." Beth feels a lump forming in her throat as an image of Daryl washes into her mind. She places a hand to her forehead as an attempt to hold it together, but she was failing quite miserably. Faith's teal eyes grow dark and her lips form a frown. "D - Daddy . . . Daddy was . . ." Beth let's out a small sob.

Faith hops down from her own chair and crawls into Beth's lap. She wraps her arms around her mother's neck. "I love you, Momma." She whispers. "Daddy loves you too."

Beth sniffs and wipes her eyes. "When did you become so clever?"

Faith shrugs her shoulders. "I dunno." Faith smiles a little. "But Daddy loves us. Just like you always say." Beth giggles at the child and kisses her head.

"No doubt in my mind." She whispers.

"Faith?" A familiar voice wakes me up and my eyes slowly open to see my mom's blue eyes staring down at me.

"Mom." I say, sitting up right away. Black suit covers my mom's face, as well as blood. We pull away from each other's embrace and I look at her. "Where is everyone?" I ask referring to Aunt Maggie and Uncle Glenn and the rest of our family. I watch as my mom swallows slowly.

"I - I don't know." Her answer is soft and I stare at her in disbelief. We had just seen them . . . Where the hell were they?

"Okay." I whisper. She helps me stand and we start to walk through the thick forest. "We can't be the only survivors." I say, breaking the silence as we walk. Mom turns and looks at me slowly right before moving on without another word. I continue to follow in her footsteps and we walk in silence, looking.

"Do you think Uncle Rick and Judith and -"

"Sh!" My mother shushes me all of a sudden and I swallow my words. Mom holds up a hand and I watch as she slowly reaches for her knife. I slowly grab an arrow from behind me and place it in my bow. I could hear footsteps slowly approaching. I hold my breath and we wait. I spot a rabbit hopping into our view. A grin comes to my face and I let the arrow fly.

My mom turns around and looks at me. "Good shot." She smiles as she picks up the dead animal with the arrow halfway through its eye.

"Always am." I grin confidently. Mom places the animal into her bag. "We need to keep moving." She says, her eyes looking onward. She pauses and turns back to look at me. "I know a place where we can stay."

I follow her through the brush and thick leaves, stomping my way to try and catch up to her, as the day slowly starts to get hotter. We push past through a treeline and an old dirty shack comes into view.

"We're here." She says. We walk through the dirty yard and make our way to the front door. "Your dad told me about this place, he and Michonne found it right before we headed out for the Alexandria Safe Zone . . . Right before . . ." She trails off and I frown. We stare at each other, on the front steps of the house, and I step in front of Mom and kicked open the door. I whistle and band my hand against the old door frame and I wait, listening.

"It's clear, Mom." I don't hear her move, and that frightens me. I jerk my body around and see her looking at the ground, tears falling. "Mom . . ."

"It's fine . . . I'm fine . . ." She assures me. I remembered, when I was younger. I'd sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and she'd be crying like this. She said it was always nightmares or something, but I knew the real reason. One day, I found a letter in her draw, addressed to my dad. It didn't say his name, or what he looked like, or anything, the letter was just full of love and passion. She wrote about how much she loved him and how much she wished he was here, and how she still had hope that he was out there. This place, it reminded her of him, just like all those nights.

I know I looked some what like my father. Now, I think that when she looks at me she sees him, and that hurts. Every night, when she cried, it was because she looked at me or something that reminded her of my dad, and she couldn't get him off her mind, just like now.

"Mom, we don't have to stay here . . ." I say, trying to make the atmosphere less tense.

"I'm fine." Her voice is soft now, and she walks passed me. "I'm going to board up the place. Why don't you go find some firewood?"

I nod and head out into the woods and feel right at home. I didn't like having to look for a bunch of stupid sticks, but I knew my mother needed space. "And we'll buy . . . A beer to shotgun . . ." I sing softly under my breath as I bend down to pick up a batch of sticks. My singing stops when I hear a stumbling sound. I don't take notice, even though I should, because another object catches my attention. A black bandana. I pick up the cloth and run my fingers over it. It smelt like leather and cigarettes. I tie it around my wrist, as if it was some kind of bracelet.

The sound finally sticks in my head. Walker. I jump to my feet and place a arrow in my bow. I start to run towards a creek when I see five of them stumbling towards me. I slide into the dirt when another batch of walkers comes from my right. I groan as I feel a burn and bruise forming quite quickly. I scramble to my feet and start to run towards the creek again.

Walkers are hot on my trail and a come to a hill that leads down to a creek, but I slip when I try to run down the hill and I end up tumbling. I groan as I feel sticks and rocks hit my body, only adding to more bruises. I land in water and groan as a sharp pain runs through my stomach.

Pretty soon, I see red water surrounding me. My eyes widen as I slowly look down and I see an arrow in my stomach. I slowly swallow and I glance up. The walkers are gone now, and now, I was screwed. Mom wasn't going to be happy. I lost the sticks and I stabbed myself with an arrow! Who does that?!

I swallow again as I bite down the pain. My legs feel like jello as I stand and I stumble through the water. My body feels lighter as I go in deeper, trying to reach the other side of the creek, and I feel myself losing more blood. I crawl onto the dirt on the other side of the creek and I flop on my back.

By the time I'm able to make it back towards the cabin, Mom is furious. "Where the hell have you been - OH MY GOD! What the hell happened to you?!" Her tear filled blue eyes look down towards the arrow in my torso.

"Mom -"

She shushes me by rushing me inside. She quickly makes me lay down on a bed of blankets. "Lay there, I'm gonna get that thing out of ya. Lay still, this is gonna hurt, honey." I watch as she pulls out a needle and thread, as well as towels.

"M - Mom -"

"Do not go crying on me, Faith. Dixons are strong. You'll be fine. Now, let me help you." Tears fall from my eyes as we share one last glance.

I wake up, the moon light through the boarded up windows. The pain in my torso is unbearable, but it's better than the arrow still being stuck in my flesh. A sharp pain makes its presence known in my head as I sit up. I see my mom sleeping by me, along with a half broken bloody arrow.

She slowly sits up, obviously tired, and gives me a small smile. "Hey, kiddo."

"Mom," I whisper. "I'm sorry about getting stabbed with an arrow and losing the fire wood. I should have been more careful."

"Faith," Mom pushes a piece of her golden locks behind her hair. "I'm not mad. The point is, you're alive. You're here and you're alive. That's all that matters. I can't lose you." She frowns and then gives a soft smile. "You're dad had this happened to him."

The remark catches me by surprise. "Really?"

She nods. "It was right before we were run off the farm. Your father had gone out looking for a little girl who had gone missing. Um . . ." She pauses with her story. "We . . . Had a secret romance on the farm. He was the redneck and I was the farmer's daughter. We snuck around every once and a while and one day, after looking for the girl, he got in an accident and ended up with an arrow in him. We had to stitch him back up." She looks down at the floor as I listen intensly. "After that, walkers took over the farm. We headed towards the safe zone, and my daddy died along the way. Your father helped me through that, even if he didn't know it, and he blamed himself for most of it, thinking it was his fault. Then he saved us from the walker herd and I never saw him again. I found out that I was pregnant with you and the rest is history."

I look at her and frown. "Yeah . . . It really is."

A sound shakes us both to the core. She stands up with her gun and knife. "Stay." She orders. She heads out into the darkness and I wait, hesitating and heart beating out of my chest. I hear my mother scream and I jump to my feet, despite my pain.

"MOM!" I shout. I run out to the road just by the shack and I see no sign of my mother, only her bag spread out on the leave covered gravel. I look and see a black car with a white cross on it. "MOM! MOM?!" I shout as I run after the car.

I can't lose her. I can't! She would never leave me - No! She was taken, and I would be damned if I let her get taken.

"MOM!" I attempt to shot again. "MOM!" I feel tears fall down my face as my lungs start to catch on fire. They burned worse with bandages around my torso and it was like fire ants were biting and eating at my insides. I watch as the black car speeds up and leaves me in the dust, alone.

I drop to my knees in the early morning, out of breath and completely devastated. Mom can't be gone. She can't be. She's always been there for me and now she's gone. My mother was alone and gone and I was here.

A pair of boots comes into my sight of vision as I let my tears hit the leaves on the ground. My head slowly looks up and a man with a crossbow is standing in front of me.

"You alright, girl?" His voice is rough and sends chills down my spine. I don't hesitate, I stand up as fast as I can and grab my bow and aim it at him. He looks at me and then looks at my arrows. "Girl, don't be stupid." He warns. "You don't gotta enough arrows to last you five minutes."

I look up at him, not lowering my weapon. He was so much taller than me. I was my mother's height and right now it wasn't helping at all.

The man sighs. "Girl, I ain't gonna hurt you. Put the weapon down . . . What's your name?"

I don't let my gaze rest, but I lower my weapon. "Faith."

"Daryl." He says and we continue to stare at each other. There was something about this guy that seemed familiar, and I had a feeling I was going to figure out why soon.

Hi everyone. Sorry it took me so long to update. I hope you enjoyed and I'm so sorry if this isn't interesting. :( I really do try my hardest on these kinds of stories that deals with a lot of emotion and everything, so I hope I'm doing good so far. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Thanks! :)