Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter: Chapter 3

Sunny spent the rest of the day glaring at anybody she set her eyes on. She knew the only people that actually liked her Uncle were herself and her dad, but that didn't mean that these people should be happy that he was gone, possibly dead. No, none of these people cared about her family and she could tell by the looks on their faces.

"Stupid rednecks." She stopped when she heard that. Turning her head she saw Carl and the other kids huddled around each other as if they were playing. Sophia and the Morales kids looked uneasy, while Carl held her gaze with a glare.

"What'd you say?" She asked using the most dangerous tone she could muster. She'd heard people say that about her and her family before, usually it was said mockingly, but never with this much menace.

"I said, 'Stupid rednecks'." Carl repeated slowly, as if she were stupid and couldn't understand him. As if she were the 'stupid redneck' he claimed her to be. He pushed himself to his feet and walked towards her until the two were face to face. Carl only slightly taller, since he was a year older than herself.

Sunny's own glare deepened as she stared the boy down. She'd always hated that name. Hated it. She wasn't just gonna stand there and take it either. No, she'd have to get mean. Mean like Uncle Merle. Sure her daddy was scary when he was angry, but her Uncle Merle could scare the devil back to hell when he was angry. "Ya got a problem with me?" She growled dangerously, never taking her eyes away from his. She'd seen dogs do something like this back home. They'd be growling at each other, but the first one to look away was the one that gave up. She figured it was the same thing.

She could see the hesitation in his eyes, but also the determination. "Your stupid redneck dad, and uncle are the reason my dad has to go back to the city!" He accused while trying to stand up straighter so he'd tower over her even more.

Sunny wouldn't let the height difference bother her, plenty of people were as tall as, or even taller than her dad, and he was still stronger than them. Besides, Carl was all gangly, and while she wasn't much better off, she'd at least spent most of her days running around in the woods, climbing trees, and helping her dad carry game back. She knew she was stronger than him. "If your stupid police man daddy hadn't handcuffed my uncle to a roof no one would have to go back into the city." She sneered. She stepped closer to him, forcing her way into his personal space with a snarl on her lips. "You don't know shit about my family."

"Hey what's going on!?" A voice demanded before Sunny felt someone's hand grip her shoulder and pull her back from Carl's face.

It was Shane, Lori, and Dale. "He started it." She shrugged.

"No I didn't!" Carl denied immediately while Sunny narrowed her eyes. She hated liars.

"Yes you did." She insisted taking a moment to glance at the adults around her. Lori and Shane would probably take Carl's side no matter what she said, but maybe Dale would hear her out. He seemed like a fair guy. "You said 'stupid rednecks' I even asked you what you said and you repeated it."

His face scrunched up and he turned to his mom. "No I didn't! I was playing with the other kids and she just came over and started being mean."

Sunny could only scoff as Lori glanced between the two of them and then set a stern gaze on her. "Sunny you should apologize."

"I ain't lyin'." She insisted. "An besides, even if I was, which I'm not, you're not my momma, I don't got to listen to you." She turned her glare back to Carl, "Yer a lyin' sack o' shit."

"Hey!" Shane snapped. He reached out and grabbed Sunny by the arm. The grip was painful, but Sunny wouldn't let it show. She had to be strong. She was right, she knew it, and Carl knew it, he just wouldn't admit it. "You don't talk to people like that!" He scolded.

"You ain't my daddy neither!" She growled as she tried to pull her arm away, but his grip was still too tight. "I don't got to listen to you! Either of you!"

"Why don't you two have a talk with Carl, and I'll talk to Sunny here, huh?" Dale suggested. Sunny gave him a confused glare, but he simply smiled to reassure her. Shane and Lori shared a glance, and together they lead Carl away. Lori mumbling something about negligent fathers.

"He was lying." Sunny insisted weakly as Dale lead her over to the RV.

"I bet he was." Dale agreed.

Sunny's head shot up at this, her eyes widening in surprise, "You believe me!?"

Dale chuckled at her reaction. "Yes, though I don't think the language you used was appropriate." He scolded her gently.

She pouted at that, "No worse than what he said." She grumbled.

Dale's eyes softened as he looked down at the little girl. "What he said might have been hurtful Sunny, but that doesn't make it okay to do the same. An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind." She giggled at that. It was such an old saying, even she knew that one! "There's that pretty smile! Just like a ray of sunshine. Guess that's how you got your name."

She nodded her head in agreement, "My momma named me! Daddy says she used to call me her personal ray of sunshine come to brighten her day! Specially when she was in the hospital…" She could barely remember what her momma looked like. Without her pictures, all she could remember was that boring white hospital room where she'd go everyday with her daddy to visit.

Dale patted her head gently pulling her out of her thoughts. "Amy and Andrea are going to go fishing in a bit, why don't you go see if you can go help them?" He suggested.

Sunny thought about it for a second before shaking her head. "I don't like fishing. I'll see if I can get some squirrels from here instead."

He nodded his head in agreement. "Alright, just keep your distance from Carl, alright? Shane and Lori too if you can."

She giggled, but agreed before running off, pulling her bow off of her back and an arrow out of the quiver as she went.

Dale chuckled as he watched the little girl stand on the edge of their clearing, bow at the ready. She was one little hellion when she wanted to be…


"I'm sorry Carl lied." A quiet voice pulled Sunny away from her searching of squirrels.

She turned around to see Sophia, one of the other kids at the camp. She was quiet, normally didn't talk much. Her dad was really mean from what Sunny could tell. "It ain't your fault, so you shouldn't apologize." She told the girl with a shrug. "Carl's the one who's gotta apologize."

Sophia looked down at her shoes as she toed the dirt nearby. "He's just scared his dad's not gonna come back. He thought he was dead this whole time and when he finally gets his dad back, he might lose him again."

Sunny rolled her eyes. "Doesn't give him an excuse to be mean to me, and then lie about it." She eyed the girl standing meekly before her. "Why you defending him anyways?"

"He's my friend-"

"So?" Sunny scoffed and shook her head. "He's wrong. He needs to man up and apologize himself, and not make his friend do it for him. Don't apologize for someone else, especially if it's not your fault got it?" Sophia wouldn't meet her eyes, but nodded none the less. Sunny could tell the other girl was dejected, and felt a little bad for her, maybe she just wanted more friends? She could relate to that. "Wanna help me skin these squirrels?" She offered. She didn't normally like hanging out with other kids, but if they were doing something she liked she didn't see the problem with it.

Sophia's head perked up at the offer, a hesitant smile on her face. "I don't really know how…" She mumbled.

Sunny just rolled her eyes, "Then I'll teach ya, c'mon!" She lead the other girl over to her family's tent area and began grabbing all the things she'd need, some buckets and two knives, before walking back over to one of the small fire pits and settling herself on the ground. "I'm gonna warn ya now, skinnin' animals is messy, and kinda gross, but you get used to it." Sophia sat herself on the ground next to her and listened to everything Sunny said with rapt attention as she explained the ins and outs of skinning and gutting a squirrel.

Dale watched from the top of the RV, glad that the little girls were being friendly, and Sunny may have finally found a friend in the group.


The rest of the day was pretty boring once she and Sophia finished skinning the squirrels. (They were pretty messed up, but it was fun and Amy and Andrea had caught more than enough fish to make up for it.) Jim had some sort of nervous breakdown and had to be tied to a tree. Mr. Morales had come up with a way to have a bigger fire, and she hadn't been forced into school work like Carl and Sophia since her dad wasn't around! Pretty good day in her book- aside from her family not being there to enjoy it with her.

It was dark out now, and the fish had finally finished frying. Everyone was gathering around to get some to eat by the fire. Sunny was grabbing a piece of fish to put on her plate to go sit down with when a voice stopped her, "I'm sorry I was mean to you earlier today, and then lied about it." She turned to see a guilty looking Carl with Lori behind him her hands on his shoulders.

Sunny simply stared at him hoping her silent gaze made him uncomfortable. It did. "Aren't you going to say something back?" Lori noticed Carl's nervousness and prompted Sunny to reply.

"I don't got nothing to say. He was mean and then lied. Don't got to forgive him." She shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

Lori's eyes narrowed at the little girl. "Sunny, Carl is apologizing to you, don't you think you should apologize too?"

Sunny just scoffed. "Why? I didn't do nothin' wrong."

"You called me a lying sack of shit!" Carl protested.

"Well weren't you?" Sunny challenged, getting annoyed with him again. "Maybe I shouldn't have cursed, but I didn't do nothin' wrong. And I'm not gonna forgive you for saying what you said and then lying cause it's not okay!" She took a deep breath to calm herself, "But I accept your apology so long as you don't do it again, deal?" She grumbled.

Carl nodded his head begrudgingly. "Deal." He agreed.

Sunny nodded her head and turned back to where everyone was sitting around the fire, and managed to find an open spot by Dale.


Everyone was smiling and laughing, there was enough fish for everyone to have more than one piece. The adults were drinking beers, while the kids got their sodas, it was an overall happy moment. Sunny just wished her dad and Uncle could be there with her to enjoy it too.

"I've got to ask you man, it's been driving me crazy." Sunny lifted her head wondering what question was driving Morales 'crazy' as he put it.

"What?" Dale chuckled.

"That watch." Morales pointed at the watch snugly resting against Dale's wrist.

Dale looked down at his watch with a fond smile, "What's wrong with my watch?"

"I see you every day, the same time, winding that thing like a village priest saying mass." Morales explained.

Others nodded their heads in agreement, "I've wondered this myself." Jacqui added.

Dale shook his head, "I'm missing the point."

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world seems to have come to an end." Jacqui elaborated, a couple of others chuckling. "At least hit a speed bump for a good long while."

"But then there's you every day winding that stupid watch." Morales finished.

"Time! It's important to keep track, isn't it? The days at least." Dale asked. "Don't you think? Andrea? Back me up here."

"I think it is." Sunny agreed, smiling up at him.

"Thank you Sunny, see someone gets it." He sighed and looked down at his wristwatch. "I like what, um, a father said to a son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, 'I give you mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit your individual needs no better than it did mine, or my father's before me; I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment, now and then, and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it.'"

Everyone was quiet for a moment, just smiling. Sunny didn't really get it, but she guessed whatever it meant, it was something happy. "You're so weird." Amy muttered affectionately while everyone else let out laughs and chuckles.

Laughing lightly Dale defended himself, "It's not me, it's Faulkner. William Faulkner. Maybe my bad paraphrasing."

"Where you going?" Andrea asked as Amy got up quietly.

The girl turned to her sister with an annoyed frown, "I have to pee. Jeez, you try to be discreet around here..." She grumbled as she walked off towards the RV. Sunny giggled, she could understand that. Even before all this, when she and her dad would go on weekend trips hunting she wasn't allowed anywhere away from him unless she told him exactly where she was going and what she was doing.

Everyone continued eating their fish, still in a happy mood after Dale's confusing little speech. Everyone was so happy, she just wished her family could be here to enjoy it too. "We're out of toilet paper!" Amy called out as she pushed open the RV door. Sunny turned just in time to see the geek reach out and grab her arm and take a bite out of it. She let out a startled gasp while Amy screamed. It seemed as if that was the trigger that sent everything in motion. The moment the scream left Amy's lips geeks were everywhere! Thinking quickly, Sunny pushed her plate off her lap. and grabbed her bow and quiver from the ground and bolted towards the RV. She'd kept it close to her all day just like her dad had said she could. Gun shots, and screams echoed around her. She ducked and dodged the hands that reached for her as she finally made it to the back of the RV, and without wasting a moment she climbed the ladder and knocked an arrow. She concentrated on her aim, only one walker at a time would be able to come up that ladder, and she'd have a height advantage on it.

The geeks seemed endless, pouring out of the tree line and into the camp. Only Dale and Shane had guns, some were screaming and running for their lives while others tried to kill the geeks with baseball bats and pieces of metal. She aimed at the geeks that were away from people, afraid she'd accidentally hit someone living instead.

She heard growling closer than any of the others and turned her head in time to see one of the geeks making its way up the ladder. Its upper body lay on the top of the RV while its arms reached out to her. Sunny pulled her knife from her belt sheath, not wanting to waste an arrow on one that she could easily kill with her knife, and carefully walked towards it, staying out of its arms reach. The thing was too stupid to think of taking another step up the ladder or pushing itself up, instead it just stretched it's arms out as far as they could and clawed at the air. Taking a deep breath, she aimed, and then lunged with the knife, being careful not to accidentally throw herself off the top of the RV and into the waiting geeks below.

The knife sunk into the eye of the geek with a sickening squish, the thing falling back and on top of a passing by geek. Sunny pushed herself back up and back over to the edge of the RV, forcing herself not to throw up, and again concentrate on killing the geeks below. More gunshots echoed around their quarry, and Sunny noticed four people making their way through the geeks with little to no difficulty.

Finally the last geek fell, those who'd manage to survive the attack huddled around, some had their weapons raised, as if they didn't believe it was over. Others stared blankly a head of them, as if they couldn't believe what just happened. Sunny was one of the later.

"Sunny! Sunny Rae!?" That was her dad… Sunny blinked and looked down at those gathered there. She could see her dad frantically walking around, searching for any sign of her. "Sunny!" He screamed.

"Daddy!" She called out. Everyone turned to see her standing there bow in hand. "The ladder's got blood on it! I don't wanna slip!" She explained.

The relief on her dad's face almost caused her to burst into tears, she'd scared him. She'd made him think she was dead for a moment. "Stay right there baby girl, I'll get'chu down." He told her.

She walked over to the ledge where the ladder was, and quickly remembered the geek that had fallen on top of the other, "Wait!" She cried out before her dad could get to close, "The one on top is dead, but I'm not sure if the other is too." She explained at his questioning look.

Her dad nodded and pulled out his knife and quickly stabbed both bodies in the head for good measure. "Alright, c'mon down now baby girl. Nice and slow, watch your feet." He instructed as she carefully made her way down, trying to avoid as much blood as she could. "There you go." He whispered as she finally got to the point where he could grab her waist and lift her up. He pulled her down into his arms and just held her tight for a moment, "So fuckin' smart you are." He murmured into her hair. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck and cried silently. The shock of what just happened finally settling in her brain.

"Where's Uncle Merle?" She whispered. He wasn't here, she'd have heard his voice by now, what with him being all loud and all.

"Shh." Her dad hushed, "He ain't dead, but he wasn't there. I'll tell you more about it later. C'mon let's get you in the RV with the other kids." She whined, but didn't protest as he took her into the RV and set her down next to Sophia and the other kids. "You stay here with them, got it?"

She sighed and nodded her head, "What about my arrows?" She mumbled tiredly. The energy leaving her rapidly.

Her dad chuckled, "I'll get them, don't worry. Go to sleep." She huffed at him, but curled up in one of the corners and closed her eyes, hoping it would all be just a bad dream when she woke up.


I got some really nice review so thank you for those! I hope I'm portraying Daryl right, like I know he's got a kid and everything, but I feel like that wouldn't stop him from being a bad ass, so I hope I'm not fucking that up.

Anyways, redangel2463 asked: How old is Sunny anyway?

She's about 11, going to turn 12. Since she's got a later birthday, (Which I haven't got a set date yet) she's would be going into 6th grade that year. This is assuming that the virus started at the end of the previous school year, or sometime during the summer, it's kinda hard to work with when there's no definite timeline you know? I feel like I'm portraying an 11-12 year old pretty good. I have a little sister, and although it's been awhile since she was that age it seems about right, plus my friend has got a 10 year old sister who'll be 11 soon. Sunny's a little more mature than some kids her age considering who her dad and uncle are.

But if anyone has any questions about Sunny, or the story in general feel free to ask! hoped you guys liked it let me know in the reviews!