They were on the move as soon as the first rays of sunlight lit up the sky. Georgette hadn't slept at all. She had sat up all night waiting for her sister to return. She decided to drive while Odilia sat behind her. They were back to back. Odilia faced backwards so she could keep an eye out for walkers. They would make stops every once in awhile to listen for the horses or Candice's voice.

They had been riding for about twenty minutes when they rode up to a mud puddle. Georgette could see the horse hoof prints in the ground and slammed on the brakes before she ruined them with the tire tracks. They were definitely tracks from Candice. There had been two horses beside each other. Chunks of mud sprinkled the space between each hoof print. She wasn't as good as tracking as her sister was but she could see that they were probably moving at least a trot. The tracks didn't look very fresh. The mud was no longer wet but had dried up a bit.

"Do you think she came through recently?"

"No," said Georgette, getting back on the four wheeler. "Three hours ago maybe." They ripped through the mud puddle and Georgette continued to follow the chunks of mud that had been stuck in the horses hooves and fell out as they ran. Pretty soon they had lost the trail again. They kept moving forward and every once in awhile Georgette would find a hoof print in the dirt. The prints led them to another small neighborhood and disappeared once they hit pavement. She heard Odilia say

"Do you think she could be here?"

"I don't know," Georgette killed the engine and said "Let's search around." She got off and headed towards the first house. She kicked the door in and did a quick sweep. Then she moved onto the next. At the fourth house she found footprints. They looked like walker prints as the right foot looked like it had a significant limp. She followed them around the back of the house. They led straight into the underground cellar doors. There was no way a walker could have opened up those doors, it had to be a person. Holding onto her knife she grabbed onto the handles and quickly swung the doors open. Her knife still raised she slowly descended the stairs. It was dark inside but small windows bear the ceiling allowed her to see. She looked around and saw a small figure curled up in the corner. When she saw her blonde hair fanned out in the light she knew it was Candice. She ran over and turned her over. When she saw that her eyes were closed and her face looked lifeless she felt like somebody had stabbed her in the stomach with an ice cold knife. She had a nasty gash on her forehead that was still bleeding.

"Candice?" Her voice sounded weak, she wasn't sure it was her own voice when she heard it. She shoke her limp body. "Hey wake up." She quickly lay her back down and pressed her ear to her chest listening for a heartbeat. When she heard it she felt relieved. She quickly put her knife back in her belt and picked Candice up. She moved as quickly as possible, running back to the four-wheeler. Odilia must of seen her running out onto the street because she met her there.

"Is she alive? What happened?"

"I found her in a cellar." They lay her out in the grass on the side of the road. Odilia went and got a clean cloth and a jug of water out of the bag. She pressed the cloth tightly to her forehead, trying to stop the bleeding. Georgette lightly poured some of the water into Candice's dry mouth. After a moment she moved her lips, taking in the water. Her eyes opened and she took a moment, looking up at them in confusion. The thought of giving Candice space got pushed to the back of her mind.

"What happened?!" They both supported her back as she sat up, still looking around confused.

"How long has it been since I got here?"

"You ran off yesterday," said Odilia, "We've been lookin' for you for about an hour." Candice put her hand on her forehead and said

"I've got a bad headache." When she withdrew her hand she was horrified to see that it was covered in blood. She started to panic and frantically tried to stand up.

"Am I bit?!" Georgette kept her planted on the ground and said

"No there aren't any teeth marks; it's a bad cut though." She looked like she was thinking hard, trying to remember what had happened.

"I hit my head on a tree branch," she said, "I was trying to get away from a group of walkers and I wasn't looking where I was going and I hit my head and fell off. The horses kept going and I got back up and kept running. I ended up in a cellar." Georgette pulled her sister into a tight hug and said

"I thought you were dead!"

"Me too," said Candice, hugging her back. Candice tried to stand again. They held her arms and helped her up onto her feet and brought her over to the four-wheeler where they set her down. Georgette started cleaning out the wound with clean water. Odilia stood behind her on the lookout.

"You said the horses took off?"

"Ya," said Candice, "didn't see where they ended up after." Georgette thought of all the food and supplies they'd lost inside the bags on the horses backs. They had been smart to keep the important things on the four-wheeler, like the map, guns and knives. As Georgette lightly dabbed away the last of the blood Candice jumped up and said

"Oh I almost forgot!" She reached over and started digging through the bags. "I hope it's still here!" She pulled out a black velvet box and handed it to her. "Here you go, happy birthday!" Surprised, Georgette flipped open the box. Inside sitting on top of the white cushion was a thing silver necklace. Dangling at the end was a little black pearl. Smiling, she gently removed it and unclasped it, putting it around her neck.

"It's beautiful," she said, "Thank you." She pulled her sister into another hug. She felt tears come to her eyes. Even after all this time on the run she had still remembered her birthday.


After Candice felt a bit better they searched around the neighborhood for the horses. Candice stayed behind to rest on the four-wheeler still dealing with a splitting headache. When the sun indicated it was around noon time they gave up the hunt and regrouped back on the street. They had to be realistic; they couldn't spend their time tracking them. Georgette spoke first and said

"I can't find any tracks, I don't think we're gonna find them."

"Well we can't all fit on the four wheeler," said Odilia, "All the cars are probably junk what else is there we can use?" Georgette didn't answer and looked over at the four wheeler. Candice was facing them and leaning back against the handlebars resting but still alert. She looked around at the houses and spotted a metal trailer sitting in the driveway.

"Can you hook trailers up to it?"

"I think so," said Odilia, "We can give it a try." The two girls went over to the trailer. There was nothing inside except some old firewood sitting inside. Odilia went around the front and picked up that end while Georgette pulled it out from the back. They managed to get it onto the street. Curious at what they were doing, Candice got up, shielding her aching eyes from the sun.

"We're gonna try and attach that to the back?" Georgette nodded and tossed the keys to her.

"Back it up here so we can try and hook it up." When Candice brought it around they found the metal piece to attach the two sticking out of the back. It took them about a half hour to figure out how to get correctly hooked. It felt like victory when Candice started it up again and drove it up and down the street. They didn't stick around much longer and threw the bags into the back. Odilia drove, Candice sat behind her and Georgette sat in the trailer, cushioned by the bags. The only downfall to the trailer was they could no longer cut straight through the woods; they'd have to use the roads and pay attention to what direction they were going in. They also needed more food as most of it had been with the horses. But Georgette pushed back all thoughts of hunger. They needed to reach the main highway.

When night fell they found a decent house to stay in, started a fire and roasted the small amount of meat they had left. Before the sun had fell Odilia set some traps out in the woods so hopefully they'd be stocked up the next morning. Candice's headache had subsided and she was wrapped up on the couch in an old blanket. It smelled musty but she didn't care, it was an unusually cold night for spring and she was cold. Georgette and Odilia were both asleep. She stared into the fire, hypnotized by the dancing flames and deep in her thoughts. She had come close to loosing her life back there. The walkers had still been coming for her after she'd fallen off. If she hadn't hidden in that cellar she wouldn't have survived. What would of Georgette done? Give up or keep going? She didn't want to think about what would happen if one of them were to die. Now that they had become closer with Odilia the thought of her death saddened her as well. How would she go on without Georgette? She knew that they had a long road ahead of them still. But they were halfway there and that gave her hope that maybe they'd all make it through.


Beth added another log to the fire, sending sparks flying into the air. She sat next to Donna in a lawn chair waiting for all the kids to gather around. Every seven days they'd do a campfire just for the kids where they told scary stories and roast fish over the fire. Vince had been against it at first, not wanting anyone out after dark but he'd caved after the majority of the parents said they wanted it to happen. She had volunteered to help run it. It reminded her of her own childhood. Daddy would take them out into the woods behind the house and set up a tent for them to sleep in. They'd pretend they were somewhere deep in the wilderness. He'd sit out there with them and tell ghost stories and roast marshmallows until they could no longer keep their eyes open. Then they'd all crawl inside and go to sleep. He'd leave Maggie in charge and go back to the house. She remembered being scared on some nights, the scary stories circling around in her head. Now the world was full of real horrors. They stayed away from anything to do with the living dead or death and told mild ghost stories that wouldn't rattle the kids too badly. Donna was a great storyteller and would be the one who usually talked. Beth would help cook the fish and supervise the kids. Tonight's story was about a ghost pirate who sailed around the sea in his ghost ship. One of the little girls sat in Beth's lap. Every time Donna would emphasize a word or say something scary the girl's grip tightened on Beth's arm. She couldn't help but smile at the girl's intrigued expression. As the story drew to a close Beth could hear the bushes rustling behind her. A man dressed in an old pirate suit jumped out and yelled. The kids screamed in a mix of surprise and delight. The man in the suit revealed himself by taking off his eye patch and laughing.

Soon it was time to wrap things up and the kids parents came and got them. Beth and Donna picked up around the fire and then doused it with a bucket of water. After saying goodnight to Donna they went their separate ways. Beth headed down the street towards her house. No one else was still out at that point but she felt calm, reminding herself they had nothing to be afraid of. The fences kept the walkers out and for the most part the gators. Every once in awhile they'd slip through under the gaps in the fence. The gaps were far too small for a walker to get through but a small, low to the ground gator could.

She looked up to see someone standing in her yard by the gate. She slowed down, hesitant to keep going. Crime had never been a problem for the village, except for the disappearances which were passed off as unfortunate accidents. She saw that it was Vince when she got closer. What did he want?

"What are you here for?" He smiled at her and said

"Just came to see how the campfire went."

"It was good." He stood in front of the gate so she wouldn't be able to push it open. She wasn't afraid to speak up to him and said "If you'll excuse me I need to open the gate." His eyes glinted at her in the darkness as he took a step back, allowing her to slip in. She decided to ignore him and walked towards her house. To her surprise he didn't follow her and stayed where he was. She turned back and said

"Goodnight." He didn't answer and she went inside, locking the door the minute it was closed. When she looked back out he was gone.

Thank you electrickpanda and fggt16 for reviewing :) Sorry this chapter's been delayed. I just got my new computer and I've spent some time setting it up. I'm very excited for this Sunday as it will be just a Beth and Daryl episode!

Thank you all for reading :)