~GRIMES~

2

I was woken up frantically by mom, "pack some clothes honey" she told me as she ran out of the room to wake up Carl, I get up confused as I walk out to see Shane, "what's going on?" I ask slowly rubbing my eyes, "go pack some things" he tells me, I walk back to my room, I dump out everything from my school bag onto the floor as I pack some clothes,books,some pencils,a notebook,and my favourite stuffed animal,a bunny, I start walking out of the room as something catches my eye, it was my drawing I had drawn yesterday at school, I folded it up and stuffed it in my pocket.

I climbed into the backseat of Shane's car as Carl,mom and Shane followed, I heard mom and Shane whispering to eachother,"we've gotta go Lori,we can't stay here anymore" I hear Shane quietly say "leaving? But what about daddy?we can't leave him" I say as mom and Shane look back at me, "you guys are going to leave to the city and I'll go get rick alright hon" Shane tells me, "ok " I reply as I look out the window, we start driving, I see someone running down the street screaming, I look closer as I see someone run out of the trees and jump on the person running, the person starts biting and ripping flesh off the person screaming, I gasp as mom takes notice, I grip my stuffed bunny closer to me as I look away from the window,"sweetie don't look" mom tells me as she turns back around to talk to Shane, they are wispering so I can't hear what they are saying, 'why did that man jump on that other man and start eating him?'.

However much I tried to not think about what I just saw it just kept playing over and over in my head, we got to the hospital as Shane got out, "I'll be back " he said to mom as he closed the door, a while later Shane wasn't back yet, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, I turned my head quickly getting the attention of my brother "you ok?" Carl asks "yeah," I say "thought I saw something" I continue looking out the window, all of a sudden something hit the window with their hands, I jump back, the skin around their mouth is gone showing blood and flesh, their eyes are white with no soul behind them at all, it doesn't look like a human at all, I scream as it smashes it's fists at the window while snapping it's mouth open and closed, Carl sees and also screams mom turns around, I start crying, that thing looked horrifying,it looked human but didn't at the same time, mom didn't want to open the door, we didn't have anything to kill it anyway, as it banged it s fists against the window I bared my head into moms chest as she hugged Carl and I.

Soon we heard gunshots and screams mixed with the groans of the undead, I blocked my ears, every time I closed my eyes I saw that thing at the window and that thing that was ripping into that screaming person, shane came out of the hospital without dad,I looked at him tears filling my eyes,"w-where's dad?" I stutter out as he looks down trying to find a way to tell us, "he's-he's dead" shane tells us quietly as he starts up the car, tears spill out of my eyes once again.

After driving for a bit I fell asleep with my head on Carl shoulder, he gently shook me awake "Ellie" he whispered as I got up yawning, "yeah" I say looking out the window, there was a load of cars in front of ours, there seemed to be a traffic jam, mom and Shane were standing outside the car, I held my bunny close to me as Carl and I got out of the car, "Carl,Ellie why don't you go over there with that other little girl" mom told us as we looked over and saw a little girl that looked around our age with blonde straight bob cut and a woman with gray shaven hair, we walked over to them, the girls face lit up, "hi!" She said happily, I held my bunny and stared at the ground, I was shy when meeting new people, "hi" Carl replied, "I'm Sophia what's your names?" The girl asked, "I-im Ellie" I said quietly still looking at the ground, "I'm Carl" Carl told Sophia, "that's a nice bunny" Sophia said pointing at my bunny "thank you" I say smiling at her, we walk over to her families truck,we sit on the back of it, we all walk for a bit, my stomach grumbles "I'm a bit hungry" I mumble, I couldn't even remember when I last ate, "oh,we have some food if you would like it sweetie" carol tells me softly, "yes please" I say quietly while smiling, carol gives me a smile as she walks to the other side of the car, I can hear her and a man talking "you can't just give food to every person we meet" the man growls, carol comes back a bit later "I'm so sorry sweetie, Ed forgot to pack the food, I might have something in my purse" the woman says.

Shane comes over to tell us that him and mom are going for a walk up to see what's happening, "your daddy's nice" Sophia tells us "Shane's not our dad" Carl answers quickly, tears start filling my waterline but I blink them away, we hear what sounds like fireworks, we see helicopters fly over the groups of cars, we run to one of the trees to get a view of the city, the city of Atlanta lights up with fire as I realise what's going on, they're bombing the city.