i do not own The Walking Dead
I dreamt of walkers chasing me again, but this time I was running with Carl, and he tripped and fell and I was forced to leave him. When I woke up, I was still in the RV. I took a deep breath, and stood up. Going outside, I see Daryl, Rick, Shane and everyone else around a big pile of rocks. A fear overcame me that it was Carl, but I heard an older woman talking about Otis, so I knew he must've died somehow. I walked over and listened to Shane telling us how he died saving himself, and how he saved Carl. I must've missed something pretty big while I slept, but I didn't ask questions. Maggie's family was mourning, and I didn't want to butt in.
Shane is lying, I notice, surprised. But why would he lie? I continued listening to him talk greatly about Otis and Maggie's family seems to believe his false words. According to Shane, he and Otis were out on a run to save Carl, and Otis willingly sacrificed himself. I should say something, but at the same time, I shouldn't. I stay quiet, and we all go up to place stones on a grave.
After the short service is over, Maggie goes inside, but comes back out with a map. She lays it out on the top of the hood of the RV, and we decide to split up and look for Sophia.
"You can't go anywhere far from here," Hershel says to Rick, "we might need your blood again. And you," he says to Shane, "you can't go anywhere on that ankle, or it'll heal wrong."
"So that leaves me," Daryl says, looking at the map.
"And me," I offer, "I want to help."
The adults look disapprovingly at me, but I keep my ground. Daryl allows me to come with him, and we leave to discuss where we will go and search.
We nod to each other and head off, but Rick intercepts us.
"Daryl, Destiny," he says, "Do you think you two will be alright out there?"
"We'll be fine," Daryl says. He keeps his hand on his crossbow on his back, and we leave without another word. I follow him into the forest line, and we head in. we try to track Sophia, but don't really get too far with it, so we just wander around. I see an old house and tap Daryl's shoulder. He sees it too; we go and check it out.
The house is neat-kept, but has nothing we could use in it. I start to lose hope, and begin to think that we'll never find Sophia. Out of nowhere, I hear many loud growls from outside, and look out a broken window to look.
There I see a herd of them surrounding the house.
"Shit," Daryl and I say simultaneously.
"I'll lead them away," I say, "you get back to the farm and I'll meet you back there."
"No," he says, "I'm not-,"
"You're not going to stop me, that am what you are not going to do," I tell him simply. Before he can open his mouth again, I change into my wolf form and watch him tower over me as I shrink.
I shrug off my human clothes and run out the door, barking madly while running in the opposite direction of the house. Daryl walks out after I leave. I don't see him anymore and I just keep running, with the Walkers behind me. I remember the last time I was running from a herd, I was trying to save myself. Now I was trying to save a friend.
As soon as I think I've lost them, I look behind me. There was good news and bad news now; the good news is, the walkers are gone. The bad news is I have no idea where I am right now. I know I'm too far from the farm. I try to gather my senses and try to find at least a street.
"Help!" I hear a little voice say. Sophia? I run towards the voice with everything I've got. I see a little girl being attacked by a walker, and recognize her as Sophia. Running up to the walker, I grab at its neck to turn it around and see the face is covered in fresh blood.
I'm too late⦠She's already been bitten
I claw at its face until the body is lifeless on the ground.
I hear soft crying from Sophia. When I look up at her I see the bitten chunk out of her shoulder. I whimper in fear, because who knows how much everyone at the farm was hoping she'd be okay. Blood soaked her shoulder and it dripped down her arm. Both of us knew she was going to die soon, but I tried to keep her spirits up.
"I miss my mom, Des," she said through tears, "I wanted to see her again."
She sits on a branch, and I go to follow her
Des? Is that supposed to be a nickname?
I sit next to her and let her huddle her arms around me like I really am a dog. She cries and cries. I wished I could help her get back to her mom, but I don't even know where they are either. We are surrounded by miles of forest I don't remember covering when we went out to look for Sophia. No one will find us.
"Promise me," Sophia says through tears, "promise me you won't kill me when I rise again, I want my mom to find me, and do it herself."
You could kill many others before she sees you again! I wanted to shout.
"Please?" she asks. I can see the light begin fading from her eyes, and her strength weakens. Nodding my head, I see a faint smile appear on her face before she leaves this world.
I want to cry, I want to curse the world for taking Sophia. I can proudly say she was my friend, because she was brave, even in the end.
I won't see her rise. I can't bring myself to wait for that. So I run, I try to gain my senses and get back to the farm but I know that it will be futile, because I am utterly lost.
Up ahead, I see a road. When the road is in my view, I notice it is not the same as the road the group and I were stuck on before. This road is completely vacant. No cars, no walkers, nothing.
I look to the left of me and spot a single car, nothing special, but it was something. I trot over to the car, with the hot paved road burning my paws slightly. I ignore the pain and hop my front paws on the door of the car for a better view. Inside, there was a mother and child. The two looked up at me in fear, but it was replaced with a soft smile from the mom. They lay in the backseat of the car, and it seemed like they had been previously sleeping. The mom unlocks the car and comes out slowly. The little girl, who must've been between the age's four to seven, runs out of her mom's grasp and hugs me.
The mother looks frightened; as if she thought I would attack the little girl, but when I don't she seems to calm down a little. She looks weak. And she keeps holding her arm. Her shirt sleeve was stained with blood and I know she has been bit. From farther down the road, a man comes into view, I almost think its Daryl, but know otherwise because the man doesn't have as long of hair.
"Sarah!" the man shouts. He starts to run towards the woman and when he's only a few feet away he sees her bite. "Sarah, what happened?"
The mother, Sarah, has tears running down her face now, "One of those things bit me. It almost got Addie, but I got her away in time."
"Sarah," the man said, "you're going to turn into one of them."
The man gripped at his waist where I saw a handgun. My eyes widened and I decided to get the heck out of dodge. I run past the man on the road to where he came from. And behind me I heard a gunshot. Soon after I hear a little girl crying, and know its Addie. Then another gunshot is heard, and this time I turn around to see who was shot. To my surprise, it wasn't the little girl who died, but the man. I stopped in my tracks, and see the little girl crying even more. She falls onto her knees and crawls over to her dead father. I walk back over to her, and try to comfort her. She sobs into my fur, probably getting snot all over it, but it was fine, because I know what it's like to lose your family. It happened to me, and really what you need is a shoulder to cry on.
I did not have that luxury.
So I let Addie cry, I know she needs it. She's only a few years younger than me after all. After she cries and calms down, I try to get her to walk up with me, and she holds onto the fur on my back. Mind you, it wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but I would just have to deal. We walk down the road in front of us, with no signs of any walkers around us whatsoever, which surprises me. We keep walking until she gets too tired and refuses to walk with me anymore. She then climbs onto my back, and falls asleep while I continue to look for any other signs of humans.
The sun was setting and I was beginning to tire, but I wanted this little girl to stay safe, so I keep walking, and hear her snore softly into my white fur. There were a few walkers that decided to peak out, but I stayed covered by the shadows, hidden from them.
I read a sign that stuck in the ground, it said Welcome to Zebulon! I was in a new city? I looked at the mile marker and saw I was 45 miles from Atlanta. Wow, I must've walked pretty far. I saw the sun beginning to peak up out of the horizon. How long have I been walking?
Behind me, I listened and hear more paws hitting delicately on the pavement.
I turn around slowly enough so Addie doesn't fall off my back, and come to see a red fox, holding a pair of jeans and a tee- shirt. The fox looks knowingly at me, as if he knew about my ability. I tilt my head in confusion, until I finally recognize who it is.
A.N.: tell me what you think?
