To Stay Alive (A Walking Dead FanFic)

3. Days Gone By

"Hello. Hello. Can anybody hear my voice?"

Daryl and Merle Dixon.

Two unlikely men who saved and informed me of what was going on. One was keen on leaving me behind, while the other, even if it did look like he didn't like the idea, brought me along, since he already knew where they were gonna drop me off.
Daryl was the man who shot the cashier with his crossbow, and Merle was his perverted, thoughtless brother.
These were the type of men my dad would tell me to stay away from, but I didn't want to get eaten, and went with them anyways.

I begged the men to take me back to Stannis, to help him, but they only claimed that there was no helping a dead man. So I was only left with the thoughts of what could have happened to him. Was he really dead?

In our time together, Merle slid a few inappropriate comments my way, but Daryl, barely acknowledged me, even if he was the one that allowed me to join.

They brought me to a camp outside of Atlanta, my city that was slowly being destroyed by the military and what Daryl called the dead, walkers.
My mother, Carl, and Shane, had the same idea as everyone else, which caused us to find each other, to which I was engulfed in a hug by my family.

We had been waiting for that damn radio for a while now to give any sign that there was help on the way, or at least someone out there who wasn't overtaken by the world now.

Amy, a skinny, blonde haired, lady, picked up the walkie that hung from the radio, and started speaking into it. The voice on the other side sounded familiar, but I couldn't pin point how I had heard it before.

"We're just outside the city. Damn it."
The radio was slowly loosing signal after the man explained he was approaching Atlanta.
Great thing that does for an emergency.

"He couldn't hear me. I couldn't warn him."
The man was dead if he entered that city. I couldn't take on one of them by myself, hundreds would kill us all if they had the chance.

"Try to raise him again. Come on, son, you know best how to work this thing."
An older man named Dale, called to Shane, who in response, slammed his ax into the log the radio had sat on, and picked up the walkie himself.

"Hello, hello. Is the person who called still on the air?"

No response.

"This is officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown. Please respond."

Again, the radio only cackled, making the frown I didn't know I had, drop even lower. I'm known to let my hopes get too high.

"He's gone." Shane explained, putting the walkie down in defeat.
I placed my chin in the palm of my hand and let out a small, sad, sigh.

Would my dad know what to do? Maybe it was better that he wasn't here. Shane told us he went back to get him, but he didn't have a heartbeat. It broke our hearts, but thinking about it now, as hurt as it had made us, at least he isn't here, being eaten alive by monsters.

If he was here, he'd be the one to survive the longest out of all of us. That, is what I believe.

Trapped in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed my mom had walked off, until Carl found his way by my side, sitting on the same log I had been on.
"Where'd mom go?" I asked looking around then back to him.
"I don't know, Shane said 'no' to putting up signs by herself, and she just walked away."
He looked at me sadly.
"Mom isn't going into the city, is she?"

The truth was, I didn't know what my mom would do. I doubted she would leave Carl, if anyone, but my mother never really took 'no' for an answer.

"Of course not, she would never leave us. Why don't we go ask her, ourselves. I'm sure you're just misunderstanding her."
I reassured as best as I could, and thankfully he gave me a satisfied smile, to which we both stood up, and made our way to our family's shared tent.

Mom and Shane stood inside, their heads out of our view, but their bodies were uncomfortably close.

"Mom?" Carl called, as we headed towards the entrance. Carl was just a bit ahead of me as Shane emerged.

"What's up, bud? She's in there. Go on." He told Carl and started to walk off, but not before meeting my eyes, my eyebrows furrowed. He looked flustered.

Mom got on her knees in front of Carl, and I stood behind a bit to give them space. She looked in my direction as she placed her hands on both of his arms, then looked back to him.

"Hey, I don't want you two to worry. Your mama's not going anywhere, okay?"
I let a small smile to form, and my mom urged a response from Carl with a 'Yeah? Yeah?' And he shook his head yes.
"Go finish your chores." She ordered my brother, who listened and wondered off, but I stayed behind.

"Something wrong, mom?" I asked, noticing she seemed a bit down as Carl walked away.

"Huh? Oh, no baby. I'm fine. Just a bit tired recently."

She gave a half hearted smile, in my direction, but I had a hard time believing that was all.