It's been 3 months since the world ended and we lost our friends. Erin is currently 8 months pregnant now and pretty much on bed rest. Zack keeps watch over the Hollow as security against any wandering undead.
The Hollow is essentially a large treehouse village that Zack, Erin, myself and several other survivors we picked up have built in the woods. The Hollow's main treehouse contains the main kitchen, dining room, storage room, and the medical room. The smaller surrounding trees have smaller treehouses that act as homes for everyone and there are bridges built between the trees to connect all of the treehouses together.
The Hollows location was selected because of the strength of the trees there and the small river that passes between the base of the main tree and several smaller trees. We built a large fence around the village to allow space for livestock and a community garden as well.
I usually do solo runs into the woods to forage and hunt as I've become very good at hunting and knowing how to recognize different herbs and mushrooms. Today being one such day.
I'm currently on the search for more medicinal and edible herbs and mushrooms to refill the hollow's stores. I figured I should also hunt some today as well since I know the last deer I got this past week is pretty much gone.
Any game I bring back to the hollow I usually split so I can cure, refrigerate or smoke into jerky. I'm probably about 5 miles from the hollow right now and maybe 10 miles from the highway pile up closest to the hollow's location.
After picking enough to fill the hollows stores back up of several different herbs and mushrooms in a nearby clearing further down the river I began tracking some nearby squirrels. About 6 squirrels and 2 hrs later I come across evidence of a doe. So naturally I began to track her.
Once I found the doe in question and was sure I had a great line of sight I took my shot at the doe. When I saw her go down I began to make my way to where the doe went down. I wasn't very far from the doe when I spotted something odd laying on the ground by a tree nearby. "What the fuck" I curse to myself quietly. There is a little girl laying by this tree.
I carefully approach the child and look over her to see if she had been bitten. I'm relieved to find she hasn't been. I crouched down next to her and carefully rolled her over and inspected her for any other injuries. Other than some scrapes and bruises she's relatively unharmed. I did notice she's running a fever and looks pretty dehydrated right now.
Since she didn't wake up from my inspection of her it's safe to assume she out for a long while. "Well fuck, She's damned lucky one of the undead hasn't stumbled onto to her by now. But I can't just leave her here" I curse to myself before picking her up and putting her over my shoulder and making the remaining walk to my downed doe.
When I get to the doe I realize I can't very well carry this heavy doe and this young girl too. "Fuck I'm going to have to field dress all my kills so I can carry everything back with this girl" I grumble looking around for somewhere safe to dress my kills. I noticed off to the side a small cave. "That's probably the best I'm gonna get" I grumble before briskly walking to the cave to check it out then deposit the girl to go grab my doe and dress my kills somewhere not so open.
After an hour I started my 3 hour walk back to the hollow. I made it back to the gates of the hollow shortly before dark. "It's Willow. I'm back" I say knocking on the gate. "Oh! Willow your back later than usual" Jen says as she opens the gates for me. "Yea I found a little girl in the woods. She isn't bitten but she appears to be severely dehydrated and is running fever" I say to her making my way into the hollows entryway.
"Sammy will want to take a look at her then" She says before sliding the gate back closed. "Yea, she definitely needs to be seen by Sammy. I suspect she may be sick from drinking contaminated water from the river further south of here." I agree setting my bow down at the security area by the gate.
"Sammy! Where you at chica?" I holler making my way up to the main house. "Willow how was your run? You were out a lot later than usual" Sammy asks coming out of the storage room.
"Ah yea long story short, I found this little girl in the woods. She's really sick and dehydrated I think" I say worriedly. "Oh crap ok. I need to see her at once then" Sammy says before rushing to the medical room.
Upon getting to the med room I put the girl down onto the bed for Sammy. She immediately goes into action checking her temperature and vitals before starting an Iv for antibiotics and fluids to rehydrate the girl. "As dehydrated at she is I would assume she's been on her own for at least a week" Sammy says. "I didn't find anyone or anything with her. I'm assuming her parents have probably died or she was separated from them" I say looking over the girl.
She looks to be 10 or 11 with short dirty blonde hair. Once she wakes up we will have to find out who she is and how she got there. For now since she's unconscious I'll let her rest and keep checking on her till she wakes up.