The wind blew my dark brown hair around as the water glistened with the sunlight. The breeze was perfect, and it smelled of peace.

"June, why don't you come in?", I looked over at my beautiful mother. She was wearing her blue one-piece bathing suit, and she was waist-deep in the quarry. She smiled at me, but it didn't seem quite right, almost as if I was staring at a photograph.

"I'm coming!", I yelled full of hope. My mother was finally by my side, and we were safe at the quarry.

"Don't forget the sunscreen!"

Turning around I rustled through the lime green beach bag. Rummaging through the towels and sandals I couldn't seem to find the bright blue bottle of sunblock.

"Hey mom, I can't find it where is- ", I was cut off by a blood curdling scream. Turning around quickly I saw my mother looking at me. Behind her was Marcy, slowly approaching her. The water around her was black, and it crept towards my mother. Running through the sand my legs refused to go fast as if they were going through invisible mud up to my knees. She starred at me as if I could help her save her. As Marcy kept coming towards her, she made no movements, she stood completely still.

"June save me! June hurry up!", she screamed. Her words made the invisible mud even harder to walk through.

"This is your fault, you killed me", she whispered. Marcy's hand pushed her head aside as she tore into my mother's neck, she didn't scream instead she stared at me.

"June wake up!", I was shaken around. Opening my eyes, I saw Glenn's sweaty face filled with concern.

"What's going on?"

"What's going on is that you were having a bad dream. You were starting to yell, what happened?". Swallowing the fear, I decided to tell him what happened. How I was sitting on the beach, and it was a perfect day, how mom was there, and suddenly Marcy showed up and ate her.

He looked down at his feet, his eyes growing red and watery He rubbed his nose with the back of his hand sniffling.

"I hadn't really been thinking of mom, at least trying not to. After what happened in the car, with the screaming…... I just can't think of them without this crushing feeling. I don't want to"

"I know how you feel, I can't imagine what they went through.", I hugged his sweating figure. Hearing the crickets chirp soothed my aching heart.

"What time is it?"

"Dinner time. They made chicken noodle soup for dinner; I was coming to get you", he wiped his nose on his sleeve and tried to clear his face from signs of tears.

We went out to join the others, as I walked towards the flickering light of the fire pit, my muscles ached and complained. My back was tired, I couldn't feel it then, but my muscles hurt from putting down Marcy.

"Well look who it is, our new heroes! I honestly cannot thank you two enough for what you've done. If it weren't for you and the Dixon brothers we would be starving right now", Cowboy said to us in front of the entire group. There were many faces, one blurring into another. The thought of having to remember all these names sent shivers down my spine. I wasn't expecting this many, but Shane did say there were already too many people here. He wasn't kidding about that.

I had to give it to Glenn this place was beautiful. There were two fire pits, and the flames put off just enough light to give the area a nice orange glow. At one fire pit majority of the group was sitting and sipping their soup out of all sorts of cups and bowls. At the other a few people sat, looking uncomfortable, side-eyeing a man who looked like a stereotypical drunk. Lori handed both of us a cup willed with the warm soup and sat back down near Shane's feet.

Taking a seat next to a pair of blonde girls, one of them looked at me funny. She stared at my shirt in disgust.

"You have blood on your shirt", she pointed out. Many eyes turned towards me.

"Well, I went on a run, I had to defend myself.", I spoke lowly, the audience made my heart pound.

"Did you hurt them?"

"It, and yeah. I didn't have a choice."

"It's still a person, they're just sick"

"Let me get one thing straight blondie, they were sick. Now they're dead and walking around searching for somebody alive to chew on. If you had seen what I've seen, you wouldn't question that", I looked away from her face. Shane was looking at me as if he took a terrible bite. His eyes were squinting and he looked down at his shoes.

She shut her mouth and looked at the ground. It didn't take long before she turned back towards me to get the last word in.

"They are sick. If they are dead, how could they possibly walk around?!"

"Well if they were alive, how could they still be walking around with fatal wounds, rotting"

She looked away once again. I looked away from her, her dirty looks made my face go hotter with anger. Lori was staring at me with her hands gripping her sons' shoulders and her eyes wide.

"But, this is not a conversation for dinner, much less in front of children" I muttered with hot anger.

"I agree, let's eat.", Lori chimed in.

Dinner went by slowly, and quietly. With a group that big the silence became stifling. I sipped my soup peacefully, while the blondie kept shooting daggers my way. It boggled my mind how she could blatantly refuse the truth, the truth everyone knew deep down.

Glenn wanted this to be an amazing place, I could tell he had hope for us all, but truthfully, hope seemed to slip away. I wanted to believe, but how could you when the end of humanity slaps you in the face. It's like you're desperately trying not to drown, while the undertow continues to pull you under. It feels helpless. The overwhelming fear kept dragging down my hope for this group working out for us. I couldn't imagine it.

As small talk erupted into a quiet buzz in the background, I tapped Glenn's shoulder and gave him a face. He looked at me and nodded. We walked towards our tent in silence, the moon barely breaking through the trees. It was dark and quiet, and the hairs on my neck began to stand up in fear. Inpatiently I unzipped our tent and threw myself inside. My heart pounded in my chest, and I started to sweat. Fear consumed me more than I was willing to admit, and I couldn't help but envision Marceys' corpse every time I got scared.

Glenn's hands gripped my shoulders and his worried face stared into mine. The only thing I could focus on was the open door of the tent.

"T-t-the door, please", I gasped out. My head felt woozy, and the room started to spin. Was this a panic attack? Was I finally going crazy? He zipped it shut in a hurry, and the weight on my chest started to lift.

"June? Breathe in and out slowly, come on", and he started to do exaggerated deep breaths. Following his rhythm seemed to stop the merry-go-round in my head.

"Thanks, I was…whatever you want to call it", I muttered. I went into my suitcase and grabbed a bottle of water. Taking a sip, the cool liquid soothed my dry mouth.

"Are you okay? I've never seen you like that"

"Honestly, no. Absolutely not. After Marcy, I've just been so off and so… scared. I am not down for how the world is ending. It's worse than terrifying"

"I know. But it can't be all bad. This is a nice place, with nice people"

"Please, these people don't even understand what's going on. Did you hear blondie? I didn't feel unsafe until now, now that I know these people don't even understand how dangerous the infected are! She was going to eat me."

"I don't think Andrea- "

"No, not Andrea. Marcy. The infected. It's what they do. It's what Dad did to- "

I cut off the sentence before the final word was spoken. Glenn's face turned into a look of pain and agony. He ran his hands through his sweating hair.

"Are you sure they eat people?"

"Marcy had bit marks, and she looked like she was ripped apart and eaten like a piece of fried chicken. I can't say for certain but, I'm positive."

"You need to tell people, they can't just think these, these, these monsters are just sick."

Our conversation ended on the agreement that I would speak to Shane in the morning and tell him what I know. I was so sure he already knew from the look he gave me at dinner. It looked like he was revisiting a past memory, a painful one.

I turned out our light and I could barely see Glenn's face looking back at me.

"Glenn?", I whispered quietly. The dark frightened me, but the fear of being heard by one of those things nearly scared me more.

"Yeah?", he answered.

"I'm scared, do you think we are going to make it through tomorrow?"

"Yeah, it's going to be just fine. Shane will understand"

The sound of laughter filled the air and calmed my nerves. People had started going to bed, and they didn't have a care in the world. Suddenly a familiar voice talked clearly.

"What if that new girl was right, and those people are dead? That would really be cause for alarm"

"Honestly Andrea, it would make so much sense. Even though it makes no sense how they're able to walk around"

It was clearly the blondes discussing our conversation earlier.

"I know, I hope she's wrong, or just crazy"

Their footsteps crunched loudly as they walked away.

"Bitch", Glenn muttered. I fell asleep with a smile dancing on my face.