Ooh Child Things'll Get Brighter

by MonsterxChild

She's just a little girl! Yeah well this little girl's got a bow and arrow. She's so tiny! Doesn't mean she doesn't know how to bring you to your knees. She needs to be protected! She's a Dixon, enough said. If there's one thing you need to know about Sunny Rae Dixon, it's that she is her Daddy's daughter.

4. Chapter 4

Ooh Child Things'll Get Better: Chapter 4

People's screams echoed in her ears, gun shots were cracking off in the distance, she couldn't see anyone, just the faceless dead reaching out for her. There was nowhere for her to run, she was trapped. As the screams grew louder, the hands reached closer. She could practically smell their rotting flesh. She watched in horror as one of the rotting hands reached out and clutched onto her shoulder.

With a gasp Sunny woke from her nightmare. She looked around frantically wondering where she was, nothing was familiar to her as pushed herself up off the ground she'd been sleeping on. She was in some small room with a little bed, on the bed lay Eliza and Sophia. Looking around the room more she spotted Carl, and Eliza's brother sleeping in the other corner opposite of her. Oh…She was in the RV. Memories from the night before flooded back, and she couldn't help but to cringe at how similar it was to her dream.

The other children were still sleeping soundly, as if the events of the previous night didn't happen at all. Glancing out the window she saw the sun was just now beginning to rise, and decided she no longer needed to be in the RV with the other children. She didn't want to be in the small enclosed space with them anyways, she wanted to be outside with more room, fresh air, and most importantly, her dad. He'd probably get mad that she decided to leave the RV without him coming to get her, but she just didn't care. She wanted him, and she wanted him now!

With that thought in mind, she made her way to the front of the RV, carefully stepping over some of the sleeping adults who'd made their way in at some point in the night. Quietly she pushed the door open and stuck her head out into the dim morning light. Not many people moving about like they'd done before the attack on camp. Most were gathered around the fire pit staring into it with lost expressions, the rest were slowly beginning the long process of cleaning up the camp, her dad among them.

She watched as he went from body to body, pulling forgotten weapons out of their bodies and putting them in a pile before going to the next. She noticed her quiver attached to his hip, and whenever he came upon a body with one of her arrows in it, he'd pull it out, try to wipe off the excess blood and gore, and put it with the others. It was while he was doing this that he looked up from his work, his eyes landing on her standing there, peeking out from the RV. His frown deepened, and she could see him mutter something- knowing her dad it was probably a curse- before he shoved the arrow he'd just pulled from the walkers body into the quiver and stomped over to her. "The hell you doin'?" He demanded, though his voice was quieter than usual. "Thought I told you 'ta stay in the RV?"

Sunny glanced behind her to see Glenn shift in his sleep, probably disturbed from the noise her dad was making. With a quiet sigh she stepped fully out of the RV and closed the door. Reluctantly she looked up at her dad. "Had a nightmare…" She mumbled.

Daryl sighed as he looked down at her, so small and tiny, didn't even look like she could hurt a fly, yet she'd taken down about a dozen walkers with that bow of hers. Despite this, she was still just a kid. He glanced to the side to see Andrea still kneeling over Amy's body, this wasn't the place to have this conversation. With a sigh he reached out and wrapped an arm around his daughter's shoulder and led her away from the rest of camp, "'Bout last night?" He asked once they'd reached a good distance from the destroyed camp.

Sunny sighed and nodded her head sadly, "I just didn't want to be in there anymore." She mumbled, she looked up at him with wide pleading eyes, "Can I stay out here with you?"

Daryl sighed once more, he knew she was scared from last night, and he knew he couldn't just force her into the RV for the rest of the day, but he also knew she shouldn't be out here either. "How 'bout this, you can stay out here, but you sit by the fire pit with the others, clean your arrows. I gotta help clean up, make sure camp is safe."

Knowing that was the best she was gonna get Sunny nodded her head in agreement. "I can clean your weapons too if you want." She offered.

Her dad nodded his head and led her over to the fire pit where a few of the others were gathered. She sat in an empty spot and waited as her dad went to go get her a rag and a bucket and some of his own weapons for her to clean. When he came back and set the things down around her. "You just stay here alright? No wandering off, even if you're done cleaning them weapons, got it?" He asked her sternly, he glanced over at Lori who was sitting beside her preparing some breakfast for those who were already up, "Do you mind…?"

She shook her head quickly, "I'll keep an eye on her, but Daryl do you really think it's a good idea for her to be out here?" Lori asked as she glanced around at the various bodies lying on the floor.

Daryl snorted, "She'll be fine, took out a dozen of 'em herself." Sunny felt a swell of pride at her dad's almost praise. Glancing down at the dirty arrows her dad had pulled from the walkers bodies she could see he wasn't exaggerating either, she really had taken out that many.

"Think we can go huntin' later?" She asked him eagerly hoping for an excuse to be away from the camp with just her dad.

He just shook his head, "Gonna take us a while to get rid all these guys, won't have the time today. You just clean those weapons, if anyone else needs their weapons cleaned I'll point them in your direction. If ya don't got nothin' ta do, you help Mrs. Grimes, got it?"

She knew that he was just trying to keep her busy, and normally she'd be annoyed, but after her nightmare she didn't mind the idea of being distracted. "Got it." She sighed.

"Good girl." Her dad smirked and ruffled her hair before walking off.

For the rest of the morning, and well into the afternoon Sunny sat at the fire pit gently cleaning her arrows, then her knives, then her dad's arrows and knives, and then random weapons that others brought over to her. At first they were wary of the idea of a little girl handling a weapon, but slowly got over that. Sunny had been cleaning her father and uncle's weapons since she'd been old enough to understand the potential danger. Hell, she even knew how to clean guns, but she was only allowed to do that with an adult watching over her making sure she did it right.

As the hours ticked by more and more people began helping with the clean-up process. Her dad was going around with a pickaxe, slamming it down into the dead's heads to make sure they were gone for good, while others started a fire and began dragging the bodies over to it to dump them in. Andrea continued to kneel over her sister's body, not letting anyone near. Lori had tried to talk to her earlier but the woman wouldn't even acknowledge her existence.

"She still won't move?" Rick asked as he walked over to the small fire pit where his wife and a few others, including Sunny, were sitting.

"She won't even talk to us." Lori confirmed. "She's been there all night. What do we do?"

"Can't just leave Amy like that" Shane sighed, "We need to deal with it, same as the others." Sunny wanted to disagree. It was just one, if Amy did turn and she bit Andrea then they'd just put them both out, wouldn't have time to hurt anyone else, and Andrea couldn't blame them for her mistake. But she didn't voice her thoughts, 'cause she knew her daddy would get mad if the adults told him she was arguing with them.

Rick nodded his head, agreeing with Shane, "I'll tell her how it is." He decided and walked over to kneel next to Amy and Andrea. However before he could even get into a full crouch Andrea had a gun pointed in his face, forcing him to back up and lift his hands in surrender. The adults around her shot to their feet in surprise, though no one rushed to do anything. Andrea said something to Rick which had him backing away cautiously, his hands still raised in the air in surrender until he was a safe enough distance away for Andrea to turn her attention back to her sister's body.

"We're just gonna have to leave her." Rick decided as he came back.

Sunny felt a hand rest on her shoulder and looked up to see her dad standing behind her, his pickaxe resting on his shoulder. "Y'all can't be serious." He growled, his grip on her shoulder tightening just a little, it was far from painful, but Sunny knew her dad wouldn't like the decision to leave Amy to Andrea. "The dead girl's a time bomb, I ain't lettin' it go off with my kid around."

Rick sighed tiredly and wiped a hand across his face, "What do you suggest?"

"Take the shot." Her dad explained like it was the simplest thing to do, "Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, even Sunny can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance." Sunny glanced over to where Amy was, it was true, she probably even get a clean shot on a rabbit from this distance too.

"No." Everyone looked over to Lori who'd spoken up. "For God's sake, let her be."

Her dad looked between the three adults before scoffing. "Keep your bow on you kid. That girl starts movin' around I want you to have that thing ready to fire, got it?"

"Yes daddy." She agreed pulling her bow closer to her, along with all the arrows she'd just cleaned. He nodded his head in approval before walking away to make sure the other walkers wouldn't be getting back up, along with their fallen group members.

She watched as her dad started to help drag bodies over to the burn pile, however Glenn stepped in front of him blocking the burn pile. The two argued for a few moments before her dad and Morales dragged the body over to the other side of the RV where a few of the other bodies lay. "Y'all left my brother for dead!" Her dad shouted then gaining the attention of the whole camp, "Ya had this coming!" He stormed off again to grab his pickaxe to let off some steam. He was still upset about Uncle Merle, but honestly so was she.

"A walker bit Jim!" Sunny's head snapped up at that, her eyes widening as she frantically reached for her bow and quiver and stood up. Everyone was slowly backing away from Jim, yet at the same time circling him so he couldn't run away. Sunny stood back as the adults gathered around, she knew her dad would get mad if she even thought of venturing to close.

"Show it to us." Her dad demanded as he began circling Jim with the pickaxe.

Feeling threatened, Jim reached down and held a shovel before him defensively. Everyone began chattering at once, some accusing, others terrified, and few, like Rick, trying to reason with everyone.

T-dog managed to rush up behind him and force the shovel out of his grip and hold his arms back while her dad rushed forward to pull Jim's shirt up enough to reveal the bite. "I'm okay! I'm okay!" Jim protested the entire time, the phrase becoming more and more like a prayer.

"Sunny Rae!" Her dad called out as he rushed up to her, pick-ax in hand. He grabbed her by the shoulders and began to frantically look her over just as he did the night before, as if a walker had come out of nowhere and bitten her while no one was looking.

"I'm…I'm fine." She'd almost said 'I'm okay' but considering that's what Jim had just been chanting she figured it'd be better to go with something else. "Really, I'm fine."

He continued to look her over, running his hands over her arms, and checking her shirt for any blood stains. "You stay with me the rest of the day, got it?" He demanded. She couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips as she begrudgingly nodded her head in agreement. "Listen to me Sunny Rae, there are two, two, people well on their way to becoming walkers, I don't you out of my sight for even a minute, do you hear me?" She nodded her head this time, though with less exasperation. "Good, got your knife?" She pulled it out of the sheath at her hip to show him before putting it back, "Good, now you keep that bow and those arrows close and you don't take your eye off of either of them till they got a hole in them brains. Now stay with me." He instructed as he walked over to the group of adults gathered to determine Jim's faith.

"Do you really think it's a good idea for her to be here?" Lori demanded as she glanced angrily down at Sunny.

"I sure as hell ain't lettin' her out of my sight with these two walking around camp." Her dad snarled.

"Daryl-"

Rick tried to protest, but her dad had cut him off, "I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it."

"Is that what you'd want?" Shane asked, glaring at him. "If it were you? Your daughter?"

Sunny's eyes widened as he said that, "Shane!" Lori scolded.

She could feel herself shaking as she looked from him to the other bodies lying about on the ground, holes in their heads. She felt her father's hand rest gently on her head, pulling her so that she was right up against his side, her tiny hand gripping his pant leg tightly. What would her dad do if she'd been bit? "If it were me? Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it. And if it were Sunny, she felt his grip tighten as he pulled her even closer to him, "I wouldn't let her turn into one of those things." For some reason, instead of scaring her, his words brought her comfort. Her daddy wouldn't let her become a monster. He wouldn't let her turn into a walking corpse.

It was quiet as the Daryl and Shane glared one another down, "I hate to say it, I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." Dale spoke quietly, diffusing the growing tension.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog." Rick disagreed, instantly shooting down whatever Dale was about to suggest.

Dale shook his head, "I'm not suggesting-"

"He's sick!" Shane interrupted angrily, not letting Dale finish. "A sick man."

"If we start down that road where do we draw the line?" Rick asked, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Line's pretty clear." Her dad spoke up, she felt him gently nudge her away from his side. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be."

"What if we can get him help? I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure." Rick suggested. Even Sunny felt skeptical of that. If they could just get Jim help wouldn't this whole walker mess already be taken care of? Surely if there was some sort of cure for at least a bite there wouldn't be as much as a problem.

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell." Shane pointed out.

"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick questioned. He obviously didn't know much about how bad all this was if he thought there were still big groups of people trying to work on a cure. Even Sunny knew a lot of people were gone.

"Man that is a stretch right there." Shane said, voicing the thoughts of everyone there.

"Why?" Rick demanded, his voice full of hope. "If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs, wouldn't they? I think it's our best shot, shelter protection, rescue-" Sunny looked up at her dad wondering what he thought, but all she could see was him scowling and shaking his head. He didn't care if the C.D.C. was still working, he just wanted the problems gone now.

"Okay, Rick, you want all those things alright? I do too, okay?" Shane explained, trying to reason with his friend, "Now if they exist, they're at the army base Fort Benning."

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Lori pointed out. Sunny wasn't sure how far that was but it sounded pretty far, a hundred was a pretty big number after all.

"That is right, but it's away from the hot zone." Shane reasoned, "Now listen to me if that place is operational, it'll be heavily armed. We'll be safe there."

Rick shook his head, "The military was on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun, we've all seen that! The C.D.C. is our best choice, and Jim's only chance."

Sunny tensed as she felt her dad step further from her, glancing over his shoulder at Jim, "You go lookin' for Asprin, do what you need to do." He turned away from the small gathering picking up his pickaxe as he went, "Somebody needs to have the balls to take care of the damn problem!"

He was a step away from Jim, axe raised high above his head ready to strike, Rick just a pace behind him, his gun pointed at the back of her father's head. Sunny herself had rushed up to Rick ready to stop him by any means necessary, just like last time, when she felt arms wrap around her waist and haul her off of the ground. She kicked and screamed and tried to reach for her knife that was just out of reach, tried to lean forward and bite into the arms that held her, but it was all useless. The arms around her were like steal bands keeping her in place.

"We don't kill the living." She heard Rick tell her dad.

He turned to glare at him, his eyes glancing over to where she was being held against her will. His eyes narrowed in anger as he looked back over to Rick. "That's funny coming from a guy who just put a gun to my head in front of my daughter."

"We may disagree on some things but not on this." Shane told him, his voice coming from behind her. So he was the one holding her off the ground. "You put it down."

"Put my fucking kid down." Her dad growled.

She could feel Shane's grip tighten, and with a nod from Rick he slowly lowered the girl to the ground. Once her feet touched the ground she was pulling out of his grip and rushing towards her dad's. He threw the pickaxe down and scooped her up off the floor and cradled her to his chest protectively.

"You alright?" He asked her as he finally set her down. He'd walked them over towards his truck, away from everyone else.

"Yeah…" She mumbled quietly. She hated that Rick and Shane kept ganging up on her dad like they did, it wasn't fair! Weren't they cops? Weren't they supposed to protect people and not bully people? She winced as her dad gently pressed against her side while checking her over. She glanced at him hoping he hadn't noticed, unfortunately for her, he had.

"Let me see." He mumbled quietly as he carefully raised her shirt up so he could see her ribs. Her normally pale skin was slowly turning a light purple that had her dad glaring over to where Shane stood in front of the RV guarding the doorway where Rick and Jim had gone through. "Asshole." Her dad growled. He continued to gently prod at her ribs making sure Shane hadn't done more damage to them. "He does that again you kick him where your Uncle Merle taught you to, got it?" She nodded her head in agreement, a little amused smile on her lips. She remembered when her Uncle taught her that trick, her dad had been mad at him for a while after that for talking to her in such a crude manner.

"Dad?" She mumbled. He hummed at her, encouraged her to go on, "You said you'd tell me what happened to Uncle Merle…"

He sighed and looked down, not wanting to meet her eyes. He only did this when he had to talk about something that was hard for him, like her mother or grandparents. "Ya know Rick handcuffed him to a roof, well you know yer uncle, he can be a lot to deal with sometimes." Sunny nodded her head in agreement, she could remember times when her daddy had kicked Uncle Merle out for weeks on end, often telling him not to show up till he 'got his shit together.' "So Rick did what he had to do."

"But why did they leave him behind?" she demanded, her anger at Rick from before flaring back to the surface.

"They didn't have a lot of time, walkers were gonna break in, then none of them would'a come back." He sighed, "When we went back, yer uncle, he, well, he wasn't thinkin' straight. Got it into his head that the only way out of that was to cut off his hand." Sunny's eyes widened at that. He'd cut off his own hand to get away? Didn't he know her daddy would go looking for him? "We didn't find the rest o' him, just his hand. Figure he's out there somewhere lickin' his wounds."

"Why didn't he come back here?" She mumbled sadly. She knew her uncle liked to be on his own sometimes, but after all the walkers started coming around, and people dying she didn't think he'd leave them.

Her dad just sighed and shook his head, "Just how yer Uncle Merle is kid. Doesn't like to be in one place for too long, needs some time to sort out his problems."

"Then why don't we go look for him?" She demanded. They couldn't just leave him out there! Not if he only had one hand… Maybe if he wasn't hurt she'd be more confident that he'd find them again, but with him being injured she wasn't sure how well he could protect himself.

Daryl just shook his head, "Sorry kid, but if yer Uncle Merle don't wanna be found, he ain't gonna be found. No trail for me to follow anyways. Plus, it's safer for us to stick with this group, power in numbers an' all that crap." He sighed as Sunny hung her head dejectedly, "C'mon Sunny Rae, have a lil' faith. No one can kill Merle, but Merle. Now don't look so glum, what would he say ta' ya?"

"'Rays o' Sunshine ain't supposed to be sad.'" She quoted her uncle, a little smile coming to her lips as she remembered all the times he'd tell her that.

"That's right." He nodded his head in agreement and affectionately ruffled her hair. "Now, you's stand back while us grownups start loading the bodies into the back of the truck.

Sunny felt her nose wrinkle in disgust, "Yer gonna put the bodies in the back of our truck?"

"Well I ain't gon' carry them now am I?" He chuckled.

"Yuck." She grumbled, but followed after him none the less.

She watched as all the adults carefully loaded the bodies of their fallen group members into the back of her dad's truck. There wasn't too many, less than ten from what she could tell. She could see Sophia and all the other kids standing off to the side and out of the way. She hadn't seen them since she'd woken up, their parents must have forced them to stay in the RV all day until Jim was taken in there, and then probably ushered to another 'safer' part of camp. She snorted at that, nowhere was safe, not now, not ever. If she thought somewhere was safe for even a moment she'd probably end up dead, or like Uncle Merle. She shuddered at the thought of a lost limb. She couldn't imagine life without either of her hands.

"Sunny Rae!" She snapped out of her thoughts at her dads call. He was standing by the driver's side door waving her over, "C'mon, gonna head up to where Rick 'n Shane are digging the graves."

Not wanting to keep him waiting she jogged over to the passenger side door, and slid into her usual spot. "Do you know what we're gonna do after this?" She asked him while buckling her seat belt.

"Not sure what those two are gonna pick, keep arguin' over which place to go, C.D.C. or Fort Benning." He shrugged, "Don't really matter which one we go to, idiots just need to settle on a place."

"Where would you go?" She asked him, genuinely curious as to where he would pick.

He glanced over at her before looking back to the road pondering her question. "Don't know." He finally decided. "Military fell, anyone could see that. Doubt they're holed up over at Benning, but the C.D.C is close to the city, probably over run too. Guess I'd just have us go North, take our chances in the mountains."

She nodded her head in agreement. Her dad grew up in the mountains, and he'd taken her on plenty of camping trips up there before, they'd probably thrive there. However the rest of the group would be clueless, probably get themselves eaten by a mountain lion or something. "Maybe we can go when Uncle Merle comes back." She suggested.

Daryl glanced over at his daughter with a sad look. He didn't know if his brother was coming back. He knew he was still alive, but that fucker probably took off. It was what he was good at, what he knew, and what he always did. "Maybe." He agreed quietly.

Finally he reached the top of the hill where the graves were, and carefully backed the truck up as close as he could so they wouldn't have to carry the bodies far. He got out and walked over to where Rick and Shane were digging the last few graves, "I still think it's a mistake not burning these bodies." He called out. Sunny hopped out of the cab and jogged over to him, pushing herself into his side and forcing him to wrap his arm around her shoulder. "It's what we said we'd do right? Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" The rest of the group slowly made their way towards the graves, they'd all had to walk so they were a little bit more delayed than Sunny and her dad.

"At first." Shane agreed, still digging.

Her dad scoffed and shook his head, "Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" Rick and Shane stopped digging to look at him, "These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are."

Rick shook his head, "There are no rules."

"There are if you got to handcuff Uncle Merle to a roof 'cause he wasn't followin' along with the rest of y'all." Sunny grumbled while glaring at the police man.

Her dad lightly hit her on the head, scolding her without actually meaning it. He agreed with her, but he was upset with how rude she was about it. "No, she's right." Lori said as she made her way over to them, "Having no rules, well that's a problem." Sunny smiled proudly over at her, glad someone agreed with her out loud. "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn, and we need time to bury our dead. It's what people do." Sunny frowned at that. That wasn't what she meant. They needed rules, not have time to turn back into their old selves, cause let's face it, unless all the walkers go away, and enough people survived to rebuild what they once had, there was no going back. It was like what her science teacher said about evolution: adapt or die out. And she wasn't planning on dying out anytime soon.

"My momma wasn't buried…" She mumbled quietly, deciding not to voice her other thoughts. She glanced up at her dad, "Right? We didn't burry her. Grandpa took us on that trip and we threw her ashes into the wind."

Her dad smiled sadly down at her remembering that trip himself. Jasey had never wanted to be buried, said the idea of her just sitting in the ground rotting away freaked her out. After she'd died giving birth to Sunny, her family had her body cremated, although her father decided to wait until Sunny was old enough to understand what spreading the ashes meant. That'd been about two years ago. "Ain't nothin' wrong with bein' cremated. But not everyone wants that to happen to them, just like not everyone wants to be buried." He explained quietly to her.

She nodded her head, understanding what he was saying to her. "If something happens to me I wanna be cremated." She decided, "Just like momma."

Daryl grimaced at that, the idea of having to burry, or cremate this case, his child sent a chill down his spine. "Well, yer gonna have to tell someone else, cause ain't nothin' that's gonna hurt you while I'm alive, got it?" She nodded at him with a grin, "C'mon, they gonna start burying the bodies."

The two of them stood back, a little further than the rest of the group. Sunny hadn't been very close to those that were in the group, her father even less so. The only one of their dead that she actually sort of knew was Amy, and the only time she ever really hung around her was when she'd help skin the kills her dad brought back for them to cook. She said a little prayer in her head, not because she was religious, but because she felt that they at least deserved that from her.

Amy was the last to be buried. Everyone stood back as Andrea tried to lift her sister by herself, refusing everyone's help, even Dale who continuously tried to help until finally Amy was laid in her grave. No one said anything, everyone just stood quietly and mourned for the dead in their own way. For her and her dad, they just stood back and bowed their heads respectfully, until slowly everyone began to head back to the camp.

The two of them stayed there until most of the group had made their way back to camp before they got into the pickup truck. They remained silent for the small drive back to camp where they gathered around the fire pit with everyone else while Rick, Shane and Dale did a quick scan of the woods around them.

When they returned the sun was slowly sinking back down into the horizon, and Sunny knew that wherever the grownups had decided to go, they wouldn't be leaving until the morning.

She glanced up as the three made their way to the small group gathered around the fire pit, Shane walking towards an empty spot while Rick joined Lori and Carl, and Dale hung back to observe. "I've uh, I've been thinking about Rick's plan." Shane spoke up, everyone turned their attention to him, "Now look there are no guarantees either way, I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time, I trust his instincts. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning for the C.D.C." Sunny looked up at her dad to see his reaction, he seemed to be nodding in agreement. He looked down and met her questioning eyes before he nodded his head and lead her over to their truck.

"We'll sleep in here tonight alright?" He mumbled.

"Why not our tent?" She asked him with a confused frown.

"Not very good at keepin' walkers out. I'll feel better if you were in the truck for the night." He explained. "C'mon let's go pack up our stuff, n' put it in the back so we don't gotta do it tomorrow."

She nodded her head and quickly ran over to their tent to start gathering her things. A lot of her belongings that she'd originally had when she'd left her home had been messed up in some way. Stains were the least of her problems now, most of her clothes had tears in them, her shirts from getting snagged on a branch while hunting with her dad, the knees and bottoms of her jeans were tatters, and some of her shirts she'd just cut the sleeves off cause she figured her dad had the right idea, Georgia sun was just too hot to have 'em. Most of her comics had been either destroyed or left behind, and she'd finished the Harry Potter book a while back and decided to leave it behind. If you didn't need it, it was best to leave behind. The only belonging she had that was still in good condition was the picture of her mom and dad still in the frame it'd been in when she'd originally packed it.

It was dark out by the time she and her dad finished putting the last of their things into the back of the truck, the others were gathered around the fire pit and eating some of their canned foods. Her dad hadn't hunted in a few days, he hadn't had the time so they were breaking into their canned food stash. There was less of them now, so it wasn't like they didn't have enough. Still they held back, everyone sharing a can with another, she and her dad shared a can of beans. It was silent, no one was really in the mood to chat.

Finally everyone finished their food and slowly made their way back to where they'd be sleeping tonight. The watch shift had already been decided, so whoever was picked for first watch would make their way to the top of the RV. Sunny and her dad quietly made their way into the truck, her dad adjusted his seat so it was further back from the wheel to give him leg room, while she stretched out across the bench, her head laying comfortably in his lap. When she was really little, and they'd go on long drives she'd often find herself in the same position. It was comforting to her, and it was the only way she was sure she'd get a good night's sleep.

As if he'd been reading her thoughts, her dad rested his hand on her head and gently stroked her hair, "Get some rest Sunny Rae." He told her quietly, "Ain't nothin' gonna get you while I'm around." He promised. "Nothin."

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Okay super sorry this took me so long to get out! Like super, super, super sorry! But I did make this chapter extra long as part of my apology! I was dealing with finding a place to live, (I found one!) and I also don't have a lot of wifi so I've had to cut back- plus I'm gonna be completely honest with you, I got hooked on the show Once Upon a Time and I binged on that when I could so yeah I was also busy with that. I will do my best to get at least one chapter out a week, but no guarantees!

On a side note today was the first day in my Archery class where we got to actually shoot arrows! And I've realized that I've left out a very important detail to Sunny's gear in regarding her bow and arrows- Arm guards and finger tabs! I can not express how much it hurts when the string of the bow snaps against the most sensitive part of your inner forearm. I did it twice and I now have two big ass welts and some bruises that look like I got hit with a freaking BB gun. Not fun. But I did feel like a bad ass the entire class not gonna lie so if you ever have the chance to take a class, take it! Lots of fun.

Anyways, hope you guys liked the chapter- leave a review they motivate me!