author's note: welcome back to old fans, and hello to new readers! this is a rewrite of an old story originally posted to all the way back into 2013. this is something i've vaguely discussed doing for a long time, considering i started it all the way back when i was 13 years old and now i'm 21. as such, my writing has improved drastically.

backstories will be adjusted slightly to be more realistic, but the plot will largely stay the same, except for occasional fudges, because c'mon, i was thirteen years old.

(I still remember the day I got lost.

Walkers had flooded the highways, forcing everybody under cars. After all, there was no way we could fight off a hoard that size. Hiding was our only option.

Sometimes, I swore I could still feel the gravel and the asphalt, digging into my arms. There had been no room for movement or noise; there was just fear, as we watched pair after pair of feet shuffle past us. I'd had the urge to hold my breath, as if the sound of it would be enough to draw their attention to me and get me killed.

Instead, I had almost done that on my own, breathing or not. I'd tried to crawl out too soon and, as a result, ended up sliding down a hill to avoid getting eaten. Mr. Grimes had come after me, had tried to lead them off to protect me, but he hadn't come back. Not for a long time, at least. When I tried to go back like he'd taught me to, I'd only ended up lost deeper in the woods, with no hope of finding my way back.

I didn't know it at the time, but as I trudged further and further into that forest, that would be the last time I'd see any of them for nine months.)

—

The last seven days before I found that group again were some of the loneliest of my life.

I'd been on my own for a week at that point. Until then, I had been staying with a woman, Jackie. We'd been traveling around Georgia for a few months, but she'd gotten bitten. I hadn't seen it, or even known about it, until I'd woken up one morning to find myself left with a note and the rest of our supplies. She didn't tell me where she'd gone, or where to find her, but I didn't look, anyways. Even as a kid, I knew it would have only been searching for a corpse by then. Instead, I took the supplies and the food and the gun she left me so I could keep moving, hoping to find something or someone else.

As the week after her death drew on, I'd found myself getting more and more skittish. Without Jackie, I was flat-out alone. She was the only living thing I'd even seen in a month, and all by myself, I felt hopelessly lost. Even if we hadn't been close, considering that she held me at a distance and avoided starting conversation if she didn't have to, she was still another person. In hopes to follow what she said about continuing to keep moving, I tried scavenging through a few houses on my own., That didn't work so well, considering that when I had let out a pair of walkers out of one by accident, I'd scrambled out of the house so fast I'd tripped in the street and scraped my arm from elbow to wrist. The whole ordeal had left me so shaken that I hadn't even remembered I had Jackie's gun tucked in the back of my pants; I just ran and ran until I felt like I couldn't breathe anymore.

I stayed out of the neighborhood after that, taking to the forest instead. It was a lot easier to hear them coming in the woods. Besides, Jackie had taught me how to tie myself in the trees to stay safe at night when I slept. Knowing walkers couldn't climb was a comfort when it got darker out, even if it meant sleeping with my back to rough bark rather than a decent mattress.

The first time I heard any sign of life, actual life, was the sound of a car driving past in the distance. It was fleeting, just the hum of an engine, but at the sound, I started sprinting in that direction. Probably not the smartest decision, but after the silence and loneliness of the past week, I hadn't been in the best state of mind. Whatever vehicle the noise had come from was long gone by the time I found the road, but I was still excited, regardless. If somebody was driving out here, they had to be either going to or coming from somewhere. If I followed the road, there was a chance I could make my way back to that place. At the very least, they might drive by again, or somebody else might find me. Jackie had warned me that there were dangerous people out there, ones who might hurt me, but almost all our food was gone. Considering how woefully underprepared I was to be surviving on my own, if I didn't find help soon, I didn't think I'd make it much longer. I had been lucky enough as it was that I'd made it long enough to even find Jackie in the first place.

As I stood on the side of the road, I realized that I would have to pick a direction and follow. I could tell which way the car had gone based on the direction the noise had petered off in, but I couldn't tell if they had been going somewhere or coming back. The best I could do was guess.

I considered the sun above me. It was rising higher into the sky, only having risen a few hours ago. At this time of the day, it seemed like it might make more sense for somebody to be heading out, as it was it a bit early for them to already be returning. Then again, they might have only been on a short trip. There was really no way of being sure.

—

I picked the right direction, something I would thank God for as I got older and realized just how lucky that decision was.

It took over a day of walking, but eventually, the road started to curve towards a break in the trees. As I turned the bend, I was met with tall chain link fences protecting a grey, almost bleak-looking, structure on the top of a hill. A prison, I realized.

(Even at twelve-going-on-thirteen, I realized how smart of an idea it was to settle in a prison. All things considered, it might have been one of the safest places to be.)

There was one drawback. Whoever these people inside were, they seemed to have drawn at least a little bit of attention to themselves, considering there were several walkers milling about at the fences that guarded this prison.

Deciding to take the risk in the hopes that I could turn back and outrun the dead if there was nobody there, I snuck up to the gate. Once I got there, I was able to see figures at the top of the hill. There were people, actual living people, inside the fences. They didn't see me, but considering I must not have stood out among the walkers, it wasn't surprising.

It also wasn't very helpful, considering I'd drawn the attention of most of the afore-mentioned walkers making it to the gate. There was more of them than I had bullets, and considering I wasn't a good shot, it wouldn't stretch very far.

Taking a deep breath, I opened my mouth and shouted as loud as I could manage.

"Please help me!"

Even from far away, I could tell the sound caught their attention. I didn't know if they could see me, or tell which figure was a walker and which was a living person, but I did have an advantage: Jackie's gun, still stuffed in the back of my pants. With shaking hands, I pulled it out and started fiddling with the safety to try and turn it off. It took a few tries, longer than I wanted or could even really afford, but it flipped off with a click! sound.

My hands still trembled as I tried to aim at one of the walkers coming towards me. My first shot missed it completely, skimming right past his head. The force of the bullet caused my arms to shoot up, almost slamming me in the forehead with the weapon, and that startled me more than the corpse shuffling towards me did. The next shot hit it in the shoulder instead of the head, only giving it a second of pause before it started back up. Thankfully, I could see those people from earlier running down the hill in my direction, and I hoped more than I ever had for anything that they got there before I got eaten.

Maybe the third time really was the charm, because the third bullet I fired actually hit the walker square in the head, causing it to topple over onto the ground. I almost felt relieved, but there were three more right behind it, and another four coming in from the other side.

I got off five more shots, but only nailed two more walkers. The next time I tried to fire, the gun made a sad ticking noise, and after a few seconds, I realized it was empty. I had a knife in my pocket, but considering how small it was, I probably wouldn't have even been able to reach high enough to stab any of them in the head with it.

Oh no.

A noise behind me caught my attention, and I turned to see a girl with a blonde ponytail trying to unlock the one of the gates in between us. "Hang on!" She called, when she saw me looking. "We're coming!"

The end of her sentence was punctuated with gunfire from another woman following behind her. She seemed to have much better aim than I did, because she took out four of the walkers in the time it took me to get one. As she did so, another figure further up the hill pulled some weapon on his back and took aim. By then, the blonde girl had made it through the first gate and moved on to the next one, which was the only thing left between us.

The moment it was unlocked and swinging open, I threw myself inside, nearly colliding with the girl. The last walker chasing me tried to stumble in after me, but I saw something fly past me, about a foot away from my face. When I glanced back, there was an arrow sticking out of the thing's eye socket.

Recognition sparked in the back of my brain, and when I turned my gaze up the hill, I saw Daryl Dixon holding his crossbow and staring right back at me.

thanks for reading! this series never finished, and as such, it's always stuck with me. honestly, i'm chugging through all these rewrites just so i can justify writing the darker "what if?" spin-off about sophia as a savior that i've been sitting on for two years.