Darlin'

by ghostsweat

For Rose Maxwell, her wedding day was meant to be the best day of her life. What she wasn't expecting to do was to be holding her dying fiancé in her arms in front of the church as all hell broke loose around her. (Daryl x OFC)

Prologue

If you're reading this, it means that I'm dead.

I don't know how long for but I'm no longer here to grab it from you and stop those prying eyes from reading any further. Or maybe you're finding this way further into the future, maybe in 2145 and it's now a piece of history for the next generations to read from a voice of the Newly Fallen as we liked to call ourselves then. Well, we didn't like to call ourselves anything other than survivors for the longest time, but that's another story for a later time.

This notebook is… well, it's everything to me. It's been through everything with me. It's been my lifeline, a place where I could bleed into the pages, and no one would judge me. It was my outlet when the world, albeit now so quiet, became too loud and overwhelming for me. It was my escape, and to not have it be with me any longer means that my death has happened and everything that once was is no more.

So, if you're the one to find this notebook, how are you? What year is it? Is the world the same or has it slowly been able to be rebuilt to how it was? I don't know why I'm asking that question because whoever you are probably didn't know how the world was back then. Back when civilisation and society meant something. Back when the threat of death by the undead was something you saw in movies and not the reality it soon became. Are the flowers growing?

But the main thing I want to ask is, are you happy?

Before we go on and you read on, or maybe you won't and that's ok too, let me introduce myself.

My name is Rose Maxwell, and I am a survivor. The year is 2017 and this is my final entry. Yes, it's at the start of this journal but sometimes it's best to have dessert before dinner because life is short and well, life did really become way too short when the dead started coming back to life. The thing is this life is about loss. We've all been through a lot, and whilst there's good moments still, loss always come back around one way or another to remind us that it's only a glance away or even already knocking at the door.

I need you to know my name before you get to know my story, of the people I lost, the friends and family I gained along the way, and everything else in between. Especially him. Because that's all I have to give right now, and that's my name.

So, there it is. A hello and a goodbye.

I was Rose Maxwell, and I am... I was a survivor.