Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited and followed, this means a lot to me!

I just want to address reviewer 'Amy' for a second, because you said I should try to "introduce more of my history in the first chapter". Thank you for this suggestion but what exactly do you mean by that? :) [Sorry]

Anyways, this is Chapter 2 and I know it's not that interesting again, but I wanted to do a chapter covering the group's situation in season 3 before starting with episode 301.

And another thing: If you think that Carl is being annoying or behaving like a brat then that's okay, I'm trying to write his personality/thoughts in a way that goes hand-in-hand with what we get to know about him in later episodes.

Chapter 2 (Past, Prologue to episode 301)

Water. That's all I could think about when I was opening drawers, cupboards and bags, feeling more and more desperate by the second. Please, just let me find one bottle…

Before the apocalypse I had taken everything for granted. Almost everyone, who was lucky enough to live in "rich countries", had taken things for granted. Water, food. A hot shower, a warm bed. I didn't even remember the last time I had had a shower. And for a few days now, we had been dangerously low on food, having only a few cans of corn and tuna left. We had shared our last bottle of water in the morning and now we were on a desperate mission to find some.

Me, Dad, Daryl, T-Dogg and Glenn that is. Maggie stayed back with Mom, Hershel, Carol and Beth, to protect them. Carol had gotten pretty good with a gun though and sometimes I wondered why Dad wouldn't let her clean houses with us. Maybe it's because of the baby… if anything happened to Hershel, she would be the only one left with knowledge about how to deliver the baby without taking unnecessary risks. The "adults" didn't talk to me about the pregnancy or about birth, but I could see them exchanging worried glances and now and then I overheard them talking about it.

It's like they think I am stupid. I'm not stupid…. and I'm not a child, I'm just like all of them.

"Watch out!" Glenn stumbled into my room and pointed into the one he had been in until a few seconds ago, "Walkers, five or six of them!" Glenn normally didn't ask for help when it came to taking care of Walkers but we tried to stay as soundless as possible by not using normal guns and it's hard to kill more than one or two if you're only weapon is an iron stick. Me and Dad were the only ones with silenced guns, we had managed to make silencers out of a baseball bat and a flashlight.

Just as I was about to shoot, Dad hurried into the room as well and said, "Don't! Save the bullets, we don't have too many left. Let's go, there's nothing in this ... shack anyways. Let's go." I didn't like the idea of wasting this many bullets either, so I lowered my gun and we all hurried outside, shouting T-Dogg's and Daryl's names to get them to notice us leaving.

"Any luck?" Carol asked when we arrived back at where we left them and the cars. "No" Glenn replied and gave Maggie a short kiss on the cheek. We checked a few more houses that day and eventually we found some water, but not nearly enough to not be worried anymore.

In the evening we made a small fire for the night and had a very small and unsatisfying meal. At first we had always been worried about lighting a fire and sleeping outside but we're careful and figured out how to set up noise/alert traps. Additionally, our cars were always parked only a few feet away and we mostly tried to sleep in there. We preferred staying inside houses though but it had been getting harder to find a good place where we could rest for a couple of days. It had been more awful in winter though and out of fear of freezing to death we had even slept in gross storage units for a couple of weeks. Nights were now finally getting warm again though and so I didn't mind sleeping outside, but I could see that the others were worried about mom.

It has to be April or May now. So Mom is about 9 months pregnant, meaning the baby could possibly come every day now, at least according to that conversation between Carol and Hershel I overheard two days ago. I hope they are wrong… it must be impossible to hide from walkers when we have a crying baby to carry around.

After we had finished our few spoons of 'corn-tuna' with some crackers we had found earlier I watched the others getting ready to sleep. I wasn't that tired yet though, so I went over to Beth, who was sitting on the ground with a big bag on her lap and was counting our last few remaining supplies.

"Hey" I said and smiled. She looked up and smiled too "Hey!".

"I'm sorry", I asked, pointing at the bag, "that I didn't bring back a lot of food and water today." - "Don't be stupid, it's not your fault. It's more important that you come back from clearing houses in one piece! And besides, I am sure there wasn't more than what you found and brought back."

As she bent her head down a few strings of hair fell over her face.

She looks so pretty right now.

I must have stared at her for too long without saying anything because she lifted her head again and asked, "What?". "Uh, nothing", I lied and I could feel my face turning red, "Well, have a good night Beth!" I stood up and hurried back to where my backpack was lying. "Good night", she said and I couldn't decide whether she sounded confused or amused. In the last couple of weeks I had made a fool out of myself almost everytime I had spoken to her. And lately, I also felt like smiling all the time when I was thinking about or talking to her, which mostly ended with me hurrying away, feeling embarrassed. Oh Lord.

The next couple of days we basically followed the same routine: clearing houses and spending nights outside on the ground or in the cars. Dad didn't always let me go with them, only when we wanted to clear small houses which he thought looked "secure". I was a good shot, but I had never killed a walker with any weapon other than my gun, so I often had to stay behind or wait in the doorways for a few seconds. I never told anyone because I was afraid that I wouldn't be allowed to go with them anymore at all, but I was more than annoyed by that.

I know I can handle it. Why are they treating me like a small and helpless child? Of course there were some precarious situations now and then but I wasn't afraid of walkers anymore. Why can't Dad see that? Why does he think he has to protect me all the time?

That was chapter 2 and chapter 3 would finally be about episode 301 :)

I am kinda unsure about grammar in this chapter, I esp. suck when it comes to tenses. I am so sorry for that.

I hope you still liked it though and again, I'd be so happy if you left me a short review and tell me whether you liked it or not or just to point out mistakes, because then I could try to fix them :)