Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or any of the characters/plotlines associated with it.

We trekked along the deserted streets in the sweltering heat. Backpacks weighed us down, slowing our pace, but we didn't dare to stop, not even to catch our breath. If we stopped, there was a good chance that something would happen to us. We couldn't risk that. Every so often, Benny would glance over his shoulder at me and offer a small smile. I barely returned it.

"How long have we been walking for?" I called out to him, dragging my feet along the ground, a good few metres behind him.

"Three hours," Benny glanced quickly at his watch. "Not that long, if you think about it. We can manage a bit more, I'm sure. When it starts to get dark, we can find somewhere to take cover for the night."

"I doubt we'll be able to find anywhere sufficient enough for that."

"Yeah, well, we're going to have to try."

Since shooting down our dad, Benny seemed to have a new-found optimism about the whole situation. On the other hand, my mood had slowly started to drop. I didn't even want to think about this situation, let alone actually handle it. It was a good thing that I had Benny. There would have been no chance of survival otherwise.

"How's your leg holding up?" Benny asked.

"Sore," I muttered, registering my limp. "Don't worry about me just yet, I'm fine… Thanks for everything you did back there, Benny. You didn't even have to come home."

"No, but that's the thing. I did. My family are the most important thing to me. Even though we're the only ones still standing, it still means something."

"Do you think we would have managed to get far? With Susie and Ma and Pop?"

"I don't know, Annie. I'm just glad that I have someone."

I nodded in agreement as he fell into pace beside me. He hitched up his bag higher, looking ahead. We didn't even have a destination. We were just aimlessly walking, hoping to get somewhere we could hide out, even if it was just for a few hours.

Benny inhaled sharply, and I followed his gaze. A few of the mutations were gathered in a cluster around something. There was no way we would be able to get through them, and this was a one way road. There were no turn-offs that we could take to get around them. This was it. It would be worse to turn on our heels and walk all the way back home. Our trip would have meant nothing.

"I guess we're gonna have to just run," Benny whispered.

"Run?" I gaped at him. "You really think we can just run straight through them? We don't even know what they are."

"We'll just have to take our chances. It's better than to just stand here and do nothing, isn't it? Stay close behind me. We'll be fine, Annie. I know we will."

He had a determined expression on his face. I groaned to myself, but decided it would be best to avoid any arguments. Benny had been what had got me through all of this so far, so I trusted his judgement. Anyway, it would be better to be taken out together than to have to watch one another go.

The four mutations had not yet noticed us. I gripped the straps of my bag, walking slowly forwards as Benny led the way. Just as we were almost in touching distance of them, Benny broke out into a run. I copied him, my feet slapping against the ground as I sprinted around the small herd and followed my brother. The noises behind us suggested that we had been noticed, and I pushed myself to run faster, despite how hot and exhausted I was.

Neither of us stopped running. Further up ahead, more of the mutations were gathering, walking at an agonising pace in our direction. Benny took a sharp turn, running off of the main road and down a dirt ditch which lead into the woods surrounding either side of our path. I remained hot on his tail, dodging around trees as we ran as fast as we could. They seemed to be popping out of everywhere the further that we got. I knew I was out of breath, but I couldn't even acknowledge my breathing as my fear was too dominant in that moment.

Suddenly, I could see an RV. It loomed above us in the distance. Our feet seemed to instinctively carry us in that direction as the sun lowered into the trees. We slowed down as we reached the perimeter of the area. People were there. Actual, real life people. It seemed like we hadn't seen another person in years since this had all gone down. The group that were gathered looked up at us. One man stood quickly, not hesitating to pull a gun and aim it at us.

"Woah, man," Benny held up his hands in surrender. "We didn't mean to scare you. We just happened to bump into this place. No need to shoot."

"Well, it looks like we've gained a lot of people today," An older man chuckled to himself.

"Gained?" The man with the gun glared at him. "What do you mean 'gained'? Do you really think we can take on anymore? We're getting more than we bargained for already…"

"I didn't say we were here to stay," Benny said in a soft voice, stepping closer towards the group with his hands still raised. "I said that we ran across this place. You don't have to take us in, but you could help us out."

The gun lowered and the man sat back down. I hurried quickly after my brother, staying behind him. We were faced with a rather large group, and I was surprised to see this many survivors. I had thought for a while that we were the only ones still wandering around in Georgia.

"How'd you get here?" Another man asked.

"We were being chased," Benny explained. "By those mutations. We ended up turning off the road and running through the woods. I'm Benny, by the way. This is my sister, Annie."

No one seemed very happy about our presence. It lapsed into an awkward silence, and Benny lowered his hands. He turned and gave me a grave smile. We wouldn't be able to stay here, not with these people. I pushed my sweaty hair from my forehead, sighing to myself.

"Don't you worry about us, we'll be moving on now," Benny carried on. "I suppose it was nice to know that there'll be other survivors we may have a chance of bumping into out there. Thanks for that spark of hope."

"Hey, now," The old man who had spoken earlier got up. "Don't you go on wandering out there and getting yourself into trouble. Come and take a seat, we have more than enough room to accommodate the both of you. My name's Dale."

Neither of us questioned his friendly face, and we walked further into the camp scenario, taking a seat beside him. A few people in the group smiled at us and introduced themselves, while others simply glared and said nothing, sitting there with a sour expression upon their faces. The man who had previously wielded the gun had a stony face. I assumed that he was the clear dictator of this group.

"Where are you from?" Dale asked.

"Just around," Benny shrugged. "Heading in the given direction of Atlanta. Aren't you all making that trip too?"

"We're in the process of it, you could say. Have to take down many Walkers to get here today?"

"Is that what you call those mutations? Walkers? Yeah, well, not many… I've placed a bullet in one. We outran the rest of them."

Dale nodded. I rested my elbows on my knees, supporting my chin in my hands. As I looked up, I caught the eye of the man with the gun. He raised an eyebrow at me briefly before turning away, back to the previous conversation that he had been holding. It was obvious that he didn't like us. I couldn't understand why. We were just survivors, like them. Shouldn't we all be teaming up together willingly?

I smiled when I saw a group of the kids in the camp playing together. Seeing all of these people did give me hope about this whole situation. If such a large group of survivors could live happily and coincide with each other, then we could surely fit into it too. Or, we could at least survive as well as them at some point, whether it be with them or without. Though, safety in numbers was a good one to go on here. I would definitely be more comfortable in a group, rather than just Benny and I.

Benny had always been the sociable one out of the pair of us, and he was easily warming up to everyone. I sat in silence beside him, answering briefly and quietly whenever someone asked me a question. Nobody seemed to pry too much into our previous life, and I was grateful for that. I wouldn't have been able to describe the whole fiasco to them.

"We have some spare tents," Dale told us. "You two can share one."

"Thank you," Benny shook his hand firmly. "Thank you so much for all of your help. It really means a lot to us. We'll pull our weight around here, I can assure you."

"Oh, don't mention it. I would hope that someone would have done the same for me if I'd been in your situation… Besides, you're young. The pair of you have so much more to live for. We'll see you in the morning. Get some rest. It sounds like you've ha had a long day."

I also thanked Dale, to which he clapped me on the back. Benny and I were pushed in the direction of one of their spare tents. We crawled inside and I breathed out a sigh of relief, collapsing back onto the ground and closing my eyes.

"They're nice people," Benny reassured me.

"Yes, I'm sure," I nodded. "Most of them, anyway. A few of them seem a bit off to me. Shane, for starters. Why the heck did he have to go and pull a gun? Surely he could see that we weren't Walkers."

"Yeah, but you gotta take all the precautions when you're living life like this. Don't worry about him, Annie. He's just a bit grouchy. He'll be fine when he sees that we mean to be apart of this group. Don't fret about it."

"Mhm, I guess so."

"We've just got to do what we can to survive. Remember that, if anything."