Ellie Dixon

Lost and Found

Running. All I could remember was running. I still had Sophia in my arms, she was holding onto our cherished childhood toys that got us through the bad times of our childhoods. Me and Sophia had a lot of bad experiences growing up, she hadn't opened up much about it, and I wasn't going to ask. If she wanted to tell me, she would, in her own time.

I was starting to put quite a bit of distance between us and the walkers. "You can't run forever. We need to find somewhere to hide while they pass over." Sophia told me. My throat burned too much to respond, and Sophia knew that. Her ankle was bruised and swollen; I knew she'd broken it, what I didn't know though was how to deal with it. My feet aggressively hit the floor over and over as I ran farther and farther from the walkers.

I found a creek, I went down into it and found somewhere behind vines we could hide. I put Sophia down in the cold water, above us was rock and dirt, I pulled the vines more so we could hide. Sophia put her hand over her mouth, her other hand was holding Dolly up to her heart as she shut her eyes tight. She'd passed me Teddy who I kept close to me. I also put my hand over my mouth, no doubt one of them would hear my heavy breathing if I didn't.

The walkers fell into the creek, their backs were to us as they kept walking in the direction that I had been running. They were slower in the water of the creek, but as long as they were walking in the opposite direction than us, we didn't mind. The splashing of walkers going through the water died down as I looked to Sophia. "I think they're gone." I whispered, taking my hand off my mouth.

She took her hand off her mouth and slowly opened her eyes. "I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."

"We're going to survive, Soph. We're going to get out of this forest and live. I'm not sure how yet... But, we will." I nodded.

"Our parents think we're dead, my brother thinks we're dead. They've left. How are we possibly going to survive without them? Without weapons? Without food?" Sophia questioned.

"I don't... I don't know. But, we will. We'll survive." I affirmed. 

"I'm hurt, El. I can't run and you can't carry me forever. Just leave me, you'll be better off on your own." Sophia shook her head.

"I can't do this without you. Now, stop suggesting I leave you. I'm not going anywhere without you." I informed her. "We should get moving, the longer we stay in this water, the colder we'll get." I said, taking Sophia's hand, she hopped out of the creek, and I helped her to the side, I then helped her to sit down, she complied but looked confused. "Your ankle won't heal right without a cast."

"Where are you going to get a cast in the middle of a forest?" Sophia asked, taking Teddy from me as I handed him to her.

"I'ma make one." I wiggled my eyebrows with a grin.

Four thick sticks and two large vines later, Sophia's ankle was tightly secured. "It looks terrible." Sophia commented.

"Well, art was my least favourite subject." I replied, grabbing a long stick from the creek. I helped her to her feet and handed her the stick. "This can be your crutch."

"A stick?" Sophia raised her eyebrows.

"It's either this or we wait here like walker bait." I shrugged, taking Teddy off her as she tried walking with it, it was more limping though. She walked a bit before I followed her. "It feel good? Comfortable?"

"Surprisingly, yea." My best friend confirmed.

Three days later, we'd gone with little incident... Until we got surrounded. We'd been bunking in this old church we found, we'd been upstairs until Sophia tripped and accidentally pulled this hanging rope which sent out the loudest bell wring, I'd ever heard. Within seconds, walkers surrounded the house of God. We tried to escape but when we saw seven by the door, we barricaded it instead.