~GRIMES~

3

In the morning we got to a camping ground with some other people, Carl, Sophia and I became friends with two other kids that were in the camp their names were Eliza and Louis, we all played tag together, "guys time to do school" mom yelled out, Carl,Sophia and I sighed, after doing school work for a bit, Carl and i go with Sophia outside her tent as we draw on some paper with crayons, "look Sophia,I drew you!" I exclaimed as I gave her the drawing,she smiled from ear to ear "thank you Ellie!" She says hugging me, after drawing for a bit while we were all laughing, Sophia's dad comes up to us, "scram" he tells us "but we're drawing" I say showing him the drawing of Sophia, he grabs it and rips it in half, I hear Sophia gasp, I was about to say something but he flicks his lit cigarette at me and says again but more aggressively "I seid scram" Carl gets up and looks like he's about to yell at Ed "bye" I whisper to Sophia who looks like she's was going to cry "I'll draw you another drawing later,ok?" I say smiling at her, I touch Carl's arm "let's go" I say as we start walking away "what a jerk" Carl mumbles as we walk away from Sophia and ed, I look back to see the ripped paper of sophias drawing starts blowing away, she gets up trying to the ripped paper but ed grabs her arm "don't" he tells her gruffly, she sits back down wiping a tear from her face.

Carl and I sat in the dirt drawing with our fingers in the dirt, I hear a noise come from the walkie talkie, it kept cutting in and out, Amy ran to the walkie talkie as she grabbed it "Broadcasting on an emergency channel we will be approaching g Atlanta on highway 85 anybody reads please respond" the person seid " yes,we can hear you" Amy replied though the only thing coming through was static "hello?hello?" Amy repeated, Carl and I started walking over to the walkie talkie aswell as mom, Shane came over and tried to talk to the person but it didn't go through, shane sighed "he's gone"

Carl and I walk back to our spot in the dirt,we sit down and start playing in the dirt again, "hey Ellie,Carl stay there I'm going to go find some food " mom tells us as we nod our heads and go back to playing in the dirt , dale try's to talk to the others in Atlanta through the walkie talkie but it doesn't go thought, everyone starts to get worried.

A while later the others come back, everyone is greeted with hugs from their loved ones , we walk over to mom, she kneels down to our height and hugs us, "we got a new one with us"morales says "oi helicopter boy come out" Glenn says, a new man walks out Carl and I look over , it felt like I was dreaming, he was really here, "Dad!" Carl and I scream as we run towards him he hugs us lifting us off the ground, I start crying, I never wanted to let go of him, he walked over to mom still holding Carl and I, she looks shocked and happy at the same time and starts crying too, I let go and looked at him with tears in my eyes before hugging him again, dad looked at Shane ,he smiles.

At nighttime we all sat around the fire,mom on one side of me with Carl and dad on the other, I rested my head on moms lap as I closed my eyes listening to the fire crackling and slight laughter and talking, the fire felt like the nice temperature, I opened my eyes to see Ed throwing another log into the fire, "let's not add anymore, we wouldn't want the walkers to see the fire" Shane tells Ed, Ed looks at carol as she sighs and gets up, she gets the log out of the fire and stamps on the bits with flames on them, she sits back down.

"We thought you were dead dad" Carl says quietly to dad as he leans on him, I close my eyes again drifting into a light sleep as I hold my stuffed bunny close to me "thank you for everything you've done Shane " I hear dad say, I can't hear Shane say anything,
A while later mom wakes me up, I yawn as she holds my hand and takes me to our tent, I get into bed , she kisses my forehead "goodnight my loves" she says as dad does the same to Carl and I, I turn over snuggling into my bunny stuffie.

every time I closed my eyes I saw those things again the ones that were eating people and banging on the windows of the car, their gray lifeless eyes and pale rotting skin, the putrid smell of them every time I tried to stop thinking I them I saw them snapping their yellow blood coloured teeth at me, I get up from my bed, I put my knees up to my chest and start crying,the tears taste salty, I think I was making a lot of noise "Ellie?" I heard a voice say I couldn't see who said it just I just knew who it was was, I felt something touch my shoulder, I flinched a bit though I knew who it was "you alright?" Carl asked "I just keep thinking about those things, the things we saw on the street, eating people" I say sniffling "we've got guns,they can't hurt us " he seid then I felt arms around me, I stretch my arms around him too, after a while I go back to sleep, I can hear the slight snoring of my family members, I hold my bunny close to my chest and close my eyes.