Sophie

"Is it really mine?" Sophie reverently took the crossbow from Georgie and stared at it. It was just like the one Georgie had, but shinier and smaller. She looked up at Georgie wide eyed. Georgie grinned.

"Of course it is silly-you can't shoot with mine. It's too big. And Daryl's is even bigger. You need a Sophie sized bow. And...Sophie sized arrows." Like a magician, Georgie produced a handful of small arrows from behind her back. Sophie gasped.

"Where on earth did you get a hold of them?" Carol sounded just as surprised as Sophie.

"That cabin we went past had them. This must have been like a family retreat or something. Explains why there's so much game for us to shoot." Georgie spoke over Sophie's head to her mother. Sophie spun around, afraid that her mum would change her mind.

"Mommy, please let Georgie teach me. I'll do everything she tells me to, and I won't be silly, I promise." Her mother smiled at her indulgently.

"I know you won't baby. But you're not keeping that with you, Georgie will be looking after it for you."

"Yes I will." Georgie's voice cut across Sophie's moans of disappointment. "Learning to shoot is only part of this Sophie. You need to learn to be responsible for your bow. Until you can maintain it properly, I'll be looking after it."

Sophie pouted and looked down at her new bow. "It's so unfair," she thought. "I only just got this and now they're making me give it away." She was so wrapped up in her sulk; she didn't notice the smiles Carol and Georgie shot at each other.

"You ready to learn then Short Stuff?" Georgie ruffled Sophie's hair and picked up her own bow and arrow.

"Are we starting now?" Sophie forgot her bad mood in her excitement.

"No time like the present. We're going to stay in camp at first, and shot at trees on the outskirts. Everyone's here so we won't hurt anyone. Unless you want to wait..?"

"No, no! Let's start now!" Sophie started jumping up and down in glee, unable to suppress her excitement. She was going to learn to shot a bow and arrow-just like Georgie! She bounced over to the spot that Georgie pointed out, chattering nonsense excitedly.

Ever since Georgie had rescued her from the walker under the car, Sophie had wanted to be like her. As far as Sophie was concerned, Georgie and Adele-were superheroes. They fought men and won; killed walkers; got supplies from over run towns; shot guns and bows; in short, they could do anything. When they had been in the prison, they had looked after her and Carl, and protected them. One of Sophie's most vivid memories from the prison was the day she had been running in the yard outside, and had bumped into a huge man. Straight away, the man had turned on her, yelling and calling her bad names, just like her dad use to do to her mom. She had cowered and tried to get away from him, afraid that he would start to hit her, but he had grabbed her arm and held it tightly, even when she had started to cry. Out of nowhere, Georgie had appeared, and punched the man square in the face, knocking him to the floor. She had scooped her up into her arms, and started to march away with Sophie sobbing into her neck and clinging to her. When the bad man had got up and started yelling at her, Georgie had turned around, and asked him if he wanted to settle it in the ring. The bad man had stopped yelling, and let her go.

That moment was a revelation to Sophie. She had grown up watching her father yell and hit her mother for most of her life, and at first had assumed that all parents were like that. It was only when she started school that she realised that actually, none of the other girls and boys parents acted like that. No one else's mother turned up at school with 'unexplainable' bruises, and spoke in whispers around their husbands. Sophie soon learnt that her mom and dad were different, and that she shouldn't tell anyone about it. She learnt from her mom when to be quiet, when to creep around her father, when to go to her room and stay there. Seeing Georgie and Adele in the ring, and around the prison, Sophie had realised that it was possible to stick up for yourself and win, that creeping around like her mother did wasn't her only option. Although she loved her mother very much, even at her young age, she had realised she didn't want to grow up to be like her, not in this world. She wanted to be like Adele and Georgie and not be scared of anything, as an oppose to her mother, who seemed to be afraid of everything.

She stopped in front of the trees where Georgie had pointed and waited impatiently. Katie, the pretty lady who had come with them from the complex, T-Dog and Glenn were sat close by. She waved excitedly.

"Glenn! T-Dog! Georgie's teaching me to shoot!" T-Dog grinned.

"Lucky you. I bet she won't be as impatient a teacher as Daryl. He tried to teach me this morning." Georgie strolled over and crouched down next to Sophie. Turning to T-Dog she leant her head over to one side.

"Sophie is going to be amazing T-Dog, at least a hundred times better then you." She turned to Sophie. "Isn't that right Short stuff?" Sophie punched the air in excitement.

"A GAZILLION times better!" T-Dog laughed.

"Whoa, big words from such a little lady. I think I'm going to stick around." He and Glenn rearranged their legs and watched Georgie talk Sophie through loading the crossbow. It took Sophie three go's to get the bowstring to click into place, but finally she did it. Then, Georgie showed her how to load the arrow into the flight groove, how far to slide the bolt back, and then finally, how to aim.

"Ok, you see that funny knobbly bit on that tree there? That looks like a nose?" Georgie pointed at the shape on the tree. "That's where you're aiming. Try and get it as close as you can. Don't close your eye; you don't walk around with one eye closed do you? Take a deep breath and ignore everything-yes especially Glenn." Glenn instantly stopped making faces that Sophie could see out of the corner of her eye and looked ashamed. Sophie giggled, and then stopped. If she wanted to keep the bow, she had to show she was grown up, and a grown up wouldn't be giggling right now. She stared at the tree, and took a deep breath, like Georgie had told her. She pulled on the trigger.

WOOSH

The arrow went straight past the tree into the bush behind. Sophie felt the disappointment well up in her and she stomped her foot in frustration.

"I missed!" She waited for Georgie to tell her off, but instead Georgie handed her another arrow.

"You were really close though. Hardly anyone hits the mark on their first try. Have another go, load up just like I told you ok." Sophie swallowed her disappointment, and slowly loaded up the crossbow, occasionally being prompted by Georgie, and tried again. Twice more she missed, but the fourth time:

THUNK

"WOW! Sophie well done!" Georgie whooped loudly and Glenn and T-Dog cheered behind her. The arrow was stuck firmly into the trunk of the tree-nowhere near the mark Georgie had pointed out, but in the tree none the less. As Georgie went to collect the four arrows, Glenn tapped Sophie on the shoulder and whispered loudly so that T-Dog could hear:

"It took T-Dog 15 tries to hit the tree. I counted." T-Dog nodded, looking comically ashamed of himself. Sophie beamed with pride. She was better than an adult! She was better than T-Dog! Georgie ran up with the arrows and handed them back to Sophie.

"Think you can do that again?" Sophie nodded. The next half hour, Sophie managed to hit the tree another ten times-each time getting closer to her target. When Georgie finally took the bow off her, she couldn't help moaning in disappointment.

"Hey, you don't want to overdo it. Your shoulder is going to really hurt later." Georgie smiled at Sophie and ruffled her hair.

"You were really good today hun." Sophie turned to see Katie bending down to her height. She was smiling, but a face smile, not a real smile with the eyes, and she was using that voice that some adults use when they're talking to children and they're not use to talking to them. Sophie mumbled thank you, and moved closer to Georgie. Katie didn't move, but kept on smiling her face smile.

"Aren't you lucky to have a good teacher like Georgie," she went on, although the way she said it made it sound as if she didn't really think Sophie was lucky at all. "Although I'm sure if you asked Daryl nicely, he could teach you too. Would you like to ask Daryl?" Sophie shook her head. She was scared of Daryl. He seemed to be angry all the time, and never really smiled. She didn't think he liked her very much, and she was certain he would shout at her if she did something wrong.

"I like being taught by Georgie," she mumbled. Katie's eyes narrowed and she stood up.

"Well. Isn't that sweet," she said staring at Georgie, and walked away to camp.

Glenn breathed in sharply, and looked at Georgie.

"Dude, she is after you." Georgie took Sophie's hand and squeezed it. Sophie looked up at Georgie and was comforted slightly by her smile-although it too, was just a face smile. She looked at Glenn and T-Dog, who looked worried.

"Maybe you should keep a distance from Daryl for a while. If she thinks you're not a threat, she might back off." Georgie nodded, agreeing with T-Dog, and then tugged Sophie's hand.

"Come on Sophie, let's go get clean for dinner. We got rabbit and squirrel." She stopped and sighed. "Squirrel. Urk." They moved off towards Sophie's tent and all thoughts of the conversation was erased from Sophie's mind as she raced to tell her mom all about her advances in archery that afternoon.