Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of The Walking Dead, just my OC's.

Otakugurl, thanks for your input, but personally I have no problem with Sophia, in fact I was inspired by her death in the show to write this because they never truly gave her that amount of time to develop her character. But if you ask me, Carl and Andrea are personally not my favorites. After all, if you ask anyone where Carl is, the answer given is definitely 'not in the house'. Kinda annoying in ya ask me. And Andrea, yea, her character is played extremely well but is also…well bitchy. Though it's kinda a toss up between her and Lori though in my opinion.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has read this story and supported it, and to anyone reading this on , I'm sorry about the format the way it was transferred to online, I'm not used to it, try to fix that in a little bit.

I peeked out from behind the lightning struck tree Rosa had told me about and spied two walkers heading the opposite way I needed to go. I looked right and saw that there was a slightly worn path through the woods, just small patches of dirt and compacted spots of dead leaves. I looked around some more and could have sworn I saw more things moving around trees, but i didn't have time for all of this. It was probably nine in the morning, or around that. And Rosa said that the road to the highway was three miles long, so if the wooden trail bisected that, it meant that it was shorter than that hopefully.

I hope to god so, cause it takes me nearly an hour to complete a mile, actually, over an hour. And that was just by walking, and lord knows that I'm gonna have to walk and run a lot today, and that's not even counting the possibility of a twisted or broken ankle. "Wow, I am pessimistic." I mutter lowly, then watch as the walkers stumble off the road and into the ditch and fall over each other into it. I took in a breath and started into a light sprint down the less beaten path, hah I finally can use that proverb in a real life situation! I attempted to stay inside the patches of dirt and compacted leaves, hoping to make as little noise as possible. I followed the trail for about ten minutes until the leaves got less compacted down in spots and there was less dirt patches on the ground.

I stopped and leaned against a tree and worked off my pack and unzipped it and pulled out my road map and compass along with my pen. The road map was almost foot tall and six inches long and from 2003 and I had marked all the towns I'd pass through or by on the highway and major road areas. Last place I was in was around Carrollton, and I had to go down from there, and by my count I had past or near Newnan. Sophia said that her group had come down from Atlanta after the CDC there blew up. So if we where around Newnan, always good to have a little bit of doubt . So that leaves two options of highways if going down, US 29 or the I-85. If my map was shoddily correct, then the best chance would be the 29. I dotted a slight dash down 29 and then used the compass, I needed to go southwest in a general line downward.

I put up the map and pen and hung the compass around my neck and then zip the pack up and back on my shoulders. So far there wasn't any walkers around, but I needed to get going. Moving once again I followed the more compacted pathway, over a few hills and past plenty of fallen trees, and god help me if I found grandma's house out here, I wouldn't be able to handle it. About twenty minutes after I stopped and checked the map I came across a walker. It used to be an old woman wearing a dark grey dress that was probably used for every day wear. Her face was practically gone and one eye hanged down loosely attached to a nerve. A large chunk of her front jaw was gone, as if she had gotten it broken, someone must have hit her face or she fell and hit her jaw on something solid. Skin hung loose on her throat and I saw a slight crater at the base of her neck and saw a bit of her spine gleaming through. No, she was no longer alive, it was an it, a walker, and it saw me and let loose a harsh whispery groan and stumbled to me.

I raised up the ruger and popped the walker in the remaining eye just a hair away from its nose and not all that center. The ruger made a bark and it echoed slightly, staying longer in the air. The walker dropped to the ground and then I saw four more stumble over a hill thirty feet away from me. "Shit." I curse and look through the scope and bring the cross hairs up on the first walker in the middle, a former man that was probably a farmer, I dropped it and moved to the next one, teenager with it's cheek bones showing. It fell when I pulled the trigger and rolled down the hill a few feet as I dropped the other two, twenty something's that both looked like from out of town. I breathed in multiple times in an attempt to calm my nerves and bring down my heartbeat, and then I heard a few branches snap as well as some leaves moving. I needed to go.

I broke off in the direction I was heading in before in a slight jog, trying to bring down my breathing once again. my ears rang slightly with a beating drum as my feet pounded on the ground and I jumped over a rotting log. "Five in the magazine, one in the chamber." I whisper to myself as I mindless kept on running. "Five spent outta thirty-one, 26 bullets left. 75 in the speed loader, takes one minute to pull out and load up." This was my way of coping with stress, stating the obvious was my way of trying to calm myself, help get through the rush. I turned slightly to see moving figures in the shadows between trees, swaying as I moved past. Damn, how many of those things are in the forest?

Then I remembered something grandpa said near the beginning of this whole nightmare. 'Think of it like a pack of wolves, when there's food around they'll stay and eat and hunt. But when they run out of food, the pack will migrate to different areas. Moving from a area of low density to high density, like your grandmother after she eats something with beans.' I smirk at the memory of grandma smacking grandpa upside the head and then slid slightly on a group of leaves and stopped and doubled over to breathe. "Alright Micah, stop and think. Breathe, just breathe." I take in a deep breath and lean back and let it loose slowly. I looked around and saw nothing outright, but I heard shuffling, slight but I could hear it. my legs were almost vibrating still as I heard another shuffle. Time to go.

Walking and stopping to listen every now and then, that was how the next hour and forty or so minutes went by, spent my time stopped by marking trees near the base with the tomahawk with a straight line. Saw plenty of forms of walkers go in different directions when I moved. I had to actually stop and hide behind a tree every now and then while a walker came by, which is what I was doing now. There were two walkers on the opposite side of tree, one I had caught a glimpse of was a short woman that had to lean forward to shuffle along. The other one I knew for sure was taller and ahead of the shorter one by a few feet. I had the kukri and the tomahawk in hand and ready to use, I needed to use hand to hand every once in awhile or else I wouldn't really get a better hand at it. I looked to my left and saw a steep hill, a lot steeper than any of the natural ones, and through a few glimpses in the daylight and trees I saw something like a dull shine of metal. I think I found the road.

I turned to my left and found the taller walker turn to me and stare, and that's when I threw the tomahawk at him. It buried into cheek left of the nose and cut partially into its eye and it staggered back slightly. Crap, I knew I forgot to sharpen something. That or I need to work on my wrist snap technique. I whirled around the tree the opposite way and saw the short walker turn to the tree right as I step up behind it. I held the kukri in a reverse manner in my left hand and brought it up diagonally at the walkers head. I met plenty of resistance at first when I hit under it's ear, but after I put some more force into twisting my body, it cut through the skull and the top part when flying off and a small spray of blood hit the tree as the kukri came free. It fell forward in a heap and I stepped around it and towards tall walker as it started moving forward. I ducked under it's outstretched arm and cut the back of it's leg and kicked it. it went down and then I brought back the kukri across it's neck, my arm jarring slightly until it finally left the skin and bone. The walker attempted to twist around as I brought up my leg and kicked it in the back and it down on its face. I stepped up on the back, jumped up and brought my foot down on the back of it's sliced open neck and the walker stopped moving. I pulled out my screwdriver in my right hand and then drove it up into the back of it's skull and twisted for good measure to be safe.

The screwdriver pulled out easily and I holstered it as well as the kukri and then tried to turn over the walker. It took a good couple of shoves and grunts to finally turn it the hell over and then I growled in annoyance as I saw that my tomahawk was buried into the skull further than before, almost to the metal stem. I gripped the handle with both hands, put my foot on the walkers chest and pulled. My foot went through a rib and jolted me slightly. "SHIT!" I curse aloud as I pulled out my foot and see a little bit of fleshy rotted goo on the bottom of my shoe. "EEWW!" I say as I wipe off my shoe on the leaves.

I sighed and repositioned myself at the walkers head and bent over and gripped the tomahawk with both hands again, started wiggling it back and forth, and then I pulled backwards with a lot of might, and it came free and sent me back and onto my ass. I kicked out at the walker one last time before I got up and brushed myself off and then holstered the tomahawk and sighed again then headed off to the hill. I had to climb up on my hands and almost my knees as well before I reached a guard rail. I stopped at the bottom and brought out the ruger and looked around. Where I was, there wasn't any cars, but I could see plenty of them to my right

No obvious walkers about, in fact I didn't see anything moving except for a bird in the sky. So I got up and hopped the guard rail, took two times to do it though, damn my being short! The moment my feet hit the asphalt I felt a little bit better, kinda missed the hard surface of it. the cars where about almost half a mile away, and the biggest one I saw looked like a transport truck or something. Walking closer I saw remnants of trash scattered about, and that some of those cars were packed full of stuff, personal belongings probably. Grandma actually packed about three boxes full of pictures, baby clothes and blankets of the like. Grandpa didn't argue when she put them in the car, but she argued when we stuck it inside a abandoned storage area in Russellville and slapped a lock on it. He at least let her take a small book of family pictures, half recent the other half older. It's actually in the flap compartment of the duffel back at the house.

I reached some tan colored car and then was able to see the entire picture of all the cars. Plenty where just stuck in the lanes at awkward angle, some turned over, and almost all of them looked to have been abandoned for about a few months. I looked around so more and saw multiple possibilities as to what I take, scavenging, not something I'd ever thought to do. I looked back behind me and saw nothing coming, so I decided to march on ahead. Sophia said that there was a water truck near where she had hidden under another truck. Walking along, I found bits of dried blood scraped along the ground with speckles of flesh sprinkling the road randomly. Walkers must have come along at some time, but I still don't know if this is the spot where Sophia's group was. My stomach growled a little bit and my mouth was dry. Gonna have ta take a rest sometime before I work my way back to the house.

Walking forward, there was suddenly this almost pale yellow mustang that stuck out. The reason why was because when I looked through the window there was some writing on the front windshield written in some yellow kind of paint. If I wanted to spend thirty minutes being stupid and try to read it backwards, I couldn't have because there where things on the front hood that blocked it. I brought up the ruger in case and started walking forward. You know how cops in the movies come in and sweep their guns back and forth? Imagine that but with a kid the size of a second grader and then you'll laugh, you're laughing at me.

Reaching the front of the car I finally was able to read the message and see what everything was. "Sophia Stay Here, We Will Come Every Day." I read aloud softly as I point the ruger skyward with one hand. There was a blanket, bottle of water, jar of peanut butter and the other miscellaneous staples on the hood of the car. Aren't they afraid of someone coming along and taking it? Or of some other group staying here to ambush them? How smart are these people again? I sigh and shake my head and look around more. "You say you'll come every day, but what's the time and limit?" I mutter to myself aloud.

So many cars, so many possibilities, of what is the question though. Overturned cars, open ones full of flies and dead bodies, stains of blood everywhere. Was this a graveyard or what? My stomach growled some more and I pulled the water hose up and took in some water to calm it down. Gotta find some car high off the ground for a short bit, where's that water truck? "Llllleeeetttssss see, roll top side, roll top side." I smirked when I found it, across the road, pale brown with shiny side doors that showed that it was collapsible. I started jogging to it and got there in no time and started jiggling the handle and it popped open. Looking inside there wasn't anything surprising, in fact it was quite nice. Smiling I pull myself up into the truck and close and lock the door behind me and do the same for the other side and relax visibly onto the passenger seat and set the pack down in the floor in front of me and pulled out a zip lock bag that had a three day old pop-tart, singular. I pulled it out and started eating while taking liberal sips from the water bladder.

Eating nothing but pop-tarts is a terrible idea on all accounts, but I can't exactly just go out and eat a full rounded breakfast now can I? Finishing off the last of the pop-tart I took in a few more gulps of water and sighed and relaxed back into the chair some more. I wanted to close my eyes and sleep so much, I felt so tired. My eyes started closing slowly and I felt the sleep getting to me, slowly creeping along. Oh great, I could never go to sleep all that well when the world wasn't in hell's hand basket, but now that there's a major threat of getting eating alive but undead geeks I can just close my eyes and la la land comes along. I slapped myself in the face to keep awake and then remembered that the magazines needed to be reloaded slightly. Groaning I pull up my pack and pull out the speed loader and the ruger at the same time.

The speed loader is basically just a plastic contraction that you pour in the .22 bullets and shake it till the bullets go face down into the line underneath the catch. Attach the magazine to the well and then crank the shaft and it turns a bullet into magazine, loading it. I did that and counted to five and let it loose and then took a spare one and popped it into the pipe and closed the action and then popped the magazine home. Sleep still wanted to hit me, and god I wanted to let it come at me and just let it take control, but I need to get back to them soon. Tomorrow we can make our way here and- "RRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG" I jump and look around, my throat starts to clog up slightly and I don't know why. Another ring sounds and I brought up the ruger out of pure conditioning as another ring sounds. "What the hell is going on?" then I see something out of the corner of my eye pass by in a run.

I press up to the window as another ring sounds and see someone running past a car on it's side. "WAIT!" I yell and start to open the door, then I remember my pack and zip it up and open the door while sweeping it onto my back as I hop down from the truck and look for a head, it zipped through more cars and I followed by running as another ring sounded, it sounded far off and coming from the person. I ran over the dividing lane between the two roads and started after the person. "STOP!" I yell at the person as it runs past more cars. So glad I can at least run a good distance easily, cause I am going to have to haul ass to catch them. Another telephone ring, old style and not new, more realistic and bell like. The person dodged around another car and broke into a straight sprint down the road, I stopped and brought up the ruger to fix the sights of the scope on the person's back, their hair was long and almost grey and they were about as tall as Rosa and wore grey on grey clothes. "STOP!" I yell again and then another ring, louder and sharper in pitch and tone. I wince in pain and clutch my ear and double over, when I come back up the person was gone, but the ringing wasn't it.

"Where did you go?" I ask aloud as I walk faster to where the person last was. The ringing was getting longer but softer in tone. I tried to run faster to get closer but it just stayed the same, never increasing nor decreasing. On and on I walked and in some burst I ran, up until I reached a speed limit sign and then stopped to look around when the ringing stopped. The person was gone, the ringing was gone, and my blood was flowing now. Someone is screwing with me, I'm sure of it. But why did that person look so familiar to me now? Sighing, I turn around and see how far I had gone from the graveyard of cars and my entrance from the woods, when I saw walkers climb up over the guard rail and onto the road about half a mile away from me. "Oh shit." I say in shock, and then I turn around and expect my duffel to be behind me so I can pull out my skateboard, but then I remembered… it was at the house. I look back up to see more walkers come up onto the road and fall onto it, and that's when I turned and ran.

I stayed close to the side of the road though at a distance from the guard rail, I didn't know how fast I was going, everything was a blur. The ruger was swishing back and forth and my pack was slipping slightly as my feet carried away with my legs behind them. I needed to actually fix the straps that attached the two arm straps together across my chest and around my waist. I needed to get away, I needed to survive, I needed… I needed… I wanted to run away from everything, straight from this nightmare and into Grandma and Grandpa's arms back home in Conway. I didn't want to go back to Rosa or Sophia, I wanted to go home, to forget about everything, the blood and smell of the rotting and unconsecrated biting dead as they shambled after anything with a pulse. To forget about the true blackness of a human soul as they could do such horrible things to such undeserving people and instead just wanted to hear about it from the news. A walker came up ahead and I stopped quickly and put it down and breathed deeply.

"Stop it Micah, stop it." I say as I smack myself again as I lower the ruger. I looked down and saw the dangling buckles of my backpack and quickly as I caught my breath. I couldn't just abandon them, it wasn't right. Sophia at least deserves a better life, hell, so do Rosa and I. This world would be so much better if everyone could actually depend on another and make smart decisions. I couldn't let them just die, I couldn't just abandon them for my own safety cause I was scared. I breath in deeply again and turn to look at the group of walkers a ways back, then I saw how much distance was between us, damn near a whole mile and a half. "Dayum." I say surprised. I bring up the ruger and look through the scope to watch them. They shuffled along down the road towards the cars a ways, but instead of going forward they made a slight turn and crossed the road and fanned outward. I felt the wind hit my face and smiled widely, they couldn't catch my scent that easily with the wind blowing in my way.

No time to stop and smell the rotting roses now, gotta keep moving, have to keep moving. I turned and started running again down the road, hoping to god to put some distance behind them and me. God, how far away did Rosa say that road was that connected here?

My legs where killing me, thank god not literally though. A poorly kept road was what a found two mile markers away from the speed limit sign. It took me a loooonnnngggg time to actually run down it, only three walkers appeared the entire time in front of me, three more bullets gone from the magazines. There was a four way stop with street signs that went off somewhere, I took a left and started running again till I came to a three way traffic stop where the lightning struck tree I had to find first before turning into the woods. From then on I went straight ahead and then onto a little dirt road that led up to the house. At the moment, I was resting against a tree sixty or so yards away from the house, breathing heavily. Thank god I haven't had any cramps in my leg, but god I needed to go to the fucking bathroom badly.

I was winded and thirsty, the sky was turning orangish in color, darker and darker with each passing time. So damn close, and now I just wanna give up and sit down. Well, screw that, I wanted to sleep, drink and use the fricken bathroom. I grunted as I pushed myself away from the tree and stumbled forward, god I hope Rosa doesn't shoot me cause of my walker impression, that would just suck donkey balls. I got close to the door and then it opened up and Sophia walked out and smiled at me hugely. "You're back." she says and then hugs me tightly, I groan and she lets go quickly.

"Tired." I grunt cavemanish and then walk into the house to find Rosa standing in the kitchen doorway with one of my small pots in hand with steam coming out of it. I took a wiff of the air and started salivating as I smelled pasta, cheap cheese and peas. "Oh beautiful goddess let thy grace of food bless mine lips." I plead dramitcally as I drop down to my knees in front of her.

She smirks and cocks an eye brow. "Okay Shakespeare, get up off the floor and use the bathroom out back. Dinner is going to be cold soon if you don't hurry the hell up."

"Can't I just use the one upstairs?" I wail lowly in a hoarse whisper.

"And where the hell do you think that water pressure to run it is gonna come from?" she asks mockingly. Oh right, wow I'm stupid. I hang my head in defeat and shuffle to the back door, but Sophia stops me and hands me a roll of toilet paper. DOH!

"Are you alright?" she asks worriedly as I nod and take the roll.

"At the moment, I'm just tired." I tell her as I take off my pack and lean it up to a door. "I'll be back in a second."

"Use the shovel out back to dig a hole behind the house." Rosa tells me. "And if you get shit on my shovel, I'll bury you with it." she warns.

"Yeah, and don't use my propane tanks to much or I'll burn you with them." I throw back. she stuck out her tongue at me and went back into the kitchen, I saw my little burner top and propane tank in the floor. I sigh and head out the back door and do my business as quick as I could and bury it. have to say, Rosa has good tastes in shovels, it was red and black handle with a large black spade ending, lightweight but with a great balance. I wipe it on the ground for good measure and bring it in with me and close the door. The house smelled better than before and my stomach rumbled. Getting back to the kitchen I found them taking apart my mini burner and getting ready to go upstairs. "How long was I gone?" I ask them.

"You left at what, nine?" Rosa asks rhetorically as she looks at her wrist, why didn't I see that watch in the first place? "It's about six thirty now, so… damn your slow." She says with a mock as she heads to the stairs with Sophia behind her.

"I'm a short twelve year old trekking through woods filled with undead corpses." I tell her as I walk up after her. "Speaking of which, we are going to have to be really careful tomorrow, one wrong noise and we're happy meals." The shovel banged on the step and I winced at the noise as we finally reached the second floor and head off towards the room.

"Did you find the road?" Sophia asks impatiently as we get into the room and I close the door behind us and lean the shovel next to it. "Did you see anyone, Momma? Rick? Daryl?"

"Let him relax his muscles a little bit." Rosa says with a slight scold as she sets the steaming pan down on a little square of dirty and messy socks that look to big for any of us. "You," she says looking at me. "sit down and rub your leg muscles, not exactly a cool down but it will have to do."

I salute her and do what she says after taking off the pack and started rubbing my legs, groaning in pleasure as the tension was starting to release. She pulled two wide plastic cups with handles attached and spooned in some of the pot's contents, it looked like a mixture of ramen noodles and mac and cheese mixed with assorted vegetables and stuck plastic forks in them. She handed one to Sophia and started eating herself as I went further up my legs for about ten minutes or so. Then I finally stopped when my fingers started to go numb and Rosa handed me the cup she was using and filled it full of the pasta mix. "Thanks."

"No problem." She says as she cradles her shotgun, I spy the barrel as I fork in dinner and see that it was plenty shorter than before. She smirked and looked down. "Yeah, took a hour or so with breaks but we finally got it." she says smugly, Sophia held the same look on her face.

"Did you take something smooth and rub down the inside of the muzzle?" I ask her between bites.

"What for?" she asks confused.

I stop and swallow and find the cup empty. "When you're sawing down the barrel, you actually push some strands of metal inward and pokes into the muzzle of the barrel. If you don't rub it out or down then it alters the spread pattern of the pellets." She gives me the 'Huh?' look and Sophia just stares at me.

"How do you know that?" Sophia asks.

"It's what my grandpa told me."

"Don't believe everything your grandparents tell you." Rosa said dryly. I shrug and grab the tube from my pack and take a long chug. "So, where'd you get to?"

"I made it to the road and I also found your big bunch of cars as well." I say looking at Sophia who has a huge look of happiness on her face. "And they left a message for you as well."

"What'd they say?" she asks giddily.

"To wait in the graveyard of cars and that they come every day." Then I stop and think. "Actually it was more like stay put and we'll come back every day, but that was about it." I yawn and then shake my head. "I stopped for I don't know how long to eat and rest inside a truck, I thought it was a few minutes but I guess it was longer, anyway, I get out of the truck and start heading back and then walkers start pouring out onto the road." They didn't need to know about the person, or the ringing. This was just for me, it's my problem. "So I had to take the actual route you were talking about Rosa, and that's why it to so long to get back here."

She nodded and split the last of the food up, two portions in the cups and one more left and handed them to us. "How many did you take out?"

I stopped and thought for a second. Then started counting on my hands. "uh, four that I shot.. no that's five at first, then two more I got with knives, and four more after that."

"So that makes eleven dead heads no more." Rosa concludes with a smile.

"Don't forget this morning," Sophia says happily. "you have twelve Micah, and after you left I got three more." She smirks at that one as I blink at her stupidly.

"We had a group of them come along, well five to be exact." Rosa informs me as she eats out of the pan with another fork. "I used the shovel on two while Sophia sniped them off, nice ammo by the way, perfect noise quality."

"Oh." I say quietly as I finish off the rest of dinner. "So what do we do with plates?" I ask. "Or cups in this situation."

Rosa snaps her fingers and reaches into her cart and pulls out a tall smart water bottle that had a yellow tint to it. I don't think it's lemonade. "We use this."

"Is that pee?" Sophia asks disturbed, I was with her on that one.

"Don't knock it sweetie," Rosa says with a smirk. "people been using piss to clean shit since the Roman times, before then as well."

"I know that urine is sterile and all from t.v" I say as I inch away from her. "But how can it be sterile enough to clean something?"

She smirked at me and sat the bottle down. "If you let it sit and settle, ammonia builds up in it and you can clean about anything with it, clothes as well."

"Well, I learned something today." Sophia says, then wrinkles her nose at it and sighs. "I guess I'll do it since I haven't done much today, can I clean it in the sink downstairs?"

"Just be careful." We tell her, and then Rosa passes her a clean rag from her cart.

"Use this, wet it with the stuff and scrub away, and remember, be careful." She says finally. Sophia nods and takes everything downstairs with her, but leaving the door open. "She's a sweet kid ya know?"

"And what am I? Chopped liver?" she scoffs and rustles the hair on my head.

"Come on Mr. Badass, go get some sleep, you earned it." she says boredly happy.

"This early?" I ask surprised.

"It's only seven, and I had my nap today while Sophia stood guard at the door, so it's your turn till around one tonight, then it's her turn." Rosa said as she picked me up and started pushing me to the door. "Now shoo, it's about time me and Sophia had girl talk anyway, boy/girl talk with you tomorrow." She then closes the door on me as I stare in disbelief.

"Are you fricken kidding me?" I ask through the door.

"Get some sleep!" she replies with a snigger. I try the door handle and she laughs when it doesn't open. "Told you!" I sigh in defeat and look at the tub, it had more useable bedding and an extra blanket, I still had my knives and guns, so oh well.

"Fine," I tell her finally as I head to the tub. "Goodnight, tell Sophia the same."

"Can do." She says as I hop in and settle down. Curling up into a ball I pull the bedding up over my head and sigh as I lay on the pillow. God this felt comfortable, but no way in hell am I going to sleep so quickly. Then I close my eyes and the world goes black.