As the body hit the floor next to Shawn, all hell broke loose. The herd started to turn their attention toward the trio, as the rain had washed away their cover.

Looking at her son, signals him to run toward the car. They were almost outside the small town and she'd be damned if this is where they died. The trio ran, pushing away and killing walkers along the way.

The mother would have preferred if her son stayed close, but considering the circumstances he wasn't doin too bad, his small body allowed him to slip past the herd. Ducking any on-coming swipes and kneeing some walkers as a last ditch effort.

A fairly large walker lunges at Layla and pins her against a building, fighting desperately to escape as the walker has a death grip on her arm and shoulder. she mustered all her strength and pushed the walker to the ground before caving its head in with her foot.

Shawn's pov

My mom is busy fighting off a walker I was about to run back and help her but before I could she had it taken care of it, I couldn't help but noticed the slight look of pain in her eyes though...

She looks at me, smiles, and nods as we turn around and continue to run.

I'm so tired, but dying here wasn't an option. We've come to far to die like this, I'm scared but I keep moving forward. Yeah that's right...

"Keep moving forward" I think, trying to push my fear aside. I look behind me, mom and Vince are hot on my heels. I turn back around and right as I do-

"Fuck!" Vince shouts he lost his knife, stabbing a walker who got to close. The rain caused him to lose his grip in the struggle. Another walker takes this opportunity to try and make Vince its lunch. But before it can, he spins the the corpse around and shoves it into the other, grabbing his knife from its skull as he does so.

He's corned and I scream "Vince!" My mother raises the gun and is about to shoot but Vince stops her.

"NO! Layla don't, you two just go. I'll be fine! And grab the gas!" He shouts my mother nods through tear stained eye's. She grabs the can and bolts toward me.

Vince starts taking down the surrounding walkers, there's too many though so he pulls back and rounds the corner, vanishing from our sight.

We're just about out of town before I turn around and see that mom lost her footing in the rain, my gun flies from her hand as it slides to my foot.

Time feels like it slows down as I assess the situation, a walker is approaching my mother as she tries to get up, unaware of the current danger...

Layla's Pov

Shit! I hit my head when I fell. As I gather myself and look up I see a sight the both confused me and terrified me. A couple feet away and see Shawn, with his gun raised.

"Shawn- *BANG* he fires a shot that wizzes pass my head and into a walker's.

He shouts at me to grab the gas and we bolt down the road toward the car, we get there and I immediately start pouring in the gas Vince left us.

The herd is almost on us thanks to the gunshot earlier. I hop in the driver seat and we haul ass south.

An hour or so later.

We finally reach a resting point about an hour away from savannah, in Nunez to gather any food we could find.

We enter a small house and I start looking around while Shawn starts checking out windows. As he does that I wince in pain.

I frown as I spot it.

There, on my forearm, was a scratch. It's couldn't have been even more than two inches long. But it was there.

Apart of me knew what it meant, the other thought that maybe it only applied to bites.

Either way, I had an important job to do, and an even more important lesson to teach.

"We're clear!" Shawn shouts from a nearby room, he's about to walk up to me so I quickly hide my arm by crossing it under the other.

"Ya know something? I think its about time I taught you how to shoot Lil guy" I said with a smirk.

He perks up and Starts bouncing up and down on each foot. It'd been awhile since I've seen him this happy. I'm gonna try and keep it that way as long as I can.

"Really? *giggle* yay! Target practice with mom!" I pick him up and hold him tight as I rubbed our cheeks together. It's hits me like a ton of bricks, I'm not gonna be around to do this much longer. I shed a tear and hug him tighter.

"Mom, why are you crying?" I looks at me innocently, and slightly concerned.

"I'm just really happy baby, nothing to worry about" he nods as i set him down.

"Soooo, where are we gonna practice?" He ask. I look outside and start scouting a bit more, there isn't a lot of walkers on this side of town. We had decided to scavenge on the out parts of the city to avoid another shit show like Macon.

"There" I point out the window toward what appears to be a barbershop with two extra stories on top and a built in ladder to the side.

"That's pretty high up mom, won't that attract more walkers?" I sigh before I turn to him.

"Yup, but that's exactly why we parked where we did, easy escape route, besides we only stopped here to find some food." I tell him.

As I say that both of our stomachs growl. I reach into Vince's bag and pulled out some of the food we found and handed it to Shawn. Small container of peanut butter and some crackers.

"I miss Vince, I hope he's doing alright." Shawn says. I miss him too admittedly and wish he were here to take care of Shawn after...

"I'm sure he's fine sweetie, Vince is smart. Knowing him he's probably pissing someone off with his jokes" I reassure him. He nods before eating, he stops and looks up at me

"Are you gonna eat too mom?" He ask. I shook my head, not right now honey that's all you." He goes back to eating. I stare at him as he does, he's sprouting up a lot.

"October twenty-third, nineteen ninety-six" he looks up at me confused. He was about to speak but I continued.

"Let's seeee, this whole thing started on July seventh right? It been three months or so, which would make you eight years old." I tell him with a smile. Truth be told I could have missed it by now, or it was in a couple of weeks. Not like you can keep track of that in the apocalypse though.

"I remember the day you were born, all the appointments, the ultrasounds...the food cravings. those were fun though, watching your father stumbling around like a nervous wreck." Shawn smiles and Crosses his legs, listening to me.

"Lee had such a stupid look on his face when I handed you to him. Like the slightest move would have crushed you. You laughed something and smiled at him, and I swear I could pinpoint the moment his heart melted." I look down at him a tear rolls down my cheek.

"Till this day, you are still the most precious thing I've ever put into this world. You're smart and resourceful, powerful and brave. But do you want to know your most powerful trait?" I ask him and he nods.

"Your caring, even after someone wrongs you, you still care. There ain't a lot of that left out there, especially nowadays. Promise no matter what happens you'll always stay like that. I need to hear you say it." I say as he looks at me with such a determined look.

"I promise" he states. I nod and stand up heading towards the door. He follows my lead and begins packing up his food gear before joining me.

"Alright Ei, you got everything ready?" I asked. He nods but I wanna be sure.

"Gun?"

"Yup!"

"Bullets?"

"Mhmm"

"Flare gun, food, water, bandages?" I was quizzing him hard.

"Yes mom I grabbed everything, I still even have uncle b's tape recorder."

"Walkman" I corrected.

"Yeah, that" he says

Shawn pauses for a moment before speaking...

"You haven't called me Ei in a long time... why is that my middle name again? He asked

I smiled before answering

"It's was my dads name, it's a strong name, me and him may not have seen eye to eye on everything but he's still my father. And his lessons are what, for more less, have kept us alive thus far." I tell him.

"Didn't grandpa hate dad though? Why was that? Did he do something wrong?" He ask and I shook my head.

"No, Lee didn't do anything actually, grandpa was just, well...I don't know baby, I thought I did, but..."

I shook my head

"Lets just get going...shall we?" I tell him

Shawn gave me a questioning look before we headed down the street toward the barbershop and made our way up the latter. Once we're up, I started setting up some of the used pop cans from our scavenge.

"I knew that's what you were gonna use those for" Shawn says full of glee. I walk up to him and test his knowledge of gun safety.

"Where's the safety?" I ask him

"Here" he points to a small lever near the chamber

"Good, now turn the safety off" he does just that, I nod.

"Did you read about guns too?" I ask while laughing. He may be a novice in terms of actual experience but he's always been an avid learner.

"I figured out Dads password to the safe, one day I went in his study and started playing with his gun. He was gonna whoop me but instead he made me read everything I possibly could about guns in his study." He explained. I laugh again.

"No spankings huh? Yeah that sounds like lee, your lucky it was him who caught you and not me mister, your ass would have been toast" I say putting my hands on my hips. He instinctively puts his hands on his butt.

"Your father always has the Martin Luther king "turn the other cheek" mentality, I personally always subscribed more to the Malcom x school of thought. Guess opposites really do attract." I say walking up to him after setting up all the cans.

"Okay, time to see if you can hang with the best." He gets into what he thinks is a good stance. I adjust his arms and shoulders.

"Relax. Don't be so tense, remember that it's just a thing. Like a car it'll go anywhere you want it to." I point at the barrel of the gun.

"The thing at the end is your sight, it helps you get a good aim on your target. Now try and hit one of the cans over there." I signal to the seven or so cans in front of us.

bang* he hits one of the cans dead center. He looks at me happy but I cut back to business

"Good, now do it again" he nods and adjust himself again

bang* he hits another one

bang* another

bang* he misses

"Shit!" I would have told him off for swearing but he'll most likely see and hear worse in the future.

bang* *bang* he hits two more back to back. Honestly I'm impressed. Five out of six is way better than I was able to manage at his age.

He looks at me and smirks "I heard that, looks like I get to sit at the adults table." He smugly states. My face flushed in embarrassment, I didn't mean to think out loud.

"Yeah yeah whatever you say dork, I'll be honest, your arrogance definitely didn't come from me or lee. That is strictly a you thing little buddy." I said with an unamused expression.

sigh*

"credit where it's due though that way pretty good, keep that up and nobody's gonna miss with you."

As I tell him that I hear a chorus of groans coming down the street, it's a small heard.

"It Looks like it's time to go buddy- *cough* *cough* *cough* I look down at my fist as I get done with that coughing fit and my eyes widened at the sight of blood. My backs to Shawn right now, thank god

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm alright baby, nothing to worry about here." I wipe away the blood and hurry down the latter, Shawn following in toe. after a brisk walk back down the street we hop in the car.

"Are you ready?" I ask looking back at him and he nods.

"Yeah, let's go find dad!" He's with fire in his eyes. I nod and look forward putting my hands on the wheel. It's about a one hour drive to savannah from here.

I look at my hand and see I bit of my somewhat distorted blood.

sigh* "please still be out there lee, your all he has left..."

Meanwhile

"Let me out! Who's out there?" Clementine yells as she bangs on the door.

The strangers puts the gun up to Lee's face and gestures for him to keep quiet.

"Quiet, please, sweetie!- The strangers turns to lee - your things, over there, now." He gestures to the dresser near by, Lee walks over and drops the radio on the table.

"That's it? You travel light, I don't believe you." Said the stranger.

"That's all I have, don't believe me? Then come check me." Lee lies, as he hid the glass shard behind his shirt.

"No, I'm not touching you, now sit" he walks to the chairs sitting opposite each other, gun still pointed in Lee's direction.

"Do you know who I am?" Asked the stranger.

Lee shakes his head "no, I don't know anything about you."

"You wouldn't, people like you don't. Now your thinking, 'who would have it out for me?' Huh? A few weeks back there might have been a station wagon in the forest? Full of all sorts of food, water, things you need to survive."

Lee's eyes widen and guilt starts to eat at him, despite not taking part, he could have probably done more to convince Kenny and the others. the stranger continued...,

"Yeah. I'm not some cannibal, Lee. Some killer in the woods. Some...villain. I'm just a...dad. I coach little league."

Lee's face fell

"Excuse me...I coached little league, was...a dad" lee sympathizes.

"I didn't agree with it, what else do you want me to say?" Lee asked.

"I don't want you to say anything. I just want you to know what happened." He continues.

"Have you ever hurt, someone you loved?" The stranger asked.

"Yes" lee simply respond

Probing the stranger asked "who?

"My wife...and my son"