Lovely Bones

meat

TRIGGER WARNING
the following chapter involves
mentions of self harm and
assault.

6. scarred

She hated being alone.

Primrose Bennett wasn't always completely alone as she had been now. In the beginning of the end of the world, she had been fortunate enough to have the two most significant people within her life by her side. Her siblings were enough for the young girl to yell fuck you to the world and live besides the roamers. Everything was okay as long as she had Teddy and Charles by her side to keep her sane.

She was blind to think her luck was expendable, back before she was forced to experience loneliness in an entire new perspective. She had lost her brother, not necessarily by the hands of death, but because he had left her stranded and alone. He left the responsibility of raising a child on her shoulders when she, herself, was only fourteen.

The hardest part of raising Teddy was acknowledging the fact that the blonde would grow to be stronger than Prim ever could be. Every time she looked down at her sister, Prim saw Charlie standing on the other side. Matching blonde hair, indescribably identical blue eyes, the same thick eyebrows and heightened personality. What she noticed the most, although, was the bravery that had been resting on Teddy's heart, just waiting to be unleashed. The same strong willed, same restless, same low tempered personality. The similarity sent Prim into a constant fear, that maybe she will be left alone by Teddy one day, and that would be her lowest point, she was sure of it. She prayed that day would never come.

Prim was constantly left begging at the feet of the universe to forgive her obnoxious use of hope.

Many would say hope was what kept them going. It kept them from surely crumpling and letting the walkers tear them apart. However, to the fifteen year old brunette, hope was simply another form of bullshit thrown at the ones who managed to survive this far. Only difference was that this form had been stamped with a pretty name and the world ran with it. They rested and relied on it. How absolutely stupid that was. The biggest mistake of all, according to Prim.

Prim liked to believe that she was strong willed, that she didn't have to rely on faith and pixie dust to keep her going. But the older she became, and the more exposed to the world she grew, she began to realize that the only thing stopping her from becoming human meat was the little blonde headed girl who forced Prim to have a sliver of light shining in her eyes. Teddy had always been the one to keep her head up, even if it meant she must physically raise her chin to see the world.

Teddy was her reason for her fight, because at this point it wasn't just her battle and the victory didn't just affect her. Because if it did, she'd be gone along time ago.

Everything had been taken from them. Their hometown of Dallas, Texas — the two somehow ending up wherever they were now, the girl lost track about two years ago — had been the hotspot for the outbreak. The entire population was wiped clean in a matter of days. Schools were temporarily shut down, grocery stores and super markets were raided until there wasn't a single can of corn left behind, doors were bolted shut, and the city was evacuated. They were told to head up south towards a militia camp somewhere up in Austin. Some civilians disobeyed and decided to take on the unknown themselves, not keen on following the governments orders at the time. Others searched for rescue within the camps but ninety percent of them had been overrun within the first two weeks, leaving only a handful of survivors.

It left only a few like herself struggling through the lonesome world. The Bennett sisters were some of the few that stayed away from the camps, following the lead of Charles and his fiancé at the time. He seemed it best fit that they kept their distance away from people, not knowing the depths of the virus and what it did to some. Within two days, Charles had raided every nearby gas stations within ten miles, stocking up on supplies they might've needed to get as far as they could away from the city. They did nothing but drive for days on end, changing the radio station every five minutes in attempts to find a resource they could use or until they found a safe destination.