Hello again! Before I started I wanted to thank all of the people who followed and favorited my story (you know who you are!). Sadly I haven't gotten any reviews so please review me because that would help me lots! Anyways, I hope you enjoy! :)
"Residents are encourage to evacuate to Atlanta where refugee camps are being set up and the government is moving in. If you can't evacuate then stay in your homes until the CDC finds a cure which they're working hard to find. This message will be broadcasted every 3 minutes or if there's any new update," The radio broadcaster informed me as I drove out of Atlanta along with several other cars.
"Refugee camp my ass," I grumbled, thinking about the small camps scattered around town I saw which could be easily overrun.
I couldn't stop thinking about how I witnessed the death of my best friend Katie. I always knew that one of us would die eventually since with what we do, it's obvious we probably wouldn't die at an old age but I was okay with that. I just never thought that my best friend would just give herself up to those monsters so I could make it out alive and I was pissed at myself for letting her do that.
My light tan fingers gripped the steering wheel as I continued driving, swerving to dodge several walkers when I had to and soon the amount of cars around me grew smaller and smaller as they crashed into walkers or they found their destination while cars heading for Atlanta grew bigger and bigger.
"Idiots. Haven't they watched a zombie movie?" I asked and I decided to listen to some Halestorm instead of the boring radio broadcaster and I hit the CD player and I bounced my head along with the drum beat and I sang along with Lzzy Hale as the song progressed, calming me down a little but I was still focused and the thought of Katie still bugged me nonstop.
"Between love, between hate, shake the silence but it's too late," I sang along to the song as I arrived near the quarry.
I soon found a camp ground that I could probably spend a night or two in and then I could probably head in a small town, gather some more food, a tent, and maybe some more weapons if I'm lucky.
I pulled the Escape into the center of the grounds and I turned the car off, knowing the noise would attract the walkers.
I opened the hiking backpack and I pulled out all of my items to see what I needed to rationalize.
I had 24 bags of chips, half from the hotel room and half from the deli and I figured I could ration them so that they could last about 6 months if I used only 4 chips a month which I could do easily do since I've been lasted a week without food during a mission in the Philippines.
I had two canned items, a can of tuna and a can of peaches which I knew I could save for quite a while but I knew I would need a hunting knife to open the canned food open.
Besides my Glock 22 and 23 and Katie's 22 Glock, I had a Glock 17, a FN Herstal FNP-9, a Beretta 92, and a Glock G-30 which all had not too many bullets but I knew I would be able to last a while with these as long as I don't run into a big group of walkers.
I had a small bottle of shampoo and conditioner which would last me about 8 showers, I had a bar of soap which I knew would last a while from the looks of it, and I had 3 washcloths which is good just in case I get sick or something. I had a full box of Band-Aids which will last me a long time since I don't trip or scrape myself up hard. I had 6 Advil tablets, 9 antiemetic pills, only 3 barbituraries, and a full thing of aspirin which was good.
Sadly, I didn't have any knives or water so I knew I had to get those along with a hunting rifle and a tent so I can hunt and camp.
I checked my military jacket pockets to see if I had anything in it, II had an energy bar on the left top corner, a magazine for my Beretta, my cellphone which had 50% battery in it so I decided to save it, and as I slid my hand into my bottom pocket on my right side, I froze and quickly pulled out what was in there. There were two items in there, a roll of white gauze which I always have but the second one shocked me.
I held a small, gold chain necklace which held in the middle of a small gold dream catcher. The center of it with the strings was shaped liked a little flower and had three little gold metal feathers on the bottom that would move back and forth like a pendulum as it hung in midair but would lay still as it laid across your chest. There was a tiny little gold clasp in the back which was easy to put on but it was nearly impossible for it to fall off which has only happened once. I knew this because it was Katie's necklace that she would always wear even if we were on a mission.
The necklace was her mom's which she gave to Katie before she died of cancer back when we were 17 and Katie felt like it was a part of her mom that she always carried with her. They were incredibly close and sometimes I would get jealous since I never really knew met my real mom that well, just horrible foster parents or orphan workers before I met Hannah, my current foster mom since I was 13.
I guess Katie had slipped it into my pocket while we were trying to make it to the car without me noticing and my eyes watered up thinking about how she knew she was going to die and decided to give me her most prized possession but I quickly blinked back those tears, we had promised each other we wouldn't cry for each other or anyone and I knew I was going to keep my promise.
"I think I'll just settle in for the night," I sighed and I quickly packed everything up again, putting them back where they were before except for the necklace which I hung on my rearview mirror.
"There," I smiled softly at the necklace before I hopped out of the car to make sure everything was secure before I went to sleep which is good since five seconds later, I heard a shrill scream come from the forest.
I ran towards the scream, pulling out my gun and holding it out in front of me.
The scream sounded like it came from a little girl, not a teenager, 9 maybe? But it was still a little girl that needed help and it was my job to protect people.
I soon arrived to the scene to see a little girl trying to climb up at tree but a walker had a grasp on her foot and the girl was wildly trying to shake the walker off of her foot while two more walkers started lumbering towards her since they heard the screams as well.
In less than a second, I shot the walker grabbing the little girl's foot and he fell, bringing the little girl down with her and she shouted in surprise as another walker came near her.
I took action and quickly grabbed the walker heading towards her and shot it in the forehead and then quickly shot the other walker, landing right next to the little girl who was sniffling, scared out of her mind.
"Do you have any injuries?" I asked her as I kneeled beside her.
"N-no," She whimpered, tears streaking down her face.
"Let me see your ankle," I instructed her in my soft voice I use all the time with traumatized children and she quickly showed me her ankle and I didn't see any bites or scratches.
"You got lucky," I told her.
"I-it nearly got me," She whimpered as tears went down her face.
"Hey, no more of that crying. You're safe and those things aren't going to hurt you," I whispered to her softly.
"B-but there're more," She explained.
"You're right but those things won't be able to get to you, okay?" I told her.
"They got my momma though. This morning, I was playing dolls in my room when I heard Momma screaming so I ran to the kitchen to see my daddy biting my momma and I ran," She whispered, scared.
"I know, I lost my momma and my daddy too but am I crying?" I asked her.
"No," She answered.
"That's because I have my brave face on, I don't like it when people see my cry, do you?" I asked her.
"Momma hates it when I cry during my punishments," She answered and I tried not to look shocked as I saw a scar hear her shoulder which I can tell was from beatings because I've experienced them too.
"I'm Cassandra. What's your name?" I asked her.
"Maddy," Maddy answered to me.
"I like your name," I smiled at her.
"I like your name too," She smiled back at my showing her little dimples.
"Well, Maddy, life is going to be hard at times especially right now and you're going to see a lot of death and sadness all around you but all you need to do is look on the bright side and always put on your brave face, especially with me because I don't like it when people cry. Can you do that for me for now?" I asked her.
"B-but that thing nearly killed me," Maddy answered.
"I nearly got killed by that thing too but am I crying?" I asked her.
"No," Maddy answered.
"And you're pretty tough like me right?" I asked.
"Daddy says I'm not," Maddy replied.
"Well, I think you are, so put on your brave face for me, okay?" I asked and Maddy wiped away the tears from her face and smiled at me.
"Much better," I smiled and she smiled back and I looked at her.
The first thing I noticed about Maddy is her little button nose for some odd reason.
"Can I call you Button?" I asked her.
"Why?" She asked.
"Well, I like your cute little nose," I tapped her nose and she giggled.
"Okay!" She smiled, showing off her teeth which had some yellow in them but there wasn't a cavity in sight.
She had light brown hair which was pulled into two braided pigtails that had little leaves on them probably from the tree she was in, she had bright blue eyes that stood out against her black, muddy t-shirt that she wore, and she had light tan skin like me but a little paler than me. She was a little taller than a 9 year old being in between 4'8" and 4'9" and she had a little muscle in her arms and legs from climbing trees and I bet she could probably use a gun if I trained her. She wore a black T-shirt which has mud and some walker blood on it like her light blue jeans and her black sneakers.
"Can I come with you?" Button asked, snapping me out of my inspection of her.
"You mean you want to stay with me?" I asked her.
"Yeah," She mumbled shyly and looked down.
"Sure," I shrugged and she grinned at me.
"Really?" She grinned.
"Of course, but I have to teach you how to use one of these," I held up my hand to show her my gun.
"Why?" She asked.
"Well, I'm not going to always be there to save you so you should know how to defend yourself instead of running," I explained to her.
"Okay, just don't leave me right now, okay?" She asked.
"I promise," I smiled at her and we both got off of the forest floor and I lead her back to my camp.
"Where are we going to sleep?" Button asked.
"In the car," I explained.
"Cool!" Button grinned and I unlocked the car for her to crawl in the passenger seat and I hopped in the driver seat and locked the door.
"Can we play a game?" Button asked.
"Why?" I asked her, raising one of my eyebrows.
"Well, I don't want to fall asleep," Button mumbled.
"Do you get nightmares?" I asked her and she nodded, looking down shyly.
"I do too also," I told her.
"Really?" Button looked at me.
"Even before all of this, I had nightmares," I told her.
"Me too," She whispered and my eyes focused on the necklace on the rearview mirror.
"You know what? Here," I took the necklace off of the rearview mirror and I unclasped it.
"Is that for me?" Button asked.
"Yep, it was my best friend's, now turn around," I told her and she faced her back to me, raising her pigtails in the air and I placed the dream catcher around her neck and fastened it.
"There, now you won't get any bad dreams," I explained to her, smiling.
"Why do you think that?" Button asked.
"Well, it's a dream catcher," I explained.
"What's that?" Button stared at me curiously.
"Well, I think it's story time!" I exclaimed.
"I like stories," Button smiled.
"Well, the story behind dream catchers is that Native Americans believed that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. The dream catcher when hung over or near your bed swinging freely in the air, catches the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams know how to pass through the dream catcher, slipping through the outer holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams not knowing the way get tangled in the dream catcher and perish with the first light of the new day, this dream catcher helped my friend sleep every night with good, peaceful dreams so now that'll happen to you," I told the story to her.
"That's cool!" Button grinned and then yawned, stretching her tiny little arms out.
"Do you wanna sleep and we'll play 20 questions tomorrow?" I asked her.
"20 questions?" Button asked.
"Yeah, you ask 20 questions to each other, each of us taking turns, and if a question is too personal, they can say 'pass' and the person will have to ask another question. Sound good?" I asked her but all I heard was silence.
"Button?" I turned from my position to see little Button curled up in her seat, fast asleep.
"Night Button," I murmured softly and I soon followed her into the world of sleep.
Hello again! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and also liked little Maddy "Button". Should I keep that nickname or ditch it? As I was writing this chapter, the nickname just felt weird to me and I'm curious what you guys think so review what you think and if you enjoyed this chapter which I hope you do! :) Toodles!
