I finally decided to take my sister on that run. She wasn't ready for big stuff, but I figured a trip to check out a store or maybe a few houses would be okay for her. She couldn't argue either. Judith had been out a few times before but as I said, she hasn't done anything too serious, which is good. She's just a kid even though she wants to be treated like an adult. There's certain things that she just can't handle yet.

"You make sure you stay close to me and listen to everything I tell you." I told my sister when we were about to go into a store. "Anything could be in there and anything could happen."

"Yeah, yeah." She waved me off. "I know all about it."

I glared at her ignorance. "No, you don't." I snapped. "You think you do but you don't." We looked at each other for a minute. My sister looked annoyed like I was being overprotective or something. She doesn't even know. I squinted my eyes at her. "Just remember what I said." I cracked the door open. "Let's go."

We went inside with our weapons up and Judith behind me. So far, the place was clear. "Alright." I said once we checked the whole place. "Look around, take what you can fine." I turned around and my sister wasn't there anymore. "Judith." I called. She didn't answer me. I immediately got annoyed and looked around. I found her in the next aisle over. "Judith!" I scolded her.

"I got it." She said. "The place is clear anyway."

"It doesn't matter. I told you to stay close!" She ignored me so, I walked closer to where she was. "Judith, I swear to God…I will take you right back home if you don't listen to me. And you will never go out again because dad or Michonne won't let you."

"Shhh!" She turned to me. "You hear that?" I listened and heard a thump. My look turned to concern.

We stayed quiet and just listened. "It's okay." I finally said. "It's just one."

"How do you know?" My sister asked me.

I looked down at her. She was getting tall, it won't be long that she will be taller than me. The thought annoyed me. "I can tell from the movement and sound." I looked around. "It must be in the back."

"I got it." Judith said and pulled out her sword.

"No." I stopped her. "We don't need to. It ain't botherin' no one." She giggled. I gave her a questioning look. "What?"

"You sounded like Daryl when you said that." She smiled.

My mouth set into a thin line. "He must be rubbing off on me then."

"Well…I'm gonna go take care of the walker now."

"No!" I grabbed her arm this time. "Judith, did you not hear what I said? We don't need to."

"But it might hurt someone." She then said.

"And that someone isn't going to be us." I gave her a serious look. I could tell what I said bothered her. "I know how it sounds, believe me, but…it's a cruel world. You have to learn when it's necessary or unnecessary to put yourself at risk…and this is unnecessary." I nodded.

My sister put her head down. "I know that. Dad tells me all the time. It's just…we lost people that way. I don't want anyone to lose someone."

I was a little more sympathetic towards her after that. My sister was a good person despite how young she still is. She reminds me of Carl at times, she wears his hat a lot now. He was stubborn at that age too. I had to smirk at that thought. "Okay." I finally said. "If it's really bothering you that much…I'll take care of it."

She gave me a weird look, almost like disappointment. I just ignored it and followed the sound to the back of the store where they used to keep all of their shipments and such. I opened the door and let the walker come out, it was real slow, must have been there for a long time. I was about to stab it when Judith came out of nowhere and killed it with her sword. The body fell towards me, I grabbed it in surprise, then let it hit the floor. "Judith!" I turned to my sister. "I said I would handle it! You could have gotten hurt!"

"Are you serious? That was the slowest walker in the world." She said. "And besides, I handled it." She crossed her arms over her chest. I glared at her, then she walked away. She also got her sneakiness from Carl; I forgot he was like that. I shook my head and followed her out.

We were walking down the road headed back to Pine Lane with the stuff we found in the store. It wasn't a lot. It never was anymore. If we needed things, we either had to make them with what we had or we had to hunt for our food.

"We should check a few houses now." Judith said. "We hardly got anything in that store and we should come back with at least something. I bet we'll find something in some houses." She turned to me. "Any neighborhoods in the area?"

I gave her a look before answering. "Yeah, there is but it's in the opposite direction of home so we aren't doing that today." She was about to argue but I cut her off. "I told dad and Michonne that we wouldn't be gone a full day. I don't want them to be worried about you."

"They won't." She shrugged like it was no big deal. "They know what happens out here."

I just stared at her. How can she be so careless? "Yeah, they do and that's exactly why they'll be worried." I took my backpack off and handed it to her. "Here. It's your turn to carry the bag." She took it and started to argue about looking in houses again. "You know we haven't even dealt with what you did back at that store yet?" I cut her off again. "Not only did you put yourself in danger but you have endangered me as well. What do you think dad would have to say about that?" She stopped in the road and stared at me. I just kept walking forward without a glance.

"Please don't tell dad." Judith said. "I'll never do that again, I promise." I stopped walking and turned around to face her with raised eyebrows. "I'm sorry, okay?" She said after that.

"I knew it." I smirked.

She gave me a weird look. "Knew what?"

"The fact that you're more worried about what dad and Michonne would do if they knew than what actually could have happened back there tells me that…you're not ready to be out here." I took the bag off of her because it was obviously heavy for her and slung it on my back. "You're still an irresponsible child." I let out a small laugh.

I could see the anger form on her face. "Mmm…why do you have to be like that, Abby? You're so mean to me! I-I just wanted to help! If I don't get practice, then how will I ever learn?"

"And I'm trying to teach you!" I snapped. "But you being stupid and doing something dangerous like that isn't how you learn! That's how you get people killed!" I could tell she was shocked that I yelled at her. I calmed down a little and sighed. "Look, kid…I know you wanna learn and be with the grown ups, and you will…one day. You still have a lot of growing up to do." I nodded. "And you gotta do better. Just because you can kill walkers doesn't make you an adult. Being responsible and cautious are important." She looked down. I put my hand on her back. "Come on, let's get back."

Just then, we heard snarling and we both gasped putting up our weapons. I looked up and around with wide-eyes. There was a herd coming out of the woods and headed right towards us. "Shit." I said. "Judith, come on." I grabbed her arm.

She pulled away. "No, we can take them." She had her sword ready.

I glanced back at all of them. Is she crazy? Like literally crazy? There were more than thirty! "NO, let's go!" I pulled her and made her run.

We ran all the way down the road. I glanced at my sister at one point and she was smiling. Does she think this is funny? I'd like to knock her upside the head. We got to the intersection that's before the road to Pine Lane, Judith was about to run down the road but I grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"No!" I said. "We can't lead them back home. Come this way!" We ran in the opposite direction towards the neighborhood that we were talking about earlier. Maybe Judith will get her wish and we will end up looking around in houses. I breathed heavily and kept running. We were pretty far ahead of the herd.

There was a broken down barn close by in a field, I made us run to it. We went inside and caught our breath. "What are we doing?" Judith snapped. "Why are we hiding here?"

"Because…they don't get winded, we do." I said in-between breaths. "I have an idea." I took my backpack off and let it hit the floor, then I got level with my sister. "I need you to hide here. I'm going to lead them away." I nodded. Just stay here and I'll come back for you when it's safe. If I don't come back, run home, you hear me?"

"But sissy—

"DO YOU hear me?" I raised my voice and cut her off. She eventually nodded. I heard them getting closer and took a peek out of one of the cracks in the barn wall. They were headed down the road now. Go now. I nodded to myself. "Judith, stay safe…" I ran out the door and back onto the road. "Hey! Hey, follow me!" I yelled at the walkers, they noticed me and started to come this way. "That's it, come on! Right down here!" I waited to run until they got a little closer. I wanted to make sure I get them all. I glanced up at the barn and could see Judith's form in the doorway. My mouth set into a thin line. I hope she will be okay.

Finally, I turned and ran down the road.

I ran for a long time and was getting really tired. I was sweating up a storm and breathing very heavily. At least it wasn't a hot day, it was a nice Fall day. The herd was pretty far behind me so I decided to start walking instead, I will run again if they start to get close.

I took them down another road that was headed for the lake. When I reached the water, I stopped and took a breather while waiting for them to catch up. I need to get them into the water. But how? I looked around. There were some big rocks right before a hillside. Perfect.

I had time to set up my plan. I was currently hiding behind a tree and when they get close enough, I will roll this big rock down the hill, they should get distracted by and it follow it right into the water. I hope this works. I was getting anxious while waiting for them to get closer.

Finally, they did. I whistled to get their attention while still hiding. They began walking over. When they got close enough, I pushed the rock as hard as I could down the hill and then hid behind my tree again. I heard a big splash as it hit the water. The idiots fell for it and followed it right into the water. I came out from hiding and looked at all of them sinking and smiled. It worked! I had to laugh.

Just when I turned around, a lone walker grabbed onto me. I gasped and struggled with it, it was a lot taller than me. "Shit!" I tried to be quiet, all the walkers in that herd are just down below, it's not like they can get back up the hill though. I kicked it as hard as I could making it go backwards, it hit into a tree then fell. I ran to it and stomped on it's head several times even after it was dead.

I stood there bent over with my hands on my knees breathing heavily. "I think I got a good enough workout for the day." I said out loud and stood up straight. Looking up at the sky, I realized that there was still plenty of daylight left. I got to go back for Judith, I almost forgot about her. Then we are going home.

I finally got back to the barn. "Judith, it's me." I said from outside. "You okay?" No answer. "You still there?" I stepped inside. She wasn't in there. Panic set in for a second. Maybe she just went back home like you said.

Just then, I heard a noise outside. I walked around to the back very slowly with my knife up. However, when I got there, nothing was there. I took a step outside and looked around briefly. "Judith?" I said. There was no answer.

I was about to leave when I heard, "Boo!" I gasped and turned around with my knife pointed. My sister was there and she was laughing. "Haha! I got you good! You should have seen your face!" She laughed.

Normally, I would laugh at the sort of thing. But…today wasn't a normal day. Today was a horrible, tiring, emotional draining, awful day. Something snapped in me right then. I grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH?" I yelled to wake the dead. No pun intended. She immediately stopped laughing and looked scared. I didn't like the way she was looking at me, so I let go of her hard and went back inside the barn. Sitting down on the ground with wide-eyes and staring at the floor. I didn't feel like talking in that moment.

We probably just sat there like that for about twenty minutes with no one talking. I was beginning to calm down. "Abby?" I heard my sister's small voice. "Sorry I scared you. I know I shouldn't play around like that." I closed my eyes, it's good to hear her say that. I was about to tell her it was okay but she continued. "But I'm not sorry about whatever happened to you out there." I slowly looked up at her. "It's your fault for leading them away. I told you we could take them. We should have." She said nonchalantly and shrugged.

Okay, now I'm back to wanting to throttle her. I just stared at her for a minute with a shocked expression. "Damnit, Judith!" I finally yelled. "Are you serious right now? Did you see the size of that herd? You would have gotten ripped to shreds!"

She stared at me like an annoyed kid. "Language. I'm a kid. Remember?"

I got even angrier. "You don't have any clue what it's like to be out here! You don't know anything! You're just a stupid, little kid! One that needs to be taught a lesson! You cannot handle anything! You think you know and you think you can but you can't! You hearing me? You CAN'T!" I yelled in her face. I stood up straight and breathed heavily. She made me so mad right now.

My sister and I just stared at each other for what felt like the longest time. "Hmm." Judith shrugged and walked out of the barn. I gave her a disbelieving look, then followed her out. We headed back towards home.

Judith and I walked down the road without talking. I was mad at my sister and I'm sure she was mad at me for what I said to her. I know I shouldn't have gotten so mad and yelled at her like that or called her stupid but…she just made me so mad. If she wasn't a kid, if she was closer to my age…I would have knocked her ass out. I gritted my teeth in frustration just thinking about it. Don't worry. I told myself. She's gonna find out one day.

Judith was a little bit of a distance ahead of me, she stopped when she got to the end of the road and there was a three way intersection. My sister turned to me. "Which way?" She said. I pointed instead of speaking to her.

Just as we rounded the corner, we could see a little house in the woods a bit of a distance away. "We should check in there!" My sister said excitedly. I was annoyed because I wanted to go home, but then I remembered about how she wanted to check in some houses. We didn't get to do that. I figured, we might as well compromise.

"Sure." I told her.

"Really?" She got even more excited.

"Yeah, go ahead." I nodded. "I'll be right behind ya." She grinned from ear to ear and then took off for the house. I walked slowly behind her. "Hey, you wait for me though when you get there."

Judith reached the house first, I was a few feet behind her when she opened the door. I noticed that she forgot to knock to check for walkers first. So, she opened the door and about five walkers came right out at us. She screamed as one of them grabbed onto her. My eyes widened, but I couldn't do anything because the others came at me. We killed them together, then I was about to help Judith but she killed the walker that she was struggling with before I got to her. Everything seemed to calm down quickly after that.

My sister turned to me. "See. I told you I could handle myself." She crossed her arms over her chest. I gave her an annoyed look.

Just then, one of the walkers that was on the ground grabbed onto my sister causing her to drop her sword. She freaked out immediately. "ABBY!" She screamed. "ABBY, HELP ME!" Instead of running to kill the walker, I hung back and watched the scene before me. If she can handle herself, then she should be able to get herself out of that situation. She continued to scream and struggle with the walker. "ABBY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HELP ME!" She slipped and they both started to fall backwards and she cut her arm on a piece of wood.

My eyes widened. What am I doing? I finally killed the walker after that and helped her up. She clung to me and cried, I held onto her and we stayed like that for a while.

"Why did you do that?" She finally let go of me and looked up at me with tears in her eyes. "Why did you wait to help me?"

"I-I don't know." I said. I felt weird, almost like I was in a daze. We stared at each other for a moment. She was starting to calm down. "Come on, let's go inside and take care of your cut." We headed inside the little house.

What I did, waiting like that to help her, was dangerous…I admit it. I knew she would be okay, though. And I told her I didn't know why I did that. But deep down, I did know why I did what I did. It was to teach her a lesson.

I cleaned and wrapped Judith's cut while talking to her. "I'm sorry I didn't get there when I should have. Really, I am." I looked at her, she wasn't looking at me though. "You sure you're okay? You've been pretty quiet."

She sadly nodded. "I'm just upset is all."

I stopped and gave her a look. "About what?"

She hesitated and looked outside at the pile of dead walkers on the ground. "I don't wanna say." Her voice was shaky.

I was hesitant. "Well…we should get back. It's gettin' late." I nodded. She just got up and walked outside without saying anything. I blinked a few times before following her. What's up her with now?

I was really starting to worry about my sister as we were walking home. She hasn't said a word to me, just walked ahead of me with her head down. I wonder if she's mad at me? I hope she doesn't tell my dad or Michonne about what happened back there. I don't have an explanation for what I did. I mean…I do but they aren't going to understand. They will look at me as the bad one. Maybe you are. My inner voice said. I shook that thought. I decided to try talking to her.

"Judith." I said. She ignored me. "Judith." I caught up with her and stopped her by grabbing her arm. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She said and tried to walk away.

"Don't gimme that." I grabbed her arm again. "There is something bothering you and we are not leaving this spot until you tell me what it is." I let her go and spoke softer. "What is it, sweetheart?"

She was quiet for a moment and kept her head down. Finally, she looked at me. She looked real sad, like not sad more like depressed or like she lost hope. That scared me. "You were right." She finally spoke. "I can't handle myself and I'm just a stupid kid." I stared at her in disbelief for a minute. She started walking again. I didn't know what to do or how to react. I was just dumbfounded. I guess what I did worked though.

I followed after her and caught up. "Judith, wait. Come on now. Don't make me feel bad like that." I looked at her and let out a small laugh. "I was mad when I said all that stuff." I paused. "Look, it was a rough day, okay? For both of us. It happens. That's what I was trying to tell you before." I sighed. "You did a good job with those other walkers though. You're tough and smart, not stupid." I nodded. "Come on, you're my badass little sister." I lightly punched her shoulder. "Who gives a shit about that? Just let it go and learn from it. That's the adult thing to do." I paused for a second. "So, what do you say?"

She was quiet for a minute. "Language." She finally said, then her mouth spread into a small smile.

I smiled down at her. "That's my sissy." I gave her a quick one armed hug, which she returned. "Seriously though…now you know that you have to be more careful." I gave her a serious look. "Anything could happen to anyone." She nodded. I was relieved that I finally got through to her. "Come on." I rubbed her back a little. "Let's go home."

She stopped me, I gave her a questioning look. "I'll take the bag." She said and smiled. I took in what she just said and returned her smile, then handed it to her.

Judith and I were almost back to the camp now. As we were walking, we heard a noise in the woods. My sister and I shared a look. I put a finger to my lips and gestured for her to follow me. She actually listened and stayed behind me this time.

I had my gun up and walked slowly into the woods where we heard the noise, telling Judith to wait back there. She obliged. I looked behind some bushes and saw what it was that was making the noise and immediately calmed down. I couldn't believe my eyes. I looked back at my sister who was giving me a curious look. "Check this out." I smiled at her. She began walking over to see what it was.

"So, what are you going to do with it?" Judith asked me as we arrived back at the gates of Pine Lane.

I smiled at her. "I'm going to give it to Daryl. It can be a gift."

"Really?" Her eyes widened, then she seemed to get a little disappointed. "I kind of wanted to keep it."

I gave her a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, sissy. It's just better this way. Daryl can take better care of it and it can help him out a lot." I nodded and put a hand on her back.

"Yeah, I know." She smiled but I could tell she was still a little disappointed.

"Maybe we'll find another one some day."

Once we got to the halfway point between our houses, I sent Judith home and we parted ways. I went straight home.

The house was very quiet, which I thought was odd. When you have two kids, your house is never quiet. That's when I spotted a note, it was from Daryl. It said that he took the kids to their friend's house and would be back soon. I smiled. That's good.

I took care of Daryl's gift and waited for him to come home. It wasn't long that he did. I smiled at when he opened the door. "Oh, yer back?" He said and kissed me. "Everything go okay?"

I hesitated and bit my lip because I thought about everything that happened today. "It was fine." I said. "Judith was a handful but…it's all good." I smiled.

Daryl nodded. "Good." I smiled at him and didn't say anything. "Yer actin' weird." He told me. I laughed. "What's goin' on?" He sat down and started taking his shoes off. "What happened?"

"Well…" I trailed off and hesitated. "I…got you a little present." I grinned.

"Oh yeah? What is it? A pool full of jell-o?" He smirked.

I let out a little laugh. "I'll be right back." I went into our room to get him his present, then walked back into the room. He was facing away from me. "Surprise." I said.

He turned to me and looked at the puppy in my hands. His eyes widened and he came closer to me. "You-you got me a dog?" He looked like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. I nodded and smiled. "Is-is it really mine?"

"Yes!" I laughed. "It's really yours. He's really yours." I handed him the puppy. "Here. Get to know him."

He took him from me. "Hey, boy." The dog licked his face and Daryl smiled a little. I laughed. They were perfect for each other.

"You said you never got a Christmas present before so…even though it's like October." I paused. "I figured you could train him and take him hunting with you and stuff. That way, you never have to be alone when you go out. And for me too, of course." I laughed a little.

Daryl was being quiet. I looked at him more closely and realized that he was crying. "Oh-oh my God. Daryl, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" I moved closer to him and touched his arm.

He looked away and looked like he was embarrassed. "I just…It's just that…I always…I never…" He kept trailing off while trying to explain to me. And then I understood. He never got anything for Christmas or for his birthday or anything. He never got any kind of gift or special treatment from anyone before besides us. Me. And I know how much he's been wanting a dog. I guess it made him emotional.

"It's okay." I told him. "I get it." I hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you." He looked at me. He wasn't crying anymore. "I love you."

I smiled and touched his face. "I love you, too."