forever » the walking dead¹

01. the camp

It'd been a month since the fall. A month since Katherine James saw her parents die right in front of her. A month since she saw her best friend, Kathleen Clarke. She thought about them often. Her younger sister, Harlow was the only family Katherine had left. Her grandparents on either side had died earlier in their lives, and their uncle, their Dad's brother, was in Australia.

Katherine wondered if the fall reached there, or if it were just in the states. The dead were rising and eating people, tearing them apart, causing people to have to leave their homes, that's what the James' tried to do, but when tragedy struck, Katherine and Harlow were the only ones who survived.

If it wasn't for the kindness of Theodore Douglas, along with Glenn Rhee, the James' sisters would have ended up like their parents. Lucky for the small group of survivors, they found even more survivors, and together now, the big group of survivors had a camp by the Quarry.

There wasn't anyone there that was Katherine's age. Glenn was the closest, he was 6 years older than her and played a big brother figure in her life. Him and T-Dog saved her and her sister, and she'd be enterally grateful for them.

Her sister, Harlow, on the other hand, had a few other kids at their camp her age. Carl Grimes, who was 12 too. His mother Lori, was also at their camp, unfortunately for his father, he didn't make it. Sophia Peletier was also 12, she was the daughter of Carol, a nice woman who trusts Katherine to watch her sometimes when Carol is doing the chores around camp.

But, Sophia's father, and Carol's husband, Ed, was a cruel old man. Katherine has never hated anyone as much as she hates Ed Peletier. Another person Katherine doesn't like and tends to keep her distance from is Merle Dixon, along with his younger brother, Daryl Dixon. Merle is a racist, sexist, homophobic, asshole, and likes to show that he is too. Daryl isn't so bad, but Katherine still sticks away from both brothers.

The only people at camp Katherine hangs around is her sister, often helping her and the other kids with math and spelling, considering she took AP classes. Their parents think it's best they keep up the basic knowledge until things get better. Katherine begs to differ, things won't get better. She used to think things weren't bad, but once she saw the man rise from the dead with her very own eyes, then later Atlanta, everything changed.

She and Harlow, along with Glenn, seem to be the only ones that know about who bad Atlanta is. There's no way for anyone or anything to save it. What they're doing now is their new normal. Though, Harlow is inclined to believe it, and wants things to get better, Katherine plays along, so whenever her sister asks when they're going home, she replies with "Soon"

Even if things got better, Katherine and Harlow are only 16 and 12, their parents are gone. They'd probably have to move to Australia with their uncle, and though Katherine has always wanted to go to Australia, she doesn't think she could live there.

"Hey Katty" Harlow called her over.

Katherine climbed out of her and her sister's tent they'd been sharing the past month and went over to her sister who was sitting with Carl and Sophia, along with another young girl Eliza.

"Yeah?" Katherine replied.

"Do I have to do this?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

Katherine looked down to see the kids were doing math problems, the girl lightly chuckled, "Yes, you do," she told her younger sister.

"But it's boring," Carl added, groaning.

"I'm not the boss of you, Carl" Katherine raised her hands up in defense, "You think it's boring, bring it up with your Mom"

Over the past month, Lori Grimes had helped Katherine with Harlow, since Katherine was now her sister's primary caregiver, and Katherine was thankfully for the woman, she wouldn't have been able to do any of it without her, and Carol too, who often gave her some tips, and helped out.