Disclaimer - I own nothing that you recognise.

Author's note; Thank you so, so much for the alerts and review! I really, really appreciate it! I'm definitely going to carry on with this story, so thank you for the interest! Here is another chapter which is a little bit less action packed than the last... I assure you, though, that the third chapter will be so action packed that you'll hopefully be on the edge of your computer chairs ;) (just be careful not to fall off! tehe.)

Chapter two - Ruby gets sick.

It was hard for Evelyn to believe that it had been a three weeks since the outbreak - and two weeks and three days since... that terrible night that Daisy's father, Dec, had died. They had always been best friends and they had a drunken night nine months before Daisy was born. Of course, they still remained freinds but never decided to become more than that. It just didn't make sense to either of them. They lived together when Daisy was born though and raised her between them, both of them loving their adorable little flower. When the infected people started turning people in their small town, the three of them got out quickly and went on the run for three days.

On the third day they stopped in a small town in Texas and stayed with a group of other survivors. Evelyn and Dec left Daisy with the big group to run across the road and try to get a few weapons and some food togehter. Unfortunately, an infected woman managed to bleed into Dec before he even saw her coming. Evelyn refused to kill him but he begged and begged until she could barely look at him anymore.

"Y'know that I'm not gonna just leave it Evie, don't you?" Dec questioned jokingly in between deep breaths. He was trying his hardest to fight to infection but, inside, his body couldn't win. The infection was spreading through his blood. He could feel it pulsing through him, and it scared the crap out of him.

Evelyn narrowed her eyes and placed one hand on her hip. "You're asking me to put a bullet through your fucking head Dec!" She snapped, her voice serious and firm. Her face suddenly softened. "Dec, I can't do it."

"If you don't do it then I'll turn into one of them Evelyn!" Dec practically shouted angrily, though his eyes were still filled with sadness. "Please," He started in a much softer tone. "Just do it. I couldn't bear it if I hurt you or Daisy... I'm begging you, please do this for me."

Evelyn shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. "I can't do it."

She stayed with him in the small grocery store, keeping to her firm words of not being able to kill him. Eventually, he turned and tried to attack Evelyn. He managed to slice a deep cut in her arm, but she defended herself and shot him square in the head before it was too late. She'd never forget the moment when he slumped to the floor, his body lifeless. Evelyn stayed in the store for another half an hour, sobbing into his chest.

When she got back to the small group of survivors, Daisy questioned where her father was and Evelyn really couldn't explain anything. She got her daughter strapped into their car and sped out of town as soon as she could. Daisy sobbed and sobbed until Evelyn came to the realisation that Dec was actually dead and that her daughter was fatherless. She told her daughter that Dec had gone to heaven to visit her old pet turtle and her nana and grandpa.

Daisy didn't know what they meant but she did know that he wouldn't be coming back to see her. She hadn't seen her grandparents or turtle ever since they went up to heaven. She was going to miss her daddy. Every single morning since then, Daisy woke up and asked for her father. She was too young to understand that her father would never come back. Evelyn had to explain it to her every single one of those mornings, even though she was having such a hard time with the news herself... she was the one that had put the bullet through his head. She never had the chance to grieve properly, not with doing everything in her power to protect her daughter and trying to prevent it from happening to one of them. So, she went through the notions feeling completely numb, trying to look happy for her daughter's sake.

Evelyn sipped from one of the seventeen large bottles of water that they had left, and shook herself away from her thoughts. She drunk it sparingly, knowing that Daisy and Noah would need a lot more than she did. At the beginning, she had packed thirty bottles of water and kept refilling at every opportunity. Now, though, they didn't really have a lot of time to stop so she decided that they would wait until each bottle was completely empty. They also had plenty of canned foods, the kind that wouldn't go out of date, and a few other foods that hadn't let gone past their sell by date.

It was only recently that the pandemic had broken out but Evelyn knew that, eventually, all of the food in the world would run out. With barely anybody alive to grow crops and to manage large factories, the food would die along with everything else. Noah and Daisy were fast asleep in the car - Evelyn had took Daisy's old car seat from the boot of the truck and moved Noah into it, keeping him wrapped up in his blanket, in the back seat. One thing she had to do was find an old shop that had baby food or baby powdered milk, and she prayed that none of it was out of date; they didn't have any food for baby Noah so that was a definite priority. For the time being, he lived on water and Evelyn could tell that the baby wasn't satisfied.

They were driving through a small town that was five miles away from Florida, and Evelyn was determined to get to Camp Chiquita by the time the children woke up. She had no idea how she was supposed to fend for both Daisy and, the newest addition to their small group of survivors, Noah but she was determined to look after both of them and keep them alive.

"Mornin' Momma." Daisy stated from beside Evelyn, sleepily, as she rubbed both her of eyes in a bid to wake up a little bit. Evelyn turned slightly to face her daughter, with a small smile on her face.

"Hey Darlin', did you sleep well?"

Truth be told, Evelyn didn't think that her daughter slept well. They both spent the night adjusting to Noah and his sleeping patterns. Evelyn had to stop the car quickly at three in the morning to try and calm him down and Daisy didn't fall back to sleep until two hours after that, as she really couldn't once she was awake. "Where's daddy? Is he back yet?" She questioned as soon as she was completely awake. She looked around, anticipating seeing her father in the truck.

Evelyn shook her head sadly, but forced a small smile on to her face. "He's still with speedy and nana and grandpa, sweety."

"Oh." Daisy sounded completely disappointed. She looked up to her mother, her eyes wide. "Why?"

"Because Speedy needs him, love." Evelyn kept her eyes on the road and placed her bottle back beside her.

"I need him too." She heard Daisy mumble sadly, more to herself.

Evelyn's heart broke a little at the statement that she had just heard. Her daughter was only four years old, yet one of the most important people in her life had been taken away from her - because of this virus.

"When we in Flor'a?"

"Florida, sweetheart." Evelyn corrected, amused.

"Daisy knows!" Daisy began, indignantly, as her lips curled out. "Flor'a." She dramatically pronounced the word, proud of herself. "See?"

Evelyn laughed to herself. "Okay, honey, I know what you mean. Um, we're in Florida in about five minutes. It'll take a little bit longer to actually get to Camp Chiquita. I'd say we'll be there in about half an hour?"

Daisy grinned happily. They were finally going to be safe.


Evelyn was in really high spirits. They were only five minutes away from camp, five minutes away from a possible cluser of suvivors and five minutes away from, most importantally, safety. She didn't know what she imagined life in a camp to be like. Obviously, everybody would still be on high alert to make sure that the infested didn't break into the camp but she imagined it much more relaxed than how life was for Daisy, Noah and her now.

Noah was awake now and had swapped places in the car with Daisy. Evelyn decided that it would probably be more easier to keep an eye on a baby if he was just right beside her. Daisy didn't mind too much, though she was sort of upset that her space in the car had been taken, she knew that the new seating plan was much more easy for her mommy.

Evelyn had given them both one of the water bottles each to drink from and Daisy seemed content but Noah, on the over hand, was having a hard time adjusting from milk to the water. He didn't really have a hard time adjusting to the two new faces that he had come across, mainly because he was still so young.

"Are we there yet, momma?" Daisy questioned from the back of the car, looking around at their new surroundings. She could only just look outside the window. There seemed to be no sign of any infected people in the area, which both she and her mother were thankful of. Maybe the suvivors had wiped most of them out? Evelyn prayed that this was the case. It would put her mind at rest.

Evelyn nodded. "Almost sweety."

Noah cooed from beside her and blew bubbles from his lips, causing her to laugh. "I think Noah's excited too, by the sounds of it."

All of the sudden, the truck made a strange jittering sound and slowed down slightly. "No!" Evelyn exclaimed as she pressed down harder on to the pedal. It wasn't any use though; Ruby completely stopped, after making a few more sounds that didn't sound too great. Evelyn slammed both of her hands against the steering wheel and cursed several times.

Daisy didn't even point out, in a very innocent way, that her mother had used 'naughty words' because she knew that the situation was very bad. She knew that they weren't even at the camp yet and that the car had just stopped in the middle of the road. "Momma, why Ruby stop?"

Evelyn turned to face her daughter, trying to keep her panic level to the minimum. Inside, she was very worried... they were almost to Camp Chiquita, and they had broken down. She glanced around at her surroundings to see that they were pratically in the middle of nowhere.

"She must have hurt herself," Evelyn began, feigning calmness. "I'll just go and fix her. Can you watch Noah for me?"

Daisy nodded before sticking her thumb into her mouth. She leant closer to Noah and smiled down at him.

Evelyn took one last look at her daughter and Noah and climbed out of the car, with her shotgun in hand. She didn't understand why the truck had broken down at all... they had filled it up with gas just recently and it wasn't as if they'd had problems with it before this moment in time. She looked around, surverying the location, as she stepped closer to the front of the car.

She pulled open the bonnett, only for smoke to seep out of it. "Oh, for gods sake!" She exclaimed, at the top of her lungs. Her eyes widened at the sudden realisation that the car would probably end up blowing up. She rushed towards the passenger door and unbuckled Noah. "Daisy, quickly grab Noah's basket and the bag of food and drink."

"Why mommy?"

"Because we've got to walk from her," Evelyn would eleborate more, but she was in a little bit of a rush. Daisy handed her Noah's basket and she placed him inside of it, making sure that he was wrapped up warm and snug. She walked around to the other side of the car and pulled out some bullets from her compartment, placing them into her pocket. "Daisy, come on sweety."

Daisy grabbed the bag of food and drink and passed it to her mother, who slung it on to her back. She gripped her mother's hand and jumped out of the truck. Evelyn's hands were literally full; she had Noah's basket slung around her left wrist, with the gun gripped in her hand. On the other side of her was Daisy holding her hand and the back pack slung on to her shoulder.

"Listen honey," Evelyn began, sighing in a frustrated manner. "It will take us ten minutes to walk to the camp site. You need to keep a hold of my hand and if I tell you to, you need to run. You need to take Noah and hide where I tell you to."

"Mean monsters get us?" Daisy questioned, her eyes filled with fear.

Evelyn shook her head, even though she couldn't really give her daughter a definite answer. "They won't get near enough to you to hurt you."

"Promise?"

"I promise." Evelyn stated before looking down at Noah, who had started to stir. "Shh, Noah. It's okay. We need to get out of here, now. "

Evelyn and Daisy walked, side by side, with Noah in hand, down the dirt road. It would take them a little bit longer to get to Camp Chiquita, and it would certainly be more dangerous. Evelyn hoped that they wouldn't bump into infected people, she just didn't know what she would do if they did. She didn't want to even think about it.

"Mommy," Daisy began as she looked around, frightened. "Daisy don't like this."

"How about we play a game?"

Daisy nodded. "What game?"

Evelyn thought about it for a few moments. "I spy, with my little eye something beginning with..." She looked around at their surroundings and then back down to Daisy who seemed to look a little bit more relaxed. "T."

The trio kept travelling by foot down the dirt road and Daisy looked around. She suddenly gasped and faced her mother. "Tree!"

"Oh, you got me!" Evelyn smiled, though inside she was very nervous. She kept her shot gun at the ready, and the children very close to her. She was on the look out for infected people and also for places for the children to hide if they were suddenly attacked.

"My turn!" Daisy grinned, pulling Evelyn away from her thoughts. "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with..." Daisy glanced around, taking much longer than Evelyn had. "Guh!" She sounded out the letter 'G' and waited for her mother to reply.

Evelyn kept looking around, playing the game with Daisy to keep her distracted and calm. If only she felt calm too...