I only saw black. I could hear voices, but they were warbled. Indistinguishable.

Then the darkness is lifted and I'm blinded by sunlight.

"Morning, Sunshine. You're gonna tell us where your friends are."

.Carl.

Terra is silent as we walk. I've begun to lose track of how long we've been walking. We're almost out of drinking water, what little we have everyone insists on giving it to Judith, the youngest of us. The most vulnerable of us.

I still can't believe she's alive, she's living and breathing in front of me.

Insane.

Terra suddenly makes a sharp right turn, stomping into the woods. I make to go after her before Elena, the oldest one, probably a little younger than my dad, stops me and gently pushes me forward.

"AH!" A grunt of effort is heard where Terra went off and she shortly returns to the road, breathing heavy and clenching her fists.

My dad slows down to match her pace. They slow down until they're a few paces behind the group and talk in low voices together. I can only catch bits and pieces.

"...eat...Judith...shufflers...Terminus,"

"..patience...revenge...focus...Terminus,"

Whatever they were discussing, they'd hopefully share soon.

I focused on the road in front of me. We needed to find shelter. We reach a section of the road with several trails leading into the forest.

Terra's group stops at one of them. As I open my mouth to say something, my dad puts a hand on my shoulder, trying to push me forward.

The group continues walking, slower, glancing back several times, but I shove my dad's hand off and run over to Terra, Rachel, and Elena.

"You're leaving," I say it as a statement, not a question. She nods.

"I have to find her, and I won't rest until I do," Terra says determination in her eyes.

"You don't have to do it alone, we can help you," I try to reason with her, "Strength in numbers."

She smiled kindly at me, it's probably the softest facial expression I'd ever seen on her.

"I'll miss you, too, Carl."

Elena takes my hat off to ruffle my hair, and Rachel gives me a hug. They're an affectionate group in their own weird way.

Terra stares at me for a long time. I stare back.

She grabs my hand, leaning up to place a soft kiss on my lips. She lingers there for awhile, "For good luck," she whispers in my ear.

She laughs, her hands on her hips, eyes sparkling.

"I don't need luck, Terra," I cross my arms, rolling my eyes at her.

"Oh you so do. You'd be dead 3 times over without me," She smirks.

"Okay lovebirds. Let's go while we have the light," Elena interjects.

Both of us turn to her with horror, "Lovebirds!"

"Aww they're even synchronized," Rachel playfully mocks.

Both of us grumble a few choice words about them to ourselves.

Terra stomps off, "Let's just go find Judith."

Elena and Rachel wave goodbye to the rest of our group.

When I walked back to my group I was met with teasing about my first kiss from Michonne, which was terrible because they were all making a big deal out of something so unimportant.

.ooo.

We don't see Terra, Rachel, or Elena again for awhile. They never found Judith either.

.Terra.

"Terra's got a little crush I see," Elena nudges me with her elbow.

"I do not. Please relax," I roll my eyes.

The teasing didn't stop for a horrifying few days.

Sly remarks, innuendos, suggestive winks, you'd think they were the teenagers in the group.

But I understood.

It took our minds off of the worry, the fear, the disappointment.

Days turned into weeks, we still hadn't found her and I was slowly losing my mind. We combed every inch of the woods, searching for her or the Terminus group with little to show for it.

Every night was the same: take turns for watch, sleep, kill a shuffler or two, repeat the next night.

Every day was the same: avoid shufflers, kill shufflers, look for Judith, eat, look for Judith, kill shufflers, find campsite, repeat.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The only thing that kept me sane was remembering the good times.

Before the Turn.

.ooo.

"Terra!" Judith yells out, "Mom says come inside."

I groan, but come inside anyway, wiping my feet on the mat inside the door.

I'm ten years old, there's no harm in me playing outside.

Judith is eight years old, all long flowing hair and toothless, goofy grins.

"I'm going to head home soon, Miss."

"Nonsense, Terra, I'll drive you."

Judith's mom was a ray of sunshine. A strong, single Dominican woman who filled the room with her smiles. She and her family had moved down from the Bronx about 5 years ago, to get away from the urban life.

Judith having been 3 when she moved here and doesn't remember much about New York. This place is all she knows. Atlanta.

Judith and I are the only kids in our age group on the street. There are kids way older than us, like fifteen and sixteens, and there's really young kids, like toddlers. So, naturally, we hang out together a lot.

"Mami, can she stay the night?" Judith begs her mom, I stand next to her not meeting anyone's eyes. I live with a foster family, and it's common knowledge they don't particularly care what I do, and therefore I can do what I want, when I want.

Judith's mom puts a hand on my cheek, making me look her in the eye. There was so much warmth there, even though she was clearly exhausted from cooking and cleaning all day and working all night, she always had time for us, for me.

"Terra is always welcome in our home," I beam in response.

This was the family I'd always wanted.

.Judith.

"Get back here!"

Like Hell I will.

My muscles are burning from how long I've been running, my hands are still tied together in front of me, but my legs are free.

Free to run from these psychopaths.

If the Turn taught me anything, it's how to run.

My legs are screaming, my face hits branches and scratches are probably all along my face. The forest floor is a maze of tree roots and shrubbery and I have some difficulty not tripping on them.

A tree explodes next to me, they've shot at me. They completely missed, but they are trying to shoot me.

I finally hit the road, but I have to get out of the open before they catch up. I sprint across the road back into the forest.

Right now, it's the safest place for me.

"Agh!" My leg screams in pain, a bullet has lodged itself in my calf.

I continue to run, trying to ignore the pain, but it's slowing me down, I can feel it.

"Oof!" I'm tackled from behind. I struggle to get out from under the leader of the psychopaths.

"You are so much trouble, kid. I like it," I spit in his face, as a response.

He wipes his face before taking his gun out.

His sadistic smile is the last thing I see before everything goes black.

.A/N.

You guys are gonna hate me if you dont already. This is gonna be the last chapter I post for a little bit.

A few reasons: My mom was in the hospital after she had a seizure in the middle of the night and was there for almost a week and a half which was pretty rough.

Second, I am getting into testing season and boy oh boy do I have a lot of stuff going on in the next month.

So yeah, that's why this chapter is kind of a filler because I just don't really have the time right now to be writing.

If you read all of that then thank you for all the support you guys are awesome. Your reviews mean the world to me so please drop one.

Until next time,

~WiseChic~