Broken Crown ~Daryl Dixon~

First Herd

Florence ran with her family through the woods, heel-to-toe, making sure to stay quiet as they ran and making sure they were sticking together as they ran for their lives. Florence gasped as they came to the road, a highway surrounded by tall trees, with no signs currently nearby. Mason stood by Florence's side, she grabbed the spear and held it tightly in her hands. Her spear in her hands, her breathing became ragged and her entire body froze in fear. Mason grabbed the weapon from his sister's hands, dropped it on the ground and hugged her tightly.

He covered her ears in the hug, trying to bring her back down from the panic that washed over her. Once the girl had calmed down, she turned to her family. Appreciating what her younger brother did to help, the girl picked up the spear and finally looked around. There was a burnt car here and there. Leaves had already gathered in huge piles on the road, marks were violently painting the road from cars and a few dead walker corpses across the road. Florence took a deep breath and looked away from the mild carnage before listening to what her father had to say.

"We stick along the treelines, if there are people roaming about, we move inwards and if there are any creepers, we kill 'em. Understood?" His children all nodded, not ready for what their world had become, Florence used the normal end of her spear as a walking stick, she was behind her older sister and mother with Mason by her side and her younger sister walked behind her with their father. They didn't have any guns, any useful weapons, they had shitty homemade weapons and a hammer or two.

The family walked for hours on end, stopping once the sun disappeared for the night, they killed a few creepers as they got closer to a fork in the road, but decided to move inwards to the woods. They sat in the darkness, the night was warm, meaning fire and blankets would not be needed. Mason took a spot next to Florence, she was fiddling with a leaf, focusing on the dirt and details amongst every twig that she sat around.

"Jane, if anything happens to your mother or me, it's your responsibility to look after your siblings. This is our world now, somebody will die sooner or later, if we die first I need someone looking after those three."

"Dad, what's wrong with you... you can't already plan to die! How do you know this is already our world, it could change, we don't know if it's just down here in America, back home could be fine! We don't need to be ready to die, we aren't dying until you're both old and grey with grandchildren and great-grandchildren." Florence ranted, staring at her father in annoyance and pain.

"Florence you can't be that fucking naive anymore, life isn't a white-picket fence life anymore. That innocence you have will get you fucking killed."

"Dean!" His wife scolded, going to console her daughter, but she was cut off by Florence scoffing and the physically emotional reaction that brushed over her face. Florence stared at him as if he stabbed her in the heart and rolled her eyes, leaving her family where they sat to go off into the woods. Her bag on her back, the spear in her hands and a distressed look on her face. Only Mason chased after her, his bag on his back, being the only one who didn't want to be without his sister and thus being the only one who chased after her.

The boy reached her, grabbed her arm, huffing slightly as he caught his breath and stared at her with a frown at her hurt expression.

"Flo, you know how he is, but your innocence will keep you sane, don't listen to him... he's just doing what he knows best. It isn't right but you know that he doesn't mean it." Florence sucked in a breath, the darkness engulfing her into an embrace, the stars poking through the trees made her smile, and the younger boy sat down with her. Not wanting her to be on her own in an unknown place, though it didn't help that neither had ever been to America before and so they were really both screwed.

"He goes straight into survival mode, he thinks we've been through what he's been through. And I get it... adapt to survive but it hasn't even been that long yet. We don't know if this is temporary or how far this has spread." She whispered, still having hope that everything would be okay, hoping that back home everyone was alive and well.

"We'll be okay," Mason whispered, not really knowing if he meant the words.

They awoke early in the morning, the blazing sun pouring through the trees, brightening up the whole world around them and leaving what they didn't see to be visible. a few tents were left, bodies face first in the dirt. Florence stared at them in shock, her heart aching at the fact that these people had been put down or died in the first wave of the attack. Mason tugged on her arm, she glanced at him and then looked to see her parents and sisters.

"Mason, Florence, we're going back to the road. Florence, I need a word with you..." Florence turned to her father, a frown on her lips and a dead look in her eyes.

"What, Dad?" She asked as they walked behind the rest of the family.

"I know I was harsh yesterday, but I need you to know that this world isn't going to be the same anymore. It's not like those books you read, this is much worse than that, you're gonna be wanting to watch your back and be careful with who you trust outside of this family." The girl nodded, walking behind the rest of them and making sure to be on the lookout for strange things.

They stayed in the outside world for a week, coming to tiny groups of creepers and needing to either run or kill. Everyone got icky and dirty quickly, and injuries became more frequent among Jane and Florence, both needing to rest a couple of times before continuing.

An arm wrapped around Marie's neck, she rasped as the grip tightened then looked at her family in panic as they all were grabbed in one form or another. Dean had two guys holding onto him, Alyssa had a gun pointing at her head, and Mason was forced onto his stomach with a gun also pointed at his head and a foot on his back. Jane had both arms pulled back behind her back and finally, Florence was grabbed as her sister was and a gun was pressed to the side of her head.

"Give us your bag and your weapons."

"We aren't giving you anything." Dean gritted out, flinching as his son was kicked in the side.

"Dad, just give them want they want," Jane begged, shaking her head at his denial for their safety. Florence whimpered as her bag was ripped from her bag, thrown to the ground and her shirt was raised over her head as a man straddled her, his gun placed on the ground right by her head and unclipped her bra and threw it to the side.

Florence flinched at the gunshot piercing through the air, a whimper escaped her lips as the man on top of her fell limply on top of her. She turned her head to the side, watching as her mother was relentlessly beaten and thrown about by the men standing around or the one holding her. Marie screamed for the men to stop, Mason was let go as the man holding him went to hold onto Dean as well, he scurried over to his sister and pushed the body off of her and grabbed both her bra and bag.

She took both, then grabbed her spear and hit the man holding Marie across the back of the head then went to help Jane but jumped in surprise as she grabbed the gun off of him and shot him in the head. Like any death in movies, this one appeared to be going slowly in Florence's mind, one of the men shot Alyssa in the head, she dropped limply to the ground and blood oozed from her head. Florence dropped to her knees, watching as her father lost it and fought both of the men away, earning two shots to his stomach.

Marie was grabbed by Jane once both were free, she watched her father go crazy on the men that killed the love of his life. Mason grabbed the girl off the ground, he dragged her bag along with them as they ran in the opposite direction to their other sisters. Mason held Florence, being the one who wasn't stuck in a state of mind, he held her up for hours as they ran and they never once stopped and never once looked back

Florence dropped to her knees, dragging Mason down with her, she grabbed the bag and hugged it. Rocking back and forth as she cried, sobbing in anguish, it took her a while to relax and calm down. Yet, the girl eventually fell silent after a while, and didn't move or made a sound.

They stayed where they were in the night, Florence fell asleep during the night, despite her protests and left to the world around them.