Sorry for the later update!

Thanks so much for all the follows, favorites, and reviews!

To Kansas: I know right! I love how close Princess is with her siblings and how protective they are of each other. I'm so glad you are liking the story! Hope you keep liking it!

A special thanks to BreenaBelle-xoxo for her constant support and advice for the story! You guys have got to check out her Walking Dead Fic's!


The next day our group decided to head to Fort Benning and to down size the numbers of cars we had. We kept the RV, Carols hatchback, and Daryl's motorcycle.

"Can I ride on the motorcycle with Daryl?" I asked as Daryl let me take a turn sitting on it.

"There's not a helmet, so no." Rachel told me as she walked onto the RV. I made puppy eyes at Marcus.

"Rachel is right, besides, I don't think Daryl would be too particularly happy having you ride with him." Marcus smiled at Daryl over my head. I huffed out a breath that turned into a loud laugh as Marcus picked me up and threw me over his shoulder as we walked onto the RV. Daryl smirked at me, shaking his head as he got onto his bike. Blade ran into the RV after me. Daryl led the way on his motorbike, the RV was next, and in our line ended with the hatchback. As the long drive started Marcus and Rachel went back to sleep on the bed while I stayed up front and watched as Shane took apart his gun and cleaned it.

"Looks complicated." Andrea commented. I stood at the end of the table as I watched. Shane looked pretty sad, like he was just cleaning his gun to have something to do.

"The trick is getting all these pieces back together the same way. I could clean yours, show you how." Shane offered. He glanced at me a little wearily at first. "You wanna learn?" Shane dug around in the gun bag at his feet.

"My dad already showed me how." I told him. Shane nodded in acknowledgement as he checked out Andrea's gun.

"Oh, yeah. It's a sweet piece." Shane told her.

"It was a gift from my father. He gave it to me just before Amy and I took off on our road trip. He said two girls on their own should be able to defend themselves." Andrea told us sadly.

"Smart man, your father. Look, it's a limited capacity. See? Only holds seven rounds." Shane began to explain to Andrea.

"Oh, jeez." Dale's voice caught our attention. We looked up front to see an over turned tractor-trailer blocking the road. Daryl drove back next to us. "See a way through." Daryl nodded in response and motioned us to follow him. Glenn glanced down at the map.

"Uh, maybe we should just go back." Glenn told us worriedly. "There's an interstate bypass –"

"We can't spare the fuel." Dale cut him off. I sat down on the floor next to Glenn. Glenn glanced at me and smiled. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I really liked Glenn. I smiled back and without asking, climbed in his lap. I heard Glenn let out a nervous laugh behind me. I turned back and smiled to him. He returned it as well, putting an arm around my waist to make sure I didn't slip off his lap.

"Jeez." Glenn muttered as we looked at all the over turned cars. I looked closer in a few of the cars and could see dead people. I quickly looked away, grabbing onto Glenn's arm that was around me. "Can we get through here?" Suddenly something blew in the engine, causing me to jump. Smoke rose from the RV as it began to make a squealing noise. I hopped up from Glenn's lap and followed Shane out of the RV.

"I said it. Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water." Dale complained as he went to go and check the engine.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane drawled as he looked around, watching for walkers. Our group gathered around the RV.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of…ok that was dumb." Dale answered. What was dumb? I turned with Glenn as I watched Daryl begin to rummage through the back of a car.

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Shane trailed off. Oh, we're going to scavenge the cars. This will be so much fun! I loved dumpster diving and searching through junkyards!

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl responded as he continued to look through the car.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-dog walked past me as he eyed which car to steal gas from.

"Maybe some water." Carol muttered from behind me.

"Or food." Glenn smirked at me as my stomach made a gurgling noise. I rubbed my stomach mournfully.

"This is a graveyard." Lori said. Everyone turned to look at her. Well that was a depressing thought. "I don't know how I feel about this." Everyone glanced at each other. We still needed the stuff, and the dead people weren't going to use it.

"All right, all right, here we go. Come on, y'all. Just look around, gather what you can." T-dog told us, spurring us back into action.

"I'm going with Glenn. You stay in the sight of Rachel, Lori, Carol, or Rick." Marcus flicked me on the nose as he walked off with Glenn. I stuck my tongue out at him. Rachel laughed as she grabbed my hand. We walked toward a small blue car and opened it up as we looked through the things. Rachel grabbed a few t-shirts and a pair of pants, stuffing it into a bag she emptied. I opened the front seat and a practically mummified woman almost fell out. I looked her over sadly, before noticing she had the same Mississippi Cotton Ball pearl necklace that Rachel did.

"Look, Rach! She has the same necklace as you." Rachel glanced over at the women sadly.

"Didn't I tell you I would get you one of those for your birthday this year?" Rachel asked me. I nodded.

"That way we could match!" I told her smiling. Rachel smiled back and looked at me for a minute.

"Alright, I don't exactly know what day it is, but…" Rachel reached in and took the necklace off of the women's body. "Here is your maybe early or maybe late birthday present." My eyes widened as she motioned for me to turn around. I did so quickly, playing with the necklace as she fastened it behind me. "There. Now everyone will know we are sisters." I gave Rachel a big hug.

"Can I go show Sophia?" Rachel nodded at me as I ran over to Sophia, Blade nipping at my heals. "Sophia!" I exclaimed, about to show her my necklace, but I stopped when I noticed Rick in the distance pointing his gun at something. That's when I saw it, a large group of walkers coming right for us. Rick ran, ducking low so it was harder to be seen. "Lori, under the cars. Carl, Sophia, Princess, get down now." Sophia grabbed my hand as we ran to duck under a car. I looked over to see Carl under one car and Rick under another on the other side of Carl. Sophia and I held hands tightly as we hid. Blade sat right in front of our face. We watched, terrified, as their feet shuffled past our face. Blade started barking and ran out from under the car, running off into the woods as a walker followed him. I made a squeak and tried to go after him, but Sophia pulled me back. I looked over at her and saw Rick in the background, shaking his head and silently telling me to stay. Slowly the feet began to disappear till there was none left. I turned to look at Rick, watching for a signal. Sophia poked her head out, but unfortunately right as she did, a straggling walker came by. She gasped as she jerked back under. It got down on the ground and began reaching for us. I shuffled out from underneath the car to the other side. It followed us across under the car as we began to crawl out. I got out first and furiously pulled Sophia to her feet. Another walker began to come around the back. Sophia grabbed my hand and pulled me into the woods with her as we ran from the walkers.

"Princess hurry!" Sophia pulled me quickly. My leg still hurt some from the bites, but I ignored the pain as I continued to run with Sophia. Sophia was whimpering as we ran. We both kept glancing over our shoulder as we went deeper into the woods. Sophia tripped, pulling me down with her. She jumped up quicker than me and half dragged me as I tried to right myself while running. That was when we ran into Rick. He shushed us both.

"Are y'all alright? Are y'all okay?" Rick asked us, as he looked us over. I nodded, but Sophia was panicking. She reached over Rick to grab at his gun.

"Shoot them!" She whimpered. Rick grabbed her and looked her in the face as he talked.

"No! Those walkers on the road would hear it. Then it wouldn't be just two it'd be hundreds. Come here." Rick scooped up Sophia in his arms. He looked down at me. I was panicking, but trying to stay calm like my brother told me to always do in these types of situations. "Can you keep up if we run?" I nodded. "Ok, come on. Hold onto my belt loop." I did as he said and was practically dragged as we ran, but I never let go of his belt loop. We stopped when we reached a river. "All right, just hold here. You stay there." Rick jumped down into the river, helping Sophia and I down next. "Sophia, Princess, you have to do exactly as I say. Hide in there. Squeeze in tight. I'll draw them away from y'all." Rick pushed us toward a small cove in the riverbank.

"No, no, don't leave us!" Sophia begged. I felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest from how scared I was.

"Listen. They don't get winded. I do. I can only deal with them one at a time. I wouldn't be able to protect you two. This is how we all survive. You understand?" We both nodded and turned to crawl into the hole. "If I don't make it back, run back to the highway, back to the others straight the way we came. Keep the sun on your left shoulder." Rick backed away and began running as the walkers approached. Sophia and I clung to each other as we waited for them to disappear. After a few seconds we crawled out and climbed back up the riverbank. We held hands as we followed Rick's directions and began walking back to the others. Suddenly there was a noise. We both stopped and turned toward it. I took a hesitant step toward the noise. Upon closer inspection, I could see it was a rabbit. My mind flashed back to Glenn saying we needed food. I pulled out one of my small knives and threw it into the rabbit. I went and picked it up, smiling, and turned to show Sophia, only…she wasn't there. I spun around quickly, hopping to see a glimpse of her somewhere, but she was gone. She must have gotten spooked and run off. She probably thought I would have heard and followed her.

"Sophia?" I yelled out. There was no answer. I could feel my breaths getting shorter as I started to panic. It was different when I had another person with me. Now I was alone. In an effort to stop myself from panicking, I ran blindly in a random direction. I couldn't remember which way I was supposed to run anymore. I stopped running when I couldn't breath anymore, leaning against a tree. I let a few panicked tears start to fall as I realized that I was lost. I heard a dog bark in the distance. "Blade?" I yelled, starting to run toward the bark. Unfortunately it seemed some walkers had heard me yelling. I dropped the rabbit I barely realized that I had been holding and stabbed the walker in the head as it reached down for me. I smiled at my kill. Maybe I could do this. Suddenly I was knocked over as one came at me from behind. I whimpered and struggled as I attempted to stay away from the walker's teeth. Suddenly there was growling and the walker was off of me. I flipped over to see Blade biting and barking at it. I quickly picked up my knife and stabbed the walker in the head as it was distracted. I panted as I sat on the ground. Blade trotted over to me happily, his white fur stained red with walker blood.

"Good job, boy." I praised as he gave me a few licks. I crawled over to the rabbit, picked it up and began trying to find my way back to the others. I kept walking, even as the sky began to get darker. I knew I would have to find a safe place for the night, but I wasn't sure what. My stomach groaned in hunger. I looked down at the rabbit. Marcus was going to teach me how to skin everything and know which parts to eat before the world went to hell. I still didn't know though. I looked around. There was no place for me to go but up. I pulled out one of my extra shirts and wrapped it around the rabbit before putting it back in my satchel. I picked up Blade and put him in there as well before climbing the tree till I was high enough that no one would reach me. I sat Blade in my lap as I leaned up against the trunk. I let my eyes drift close, praying I could find my way tomorrow.