Thanks everyone for your reviews and support :) I have added pictures of Candice and Georgette as children in my profile.
It was the middle of the night and Georgette could not sleep, it had been four days since they'd come to the cabin. A steady stream of pain medication had kept her feet from bothering her much but she still couldn't sleep. Candice was asleep in a large armchair across the room. She was restless and wanted to get up and move. Her sister had went out and hunted for the past few days. She'd caught a deer, several squirrels, and rabbits. They had a good supply and weren't going to bed hungry anymore. While Georgette was proud of her sister for stepping up and taking things over, she couldn't help and feel slightly bitter about the fact she was stuck on the couch. Georgette leaned over off the couch and grabbed a log from the pile next to the couch and carefully tossed it onto the fire, sending sparks flying. She lay on her stomach, her right hand hanging off the couch. She closed her eyes and managed to sleep through the next few hours until the sun came up. She fully awoke when she heard Candice get out of the chair. She looked out the window to see it was snowing.
"Good morning," said Candice.
"Morning," said Georgette, lying back down. She watched her sister go over to the fridge. All of the meat had been stored inside with fresh snow to keep it fresh.
"That's a lot of food we've got," said Georgette. Candice started cooking breakfast over the fire.
"It is," said Candice.
"We should think about moving on," said Georgette, "Not now but in the spring, we can take everything with us, maybe find some other people. Just think of how better off we'd be if we went and found a big group to be with," said Georgette, "We'd have something to live for, to protect, we'd meet new people."
"We can move on in the spring," said Candice. Although she agreed, that had to be at least two months away, it had to around December. Things would start thawing out in March or April.
Candice finished cooking and the girls ate in silence. When Georgette was finished she sat up on the couch and untied the cloth from her toes. While it still looked like it was healing it looked clean and healthy, there no sign of an infection.
"Today's the day," she said, "I gotta start learning how to walk again." Candice stood up and came to her side. "I can do it," she said. Georgette stood up. She wobbled a bit but managed to stay up. It felt strange, she wanted to lean forward further, her subconscious mind still thinking her toes were there. She carefully put her right foot forward, and then lifted her left. She quickly lost her balance and fell over onto the floor, catching herself with her hands. Candice grabbed onto her arm to try and help her back up. It was humiliating, she felt like a weakling. "I can do it myself," she said, slowly getting back to her feet. She kept all of her weight balanced on the back of her foot and took a few awkward steps around the room. She almost went over again, but she leaned against the wall to stop herself.
"Don't push yourself, you've got all winter to get back on your feet," said Candice, walking behind her. Georgette slowly went back over the couch and sat down.
Candice left her sister and went hunting. Her goal was to fill the fridge completely with meat so they'd be set for the cold month of January. She carefully made her way through the thick snow, and sat down underneath a tree and got herself settled in, making sure her gun was loaded. She hadn't seen many walkers. When she did they were frozen in the snow. She always made sure that where ever she sat down, there wasn't any walkers frozen under the snow around her or underneath her. She listened to the forest around her for the sound of any activity. She had a good sense of hearing, smell and sight and was a good hunter and tracker. As she sat and waited she thought about her sister's words. The idea of being with a group thrilled her. She longed to meet more people. As eager as she was she knew they couldn't do anything until the snow melted and Georgette could run and defend herself.
Georgette was looking down on the couple from above. They had finally stopped running. The man had put the blonde girl down to sit against a tree, he was leaned over, trying to catch his breath. The girl looked like she was in complete shock and devastation. The man came down onto his knees, looking exhausted and angry. The girl got on her feet.
"We've gotta go back!" she said running off back into the woods. The man ran after her and easily caught her in his arms, holding her.
"We can't!" he said. The girl was hysterical as she tried to break free from him.
"I've gotta go back!" she yelled, struggling. "MY DADDY'S BACK THERE!"
"Calm down Beth!" It was like a new eye had been opened. Beth the man had called the girl Beth. That was her mother's name. The girl had blonde hair and the same delicate features of Candice that she hadn't noticed before. "The place is overrun with walkers, there ain't no goin' back." The girl seemed to fight him some more and then just completely collapsed in exhaustion and went limp in his arms. The man picked her up and carried her back to the small clearing they'd been in. He set her down on a patch of soft grass and started getting together wood for a fire. The girl lay there and watched him, her eyes half closed. He noticed her watching and said
"Just sleep darlin' I'll be here," The girl closed her eyes. The man continued on with what he was doing.
The sound of a door slamming woke her. She saw Candice coming inside, carrying two dead rabbits with her.
"Sorry I woke you," she said, setting her things down. Georgette was to frazzled to reply.
"I saw her," she said, looking up at her sister with wide eyes. Candice looked confused.
"Who'd you see?"
"That woman, the blonde girl from my dreams-" Candice didn't let her finish,
"Oh another bad dream?"
"That woman is our mother I'm almost sure of it." Candice looked even further confused.
"Are you alright?" she asked, "Maybe you have been confined in here for too long."
"No," said Georgette, frustrated her sister wasn't getting it, "The woman I've always had those dreams about, the man called her Beth,"
"Well what happened?" asked Candice.
"They were running through the forest, and the girl was trying to run back somewhere because they had left her dad or something, and the man stopped her and he called her Beth!"
"Maybe it was just a dream cooked up in your imagination," said Candice.
"I don't know, it seemed pretty realistic to me." Candice just shrugged and got to skinning the rabbits. Her whole disinterested demeanor shocked Georgette. "Don't you wanna know who our parents are?"
"It was a long time ago Gigi," she said, not looking up from her work, "And Angela, the one person who would know anything is dead. What do you think the chances of them still being alive after twenty years are? Slim to none in this world."
"There's gotta be someone out there who knows something," said Georgette.
"People who are hundreds of miles away on the other side of the country," said Candice.
"You're being so negative about this," said Georgette.
"I just don't see the point in trying," said Candice, "Angela took good care of us, she told us enough to satisfy me."
"How can you say that?!" asked Georgette, her anger starting to boil. "When the snow starts to thaw we should go to Georgia, try to figure it all out. Just think we could have other family members out there looking for us too!"
"We don't even have a map!" said Candice, "We could get there and find out nothing, we should try to find a group here. We know the area and we've always lived here." Georgette was sick of arguing. She was shocked at her sister's hostile attitude.
"Whatever," she said, "I'm just gonna try and figure out more information." Candice laughed and said
"How are you gonna do that?"
"By dreaming," she said, rolling back over so she was facing the back of the couch. She closed her eyes and tried to reconstruct the appearance of the man and the girl. The man was much older than the girl, who had looked to be a teenager. The man had to be in his 30's or 40's. Was he her father? He couldn't of been the girl's father as she had mentioned wanting to go back to find him. He seemed to deeply care about the girl, but there was nothing that solidly indicated a romance. She was determined to figure it out and as soon as she was back on her feet she'd go searching for a map of the United States. She knew there was one in the history book she had been reading but that was back at their old house. She'd need to find a school and take another one.
In her mind she was preparing for the trip already. They'd need a car or horses to travel on. They couldn't move on foot with all of their supplies. Georgette preferred cars to horses, it would be hard to find a tamed horse as most of them were wild.
"Angela come quick and see!" Georgette stood on her tippy toes at the window looking out into the field. A large herd of horses had settled there, grazing on the grass. Angela came next to her, holding her two year old sister's hand. Angela held Candice up to the window so she could see.
"Look Candice horses!" said Georgette. Candice rubbed her tiny hand on the window, laughing and pointing at the horses. "Can we please go out and see them!" begged Georgette. Angela smiled and said
"Sure," she reached into a bowl on the kitchen counter and handed the girls two apples, "We'll take these out to see if we can feed them." It was a hot summer day and Georgette opened the door and went outside barefoot. Angela followed close behind, on the lookout for any walkers. Georgette was amazed at all of the horses. They were beautiful, their coats were splashed with all different colors. "Now hold out the apple in your hand and make sure that your hand is flat so they don't think your finger is a carrot," said Angela laughing. Georgette did as she was told, holding out the apple on her flat hand. One of the horses noticed her and pricked its ears forward and slowly approached her. The excitement was bursting her chest but she remained absolutely still. The horse reached forward and sniffed at the apple before taking a bite. Georgette smiled as the horse chewed and took another bite. She turned to her little sister who was watching in awe.
"Now its your turn Candice," She gave her sister the remainder of the apple. She made sure her sister's hand was flat before letting her step forward. The horse took the rest of the apple. Candice squealed with excitement which made the horse nervously take a few steps back. Candice clapped her hands and ran back over to Angela, clinging to her leg with a small smile. "It's ok they won't hurt you," said Georgette laughing at her sister's reaction. Georgette took another apple and offered it the horse again. Soon enough she had five of them nuzzling her for more. They sniffed at her clothes in curiosity, snorting, their whiskers tickling her skin. "Can we leave more for them Angela pleeeassse," said Georgette, "Maybe they'll wanna come live here with us if we keep giving them food!" Angela laughed and said
"Sure sweetheart," She went back inside and came out with a whole bowl of apples. "It's getting kind of late we should probably head inside, but we can leave the apples out here for them," said Angela. The sun was setting over the mountains and Georgette didn't argue.
"Alright, maybe they'll be here tomorrow morning!" Angela took her hand and led her back inside.