So I'm floating this out there to see if anyone is interested in reading a ZA Daryl fiction. Also I wrote this story to give a girl named Lucy a happier ending than in Blood Requiem xxxxx. Trying to finish my other two stories as well, God's Ant Farm and Rag Doll, thanks for hanging in there with me on those stories. I think I had to get this one out of my system before I could finish those, we'll see.
/
The dead sticks and pine needles on the ground crunched under her feet as Lucy made her way through the woods slowly with care; that was how it had to be now. The leaves rustled above her head and she glanced up at the sun, bright, and burning the fog off of the early morning.
Her hand blocked it somewhat, and it wasn't anywhere near high noon yet, but it was well on its way to being hot as hell again. It was summertime, her favorite time of the year. But that didn't matter anymore, nothing mattered.
She had lost her sunglasses and made a mental note to get some on their way out of town. There was a pharmacy nearby, and no one was there to even care if she took them.
Suddenly, the old rules no longer applied and she was thrust into something she was not entirely prepared for. There had been no warning when it all went to hell and the world had been in shock when it first happened.
Lucy had so much responsibility now. For the last few years she had only ever needed to worry about herself, but then the world ended and it had all changed.
This was her routine now, every morning; fitful sleep for a few hours, if she fell asleep at all and then walking the perimeter of their yard. She lit a precious cigarette, one of the many things she once took for granted and now savored. Cigarettes were hard to find now, they had been cleared out of the local stores ages ago by looters. It was fine, she needed to quit anyway.
This day was going to be just like the last, like everyday had been, at least she was still standing. The world had gone to shit but she had things to do. Lucy stayed close to the house, just to be safe, but she needed to make sure no one was around.
Marylee, her sister still slept peacefully, finally, in the house behind her, but today they had to leave, they were out of food and out of water. They had held out for a long time at their childhood home, but it was time to go. Marylee had been crying for days, their parents were buried in the back yard and she didn't want to leave them. She cried herself to sleep the night before, even though the last time she laid eyes on them they had been animated corpses.
Lucy had to put them down and it had not been easy, that day had given her a crash course in killing the dead ones. The dead ones that you loved.
/
They each packed a backpack, Marylee at fifteen, surprisingly didn't require a lot. Both of them were low maintenance thanks to their father raising them as country girls. A few pairs of jeans, her doc martens and a few concert t-shirts and Lucy was ready to go.
They each had a gun stuffed down the back of their pants, and several knives stashed in their boots. These were strange times now, both girls were thankful for their fathers hindsight in preparing them to defend themselves, they were better off than most.
They stood in the driveway looking at the house they likely would never see again and Lucy took Marylee's hand. They had both grown up in this house, all of their memories were there, all of the good times and it was hard to go. But they had no choice, the house was set far in the woods, and it was a days walk to the closest town at least. They had no gas for the cars now, it had been used over the past few weeks as Lucy went out looking for supplies every day.
"I'm sorry Mary," Lucy said softly.
Marylee didn't answer, she just looked up at her older sister by ten years and gave her a sad smile. Even though this was horrible, she was so happy Lucy had come home. There was no way that she could have done any of this alone. Lucy was her lifeline, she had saved her. How could she figure out a way to put it into words, Marylee didn't even know what she was feeling.
As they walked Marylee finally spoke with a simple, "Thank you for coming back."
"I would never leave you alone…"
Lucy had been working in Pittsburg ever since graduating from U Pitt Nursing School a few years ago. She worked as a nurse and also wrote for an online music website. When the news started blowing up about the new virus she had hightailed it home. Her parents were already sick and died soon after she got there. Then it all went to shit after that, since then Lucy and Marylee had been holed up in their house, but it was time to go.
"What was Pittsburgh like?"
Lucy shook her head, "You don't wanna know."
/
"I'm not a kid anymore, I can take it Lucy." Marylee pestered as they walked through the woods towards the road that would lead to Atlanta, even though she was pretty sure it was blown up a few days ago. They had seen the helicopters fly in that direction and had heard the explosions.
The CDC was there and Lucy figured it was as good a place to start as any. Surely someone there knew something. She kept her thoughts from Marylee for weeks, and just did what she needed to do to keep them alive in a world of the dead. But Marylee wanted to know the truth and she deserved to know.
"It's never going to be the same again, the old rules don't apply anymore." Lucy answered without turning to meet her eyes. She was scared too and she didn't want Marylee to know it.
"Tell the truth Lucy, always tell me the truth from now on," Marylee pleaded, "You won't be doing me any favors if you don't. Dad was the same way with me as he was with you. The jiu jitsu and the weapons, he knew something would happen."
Their father had been a prepper of sorts, their house had been small and they only had two weeks worth of food but it was a start. The girls had made it last over a month though, aware that they needed to conserve all resources now. That was also something their father had taught them.
More than that though, he had made sure his daughters knew how to fight. Many nights after school he had them spar with him in the garage, preparing for something. He didn't know what, how could he? But he didn't want his girls to be defenseless, and they weren't.
As he got older Mitch Blumfield, their father had become something of a conspiracy theorist, he even ran a podcast from his garage for a few years; Lucy had listened dutifully, even if she didn't always agree with his views.
Sometimes she thought he just had too much time on his hands. But he was her dad and she loved him so much.
Mitch had been right though and in case he wasn't around, he wanted to make sure they knew how to shoot a gun and use a knife. "Don't hold back Lucy," He would say, "Don't be afraid of hurting someone, because they want to hurt you!"
"He did, didn't he." Marylee sighed.
"Yeah, he did." Lucy said as she held a tree branch so that Marylee could get by, "I always thought he was a little over the top, between his beliefs and the podcast, but then this epidemic happened."
"Yeah" Marylee answered as she followed behind her sister, "Imagine that."
"He was smarter and more intuned than we ever gave him credit for," Lucy mused as they walked, "But he was right all along."
"... lucky for us…" Marylee answered and then they were silent for the rest of the walk for a while.
What else was there to say anyway, they were both lost in their thoughts wondering what in the world they were going to do now. Thanks to their father they were prepared for some things, but life on the road was a scary thought, it reminded Marylee of the book The Stand that she had read several times. Lucy had read it too, maybe later she would ask her older sister what she thought of the parallels now and if they would meet good and evil in their travels.
Maybe it was Captain Trips that got everyone and did what it did to them. If that was true Marylee did not want to meet some of the people in that book, although some might have been fine. But this was real life, not a Stephen King book and that was perhaps worse.