Ellie Dixon

Moving On

Amy was dead, along with a lot of other people. Sophia and Jacob's father included. Me and Sophia were sitting in a tree again. I was on a branch slightly higher than her's as I was braiding her hair. She hadn't said a lot, unlike Jacob she wasn't very distraught at her father's death, and I couldn't blame her.

"Are you okay?" I broke the silence.

"I'm better than Jacob." She responded.

"That doesn't answer the question." I stated.

She sighed. "I'm better than I should be. I saw my dad's dead body; I cried a little... But now I feel nothing. It's like I'm already over it, but it happened last night. Jacob called me a freak."

"Nobody is allowed to tell you how long to grieve. If you're okay now, that's good. If you're not okay now, I'm here for you. He may have been your father, but he was an asshole. If you feel like you're free now, don't feel guilty for that." I comforted her.

"You sound like you're talking from experience." Sophia pointed out.

I hesitated. "My mother had this boyfriend for a while. He died a couple weeks before Christmas. He wasn't very nice, he would..." I trailed off

"He would what?" Sophia pushed.

I cleared my throat. "Point is, when he died. I didn't even cry. My mum gave me so much crap for it. She called me heartless, selfish and then she beat me black and blue. When my dad came down for Christmas, I had to tell him that I'd fallen out of a tree. Now, I realise that I didn't need to feel bad because he died, because I was free from the torture he was putting me through. You don't need to feel bad, Sophia. You and your mother are free from that monster now. And Jacob will heal in time."

"Thank you." She whispered. Then her stomach rumbled causing us to laugh. "I haven't eaten since that fish."

"Me neither, I'll go get us some food. You can wait here." I said to her, climbing down to a lower branch before I jumped.

I walked to where all the adults were dealing with our dead people and the walkers. "Someone needs to have some balls to take care of this damn problem!" I heard my dad yell as I rounded the corner of a bush, I saw him running over to Jim with some form of pic axe in the air. Jim was just sitting there, he looked alive and well. Rick went over to dad and held a gun to his head.

"We don't kill the living." Rick said as Shane stood in between dad and Jim.

Dad turned to Rick with hard and angry eyes before he noticed me. He lowered the pic axe, and a look of guilt covered his features when he saw my scared expression. "Dad?" I managed out.

"Baby, I-" He started walking towards me, but I backed away. He dropped the pic axe on the floor before walking towards me again, but I still backed away from him. Dad went down on his knees, about ten feet in front of me. "Jim's been bit."

"He's alive, dad!" I yelled.

"I know, but-"

"You were just gonna kill him?" I asked. Dad looked down unable to speak.

"Why are you up here, Ellie?" Mum asked.

"Sophia's hungry." I replied, walking over to her to put more distance between me and dad.

"Here you go." Mum said softly, passing over two apples and two packs of crisps.

"Thank you." I said, confused at her softness.

"It's all right, sweetheart. Now, you run along and play, okay? Don't come back up here." Mum smiled gently.

"Okay." I nodded, making sure there was distance between me and dad before I ran down the path. "Sophia." I called, throwing up the crisps and apples, one at a time for her to catch before I climbed up the tree and sat next to her.