Chapter 1
(Dani pov)
The leaves and twigs crunch under our feet as Dad and I walk through the forests, him holding
the rifle in his hands. The whole forest is silent, as if the trees themselves are holding their
breath.
He puts his arm out stopping me and points up ahead, a deer grazing on the grass oblivious to
us even standing here. Dad tries to put the rifle in my hands but I back away shaking my head
no. He sighs slightly before he takes aim with the rifle. I put my hands over my ears as he pulls
the trigger, the gunshot echoing through the silence. The deer falls over instantly dead.
"Dani, we talked about this. You need to know how to do this."
"Why? Mom doesn't even want me shooting a gun yet, so why do I need to do this?"
He kneels down so we're eye level. "Sweetheart, you need to know how to protect yourself. This
is a scary world, and it is only going to get more scary. I need to know that you'll be able to take
care of yourself and your mom if I'm not there."
"Are you leaving us?"
"You know I would never leave you too willingly."
"...Am I going to end up like Daisy?"
"Not if I can help it."
….
I wake up on the couch, sitting up as I run a hand through my shoulder length black hair to get it
out of my face. I hate that my dreams recently have just been more memories. At least this one
wasn't one of the awful memories.
Putting a hand over my stomach I manage to stand up. I was lucky to find this place last night,
there aren't many houses around this place. I should see what I can scavenge around here
though.
Putting my pistol in the back of my jeans waistband I head to the kitchen. I open the cabinet
doors, there isn't a whole lot here. I do manage to find some canisters of baby formula. Taking
them out of the cabinets I check the dates on them and lucky for me, they aren't expired yet.
Walking back to the living room I put them in my backpack when I hear something upstairs. I put
my hand on my knife in its sheath on my thigh as I slowly head upstairs, keeping my ears and
eyes open for any walkers.
I first check the bedroom closest to the stairs, it looks like it was a parents bedroom. Taking out
my knife I slowly head towards the closet, hearing a scratching noise coming from within.
I slowly start opening the closet door when something shoves the door the rest of the way open,
sending me falling on my back on the floor with my knife out of reach.
Before I can react a walker stumbles out of the closet falling on top of me. I push my hands on
its shoulders, taking everything in me to keep its teeth away from me, its nails clawing and
grabbing at my hoodie sleeves.
I manage to get my foot under the walker's stomach and kick it off of me. I quickly scoot back
grabbing my knife as the walker crawls towards me, grabbing at my legs. I kick it in the face
before stabbing it through the top of its head. The walker dies instantly, its body going limp. I pull
my knife from its head, taking a few breaths in and out to get my composure before standing up.
Putting my knife back in its sheath I walk out of the room. Aside from the bathroom, there is only
one other bedroom up here. I walk further down the hall, opening the door and stepping into the
room. Looking around, it's obvious that this room is a baby nursery. I wonder what happened to
the family that used to live here, or if they're even still alive anymore.
Walking over to the crib I pick up this blanket with constellations printed all over it. The blanket is
surprisingly really soft. I could use this for my baby, hopefully she'll love the stars as much as I
do.
Hearing footsteps behind me I quickly pull out my pistol and turn around aiming it, seeing a boy
my age wearing what looks like a sheriff's hat. Weirdly enough, he's only wearing one shoe. He
puts his hands up, his pistol in a holster on his hip.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I see his eyes glance down at my stomach before he looks
me in the eyes again. "Are…Are you pregnant?"
"Yeah." I put my pistol back in my waistband, deciding he probably wasn't dangerous.
"Are you alone out here?"
"I don't really trust people, it's been easier to just be alone. What about you?"
"I was part of a bigger group, but now it's just me and my dad. We're staying in a house nearby,
it's about a mile down the road I think. If you'd like, you can stay with us."
"I'm not sure that it's a good idea."
"I won't force you if you don't want to, but I do think it's probably safer for you and the baby to
not be by yourselves."
"...the group you were in before, did it have women and children in it?"
"Yeah it did. Why?"
"...if I agree to stick with you and your dad, only until my baby is born, no one better stop me
from leaving if I change my mind."
"I promise if you change your mind, then we will both just go our separate ways."
"Fine. I have to grab my stuff from downstairs."
He follows me downstairs to the living room. I put the blanket in my backpack before pulling it on
my back. I follow him out the door, shutting it behind me.
He leads me down the road, it's silent for a while until he speaks up. "I forgot to introduce
myself. My name is Carl."
"I'm Dani."
"How old are you?"
"14, I think at least….what about you?"
"I think I'm about the same age. It's kind of hard to keep track of the days though."
"Yeah….." More silence falls over us but I realize he has a small smile on his face. "Why are you
smiling?"
"Sorry, it's just been a long time since I've had a friend my age."
"I guess that's true for both of us then."