Living in the End || Blake Dixon Book Two

Chapter 1 || Last time we raced I kicked your ass.

They moved like a well oiled machine as they cleared the house. They had a lot of time to practice over the last seven months, getting it down to a science. Blake stood beside Rick crossbow lifted as he opened the doors to the house. She would shoot whatever was in front of them first before moving out of the way for the rest of the group to go through as she reloaded. She laid out one of the two walkers that stood in the entryway then Rick moved forward and took out the other. Blake started to reload her bow as T-dog, Carl, and her dad filed by her and into the house.

Blake moved to clear one of the first floor rooms, bow raised in front of her, she approached a closed door on the other side of the room and slowly opened it listening for any commotion on the other side. She heard some shuffling and she threw open the door to find Carl standing on the other side pistol raised at her. Blake grunted dropping her bow at the same time Carl dropped his pistol, the boy smirking at her. Blake just rolled her eyes and flicked the brim of his hat before ducking into the kitchen and starting to search through the mess of cans and garbage that was spread out.

Rick came in looking around as he moved to open the back door for Glenn and Maggie. Blake knocked empty cans and wrappers aside praying for anything that they could eat. Carl pushed her aside to get into the cupboard she was standing over. She sent a knee to his side in retaliation but continued digging through the upper cupboards used to the boy's antics.

Carl tapped her arm with a can and held it out to her. She snagged it from him and read over the labeling. It was dog food, not just any dog food but wet dog food for the little yappy dogs that Blake always hated. But she shrugged as Carl looked at her, it was better than nothing, had to get your calories in somewhere. So Carl took both cans and started to the living room that everyone would be gathering in. Blake checked the last cupboard coming up empty once again and followed after the boy.

By the time Blake got to the living room Carl was already opening the can, everyone was watching the boy except Blake's dad who was plucking the feathers off of an owl he must have shot. Blake dropped down between Carl and Beth leaning back against the wall as she watched Carl open the can. 

He had just gotten the top off when Rick stalked over and picked up the can. He gave it one look before throwing it angrily at the wall behind him. Blake sighed and leaned her head back against the wall at the man's dramatic move. He had been more and more on edge the closer it grew to Lori's due date and with their lack of food and a safe place to live he was irritated.

Over the last seven or so months the whole group had changed, they were survivors now. They had been living on the road moving from place to place over the winter and scrounging for any food they could. Blake and her dad tried their best to get some wild game for the group but it was hard with constantly moving to figure out the patterns for any of the larger animals. So they had been living on anything alive the Dixon's could shoot mostly, squirrels and a few birds, and whatever cans they would come across which were becoming increasingly harder to find as they circled the same area over and over.

Blake was broken from her thoughts by T-dog gesturing to a group of walkers that were ambling towards the house. Once again they all moved in unison to get everything out of the house. Rick had them avoiding the dead whenever possible especially when it got into larger groups with more than a couple of walkers. That often resulted in them moving around a lot and getting little rest, like right now Blake had been off her feet for three minutes and now they were back on the move.

She piled into the green SUV with Glenn, Maggie, and Beth chucking some of the gear she had picked up into the backend. They were off and driving in a matter of minutes with no words being uttered between the group. Blake propped her feet up onto the backseat with a grunt as she dug through her backpack for some duct tape. Once she found it she started wrapping the tape around her boot. It had been in shambles for a long time now, they had holes before the apocalypse, after the last year Blake was amazed they were still on her feet.