Beths POV

Olivia and I ran as our adrenaline increased. We ran careless down that wall, smiling and laughing like children. We were happy even though we had no idea what we were headed to, it could just be a wall. I thought

There could be nothing on the other side, we could have led ourselves to believe there was something there that isn't but, we didn't care right, we just kept running.

After a while Olivia and I finally stopped running and began to walk to catch our breaths, we were reaching a different part of the wall now,
"Could that be it, could that be the door?" Olivia asked.

"Maybe, let's go this way." I said as we walked into the woods, "We have to check it out first."

Olivia and I found a steep hill nearby where we could lay flat on the ground and have a good view of the doors and not be seen. We were able to see if anyone came in or out. We waited there anxiously as our stomachs began to growl, we hadn't eaten all day and had been running for most of it.

A walker came up behind us, it was quiet so we didn't notice till it grabbed Olivia by the leg as she was lying flat on her stomach. She screamed and I tried helping her. The walker had a good grip, I tried pulling it off of her but its skin was just falling off.

I then grabbed my knife and stabbed its head. Olivia looked up at me breathing heavily and said, "Thank you!"

"You're welcome" I said catching my breath as well.

Then all of sudden these two guys with rifles come running to us, "Hey!" they called out. We were then frozen, "You guys okay?" they asked.

"Yeah, we're okay." I answered.

"What are you guys doing?" one of them asked.

"We were looking for something to eat." Olivia answered.

"Who are you with?" they asked.

"Are you guys from behind that wall?" Olivia asked.

"Who are you with?" the guy asked again.

"We're alone, we have my sister and my nephew, but other than that, it's just us." Olivia answered.

"How long have you been alone?" he asked.

"Since the beginning" Olivia answered.

After a couple minutes of interrogating us, they told us they lived on the other side of the walls and that we could stay as long as we contributed and met the leaders. "Can we go get my sister?" Olivia asked.

"We'll go with you" the guy answered.

We all walked back to the car together, they told us their names were Phillip and Richard and that they had been living behind the wall for a while now. They were big guys, who made us feel a bit intimidated but we needed help. We were hungry and had not had any luck finding anything.

When we reached the car and Rachael saw us with the guys, she looked scared. "It's okay Rachael, we found help, and they're going to take us back with them." Rachael didn't say anything.

"Grab your stuff." Olivia said.

We all headed back with the guys. They talked to us a little bit more about their group and told us that we would be safe and they hardly took in people because of the way things were now a days.

When we arrived, we all looked up at these gigantic doors as they slowly began to open. We walked inside and we saw more people.

There were men and women and a lot of kids.

The guys walked in front of us and we followed him to another guy, they told him, "We found them right outside the walls, they're alone and have been alone. They can help us." One guy said to the other.

He then walked towards me, "Hi, my names Jason." he said and shook hands as we introduced ourselves. "We call our camp the Phoenix, we've been here for a while now and we keep our walls monitored at all times. We have 11 of children and plant our own food as well as going out on supply runs. You are welcome to stay if you wish, this is Alexandria, and she will show you around." He said introducing us to an older female.

Alexandria took us around the area, it was a large piece of land and in the center of it was a huge mansion where they all lived. It was their sanctuary where they survived along with 11 orphans, Alexandria shared.

They helped train the children in combat while they planted their own seeds and maintained the land. "We had not taken people in for a while now, but I'm glad we've started to again." Alexandria said. "Just took in a guy the other day too" she mentioned.

"Here I'll show you where you can sleep" she showed us to a room in the house, these rooms were ginormous, 15 people could fit in just one room.

The room had two beds and a couch, "you can all stay here if you'd like, if not I can show you to another room as well." she said. "This should be fine thank you." Rachael answered.

"Okay ladies, I will let you settle in. Please come down in a couple minutes, I'm sure you must be starving, we're getting ready for dinner." and she walked out.

Rachael and Olivia looked at each other like they meant to say something but were just saying it through their looks. I didn't know what it could be, but I sat on the couch and rested for a couple minutes before we went downstairs.

We joined the group next to a fire place in the center of the house and ate dinner with all the residents and children.

Rachael and Olivia stayed quiet and kept to themselves, didn't seem interested in interacting with the others. "Is everything okay?" I asked Olivia. She nodded in agreement and I let it go.

"Hey where's Daniela?!" Jason yelled at Phillip.

"Uuuuhh she went out on a hunt this morning?" Phillip answered,

"With who?!" Jason yelled.

"With that new guy?!" he answered.

"What, you said they left this morning?!" Jason stood up.

"Yeah man, I thought they'd be back by now,"

"What the hell, you couldn't have told me earlier?!" Jason was now grabbing his gun and supplies.

"I'm sorry man, I thought you knew?" Phillip said, grabbing his stuff too.

Jason looked over at Phillip and Richard, "You guys coming?" Jason called for them. The guys stood up and got their stuff ready.

"Tristin, can you handle it here?" Jason looked at one of the females. "Yeah we got it, be safe." she answered.

"Feel at home ladies, I gotta go find my crazy ass sister!" he said to us and began to walk out with the others.

When we finished dinner some of the kids were assigned shifts for the night where they stood watch on the walls, the others all went to bed.

The girls and I headed back to our room. Olivia and Rachael were acting really weird and I couldn't help sense that they were hiding something from me. As we began to get ready for bed I asked, "Is everything ok?"

Olivia took a deep breath and sat down on the bed, I sat next to her, waiting for her to tell me what's wrong.

"Okay Beth, there's something we haven't told you...Rachael's husband was in the military and before it all went bad he was sent to Washington to help secure a safe place...he was supposed to send for us but things went bad and fast. Rachael thinks that he still might be there and she wants to go to Washington..." Olivia looked at me biting her lip. Waiting for a response.

I didn't know what to say...I didn't know if that would be a good idea, we had just found a safe haven. Why did they want to leave?

"You can stay if you want to Beth, this really is a great place. We just don't want you to feel like we are leaving you but, Rachael wants to see her husband and I'll follow her wherever she goes."

Well this was a complete shock to me, what should I do?

Should I stay here, it really was a good place, these people took care of children! How doesn't it get better than that? But, these girls had really grown on me, Olivia was a good friend and she was kind, I couldn't just let them keep moving on. I didn't know what to do.

"It's okay, you don't have to make up your mind now, let's just get some rest." Olivia said.

I went to bed that night contemplating on what I should do. Should I stay here and live a life, or should I go out there and fight to survive?