𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐬 | 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝¹

THREE - radio silence

ANOTHER MONTH HAD PASSED BY FOR THE CITIZENS OF THE QUARRY CAMP, AND EVERYTHING WAS RUNNING SMOOTHLY. her relationship with daryl hadn't improved. since their encounter in the woods, the hunter had started to completely ignore astrid. he no longer wound her up, or tried to help her be able to protect herself. he left whenever she entered his general proximity, and went on even more hunts than he previously did. the woman felt bad for shunning him away when all he did was try to help her, but they weren't even friends in the first place, so why did she care? however, she was also avoiding him. she couldn't face him after she felt butterflies erupt in her stomach when he whispered into her ear.

aside from that, nothing else had really changed. it took her a while to convince rory to do the maths problems lori had assigned for her, but the aunt and niece worked through them together and managed to get them done. astrid never minded maths at school, she wasn't excellent at it by any means, but she scored high enough in the tests to get by. her brother was great at maths. he was always there to help her with the impossible homework tasks her teachers would set.

on a brighter note, her knife throwing skills had improved massively, and she now hit a bullseye most of the time. but she still wasn't perfect. not like how daryl never missed a shot with his bow. so, she kept practicing until her arm wouldn't physically lift anymore. then, she would call it a night and start early again the next morning.

one time, her left arm was so exhausted, she was forced to practice with her non-dominant hand. safe to say, she hoped she would never lose her left hand, or she would be completely and utterly stuck.

to try and distract astrid from her growing obsession with trying to be perfect, glenn offered to take her on a run into the city. rory had begged her not to go, claiming that she couldn't lose her too. but astrid pinky-promised that she would return, and she would bring rory back something wicked. it took her a while, but in one of the stores the two adults raided, astrid found a small pin which displayed a fox curled up, asleep. the aunt had stuffed it in her pocket to give to her niece. later on the same day, she came across two small necklaces, one half of the silver jewellery was the sun, while the other half showed the moon. astrid had given the sun-half to rory, claiming that as long as they wore their respective necklace, they would always be together, no matter what.

glenn and astrid often went on runs together after that. they made a great team. however, for the first time, a large team went into the city: glenn, t-dog, jaqui, andrea, morales and merle, of all people. shane had asked if she wanted to join them, but astrid opted out and decided to spend some quality time with her niece. she should have been doing more of that recently.

astrid was sat braiding auroras hair into two dutch plaits because she was complaining it was always getting in her way when she and the other kids played in the water. she often found rory and sophia playing mermaids, while carol sat on one of the rocks, making sure they were safe.

she had just finished the left side of her head, when the cb sounded through the camp. astrids hands stilled for a moment on auroras deep brown hair, "hello. hello. can anybody hear my voice?" the voice was male, but astrid didn't recognise it. she turned back to focus on rorys hair, making sure she wouldn't mess up. she already had to restart her left plait three times when it didn't look exactly as it was supposed to. rory complained that it would look fine, but astrid paid her no mind. it had to be perfect.

amy tried to communicate with the unknown man, but he couldn't seem to hear her. astrid was solely focused on rorys hair, making sure it was spot on. what she did hear, however, was that the man was heading into atlanta, "broadcasting on emergency channel. will be approaching atlanta on highway 85. if anybody reads, please respond." the radio crackled while astrid frowned. the last time she had done someones hair in plaits was before the collapse of humanity, and she was out of practice. sighing in frustration, she undid the plait and went to start again. she hoped the man knew what he was getting into.