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sometime in 2012

the apocalypse is not fun. as easy and thrilling and fun tv shows and books make the apocalypse seem, they are wrong. i guess the only upside to it is learning something new every day. for example cora rilley two years ago had to idea how to start a fire using rocks and a stick or shoot a gun with perfect aim but today, she could do both like it was second nature.

the hunger is awful. cora didn't grow up with the best home life but the one thing she knew for sure was that there would be a meal on the table three times a day. now, she could barely get one everyday. animals were scared and always hiding and the berries were scarce. sometimes, she'd be lucky and come across a house with canned goods. only sometimes though.

the loneliness got to her every so often. yes, cora knew survivors. and yes cora had a camp. had as in past tense. and survivors meaning the one girl she was left with after another group of survived terrorized her camp and everyone in it fleed or died. her daughter, izzy. most people weren't lucky enough to survive with someone from their life before. cora was blessed to survive with her daughter. she was food company but she was also 17 years younger than cora.

as awful as the hunger and lonliness can get, the biters were terrifying. the worst thing about them, besides the fact they can rip you open with their teeth, is the fact that they travel in groups. there is no way, even with a loaded gun, one person can take out a hoard of biters. when there's one, there's a swarm. that's why cora was behind a tree at the moment, hugging her knife. a few minutes ago, she was washing her and izzy's clothes when cora heard rustling 20 yards outside their little camp. izzy had left nearly an hour ago to scavenge for food. cora was praying that the walker around the corner was not her daughter. that was her biggest fear these days.

the biter was getting closer and closer. once it sounded an arms reach away cora lunged out and pushed the biter against a tree. only it wasn't a biter. it was a man. "holy shit," cora muttered under her breath, then dropped the knife. "im sorry. i thought you were a biter. it sounded like you were dragging your leg behind." cora looked down at his leg and saw blood seeping through his pant leg. it could be a bite. she whipped out her gun from the holster on her hip. "show me the bite."

"its not a bite. a gunshot wound," the man said. "my names rick. i was looking for water for my group when i got shot by someone. they ran off."

"gunshot? did the bullet go all the way through?" cora asked, switching into her nurse mode that has stuck with her through everything.

"i think so."

"that's good. come on," cora said as she started off toward the camp. she got a few steps ahead when she realized rick was not following. "i'm not going to kill you. i was an er nurse before...all of this. i just want to take you back to my camp and help your wound, you won't last long with it. if you're worried about my camp, it's just me and a thirteen year old girl." cora turned away and walked off again.

once she got to her camp, she realized rick had followed her. izzy was not back yet. rick followed cora to a small tent filled with random nurse supplies. "your camp is pretty big. are you sure it's just you and the girl."

"i'm sure," cora said. "a few weeks ago the camp got ransacked, and a group of survivors attacked us. i don't know if their alive or dead. me and my daughter were the only ones you found our way back," cora trailed off. "let me see the wound."

the gunshot went clean through rick's thigh. it didnt hit anything major and wouldn't be that hard to treat. just a simple stitch up and healing process. the only hard part was that cora had no more anesthetic around so it would be painful. there were pain meds, but not much. "mom! look what i got!" izzy came bursting into the camp holding two rabbits in one hand. "i think i killed a walker, too. it was..." izzy trailed off once she saw the strange man against the wall. "him."

"what?" cora asked.

"oh my god, him. he's the walker i shot," izzy's eyebrows raised up to her hair line. "is he okay?"

"well, he's alive. the bullet went right through so thats good, i just need to stitch him up. it'll be painful because we have no anesthetic. you'll be fine, won't you?" she addressed rick.

"i've been through worse," rick said.

"perfect"

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