AN: Hello! This is a little bit more of my sorta prequel story for "The Aunt". Hope yall like it.

Circe

I sat up in the pallet of furs, breathing hard it was the last time either my niece and I saw my older brother. I could only hope he was alive. We were lucky to find the hunter's cabin even during the summer the nights were pretty cold. I pushed the furs over Noelle she was still asleep. Thank god. I was worried we wouldn't get any sleep with the walkers shuffling around outside so much. I walked over to my backpack and pulled out two canned fruit cocktails. I put them over to the side as I went through the other cans I had trying to figure out how to ration our food. I stacked the food into a small pyramid and started to re fold clothes in mine and Noelle's backpack. She had a three tops, a sweater, two jeans, two shorts, four sets of underwear and a leather jacket that she wore almost every day no matter if it was hot as fuck. I groaned as I started on my clothes, I had almost four tops, one of them couldn't really count as a top because I usually wear it under a cotton long sleeve button up when the weather is super nice. I folded the four items and continued to my two jeans and cotton shorts. They were the last thing my mother made me before I moved out to live with my brother. I sighed holding them for a moment, the pattern was of kittens, my favorite animal. I continued on to my underwear I only had two sets plus the ones I was wearing. I was going to need to find a clothing store soon because they were getting ratty as fuck. I finished folding just when my cat, Nala poked her head from under the furs where she laid with Noelle. She meowed and made her way over to me where I let her curl in to my lap as I just watched the walkers through the windows. I sighed pushing a hand through Nala's thick striped fur. She purred happily and contently as I did so. She was a good cat, she stayed in my backpack when I needed her too, she did her business in the designated areas and she loved anything I gave her to eat. Thankfully I had two big bags of cat chow in the van. There were almost five walkers outside right now with the sun rising, I hope they stop being so attached to the sound that my van made almost a whole day ago.

"Aunt CC?"' I looked over to see the 11 year old looking slightly upset. She must have had a bad dream.

"Over here darling." I said gently waving my hand.

"Ohh." She mumbled to herself as she made her way over. "What's the plan now?" she asked me.

"Don't get killed?" I asked she laughed to herself as Nala moved over to get attention from her.

"No, really?" we were both silent for quite a while until she spoke again. "What will happen if we never find dad?" Her voice was cracking and without looking I could bet that she was tearing up. I couldn't look at her or I would start openly crying and there's no way back from that.

"We will. We will." I mumbled mostly to myself. "I'm going to clear out those walkers while you watch Nala then we'll go into the next town." She gave me a confused look so continued. "I need new underwear." She giggled again. "Shut up." I hissed at her this made her giggle as always.

"So where too after the town?" she asked me. I pulled the map out of the side pocket of my backpack then laid it out in front of me.

"There's a lot of farm land here." I pointed to the land to show her. "Maybe we find a nice farmhouse with good fences up still. Maybe we can stay the winter there. We can stock up on cans and trap some birds or something." I smiled at her weird face.

"Do you even know how to hunt?" she asked me.

"I know how to shot a bow so that should help right?" she laughed again. "Alright get packing. I'll call you when all of them are dead." I said pulling my machete off the table top.

"Be careful." She said.

"I will. And if something happens." I paused already knowing she knew what I always told her. She nodded her head.

"I will and love you too." She said back hugging Nala to her chest. I peeked out the door window to see that the walkers had wandered over towards my van and away from the door. I opened the door and slipped out the side quickly hoping not to be seen right away. One saw me and was ambling over with a loud moan which got the others to head my way. I ran up to the walker holding my machete with both hands and lunged forward pushing my hands out in front of me so that the blade went through his eyes and directly into the brain. I pulled back and swung to my right as a female walker came up on me. I clipped the side of her head and she crumbled to the ground. The last three was getting closer. I took a step towards the next one to my left now as he reached out for me I kicked him in the chest as I swung at his head to slam my machete in to his skull. I was a little over zealous because the blade got stuck in the bone. I groaned and tried to ply it out with my boot to the walker's head up I was running out of time. I looked over my shoulder and the other two were just a foot away. I jumped over the dead walker and ran to the edge of the cabin's area to grab a stone. I quickly tossed the stone at one and kicked the other in the knee cap. His bone broke easily sending him falling to the ground. I leaned over the porch to grab a stake and jammed it into the walker I threw a stone at. I made it right through the left eye and then I ripped it out of the walker to use it on the crawling walker in the base of his skull. I scanned the area quickly and it was all clear.

I walked over to the front door of the cabin and opened it. "Its me, Noelle." I mumbled as I walked in. She stood with my bow over her left shoulder next to her back pack with my backpack laying against her legs with Nala sitting inside of it. Both were ready to go. "You have your gun?" I asked her. She nodded her head. I picked up my backpack and grabbed my bow and quiver from her as she grabbed the food case next to her. "I got the keys so lets hit the road, jack." She laughed at my joke. We were walking out when suddenly a blond little girl was climbing out from under my van.

"Oh well hello." Noelle said to the girl. The girl quickly ran up to us.

"Thank you so much for killing them." She said.

"No problem. Are you lost?" I asked her. With a nod of her head she looked at her feet. "Do you have a group?"

"Yeah but I got separated. When I was running yesterday I could hear them yelling my name but… I couldn't follow it."

"Not to worry. We'll help you." I said with a smile. "I'm Circe but you can call me CC and this is Noelle and Nala." I turned around so Noelle could point at the cat sleeping in my backpack.

"You have a kitty. How neat." She whispered. "I'm Sophia. I would really like the help. Thank you so much." She said.

"Again, no problems. Lets get in the van, Noelle has a few clothes you can use until we get to the town. There we'll get you properly suited for this shit." I said. She made a face at my cuss word and Noelle took her by the arm.

"Don't worry. She looks scary and sounds scary sometimes but she's really nice." Noelle counseled the little girl. Noelle helped Sophia change into jeans, a clean tank top and a pair of extra boots I had for Noelle. Thankfully the two were similar in size. I drove towards the town as the two sat in the back playing with Nala and her toys.