AND THEN I FOUND YOU » Daryl Dixon

1. COME AND GET ME

Chapter re-written 20/05/23

Four hundred and two crosses were marked on the small notebook Jasmin kept in the back pocket of her loose grey jeans. Four hundred and two days since the beginning of the end of the world. The outbreak.

And as the middle of autumn loomed closer, she found herself growing increasingly apathetic towards marking off the days that passed. There were no set schedules to wake up or go to sleep; no school assignments or deadlines to meet at work. Nothing.

Time was meaningless.

Yet, she could not find it in her heart to stop marking off the days. For so long now, it seemed like the world around her had become stagnant — dead. Somehow drawing those small crosses in her notebook each day reminded her she was still alive. So achingly alive.

Putting an end to her daily routine seemed pointless now. At least that is what she told herself each time dawn broke.

Three hundred and forty-two days had passed since she officially became an orphan. It happened right in front of her eyes and that alone was enough to send her spiralling into an endless pit of misery. But knowing she could have done something to stop it was even more unbearable.

"Mama?!"

Death was coming from each direction of the street they stood in, surrounding the area with fear-inducing groans.

Welcome to the suburbs.

Although it would risk her life doing so, Jasmin glanced over her shoulder to check on her mother, whose pistol was aimed at the incoming swarm of undead bodies. "Mama, we're not gonna make it!"

Bullets fired without surrender until their fatal bangs turned into useless clicks.

"You will, my girl!"

Despite all the chaos around them, she hadn't missed the way her mother's reassurance seemed to only apply to her. 'We will' she wanted to correct, but as soon as she turned back around, a rotting face was chomping through the air right in front of her. Her knife sunk into its weak flesh, blood spurting from the wound.

Bodies were falling left and right and for a short while, it seemed like they might make it. Society's ignorance was what caused the outbreak to spread, yet here they were fooling themselves into thinking the two of them could handle a herd so large.

As her blade dropped another undead freak, a loud shriek echoed throughout the street; a million panicked thoughts flooded Jasmin's mind. She spun around, almost tripping over her feet. The blood of the dead was cold, but as she saw the inevitable, hers ran colder.

Her mother was no longer visible, not through the number of bodies heaping on top of her. All that gave away her presence were the agonising screams she let out from beneath them.

Jasmin let out a scream of her own. It was a desperate plea of anguish that mirrored the pain of her own heart being torn open.

"NO!" 

She flung herself towards the mound of monsters, plunging her blade into each one's skull twice over. After dragging the bodies to the side, Jasmin sunk to her knees onto the asphalt ground.

Everything seemed to come to a standstill — time, the dead, her own breathing. The only thing that moved was the shaking of her hands and her mother's flailing body. Blood spouted from her severed veins as her heart worked harder to keep her alive.

Half her insides had been strewn across the ground; the other half covered her open torso. Every inch of her body was red. It was a wonder she was still alive. Her lips were twitching, almost like she was trying to say something.